An image analysis system, comprising: an imaging device; a controller operatively connected to the imaging device; and a non-transitory machine-readable memory disposed in communication with the controller and having instructions recorded thereon that, when read by the controller, cause the controller to: obtain an image with a first field of view and first effective resolution; analyze the image with a visual attention module to identify one or more areas of interest in the first field of view; obtain one or more subsequent images for each area of interest each with a possible different field of view, and each of the associated effective resolutions is greater than the first effective resolution; select a compression parameter from the plurality of compression parameters according to a type of a decision that has to be made about the scene, the type of the decision being at least one of classification or recognition of an object or action, wherein the visual attention algorithm includes a plurality of compression parameters; compressing the subsequent images using the selected compression parameter to provide compressed domain image data; analyze compressed domain image data; making the decision about the scene by aggregating information extracted from the obtained images. an imaging device; a controller operatively connected to the imaging device; and a non-transitory machine-readable memory disposed in communication with the controller and having instructions recorded thereon that, when read by the controller, cause the controller to: obtain an image with a first field of view and first effective resolution; analyze the image with a visual attention module to identify one or more areas of interest in the first field of view; obtain one or more subsequent images for each area of interest each with a possible different field of view, and each of the associated effective resolutions is greater than the first effective resolution; select a compression parameter from the plurality of compression parameters according to a type of a decision that has to be made about the scene, the type of the decision being at least one of classification or recognition of an object or action, wherein the visual attention algorithm includes a plurality of compression parameters; compressing the subsequent images using the selected compression parameter to provide compressed domain image data; analyze compressed domain image data; making the decision about the scene by aggregating information extracted from the obtained images. obtain an image with a first field of view and first effective resolution; analyze the image with a visual attention module to identify one or more areas of interest in the first field of view; obtain one or more subsequent images for each area of interest each with a possible different field of view, and each of the associated effective resolutions is greater than the first effective resolution; select a compression parameter from the plurality of compression parameters according to a type of a decision that has to be made about the scene, the type of the decision being at least one of classification or recognition of an object or action, wherein the visual attention algorithm includes a plurality of compression parameters; compressing the subsequent images using the selected compression parameter to provide compressed domain image data; analyze compressed domain image data; making the decision about the scene by aggregating information extracted from the obtained images.