Remote surveillance system

• US 20030086000A1
• Filed: 11/01/2002
• Published: 05/08/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 11/01/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Security with Advanced Technology Incorporated (United Tactical Systems, LLC)
• Original Assignee: A4S Technologies, Inc. (United Tactical Systems, LLC)
• Inventors: Siemens, Michael G., Sitkins, Daniel F., Kierstead, Peter E.
• Granted Patent: US 7,272,179 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/148
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19643 wherein the cameras play different roles, e.g. different resolution, different camera type, master-slave camera
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19647 Systems specially adapted for intrusion detection in or around a vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19667 Details realated to data compression, encryption or encoding, e.g. resolution modes for reducing data volume to lower transmission bandwidth or memory requirements
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19673 Addition of time stamp, i.e. time metadata, to video stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2005/91364 the video signal being scrambled
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/181 for receiving images from a plurality of remote sources
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/185 from a mobile camera, e.g. for remote control

Abstract

An audio/visual surveillance system for use in mobile vehicles such as patrol cars includes two video cameras producing video signals and four audio sources producing audio signals. The signals are MPEG-2 compressed and streamed in real time with geographic and time data to a digital cartridge-type tape recorder located in the vehicle. A full patrol car shift is recorded on a single tape and, at the end of the shift, the tape is placed in a master sled bay. An MD5 hash authenticates the data for court use. Up to four videos can be synchronized frame-by-frame for simultaneous monitoring. An MPEG-1 stream is sent via wireless to headquarters in real time. One camera captures data external to the vehicle, while the other captures data internal to the vehicle. One audio source captures audio inside the vehicle and another captures dispatcher communications. The other two audio sources are carried by officers.

Claims

1. An audio/visual surveillance system for use in mobile vehicles such as patrol cars, said system comprising:

a first video camera producing a first video signal;

a compression system for electronically compressing said first video signal and producing a compressed digital signal; and

a digital tape recorder located in said vehicle for recording said compressed digital signal.

2. An audio/visual surveillance system as in claim 1 wherein said digital tape recorder is a cartridge type tape recorder that records to a tape cartridge.

3. An audio/visual surveillance system as in claim 1 wherein said compression system comprises an MPEG (motion picture expert group) compression system.

4. An audio/visual surveillance system as in claim 3 wherein said compression system is an MPEG-2 compression system.

5. An audio/visual surveillance system as in claim 3 wherein said compression system is an MPEG-1 compression system.

6. An audio/visual surveillance system as in claim 1 wherein said system further comprises a first audio source producing a first audio signal and said compression system compresses both said audio and said video signal to produce said compressed digital signal.

7. An audio/visual surveillance system as in claim 6 wherein said system further comprises a second audio source and said compression system compresses both said first and second audio signals and said video signal to produce said compressed digital signal.

8. An audio/visual surveillance system as in claim 7 wherein said system further comprises a second video camera producing a second video signal, a third audio source producing a third audio signal, and a fourth audio source producing a fourth audio signal, and said compression system compresses said first video signal, said second video signal, and said first, second, third and fourth audio signals to provide a first compressed digital signal including one of said video signals and two of said audio signals and a second compressed digital signal including the other of said video signals and the other two of said audio signals.

9. An audio/visual surveillance system as in claim 8 wherein one of said video cameras is located and directed to photograph a scene outside said vehicle and the other of said video cameras is located and directed to photograph a scene inside said vehicle.

10. An audio/visual surveillance system as in claim 8 wherein one of said audio sources captures audio inside said vehicle and another of said audio sources captures dispatcher communications.

11. An audio/visual surveillance system as in claim 10 wherein another one of said audio sources is located on a police officer.

12. An audio/visual surveillance system as in claim 1 wherein said compression system and tape recorder are designed to record at least eight continuous hours of continuous full-frame, full-motion video on a single tape.

13. An audio/visual surveillance system as in claim 1 wherein said compression system and tape recorder are designed to record at least eight continuous hours of two continuous full-frame, full-motion videos on a single tape.

14. An audio/visual surveillance system as in claim 1 wherein said compression system and tape recorder are designed to record at least eight continuous hours of a video signal at an equivalent resolution of 720×

480 lines of resolution at 24 frames per second or more on a single tape cartridge.

15. An audio/visual surveillance system for use in mobile vehicles such as police patrol cars, said system comprising:

a first video camera producing a first video signal;

a second video camera producing a second video signal;

a first audio source producing a first audio signal;

a second audio source producing a second audio signal;

an enclosure having a volume of three cubic feet or less, said enclosure enclosing;

an encoder responsive to said video and audio, said encoder providing a time synchronization signal and said encoder compressing said video signals and said audio signals sufficiently to permit recording of eight continuous hours of;

said first video signal at an equivalent resolution of 720×

480 lines of resolution at 24 frames per second or more, said second video signal at an equivalent resolution of 720×

480 lines of resolution or more and 24 frames per second or more;

said first audio signal;

said second audio signal; and

said synchronization signal, all on a single recording tape cartridge; and

a cartridge tape recorder for recording said signals.

16. An audio/visional surveillance system for use in mobile vehicles, such as patrol cars, said system comprising:

a first video camera producing a first video signal, said first video camera located and directed to capture scenes external of said vehicle;

a second video camera producing a second video signal, said second video camera located and directed to capture scenes internal of said vehicle;

a first audio source producing a first audio signal and located to capture audio originating inside said vehicle;

a second audio source producing a second audio signal and located to capture communications with a dispatcher; and

a recorder for recording said signals.

17. An audio/visual surveillance system as in claim 16 wherein said recorder comprises a cartridge type digital tape recorder.

18. An audio/visual surveillance system for use in patrol cars or other apparatus or application remote from a central command center, said system including a digital system for encoding of audio and video feeds comprising:

an MPEG encoder system capturing analog video and audio streams through audio and video input channels and converting them to multiple digital streams generated simultaneously, a first stream being buffered to hard disk, RAM, or other storage media and ready for wireless transport on-demand, and a second stream directed to a cartridge-type digital tape recorder;

a wireless transport system for communicating said first stream; and

a cartridge-type digital tape recorder for recording said second stream.

19. An audio/visual surveillance system as in claim 18 wherein said MPEG encoder system includes an MPEG-1 encoder for encoding said first stream and an MPEG-2 encoder for encoding said second stream.

20. An audio, visual, and other data surveillance system for use in patrol cars or other apparatus or application remote from a central command center, said system including direct-to-tape technology permitting a digital stream to be stored directly to tape in real time for archival.

21. A software product for use in an audio, video, and other data surveillance system for use in patrol cars or other apparatus or application remote from a central command center, said product including the functions of:

supervising the operation of MPEG, MJPEG, or other digital protocol encoding devices for digitizing and recording of analog streams;

controlling the operation of MPEG, MJPEG, or other digital protocol decoding devices for playback of digital data streams;

recording current date and time information; and

providing a unique private code for authentication of said recorded information.

22. A patrol car or other apparatus or application remote from a central command center audio, visual, and other digital data surveillance and management system having a dual digital stream, externally synchronized, system for recording audio, video, and other digital data, with a first digital stream being buffered to hard disk, RAM, or other digital storage medium and ready for wireless transport and a second digital stream stored on a removable digital medium.

23. A patrol car or other apparatus or application remote from a central command center audio, visual, and other data surveillance and management system providing embedding of geographical location and externally synchronized date and time information onto an MPEG, MJPEG, or other digital data protocol stream permitting synchronization of multiple unit recordings with simultaneous switching, and post production transfer of significant events to CDROM, DVD, digital tape, hard disk, or other digital storage medium for all-points news bulletins, interdepartmental notification, and training.

24. A patrol car or other apparatus or application remote from a central command center audio, visual, and other data surveillance and management system which can be controlled remotely and time synchronized with inputs from other sources.

25. A method of audio/visual surveillance comprising performing the following steps in real time:

producing a first video signal;

compressing said first video signal to produce a compressed digital signal; and

recording said compressed digital signal on a digital tape recorder.

26. A method as in claim 25 and further comprising providing said digital tape recorder in a vehicle.

27. A method as in claim 26 wherein said vehicle is a patrol car.

28. A method as in claim 27, and further comprising automatically assigning a file name to a recorded file, said file name configured to include car or unit ID, shift ID, date, and time.

29. A method as in claim 25 and further comprising:

producing a second video signal;

compressing said second video signal to produce a second compressed digital signal; and

recording said compressed digital signal on said digital tape recorder.

30. A method as in claim 29 wherein said tape recorder is a cartridge type tape recorder, and said method further comprises recording at least eight hours of said first and second compressed video signals on a single cartridge tape.

31. A method as in claim 25 wherein said compressing comprises MPEG-2 compression.

32. A system as in claim 25, and further comprising playing back said recording while displaying the date and time of said recording.

33. A method of processing MPEG-2 audio/visual data, said method comprising:

receiving an audio data signal and a visual data signal;

MPEG-2 encoding said audio and visual signals to produce an encoded signal;

packetizing said encoded signal into a plurality of independent data packets; and

writing said packets to a digital recording tape;

wherein said audio data signals and visual data signals are streamed through said encoding, packetizing, and writing processes in real time.

34. A method of collecting evidentiary information comprising:

inserting a digital tape cartridge in a tape recorder in a patrol car;

recording a substantially complete patrol car shift of visual information on said digital tape;

removing said digital tape cartridge from said tape recorder; and

transferring said digital tape to tape drive at a central tape processing or storage location.

35. A method as in claim 34 wherein said inserting and removing are performed by the police officer whose shift was recorded.

36. A method as in claim 35 wherein said evidentiary information further includes said substantially full shift of audio information.

37. A method of authenticating patrol car surveillance data, said method comprising:

providing audio/visual data originating from a patrol car;

utilizing an algorithm to provide a hash value;

recording said data on a digital tape together with said hash value; and

authenticating said data by using said hash value.

38. A method as in claim 37 wherein said authenticating comprises using said data to determine a second hash value and comparing it to said first hash value.

39. A method as in claim 37 wherein said step of utilizing comprises providing an MD5 hash value.

40. A method of data streaming and recording comprising performing the following processes in real time:

providing a data stream;

compressing said data stream;

packetizing said compressed data stream; and

recording said compressed and packetized data stream on a digital tape.

41. The method as in claim 40 wherein said step of recording comprises changing the speed of said recording to correspond to the rate of streaming of said data.

42. The method as in claim 40 wherein said packetizing includes adding a date header to said packets, said date header comprising information that enables said packet to be independently intelligible.

43. The method as in claim 40 wherein said data stream comprises audio/video data.

44. The method as in claim 43 wherein said compression comprises MPEG compression.

45. The method as in claim 44 wherein said compression comprises MPEG-2 compression.