Patent ID: 7983941

Claim:
A method for analyzing a surveillance system, comprising: receiving system performance data indicating performance of a plurality of sensor systems of a surveillance system, a sensor system comprising an infrared light camera, a visible light camera, a thermal imaging camera, or a radar system, the surveillance system configured to monitor a region to detect a plurality of targets, a target comprising a human, animal, or vehicle, the system performance data indicating the ability of a sensor system to detect, classify, recognize, or identify a target; receiving operational performance data indicating effectiveness of the sensor systems in detecting one or more targets of one or more scenarios, each scenario describing one or more physical features that affect the detection of the one or more targets; receiving cost analysis data indicating one or more cost values associated with the sensor systems; establishing, by one or more processors, integrated data from the system performance data, the operational performance data, and the cost analysis data; analyzing, by the one or more processors, the integrated data to establish one or more relationships between at least two of the system performance data, the operational performance data, and the cost analysis data; fixing, by the one or more processors, a sensor system cost value that takes into account complexity, weight, volume, or quantity of the sensor systems to yield a cost constraint, the sensor system cost value being a monetary value; optimizing, by the one or more processors, an operational performance parameter in accordance with the cost constraint; and selecting a sensor system for the surveillance system based on the optimization.