This paper presents an architecture and an FPGAbased prototype of an autonomous intelligent video surveillance camera. The camera takes the advantage of high resolution of CMOS image sensors and enables instantly automatic pan, tilt and zoom adjustment based upon motion activity. It performs automated scene analysis and provides immediate response to suspicious events by optimizing camera capturing parameters. The video output of the camera can be optimized to any region of interest while the camera continues to monitor the entire scene. Field trials of the prototyped camera have verified the proposed architecture.