Shall I quit trying searching for a postdoc and search for another title in academia? I had my PhD in 2004 in computer vision. I have been slow in research since then due to financial commitments and due to working at a non-reasearch university as an assistant prof. I managed to publish 2 papers in ieee conferences. Which means that I have a poor publication record for the number of years I'm in academia.

For the past 3 yrs, I have applied for 7 postdoc posts (but no luck) using an idea that I am passionate about, think is workable and which I have been working on (sometimes slowly).

Now I see myself at a zero-growth situation; I couldn't find a postdoc, &amp; I am not an active research paper generator. Sometimes I think I should apply for a PhD program and get another phd where I can sort of start from scratch. Either way it looks too long of a path to me. Shall I keep doing what I am doing or shall I just quit trying.
You are in a tough situation, but not hopeless. Just sending out applications is unlikely to work due to your poor record. Instead, you could try to build on your network, start collaborations. If that works you will have polished your record. Now you can also start thinking about applying for funding for a bigger project, requiring a post-doc (you), with your collaborator and use that to move to the research university of your collaborator. So if you want to move into a research university, it is possible, but it is going to be hard work and there is no guarantee of success.