Method and apparatus for secure transport and storage of surveillance video

• US 8,990,587 B1
• Filed: 03/26/2012
• Issued: 03/24/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 12/19/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: RPX Clearinghouse LLC (RPX Corporation)
• Original Assignee: RPX Clearinghouse LLC (RPX Corporation)
• Inventors: Meier, Rolf, Duxbury, Guy
• Primary Examiner(s): Barron, Jr., Gilberto
• Assistant Examiner(s): KANAAN, SIMON P
• Application Number:
  US13/429,483
• Time in Patent Office: 1,093 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 713/193
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/10 Protecting distributed programs or content, e.g. vending or licensing of copyrighted material protection in video systems or pay television H04N7/16 ; Digital rights management [DRM]
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/194 using image scanning and comparing systems
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19665 Details related to the storage of video surveillance data television signal recording H04N5/76
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44209 Monitoring of downstream path of the transmission network originating from a server, e.g. bandwidth variations of a wireless network arrangements for maintenance or administration in data switching networks involving bandwidth and capacity management H04L41/0896
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44245 Monitoring the upstream path of the transmission network, e.g. its availability, bandwidth
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/1675 Providing digital key or authorisation information for generation or regeneration of the scrambling sequence pseudo-random number generators in general G06F7/58
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17309 Transmission or handling of upstream communications

Abstract

Security information such as fixed or dynamically received camera location information, laser signature information, timestamp information, and network information, may be used to secure the transport and storage of surveillance video. Where the surveillance video is to be transported on a communication network, the round trip time from a video data storage server to the surveillance camera and back to the video data storage server may be monitored and periodically added to the secured video data. By checking to see whether the round trip time has changed, it may be possible to determine whether the video has been tampered with. The secured video data may also be transported over two or more paths on the network to two or more video data storage servers so that redundant copies may be stored at different primary locations. By comparing copies of the data, alteration of one of the copies may be detected.

Claims

1. A method of securing video information, comprising:

capturing the video information, comprising image information and security information, at a first location;

transmitting, over at least two distinct transmission paths, at least two copies of the captured video information to at least one other location;

storing, on at least two distinct storage devices, the at least two copies of the captured video information at the at least one other location; and

comparing the at least two stored copies of the captured video information to detect tampering of the captured video information.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein transmitting the at least two copies of the captured video information comprises multicasting the captured video information to the at least one other location.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein transmitting the at least two copies of the captured video information comprises transmitting the at least two copies of the captured video information to at least two distinct locations.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein comparing the at least two stored copies of the captured video information comprises comparing the at least two stored copies of the captured video information to determine whether the at least two stored copies of the captured video information are substantially the same.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the security information comprises time stamp information.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the captured video information comprises a locally generated video signature.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the image information comprises a locally generated video signature.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising locally generating the video signature using a light source.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein locally generating the video signature using the light source comprises using a light source emitting light not visible to a human eye to locally generate the video signature.

10. A method of securing data, comprising:

transmitting, over at least two distinct transmission paths, at least two copies of the data, comprising first data and security data, to at least one other location;

storing, on at least two distinct storage devices, the at least two copies of the data at the at least one other location; and

comparing the at least two stored copies of the data to detect tampering with the data during transmission of the data.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein transmitting the at least two copies of the data comprises multicasting the data to the at least one other location.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein transmitting the at least two copies of the data comprises transmitting the at least two copies of the data to at least two distinct locations.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein comparing the at least two copies of the data comprises comparing the at least two copies of the data to determine whether the at least two copies of the data are substantially the same.