MOBILE DEVICE FOR TRACKING EVIDENCE

• US 20120318866A1
• Filed: 08/29/2012
• Published: 12/20/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 07/17/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Primary Marking Systems, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Primary Marking Systems, Inc.
• Inventors: McIntyre, Timothy J.
• Granted Patent: US 8,998,084 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 235/385
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/5866 using information manually generated, e.g. tags, keywords, comments, manually generated location and time information
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/18 Legal services

Abstract

A system for tagging, organizing and tracking evidence during the course of an investigation has one or more mobile communication devices that collect physical, photographic and interpretive evidence, such as materials from a crime scene, interviews with witnesses and an establishing shot of the crime scene or other areas or persons of interest for surveillance operations. The mobile devices can be in two-way communication with a central server computer which is in communication with other mobile devices. The mobile device users can enter descriptive information about the evidence into the mobile devices while other information pertaining to the evidence may be obtained from other sources and automatically provided to the users for their review and possible incorporation into the record. Each mobile device can store information in memory and communicate the information to the central server computer where it may then be made available to groups of mobile device users.

Claims

1. A mobile communication device for collecting and searching evidentiary materials from a crime scene during an investigation and managed by a central computer system, the evidentiary materials including physical evidence, photographic evidence, suspect evidence and interpretive evidence, comprising:

a camera module, said camera module taking a set of physical evidence pictures and a set of suspect pictures;

a plurality of input devices comprising a code scanner and an alphanumeric entry, said code scanner reading a plurality of machine readable media corresponding with the physical evidence and said alphanumeric entry receiving at least one of locations and descriptions of the physical evidence and at least one of names, addresses and vital statistics information for the suspect evidence;

a computer processor operatively communicating with said camera module and said input devices, wherein a plurality of evidence entries are entered into said computer processor, said evidence entries comprising said set of physical evidence pictures received from said camera module, said set of suspect pictures received from said camera module, a plurality of physical evidence codes received from at least one of said camera module and said input device, and said locations, descriptions, names and said vital statistics information received from said input device;

a memory in operative communication with said computer processor, wherein said evidence entries are stored in said memory with a first set of correlations between said physical evidence pictures, said descriptions and said physical evidence codes, a second set of correlations between said suspect pictures and said vital statistics information, a third set of correlations between said machine readable media and the physical evidence;

a communications module in networked communication with the central computer system and in local communication with said computer processor, said communications module uploading said evidence entries and said sets of correlations from said memory to the central computer system;

a display operatively communicating with said computer processor and producing a plurality of information screens, said information screens comprising a physical evidence screen and a suspects screen, wherein said physical evidence screen comprises a first picture field for displaying at least one of said physical evidence pictures and a plurality of physical evidence fields for displaying alphanumeric codes, locations, and descriptions from said evidence entries, wherein said suspects screen comprises a second picture field for displaying at least one of said suspect pictures and a plurality of suspect fields for displaying names, vital statistics and addresses from said evidence entries; and

a handheld device sized to be held in one hand, said handheld device containing said camera module, said input device, said computer processor, said memory, said communications module and said display.

2. The invention of claim 1, wherein said memory further comprises a case correlation between said first set of correlations, said second set of correlations and said third set of correlations.

3. The invention of claim 2, wherein said locations of the physical evidence having said case correlation is further comprised of internal information of a plurality of camera locations for a set of physical evidence pictures, wherein said physical evidence screen further comprises a selection option for an establishing shot picture from said set of physical evidence pictures, and wherein said computer processor uses one of said camera locations corresponding with said establishing shot relative to other camera locations corresponding with said set of physical evidence pictures and determines a plurality of location references between said establishing shot picture and said physical evidence pictures.

4. The invention of claim 1, wherein said alphanumeric entry comprises a search term for at least one of a physical evidence description, a suspect name and suspect vital statistics, said search term entered into a corresponding one of said physical evidence fields and said suspect fields, wherein said computer processor performs an internal search of said memory for said search term and obtains an internal search result, wherein said computer processor produces an external search request for said search term, wherein said communications module communicates said external search request to the central computer system and receives an external search result from the central computer system, and wherein said internal search result and said external search result for a plurality of potential matches are displayed on said physical information screen within said handheld device.

5. The invention of claim 4, wherein said internal search and said external search request are formed using a plurality of fields and are selected from the group of logical operations consisting of:

a less than range, an equality, a greater than range, a wildcard approximation, an excluding factor, a similarity weighting and any combination thereof.

6. The invention of claim 4, wherein said external search request is communicated to an investigatory tool outside the central computer system by at least one of the mobile communication device and the central computer system.

7. The invention of claim 1, wherein said camera module takes said physical evidence pictures and said suspect pictures proximate to the crime scene at a location remote from the central computer system and wherein said communications module uploads said physical evidence pictures and said suspect pictures to the central computer system while the handheld device is proximate to the crime scene.

8. The invention of claim 7, wherein a plurality of mobile communication devices remotely upload said evidence entries to the central computer system, and receive an authorization from the central computer system to access said evidence entries stored in a master record on the central computer system.

9. The invention of claim 1, wherein said input device further comprises at least one of a touch screen, a microphone and speech-to-text module, a keypad, a keyboard and a stylus, wherein said alphanumeric entry is produced by each input device, wherein said information screens further comprise at least one of a plurality of drop down menus, a plurality of tabs, and a plurality of selection buttons, wherein said code scanner is further comprised of a media reader, and wherein said machine readable media is comprised of a plurality of evidence tags with a plurality of unique machine readable code secured to the physical evidence.

10. The invention of claim 9, wherein at least one of said tabs comprises a remarks tab, said remarks tab comprising a free form field for interpretive evidence.

11. The invention of claim 1, further comprising an evidence container for holding the evidentiary materials with said machine readable media on a plurality of evidence tags, wherein said evidence tags are attached to the evidentiary materials, wherein said evidence container includes a container identification label comprising a listing of said machine readable media on said evidence tags in said evidence container and a case identifier, and wherein said memory comprises a container correlation and a case correlation for said evidence entries corresponding with the evidentiary materials in said evidence container.

12. An improved handheld mobile communication device having a computer processor and memory in communication with a central computer system, the handheld mobile communication device comprises a code scanner to read machine readable indicia on evidence tags that are attached to the evidentiary materials and further comprises a camera module to take a set of physical evidence pictures and a set of suspect pictures, wherein the central computer system maintains a master record of evidence entries, wherein the handheld mobile communication device communicates through a communications module over a networked communication with the central computer system while collecting and managing the evidence entries for evidentiary materials proximate to a crime scene that is remote from the central computer system, wherein the mobile communication device stores the evidence entries in the memory and uploads the evidence entries to the master record stored in the central computer system, the improvement comprising:

a display within the handheld mobile communication device operatively communicating with the computer processor to produce a suspects screen comprising a suspect picture field for displaying at least one of the suspect pictures and a plurality of suspect fields for displaying names, vital statistics and addresses from the evidence entries.

13. The invention of claim 12, wherein said display and the computer processor produce a physical evidence screen comprising a first picture field for displaying at least one of the physical evidence pictures and a plurality of physical evidence fields for displaying alphanumeric codes, locations, and descriptions from said evidence entries.

14. The invention of claim 13, further comprising an alphanumeric entry for a search term in at least one of a suspect name, suspect vital statistics, and a physical evidence description, said search term entered into a corresponding one of said suspect fields and said physical evidence fields, wherein the computer processor performs an internal search of the memory for said search term and obtains an internal search result, wherein the computer processor produces an external search request for said search term, wherein the communications module communicates said external search request to the central computer system and receives an external search result from the central computer system, and wherein said internal search result and said external search result for a plurality of potential matches are displayed on at least one of said suspect screen and said physical information screen.

15. The invention of claim 14, wherein said external search request is communicated to an investigatory tool outside the central computer system by at least one of the handheld mobile communication device and the central computer system.

16. The invention of claim 13, wherein said locations are further comprised of internal information of a plurality of camera locations for a set of physical evidence pictures, wherein said physical evidence screen further comprises a selection option for an establishing shot picture from said set of physical evidence pictures, and wherein said computer processor uses one of said camera locations corresponding with said establishing shot relative to other camera locations corresponding with said set of physical evidence pictures and determines a plurality of location references between said establishing shot picture and said physical evidence pictures.

17. A mobile communication device for collecting photographic information from locations that are remote from a central computer system, comprising:

a camera module, said camera module taking a set of photographs;

an input device comprising at least one of a remote control module and an alphanumeric entry, said remote control module receiving command instructions and said alphanumeric entry receiving a set of locations corresponding with said set of photographs;

a computer processor operatively communicating with said camera module and said input devices, wherein a plurality of evidence entries are entered into said computer processor, said evidence entries comprising said set of photographs received from said camera module and said set of locations received from said input device;

a memory in operative communication with said computer processor, wherein said evidence entries are stored in said memory with a set of correlations between said set of photographs and said set of locations;

a communications module in networked communication with the central computer system and in local communication with said computer processor, said communications module uploading said evidence entries and said set of correlations from said memory to the central computer system; and

a display screen comprising a first picture field for displaying at least one of said photographs and a location field for displaying at least one of said locations, wherein said display screen further comprises a selection option for an establishing shot picture from said set of physical evidence pictures, and wherein said computer processor uses a reference position corresponding with said establishing shot relative to other locations in said set of locations and determines a plurality of location references between said establishing shot picture and said other photographs in said set of photographs.

18. The invention of claim 17, wherein said camera is mounted on at least one of a handheld device, an unmanned vehicle, a manned vehicle, a fixed structure, and an animal harness.

19. The invention of claim 17 further comprising machine readable indicia on a plurality of evidence tags attached to physical evidence, wherein said input device further comprises a code scanner producing a reading of said machine readable indicia and communicating said reading to said computer processor, wherein said set of photographs further comprise a set of physical evidence pictures and suspect pictures, wherein said display screen further comprises a suspects screen comprising a suspect picture field for displaying at least one of said suspect pictures and a plurality of suspect fields for displaying names, vital statistics and addresses corresponding with said suspect pictures.

20. The invention of claim 19 further comprising an alphanumeric entry for a search term in at least one of a suspect name and suspect vital statistics, said search term entered into a corresponding one of said suspect fields, wherein said computer processor performs an internal search of said memory for said search term and obtains an internal search result, wherein said computer processor produces an external search request for said search term, wherein said communications module communicates said external search request to the central computer system and receives an external search result from the central computer system, and wherein said internal search result and said external search result for a plurality of potential matches are displayed on said display screen.