Patent ID: 8803684

Claim:
A surveillance system comprising: receiving means for receiving image data from a plurality of cameras; image storage means for storing the received image data identifying each camera from which the image data originated; management means for enabling each of a plurality of camera users who own or operate respective cameras to assign a said camera owned or operated by the camera user to at least one said set of cameras and to authorise selected users of the system to access image data from said at least one set of cameras, wherein said users of the system can include camera users and/or users not owning or operating any cameras; information storage means responsive to said management means for storing camera set data identifying the assigned camera as belonging to said set of cameras, and for storing user data identifying the users authorised to access image data from said set of cameras; and image interface means for outputting image data to users dependent upon said camera set data and said user data in said information storage means, wherein said receiving means is adapted to receive said image data comprising at least one image the capture of which by said camera was triggered by an event; the system including image data processing means for processing the image data for said at least one image to identify if said at least one image relates to a previous event, and if said at least one image relates to a previous event, to link said image data to said previous event and to image data identified to belong to the previous event, and if said at least one image is not identified as relating to a previous event, to link the image data to a new event, and wherein said image interface means is adapted to output said image data to said users on an event by event basis.