Indexing of audio/video data

• US 5,321,396 A
• Filed: 02/07/1991
• Issued: 06/14/1994
• Est. Priority Date: 02/07/1991
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Xerox Corporation (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Xerox Corporation (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Inventors: Lamming, Michael G., Newman, William M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Yusko, Donald J.
• Assistant Examiner(s): ZIMMERMAN, BRIAN A
• Application Number:
  US07/652,159
• Time in Patent Office: 1,223 Days
• Field of Search: 358/102, 358/108, 352/85, 352/89, 364/225.4, 364/225.5, 340/825.49, 340/825.36, 340/825.31, 340/825.34, 340/825.35, 340/707
• US Class Current: 340/8.1
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 1/00 Registering, indicating or recording the time of events or elapsed time, e.g. time-recorders for work people registering or indicating the working of machines or vehicles G07C3/00, G07C5/00
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/00 Individual registration on entry or exit
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/28 the pass enabling tracking or indicating presence
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19671 Addition of non-video data, i.e. metadata, to video stream
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19697 Arrangements wherein non-video detectors generate an alarm themselves
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 3/1083 Pager locating systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/18 Closed-circuit television [CCTV] systems, i.e. systems in which the video signal is not broadcast

Abstract

This invention relates to a system for monitoring the movements of people in an office or other environment. Each room to be monitored has within it a sensor responsive to signals transmitted by identifiers worn by the people whose movements are being tracked. The identifier signals give the identity of the person allocated that identifier. The sensors are themselves polled periodically by a computer to generate time-stamped records of who was within range of which sensor. When an event is to be recalled, other time-stamped audio or video records of what was said or done in each monitored room are scanned for that record which was being generated at the time of the event in question.

Claims

1. A system for providing for fast random access to a contiguous sequence of time-stamped data records of events in a specific physical environment, comprising:

a plurality of sensors, each monitoring a respective zone forming part of the physical environment, to detect the presence within respective ones of said zones of a person carrying a personal identifier in the form of a transmitter of signals to which said sensors are sensitive;

means for interrogating said sensors at time intervals to construct sensor activity records specifying which identifiers were detected by each sensor during each of said intervals;

means for processing the sensor activity records to produce time-stamped arrival/departure records specifying the period for which each person carrying an identifier is in a particular zone;

means for producing at least audio and/or video time-stamped records of events taking place in each of the zones;

means for specifying a search pattern incorporating parameters of a remembered event sought to be recalled or replayed, which parameters may include the time and/or date of the event, people involved, and/or location;

means for scanning through the said list at high speed using the search pattern to arrive at each matching record of an event in which a specified person was, or a specified combination of people were present concurrently, in a specified zone;

means for selecting one matching record and extracting from it the time-stamp information;

means for issuing a command to play back to the user the audio and/or video recording corresponding to this time-stamp information, and

means for presenting played back information to the user.

2. A system as claimed in claim 1, in which the environment is divided into several zones of which each zone has within it at least one sensor.

3. A system as claimed in claim 1, in which each identifier is in the form of an active badge adapted to transmit at intervals a signal to which the sensors are sensitive giving the identity of the person allocated the badge.

4. A system as claimed in claim 1, in which each identifier is adapted to transmit signals in the infra-red part of the spectrum, and in which each sensor is adapted to detect infra-red signals.