Remote surveillance sensor apparatus

In a surveillance system including a remote sensor apparatus for collecting data and a portable receiver for receiving data collected by at least one sensor installed in the remote sensor apparatus, wherein the portable receiver is capable of running an application program for processing the received data and displaying the processed data on a display screen of the portable receiver, wherein the remote sensor apparatus has a spherical housing for containing a processing unit, a plurality of image sensors coupled to the processor, a plurality of light sources, an inertial measurement unit and a wireless transceiver and wherein each of the plurality of image sensors is fitted with a wide-angle lens, a method for collecting and processing data related to a surrounding environment of the remote sensor apparatus including image data for a scene external to the housing of the remote sensor apparatus, the method comprising:

• capturing at a first clock rate, by the plurality of image sensors, raw image data in all directions about the remote sensor apparatus while it is in motion, using a short exposure to minimize motion blur;
• combining at the first clock rate˜portions of the captured raw image data from the plurality of image sensors into a first group of combined raw image data and a second group of combined raw image data;
• receiving, at the processing unit at a second clock rate equal to twice the first clock rate used for capturing and combining the raw image data, the first and second groups of combined image data, thereby allowing the processing unit to receive all of the captured image data at the same rate that the raw image data is being captured by the plurality of image sensors;
• and
• transmitting the combined image data to the portable receiver using the wireless transceiver.