Patent ID: 8760513

Claim:
A surveillance system of an environment, comprising: a single camera mounted on a structure that is in a substantially fixed position relative to a ground of the environment for generating a plurality of frames of video of the environment, the single camera experiencing pole drift, wherein a plurality of fixed objects in a first video frame of the environment generated by the single camera have moved over a range of a plurality of pixels relative to the plurality of fixed objects in a base video frame of the environment generated by the single camera; a memory to store the plurality of frames of video; a processor in communication with the memory to process each of the plurality of frames of video by: receiving a frame in the plurality of frames of video; determining a transient transformation which transforms the frame to a transient coordinate system derived from a transient frame wherein the transient coordinate system is established periodically by selecting a frame from the plurality of frames of video; determining a base transformation which transforms the transient coordinate system to a base coordinate system derived from a the base video frame; determining a combined transformation that combines the transient and the base transformation; and performing the combined transformation on the frame to correct for the pole drift.