AUDIO ANALYSIS, STORAGE, AND ALERTING SYSTEM FOR SAFETY, SECURITY, AND BUSINESS PRODUCTIVITY

• US 20090002157A1
• Filed: 09/09/2008
• Published: 01/01/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 05/08/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SecureNet Solutions Group, LLC
• Original Assignee: KD Secure LLC
• Inventors: Hussain, Daniar, Donovan, John J.
• Granted Patent: US 7,999,847 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/540
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/18 Closed-circuit television [CCTV] systems, i.e. systems in which the video signal is not broadcast

Abstract

An audio surveillance, storage, and alerting system, including the following components: One or more audio sensory devices capture audio data having attribute data representing importance of the audio sensory devices. One or more audio analytics devices process the audio data to detect audio events. A network management module monitors network status of the audio sensory devices and generates network events reflective of the network status of all subsystems. A correlation engine correlates two or more events weighted by the attribute data of the device used to capture the data. Finally, an alerting engine generates one or more alerts and performs one or more actions based on the correlation performed by the correlation engine. This invention may be used to help fight crime and help ensure safety procedures are followed.

Claims

1. An audio surveillance, storage, and alerting system, comprising:

one or more audio sensory devices for capturing audio data having attribute data, the attribute data representing importance of the audio sensory devices;

one or more audio analytics devices adapted to process the audio data from one or more of the audio sensory devices and to detect audio events in the audio data;

a network management module for monitoring network status of the audio sensory devices, the network management module adapted to generate network events reflective of the network status of the audio sensory devices;

a correlation engine for correlating two or more primitive events, the primitive events being one or more audio events from the audio analytics devices weighted by the attribute data of the audio devices used to capture the audio data and network events from the network management module weighted by attribute data of device corresponding to the network event; and

an alerting engine for generating one or more alerts and performing one or more actions based on the correlation performed by the correlation engine.

2. The audio surveillance, storage, and alerting system of claim 1, further comprising:

a normalization engine for normalizing the primitive events from the audio analytics devices and the network management module.

3. The audio surveillance, storage, and alerting system of claim 2, wherein the correlation engine further comprises:

a privacy filter for filtering out primitive events normalized by the normalization engine based on a set of privacy rules.

4. The audio surveillance, storage, and alerting system of claim 2, wherein the correlation engine further comprises:

a business filter for filtering out primitive events normalized by the normalization engine based on a set of business rules.

5. The audio surveillance, storage, and alerting system of claim 1, wherein the correlation engine further comprises:

a compound event detection module for detecting compound events composed of two or more primitive events.

6. The audio surveillance, storage, and alerting system of claim 5, wherein the correlation engine further comprises:

an event correlation module for correlating the primitive events and the compound events across time.

7. The audio surveillance, storage, and alerting system of claim 5, wherein the correlation engine further comprises:

an event correlation module for correlating the primitive events and the compound events across space.

8. The audio surveillance, storage, and alerting system of claim 7, wherein the correlation engine further comprises:

a rules engine for evaluating one or more rules based on the correlation performed by the event correlation module.

9. The audio surveillance, storage, and alerting system of claim 1, further comprising:

a learning engine for generating one or more new rules based on the primitive events correlated by the correlation engine and the alerts generated by the alerting engine.

10. The audio surveillance, storage, and alerting system of claim 1, wherein the network management module further comprises:

a physical map module for constructing a physical map of the network including icons corresponding to physical locations of the audio sensory devices, the icons having concentric circles indicating an area of coverage of the audio sensory devices.

11. The audio surveillance, storage, and alerting system of claim 1, further comprising:

a hierarchy of two or more data storage devices for storing the audio data from the audio sensory devices, the hierarchy of data storage devices connected to the audio sensory devices via a network.

12. The audio surveillance, storage, and alerting system of claim 11, further comprising:

a hierarchical storage manager for managing storage and cascade of the audio data in the hierarchy of data storage devices based on the attribute data corresponding to the source of the audio data.

13. The audio surveillance, storage, and alerting system of claim 12, wherein the hierarchical storage manager queries a sources table database to extract attribute data about sensory devices used to capture data being cascaded.

14. The audio surveillance, storage, and alerting system of claim 11,

wherein the hierarchy of data storage devices includes at least a first-tier device and a second-tier device, the first-tier device having a higher data access performance and a lower storage capacity than the second-tier device.

15. The audio surveillance, storage, and alerting system of claim 12,

wherein the hierarchical storage manager cascades the audio data from the first-tier device to the second-tier device based at least on importance of the audio data.

16. The audio surveillance, storage, and alerting system of claim 12, wherein the hierarchical storage manager further comprises:

a rules engine for determining storage locations for segments of audio data based on a set of rules based on the importance of the audio data; and

a rules update module for updating the set of rules for segments of audio data based on historical access patterns.

17. The audio surveillance, storage, and alerting system of claim 15,

wherein the importance of the audio data is calculated based on attribute data of the sensory device used to capture the audio data, the events detected in the audio data, time period the audio data was recorded, and time since the audio data was last accessed.

18. The audio surveillance, storage, and alerting system of claim 17,

wherein the importance of the audio data is calculated as a weighted average of attributes of the audio data, and

wherein the attributes include resolution of the audio data, age of the sensory device used to capture the audio data, time since the sensory device was last maintained, location of the sensory device used to capture the audio data, and primitive events detected in the audio data.

19. The audio surveillance, storage, and alerting system of claim 11,

wherein the first-tier device is a disk array and the second-tier device is a tape array.

20. The audio surveillance, storage, and alerting system of claim 1, further comprising:

an audio tip module for receiving audio tips from one or more external sources via telephone or Internet, adapted to extract meta-data and attribute data from the audio tips and to generate tip events based on the extracted meta-data, the attribute data representing an importance of the audio tips.

21. A method of audio surveillance, storage, and alerting, comprising the steps of:

capturing audio data from one or more audio sensory devices having attribute data, the attribute data representing importance of the audio sensory devices;

processing the audio data from one or more of the audio sensory devices to detect audio events in the audio data;

monitoring network status of the audio sensory devices to generate network events reflective of the network status of the audio sensory devices;

correlating two or more primitive events, the primitive events being one or more audio events weighted by the attribute data of the audio devices used to capture the audio data and network events weighted by attribute data of device corresponding to the network event; and

performing one or more actions based on the correlation performed in the correlating step.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

filtering out primitive events based on a set of privacy rules.

23. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

filtering out primitive events based on a set of business rules.

24. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

detecting compound events composed of two or more primitive events.

25. The method of claim 24, further comprising:

correlating the primitive events and the compound events across time.

26. The method of claim 24, further comprising:

correlating the primitive events and the compound events across space.

27. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

evaluating one or more rules based on the correlation performed in the correlating step.

28. The method of claim 24, further comprising:

generating one or more new rules based on the correlated primitive events and the generated alerts.

29. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

displaying a physical map of the network including icons corresponding to physical locations of the audio sensory devices, the icons having concentric circles indicating an area of coverage of the audio sensory devices.

30. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

storing the audio data from the audio sensory devices in a hierarchy of two or more data storage devices, the hierarchy of data storage devices connected to the audio sensory devices via a network.

31. The method of claim 30, further comprising:

managing storage and cascade of the audio data in the hierarchy of data storage devices based on the attribute data corresponding to the source of the audio data.

32. The method of claim 30, further comprising:

determining storage locations for segments of audio data based on a set of rules based on the importance of the audio data; and

updating the set of rules for segments of audio data based on historical access patterns.

33. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

receiving audio tips from one or more external sources via telephone or Internet;

extracting meta-data and attribute data from the audio tips, the attribute data representing an importance of the audio tips; and

generating tip events based on the extracted meta-data.

34. An audio surveillance, storage, and alerting system, comprising:

one or more audio sensory devices;

one or more processors; and

one or more memories, operatively coupled to one or more of the processors, and storing program code, which when executed causes one or more of the processors to;

capture audio data from one or more of the audio sensory devices having attribute data, the attribute data representing importance of the audio sensory devices;

process the audio data from one or more of the audio sensory devices to detect audio events in the audio data;

monitor network status of the audio sensory devices to generate network events reflective of the network status of the audio sensory devices;

correlate two or more primitive events, the primitive events being one or more audio events weighted by the attribute data of the audio devices used to capture the audio data and network events weighted by attribute data of device corresponding to the network event; and

perform one or more actions based on the correlation performed in the correlating step.

35. The system of claim 34, further comprising program code to:

detect compound events composed of two or more primitive events.

36. The system of claim 34, further comprising program code to:

correlate the primitive events and the compound events across time.

37. The system of claim 34, further comprising program code to:

correlate the primitive events and the compound events across space.

38. The system of claim 34, further comprising program code to:

generate one or more new rules based on the correlated primitive events and the generated alerts.

39. The system of claim 34, further comprising:

a hierarchy of two or more data storage devices, the hierarchy of data storage devices connected to the audio sensory devices via a network,

wherein one or more of the memories store program code to;

store the audio data from the audio sensory devices in the hierarchy of data storage devices.

40. The system of claim 39, further comprising program code to:

manage storage and cascade of the audio data in the hierarchy of data storage devices based on the attribute data corresponding to the source of the audio data.

41. The system of claim 39, further comprising program code to:

determine storage locations for segments of audio data based on a set of rules based on the importance of the audio data; and

update the set of rules for segments of audio data based on historical access patterns.

42. The system of claim 34, further comprising program code to:

receive audio tips from one or more external sources via telephone or Internet;

extract meta-data and attribute data from the audio tips, the attribute data represents an importance of the audio tips; and

generate tip events based on the extracted meta-data.