US 5,491,511 AGranted

Multimedia capture and audit system for a video surveillance network

OwnerJames A. Odleinventor

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Abstract

A multimedia capture and audit system for a video surveillance network provides a tamper resistant and easily reviewable record of each transaction monitored. The system stores a digital record of each physical transaction registered by an electronic device in a standard predefined database format and stores a separate mixed composite video signal containing both a visual record and digital record of each transaction. The separately stored digital record and mixed composite video signal are correlated through the use of a unique system pointer. In the preferred embodiment, the unique system pointer identifies, at a minimum, the electronic device which registered the physical transaction and the date and time of the transaction. Storage of both a mixed composite video signal and digital record makes it difficult to tamper with the transaction record while maintaining a record of each transaction in a digital format provides operators the ability to compile and analyze data for audit purposes. Use of the unique system pointer makes it easy to identify and view the portion of the mixed composite video signal which corresponds to any digital record that may be flagged as of interest in an audit.

Claims10

Dependent claims

A multimedia capture and audit system comprising:

a video surveillance network that monitors a plurality of electronic devices, each of which produce digital transaction data representative of each of one or more physical transactions registered by the electronic device, by using one or more video cameras to generate video signals monitoring the electronic devices;
node means for capturing a plurality of occurrences of digital transaction data from each of the plurality of electronic devices;
first memory means for storing the video signals;
second memory means separate from the first memory means for storing the digital transaction data as part of a database;
control means, operably coupled to the node means and the first and second memory means, for storing, in response to an occurrence of any of the plurality of occurrences of digital transaction data, a mixed composite video signal on the first memory means using a unique system pointer and for storing each of the plurality of occurrences of the digital transaction data and the unique system pointer in the database on the second memory means, the mixed composite video signal comprising a video overlay signal representative of each of the occurrences of the digital transaction data and a video signal of a corresponding physical transaction occurring at the electronic device concurrent with each occurrence represented by the digital transaction data;
and
audit means operably coupled to the first and second memory means for auditing the physical transactions registered by the electronic devices by subsequently analyzing the database to identify a user-defined suspect occurrence of the digital transaction data and reviewing the video signal of the corresponding physical transaction stored on the first memory means by using the unique system pointer stored in the database on the second memory means to access a corresponding unique system pointer indicating the suspect occurrence of the digital transaction data stored in the mixed composite video signal stored on the first memory means.

4 more elements

A multimedia capture and audit method for a video surveillance network that monitors a plurality of electronic devices, each of which produce digital transaction data representative of each of one or more physical transactions registered by the electronic device, by using one or more video cameras to generate video signals representative of the physical transactions, the method comprising steps of:

(a) storing the video signals on a first memory storage device;
(b) for each occurrence of digital transaction data on one of the plurality of electronic devices, storing a mixed composite video signal on the first memory storage device using a unique system pointer and storing each occurrence of the digital transaction data and the unique system pointer in a database on a second memory storage device, the mixed composite video signal comprising a video overlay signal representative of each occurrence of the digital transaction data and a video signal of a corresponding physical transaction occurring at the electronic device and represented by the digital transaction data;
and
(c) auditing the physical transactions registered by the electronic devices by subsequently analyzing the database to identify a suspect occurrence of the digital transaction data and reviewing the video signal of the corresponding physical transaction on a single display means using the unique system pointer stored in the database on the second memory storage device to access a corresponding unique system pointer indicating the suspect occurrence of the digital transaction data stored in the mixed composite video signal recorded on the first memory storage device.

1 more element

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.