A system and method for detecting human presence in or absence from a field-of-view of a camera by analyzing camera data using a processor inside of or adjacent to the camera itself. In an example, the camera can be integrated with or embedded in another edge-based sensor device. In an example, a video signal processing system receives image data from one or more image sensors and uses a local processing circuit to process the image data and determine if a human being is or is not present during a particular time, interval, or sequence of frames. In an example, the human being identification technique can be used in security or surveillance applications such as for home, business, or other monitoring cameras.