INVESTIGATION GENERATION IN AN OBSERVATION AND SURVEILLANCE SYSTEM

• US 20140267735A1
• Filed: 03/14/2014
• Published: 09/18/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: James Carey
• Original Assignee: James Carey
• Inventors: Carey, James
• Granted Patent: US 9,786,113 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/150
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/20 Point-of-sale [POS] network systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/52 Surveillance or monitoring of activities, e.g. for recognising suspicious objects recognising microscopic objects G06V20/69
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 9/026 for alarm, monitoring and auditing in vending machines or means for indication, e.g. when empty
• CPC Class Codes: G07G 3/003 Anti-theft control theft alarms G08B13/00
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19613 Recognition of a predetermined image pattern or behaviour pattern indicating theft or intrusion
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/181 for receiving images from a plurality of remote sources

Abstract

The present disclosure is directed to systems and methods for generating investigations of user behavior. In an example embodiment, the system includes a video camera configured to capture video of user activity, a video analytic module to perform real-time video processing of the captured video to generate non-video data from video, and a computer configured to receive the video and the non-video data from the video camera. The computer includes a video analytics module configured to analyze one of video and non-video data to identify occurrences of particular user behavior, and an investigation generation module configured to generate an investigation containing at least one video sequence of the particular user behavior. In some embodiments, the investigation is generated in near real time. The particular user behavior may be defined as an action, an inaction, a movement, a plurality of event occurrences, a temporal event and/or an externally-generated event.

Claims

1. A system to generate real-time investigations of user behavior comprising:

a video camera configured to capture video of user activity;

a video analytic module to perform real-time video processing of the captured video to generate non-video data from video; and

a computer configured to receive the video and the non-video data from the video camera, the computer including;

a video analytics module configured to analyze one of video and non-video data to identify occurrences of particular user behavior; and

an investigation generation module configured to generate an investigation containing at least one video sequence of the particular user behavior.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein the investigation is generated in near real time.

3. The system according to claim 1, wherein the investigation generation module assigns externally-generated data to the investigation.

4. The system according to claim 3, wherein the computer receives the externally-generated data from a POS system and the externally-generated data includes at least one POS transaction.

5. The system according to claim 1, wherein the investigation generation module is configured to simultaneously manage and populate a plurality of investigations.

6. The system according to claim 1, wherein the particular user behavior is defined as at least one of an action, an inaction, a movement, a plurality of event occurrences, a temporal event and an externally-generated event.

7. The system according to claim 1, wherein the particular user behavior is defined by a model of the particular user behavior and the video analytics module further includes:

a comparator module configured to compare the model of the particular user behavior and the non-video data.

8. A system to generate real-time investigations of user behavior comprising:

a video camera configured to capture video of user activity;

a video analytic module to perform real-time video processing of the captured video to generates non-video data from video; and

a computer configured to receive the video and the non-video data from the video camera, the computer including;

a video analytics module configured to analyze one of video and non-video data to identify occurrences of particular user behavior; and

an investigation generation module configured to assign a video sequence related to the identified occurrence of particular user behavior to an investigation.

9. The system according to claim 8, wherein the investigation is generated in near real time.

10. The system according to claim 8, wherein the investigation generation module assigns externally-generated data to the investigation.

11. The system according to claim 8, wherein the computer receives the externally-generated data from a POS system and the externally-generated data includes at least one POS transaction.

12. The system according to claim 8, wherein the investigation generation module is configured to simultaneously manage and populate a plurality of investigations.

13. The system according to claim 8, wherein the particular user behavior is defined as at least one of an action, an inaction, a movement, a plurality of event occurrences, a temporal event and an externally-generated event.

14. The system according to claim 8, wherein the particular user behavior is defined by a model of the particular user behavior and the video analytics module further includes:

a comparator module configured to compare the model of the particular user behavior and the non-video data.

15. A method of observing behavior comprising the steps of:

receiving video from a camera;

generating non-video data from the video wherein the non-video data includes non-video data related to user behavior;

identifying a particular user behavior;

identifying at least one occurrence of the particular user behavior within the video data; and

generating an investigation related to the particular user behavior.

16. The method according to claim 15, wherein the identifying step further includes the step of:

defining the particular user behavior as at least one of an action, an inaction, a movement, a plurality of event occurrences, a temporal event, and an externally-generated event.

17. Non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising software for monitoring a point of sale (POS) transaction, which software, when executed by a computer system, causes the computer system to perform operations comprising a method of:

receiving video from a camera

generating non-video data from the video

identifying a particular user behavior;

identifying an occurrence of the particular user behavior contained within the non-video data; and

generating an investigation related to the identified occurrence of the particular user behavior.

18. The medium as set forth in claim 17, wherein the investigation includes video of the occurrence of the particular user behavior contained within the non-video data.

19. The medium as set forth in claim 17, wherein the method further includes the steps of:

receiving externally-generated POS transaction data from a POS systems wherein the POS transaction data includes at a least one individual transaction;

identifying the particular user behavior temporally related to the at least one individual transaction; and

providing data related to the at least one individual transaction to the investigation.

20. The medium as set forth in claim 17, wherein the method further includes the step of:

defining the particular user behavior as at least one of an action, an inaction, a movement, a plurality of event occurrences, a temporal event and an externally-generated event.

21. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising software for monitoring user behavior, which software, when executed by a computer system, causes the computer system to perform operations comprising a method of:

receiving non-video data from a camera wherein the non-video data includes user behavioral information data,

identifying a particular user behavior;

identifying an occurrence of the particular user behavior within the non-video data;

identifying video of the identified occurance of the particular user behavior; and

generating an investigation related to the identified occurrence of the particular user behavior, the investigation including the identified video.

22. The medium as set forth in claim 21, wherein the method further includes the steps of:

defining the particular user behavior as at least one of an action, an inaction, a movement, a plurality of event occurrences and a temporal event and an externally-generated event.

23. The medium as set forth in claim 22, wherein the particular user behavior is defined by a model of the particular user behavior and the occurrence identification step further includes the step of comparing the model of the particular user behavior to the non-video data.

24. The medium as set forth in claim 21, wherein the method further includes the steps of:

receiving externally-generated data from a POS system, wherein the externally-generated data includes at least one POS transaction, and

identifying an occurrence of the particular user behavior within the non-video data related to the at least one POS transaction.

25. The medium as set forth in claim 21, wherein the investigation generation step further includes the step of:

providing data related to the at least one POS in the investigation.