AUTOMATICALLY EXPANDING THE ZOOM CAPABILITY OF A WIDE-ANGLE VIDEO CAMERA

A system for automatically expanding the zoom capability of a wide-angle video camera using images from multiple camera locations. One preferred embodiment achieves this using images from the wide-angle video camera that are analyzed to identify regions of interest (RoI). Pan-Tilt-Zoom (PTZ) controls are then sent to aim slave cameras toward the RoI. Processing circuitry is then used to replace the RoI from the wide-angle images with the higher-resolution images from one of the slave cameras. In addition, motion-detecting software can be utilized to automatically detect, track, and/or zoom in on moving objects.