System, device, and method for detecting and locating wanted vehicles

• US 9,147,119 B2
• Filed: 12/14/2012
• Issued: 09/29/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 12/14/2012
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Prakash, Gyan, Poornachandran, Rajesh, Dadu, Saurabh, Mishra, Ashok K., Chukka, Ravikiran
• Primary Examiner(s): Koziol, Stephen R
• Assistant Examiner(s): GILLIARD, DELOMIA L
• Application Number:
  US13/715,541
• Publication Number:
  US 20140169634A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,019 Days
• Field of Search: 382/105
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 18/22 Matching criteria, e.g. proximity measures
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/56 exterior to a vehicle by using sensors mounted on the vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/62 Text, e.g. of license plates, overlay texts or captions on TV images
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/63 Scene text, e.g. street names
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/90 Arrangement of cameras or camera modules, e.g. multiple cameras in TV studios or sports stadiums
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/44 Receiver circuitry for the reception of television signals according to analogue transmission standards H04N5/14 takes precedence

Abstract

A method, system, and device for analyzing images captured by a vehicle-based camera includes establishing a communication connection between a mobile communication device and an in-vehicle computing system. Scanning data may be retrieved from a scanning data server by the mobile communication device and, in some embodiments, forwarded to the in-vehicle computing system. A vehicle-base camera may be used to capture one or more images. An image analysis module of the in-vehicle computing system or mobile communication device may be used to analyze the captured image(s) for a match between the image(s) and the scanning data. In response to identifying a match, the mobile communication device may notify the scanning data server of the identified match.

Claims

1. An in-vehicle computing system for analyzing captured images, the in-vehicle computing system comprising:

a camera;

a main processor;

a non-critical task processor different from the main processor;

a short-distance communication circuitry;

a long-distance communication circuitry;

an image capturing module to capture at least one image using the camera;

a communication module to (i) establish a communication connection with a mobile communication device via the short-distance communication circuitry and (ii) receive scanning data from the mobile communication device, the scanning data to identify one or more reference vehicle license plates; and

an image analysis module to analyze, by the non-critical task processor, the at least one image as a function of the scanning data;

wherein the communication module is further to (i) determine whether the long-distance communication circuitry is available to the in-vehicle computing system to communicate with a security server, (ii) transmit a notification, using the long-distance communication circuitry, to the security server in response to an identification of a match between the scanning and the captured image and a determination that the long-distance communication circuitry is available, and (iii) transmit a notification, using the short-distance communication circuitry, to the mobile communication device in response to an identification of a match between the scanning data and the at least one image and a determination that the long-distance communication circuitry is unavailable.

2. The in-vehicle computing system of claim 1, wherein the communication module comprises at least one of:

a near field communication circuitry, a Bluetooth®

communication circuit, and a Wi-Fi®

communication circuit.

3. The in-vehicle computing system of claim 1, wherein the scanning data identifies one or more reference vehicle license plate numbers.

4. The in-vehicle computing system of claim 1, wherein the scanning data comprises one or more images of reference vehicle license plates.

5. The in-vehicle computing system of claim 4, wherein the image analysis module is to analyze the at least one image by comparing the at least one image to the one or more images of the reference vehicle license plates.

6. The in-vehicle computing system of claim 1, wherein the camera is at least one of:

a rearview back-up camera of the vehicle and a front-facing camera of the vehicle.

7. The in-vehicle computing system of claim 1, wherein:

the communication module is to receive alert message data from the mobile communication device; and

the image analysis module is to generate a local alert as a function of the alert message data.

8. The in-vehicle computing system of claim 7, further comprising:

at least one of;

a speaker and a display; and

the image analysis module is to generate a local alert on at least one of the speaker and display.

9. The in-vehicle computing system of claim 1, the image analysis module is to generate a local alert in response to the image analysis module identifying the match between the scanning data and the image.

10. The in-vehicle computing system of claim 1, wherein in response to the communication module establishing the communication with the mobile communication device:

the communication module is to receive a scanning service application from the mobile communication device to be subsequently installed on the in-vehicle computing system.

11. One or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media comprising a plurality of instructions stored thereon that, in response to execution by a computing device cause the computing device to:

establish a communication connection with a mobile communication device via a short-distance communication circuitry;

receive scanning data from the mobile communication device, the scanning data to identify one or more reference vehicle license plates;

capture, with a camera coupled the computing device, an image of a license plate of another vehicle;

analyze the captured image as a function of the scanning data;

determine whether a long-distance communication circuitry is available to the computing device to communicate with a security server;

transmit a notification of a match between the scanning data and the captured image, via the long-distance communication circuitry, to the security server in response to (i) an identification of a match between the scanning data and the captured image and (ii) a determination that the long-distance communication circuitry is available; and

transmit the notification, via the short-distance communication circuitry, to the mobile communication device in response to (i) an identification of a match between the scanning data and the captured image and (ii) a determination that the long-distance communication circuitry is unavailable.

12. The one or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media of claim 11, wherein to establish the communication connection comprises to establish at least one of:

a near field communication link, a Bluetooth®

communication link, and a Wi-Fi®

communication link.

13. The one or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media of claim 11, wherein to receive the scanning data comprises to receive scanning data to identify one or more reference vehicle license plate numbers.

14. The one or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media of claim 11, wherein to receive the scanning data comprises to receive one or more images of reference vehicle license plates.

15. The one or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media of claim 11, wherein the plurality of instructions further cause the computing device to:

receive alert message data from the mobile communication device; and

generate a local alert message as a function of the alert message data.

16. The one or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media of claim 15, wherein to generate a local alert message comprises to render the local alert message on a speaker or display of the vehicle.

17. The one or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media of claim 11, wherein the plurality of instructions further cause the computing device to generate a local alert message in response to identification of the match between the scanning data and the image.

18. The one or more non-transitory machine-readable storage media of claim 11, wherein the plurality of instructions further cause the computing device, in response to establishment of the communication connection with the mobile communication device to:

receive a scanning service application from the mobile communication device; and

install the scanning service application.

19. A method for analyzing captured images on an in-vehicle computing system of a vehicle, the method comprising:

establishing, by the in-vehicle computing system, a communication connection with a mobile communication device via a short-distance communication circuitry;

receiving, with the in-vehicle computing system, scanning data from the mobile communication device, the scanning data identifying one or more reference vehicle license plates;

capturing, with a camera of the vehicle, an image of a license plate of another vehicle;

analyzing, using a non-critical task processor of the in-vehicle computing system, the captured image as a function of the scanning data;

determining, by the in-vehicle computing system, whether a long-distance communication circuitry is available to the in-vehicle computing system to communication with a security server;

transmitting, from the in-vehicle computing system, a notification to the security server via the long-distance communication circuitry in response to (i) identifying a match between the scanning data and the captured image and (ii) determining that the long-distance communication circuitry is available; and

transmitting, from the in-vehicle computing system, a notification to the mobile communication device via the short-distance communication circuitry in response to (i) identifying a match between the scanning data and the captured image and (ii) determining that the long-distance communication circuitry is unavailable.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein receiving the scanning data comprises receiving scanning data identifying at least one of:

one or more reference vehicle license plate numbers and one or more images of reference vehicle license plates.

21. A mobile communication device for forwarding match data to a scanning data server, the mobile communication device comprising:

a communication module to (i) establish a short-range wireless communication connection with an in-vehicle computing system of a vehicle, (ii) receive the match data from the in-vehicle computing system over the short-range wireless communication connection in response to the in-vehicle computing system identifying a match between scanning data and an image captured by a camera of the vehicle, (iii) establish a long-range wireless communication connection with the scanning data server, and (iv) transmit the match data to the scanning data server over the long-range wireless communication connection.

22. The mobile communication device of claim 21, wherein the communication module comprises long-range communication circuitry and at least one of a near field communication circuitry, a Bluetooth®

communication circuit, and a Wi-Fi®

communication circuit; and

the communication module is to;

establish the short-range wireless communication connection using the at least one of a near field communication circuitry, a Bluetooth®

communication circuit, and a Wi-Fi®

communication circuit; and

establish the long-range wireless communication connection using the long-range communication circuitry.

23. The mobile communication device of claim 21, wherein the scanning data identifies at least one reference vehicle license plate number.

24. The mobile communication device of claim 21, wherein the scanning data comprises an image of at least one reference vehicle license plate.