Patent ID: 8355045

Claim:
A method of recording monitoring data, comprising: detecting, from each frame of a plurality of frames of a video of a monitor area, an image of a specific moving object which is in the monitor area; judging, as an optimum image, the image of the specific moving object detected from the video of said monitor area when the image of the specific moving object optimally complies with specific requirements; recording the optimum image; thinning the video of the monitor area by eliminating frames from the video and outputting a thinned video signal indicative of the video; dividing each frame of the plurality of frames of the video of the monitor area into a plurality of sections; classifying the plurality of sections of each frame into first and second groups, the first group including one or more sections in which the specific moving object is detected, the second group including remaining sections in which the specific moving object is not detected; and performing a picture-in-picture synthesis of the optimum image of the specific moving object and the specific moving object recorded in the thinned video signal to ensure that both of the optimum image and the specific moving object are shown in an image of the monitor area without overlap of the optimum image and the specific moving object, the optimum image being synthesized with a nearest section selected from among the sections of the second group on the basis of distances of the sections of the second group to each section of the one or more sections of the first group.