AUTOMATED SITE SECURITY, MONITORING AND ACCESS CONTROL SYSTEM
First Claim
1. A system for monitoring and controlling access of vehicles as the vehicles seek access to and travel within a secure facility, the system comprising:
- one or more mobile monitoring stations distributed within the secure facility, each mobile monitoring station comprising;
a video imaging device for capturing images of indicia on one or more of the vehicles;
a location determination device for determining location coordinates of the mobile monitoring station; and
a video image processing system in communication with the video imaging device for operating on the images of the indicia to identify one or more characters therein;
one or more vehicle databases for storing characters associated with vehicles located within the secure facility and vehicles having prior authorization to enter one or more areas in the secure facility;
one or more processors in communication with one or more of the video imaging processing systems of the one or more mobile monitoring stations and in communication with the one or more vehicle databases, the one or more processors for receiving the characters identified by one or more of the video image processing systems and accessing the one or more vehicle databases to determine whether the identified characters correspond to characters stored in the one or more vehicle databases; and
a communication network for providing communication between the one or more processors, the one or more mobile monitoring units, and the one or more vehicle databases.
10 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
The invention provides for automatic monitoring and control of the ingress and egress of vehicles to and from various areas within a secure facility. A plurality of cameras, such as infrared-sensitive cameras, capture images of license plates and/or optically readable passive tags on vehicles traveling into and within the facility. A video image processing system detects and extracts a vehicle license plate number (LPN) or other such identifying characters within the captured image of the license plate. Based at least in part on the location of the camera that captured the LPN, the processor stores the LPN with a time-stamp in one or more vehicle databases, such as a site LPN database, an in-transit database, an employee database, an expected visitor database, a “blacklist” database, a loiterer database, a speeder database, a high-security database, a high-security parking lot database, a normal security parking lot database and a visitor parking lot database. Also., depending at least in part on the location of the camera that captured the LPN and whether the vehicle'"'"'s LPN is listed in one or more of the above-listed databases, the processor controls the actuation of various barriers or like devices to allow ingress to and egress from various restricted areas within the facility. The processor also preferably controls information posted on various terminals in the site, such as a Security Portal terminal and a parking lot pay booth terminal, and on variable messaging signs at various locations within the facility.
107 Citations
25 Claims
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1. A system for monitoring and controlling access of vehicles as the vehicles seek access to and travel within a secure facility, the system comprising:
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one or more mobile monitoring stations distributed within the secure facility, each mobile monitoring station comprising;
a video imaging device for capturing images of indicia on one or more of the vehicles;
a location determination device for determining location coordinates of the mobile monitoring station; and
a video image processing system in communication with the video imaging device for operating on the images of the indicia to identify one or more characters therein;
one or more vehicle databases for storing characters associated with vehicles located within the secure facility and vehicles having prior authorization to enter one or more areas in the secure facility;
one or more processors in communication with one or more of the video imaging processing systems of the one or more mobile monitoring stations and in communication with the one or more vehicle databases, the one or more processors for receiving the characters identified by one or more of the video image processing systems and accessing the one or more vehicle databases to determine whether the identified characters correspond to characters stored in the one or more vehicle databases; and
a communication network for providing communication between the one or more processors, the one or more mobile monitoring units, and the one or more vehicle databases. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. A method for monitoring and controlling access of vehicles as the vehicles seek access to or travel within a secure facility, the method comprising:
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(a) storing character information associated with vehicles traveling within the secure facility and vehicles having prior authorization to enter one or more areas within the secure facility;
(b) capturing one or more images of indicia on a vehicle traveling within the secure facility or seeking access to one of the areas of the secure facility;
(c) determining location coordinates of a location at which the one or more images of the vehicle are captured;
(d) operating on the one or more images captured in step (b) to determine character information there from; and
(e) comparing the character information determined in step (d) to the character information stored in step (a). - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
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25. A apparatus for monitoring and controlling access of vehicles as the vehicles seek access to or travel within a secure facility, the apparatus comprising:
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means for storing first character information associated with vehicles traveling within the secure facility and vehicles having prior authorization to enter one or more areas within the secure facility;
means for capturing one or more images of indicia on a vehicle traveling within the secure facility or seeking access to one of the areas of the secure facility;
means for determining location coordinates of a location at which the one or more images of the vehicle are captured;
means for operating on the one or more captured images to determine second character information there from; and
means for comparing the second character information to the first character information.
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Specification