Patent Application
20240153378
This invention relates to a firearm alerting system. In particular, this invention relates to a firearm alerting system installed on a law enforcement vehicle.
An optical character recognition or optical character reader is also identified with the acronym (OCR) is an electronic or mechanical conversion of images of typed, handwritten or printed text into machine-encoded text, whether from a scanned document, a photo of a document, a scene-photo (for example the text on signs and billboards in a landscape photo) or from subtitle text superimposed on an image. An optical character recognition or optical character reader is also identified with the acronym (OCR).
Widely used as a form of data entry from printed paper data records—whether passport documents, invoices, bank statements, computerized receipts, business cards, mail, printouts of static-data, or any suitable documentation—it is a common method of digitizing printed texts so that they can be electronically edited, searched, stored more compactly, displayed on-line, and used in machine processes such as cognitive computing, machine translation, (extracted) text-to-speech, key data and text mining. OCR is a field of research in pattern recognition, artificial intelligence, and computer vision.
Automatic number-plate recognition (ANPR; see also other names below) is a technology that uses optical character recognition on images to read vehicle registration plates to create vehicle location data. It can use existing closed-circuit television, road-rule enforcement cameras, or cameras specifically designed for the task. ANPR is used by police forces around the world for law enforcement purposes, including to check if a vehicle is registered or licensed. ANPR uses optical character recognition (OCR) on images taken by
Some license plate arrangements use variations in font sizes and positioning—ANPR systems must be able to cope with such differences to be truly effective. More complicated systems can cope with international variants, though many programs are individually tailored.
The cameras used can be existing road-rule enforcement or closed-circuit television cameras, as well as mobile units, which are usually attached to vehicles. Some systems use infrared cameras to take a clearer image of the plates.
During the 1990s, significant advances in technology took automatic number-plate recognition (ANPR) systems from limited expensive, hard to set up, fixed based applications to simple “point and shoot” mobile ones. This was made possible by the creation of software that ran on cheaper PC based, non-specialist hardware that also no longer needed to be given the pre-defined angles, direction, size and speed in which the plates would be passing the camera's field of view. Further scaled-down components at lower price points led to a record number of deployments by law enforcement agencies globally. Smaller cameras with the ability to read license plates at higher speeds, along with smaller, more durable processors that fit in the trunks of police vehicles, allowed law enforcement officers to patrol daily with the benefit of license plate reading in real time, when they can interdict immediately.
Relative speed is only one issue that affects the camera's ability to read a license plate. Algorithms must be able to compensate for all the variables that can affect the ANPR's ability to produce an accurate read, such as time of day, weather and angles between the cameras and the license plates. A system's illumination wavelengths can also have a direct impact on the resolution and accuracy of a read in these conditions.
Installing ANPR cameras on law enforcement in the vehicles requires careful consideration of the juxtaposition of the cameras to the license plates they are to read. Using the right number of cameras and positioning them accurately for optimal results can prove challenging, given the various missions and environments at hand. Highway patrol requires forward-looking cameras that span multiple lanes and are able to read license plates at high speeds. City patrol needs shorter range, lower focal length cameras for capturing plates on parked cars. Parking lots with perpendicularly parked cars often require a specialized camera with a very short focal length. Most technically advanced systems are flexible and can be configured with a number of cameras ranging from one to four which can easily be repositioned as needed.
With all the tracking that currently exists today in law enforcement there is no way to identify an owner of a moving vehicle with ownership/registration of a gun. The lack of this tracking poses a threat to the safety of the law enforcement.
Accordingly, and in light of the foregoing, it would be desirable to have tracking that is able to use the license plate of a vehicle as a searchable entity into any and all databases related to gun ownership. If it is found that the vehicle owner has a registered gun, it alerts law enforcement that a gun may possibly be in the vehicle being addressed. This will allow the law enforcement to take extra precaution therefore providing a safer environment for them.
The advantages and features of the present invention will become better understood with reference to the following more detailed description and claims taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like elements are identified with like symbols, and in which:
The best mode for carrying out the invention is presented in terms of its preferred embodiment, herein depicted within
The terms “a” and “an” herein do not denote a limitation of quantity, but rather denote the presence of at least one (1) of the referenced items.
Referring now to
Referring next to
The possible firearm present indicia 60 would be provided in near real time and would be readily available by the time the law enforcement officer 40 exits the law enforcement vehicle 15 and approaches the suspect vehicle 45. As such, the law enforcement officer 40 would be warned and alerted to be cautious for the presence of a firearm and the possibility of being ambushed, thus greatly improving the overall safety of the law enforcement vehicle 15.
Referring now to
Referring to
The radio communication site 65 is in direct electronic communication with the internet 75. The internet 75 provides pathway access to firearm databases 80. The firearm databases 80 would be multiple in nature and are envisioned to include a concealed carry permit database 85. A firearm owner database 90, and a prior criminal activity with a firearm database 95 at a minimum. All of the firearm databases 80 would be queried and cross-referenced with a license plate database 100 for possible matches. Upon a match, the system 10 will produce a possible firearm present indicia 60 on either the electronic display 35 of the preferred embodiment as shown in
The preferred embodiment of the present invention can be utilized by the common user in a simple and effortless manner with little or no training. It is envisioned that the system 10 would be constructed in general accordance with
After procurement and prior to utilization, the firearm alerting system for traffic stops 10 would be prepared in the following manner: various access requests to the firearm databases 80, including the concealed carry permit database 85, the firearm owner database 90, the prior criminal activity with a firearm database 95 as well as the license plate database 100 would be requested, reviewed, authorized and granted. The preferred version would be installed on the law enforcement vehicle 15 with the sensors 20 being provided a forward-facing view 25 and necessary modifications to allow the electronic display 35 to be viewable to the law enforcement officer 40 on the interior 30. At this point in time the preferred or alternate embodiments of the system 10 are ready for utilization.
During utilization of the system 10, the following procedure would be initiated: in the case of the preferred embodiment, the system 10 remains active at all times and accesses the license plate 50 of any suspect vehicle 45 by the sensors 20. Upon receiving license plate text information 55 from the sensors 20, the system 10 will access various firearm databases 80, including the concealed carry permit database 85, the firearm owner database 90, the prior criminal activity with a firearm database 95 and cross-reference them with the license plate database 100. A corresponding possible firearm present indicia 60 would be provided in near real time, and would be readily available by the time the law enforcement officer 40 exits the law enforcement vehicle 15 and approaches the suspect vehicle 45. As such, the law enforcement officer 40 would be warned and alerted to be cautious for the presence of a firearm and the possibility of being ambushed, thus greatly improving the overall safety of the law enforcement vehicle 15. A similar action is provided by the alternate embodiment of the system 10 as shown in
The system 10 continues operations in a cyclical and repetitive manner, producing corresponding possible firearm present indicia 60 for the law enforcement officer 40 to use for their increased knowledge and protection.
The features of the system 10 are envisioned to provide the following benefits: cross-referencing of firearm owners or concealed carry owners to their license plate information; providing law enforcement officers 40 more complete information as to the type of person they might be dealing with in a roadside traffic stop or other police encounter; enhancing accuracy, reliability, ability to prevent or curtail crime, providing possible firearm detection, saving lives, and installing applications in municipal, state, federal and military sites and systems throughout the world.
The foregoing descriptions of specific embodiments of the present invention have been presented for purposes of illustration and description. They are not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise forms disclosed, and obviously many modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teaching. The embodiments were chosen and described in order to best explain the principles of the invention and its practical application, to thereby enable others skilled in the art to best utilize the invention and various embodiments with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated.
