Patent ID: 7177448

Claim:
A method for providing images to a user, the method comprising: (a) periodically capturing a plurality of images with a plurality of cameras, wherein the plurality of cameras are located at a camera site, wherein each of the captured images provides a corresponding view of the camera site; (b) transmitting at least a portion of the captured images to a server; (c) processing the captured images, wherein the act of processing comprises identifying one or more images of interest among the captured images, wherein the act of identifying one or more images of interest comprises referencing an interest definition memory, wherein the interest definition memory comprises a hierarchical list of interest values for characteristics of views corresponding to captured images; and (d) periodically transmitting image data to a user's system, wherein the periodically transmitted image data comprises one or more of the images of interest; wherein the act of identifying an image of interest comprises identifying a first image of interest and a second image of interest, wherein the view corresponding to the first image of interest is different from the view corresponding to the second image of interest such that the view corresponding to the image of interest changes, wherein the act of periodically transmitting image data to a user's system further comprises: transmitting the first image of interest to the user's system, and transmitting the second image of interest to the user's system; wherein the view corresponding to the image of interest changes during a first time period, wherein the acts of transmitting the first and second images of interest to the user's system are performed at respective times separated by a second time period, wherein the second time period is longer than the first time period.