Optimal Resource Allocation for Crowdsourced Image Processing

Kristina Sorensen Wheatman, Fidan Mehmeti, Mark Mahon, Hang Qiu, Kevin S. Chan, Thomas F. La Porta

Abstract: Crowdsourced image processing has the potential to vastly impact response timeliness in various emergency situations. Because images can provide extremely important information regarding an event of interest, sending the right images to an analyzer as soon as possible is of crucial importance. In this paper, we consider the problem of optimally assigning resources, both local (CPUs in phones) and remote (network-based GPUs) to mobile devices for processing images, ultimately sending those of interest to a centralized entity while also accounting for the energy consumption. To that end, we use the Network Utility Maximization (NUM) framework, coupled with a hit-ratio estimator and energy costs, to enable a distributed implementation of the system. Our results are validated using both synthetic simulations and real-life traces.