Handheld photo enforcement systems and methods

• US 10,275,844 B2
• Filed: 05/10/2018
• Issued: 04/30/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 05/10/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: American Traffic Solutions Incorporated (Verra Mobility Corp.)
• Original Assignee: American Traffic Solutions Incorporated (Verra Mobility Corp.)
• Inventors: Young, Kenneth M., Smith, Scott C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Park, Edward
• Application Number:
  US15/976,284
• Publication Number:
  US 20180330460A1
• Time in Patent Office: 355 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/265 Personal security, identity or safety
• 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 30/10 Character recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/142 using hand-held instruments; Constructional details of the instruments
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/012 from other sources than vehicle or roadside beacons, e.g. mobile networks
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0175 by photographing vehicles, e.g. when violating traffic rules
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/04 using optical or ultrasonic detectors
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/054 photographing overspeeding vehicles

Abstract

A citation system may receive data, including an image, from a handheld photo enforcement unit and issue a citation based on the image with minimal officer input. The citation system manipulates photos to identify license plate numbers involved in an event. The citation system requests identification from a driver database, issues a citation, and forwards the citation according to information from the driver database.

Claims

1. A handheld photo enforcement unit, comprising:

a camera to capture image data from a traffic event;

a speed detector to determine a speed of a vehicle associated with the traffic event;

a communication interface of the handheld photo enforcement unit configured to communicate with a department of motor vehicles database and a citation server; and

a processor to;

receive authorization from a user to process the image data;

identify a license plate in the image data;

attempt to determine a license plate number from the image data, if the attempt succeeds store the license plate number, if the attempt fails present a request to the user to review the image data and input the license plate number;

retrieve vehicle and owner information from a database based on the license plate number;

receive an input from the user to accept or reject the traffic event for issuing a citation using a citation process based on the retrieved vehicle and owner information;

in response from the user to accept the traffic event, initiate the citation process to provide the citation server with the image data, the vehicle and owner information, the citation, and instructions to generate a citation document and an evidence package; and

in response to the input from the user to reject the traffic event, discard the image data, the vehicle information, and the owner information from the citation process.

2. The handheld photo enforcement unit of claim 1, wherein to determine a license plate number, the processor uses automatic license plate recognition.

3. The handheld photo enforcement unit of claim 1, wherein to determine a license plate number, the processor uses optical character recognition.

4. The handheld photo enforcement unit of claim 1, wherein the processor is further to process a distance between a first vehicle and a second vehicle received from the speed detection unit.

5. The handheld photo enforcement unit of claim 1, further comprising a second communication interface between the camera, the speed detector and the processor.

6. The handheld photo enforcement unit of claim 5, wherein the processor is remote from the camera and the speed detector.

7. The handheld photo enforcement unit of claim 1, wherein the processor receives user authorizations from an auxiliary personal electronic device.

8. The handheld photo enforcement unit of claim 1, further comprising an input device to receive user authorizations.

9. The handheld photo enforcement unit of claim 1, wherein the processor is further to crop the image data around a region of interest including a license plate.

10. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium that stores machine-readable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a traffic enforcement system, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:

receive event data from a handheld photo enforcement unit, wherein the event data includes traffic violation data and an image of at least a portion of a vehicle;

determine a license plate number associated with the vehicle;

present a request to a user of the handheld photo enforcement unit to review the image data if the license plate is unable to be determined;

retrieve vehicle and owner information associated with the license plate number from a department of motor vehicles database;

present the event data, license plate number, and vehicle and owner information on a client device to the user for citation approval to accept or reject an event for issuing a citation using a citation process;

in response to receiving input representative of acceptance from the user, provide a citation server with image data, the vehicle and owner information, and the traffic violation data and instructions to generate a citation and an evidence package; and

in response to receiving input representative of rejection from the user, discard the event data, license plate number, and vehicle and owner information from the citation process.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the event data from the handheld photo enforcement unit is received from a wireless signal.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, the operations further comprise:

present the event data to the user; and

receive authorization from the user to process event data.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, the operations further comprise:

present the image to the user if the license plate number cannot be determined; and

present a request that the user enter the license plate number manually.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the event data further includes distance between vehicles, location, and direction of travel.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the event data is presented to the user on a personal electronic device.

16. A traffic enforcement system, comprising:

a handheld photo enforcement unit comprising;

a camera to capture image data from a traffic event;

a light imaging detection and ranging sensor to measure the speed of a vehicle and the distance between vehicles;

a human machine interface to receive input from an a user indicating whether the captured image data should be processed for a citation; and

a transmitter to wirelessly transmit the captured image data and associated vehicle speed and distance between vehicles;

a citation server comprising;

a receiver to receive a wireless signal comprising the captured image data and associated vehicle speed and distance between vehicles from the handheld photo enforcement unit; and

a processor to;

extract the captured image data and associated vehicle speed and distance between vehicles;

determine a license plate number within the captured image data, wherein if the processor fails to determine a license plate number the processor transmits a first review request to a personal electronic device to review the image data;

retrieve vehicle and owner information associated with the license plate number from a department of motor vehicles database;

transmit a second review request to the personal electronic device to obtain approval to accept or reject the event for issuing a citation for the traffic event using a citation process; and

in response from the user to accept the traffic event, initiate the citation process to prepare a citation and an evidence package if an approval is obtained; and

in response to the input from the user to reject the traffic event, discard the image data, the vehicle and owner information from the citation process.

17. The traffic enforcement system of claim 16, where the processor of the citation server is further to forward the citation and the evidence package to a traffic violator based on the vehicle and owner information.

18. The traffic enforcement system of claim 16, further comprising a personal electronic device to display review requests and receive input from an user.