Patent ID: 8437504

Claim:
An imaging system comprising: a whole image read out unit for reading out a whole image in a first resolution from an imaging device; a partial image region selecting unit for selecting a region of a partial image in a part of the whole image; a partial image read out unit for successively reading out partial images at different timings in the selected region in a second resolution from the imaging device; a characteristic region setting unit for setting a characteristic region, in which a characteristic object exists, within one of the partial images in response to detecting a difference between two partial images taken at different timings; a characteristic region image read out unit for reading out an image of the characteristic region set by the characteristic region setting unit in a third resolution from the imaging device; and a resolution setting unit for setting the first to third resolutions such that the first resolution is smaller than the second resolution, and that the second resolution is smaller than the third resolution, wherein the whole image and the partial images are read out in different frames.