Patent Application
20160163011
A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material, which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent files or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever. The following notice applies to this document: Copyright © 2014 Thomson Reuters.
This disclosure relates generally to database searching. More specifically, the disclosure is directed towards systems and methods for searching databases using visual and audio inputs through a personal device.
Law enforcement is without question a necessary activity in our communities that unfortunately can be dangerous. Law enforcement officers often describe how split second decisions can be the difference between life and death. Making those split second decision, of course, requires information and the quicker a law enforcement office can acquire information, the sounder a decision he or she can make. In an effort to provide law enforcement officers with necessary information as quickly as possible, law enforcement agencies continuously implement modern technologies as part their training and field activities, such as wireless radios or remote computers installed in the law enforcement vehicles. However, with the recent advent of mobile device technology, and specifically, with personal wearable device technology, an opportunity now exists to implement technologies that will utilize such devices in order to search and locate information and assist law enforcement personnel in obtaining the necessary information, without the wasted time and effort of manually entering search information in vehicle installed computer or using antiquated technologies, such as low range radios.
The present disclosure is directed towards systems and methods for performing an on-line database search using a personal device. In one aspect, the computer implemented method includes receiving a personal device request signal from a personal device and in response to receipt of the personal device request signal, identifying a first piece of information from a first public records database and a second piece of information from a second public records database. A report associated with the first piece of information and the second piece of information is then generated and a report signal associated with the report; is stored and transmitted to the personal device.
According to one embodiment, the personal device request signal comprises at least one of audio information, visual information and textual information. According to another embodiment, the personal device request signal is generated by an interaction between a law enforcement person and the personal device, wherein the personal device is a wearable personal device and the interaction is at least one of a visual interaction, an audio interaction and textual information. The wearable personal device, according to one embodiment, may include eyewear or comprises a microphone or an image capture and process system, or any combination thereof.
According to another embodiment, the first piece of information and second piece of information relates to a first person and the report associated with the first piece of information and the second piece of information comprises a determination that the first person is a person of interest. In another embodiment, the first piece of information relates to a first person and the and second piece of information relates to a second person and the report associated with the first piece of information and the second piece of information comprises a determination that the first person is a person of interest.
A system, as well as articles that include a machine-readable medium storing machine-readable program code for implementing the various techniques, are disclosed. Details of various embodiments are discussed in greater detail below.
Additional features and advantages will be readily apparent from the following detailed description, the accompanying drawings and the claims.
Like reference symbols in the various drawings indicate like elements.
In the following description, reference is made to the accompanying drawings that form a part hereof, and in which is shown by way of illustration specific embodiments in which the disclosure may be practiced. It is to be understood that other embodiments may be utilized and structural changes may be made without departing from the scope of the present disclosure.
Turning now to
For example, the present disclosure is operational with numerous other general purpose or special purpose computing consumer electronics, network PCs, minicomputers, mainframe computers, laptop computers, as well as distributed computing environments that include any of the above systems or devices, and the like.
The disclosure may be described in the general context of computer-executable instructions, such as program modules, being executed by a computer. Generally, program modules include routines, programs, objects, components, data structures, loop code segments and constructs, etc. that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. The disclosure can be practiced in distributed computing environments where tasks are performed by remote processing devices that are linked through a communications network. In a distributed computing environment, program modules are located in both local and remote computer storage media including memory storage devices. Tasks performed by the programs and modules are described below and with the aid of figures. Those skilled in the art can implement the description and figures as processor executable instructions, which can be written on any form of a computer readable media.
In one embodiment, with reference to
As shown in the
According to one embodiment, the reporting module 124 is configured to receive multiple pieces of relevant information pertaining to an individual or entity from administrative module 122 and generate a report associated with the multiple pieces of information. In another embodiment, the reporting module 124 is receives the relevant information from the public records server 140 over the network 170. The transmission module 126 is configured serve as a gateway form for the server 110 and is operative to receive the personal device request signal from a personal device, transmit the personal device request signal and search requests based thereon to and receive relevant information from an OCR server 150 and the public records server 140, and transmit the generated report associated with the multiple pieces of information back to the requesting personal device. Additional details of modules 122, 124 and 126 are discussed in connection with
As shown in
The data store 130 is a repository that maintains and stores information utilized by the before-mentioned modules 122, 124 and 126. In one embodiment, the data store 130 is a relational data store. In another embodiment, the data store 130 is a directory server, such as a Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (“LDAP”). In yet another embodiment, the data store 130 is an area of non-volatile memory 120 of the server device 110.
In one embodiment, as shown in the
Although the data store 130 shown in
The access device 160, according to one embodiment, is a personal device, such as a personal wearable device, including but not limited to computing eyewear, such as GOOGLE™ GLASS™ wearable computing device, and wrist wearable computing device, such as ANDROID™ WEAR wearable computing device or APPLE WATCH™ wearable computing device. According to another embodiment, the personal device is a smartphone, tablet device or other personal digital assistant device. According to one embodiment, the access device 160 has user interface 166, an application module 162 and an internal storage component 164. Additionally, according to one embodiment, the access device 160 may have a plurality of sensors (not shown), an external storage component (not shown), a power management system (not shown), an audio component (not shown), audio input/output components (not shown), an image capture and process system (not shown), RF antenna (not shown) and a subscriber identification module (SIM) (not shown). The internal storage component 164 may include, for example, static random-access memory (SRAM) or Flash memory components. According to another embodiment, the access device 160, is a wearable general purpose or special purpose computing device comprising the user interface 166, the application module 162, a plurality of sensors (not shown), a processor (not shown), transient and persistent storage devices (not shown), input/output subsystem (not shown), bus to provide a communications path between components comprising the general purpose or special purpose computer, and a web-based client application, such as a web browser, which allows a user to access the data stored within data store 130. Examples of web browsers are known in the art, such as MICROSOFT® INTERNET EXPLORER®, GOOGLE CHROME E, MOZILLA FIREFOX® AND APPLE®, SAFARI®. According to another embodiment, the access device 160 may comprise a plurality of access devices, each of which comprise the same exemplary components as described herein.
The application module 162, according to one embodiment, is configured to execute an application, which is rendered to a user on the user interface 166 of the access device 160. The application, according to one embodiment, is executed via the application module 162 and rendered on the user interface 166 when execution of the application is initiated. Execution of the application and rendering on a user interface are well known in the art. According to one one embodiment, the application is written in one or more programming languages commonly used for mobile application programming development in mobile operating systems, including but not limited to JAVA, C, C++, HTML, JavaScript, and Objective C using the appropriate Software Development Kit (“SDK”) for the corresponding mobile operating system, such as the SDKs for Apple® IOS®, ANDROID™ and GLASS™.
According to one embodiment, the public records server 140 is a general purpose or special purpose computing device comprising a user interface, an application module, transient and persistent storage devices, input/output subsystem and bus to provide a communications path between components comprising the general purpose or special purpose computer. According to one embodiment, the public records server 140 comprises one or more public records databases containing public records pertaining to individuals and entities. For example, the public records server 140 may comprise a server, storage media and other associated hardware to support the THOMSON REUTERS CLEAR® records database product, which includes a collection of public and proprietary records databases comprising such information as extensive cell phone and work affiliations data, data from social networks, blogs, news and watch lists.
According to one embodiment, the OCR server 150 is a general purpose or special purpose computing device comprising a user interface, an application module, transient and persistent storage devices, input/output subsystem and bus to provide a communications path between components comprising the general purpose or special purpose computer. In one embodiment, the OCR server 150 performs optical character recognition (“OCR”) processing on visual data, such as video data or still photographs received from the access device 160 via the server device 110 and provides OCR processing results to the server device 110. OCR processing is well known in the art and applications of such OCR processing includes for example, identifying a textual portion of a vehicle license plate and generating a result comprising the text of the vehicle license plate. Additional details of OCR processing as it relates to the present invention are discussed in connection with
Further, it should be noted that the system 100 shown in
Turning now to
In one example, the application is made available on a personal wearable device, such as GOOGLE GLASS™, and is initiated by a user, such as a law enforcement officer, through one or more voice commands, depression of one or more physical buttons or keys, or combination thereof. Upon the user initiating execution of the application, a graphical rendering is presented on the user interface 166, in this case the lenses of the personal computing eyewear and is presented to the user.
As set forth in the present embodiment, the personal device request signal may comprise audio and/or visual information. In another embodiment, the personal device request signal may personal device request signal comprise a combination of audio information, visual information and textual information, textual information comprising text entered by or selected from a pre-determined list by an end user via the user interface 166 of access device 160.
Returning to
According to one embodiment, the first and second public records databases are stored in one or more data stores maintained by the by the public records server 140. As set forth previously, an exemplary public records server 140 may include the server, storage media and other associated hardware to support the THOMSON REUTERS CLEAR®, records database product, which includes a collection of public and proprietary records databases comprising such information as extensive cell phone and work affiliations data, data from social networks, blogs, news and watch lists. The public records server 140, in one embodiment, is queried and searched by the administrative module 122 using the information contained within personal device request signal. More specifically, the administrative module 122 of the server device 110, having received a personal device request signal, performs a search of the multiple databases maintained within the public records server 140, using the audio, visual or textual information contained within the personal device request signal, in order to identify relevant information within each of the one more public records databases pertaining to an individual or entity. The administrative module 122 having been notified of the receipt of an audio input or textual input from the access device 160 or of processed textual input from the visual information processed by the OCR server 150, searches the multiple databases of the public records server 140. For example, the administrative module 122 having been notified that the processing of the vehicle license plate image yielded the processed textual information “BRECHT,” performs a search on each of the States' motor vehicle registration databases maintained by the public records server 140 in order to identify the individual or entity the vehicle is registered to, as well as the vehicle's make and model and the address to which the vehicle is registered. The administrative module 122 then may search other databases maintained by the public records server 140, such as a State's motor vehicle licensed drive database to identify the date of birth of the registered owner of vehicle. In another example, administrative module 122 having been notified of the receipt of an audio input, such as the audible dictation of the state and plate number of a vehicle's license plate, uses natural language processing technology as is known in the art to convert the audio input to textual information and subsequently searches each of the States' motor vehicle registration databases maintained by the public records server 140 in order to identify the individual or entity the vehicle is registered to, and use the identified registered owner's name to subsequently search other databases, such as a State's motor vehicle licensed drive database in order to identify the date of birth of the registered owner of vehicle. In both examples, the identified information is transmitted to the server device 110 at the transmission server 126, which in turn stores the identified information in the reporting data store 134 and notifies the reporting module 124 of the receipt of the identified relevant information.
According to another embodiment, the administrative module 122 serves to transmit the personal device request signal in the form of visual information, audio information or textual information, or any combination thereof, to the public records server 140, which in turn searches its one or more public records databases in order to identify relevant information pertaining to an individual or entity, in which case all interaction with the OCR server 150 and natural language processing is performed by the public records server 140.
Returning to
According to one embodiment, in addition to multiple pieces of information, a generated report may include a determination that an individual is a “person of interest.” According to one embodiment, a “person of interest” is an individual who is involved in or subject to a criminal investigation and either who has not been arrested or formally accused of a crime or who has been accused of the crime or found guilty of the crime and has outstanding warrants for the his arrest and capture. In one embodiment, the determination of a person of interest could be as simple as the administrative module identifying the person of interest from one or more government watch lists maintained by the public records server 140 based on the personal device request signal. In another embodiment, the determination of a person of interest could be made by the administrative module 122 based on mismatched information between multiple databases, such as differing residential addresses or dates of birth for a registered owner associated with the vehicle license plate. In such circumstances, differing dates of birth or residential addresses demonstrate some activity of identity wherein the different pieces of information are associated with different individuals, e.g. the identity thief and the person whose identity has been stolen, in which case the administrative module 122 would determine that one of the persons is a person of interest. In another embodiment, public records server 140 itself performs a determination of a person of interest and based on the search of its multiple databases using information received through the personal device request signal.
In software implementations, computer software (e.g., programs or other instructions) and/or data is stored on a machine readable medium as part of a computer program product, and is loaded into a computer system or other device or machine via a removable storage drive, hard drive, or communications interface. Computer programs (also called computer control logic or computer readable program code) are stored in a main and/or secondary memory, and executed by one or more processors (controllers, or the like) to cause the one or more processors to perform the functions of the disclosure as described herein. In this document, the terms “machine readable medium,” “computer program medium” and “computer usable medium” are used to generally refer to media such as a random access memory (RAM); a read only memory (ROM); a removable storage unit (e.g., a magnetic or optical disc, flash memory device, or the like); a hard disk; or the like.
Notably, the figures and examples above are not meant to limit the scope of the present disclosure to a single embodiment, as other embodiments are possible by way of interchange of some or all of the described or illustrated elements. Moreover, where certain elements of the present disclosure can be partially or fully implemented using known components, only those portions of such known components that are necessary for an understanding of the present disclosure are described, and detailed descriptions of other portions of such known components are omitted so as not to obscure the disclosure. In the present specification, an embodiment showing a singular component should not necessarily be limited to other embodiments including a plurality of the same component, and vice-versa, unless explicitly stated otherwise herein. Moreover, applicants do not intend for any term in the specification or claims to be ascribed an uncommon or special meaning unless explicitly set forth as such. Further, the present disclosure encompasses present and future known equivalents to the known components referred to herein by way of illustration.
The foregoing description of the specific embodiments so fully reveals the general nature of the disclosure that others can, by applying knowledge within the skill of the relevant art(s) (including the contents of the documents cited and incorporated by reference herein), readily modify and/or adapt for various applications such specific embodiments, without undue experimentation, without departing from the general concept of the present disclosure. Such adaptations and modifications are therefore intended to be within the meaning and range of equivalents of the disclosed embodiments, based on the teaching and guidance presented herein. It is to be understood that the phraseology or terminology herein is for the purpose of description and not of limitation, such that the terminology or phraseology of the present specification is to be interpreted by the skilled artisan in light of the teachings and guidance presented herein, in combination with the knowledge of one skilled in the relevant art(s).
While various embodiments of the present disclosure have been described above, it should be understood that they have been presented by way of example, and not limitations. It would be apparent to one skilled in the relevant art(s) that various changes in form and detail could be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosure. Thus, the present disclosure should not be limited by any of the above-described exemplary embodiments, but should be defined only in accordance with the following claims and their equivalents.
