1. Within an image acquisition system comprising a non-linear, wide-angled lens and an imaging sensor, a method of enhancing a scene containing one or more off-center peripheral regions, the method comprising: acquiring, using the non-linear, wide-angled lens and the imaging sensor, an initial distorted image with a large field of view; determining and extracting an off-center region of interest (hereinafter “ROI”) within said initial distorted image; wherein the ROI includes a portion from said initial distorted image that has uncorrected distortion; applying an initial object detection process to said off-center ROI that includes the portion from said initial distorted image having uncorrected distortion; responsive to the initial object detection process successfully detecting an object within the off-center ROI: applying geometric correction to remove distortion from the off-center ROI to produce a undistorted reconstructed ROI, without applying the geometric correction to said entire initial distorted image; applying a second object detection process to one or more regions within the undistorted reconstructed ROI; wherein the second object detection process is different than the initial object detection process.