Method and system for anonymous video analytics processing

• US 9,667,919 B2
• Filed: 08/01/2013
• Issued: 05/30/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 08/02/2012
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: iWatchLife Inc.
• Original Assignee: iWatchLife Inc.
• Inventors: Black, Charles, Phillips, Jason, Laganiere, Robert, Blais, Pascal
• Primary Examiner(s): Perungavoor, Sath V
• Assistant Examiner(s): Xu, Xiaolan
• Application Number:
  US13/956,697
• Publication Number:
  US 20140036073A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,398 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/95 structured as a network, e.g. client-server architectures
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/52 Surveillance or monitoring of activities, e.g. for recognising suspicious objects recognising microscopic objects G06V20/69
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/6418 Hybrid transport
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/18 Closed-circuit television [CCTV] systems, i.e. systems in which the video signal is not broadcast

Abstract

A method includes receiving, at a peer node, statistical data based on video data and relating to the video data, but other than a video content and an image content of the video data. In particular, the peer node is other than within a trusted group of nodes trusted for accessing the video data. At the peer node, the statistical data is analyzed to identify predetermined patterns therein. Upon identifying a predetermined pattern, a signal is provided to a trusted processor relating to the identified pattern.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving at an untrusted peer node statistical data based on video data and relating to the video data but other than a video content and an image content of the video data, the untrusted peer node other than within a trusted group of nodes trusted for accessing the video data, and wherein the peer node does not receive the video data;

at the untrusted peer node, analyzing the statistical data to identify a predetermined pattern therein that is indicative of a potential occurrence of an event of interest within the video data; and

,

upon identifying the predetermined pattern, providing to a trusted processor a first signal relating to the identified pattern.

2. A method according to claim 1 comprising:

determining by a trusted system, based on the video data, the statistical data relating to the video data but other than a video content and an image content of the video data; and

,

providing the statistical data but not the video data from the trusted system to the untrusted peer node, the untrusted peer node within a network and other than within a trusted group of nodes trusted for accessing the video data.

3. A method according to claim 1 comprising:

receiving at a second other untrusted peer node second statistical data based on second video data and relating to the second video data but other than a video content and an image content of the second video data, the second other untrusted peer node other than within a second trusted group of nodes trusted for accessing the second video data, and wherein the second other untrusted peer node does not receive the second video data;

at the second other untrusted peer node, analyzing the second statistical data to identify a predetermined pattern therein that is indicative of a potential occurrence of an event of interest within the second video data; and

,

upon identifying the predetermined pattern, providing to the trusted processor a second signal relating to the identified pattern.

4. A method according to claim 1 wherein;

a plurality of video sources each provide statistical data to each of a plurality of untrusted peer nodes and wherein said video sources also provide video data to the trusted processor but not to any peer node of the plurality of untrusted peer nodes.

5. A method according to claim 3 wherein upon receiving one of the first signal and the second signal, the trusted processor processes a respective one of the first video data and the second video data relating to the identified pattern to determine an occurrence of a known event.

6. A method according to claim 5 comprising:

when the occurrence of the known event is determined, initiating a further action.

7. A method according to claim 1 wherein the statistical data is other than usable for determining the one of the video content and the image content of the video data.

8. A method comprising:

capturing video information at a transducer to provide video data;

providing the video data to a trusted server in communication with the transducer;

providing statistical data to an untrusted peer node, the statistical data based on the video data and relating to the video data but other than a video content and an image content of the video data, the untrusted peer node other than within a trusted group of nodes trusted for accessing the video data, and wherein the untrusted peer node does not receive the video data;

at the untrusted peer node, analyzing the statistical data to identify predetermined patterns therein;

upon identifying a predetermined pattern, providing a signal from the untrusted peer node to the trusted server relating to the identified pattern; and

,

using the signal relating to the identified pattern and provided from the untrusted peer node, processing the video data relating to the identified pattern by the trusted server to determine an occurrence identifiable by video analytics.

9. A method according to claim 8 wherein from the statistical data the untrusted peer node is unable to reformulate the video data in a visually representative form.

10. A method according to claim 8 wherein the untrusted peer node is one of a plurality of untrusted peer nodes and wherein statistical data provided to each of the plurality of untrusted peer nodes is same statistical data.

11. A method according to claim 8 wherein the untrusted peer node is one of a plurality of untrusted peer nodes and wherein statistical data provided to each of the plurality of untrusted peer nodes is different statistical data.

12. A method according to claim 8 wherein the statistical data is other than usable for determining the one of the video content and the image content of the video data.

13. A system comprising:

a plurality of video cameras coupled together via a wide area network;

at least a trusted server for receiving video data from the plurality of video cameras;

a plurality of untrusted peer nodes in communication with the wide area network and for receiving statistical data, the statistical data based on the video data and relating to the video data but other than a video content and an image content of the video data, the plurality of untrusted peer nodes other than within a trusted group of nodes trusted for accessing the video data; and

at least a trusted processor for determining the statistical data, for directing the statistical data but not the video data from each of the plurality of video cameras to peer nodes of the plurality of untrusted peer nodes, and for directing the video data from each of the plurality of video cameras to at least one of the at least a trusted server via the wide area network.

14. A system according to claim 13 comprising a signaling process in execution within each of the untrusted peer nodes for signaling the at least a trusted server in response to identifying within the statistical data a predetermined pattern.

15. A method comprising:

receiving video data at a trusted system from a source of video data;

applying a transformation to the video data by the trusted system, the transformation being one of a numerical transformation and a geometrical transformation for resulting in irreversibly transformed video data, wherein visual content of the video data is unintelligible by a human when the irreversibly transformed video data is displayed;

providing the irreversibly transformed video data from the trusted system to an untrusted peer system, and wherein the untrusted peer system does not receive the video data;

at the untrusted peer system, analyzing the irreversibly transformed video data to identify a predetermined pattern within the transformed video data that is indicative of a potential occurrence of an event of interest within the video data;

upon identifying the predetermined pattern within the transformed video data, providing a first signal relating to the identified predetermined pattern from the untrusted peer system to a trusted processor; and

using the trusted processor, analyzing the video data based on the first signal to identify the event of interest within the video data.

16. The method according to claim 15 wherein the transformation comprises an irreversible transformation to the video data.

17. The method according to claim 15 wherein the untrusted peer system is other than within a trusted group of systems trusted for accessing the video data.

18. The method according to claim 15 wherein the irreversibly transformed video data is other than usable for determining either one of video content and image content of the video data.