Video monitoring and security system

A video monitoring system especially suitable to monitor the security of a facility against an intrusion, comprising:

• at least one video camera that generates a video signal;
• a computer operationally coupled with the at least one video camera and configured to receive the video signal, wherein the video signal includes a plurality of frames each having a plurality of cells, and wherein the computer is configured to perform the following functions:
• detect motion as between a first and a second frame of the video signal by comparing a plurality of the cells of the first frame to a plurality of the cells of the second frame, wherein the plurality of cells of the first and second frames exclude a user-defined insensitive area, which is completely surrounded by an active area containing the plurality of the cells of the first and second frames;
• automatically transmit an electronic message upon detection of the motion wherein the electronic message includes a recorded and compressed copy of the video
• signal beginning approximately coincident with the detection of motion;
• and
• automatically transmit an alarm message separate from the electronic message that alerts a user of the electronic message.

A method of monitoring a facility, comprising the steps of:

• receiving a video signal from a first video camera positioned to monitor a specific area, wherein the video signal is divided into a plurality of sequential frames each having a plurality of cells;
• applying a mask having active and inactive cells to the sequential frames of the video signal, wherein the inactive cells are surrounded by the active cells, and wherein the mask has the same number of cells as the video signal;
• comparing the active cells of a new frame to the active cells of a previous frame to detect changed cells, wherein an alarm event is generated based upon the detection of changed cells;
• recording the video signal as a file stored in a computer memory based upon the alarm event;
• automatically transmitting the recorded video signal based upon the alarm event as a part of an electronic message to an electronic mail server, where the recorded video signal is then stored;
• and
• transmitting an alarm message separate from the electronic message that alerts a user of the alarm event.