Patent ID: 7446797

Claim:
A video surveillance system comprising: a plurality of function modules, including at least one people-detection module, at least one object-detection module and at least one vehicle-detection module, each module of the plurality of function modules providing a functional effect that is dependent upon one or more parameters, a database that includes a plurality of scene characterizations including a plurality of people-image characterizations for the people-detection module, a plurality of object-image characterizations for the object-detection module and a plurality of vehicle-image characterizations for the vehicle-detection module, a selector that is configured to allow a user of the video surveillance system to select a characterization from the plurality of scene characterizations, and a configuration module that is configured to: determine whether the selected characterization is a people-image characterization, an object-image characterization or a vehicle-image characterization; determine the one or more parameters based on the selected characterization, and communicate the one or more determined parameters to a corresponding function module according to the determined type of the selected characterization, to control the module to provide the corresponding functional effect.