Patent Application
20150274073
The present invention generally relates to forwarding items of interest to a user, and more particularly to a method and apparatus for forwarding information on items of interest (such as a camera video stream), based on vehicle speed and direction.
In many public-safety applications, video streams from multiple surveillance systems may be provided to public-safety officer's vehicles. In most cases, the video stream is manually chosen by the officer. It is often an inconvenience for an officer in a moving vehicle to choose a relevant video stream from multiple cameras. For example, a video stream from a camera may continue to be provided to the officer after the vehicle has left the vicinity of the camera, requiring the officer to manually change to a more-relevant video stream.
It would be beneficial if an automated technique could be utilized for providing information on items of interest (such as relevant video streams from cameras of interest) to an individual in a moving vehicle, without requiring the driver's attention to do so. Therefore, a need exists for a method and apparatus for autonomously providing information on items of interest (such as a camera video stream) to a moving vehicle, yet does not require the driver's attention to choose the appropriate information.
The accompanying figures where like reference numerals refer to identical or functionally similar elements throughout the separate views, and which together with the detailed description below are incorporated in and form part of the specification, serve to further illustrate various embodiments and to explain various principles and advantages all in accordance with the present invention.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions and/or relative positioning of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of various embodiments of the present invention. Also, common but well-understood elements that are useful or necessary in a commercially feasible embodiment are often not depicted in order to facilitate a less obstructed view of these various embodiments of the present invention. It will further be appreciated that certain actions and/or steps may be described or depicted in a particular order of occurrence while those skilled in the art will understand that such specificity with respect to sequence is not actually required.
In order to address the above, mentioned need, a method and apparatus for providing information on an item of interest is provided herein. During operation a server will utilize a vehicle's speed and direction. Information on items of interest will then be provided to the vehicle/user based on the vehicle speed and direction. For example, if a vehicle is moving at 60 miles per hour, occupants of the vehicle will probably be more interested in information on/from items of interest in front of them than from behind them. With this in mind, a two-dimensional or three dimensional figure, shape, or region can be overlaid onto a geographic area. Information on items of interest that lie within the figure, shape, or region may be provided to the user. These items of interest may be prioritized, with the closest item to the vehicle (and within the figure, shape, or region) having a highest priority. Information on highest priority items of interest will be provided to the vehicle/user before lower priority items of interest.
It should be noted that with the above scheme of providing information, it is not necessary that information on the closest item be provided to the user/vehicle. If an item is outside the figure, shape, or region, information on that item will not be provided. For example, consider a vehicle moving at a high rate of speed down an interstate. An occupant of the vehicle is interested in information such as the location of gas stations. The figure, shape, or region may comprise an area some distance in front of the vehicle. Thus, information on those gas stations behind the vehicle or immediately in front of the vehicle will not be provided to the user.
Prior to describing the present invention, the following definitions are provided to aide in understanding the present invention.
As shown in
In this particular embodiment, cameras 103 provide video images to dispatch center 101 through intervening network 102. More particularly, cameras 103 electronically capture a sequence of video frames (i.e., a sequence of one or more still images), with optional accompanying audio, in a digital format. These video frames are sent from camera 103 to dispatch center 101 through network 102. Along with video frames, a camera ID and/or camera location is also provided to server 101.
Dispatch center 101, serving as a server, determines cameras of interest for a particular vehicle, and streams video from the camera of interest to vehicles 104-107. It should be noted that video from different cameras may be simultaneously streamed to different vehicles. For example, vehicle 104 may receive video from a first camera, while vehicles 105 receives video from a second camera. Additionally, multiple vehicles may receive the same video from a same camera of interest. It should be further noted that the server may not automatically start streaming video without intervention or acceptance from the user operating the vehicle.
As vehicle 201 slows down, the figure, shape, or region will change shape. This is shown in
It should be noted that the same figure or shape need not be used for all speeds. As illustrated in
It should also be noted that the figure, shape, or region utilized for determining items of interest may be geographically located a predetermined distance 203 from vehicle 201. This distance may also change, depending upon the speed of vehicle 201. So, for example, when traveling at a higher rate of speed, cone 204 begins a greater distance 203 (e.g., a mile) from vehicle 201 than when travelling at a lower speed. Distance 203 decreases as speed of vehicle 201 decreases, reaching zero as the vehicle slows below a predetermined threshold.
Storage 405 comprises standard random access memory and is used to store information related to items of interest along with a geographic map of a region. More particularly, storage 405 may comprise an area-wide map of a city and its surroundings. Potential items of interest may be identified on the map. For example, storage 405 may comprise an area-wide map of Chicago with locations for all cameras superimposed on the map.
Transmitter 401 and receiver 402 are common circuitry known in the art for communication utilizing a well known communication protocol, and serve as means for transmitting and receiving data. Examples of well known communication protocols include LTE, TETRA/TEDS, and 802.11.
During operation receiver 402 will receive a location, direction, and speed of a vehicle. In an alternate embodiment, route information may also be received. Route information may indicate future turns/streets for the vehicle. As is commonly known in the art, modern CAD systems generate a route for vehicles. This information may be provided to receiver 402 as part of a fleet-management protocol, or periodically from location-finding equipment (not shown) located within the vehicle. Once received, the information will be provided to logic circuitry 403. Logic circuitry will then determine a figure, shape, or region based on the location, direction, and speed of the vehicle. Logic circuitry 403 will then retrieve a map from storage 405 and overlay the shape/figure on the map at substantially the location of the vehicle. All items within the shape/figure will then be identified by logic circuitry 403 as items of interest. Alternatively, logic circuitry 403 will query a database of geo-tagged items stored on storage 405 to find items of interest within the shape/figure. Information on all or some of these items may then be provided to the vehicle/user.
In the particular embodiment where the items comprise video cameras, logic circuitry 403 will also receive a camera identification and video from multiple cameras. The location of the cameras may be known and stored in storage 405, or the location of the cameras may be provided along with the video and camera ID. All cameras within the shape/figure will then be identified by logic circuitry as cameras of interest. A video stream from a camera of interest is then transmitted (or relayed) to the vehicle by transmitter 401. The video stream chosen is preferably the closest camera of interest to the vehicle.
Thus, as described, the apparatus shown in
With reference to
As shown in
As the vehicle changes speed and location, cone 603 may morph into various shapes and sizes. This is illustrated in
As discussed above, the figure, shape, or region may comprise a two-dimensional shape. As the vehicle moves along, the two-dimensional shape should be covering items of interest falling within a certain angle around the line of motion (coverage angle, x°). If x=360° (which would be the default configuration), then an entire circle around the vehicle is covered. However, preferably this angle would narrow as speed increases so that upcoming cameras would be given higher priority over passed cameras. So, for example, at 50 miles per hour, x=60°. The vehicle will be sent information on items of interest that cover a narrow forward-looking 60° sector from the vehicle's current location. (Forward looking direction is calculated based on line of motion and velocity vector of vehicle movement).
As discussed above, the “range” of the shape may change with speed so as the vehicle moves along, items of interest should fall within a certain range from the vehicle. The range increases with speed.
As discussed above, in a particular embodiment, only information on one item of interest is provided to the vehicle. More particularly, a video stream from a single camera of interest is provided to the vehicle. In a first embodiment, the video stream is from a closest camera of interest. It should be noted, however, that information from multiple items of interest may be provided to the vehicle simultaneously. So, for example, if the vehicle comprises multiple video-displays, feeds from multiple cameras may be provided to the vehicle.
As is evident, as a vehicle moves about a geographic area and changes its direction and speed, information on different items of interest will be provided to the vehicle. In order to prevent the information from changing too quickly, a limit on how quickly information can change may be utilized. For example, a minimal time during which current camera must play a video stream after a camera leaves the area of interest may be set. Hold-off time is preferably configurable by user, but the server may decide the hold-off time automatically.
In one particular embodiment two videos streams are provided; one is always ‘dynamic’ (changing as described above), while the other may ‘hold’ for some time. In an alternate embodiment, the two video feeds may be provided based on cameras of interest that lie within two, differing geometric figure, shape, or regions. For example, a first feed may be provided that chooses cameras from a first geometric figure, shape, or region, while a second feed may be provided that shows cameras from a second figure, shape, or region. For example, one stream shows what is 1 mile in front of the vehicle, while the other shows what is 5 feet in front of the vehicle.
As discussed above, the figure, shape, or region has a shape that changes with vehicle speed. Additionally, the figure, shape or region begins at a distance from the vehicle, wherein the distance is based on the vehicle speed. The figure, shape, or region can also be based on a predetermined route to be taken by the vehicle as shown in
In a particular embodiment, the predetermined figure, shape, or region extends an increasing distance from the route as the route's distance increases from the vehicle.
In the foregoing specification, specific embodiments have been described. However, one of ordinary skill in the art appreciates that various modifications and changes can be made without departing from the scope of the invention as set forth in the claims below. Accordingly, the specification and figures are to be regarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense, and all such modifications are intended to be included within the scope of present teachings.
Those skilled in the art will further recognize that references to specific implementation embodiments such as “circuitry” may equally be accomplished via either on general purpose computing apparatus (e.g., CPU) or specialized processing apparatus (e.g., DSP) executing software instructions stored in non-transitory computer-readable memory. It will also be understood that the terms and expressions used herein have the ordinary technical meaning as is accorded to such terms and expressions by persons skilled in the technical field as set forth above except where different specific meanings have otherwise been set forth herein.
The benefits, advantages, solutions to problems, and any element(s) that may cause any benefit, advantage, or solution to occur or become more pronounced are not to be construed as a critical, required, or essential features or elements of any or all the claims. The invention is defined solely by the appended claims including any amendments made during the pendency of this application and all equivalents of those claims as issued.
Moreover in this document, relational terms such as first and second, top and bottom, and the like may be used solely to distinguish one entity or action from another entity or action without necessarily requiring or implying any actual such relationship or order between such entities or actions. The terms “comprises,” “comprising,” “has”, “having,” “includes”, “including,” “contains”, “containing” or any other variation thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises, has, includes, contains a list of elements does not include only those elements but may include other elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus. An element proceeded by “comprises . . . a”, “has . . . a”, “includes . . . a”, “contains . . . a” does not, without more constraints, preclude the existence of additional identical elements in the process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises, has, includes, contains the element. The terms “a” and “an” are defined as one or more unless explicitly stated otherwise herein. The terms “substantially”, “essentially”, “approximately”, “about” or any other version thereof, are defined as being close to as understood by one of ordinary skill in the art, and in one non-limiting embodiment the term is defined to be within 10%, in another embodiment within 5%, in another embodiment within 1% and in another embodiment within 0.5%. The term “coupled” as used herein is defined as connected, although not necessarily directly and not necessarily mechanically. A device or structure that is “configured” in a certain way is configured in at least that way, but may also be configured in ways that are not listed.
It will be appreciated that some embodiments may be comprised of one or more generic or specialized processors (or “processing devices”) such as microprocessors, digital signal processors, customized processors and field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) and unique stored program instructions (including both software and firmware) that control the one or more processors to implement, in conjunction with certain non-processor circuits, some, most, or all of the functions of the method and/or apparatus described herein. Alternatively, some or all functions could be implemented by a state machine that has no stored program instructions, or in one or more application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), in which each function or some combinations of certain of the functions are implemented as custom logic. Of course, a combination of the two approaches could be used.
Moreover, an embodiment can be implemented as a computer-readable storage medium having computer readable code stored thereon for programming a computer (e.g., comprising a processor) to perform a method as described and claimed herein. Examples of such computer-readable storage mediums include, but are not limited to, a hard disk, a CD-ROM, an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, a ROM (Read Only Memory), a PROM (Programmable Read Only Memory), an EPROM (Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory), an EEPROM (Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory) and a Flash memory. Further, it is expected that one of ordinary skill, notwithstanding possibly significant effort and many design choices motivated by, for example, available time, current technology, and economic considerations, when guided by the concepts and principles disclosed herein will be readily capable of generating such software instructions and programs and ICs with minimal experimentation.
The Abstract of the Disclosure is provided to allow the reader to quickly ascertain the nature of the technical disclosure. It is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims. In addition, in the foregoing Detailed Description, it can be seen that various features are grouped together in various embodiments for the purpose of streamlining the disclosure. This method of disclosure is not to be interpreted as reflecting an intention that the claimed embodiments require more features than are expressly recited in each claim. Rather, as the following claims reflect, inventive subject matter lies in less than all features of a single disclosed embodiment. Thus the following claims are hereby incorporated into the Detailed Description, with each claim standing on its own as a separately claimed subject matter.
