Identification and location system for personnel and vehicles

• US 7,224,308 B2
• Filed: 09/23/2003
• Issued: 05/29/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 05/06/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Flir Surveillance, Inc. (Teledyne Technologies Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Sensor Technologies & Systems, Incorporated (Citizens Financial Group Incorporated)
• Inventors: Butler, Walker, Chase, Charles
• Primary Examiner(s): Tarcza; Thomas H.
• Assistant Examiner(s): ALSOMIRI, ISAM A
• Application Number:
  US10/668,700
• Publication Number:
  US 20050248480A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,344 Days
• Field of Search: 342 43- 46, 342/57, 342/58, 342/357.01, 34235706-35709, 342/357.1, 342/357.12, 342/386, 342/450
• US Class Current: 342/45
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/04 Systems determining presence of a target based on relative movement of target G01S13/56
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/767 Responders; Transponders teaching or practice apparatus for gun-aiming or gun-laying using reflecting targets or active targets F41G3/26
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/781 Secondary Surveillance Radar [SSR] in general
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/86 Combinations of radar systems with non-radar systems, e.g. sonar, direction finder
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0027 of actual mobile position, i.e. position determined on mobile

Abstract

A surveillance system is provided for surveillance of objects within a secure area. A surveillance sensor transmits surveillance signals to all objects within the secure area, the reflections of which are received back by the surveillance sensor to determine the locations of objects, and communicates the determined locations to a pressing facility. Objects authorized to be in the secure area are equipped with an Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) unit that includes a GPS receiver and a data communication transmitter. In response to predetermined conditions, the IFF units broadcast their position and identification to the processing facility for correlation with locations defined by the reflection signals. The reflection signals from other objects are compared with a list of the locations of objects, such as terrain features and man-made facilities, that are known to be in the secure area If no broadcast information is received from an object and the location of that object determined by the reflection signal cannot be correlated with the known object list; than the object has no proper authorization to be within the secure area, and an alarm is generated.

Claims

1. A surveillance system, comprising:

a surveillance unit;

at least one Identification-Friend or Foe (IFF) unit coupled to at least one object; and

a processing facility;

said surveillance unit transmits surveillance signals to all objects within a surveillance area, and upon receipt of reflections of said transmitted signals determines locations of said objects relative to the location of said surveillance unit and communicates said determined locations to said processing facility;

said at least one IFF unit coupled to at last one object broadcasts repeatedly at predetermined times messages containing identification and location information of said object coupled to said IFF unit to said processing facility;

said processing facility compares said broadcast messages from said IFF units with said communications from said surveillance unit and performs computations including determination of all locations of all properly authorized objects within said surveillance area, identification of objects not authorized to be in said surveillance area, and generation of appropriate notice.

2. A surveillance system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said IFF unit coupled to said object includes a GPS receiver for determining parameters including time and the location of said object.

3. A surveillance system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said surveillance unit is collocated with a GPS receiver for determining parameters including time and the location of said surveillance unit, and is capable of communicating said time and location of said surveillance unit to said processing facility.

4. A surveillance system as claimed in claim 3, wherein said processing facility compares said GPS determined location of said surveillance unit with said GPS determined locations of said objects coupled to said IFF units to determine the relative positions of said objects with respect to said surveillance unit, and correlates each said relative position of each said object coupled to said IFF unit with the corresponding said reflection of said transmitted signal.

5. A surveillance system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said processing facility performs computations including categorization of all said reflections of said transmitted surveillance signals as:

returns from fixed position objects known and approved to be in said surveillance area, objects coupled to said IFF units and approved to be in said surveillance area, and objects not approved to be in said surveillance area;

for generating an alert when said objects not approved to be in said surveillance area are detected.

6. A method for identification interrogation, comprising the steps of:

a) transmitting at least one surveillance signal;

b) determining location of at least one object based on a reflection of said transmitted surveillance signal from said object;

c) broadcasting at least one message containing identification and position information from said at least one object; and

d) correlating said location information from said reflection signal with said broadcast information from said object to determine location of said object properly authorized to be within a surveillance area.