US 10,896,332 B2Granted

Image capture with privacy protection

OwnerMace Wolfinventor

Life of this patent

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Abstract

Surveillance systems process video streams obtained by a drone to either obscure or highlight objects in a surveillance area based on tags associated with the objects. A method of providing obscurant data includes receiving image data including an image of a target and receiving a preference setting corresponding to the target. Obscurant data of at least a portion of the image data corresponding to the target are determined using the received preference setting. A method of providing surveillance image data includes capturing image data including an image of a target, querying a database to receive a preference setting corresponding to the target, determining the obscurant data of the portion of the image data, and selectively modifying the received image data according to the determined obscurant data to provide the surveillance image data.

Claims16

Dependent claims

A surveillance system comprising:

a database storing a plurality of records each including an identifier and one or more preference settings describing desired modifications of a video stream;
and
one or more hardware computing devices in communication with the database and storing computer program instructions that, upon execution, cause the one or more hardware computing devices to:
receive a first set of preference settings input by a user;
store the first set of preference settings with a first identifier in a first record of the plurality of records, the first identifier derived from a first tag;
receive a surveillance video stream comprising a plurality of frames arranged in a sequence and captured, for a duration from a first time to a second time, by an imaging device of a drone, the surveillance video stream representing a surveillance area visible to the drone for the duration;
identify, in the surveillance video stream, surveillance data indicating that one or more objects present in the surveillance area for the duration each bear the first tag;
determine the first identifier from the surveillance data;
retrieve the first record from the database using the first identifier;
based on the first set of preference settings, obtain modification data pertaining to display of a first object of the one or more objects, the first object being associated with the user;
transform each frame of the plurality of frames using the modification data to produce a modified surveillance video stream in which the first object is displayed according to the preference settings;
and
send the modified surveillance video stream to a display device in communication with the one or more hardware computing devices.

10 more elements

A surveillance data processing system comprising one or more hardware computing devices storing computer program instructions that, upon execution, cause the one or more hardware computing devices to:

receive a video stream comprising image data captured at a first time by an imaging device of a drone, the image data representing a surveillance area visible to the drone at the first time;
determine, based at least in part on the image data, that a first tag and a second tag are present in the surveillance area at the first time, wherein the first tag is not a unique identifier of any specific object present in the surveillance area;
identify, based on information stored in memory of the one or more hardware computing devices, the first tag as a do-not-track tag;
determine that the second tag is associated with a first preference setting indicating a highlighting of associated targets;
identify a first target appearing in the image data, the first target representing a first object bearing the first tag;
identify, as a second target, a second object appearing in the image data and associated with the second tag;
identify a first portion of the image data that is associated with the first target and a second portion of the image data that is associated with the second target;
transform the image data using modification data to produce surveillance image data comprising an image of the surveillance area at the first time wherein the first object is obscured and visibility of the second object is increased;
and
send a modified surveillance video stream comprising the surveillance image data to a display device in communication with the one or more hardware computing devices;
wherein to transform the image data, the one or more hardware computing devices execute the computer program instructions to:
select obscurant data and a highlighting indicator as the modification data;
determine that the first portion of the image data and the second portion of the image data overlap at an overlapping portion;
determine that the first object is at a first location in the surveillance area at the first time, and the second object is at a second location in the surveillance area at the first time;
determine which of the first location and the second location is closer to the imaging device;
responsive to a determination that the first location is closer to the imaging device than the second location, apply the obscurant data to the first portion including the overlapping portion, and add the highlighting indicator to the second portion excluding the overlapping portion;
and
responsive to a determination that the second location is closer to the imaging device than the first location, apply the obscurant data to the first portion excluding the overlapping portion, and add the highlighting indicator to the second portion including the overlapping portion.

15 more elements

receive a video stream comprising image data captured at a first time by an imaging device of a drone, the image data representing a surveillance area visible to the drone at the first time;
determine, based at least in part on the image data, that a first tag is present in the surveillance area at the first time, wherein the first tag is not a unique identifier of any specific object present in the surveillance area;
identify a first target appearing in the image data, the first target representing a first object bearing the first tag;
identify a first portion of the image data that is associated with the first target transform the first portion of the image data using modification data associated with the first tag to produce surveillance image data;
and
send a modified surveillance video stream comprising the modified image data to a display device in communication with the one or more hardware computing devices;
wherein the computer program instructions, upon execution, further cause the one or more hardware computing devices to:
associate the image data with a grid comprising grid lines that represent geographic coordinates in the surveillance area and define a plurality of grid squares each representing a corresponding region of the surveillance area;
determine that a location of the first tag is represented in the image data located within a first grid square of the plurality of grid squares;
and
identify, as the first portion of the image data, the image data located within the first grid square.

8 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 15/948,927Filed 9 Apr 2018 · continuation
Priority: 19 Nov 2012
Published: US 2018/0232580 A116 Aug 2018
Granted: 19 Jan 2021
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification19 codes

G06V 20/13
Terrestrial scenes: satellite images
G06T 7/90
Image analysis: determination of colour characteristics
G06T 11/65
Creating or editing images; Combining images with text: on geographic maps
G06V 10/25
Image preprocessing: determination of region of interest [ROI] or a volume of interest [VOI]

Family

Application61/727,899Us provisional application · filed 19 Nov 2012
Application61/774,722Us provisional application · filed 8 Mar 2013
Application14/084,071Parent of this continuation-in-part · filed 19 Nov 2013
Application15/298,946Parent of this continuation · filed 20 Oct 2016
US 2018/0232580 A1Pre-grant publication · published 16 Aug 2018
US 9,940,525 B2Parent of this continuation
Application15/298,946Parent of this continuation-in-part
US 2014/0140575 A1Published application
US 2017/0300757 A1Published application
US 10,896,332 B2This patent

From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.