A variety of conventional mobile and vehicle-installed video systems, utilizing both analog and digital methodologies, have been developed in recent years to assist law-enforcement agencies in the collection of evidence during law enforcement activities. Such activities include traffic stops, arrests, surveillance, and the like. The collection of evidence is one aspect of the installed system utilized by law-enforcement officers to perform their duties. However, these installed systems may also be utilized to provide for greater safety for law-enforcement officers during such activities, as well as greater clarity on the video record which is later used as evidence.
During the execution of a law enforcement event the most dangerous part of the activity, such as a traffic stop, is just as the law enforcement officer must exit the car. At this point, the law enforcement officer must divide attention between the occupants of the stopped vehicle and the vehicle itself to record such information as the vehicle license plate number. In addition, if the activity occurs at night, low light levels and light scattering from the reflective coating on a license plate reduce visibility to the point that the captured video images, as recorded by the officer, may be useless for evidentiary purposes.
Providing a means by which the law enforcement officer does not have to divide his/her attention increases the officer's safety. If an officer is injured or killed in the line of duty during a traffic stop prior to issuing a citation, the video record of the license plate may be the only clue as to who the officer stopped. In addition, mitigating low-light and light-scattering circumstances without any action or intervention on the part of the law-enforcement officer increases the confidence of such law-enforcement officials that their evidentiary assertions will be corroborated by a high-quality video record of the events in question.
The present invention provides an elegant solution to the problems of providing for the safety of law-enforcement officers and increasing the clarity of the video record for evidentiary purposes.
The present invention provides an effective and efficient method for automatically improving image quality gathered by a video camera used in a mobile environment without the intervention of an individual who is commanding the mobile environment. The video camera image adjustment is set such that upon receipt of a trigger event, the video camera automatically adjusts focus for distance and shutter speed to capture a video record of events in front of the mobile environment. The captured video data is stored in an onboard high-capacity storage device, such as a hard drive, solid state memory, flash memory, etc., and later transferred to a home base data repository for archival, retrieval, analysis, and evidentiary use.
The trigger event is a physical action that initiates the video camera focus and shutter timing adjustment under computer program control, allowing the individual commanding the mobile environment to focus their attention on the occupants of another vehicle instead of the vehicle itself. Once the focus has been redirected, the video camera adjusts for adverse ambient light conditions to record video images of an object, such as a license plate, at which the video camera is directed. A software module under computer control further starts a time when a trigger event occurs. The timer is set to be long enough to allow the full adjustment of the video camera and provide for additional data recording after the video camera adjustment is completed. At the expiration of the timer computer program control returns the video camera focus and shutter timing to their original state and the video imagery is tagged with a metadata identifier and stored in a high-capacity on-board storage device.
The invention also includes a software module that uploads the captured video record using either a wired connection or using wireless means to transfer the data from the mobile high-capacity on-board storage device to a data storage and retrieval server.
The above objects and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent by describing in detail preferred embodiments thereof with reference to the attached drawings, in which:
The present invention provides for increased officer security and a clearer video record for evidence purposes. The present invention can be deployed on police, fire, and rescue vehicles and is adaptable for use on mass transit vehicles. The present invention is not limited to these applications, and may be used in any environment in which a mobile surveillance system is desired.
The system is initialized and placed in continuous record mode 100 when the vehicle engine is started. Based upon ambient light conditions, the system is placed in day or night recording mode 200. In either mode, upon ordering a vehicle to the side of the road, the police vehicle stops a judicious distance, typically half a car length, behind the vehicle that has been ordered to stop.
The focal length distance for the camera zoom function is set to be from the stopped patrol car to the back of the vehicle that has been ordered to stop. This focal length distance is preset based upon a determined average distance between vehicles for such a traffic stop activity. However, the patrol officer may manually preset the focal length distance to be either shorter or longer based upon the officer's preferred stopping distance for such a traffic stop activity.
In the preferred embodiment as described above, the trigger event 410 is the first time the driver side door of the police vehicle is opened during a stop activity (
At night, light from various nighttime sources including the headlights of the patrol vehicle is scattered from the highly reflective surface of the license plate, obscuring the details of the license plate from view in the video record
After a preset time period 440, a configurable time span typically between 2 and 10 seconds, the video camera refocuses back to its original setting 442, turns the auto focus function off once again 460, and resets the video camera into night mode.
The output from the video camera is saved in an on-board high-capacity storage (HCS) device as a set of files that are referenced as a single event.
Moving saved data files from the on-board HCS to an exterior high-capacity storage system is accomplished when the patrol vehicle stops at a facility equipped with a download server and high-capacity storage equipment. This transfer is accomplished in one of two methods; (1) physically removing the on-board HCS from the mass transit vehicle and (2) transmitting the saved data files from the on-board HCS to the server over wired or wireless data communication means.
The advantages of the invention are readily apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art in that a patrol officer or emergency worker does not need to divert attention from the individual(s) within a stopped vehicle in order to provide a video image of an informational nature that can assist said officer or emergency worker in performance of their duties, while also reducing the risk to said officer or emergency worker caused by diverting his/her attention.
This innovation may also be utilized on mass transit vehicles, such as a city bus, train, or school bus, to gather information at night that is of importance to the operator of said mass transit vehicle without diverting their attention. For example, a mass transit vehicle could set a trigger event as the opening of either the front or back passenger doors and when the door opened a video camera positioned to record video of that opening would capture higher precision, night time video of vehicles in proximity to the doorways, or even passengers exiting or entering the mass transit vehicle.
While this invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to the preferred embodiment thereof, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.
This application is a Continuation-in-Part of U.S. Non-Provisional patent application Ser. No. 10/703,258 filed Nov. 7, 2003 and is herein incorporated by reference, which claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/319,676, filed Nov. 8, 2002.
Number | Date | Country | |
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60319676 | Nov 2002 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 10703258 | Nov 2003 | US |
Child | 11332319 | Jan 2006 | US |