Methods and apparatus for determining patterns of presence and ownership of mobile devices by integrating video surveillance with smartphone WiFi monitoring

• US 9,286,776 B1
• Filed: 03/18/2014
• Issued: 03/15/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/19/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Steven Gregory Morton
• Original Assignee: Steven Gregory Morton
• Inventors: Morton, Steven Gregory
• Primary Examiner(s): Zhao, Daquan
• Application Number:
  US14/217,797
• Time in Patent Office: 728 Days
• Field of Search: 348/156, 348/143, 348/152, 348/158, 348/14.01, 455/404.2, 455/412.1, 455/412.2, 455/437
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/1966 Wireless systems, other than telephone systems, used to communicate with a camera
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19665 Details related to the storage of video surveillance data television signal recording H04N5/76
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19669 Event triggers storage or change of storage policy
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19682 Graphic User Interface [GUI] presenting system data to the user, e.g. information on a screen helping a user interacting with an alarm system
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/22 responsive to presence or absence of persons
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/622 Layer-2 addresses, e.g. medium access control [MAC] addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/183 for receiving images from a single remote source
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/00 Services specially adapted for wireless communication networks; Facilities therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services

Abstract

A covert surveillance system for automatically determining the presence and patterns of presence of machines and especially, persons, whose identities may be unknown, sending messages with links for viewing live video and video recorded at the times of past presences, and assisting in the identification of those persons. Video is provided by one or more surveillance cameras and recording devices to assist in visually identifying the bearer of WiFi-equipped mobile devices. A computing device receives WiFi probes from mobile devices, especially smartphones, and forms and sends users messages with the identities of the computing device and mobile device, and links to a Cloud-based, video-aware portal for viewing relevant live and recorded video. The computing device processes WiFi information as it receives it, organizes and records WiFi probes in a manner that facilitates rapid searching, and determines which mobile device signatures, aka WiFi MAC addresses, satisfy criteria for sending messages.

Claims

1. A surveillance system that integrates receiving, storage and analysis of wireless probes from mobile device, with video surveillance, for the purpose of detecting the presence, and patterns of presence, of machines and especially, persons whose identities are known or unknown, and assisting in the identification of those machines and persons, comprising:

a) a processing device having a storage system, able to store and retrieve information, communicate via a network, receive, process and store wireless probes from mobile devices, prepare messages with (1) information from one or more wireless probes, each probe containing a MAC address identifying the mobile device that sent the probe, (2) a time code indicative of the time of transmission of each probe, (3) information identifying the processing device, (4) a URL of a video-aware portal, and (5) one or more links to video from one or more cameras that can be accessed via said video-aware portal, each link having a time code indicative of when a probe was transmitted, and send said messages to one or more recipients who have computing devices able to display web pages with text and images, and

b) one or more cameras, each able to view at least a portion of a area from which wireless probes are received by one or more processing device, and communicate via a network, and

c) the video-aware portal having a storage system able to store and retrieve information, and having the ability to execute program, and communicate via a network, where said video-aware portal is able to identify the processing device and obtain information from that processing device when a recipient clicks a link in a message from said processing device, and format and present a web page tailored for that processing device, select and present information relevant to that processing device, access one or more images from one or more cameras and present said image in said webpage, when a recipient of a message from the processing device clicks a link in the message.

2. A surveillance system as described in claim 1 where additionally, (a) cameras have video recording devices that can be accessed via said network, (b) each processing device has a program able to access and manipulate information received previously from probes from a given mobile device, format a message with one or more links, each link able to access video recorded at the time of transmission of a previously received probe, and (c) the video-aware portal receives a link containing a time code from a message when a recipient clicks a link in said message, and accesses video recorded by a video recording device at the time specified by that time code, and presents it for viewing.

3. A surveillance system as described in claim 2 where the processing device additionally stores information from wireless probes in a chronological order in a series of files in its storage system, each file only having information received over a fixed time duration.

4. A surveillance system as described in claim 2 where the processing device additionally stores information from wireless probes in files in its storage system, creating different files for information from probes with different MAC addresses, and a given file only has information from probes with the same MAC address.

5. A surveillance system as described in claim 4 where the processing device compares the MAC address of a wireless probe it received to a list of MAC addresses to be skipped, and performs additional processing on a probe only when its MAC address is not on the list.

6. A surveillance system as described in claim 5 where the processing device compares the MAC address of a wireless probe it receives received to a list of MAC addresses to be watched, and performs additional processing on the probe only when its MAC address is on the list.

7. A surveillance system as described in claim 6 where the processing device compares the MAC address of the latest probe it receives to a list of MAC addresses, and when the MAC address of the latest probe is on the list, forms a message with a list that includes information from the latest probe and a number of previous probes with the same MAC address as the latest probe, and for each probe in the list, includes a link that includes the URL of a video-aware portal, the identity of the processing device, and a time code representing the time of transmission of the probe, and the video-aware portal formats a web page that enables the recipient to choose to view live or recorded video, and based upon that choice, displays live video, or recorded video starting a period of time before the time of the probe.

8. A surveillance system as described in claim 7 where the processing device and one or more cameras are in the same device.

9. A surveillance system as described in claim 7 where the processing device, one or more cameras, and a video recording device for each camera, are in the same device.

10. A surveillance system as described in claim 7 where the processing device has an antenna with which it receives probes from mobile devices, each camera has a lens, and the region in which the antenna has the greatest sensitivity for receiving probes from mobile devices substantially matches the field of view of the lens of at least one camera.

11. A surveillance system as described in claim 7 where the wireless network is WiFi.

12. A surveillance system as described in claim 2 where the video-aware portal includes a web server.

13. A surveillance system as described in claim 1 where the video-aware portal has at least one configuration file for each processing device, selects a configuration file according to the information it receives about the identity of a processing device when a link in a message sent by the processing device is clicked, and uses information in that configuration file to select information to be presented.

14. A surveillance system as described in claim 13 includes a media server having a storage system, able to store information in, and retrieve information from, that storage system, execute programs, communicate via a network, and receive requests and time codes from a video-aware portal, accesses live video from one or more cameras, accesses recorded video from recording devices for those cameras based upon the time code, archives in its storage system recorded video viewed, and provides the archived video to the viewer for display in a window in a web page formatted by the video-aware portal, upon request from the video-aware portal.

15. A surveillance system as described in claim 14 where multiple different live video streams are available from each camera, with different resolutions, frame rates, data rates and/or amounts of compression;

each of these different live streams is recorded by a video recording device, the configuration file stored by the video-aware portal for each receiving device specifies how the media server is to access the streams, and the video-aware portal provides web pages that enable the recipient to choose among multiple web pages for viewing, the chosen web page being tailored by the video-aware portal for one of these different streams, and the video-aware portal requests live and recorded video streams from the media server based upon information provided in the configuration file and the choice of web page made by the recipient.