Blockchain-based system and method for preventing unauthorized deletion of surveillance video

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12373590-B2
Application number	US-202318356004-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 20, 2023
Priority date	Dec 30, 2022
Publication date	Jul 29, 2025
Grant date	Jul 29, 2025

Abstract

The present invention relates to a blockchain-based system and method for preventing unauthorized deletion of surveillance video, the system at least comprising: a plurality of camera components, for generating surveillance video; at least one video-recording node, for connecting to a blockchain network and randomly generating a key pair, splitting the video file received from the camera components into a plurality of video-file blocks and randomly sending them to participation nodes across the blockchain network for storage, and recording hash values of the stored video files and node information; and a blockchain network device, for updating the hash values of the video files uploaded by the video-recording nodes based on a smart contract. In the present invention, uploading and storing time for camera-videos is recorded by the smart contract as tamper-resistant time reference for law enforcement, protecting video data from malicious deletion at video-recording nodes without the need of redundant space.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A blockchain-based system for preventing unauthorized deletion of surveillance video, at least comprising:
a plurality of camera components, for generating the surveillance video as individual video files;
at least one video-recording node, for connecting to a blockchain network and randomly generating a key pair, splitting each of the video files received from the camera components into a plurality of video-file blocks and randomly sending the video-file blocks to participation nodes across the blockchain network for storage, and recording hash values of the stored video files and node information into a distributed hash table; and
a blockchain network device, for updating the hash values of the video files uploaded by the video-recording nodes based on a smart contract associated with the blockchain network.

2. The blockchain-based system of claim 1 , further comprising a video-accessing terminal, wherein
the video-accessing terminal queries the hash values of a designated video file among the video files by invoking a query function of the smart contract responsible for recording from the blockchain network, and downloads the designated video file from the relevant video-recording node according to records in the distributed hash table.

3. The blockchain-based system of claim 2 , wherein for intermediately storing the video file, the video-recording node calculates the hash values of the video file using a secure hash function, and uses a combination of the hash values as a digital fingerprint of the video file.

4. The blockchain-based system of claim 3 , wherein splitting each of the video files into a plurality of video-file blocks by the video-recording node includes:
splitting the video file into a plurality of video-file blocks according to a predetermined specification, and
calculating the hash values of the video-file blocks and generating a file directory for recording the hash values.

5. The blockchain-based system of claim 4 , wherein splitting each of the video files into a plurality of video-file blocks by the video-recording node also includes:
uploading the video-file blocks to the blockchain network, calculating a distance between the video-file blocks and an address of each connected participation node, and sending the video-file blocks to the participation nodes having the shortest distances for storage.

6. The blockchain-based system of claim 5 , wherein the video-recording node is further configured to:
record stored information associated with each of the video-file blocks;

update the distributed hash table; and
invoke a record function associated with the smart contract from the blockchain network and record operational information of the video-recording node.

7. The blockchain-based system of claim 6 , wherein the operational information of the video-recording node at least comprises:
an address of the video-recording node, a file-uploading time, the hash values of the video file, and the number of the split video-file blocks.

8. The blockchain-based system of claim 7 , wherein the video-recording nodes, the video-uploading terminal, the video-accessing terminal, and the video-deleting terminal are collectively referred to as participation nodes, and each work as one of the participation nodes in a blockchain.

9. The blockchain-based system of claim 8 , wherein the video-recording nodes, the video-uploading terminal, the video-accessing terminal, and the video-deleting terminal, each as a participation node, provide functions for storing data of video and images.

10. The blockchain-based system of claim 9 , wherein the video-recording nodes, the video-uploading terminal, the video-accessing terminal, and the video-deleting terminal are all equipped with memory with a capacity selected according to practical needs.

11. A blockchain-based method for preventing unauthorized deletion of surveillance video, comprising:
connecting to a blockchain network and randomly generating a key pair, splitting the surveillance video received as a video file from a camera component into a plurality of video-file blocks, randomly sending the video-file blocks to participation nodes in the blockchain network for storage, and recording hash values and node information associated with the stored video file into a distributed hash table; and
updating the hash values of the video file uploaded by the video-recording node according to a smart contract.

12. The blockchain-based method of claim 11 , further comprising:
at a video-accessing terminal, querying the hash values of the designated video file by invoking a query function of the smart contract responsible for recording from the blockchain network, and downloading the video file from the video-recording node according to records in the distributed hash table.

13. The blockchain-based method of claim 12 , further comprising:
splitting the video file into a plurality of video-file blocks according to a predetermined specification, and
calculating the hash values of the video-file blocks and generating a file directory for recording the hash values.

14. The blockchain-based method of claim 13 , wherein the method further comprises:
for intermediately storing the video file, calculating the hash values of the video file using a secure hash function, and uses a combination of the hash values as a digital fingerprint of the video file.

15. The blockchain-based method of claim 14 , wherein splitting each of the video files into a plurality of video-file blocks by the video-recording node also includes:
uploading the video-file blocks to the blockchain network, calculating a distance between the video-file blocks and an address of each connected participation node, and sending the video-file blocks to the participation nodes having the shortest distances for storage.

16. The blockchain-based method of claim 15 , wherein the method further comprises:
recording stored information associated with each of the video-file blocks;
updating the distributed hash table; and
invoking a record function associated with the smart contract from the blockchain network and recording operational information of the video-recording node.

17. The blockchain-based method of claim 16 , wherein the operational information of the video-recording node at least comprises:
an address of the video-recording node, a file-uploading time, the hash values of the video file, and the number of the split video-file blocks.

18. The blockchain-based method of claim 17 , wherein the video-recording nodes, the video-uploading terminal, the video-accessing terminal, and the video-deleting terminal are collectively referred to as participation nodes, and each work as one of the participation nodes in a blockchain.

19. The blockchain-based method of claim 18 , wherein the video-recording nodes, the video-uploading terminal, the video-accessing terminal, and the video-deleting terminal, each as a participation node, provide functions for storing data of video and images.

20. The blockchain-based method of claim 18 , wherein the video-recording nodes, the video-uploading terminal, the video-accessing terminal, and the video-deleting terminal are all equipped with memory with a capacity selected according to practical needs.

Assignees

• Univ Huazhong Science Tech

Inventors

• Dai Weiqi
• Liang Ziyi
• Zhao Kexuan
• Zou Deqing
• Jin Hai

Classifications

• H04N5/76

  Television signal recording · CPC title

• G06F21/64

  Protecting data integrity, e.g. using checksums, certificates or signatures · CPC title

• Y02D10/00

  Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management · CPC title

• H04L67/1097

  for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS] · CPC title

• G06F21/6218 Primary

  to a system of files or objects, e.g. local or distributed file system or database · CPC title