MOBILE DEVICE FOR TRACKING EVIDENCE
First Claim
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.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
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.
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Citations
20 Claims
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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:
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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. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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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. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A mobile communication device for collecting photographic information from locations that are remote from a central computer system, comprising:
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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. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20)
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Specification