Abstract: A security monitoring system including: an alarm system having detectors for detecting an unauthorized individual in a structure; at least one camera for capturing first image data of the unauthorized individual; a memory for storing second image data of at least one individual authorized to be in the structure; and a data link for transmitting third image data to a remote location upon the detection of the unauthorized individual. The third image data including at least portions of the first and second image data for comparison at the remote location. In a preferred implementation, the first image data includes image data of more than the face of the unauthorized individual and the system further includes a computer vision system for detecting the face of the unauthorized individual from the first image data.

Abstract: A security monitoring system including: an alarm system having detectors for detection of an alarm in a structure; at least one camera for capturing image data inside and/or outside the structure; a processor for selecting a subset of the image data upon the occurrence of the alarm based on a predetermined criteria; and a modem for transmitting the subset of image data to a remote location. Preferably, the at least one camera is a video camera, the image data is video image data, and the subset of the image data is at least one video frame of the video image data. Preferably, the processor ranks each video frame from the image data according to how well each video frame meets the predetermined criteria and the modem transmits a predetermined number of video frames having the best rank to the remote location.

Abstract: An image processing method is for automatically detecting objects of a predetermined type among diffuse objects in an original image, in the form of a two-dimensional matrix of pixels which have digitized intensity values. The method is carried out by a processing chain. A first transformed image (11A, 11B) is formed by a first smoothing (120A, 120B) of the original image (10A) to the resolution of the objects to be detected, in which local intensity optimums (LIST1A, LIST1B) are determined (130A, 140A; 130B, 140B). A second transformed image (13A, 13B) is formed via a second smoothing (220A, 220B) of the original image (10A) to the resolution of diffuse objects, in which homogeneous intensity regions are determined (230A, 230B), local intensity optimums (LIST1A, LIST1B) determined on the basis of the first transformed image are placed (240A, 240B) in the homogeneous regions determined on the basis of the second transformed image.

Abstract: An image processing method for automatic detection of regions of a predetermined type of cancer in an intensity image of a part of a human or animal body, includes, for a number of points of a part of said image, the determination of a set (referred to as a vector) of components formed by characteristic values derived from the intensity distribution around each point in said part of the image, and the use of a classification system for determining the probability of the point associated with said vector belonging to a region of said part of the image which corresponds to the predetermined type of cancer or to another region. An image processing device for carrying out such a method is utilized in conjunction with a digital medical imaging system.