Patent ID: 7212675
Filing Date: 2007-05-01
Classification: H04N

Abstract:
1. A method of using a processor of a video image detection system to process the contents of a digital image comprising: visually monitoring a scene and capturing an image of the scene; generating the digital image that is representative of the image of the scene; transmitting the digital image to the processor; formatting the digital contents of the image into macro blocks of digital information; processing each macro block using a predetermined processing criteria of the processor to distinguish significant macro blocks from macro blocks not deemed significant, macro blocks identified as being significant being referred to as flagged, and those macro blocks identified as not deemed significant being referred to as unflagged; comparing unflagged macro blocks to surrounding macro blocks; and changing the status of an unflagged macro block to flagged if an assigned value of the compared macro blocks surrounding the unflagged macro block exceeds a predetermined threshold wherein the initially flagged macro blocks and the newly flagged macro blocks are compared to a stored reference image of the scene so that the processor determines whether to store the newly flagged macro blocks for subsequent processing.