METHOD FOR OBTAINING VIDEO CONTENT FROM CAMERAS WHICH RELATES TO A USER OF A COMMUNICATION DEVICE, AND ASSOCIATED APPARATUS

• US 20140218544A1
• Filed: 03/08/2012
• Published: 08/07/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/10/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: RPX Corporation
• Original Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Senot, Christophe, Picault, Jrme
• Granted Patent: US 9,560,268 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/207.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2187 Live feed
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2343 involving reformatting operations of video signals for distribution or compliance with end-user requests or end-user device requirements video transcoding H04N19/40; media packet handling at the source H04L65/762
• 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 21/2747 Remote storage of video programs received via the downstream path, e.g. from the server
• 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 21/6587 Control parameters, e.g. trick play commands, viewpoint selection
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/64 Computer-aided capture of images, e.g. transfer from script file into camera, check of taken image quality, advice or proposal for image composition or decision on when to take image
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/021 Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences

Abstract

A method is dedicated to the obtaining of video recordings related to a user who has a communication device (EC) capable of connecting to a wireless communications network (RC) and whose position is determinable. This method comprises the following steps: (i) determining the position of the spot where the communication device (EC) is located, (ii) determining whether there is at least one camera (C1) capable of providing video recordings, of a part of an observation area that may include that determined spot, accessible via the communications network (RC), and (iii) in the event that such a camera (C1) is determined, transmitting to the communication device (EC), via the communications network (RC), at least a portion of a video recording made by that camera (C1) while the communication device (EC) is in its observation zone.

Claims

1. A method for obtaining video recordings related to a user who has a communication device capable of connecting to a wireless communications network and whose position can be determined, which method comprises the following:

determining the position of the spot where said communication device is located,

determining whether there is at least one camera capable of providing video recordings, a part of an observation area that might include said determined spot, which is accessible via said communications network,

in the event that such a camera is determined, determining whether the camera offers an observation area that includes said determined position, and if so

transmitting to said communication device, via said communications network, at least one portion of a video recording made by that camera during said communication device is in its observation area.

2. A method according to claim 1, wherein, said position determined is compared to known positions of cameras stored within storage means as matches for camera identifiers in order to determine whether there is a camera likely to be found within the vicinity of said communication device, then, if such a camera exists, it is determined whether that camera offers an observation area that includes said determined position, and if so, is carried out using the determined camera'"'"'s identifier.

3. A method according to claim 1, wherein, the trajectory of said communication device is also determined, and it is determined whether that trajectory will cross said observation area, given said determined position.

4. A method according to claim 1, wherein within which a piece of video content is generated within said communication device based on said transmitted video recording portion, and said generated video content is provided to a personal website of said user in view of making it available, potentially under chosen conditions.

5. A method according to claim 1, wherein said determining the position is automatically performed at periodic intervals.

6. A method according to claim 1, wherein said determining the position is performed upon the request of the user of said communication device.

7. A method according to claim 1, wherein at least one portion of the method is performed based on a set of instructions predefined by the user of said communication device.

8. A method according to claim 7, wherein said instruction data are chosen in a group comprising at least one determination period, a systematic storage of video recording portions, potentially after at least one predefined processing, a storage of video recording portions based on a predefined context, potentially after at least one predefined processing, and the automatic generating and providing of a piece of video content, potentially based on a predefined context.

9. A method according to claim 1, wherein a camera'"'"'s observation area is determined based on information data related to that camera and/or to its environment.

10. A method according to claim 9, wherein said information is chosen from a group comprising at least the camera'"'"'s aperture angle, the height at which the camera is affixed, the camera'"'"'s tilt with respect to a horizontal plane, the camera'"'"'s swivel with respect to a vertical plane and the configuration of the environment in which the camera is installed.

11. A method according to claim 1, wherein at least one processing effort of said video recording portion is performed based on instructions provided by said communication device.

12. A method according to claim 11, wherein at least one processing effort within said determined camera based on instructions transmitted by said communication device.

13. A method according to claim 6, wherein at least one processing effort is performed within said communication device.

14. A method according to claim 11, wherein said processing effort is chosen from a group comprising at least one face-blurring of people detected within the images of the video recording, manually and/or automatically selecting at least one sequence of a portion of a video recording when that portion lasts longer than a predefined threshold, deleting a portion of a video recording, and sharing a portion of a video recording with at least one third party.

15. A method according to claim 1, wherein in the presence of a camera transmitting its video recordings to centralized storage means, during, the video recording of the determined camera is searched for within these centralized storage means.

16. A method according to claim 1, wherein in the presence of a camera storing its video recordings, the video recording is searched for within that camera during.

17. A method according to claim 1, wherein the user of said communication device is notified when there is a video recording concerning him or her.

18. A method according to claim 1, wherein the transmission of a portion of a video recording is authorized when a predefined set of rule(s) is met.

19. A method according to claim 18, wherein each rule is chosen from a group comprising at least one instituted local rule that relates to the use of video recordings, an authorization to use a video recording in the absence of recognizable third parties or, if permission is provided by a recognizable third party, an authorization to use a video recording when the user of a communication device has a permission to use video recordings that concern him or her, and the providing, by the communication device, of an identifier previously provided when searching for information data related to a camera and/or to that camera'"'"'s environment.

20. An apparatus for obtaining video recordings made by cameras, for a communication device capable of connecting to a wireless communications network and whose position is determinable, said apparatus comprising search means operative to determine whether there is at least one camera capable of providing video recordings, a part of an observation area that may include a spot where said communication device is located, accessible via said communications network, and processing means operative, in the event that such a camera is determined, to request the transmission to said communication device, via said communications network, of at least a portion of a video recording made by said camera determined while said communication device is within its observation area.

21. An apparatus according to claim 20, additionally comprising generation means operative to generate a piece of video content based on a video recording portion transmitted upon request to said communication device, and control means operative to order said communication device to provide a generated piece of video content to a chosen website in view of making it available, potentially under chosen conditions.

22. A communication device capable of connecting to a wireless communications network, whose position is determinable, and comprises a device for obtaining video recordings according to claim 20.