Integrated traffic light violation citation generation and court date scheduling system

• US 6,188,329 B1
• Filed: 11/22/1999
• Issued: 02/13/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 11/23/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: American Traffic Solutions Incorporated (Verra Mobility Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Nestor, Inc.
• Inventors: Small, Steven I., Laird, Mark D., Tinnemeier, Michael T., Sybel, Randall T., Glier, Michael T., Johnson, Greg D., Coimbatore, Lalitha R., Hsieh, Steven S.
• Primary Examiner(s): POPE, DARYL C
• Application Number:
  US09/447,010
• Time in Patent Office: 449 Days
• Field of Search: 701/117, 707/2, 340/937, 340/933
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G07B 15/06 Arrangements for road pricing or congestion charging of vehicles or vehicle users, e.g. automatic toll systems
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0175 by photographing vehicles, e.g. when violating traffic rules
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/054 photographing overspeeding vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/07 Controlling traffic signals
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/08 according to detected number or speed of vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/164 Centralised systems, e.g. external to vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99932 Access augmentation or optimizing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99948 Application of database or data structure, e.g. distributed, multimedia, or image

Abstract

A system and method for integrating traffic light violation related vehicle information with court date scheduling information, which employs one or more digitized video recordings of alleged violations. The system provides end-to-end violation processing using the digitized video recordings of the event, and using vehicle database information, as may for example be provided from a department of motor vehicles (DMV) database. The system potentially also interfaces to a court date scheduling database, which includes indications of various available times at which hearings regarding traffic violations may be scheduled. A user interface may provide a display of one or more perspectives on the violation event, as well as access to the vehicle and court date scheduling database. An evaluator, for example a police officer, uses the interface to 1) view the recorded views of the event, 2) determine whether a citationable violation has occurred, 3) extract any necessary vehicle identification information from the recording, 4) obtain owner information regarding the vehicle from the vehicle database, based on the extracted vehicle identification, 5) generate a citation with regard to the violation, and 6) schedule a hearing date with regard to the violation in response to the available court dates in the court date database.

Claims

1. A traffic violation enforcement system, comprising:

a video based traffic violation recording unit, including at least one video camera, for recording a violation video of a traffic violation involving a violating vehicle;

a vehicle database for storing information related to respective ones of a plurality of vehicles, said information including indication of an owner of each of said plurality of vehicles, said information indexed by vehicle identifiers;

a vehicle owner input interface for receiving information related to an owner of said violating vehicle, said information obtained from said vehicle database, said information including an address of said owner, wherein said information related to an owner of said violating vehicle is obtained from said vehicle database using a vehicle identifier extracted from said violation video;

a court date database storing a schedule of times that are available to schedule court dates;

a court date input interface for receiving at least one court date obtained from said court date database; and

wherein said obtained date is included as a hearing date in a summons to be mailed to said address of said owner of said violating vehicle.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein said court date input interface includes at least one field for receiving, from a user, said court date times from said court date database.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein said court date input interface includes a communication link with court date database.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising an image download interface for downloading said violation video.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein said image download interface is to a removable storage device.

6. The system of claim 4, wherein said image download interface is to a display device.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein said image download interface includes a communication link to said display device, and wherein said display device is located in a courtroom.

8. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a citation generator, responsive to said traffic violation recording unit and said vehicle data base, for generating a citation related to said traffic violation, said citation including at least a portion of said violation video and at least some data related to said violating vehicle from said vehicle data base.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein said vehicle identifiers are vehicle license plate numbers.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein said vehicle database is further indexed by violation event numbers associated with each vehicle.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein said citation generator further comprises an input interface for receiving said data related to said violating vehicle from said vehicle database.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein said vehicle owner input interface further comprises at least one field for receiving, from a user, said data related to said violating vehicle from said vehicle database.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein said vehicle owner input interface further comprises a communication link to said vehicle database.

14. The system of claim 1, further comprising an authentication mechanism for authenticating that a user of said system is authorized.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein said authentication mechanism includes a logon procedure requiring a user to input a password.

16. The system of claim 1, further comprising a vehicle identifier input interface for receiving a license plate number of said violating vehicle.

17. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a disposition input interface for receiving an indication of whether the violation video is related to an offense for which a citation will be generated; and

a violation video purging utility, for deleting at least one file containing said violation video responsive to indication that said violation video is not related to an offense for which a citation will be generated.

18. A method of traffic violation enforcement, comprising:

recording a violation video of a traffic violation involving a violating vehicle;

requesting information related to an owner of said violating vehicle from a vehicle database using a vehicle identifier extracted from said violation video, said vehicle database storing information related to respective ones of a plurality of vehicles, said information including indication of an owner of each of said plurality of vehicles, said information indexed by vehicle identifiers;

receiving said information related to said owner of said violating vehicle, said information obtained from a vehicle database, said information including an address of said owner of said violating vehicle;

requesting at least one court date from a court date database storing a schedule of times that are available to schedule court dates;

receiving at least one court date from said court date database; and

generating a summons to be mailed to said address of said owner of said violating vehicle, wherein said at least one court date is included as a hearing date in said summons.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising receiving, from a user, said court date times received from said court date database.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein said receiving of said at least one court date from said court date database is over a communication link with said court date database.

21. The method of claim 18, further comprising downloading said violation video for display on a remote display device.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein said downloading said violation image is to a removable storage device.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein said downloading said violation video is performed over a communication link to said remote display device, and wherein said display device is located in a courtroom.

24. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

generating a citation, responsive to said violation video and said vehicle database, said generated citation related to said traffic violation, said citation including at least a portion of said violation video and at least some data related to said violating vehicle from said vehicle data base.

25. The method of claim 18, wherein said vehicle identifiers are vehicle license plate numbers.

26. The method of claim 18 wherein said vehicle database is further indexed by violation event numbers associated with each vehicle.

27. The method of claim 18, further comprising receiving, from a user, said data related to said violating vehicle from said vehicle database.

28. The method of claim 18, further comprising receiving, over a communication link to said vehicle database, said data related to said violating vehicle from said vehicle database.

29. The method of claim 18, further comprising authenticating that a user of said system is authorized.

30. The method of claim 29, wherein said authenticating includes receiving a password from said user.

31. The method of claim 18, further comprising receiving, as said vehicle identifier, a license plate number of said violating vehicle.

32. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

receiving an indication of whether the violation video is related to an offense for which a citation will be generated; and

deleting at least one file containing said violation video responsive to indication that said violation video is not related to an offense for which a citation will be generated.