Disclosed herein is a method and system for determining class, attributes, and identity of an occupant in an occupancy space. An infra-red image of the occupant in the occupancy space is captured. The infra-red image information of the captured image is digitized to obtain a thermal signature of the occupant. The thermal signature of the occupant is compared with thermal signatures, characteristics, and attributes common to a class of occupants stored in a thermal signature database to determine the class, the attributes, and the identity of the occupant. The determination of the class and the attributes may, for example, comprise distinguishing between an animate occupant and an inanimate occupant, analyzing gait of the animate occupant for distinguishing between human motion and non-human motion, and enumerating occupants in the occupancy space using an edge detection algorithm.