Detecting and reporting a vehicle of interest

• US 9,363,357 B2
• Filed: 04/27/2015
• Issued: 06/07/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 04/25/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mirsani, LLC
• Original Assignee: Mirsani, LLC
• Inventors: Hansen, Eric Anthony
• Primary Examiner(s): MILLER, BRANDON J
• Application Number:
  US14/696,508
• Publication Number:
  US 20150312400A1
• Time in Patent Office: 407 Days
• Field of Search: 455/575.9
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2218/12 Classification; Matching
• 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 20/625 License plates
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/63 Scene text, e.g. street names
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 2201/07 Target detection
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/7243 with interactive means for internal management of messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/52 including functional features of a camera constructional features concerning the integration of cameras in portable phones H04M1/0264

Abstract

Discussed are various systems, computer-readable mediums, and methods for determining a vehicle is of interest, referred to as a targeted vehicle, based on an image capture of the car. A user may position a mobile computing device on the dash of his or her vehicle. While the user is driving, the mobile computing device may collect image frames of other vehicles and transmit them to a remote server. The remote server may identify a vehicle as a targeted vehicle and notify one or more users of the identification including details regarding why the vehicle is targeted.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer-readable medium embodying computer instructions executable by a mobile computing device, wherein the computer instructions, when executed by the mobile computing device, are configured to cause the mobile computing device to at least:

identify a vehicle license plate being within a frame of an image capture device of the mobile computing device, the vehicle license plate being within the frame at a time of identification;

collect at least one image captured via the image capture device and a plurality of sensor information in association with the at least one image, the plurality of sensor information captured from a plurality of sensors of the mobile computing device;

in response to identifying the vehicle license plate being within the frame, store, in a memory of the mobile computing device, data comprising at least one image captured at the time of identification, and at least a subset of the plurality of sensor information captured after the time of identification, wherein access to the data is restricted to prevent alteration of the data;

transmit a request to a remote server including the data, the request configured to cause the remote server to identify a license plate number in the at least one image and determine that the license plate number is represented in a list of a plurality of targeted license plates;

receive a notification from the remote server comprising a plurality of information, the notification indicating that the vehicle license plate represented in the least one at least one image corresponds to a targeted vehicle; and

render a user interface comprising the plurality of information on a mobile display of the mobile computing device, the plurality of information based at least in part on the plurality of sensor information.

2. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the mobile computing device is a cellular phone positioned on a dashboard of a police vehicle.

3. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the plurality of information comprises a description of an unlawful activity committed by an individual associated with the license plate number.

4. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 3, wherein the unlawful activity comprises at least one of abducting a child, stealing from a bank, having an outstanding arrest warrant, being accused of committing a crime, committing a traffic infraction, or being reported as a person committing suspicious activity.

5. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the at least one image comprises at least one of a photograph or a frame of a video.

6. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the user interface corresponds to an SMS application executed on a smartphone.

7. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the user interface comprises a map application executed on a smartphone and the map application comprises an indicator on a map of the map application, the indicator illustrating a location corresponding to the at least one image and a direction of travel associated with the of the image, location and direction of travel being based at least in part on the plurality of sensor information.

8. A system comprising:

a mobile computing device; and

at least one computing device in communication with the mobile computing device, the at least one computing device being configured to at least;

obtain a list of a plurality of targeted license plate numbers from a database;

obtain, from the mobile computing device, data comprising an image and a plurality of sensing information associated with the image, a subset of the plurality of sensing information associated with the image being collected by the mobile computing device prior to or subsequent to the image being captured by the mobile computing device, wherein the mobile computing device stores the data in a memory of the mobile computing device, and access to the memory is restricted to prevent alteration of the data;

identify a license plate number represented in the image;

determine that the license plate number is represented in the list of the plurality of targeted license plate numbers obtained from the database; and

initiate an action in response to determining that the license plate number is represented in the list of the plurality of targeted license plate numbers.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the at least one computing device is further configured to at least:

detect a region of the image that represents a license plate;

detect a plurality of license plate characters represented within the region of the image that represents the license plate; and

identify the plurality of license plate characters.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the at least one computing device is further configured to at least compare the plurality of license plate characters with the list of the plurality of targeted license plate numbers to determine that the license plate number is represented in the list of the plurality of targeted license plate numbers.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein approximate string matching is used to compare the plurality of license plate characters with the list of the plurality of targeted license plate numbers.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein the image comprises at least one of a photograph or a frame of a video.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein each of the plurality of targeted license plate numbers are associated with an alleged crime, an alleged traffic infraction, an arrest warrant, or a reported suspicious activity.

14. The system of claim 8, wherein the action comprises the at least one computing device being further configured to at least:

identify a plurality of locations individually corresponding to a plurality of law enforcement individuals;

identify a location of the image based at least in part on the plurality of sensing information associated with the image;

identify a subset of the plurality of law enforcement individuals based at least in part on a proximity of the ones of the plurality of locations individually corresponding to the plurality of law enforcement individuals to the location of the image; and

transmit a notification to the subset of the plurality of law enforcement individuals indicating the location of the image and a description of an unlawful activity committed by an individual associated with the license plate number.

15. The system of claim 8, wherein the at least one computing device is further configured to at least:

generate a first link corresponding to the image; and

generate a second link corresponding to a map comprising an indication of a location associated with the image, wherein the action comprises transmitting a notification including the first link and the second link.

16. A computer-implemented method comprising:

obtaining, via at least one computing device, a list of a plurality of targeted license plate numbers from a database;

detecting, via at least one computing device, a representation of a vehicle license plate being within an image captured by an image capture device of a mobile computing device;

storing in a data store, data comprising the image and a plurality of sensor information collected by the mobile computing device, a subset of the plurality of sensor information being collected prior to the representation of the vehicle license plate being detected, wherein access to the data store is restricted to prevent alteration of the data;

obtaining, via the at least one computing device, the image from the mobile computing device;

obtaining, via the at least one computing device, the subset of the plurality of sensor information collected before the representation of vehicle license plate was detected;

identifying, via the at least one computing device, a license plate number represented in the image;

determining, via the at least one computing device, that the license plate number is represented in the list of the plurality of targeted license plate numbers obtained from the database; and

initiating, via the at least one computing device, an action in response to determining that the license plate number is represented in the list of the plurality of targeted license plate numbers.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 16, further comprising:

detecting, via the at least one computing device, a region of the image that represents a license plate;

detecting, via the at least one computing device, a plurality of license plate characters represented within the region of the image that represents the license plate; and

identifying, via the at least one computing device, the plurality of license plate characters.

18. The computer-implemented method of claim 17, further comprising comparing, via the at least one computing device, the plurality of license plate characters with the list of the plurality of targeted license plate numbers to determine that the license plate number is represented in the list of the plurality of targeted license plate numbers.

19. The computer-implemented method of claim 18, wherein approximate string matching is used to compare the plurality of license plate characters with the list of the plurality of targeted license plate numbers.

20. The computer-implemented method of claim 16, wherein the image comprises a still image or a video image.