Patent Application
20220210376
The present disclosure relates to providing security monitoring for an event, and more particularly to methods and systems for providing security monitoring for a procession as the procession moves along a procession route.
Large events such as processionals, VIP visits, sporting events such as marathon races and the like can require significant preparations before the event takes place to prepare for a variety of different security issues that may occur during the event. Preparations before the event can include mapping out a planned route, determining maintenance and security needs along the route, and monitoring for suspicious behavior before and during the event. A need remains for improved methods and systems for providing security monitoring for such an event, particularly as the event moves along the planned route.
The present disclosure relates to a methods and systems of providing security monitoring for an event, and more particularly to methods and systems for providing security monitoring for a procession as the procession moves along a procession route, particularly within smart cities that have security cameras distributed about the city. An example is a method of monitoring an event that is expected to progress along a planned event route, wherein the planned event route includes a plurality of video cameras that are positioned along the planned event route and capture a different aspect of the planned event route. A moveable reference that will remain with the event as the event progresses along the planned event route is assigned. A situation awareness wall layout is assigned for the event, wherein the situation awareness wall layout defines how a plurality of video feeds from selected ones of the plurality of video cameras are to be concurrently displayed on a situation awareness wall having one or more displays. A GPS or other location based signal is received from the moveable reference. A current position and a current movement of the event along the planned event route is determined from the GPS or other location based signal, where the current movement includes both a current speed and in some cases a current direction of the movable reference. One or more video feeds are automatically selected from the plurality of video cameras that are positioned along the planned event route for display on the situation awareness wall in accordance with the assigned situation awareness wall layout. The one or more video feeds are selected based at least in part on the current position of the event along the planned event route, and wherein the one or more video feeds selected for display include a video feed that correspond to a current position of the event along the planned event route and an expected future position of the event along the planned event route. One or more camera feeds that correspond to a previous position of the event along the planned event route are automatically removed from the situation awareness wall.
Another example method of monitoring an event that is expected to progress along a planned event route includes receiving an indication of a current location of the event as the event progresses along the planned event route. Camera feeds that correspond to the current location of the event as the event progresses along the planned event route are automatically identified, selected and displayed on a situation awareness wall. Camera feeds that correspond to an expected future position of the event as the event progresses along the planned event route are automatically selected and displayed. Camera feeds that correspond to a previous position of the event as the event progresses along the planned event route are automatically removed from the situation awareness wall.
Another example includes a non-transient, computer-readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon. When the instructions are executed by one or more processors, the one or more processors are caused to receive an indication of a current position of an event as the event progresses along a planned event route. The one or more processors are caused to automatically select and display camera feeds on a situation awareness wall that correspond to the current position of the event as the event progresses along the planned event route and to automatically select and display camera feeds on the situation awareness wall that correspond to an expected future position of the event as the event progresses along the planned event route. The one or more processors are caused to automatically remove from the situation awareness wall camera feeds that correspond to a previous position of the event as the event progresses along the planned event route.
The preceding summary is provided to facilitate an understanding of some of the features of the present disclosure and is not intended to be a full description. A full appreciation of the disclosure can be gained by taking the entire specification, claims, drawings, and abstract as a whole.
The disclosure may be more completely understood in consideration of the following description of various illustrative embodiments of the disclosure in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which:
While the disclosure is amenable to various modifications and alternative forms, specifics thereof have been shown by way of example in the drawings and will be described in detail. It should be understood, however, that the intention is not to limit aspects of the disclosure to the particular illustrative embodiments described. On the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the disclosure.
The following description should be read with reference to the drawings wherein like reference numerals indicate like elements. The drawings, which are not necessarily to scale, are not intended to limit the scope of the disclosure. In some of the figures, elements not believed necessary to an understanding of relationships among illustrated components may have been omitted for clarity.
All numbers are herein assumed to be modified by the term “about”, unless the content clearly dictates otherwise. The recitation of numerical ranges by endpoints includes all numbers subsumed within that range (e.g., 1 to 5 includes 1, 1.5, 2, 2.75, 3, 3.80, 4, and 5).
As used in this specification and the appended claims, the singular forms “a”, “an”, and “the” include the plural referents unless the content clearly dictates otherwise. As used in this specification and the appended claims, the term “or” is generally employed in its sense including “and/or” unless the content clearly dictates otherwise.
It is noted that references in the specification to “an embodiment”, “some embodiments”, “other embodiments”, etc., indicate that the embodiment described may include a particular feature, structure, or characteristic, but every embodiment may not necessarily include the particular feature, structure, or characteristic. Moreover, such phrases are not necessarily referring to the same embodiment. Further, when a particular feature, structure, or characteristic is described in connection with an embodiment, it is contemplated that the feature, structure, or characteristic may be applied to other embodiments whether or not explicitly described unless clearly stated to the contrary.
Planning and monitoring a large event such as processionals, VIP (Very Important Person) visits, sporting events such as marathon races and the like can require significant preparations before the event takes place to prepare for a variety of different issues that may arise during the event. The disclosure is directed to methods and systems for facilitating the planning for large events as well as providing security monitoring during such events.
The situation awareness wall layout will control where and how various camera feeds (and sometimes other information) will be displayed on a situation awareness wall 18. The situation awareness wall 18 may include a number of monitors, for example, each of which are under the control of the situation awareness wall controller 14. In some cases, the situation awareness wall 18 may include a number of relatively smaller monitors, with perhaps one or maybe two camera feeds displayed on each of the monitors. In some cases, the situation awareness wall 18 may include relatively larger monitors, each of which are sub-divided to display two, four, eight or more different camera feeds at the same time, with each camera feed displayed in a distinct sub-division of one of the monitors. In some cases, the situation awareness wall 18 may include just one large monitor that is sub-divided to display two, four, eight or more different camera feeds at the same time, with each camera feed displayed in a distinct sub-division of the large monitor. These are just examples.
It will be appreciated that planning the event, or more specifically, planning how to monitor the event, will include mapping out the route and then determining what assets and liabilities are present along the route. Assets may include video cameras as are commonly disposed throughout a smart city. Liabilities may include maintenance issues such as large potholes along the route, or spots where a street narrows or makes a sharp turn, for example, possibly creating security concerns. Additional liabilities may include portions of the route that lack video cameras, or perhaps have video cameras that are at least partially obscured by tree growth, billboards and the like. These are just some of the things that can be taken into account when planning the event route, and things that may need to be addressed before the event takes place.
The situation awareness wall 18 can display information from a variety of different sources. For example, the situation awareness wall controller 14 may communicate with a GPS or other location based tracking device 20. Accordingly, the situation awareness wall controller 14 is able to keep track of the progress of the event via the tracking device 20. In some instances, the situation awareness wall controller 14 may track the progress of the event along the route by having either a particular person associated with the event carry the tracking device 20 or have the tracking device 20 fixed to a vehicle or other object traveling with the event. In some cases, progress of the event may instead (or in addition to) be determined by analyzing camera feeds along the event route. Video analytics can be used to identify the event in a camera feed to determine the current position of the event along the route.
A map server 24 may be configured to provide the situation awareness wall controller 14 with a variety of maps that pertain to the planned route. In some instances, geographic information system (GIS) maps may be provided. GIS is a computer system for capturing, storing, checking and displaying data related to positions on Earth's surface. GIS can show many different kinds of data on one map, such as streets and buildings. The map server 24 may provide GIS maps that correspond to a current location of the event during the event. The map server 24 may also provide GIS maps that illustrate a contemplated event route.
In some cases, social media analytics 26 may be provided. Social media analytics 26 may be configured to receive a wide variety of social media information that may, for example, be posted by individuals along the event route during an event. Many social media platforms can identify a location of a device and a time when a posting is made, and may delivery to social media analytics 26 those postings that are identified as being along (e.g. with 1 mile) of the planned route, at a location near a current position of the event along the planned route, postings that are not necessarily near the event but are related to the event. These are just examples. Such postings may include positive messages such as “excited to attend the . . . event” and/or negative messages such as “I hate . . . the event”. It will be appreciated that social media may include Facebook® postings, Instagram® postings, Vine® postings, TIC TOC® postings and any of a number of different social platforms. Social media analytics 26 may be configured to receive a large number of potentially relevant social media platform posts, and analyze the posts looking for certain keywords or phrases, trends in such postings, activity level in such postings and/or any other suitable indicator(s) to possibly identify threats along the route. In some cases, a planned event with a relatively large volume of negative postings may be canceled or modified, or perhaps the event may take place but with enhanced security precautions.
Crowd sourced media servers 28 may be configured to receive live and/or recorded videos that may be uploaded by individuals along the event route. This can include videos uploaded by citizens attending the event route as well as event volunteers or event employees. In some cases, these videos can also be analyzed via video analytics to look for possible security concerns. For example, facial recognition analytics may be used to look for people that have been previously identified as being a possible security threat. In another example, video analytics may be used to identify guns, packages that are left alone, fighting, rioting, and/or other suspicious or unruly behavior.
CCTV (closed circuit television) servers 30 may be configured to receive camera feeds from hundreds or even thousands of video cameras that are disposed about a smart city. In some instances, a CCTV system may be referred to as a video surveillance system. The CCTV servers 30 may be configured to provide appropriate and relevant video feeds to the situation awareness wall controller 14 before, during and even after the event occurs. The CCTV servers 30 may receive images and/or video streams from hard-mounted video cameras. In some cases, the CCTV servers 30 may also receive images and/or video streams from handheld video cameras, video cameras mounted in emergency vehicles such as security vehicles and police vehicles, police body cameras, and the like. A source location of each of the video feeds may also be known to the CCTV servers 30.
The situation awareness wall controller 14 receives a number of different information streams from a number of different sources, including but not limited to the GPS tracking device 20, the map server 24, the social media analytics 26, the crowd sourced media servers 28 and the CCTV servers 30. The situation awareness wall controller 14 selects and assembles this information and displays the information on the situation awareness wall 18 in accordance with the situation awareness wall layout that was previously created and saved in the memory 16. One or more individuals may be positioned in front of the situation awareness wall 18 such that they can see all of the information that is displayed, and to respond if necessary to any apparent security concerns.
In the illustrated situation awareness wall layout 40, a LIVE TV feed 44 may be displayed in the upper left corner. This may represent what is currently being broadcast by one or more television stations that are covering the event. A SOCIAL MEDIA feed 46 may be displayed that includes relevant social media posts as determined by the social media analytics 26. This can include, for example, both positive and negative posts, as desired. A VEHICLE TRACKING region 48 can include information pertaining to the current location and/or planned movement of emergency vehicles. In some cases, this can include a map with the current and/or planned future locations of each emergency vehicle indicated on the map. A CROWD SOURCED VIDEO feed 50 may be displayed in the upper right corner. Again, this is merely illustrated, and each of the LIVE TV feed 44, the SOCIAL MEDIA feed 46, the VEHICLE TRACKING region 48 and the CROWD SOURCED VIDEO feed 50 may each represent multiple images or video feeds.
The illustrative situation awareness wall layout 40 includes a number of CURRENT CAMERA LOCATION feeds 52 displayed on either side of the map 42. As shown, there are a total four CURRENT CAMERA LOCATION feeds individually labeled as 52a, 52b, 52c, 52d, but this is merely illustrative as the situation awareness wall 18 may accommodate more or less current camera feeds. In some instances, particularly when something happens unexpectantly during the event, the situation awareness wall layout 40 may modify itself to allow for additional CURRENT CAMERA LOCATION feeds 52 to be displayed, temporarily replacing at least some of the other displayed feeds 44, 46, 48, 50, 54a-54b, 56a-56b.
In the example shown, additional feeds are displayed along the bottom of the illustrative situation awareness wall layout 40. The situation awareness wall layout 40 may include CAMERA FROM COVERED LOCATION feeds 54, individually labeled as 54a and 54b. The CAMERA FROM COVERED LOCATION feeds 54 may include camera feeds showing an area that the event just passed through, before those camera feeds are completely removed. Likewise, the situation awareness wall layout 40 may include CAMERA FROM APPROACHING AREA feeds 56, individually labeled as 56a and 56b. The CAMERA FROM APPROACHING AREA feeds 56 may include camera feeds from an area that the event is expected to move into momentarily (e.g. within the next 15 minutes). This time period may be configurable, and in some cases may be as long as 30 minutes. In some cases, the situation awareness wall controller 14 may automatically update with no user input the camera feeds and/or other information that is displayed on the situation awareness wall 18 based on a current location of the event as received from the GPS tracking device 20 along the planned route.
If at decision block 64 a determination is made that the event has progressed, meaning that the event has started and/or moved, control passes to block 72, where the current location of the event is updated. Once the current location of the event has been updated, a number of things occur, sometimes simultaneously. At block 74, the surveillance cameras closer to the event are displayed. At block 76, social media analytics parameters are updated (e.g. with new location). At block 78, route and parking stations for emergency vehicles are updated. At block 80, advanced analytics are enabled for nearby surveillance cameras. At block 82, traffic systems are commanded in order to facilitate movement of the event along the route. Each of these blocks 74, 76, 78, 80, 82 are described in greater detail in
Control passes to block 86, where camera feeds that are outside of the event route are removed. At bock 88, the camera feeds may be ranked in accordance with how close the corresponding camera field of view is to the event. In some cases, an optimal layout of the camera feeds may be determined, based at least in part upon their relative rankings, as indicated at block 90. In some instances, the camera feeds may be displayed on the situation awareness wall 18 in accordance with this optimal layout. It will be appreciated that in some cases, the situation awareness wall layout 40 may remain largely static, with certain camera feeds always displayed in a particular location. In some cases, the situation awareness wall layout 40 may be dynamic, and may change with respect to what camera feeds are displayed where, depending on what is happening with the event.
Camera feeds that correspond to an expected future location of the event as the event progresses along the planned event route are automatically selected and displayed on the situation awareness wall, as indicated at block 136. A camera feed may be deemed to correspond to the expected future position of the event when at least 50 percent of a field of view of a particular camera includes a view of where the event is expected to be within a configurable length of time. The configurable length of time may be as short as five minutes or as long as 30 minutes or longer. Camera feeds that correspond to a previous position of the event as the event progresses along the planned event route are automatically removed from the situation awareness wall, as indicated at block 138.
In some instances, the method 130 may further include automatically determining parking locations for emergency vehicles as the event progresses along the planned event route, as indicated at block 140. The method 130 may further include automatically instructing the emergency vehicles to move to new parking locations as the event progresses along the planned event route, as indicated at block 142. In some instances, traffic signals along the planned event route may be automatically controlled to allow passage of the event through the traffic signals as the event progresses along the planned event route, as indicated at block 144.
A situation awareness wall layout for the event is assigned for the event, as indicated at block 154. The situation awareness wall layout may define how a plurality of video feeds from selected ones of the plurality of video cameras are to be concurrently displayed on a situation awareness wall having one or more displays. A GPS or other location based signal is received from the moveable reference, as indicated at block 156. A current position and a current movement of the event along the planned event route is determined from the GPS or other location based signal, as indicated at block 158. In some cases, current movement is considered to include both a current speed and a current direction of movement of the movable reference.
One or more video feeds from the plurality of video cameras that are positioned along the planned event route are automatically selected for display on the situation awareness wall in accordance with the assigned situation awareness wall layout, as indicated at block 160. The one or more video feeds may be selected based at least in part on the current position of the event along the planned event route, and wherein the one or more video feeds selected for display include a video feed that correspond to a current position of the event along the planned event route and an expected future position of the event along the planned event route. One or more camera feeds that correspond to a previous position of the event along the planned event route are automatically removed from the situation awareness wall, as indicated at block 162.
In some instances, the method 150 may further include confirming and when necessary updating the current speed at which the event is currently moving in order to account for unexpected changes in the current speed/location. In some cases, the planned event route may be updated when the event is detected as deviating from the planned event route. The event may include a processional that is passing along the planned event route. The event may, for example, be a VIP (very important person) travelling along the planned event route. The planned event route may include an outdoor route along one or more streets or sidewalks, and is greater than 1 mile in length. In some cases, the method 150 may further include analyzing social media feeds from individuals along the planned event route, and displaying at least one social media post on the situation awareness wall in accordance with the assigned situation awareness wall layout, as indicated at block 164.
A situation awareness wall layout for the event is assigned for the event, as indicated at block 154. The situation awareness wall layout may define how a plurality of video feeds from selected ones of the plurality of video cameras are to be concurrently displayed on a situation awareness wall having one or more displays. A GPS or other location based signal is received from the moveable reference, as indicated at block 156. A current position and a current movement of the event along the planned event route is determined from the GPS or other location based signal, as indicated at block 158. In some cases, current movement is considered to include both a current speed and a current direction of movement of the movable reference.
One or more video feeds from the plurality of video cameras that are positioned along the planned event route are automatically selected for display on the situation awareness wall in accordance with the assigned situation awareness wall layout, as indicated at block 160. The one or more video feeds may be selected based at least in part on the current position of the event along the planned event route, and wherein the one or more video feeds selected for display include a video feed that corresponds to a current position of the event along the planned event route and a video feed that corresponds to an expected future position of the event along the planned event route. One or more camera feeds that correspond to a previous position of the event along the planned event route are automatically removed from the situation awareness wall, as indicated at block 162.
In some instances, the method 170 may further include automatically determining parking locations for emergency vehicles as the event progresses along the planned event route, as indicated at block 172. The emergency vehicles may be automatically instructed to move to new parking locations as the event progresses along the planned event route, as indicated at block 174. In some cases, this may include calculating vehicle routes for the emergency vehicles to take while moving to the new parking locations. In some cases, as indicated at block 176, one or more traffic signals along the planned event route may be automatically controlled based at least in part on the current position and current speed of the event along the planned event route.
Those skilled in the art will recognize that the present disclosure may be manifested in a variety of forms other than the specific embodiments described and contemplated herein. Accordingly, departure in form and detail may be made without departing from the scope and spirit of the present disclosure as described in the appended claims.
