1. An autonomous system for processing video streams or single images, comprising: a plurality of image providers configured to transmit images in a plurality of image streams; a plurality of destination processors configured to receive the transmitted images and to transform the transmitted images to internally useable image data; a plurality of feature object engines configured to find and identify in the internally useable image data a plurality of objects; a plurality of object classifier engines configured to index and classify the plurality of objects found by the feature object engines; a plurality of metadata inserters configured to embed information into the plurality of image streams; and a plurality of intelligent video multiplexers or routers that use the metadata embedded in the plurality of image streams to route the video data to one or more downstream destination processors, wherein the information includes data relating to a face comprising one or more of: facial biometrics, a position of the face, a size of the face, landmarks of the face, an orientation of the face, and a quality of the face image, and the intelligent video multiplexers or routers use the metadata to dynamically prioritize the plurality of image streams to ensure that higher priority streams are assigned to operational downstream destination processors before assigning lower priority streams.