Public encounter monitoring system

• US 9,699,401 B1
• Filed: 02/23/2016
• Issued: 07/04/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 03/20/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Jolanda Jones
• Original Assignee: Jolanda Jones
• Inventors: Jones, Jolanda
• Primary Examiner(s): Topgyal, Gelek W
• Application Number:
  US15/051,400
• Time in Patent Office: 497 Days
• Field of Search: 348143
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23418 involving operations for analysing video streams, e.g. detecting features or characteristics television picture signal circuitry for scene change detection H04N5/147; filtering for image enhancement G06T5/00; methods or arrangements for recognising scenes G06V20/00; arrangements characterised by components specially adapted for monitoring, identification or recognition of video in broadcast systems H04H60/59
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2353 specifically adapted to content descriptors, e.g. coding, compressing or processing of metadata
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25841 involving the geographical location of the client retrieval from the Internet by querying based on geographical locations G06F16/9537; arrangements for identifying locations of receiving stations in broadcast systems H04H60/51; location of the user terminal in data switching networks H04L67/52; services making use of the location of users or terminals in wireless networks H04W4/02; locating users or terminals in wireless networks H04W64/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2743 Video hosting of uploaded data from client
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/41407 embedded in a portable device, e.g. video client on a mobile phone, PDA, laptop constructional details of equipment or arrangements specially adapted for portable computer application G06F1/1626; arrangements specially adapted for mobile receivers in broadcast systems H04H20/57
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4223 Cameras H04N23/00 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/77 between a recording apparatus and a television camera

Abstract

A disclosed encounter monitoring method includes: receiving an alert from an encounter monitoring application executing on a first user'"'"'s personal communications device; responsive to said alert, determining a location of the first user'"'"'s personal communications device and proximity for personal communications devices of other users of the encounter monitoring application to the location; automatically sending to the personal communications devices of one or more users nearest to the location a request to approach the location and observe; collecting and storing a streamed recording from the first user'"'"'s personal communications device and any streamed recordings from the personal communications devices of users complying with said request; associating encounter information with each recording, said encounter information including at least date, time, location, and any identified participants; grouping together those recordings relating to a common encounter; processing grouped encounter recordings and associated encounter information to associate each encounter with any participants that are official representatives of a government or institution; compiling, from the encounter information, incident statistics for at least one of: an official representative, a department, a jurisdiction, or a state; and reporting said incident statistics in tangible form to the first user.

Claims

1. An encounter monitoring method that comprises:

receiving an alert from an encounter monitoring application executing on a first user'"'"'s personal communications device;

responsive to said alert, determining a location of the first user'"'"'s personal communications device and proximity for personal communications devices of other users of the encounter monitoring application to the location;

automatically sending to the personal communications devices of one or more users nearest to the location a request to approach the location and observe;

collecting and storing a streamed recording from the first user'"'"'s personal communications device and any streamed recordings from the personal communications devices of users complying with said request;

associating encounter information with each recording, said encounter information including at least date, time, location, and any identified participants;

grouping together those recordings relating to a common encounter;

processing grouped encounter recordings and associated encounter information to associate each encounter with any participants that are official representatives of a government or institution;

compiling, from the encounter information, incident statistics for at least one of;

an official representative, a department, a jurisdiction, or a state; and

reporting said incident statistics in tangible form to the first user.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a response to said request, the response indicating an responder'"'"'s intent to approach the location and observe; and

including the responder as an identified participant for the encounter.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said processing includes at least one of performing facial recognition and performing voice recognition.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said processing includes video processing to extract a car number, license plate, or badge number.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said processing includes at least one of:

correlating encounter information with a database of personnel assignments; and

filing a freedom of information act request for identities of said official representatives.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising analyzing the grouped recordings to determine an incident severity.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein said analyzing includes detecting whether the recordings indicate at least one of:

shouting, violent shock, and gunfire.

8. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

automatically providing a complaint link to a controlling agency for those encounters having an incident severity that exceeds a threshold.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the threshold depends in part on previous incident statistics for official representatives associated with the encounter.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein said storing includes archiving the recordings in a tamper-resistant fashion.

11. An encounter monitoring system that comprises:

an encounter monitoring application that runs on personal communications devices of users; and

one or more backend servers running backend software, the software causing the one or more backend servers to monitor encounters by;

receiving an alert from the encounter monitoring application running on one of the personal communications devices (“

first PCD”

);

responsive to said alert, determining a location of the first PCD and proximity of other ones of the personal communication devices (“

other PCDs”

) to the location;

automatically sending to the other PCDs nearest to the location a request to approach the location and observe;

collecting and storing a streamed recording from the first PCD and any streamed recordings from said other PCD'"'"'s nearest to the location whose users have complied with said request;

associating encounter information with each recording, said encounter information including at least date, time, location, and any identified participants;

grouping together those recordings relating to a common encounter;

processing grouped encounter recordings and associated encounter information to associate each encounter with any participants that are official representatives of a government or institution;

compiling, from the encounter information, incident statistics for at least one of;

an official representative, a department, a jurisdiction, or a state; and

reporting said incident statistics in tangible form.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the encounter monitoring application includes a panic feature that can be voice or touch activated by a user, said panic feature transmitting said alert to the one or more backend servers upon activation.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein as part of said encounter monitoring, the software further causes the one or more backend servers to receive one or more responses to said request, said response indicating whether a user intends to approach the location and observe.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein as part of said storing, the software causes the one or more backend servers to archive the recordings in a tamper-resistant fashion.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein as part of said processing, the software causes the one or more backend servers to perform at least one of:

facial recognition, voice recognition, extraction of a car number, license plate number, and badge number.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein as part of said processing, the software causes the one or more backend servers to correlate encounter information with a database of personnel assignments.

17. The system of claim 11, wherein the software further causes the one or more backend servers to analyze the grouped recordings to determine an incident severity and to automatically prepare a report for those encounters having an incident severity in excess of a predetermined threshold.

18. The system of claim 11, wherein the backend software accounts for population density of the location when determining proximity.

19. The system of claim 11, wherein the backend software determines proximity based in part on whether the location is within user-selected regions of interest.

20. An encounter monitoring method that comprises:

receiving an alert from an encounter monitoring application executing on a first user'"'"'s personal communications device;

responsive to said alert, determining a location of the first user'"'"'s personal communications device and proximity for personal communications devices of other users of the encounter monitoring application to the location;

automatically sending to the personal communications devices of one or more users nearest to the location a request to approach the location and observe;

collecting and storing a streamed recording from the first user'"'"'s personal communications device and any streamed recordings from the personal communications devices of users complying with said request;

associating encounter information with each recording, said encounter information including at least date, time, and location;

grouping together those recordings relating to a common encounter;

processing grouped encounter recordings and associated encounter information to identify participants;

compiling encounter statistics for at least one of the identified participants; and

reporting said incident statistics in tangible form.