Patent ID: 7489334

Claim:
A method for minimizing costs associated with use of an image sensor device comprising: (a) monitoring a visual space using the image sensor device in a low-cost sampling mode of operation and generating monitored frames using the low-cost sampling method; (b) providing a datastream including the monitored frames to a computer device to be analyzed; (c) performing a motion estimation technique, said motion estimation technique comprising an edge detection technique and a texture analysis; (d) based on said edge detection technique and said texture analysis, identifying an object, said edge detection determining which part of the visual space belongs to the object, said texture analysis determining a texture of the object; (e) based on said identifying said object, determining whether the object is animate or inanimate; (f) checking for frame-to-frame change within the datastream to determine a movement of said object in the visual space; (g) based on the object movement and the determination of whether the object is animate or inanimate, establishing object priority and sensitivity to identify an area of interest within the visual space; and (h) when the area of interest is identified by the low-cost sampling method, replacing the low-cost sampling method by a high-cost sampling method to monitor and analyze the identified area of interest closely and generating monitored frames using the high-cost sampling method on the identified area of interest, the high-cost sampling method comprising one or more of: zooming in on an identified priority object, increasing an illumination of the identified priority object, and increasing an irradiation of the identified priority object.