Unmanned aerial vehicle with biometric verification

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10579863-B2
Application number	US-201514971891-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 16, 2015
Priority date	Dec 16, 2015
Publication date	Mar 3, 2020
Grant date	Mar 3, 2020

Abstract

Disclosed herein are system, method, and computer program product embodiments for locating, identifying, and tracking a known criminal, fugitive, missing person, and/or any other person of interest. An embodiment operates by deploying an unmanned aerial vehicle, determining the mode of operation of the UAV, operating the UAV in accordance with the mode of operation of the UAV, determining whether a subject has been detected, capturing a first voice sample associated with the subject, authenticating the identity of the subject, and transmitting the GPS location of the unmanned aerial vehicle to a computing device.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An unmanned aerial vehicle, comprising:
a global positioning system receiver configured to determine a first global position of the unmanned aerial vehicle;
a directional control system configured to move the unmanned aerial vehicle;
an imaging device;
a biometric sensing device; and
a processor in communication with the global positioning receiver and the biometric sensing device, wherein the processor is configured to:
capture a first piece of biometric data associated with a monitored subject using the biometric sensing device;
determine whether the first piece of biometric data meets a quality requirement;
in response to the first piece of biometric data not meeting the quality requirement, reposition, using the directional control system, the unmanned aerial vehicle;
responsive to repositioning the unmanned aerial vehicle, capture a second piece of biometric data associated with the monitored subject using the biometric sensing device;
transmit the second piece of biometric data to a computing device;
determine an identity of the monitored subject based on the second piece of biometric data;
in response to determining the identity of the monitored subject:
estimate a second global position of the monitored subject based, at least in part, on the first global position of the unmanned aerial vehicle and an additional data point associated with a characteristic of the imaging device;
continuously update the estimated second global position of the monitored subject; and
continuously transmit the updated second global position to the computing device.

2. The unmanned aerial vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the biometric sensing device comprises at least one of a camera or a microphone.

3. The unmanned aerial vehicle of claim 2 , wherein the first piece of biometric data and the second piece of biometric data includes at least one of a voice sample captured by the microphone and a facial image captured by the camera.

4. The unmanned aerial vehicle of claim 3 , wherein determining the identity comprises the camera capturing at least one of thermos-graphic images, infrared images, night-vision images, and thermal images.

5. The unmanned aerial vehicle of claim 4 , wherein the camera further automatically magnifies captured images of the monitored subject for identifying the monitored subject.

6. The unmanned aerial vehicle of claim 2 , wherein the processor is further configured to control the unmanned aerial vehicle to fly according to a pre-programmed auto-pilot path, the pre-programmed auto-pilot path including geographic obstacles.

7. The unmanned aerial vehicle of claim 6 , wherein the processor is further configured to allow at least one of manual operation of the unmanned aerial vehicle and modification of the pre-programmed auto-pilot path during a flying of the unmanned aerial vehicle according to the pre-programmed auto-pilot path.

8. The unmanned aerial vehicle of claim 2 , wherein the processor is further configured to determine movements of the monitored subject based on at least one of a camera angle, a camera direction, a camera magnification, a measured voice signal strength, triangulated coordinates based on a position of the unmanned aerial vehicle, geographic features of a surrounding area, digital maps containing an estimated global position of the monitored subject and a current global position of the unmanned aerial vehicle, and sonar pulses.

9. The unmanned aerial vehicle of claim 1 , wherein determining the identity of the monitored subject is based on the analyzing the first piece of biometric data and the second piece of biometric data.

10. The unmanned aerial vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to:
determine whether the monitored subject is moving; and
track movements of the monitored subject continuously or at predetermined intervals.

11. The unmanned aerial vehicle of claim 10 , wherein the second global position is at least one of an estimated global position of the monitored subject and a current global position of the unmanned aerial vehicle.

12. The unmanned aerial vehicle of claim 11 , wherein the processor is further configured to transmit, to the computing device, an updated global position estimate of the monitored subject based on the tracked movements of the monitored subject.

13. The unmanned aerial vehicle of claim 11 , wherein the processor is further configured to transmit, to the computing device, an updated current global position of the unmanned aerial vehicle based on the tracked movements of the monitored subject.

14. The unmanned aerial vehicle of claim 1 , further comprising a noise cancellation system, wherein the noise cancellation system at least attenuates noise generated by the unmanned aerial vehicle.

15. An unmanned aerial vehicle, comprising:
a global positioning system receiver configured to determine a first global position of the unmanned aerial vehicle;
a directional control system configured to move the unmanned aerial vehicle;
an imaging device; and
a processor in communication with the global positioning receiver and the imaging device, wherein the processor is configured to:
capture a first piece of data using the imaging device;
determine whether the first piece of data meets a quality requirement;
in response to the first piece of data not meeting the quality requirement, reposition using the directional control system, the unmanned aerial vehicle;
responsive to repositioning the unmanned aerial vehicle, capture a second piece of data using the imaging device;
transmit the second piece of data to a computing device;
determine an identity of the monitored subject based on the second piece of biometric data;
in response to determining the identity of the monitored subject:
estimate a second global position of the monitored subject based, at least in part, on the first global position of the unmanned aerial vehicle; and
continuously update the estimated second global position of the monitored subject; and
continuously transmit the updated second global position to the computing device.

16. The unmanned aerial vehicle of claim 15 , further comprising a microphone, wherein at least one of the first piece of data and the second piece of data contains a voice sample.

17. The unmanned aerial vehicle of claim 15 , wherein determining the identity of the monitored subject is based on the analyzing the first piece of biometric data and the second piece of biometric data.

18. A method for determining a position of a monitored subject, the method comprising:
capturing a first piece of biometric data associated with the monitored subject;
determining whether the first piece of biometric data meets a quality requirement;
in response to the first piece of biometric data not meeting the quality requirement, repositioning the unmanned aerial vehicle;
responsive to repositioning the unmanned aerial vehicle, capturing a second piece of biometric data associated with the monitored subject;
transmitting the second piece of biometric data to a computing device;
determine an identity of the monitored subject based on the second piece of biometric data;
in response to determining the identity of the monitored subject:
estimating a second global position related to the monitored subject based, at least in part, on the first global position of the unmanned aerial vehicle;
continuously update the estimated second global position of the monitored subject; and
continuously transmitting the updated second global position

Assignees

• Global Telstarlink Corp

Inventors

• Volkart Mitch

Classifications

• G06V20/17

  taken from planes or by drones · CPC title

• G06V40/172

  Classification, e.g. identification · CPC title

• G10L17/00

  Speaker identification or verification techniques · CPC title

• G10L17/005

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06K9/00288 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic