Automated surveillance system
First Claim
1. A surveillance device in which wide-angle data from fixed reference image collectors are used to map a panoramic vista of a full 360°
- , or part thereof, surrounding an observation point in the form of an electronic image of a virtual map.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An automated intelligent surveillance system comprises one or more fixed reference cameras to spatially map and observe a panoramic field of view, together with a movable narrow-field high resolution camera which is controlled in pan tilt & zoom, and a computing device. The computing device is capable of analysing the reference images received from anywhere within the panoramic field of view, and identifying the presence of specific types of object or specific behaviours of objects. The computing device uses the outcome of this analysis to direct the movable camera to the appropriate area of the spatial map to cause it to zoom in to gather close-up images of one or more of the selected objects or events of interest. These images are recorded synchronously with the related wide angle reference images, in a high speed random access store within the computing device. The parameters defining an object or event as being of interest may be pre-set, user selected, or adaptively learned by the computing device.
24 Citations
23 Claims
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1. A surveillance device in which wide-angle data from fixed reference image collectors are used to map a panoramic vista of a full 360°
- , or part thereof, surrounding an observation point in the form of an electronic image of a virtual map.
- View Dependent Claims (4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
- 2. A surveillance device in which a computing device intelligently analyses the contents of an electronic virtual map of an area to discriminate those parts of the image which represent objects or events of interest as indicated by their meeting certain pre-defined selection criteria.
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3. A surveillance device in which, in response to the receipt of image data which meets pre-defined selection criteria, a computing device directs a movable high resolution narrow field camera to the appropriate co-ordinates or to the appropriate degree of zoom or both to capture detailed images of selected objects or events.
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23. A method of undertaking surveillance of a given area comprising the following automated artificial-intelligent operations:
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a. systematically collecting sequential electronic reference images of a defined or surveyed space by means of a plurality of spatially fixed image collection devices; b. creating from the said collected images a mosaicked virtual map of the area of interest, and applying to this map a system of spatial co-ordinates; c. recording and storing all the said reference images in conjunction with related date and time data; d. analysing said reference images in real time, in accordance with pre-defined or adaptive decision rules, to identify “
events”
, “
events”
being occurrences of particular types of object exhibiting particular behaviour patterns;e. providing an alert at such time as an “
event’
is identified;f. automatically extracting, analysing and selecting relevant data from these images to identify and locate within the said space, by means of an appropriately defined co-ordinate system, all “
events”
;g. automatically collecting additional enhanced images of the identified locations and the events occurring thereat by means of a further, movable, camera; h. recording and storing these enhanced images and synchronizing them with a complete record of the original images collected, together with data on the time of occurrence and the location of the recording cameras; and i. indexing and providing rapid access to the stored synchronized images to permit ready retrieval of images either of specific identified events, or of occurrences at specific times, and means to create warranted true copies of these records for use in court.
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Specification