Video analysis, archiving and alerting methods and apparatus for a distributed, modular and extensible video surveillance system

A video surveillance system comprising:

• at least one video surveillance system module comprising:
• a video surveillance camera, wherein the video surveillance camera is remotely programmable;
• a video encoder to encode video gathered by the video surveillance camera;
• and
• a video analysis engine coupled to the video surveillance camera to analyze video gathered by the video surveillance camera and to create data derived from the video;
• at least one video surveillance system network coupled to the at least one video surveillance system module;
• at least one database and application system coupled to the at least one video surveillance system network to store video gathered by the video surveillance camera and data created by the video analysis engine, and to receive and process queries for the video and data;
• a video surveillance system control interface coupled to the at least one video surveillance system network to control the operations of the video surveillance system;
• and
• a video surveillance application and control interface coupled to the at least one video surveillance system network for controlling video surveillance activities, the video surveillance application and control interface comprising:
• a program for controlling video surveillance activities;
• a display for displaying video gathered by the video surveillance camera and data created by the video analysis engine;
• and
• at least one input device for creating queries of the database and application system.