MONITORING OBJECTS IN MOTION ALONG A STATIC ROUTE USING SENSORY DETECTION DEVICES

• US 20150235479A1
• Filed: 05/01/2015
• Published: 08/20/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 10/01/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Chavez, Salvador E., Delia, David J., Delia, Wayne M.
• Granted Patent: US 9,342,932 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 1/24 Race time-recorders
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/00 Alarms responsive to a single specified undesired or abnormal condition and not otherwise provided for
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/125 involving control of end-device applications over a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/188 Capturing isolated or intermittent images triggered by the occurrence of a predetermined event, e.g. an object reaching a predetermined position signal generation from motion picture films H04N5/253

Abstract

A system for monitoring a plurality of objects in motion (OIMs) along a static route using a plurality of sensory detection devices, the static route having a plurality of route portions, each route portion having an entering boundary and an exiting boundary, at least one OIM being a designated OIM and having a tag indicating the location of the designated OIM along the route, the system comprising a plurality of sensory detection devices corresponding to the plurality of route portions for monitoring activity in each of the plurality of route portions and for providing monitor output representing activity within each of the plurality of route portions, a plurality of data stores corresponding to each of the plurality of route portions for receiving and storing the monitor output for each of the plurality of route portions, and a plurality of location detectors communicative with the tag of the designated OIM for identifying the location of the designated OIM, each location detector providing output when the designated OIM is located within a route portion.

Claims

1. A method for monitoring objects in motion (OIMs), the method comprising:

assigning a first location determination tag to a first participant, the first location determination tag having a transmitter that transmits a location thereof;

receiving an indication identifying a designated OIM associated with the first participant along a static route of a sporting event using a system having a plurality of fixed sensory detection devices positioned along the static route based on the location transmitted by the location determination tag being within a designated area associated with a fixed sensory input devices of the plurality of fixed sensory input devices, the static route having a plurality of pre-defined route portions, each route portion having at least one sensory detection device for continuously monitoring OIM activity in that route portion;

generating a monitor output for each route portion representing all activity in that route portion, the monitor output comprising one or more video feeds;

continuously determining a real-time location of the designated OIM along the static route; and

assembling, chronologically, the section of the monitor output for each route portion for the OIM according to the period of time between each respective time of entry into and time of exit from each route portion.

2. The method as defined in claim 1 further comprising:

determining if the designated OIM is entering a route portion;

if the designated OIM is entering a route portion, generating a time stamp in representing the time the designated OIM entered the route portion;

storing the time stamp in, an identifier for the designated OIM and an identifier for the route portion;

determining if the designated OIM is exiting the route portion;

if the designated OIM is exiting the route portion, generating a time stamp out representing the time that the designated OIM exited the route portion; and

determining if there are any more route portions and, if there are any more route portions, returning to the determining if the designated OIM is entering a route portion step.

3. The method as defined in claim 2 further comprising determining if there are any other designated OIMs on the route and, if there are no more designated OIMs on the route, stopping the storing of the monitored output.

4. The method as defined in claim 3 further comprising:

retrieving the time stamps in and the time stamps out for each route portion from the designated OIM database; and

extracting from each route portion database the stored monitor output for the period of time between each respective time stamp in and time stamp out as compared against the time of storage of the monitor output.

5. The method as defined in claim 4 further comprising storing the extracted monitor outputs in a time sequential manner according to the time stamps in and time stamps out in a database for the designated OIM.

6. A system for monitoring a plurality of objects in motion (OIMs) along a static route using a plurality of sensory detection devices, the system comprising:

a first location determination tag assigned to a first participant, the first location determination tag having a transmitter that transmits a location thereof;

a plurality of fixed sensory detection devices positioned along the static route of a sporting event and corresponding to a plurality of pre-defined route portions for continuously monitoring activity in each of the plurality of route portions based on the location transmitted by the location determination tag being within a designated area associated with a fixed sensory input devices of the plurality of fixed sensory input devices and for providing monitor output representing all activity monitored within each of the plurality of route portions, the monitor output comprising a video feed;

a plurality of location detectors communicative with a tag physically coupled with the designated OIM associated with the first participant for identifying the location of the designated OIM, each location detector providing output when the designated OIM is located within a route portion; and

an application consolidation system connected to the plurality of storage units configured to assemble, chronologically, each section of the monitor output for each route portion for the OIM.

7. The system as defined in claim 6 further comprising a streaming unit connected to the plurality of sensory detection devices for receiving monitor output representing activity within each of the plurality of route portions and connected to the plurality of location detectors for identifying the location of the designated OIM, wherein the streaming unit streams the received monitor output from each of the plurality of route portions to a user when the designated OIM is located in that route portion.

8. The system as defined in claim 6 further comprising an application consolidation system connected to the plurality of storage units for extracting the monitor output for each of the plurality of route portions for the designated OIM from the plurality of storage units and for storing the monitor output for each of the plurality of route portions in time sequential order in a storage unit associated with the designated OIM.

9. A computer program product embodied in a computer readable medium for operating in a system comprising a processing unit, a memory, a bus, and input/output (I/O) interfaces, for implementing a method for monitoring objects in motion (OIMs), the method comprising:

assigning a first location determination tag to a first participant, the first location determination tag having a transmitter that transmits a location thereof;

receiving an indication identifying a designated OIM associated with the first participant along a static route of a sporting event using a system having a plurality of fixed sensory input devices positioned along the static route based on the location transmitted by the location determination tag being within a designated area associated with a fixed sensory input devices of the plurality of fixed sensory input devices, the static route having a set of pre-defined route portions, each route portion having at least one sensory input device for continuously monitoring activity in that route portion;

continuously determining a real-time location of the designated OIM along the static route;

generating a monitored output representing all activity monitored in each route portion using the at least one sensory input device for each route portion, the monitored output comprising a video feed; and

assembling, chronologically, the section of the monitor output for each route portion for the OIM according to the period of time between each respective time of entry into and time of exit from each route portion.

10. The computer program product as defined in claim 9 wherein the method further comprises:

determining if the designated OIM is entering a route portion;

if the designated OIM is entering a route portion, generating a time stamp in representing the time the designated OIM entered the route portion;

storing the time stamp in, an identifier for the designated OIM and an identifier for the route portion;

determining if the designated OIM is exiting the route portion;

if the designated OIM is exiting the route portion, generating a time stamp out representing the time that the designated OIM exited the route portion; and

determining if there are any more route portions and, if there are more route portions, returning to the determining if the designated OIM is entering a route portion.

11. The computer program product as defined in claim 10 wherein the method further comprises determining if there are any other designated OIMs on the route and, if there are no other designated OIMs on the route, stopping the storing of the monitored output.

12. The computer program product as defined in claim 11 wherein the method further comprises retrieving the time stamps in and the time stamps out for each route portion for the designated OIM and extracting from each route portion database the stored monitor output for the period of time between each respective time stamp in and time stamp out as compared against the time of storage of the monitor output.

13. The computer program product as defined in claim 12 wherein the method further comprises storing the extracted monitor outputs in a time sequential manner according to the time stamps in and time stamps out in a database for the designated OIM.

14. The computer program product as defined in claim 10 wherein the method further comprises streaming the monitored output from each route portion when the designated OIM is located in that route portion.