Patent ID: 7382895

Claim:
A method for detecting a violation of security of a controlled access area, comprising: (a) acquiring one or more stereoscopic images of an area of observation, wherein objects in the area of observation are characterized by (1) an object type and (2) an authorization status indicating whether the object is authorized with respect to the controlled access area; (b) analyzing the one or more images using a machine vision processing system to identify a first object in the area of observation and to classify the first object in a first object type among a plurality of object types that are pre-defined in the machine vision processing system, said first object having supplied an authorization with respect to the controlled access area, and further using the machine vision processing system to identify a second object in the area of observation and to classify the second object in a second object type among the plurality of pre-defined object types, wherein the authorization status of each of the objects is determined separately from classifying the object in an object type; and (c) applying one or more access control rules to the information obtained from the image analysis to determine whether the second object is attempting to breach the controlled access area by utilizing the authorization supplied by the first object in violation thereof, wherein the controlled access area is limited to objects that are classified in a defined object type and have a status that is authorized with respect to the controlled access area, and wherein the one or more access control rules determine whether the second object is attempting to breach the controlled access area by separately determining (1) whether the classification of the second object is in the defined object type and (2) whether the second object has a status that is authorized with respect to the controlled access area.