Patent ID: 8605155

Claim:
A video surveillance system, comprising: a plurality of surveillance cells in a cellular format in which the plurality of surveillance cells operate independently while maintaining a unified global identification system, wherein each surveillance cell includes at least one video surveillance station and at least one data processor, and each video surveillance station includes at least one video surveillance camera, said surveillance cell maintaining a local object identification assigned to an object in said surveillance cell, said object also having an associated global object identification assigned to the object in all surveillance cells comprising said video surveillance system, and each surveillance cell receiving information from at least one adjacent surveillance cell to identify adjacent surveillance cells, and wherein said surveillance cells communicate with adjacent surveillance cells, and wherein said surveillance cell maintains local and global object identifications in a data structure of a computer memory that contains associations between local and global identifications, and processes new objects when a new object enters a cell from outside a coverage of the cell, assigns a local identification comparing the new object to characteristics of an object having a local identification associated with an adjacent cell and a global identification, and determines whether the features from a new object of a surveillance cell exceed a threshold of similar features to, and determines whether the new object of the surveillance cell is within an estimated position of, an object that has left or is leaving an adjacent surveillance cell, and when determination is made that the features from the new object of the surveillance cell exceed the threshold of similar features, and determination is made that the new object is within the estimated position of the object that has left or is leaving the adjacent surveillance cell, the object is given the same global identification with which the object was associated in the adjacent surveillance cell.