Camera System Identifying Witnesses After Suspect Flees
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Solution Overview
Problem
Police officers face challenges in quickly identifying witnesses or objects of interest in crowded spaces after a suspect flees their view, leading to time-consuming inquiries and potential delays in apprehension.
Innovation Solution
A method and apparatus utilizing cameras and a server system to analyze the field of view, identify individuals or objects entering or exiting a specific region where a suspect left, and provide their identifying characteristics to officers, with the option to create virtual trip wires to determine direction of travel and add witnesses or objects to a Be On Look Out list.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of time
If police officers manually inquire with people nearby to identify witnesses, then they can obtain witness information, but it consumes critical time in apprehending the suspect
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the manual mechanical process of officers questioning people with an automated computer vision system using cameras and algorithms to detect and identify witnesses, eliminating time-consuming human-to-human interactions while maintaining information gathering capability
Solution Approach 2:
The system enables self-service by allowing the camera system to automatically perform witness identification and information extraction without requiring officer intervention in the questioning process, with the system independently analyzing video feeds and generating witness data
2Loss of information
If police officers ask people nearby about the suspect's direction, then they can gather information, but the process is time-consuming in crowded spaces
Solution Approach 1:
The system substitutes manual information gathering through questioning with automated computer vision analysis that tracks suspect movement and identifies witnesses, rapidly extracting directional information from video feeds without time-consuming human interactions
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary action by continuously analyzing video feeds and pre-identifying potential witnesses and their positions before the suspect fully disappears, allowing immediate information retrieval about suspect direction without waiting for manual inquiries
3Quantity of substance
If multiple people witnessed the suspect flee in crowded spaces, then there are more potential witnesses, but identifying them becomes more complex and time-consuming
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies segmentation by dividing the complex task of witness identification into distinct automated steps: detecting the suspect's disappearance point, analyzing individual person movements in the crowd, extracting identifying characteristics, and filtering relevant witnesses, making the process manageable despite large numbers of people
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the complex manual process of sifting through crowds to identify witnesses with automated computer vision algorithms that can simultaneously analyze multiple individuals, extract characteristics, and prioritize relevant witnesses based on their proximity and movement patterns
Data Source
AI summary
A method and apparatus for identifying individuals who may have witnessed a suspect is provided herein. During operation, a camera's field of view (FOV) is analyzed to determine a region within the FOV where the suspect left the FOV. Individuals entering or exiting the cameras FOV from the region will be identified, and information about their identity will be provided to an officer.