System for tracking and identifying vehicles and pedestrians

• US 10,410,064 B2
• Filed: 12/01/2016
• Issued: 09/10/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 11/11/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NIO Technology Company Limited (Shanghai Anbin Technology Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Nio Usa Inc.
• Inventors: Newman, Austin
• Primary Examiner(s): Huynh, Van D
• Application Number:
  US15/366,615
• Publication Number:
  US 20180137368A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,013 Days
• Field of Search: 382103
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/5854 using shape and object relationship
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/52 Surveillance or monitoring of activities, e.g. for recognising suspicious objects recognising microscopic objects G06V20/69
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 2201/08 Detecting or categorising vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/10 Human or animal bodies, e.g. vehicle occupants or pedestrians; Body parts, e.g. hands
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/172 Classification, e.g. identification
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/016 Personal emergency signalling and security systems emergency non-personal manually actuated alarm activators G08B25/12
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0112 from the vehicle, e.g. floating car data [FCD]
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0129 for creating historical data or processing based on historical data
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0133 for classifying traffic situation
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0141 for traffic information dissemination
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/04 using optical or ultrasonic detectors
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0962 having an indicator mounted inside the vehicle, e.g. giving voice messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/00 Network arrangements or protocols for supporting network services or applications user-to-user messaging H04L51/00; network arrangements, protocols or services for supporting real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/44 for communication between vehicles and infrastructures, e.g. vehicle-to-cloud [V2C] or vehicle-to-home [V2H]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/90 Services for handling of emergency or hazardous situations, e.g. earthquake and tsunami warning systems [ETWS]

Abstract

A system and method for monitoring locating people and vehicles based upon information is collected by a wide array of sensors already included in modern motor vehicles. Also included is a system of locating people and vehicles by aggregating data collected by an array of vehicles.

Claims

1. An apparatus for locating objects specified in an emergency alert, the apparatus comprising:

one or more imagers, each imager having a respective bubble of vision,

a real time communication interface,

a short range communication interface,

a geo locating system to determine a location of a vehicle at a selected point in time; and

a vehicle computer communicatively coupled to the one or more imagers, the geo locating system, the real time communication interface, and the short range communication interface;

wherein the vehicle computer;

acquires a plurality of images from the one or more imagers,

determines if the plurality of images contain another vehicle,

determines if an active alert has been received via the real time communication interface,

when the plurality of images contain the another vehicle and the active alert has been received via the real time communication interface, selectively transmits via the real time communication interface the plurality of images to a database server based on a vehicle analysis, and

when the plurality of images contain the another vehicle and the active alert has not been received via the real time communication interface, stores the plurality of images in a storage medium of the vehicle.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein first and second imagers have first and second bubbles of vision, wherein the first and second bubbles of vision overlap and have different ranges to provide multiple views and perspective of an imaged object, and wherein the vehicle computer further:

selectively transmits, via the short range communication interface and upon detecting that the short range communication interface is connected to the Internet, the plurality of images stored in the storage medium of the vehicle to the database server.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the database server:

receives a plurality of images acquired by other vehicles, each of the plurality of images acquired by the other vehicles having temporal and geo location information associated therewith,

aggregates the plurality of images acquired by the other vehicles with the plurality of images transmitted via the short range communication interface based on the temporal and geo location information to form aggregated data,

performs an additional analysis on the aggregated data,

determines, based on the additional analysis, whether the another vehicle in at least a portion of the aggregated data matches a particular vehicle identified in a current active alert, and

selectively transmits the at least a portion of the aggregated data to an emergency services provider based on the additional analysis and determination.

4. A method for locating objects specified in an emergency alert, the method comprising:

acquiring, by a vehicle, a plurality of images from one or more imagers, each imager having a respective bubble of vision

determining, by the vehicle, if the plurality of images contain another vehicle,

determining, by the vehicle, if an active alert has been received via a real time communication interface of the vehicle, and

selectively transmitting, by the vehicle when the plurality of images contain the another vehicle and the active alert has been received via the real time communication interface, via the real time communication interface, the plurality of images to a database server based on a vehicle analysis, and

storing, by the vehicle when the plurality of images contain the another vehicle and the active alert has not been received via the real time communication interface, the plurality of images in a storage medium of the vehicle.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein first and second imagers have first and second bubbles of vision, wherein the first and second bubbles of vision overlap and have different ranges to provide multiple views and perspective of an imaged object, and further comprising:

selectively transmitting, via a short range communication interface of the vehicle and upon detecting that the short range communication interface is connected to the Internet, the plurality of images stored in the storage medium of the vehicle to the database server.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

receiving, by the database server, a plurality of images acquired by other vehicles, each of the plurality of images acquired by the other vehicles having temporal and geo location information associated therewith,

aggregating, by the database server, the plurality of images acquired by the other vehicles with the plurality of images transmitted via the short range communication interface based on the temporal and geo location information to form aggregated data,

performing, by the database server, an additional analysis on the aggregated data,

determining, by the database server based on the additional analysis, whether the another vehicle in at least a portion of the aggregated data matches a particular vehicle identified in a current active alert, and

selectively transmitting, by the database server, the at least a portion of the aggregated data to an emergency services provider based on the additional analysis and determination.

7. A system for locating objects specified in an emergency alert, the system comprising:

a database server communicatively coupled to a plurality of vehicles, wherein the database server includes;

a communication interface,

a memory,

a storage, and

a processor communicatively coupled to the memory, the storage, and the communication interface;

wherein the processor of the database server;

receives, via the communication interface, a plurality of images from the plurality of vehicles, wherein the plurality of images include images acquired by one or more imagers of each of the vehicles in the plurality of vehicles,

aggregates the plurality of images based on geo location information and temporal information provided by the plurality of vehicles to form aggregated data,

receives, from an emergency services provider, an active alert including an identity of a particular vehicle, and wherein the identity of the particular vehicle in the plurality of images is not identifiable by any single vehicle in the plurality of vehicles,

analyzes, based on the identity of the particular vehicle in the active alert, the aggregated data to determine if the aggregated data includes the particular vehicle identified in the active alert received, and

selectively alerts the emergency service provider based on a result of the analysis.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein each vehicle of the plurality of vehicles further:

store, in a storage medium of each vehicle when the active alert is not received, the plurality of images including the images acquired by the one or more imagers of each vehicle; and

selectively transmit, via a short range communication interface of each vehicle and upon detecting that the short range communication interface of each vehicle is connected to the Internet, the plurality of images from the storage medium of each vehicle to the database server.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the database server further:

performs an additional analysis on the plurality of images on a condition that the plurality of images contain a person and the active alert specifies a particular person, and

selectively transmits the plurality of images to the emergency services provider based on the additional analysis.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the additional analysis includes facial recognition.

11. The system of claim 7, wherein the plurality of vehicles comprise first and second vehicles having imagers with first and second bubbles of vision, respectively, wherein the particular vehicle is simultaneously within each of the first and second bubbles of vision, and wherein first and second images provided by the imagers of the first and second vehicles, respectively, comprise different views of the object.