System and method for record identification

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12174842-B2
Application number	US-202217976923-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 31, 2022
Priority date	Oct 31, 2022
Publication date	Dec 24, 2024
Grant date	Dec 24, 2024

Abstract

There is provided computer-based record identification method, comprising, at a computing device, receiving one or more witness statements relating to an incident, each of the one or more witness statements having a respective first plurality of attributes, each attribute of the first plurality of attributes having a confidence value associated therewith, querying, using the one or more witness statements and the confidence value associated with each of the first plurality of attributes of the one or more witness statements, at least one database having a plurality of event occurrence records stored therein to identify at least one of the plurality of event occurrence records that matches the one or more witness statements, and outputting the at least one of the plurality of event occurrence records.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-based method for identification of relevant records within a database storing a plurality of event occurrence records produced by a surveillance system deployed at one or more monitored locations, the plurality of event occurrence records having metadata associated therewith and being indicative of at least one event having previously occurred at the one or more monitored locations and detected by the surveillance system, the method comprising:
at a computing device,
receiving one or more witness statements relating to an incident, each of the one or more witness statements having a respective first plurality of attributes descriptive of the incident, each attribute of the first plurality of attributes having associated therewith a confidence value;
querying the database using the respective first plurality of attributes of the one or more witness statements and the associated confidence value;
identifying, from the querying, at least one relevant event occurrence record of the plurality of event occurrence records that matches the one or more witness statements based on the metadata of the at least one relevant event occurrence record matching at least one of the respective first plurality of attributes of the one or more witness statements and the confidence value associated therewith; and
outputting the at least one relevant event occurrence record.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein querying the database comprises comparing the first plurality of attributes to a respective second plurality of attributes of each of the plurality of event occurrence records, and identifying the at least one relevant event occurrence record based on the comparing, each of the second plurality of attributes having the confidence value associated therewith.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising determining, based on the confidence value associated with each attribute of the first plurality of attributes and with each attribute of the second plurality of attributes, one or more statistical parameters of the first plurality of attributes and of the second plurality of attributes, wherein comparing the first plurality of attributes to the second plurality of attributes comprises computing one or more similarity metrics between the one or more statistical parameters of the first plurality of attributes and the one or more statistical parameters of the second plurality of attributes.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein determining the one or more statistical parameters comprises determining a probability distribution of the first plurality of attributes and of the second plurality of attributes.

5. The method of claim 3 , further comprising assigning a ranking to the one or more similarity metrics and identifying the at least one relevant event occurrence record based on the ranking.

6. The method of claim 5 , further comprising outputting the ranking.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising presenting a user interface on a display of the computing device, the user interface comprising a plurality of user interface elements indicative of the first plurality of attributes and of the confidence value associated with each attribute of the first plurality of attributes, wherein the one or more witness statements are received in response to interaction of a user input device with one or more of the plurality of user interface elements.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the plurality of user interface elements comprise a plurality of vehicle icons, further wherein receiving the one or more witness statements comprises receiving, in response to interaction of the user input device with one or more of the plurality of vehicle icons, information about at least one vehicle involved in the incident.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more witness statements have the first plurality of attributes comprising at least one of a time and a location at which the incident occurred.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the one or more witness statements have the first plurality of attributes further comprising at least one of a type of the incident, information about at least one vehicle involved in the incident, a direction of travel of the at least one vehicle, information about at least one person involved in the incident, and information about a physical environment within which the incident occurred.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the database is queried using at least one of the time at which the incident occurred, the location at which the incident occurred, and the direction travel of the at least one vehicle.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein receiving the one or more witness statements comprises receiving at least one of at least part of a license plate number, a state associated with the license plate number, a make, a type, a model, a model year, a colour, a condition, and at least one unique characteristic of at least one vehicle involved in the incident.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein receiving the one or more witness statements comprises receiving information about at least one of physical characteristics and a physical appearance of at least one person involved in the incident.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the database has stored therein at least one physical characteristic and at least one physical appearance associated with at least some of the plurality of event occurrence records.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein the metadata associated with each event occurrence record comprises at least one of an event occurrence record type, a time parameter, and a geographical parameter.

16. The method of claim 1 , wherein the database stores the plurality of event occurrence records comprising a plurality of images of vehicles and/or license plates captured by a plurality of cameras deployed at one or more monitored locations, each of the plurality of images having associated therewith the metadata comprising at least one of a vehicle license plate number, one or more vehicle characteristics, a time at which the image was captured, a location where the image was captured, and an identifier of a given one of the plurality of cameras that captured the image.

17. The method of claim 1 , wherein the database has stored therein the plurality of event occurrence records comprising video footage captured by one or more video cameras deployed at the one or more monitored locations encompassing a location at which the incident occurred.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein the video footage has the metadata associated therewith, the metadata indicative of occurrence, at the one or more monitored locations, of the at least one event recorded by the one or more video cameras.

19. The method of claim 1 , wherein the database has stored therein the plurality of event occurrence records comprising a plurality of images of registered persons of interest, each of the plurality of images having associated therewith the metadata comprising an identity of a registered person of interest and a location of the registered person of interest.

20. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more witness statements are received from a single witness.

21. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more witness statements are multiple witness statements received from multiple witnesses.

22. The method of claim 21 , further comprising combining the multiple witness statements into a combined witness statement, wherein the at least one relevant event occurrence record that

Assignees

• Genetec Inc

Inventors

• Blais-Morin Louis-Antoine
• Kodagoda Neesha
• Kimber Helen
• Séguin François
• Shahbazi Maryam

Classifications

• G06F3/04817

  using icons (graphical or visual programming using iconic symbols G06F8/34) · CPC title

• G06F16/787

  using geographical or spatial information, e.g. location · CPC title

• G06F16/285

  Clustering or classification · CPC title

• G06V20/52

  Surveillance or monitoring of activities, e.g. for recognising suspicious objects (recognising microscopic objects G06V20/69) · CPC title

• G06F16/24578 Primary

  using ranking · CPC title