Crowdsourced Surveillance Platform Using Mobile Devices
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current surveillance technologies, including satellites and unmanned vehicles, face challenges such as high costs, limited revisit rates, and susceptibility to weather conditions, making it difficult to obtain frequent and reliable images of target locations.
Innovation Solution
A crowdsourced surveillance platform that utilizes mobile communication devices with image sensors and network interfaces to capture and transmit images while in transit, leveraging existing travel paths to provide frequent and reliable image updates, and employs image correction models and power management techniques to ensure data quality and device operation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If satellites and unmanned vehicles are used for surveillance, then image capture capability is provided, but costs are high and revisit rates are limited
Solution Approach 1:
The patent repurposes mobile communication devices (smartphones, tablets) originally designed for personal communication into surveillance instruments. These devices already possess image sensors, GPS, and network connectivity, making them multi-functional tools that can simultaneously serve communication and surveillance purposes, thereby increasing revisit rates without requiring dedicated surveillance infrastructure
Solution Approach 2:
The system leverages the existing infrastructure of mobile devices that users already carry and operate. The devices use their own built-in sensors, processors, and communication modules to capture, process, and transmit surveillance data autonomously, eliminating the need for external power supplies, mounting systems, or dedicated transmission equipment
2Reliability
If satellites and unmanned vehicles are used for surveillance, then image capture is enabled, but weather conditions adversely affect performance
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses numerous inexpensive mobile devices distributed across the population rather than a few expensive, fragile satellite or drone systems. These consumer devices are ruggedized through software error correction and redundancy, allowing the system to tolerate individual device failures due to weather or other adverse conditions while maintaining overall surveillance reliability
3Productivity
If mobile communication devices capture images while in transit, then frequent image updates are achieved, but device power consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements periodic image capture at predetermined intervals during device transit rather than continuous capture. The processor determines optimal capture moments based on location metadata and transit status, activating the image sensor only when conditions are appropriate, thereby reducing overall power consumption while maintaining frequent update rates
Solution Approach 2:
The system dynamically adjusts image capture parameters such as resolution, frame rate, and sensor activation thresholds based on device motion state, location accuracy, and power availability. This allows the system to optimize the balance between update frequency and power consumption in real-time
4Measurement precision
If image correction models are applied to captured images, then data quality is improved, but processing time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system pre-calculates and stores correction models for various image sensor types and conditions before actual image capture. When an image is captured, the appropriate correction model is already available in memory, allowing rapid application without real-time computation delays. This preliminary preparation maintains high data quality while minimizing processing time
Data Source
AI summary
Systems, methods, and computer readable media for performing task assignment, completion, and management within a crowdsourced surveillance platform. A remote server may identify targets for image capture and may assign capture tasks to users based on travel plans of the user. Users may be assigned task to capture image of target locations lying along a travel path. The remote server may aggregate data related to the captured images and use it to update a map and log changes to the target location over time.