Patent ID: 7161615

Claim:
A video surveillance system for masking an object on a display, the video surveillance system comprising: a controller having: a memory, the memory storing a first display coordinates data for the object, and a processor electrically coupled to the memory, the processor converting the first display coordinates data to a second display coordinates data for the object, the controller generating a masking signal, to obscure at least a portion of the object, defined by the second display coordinates data; a camera operable to zoom in a magnification range to at least a first magnification and a second magnification greater than the first magnification, the camera generating a raw video signal; a switch electrically coupled to the camera, the switch receiving the raw video signal and the masking signal and generating a composite signal based on the raw video signal and the masking signal; a video display unit coupled to the switch for displaying the composite signal; and a programmable logic unit electrically coupled to the controller, the programmable logic unit controlling the switch to display the composite signal on the display unit, the composite signal comprising a plurality of frames, each frame having a plurality of cells, each cell displaying an image signal in response to the raw video signal and the masking signal, the first display coordinates data comprising a first horizontal display position, a first vertical display position, and the first magnification for each of a plurality of object vertices of the object, and the second display coordinates data comprises a second horizontal display position and a second vertical display position for each of the plurality of object vertices, wherein the processor calculates the second horizontal display position and second vertical display position of an object vertex based on the first display coordinates data and the second magnification and wherein each of the plurality of cells includes one or more blanking cells defining a blanking window having a plurality of blanking window vertices, and wherein the programmable logic unit is programmed to switch the masking signal on in only a portion of said magnification range, the masking signal generating a blanking sub-window as the image signal for each blanking cell.