Video communication system

A system comprising:

• means for monitoring an environment;
• means for producing a video and an audio signal corresponding to the environment;
• and
• means for transmitting the video and audio signals directly to a central monitoring office, or when said signals cannot be directly transmitted to the central monitoring office, indirectly to said monitoring office over a route that traverses at least one intermediate transmitting means associated with a self-organizing wireless communication network.

In a self-organized mobile wireless communications network, at least one source node and at least one destination node, the at least one source node located in at least one input monitoring unit, the at least one destination node located in a central monitoring office, and the at least one input monitoring unit being remote from the central monitoring office, the at least one input monitoring unit comprising:

• a video device that obtains an image of an environment and produces a real-time video signal corresponding to the image;
• an audio device that obtains sound from the environment and produces a real-time audio signal corresponding to the sound;
• a GPS transceiver for receiving a position signal from a GPS satellite, the position signal corresponding to a real-time geographical location of the environment;
• a computer connected to the GPS transceiver, the video device, and the audio device;
• and
• an RF transceiver connected to the computer,
• wherein the computer receives the real-time video and audio signals from the video device and the audio device, receives the position signal from the GPS transceiver, and transmits, using the RF transceiver, the video, audio, and position signals to the central monitoring office over the self-organized mobile wireless communications network, and wherein the transmitted video, audio, and positional signals are routed from the at least one source node directly to the at least one destination node or, when said signals cannot be directly transmitted to the destination node, indirectly to said destination node over a route that traverses at least one intermediate node located in at least one other input monitoring unit.

In a self-organized mobile wireless communications network, at least one source node and at least one destination node, the at least one source node located in at least one input monitoring unit, the at least one destination node located in a central monitoring office, and the at least one input monitoring unit being remote from the central monitoring office, the central monitoring office comprising:

• an RF transceiver;
• and
• a computer connected to the RF transceiver;
• wherein the RF transceiver receives real-time video and audio signals sent by the at least one input monitoring unit over the self-organized mobile wireless communications network and the computer displays real-time image and sound information corresponding to the real-time video and audio signals, respectively, wherein the real-time video and audio signals are routed directly to the RF transceiver from the at least one input monitoring unit or, when said signals cannot be directly transmitted to the central monitoring office, indirectly to the RF transceiver over a route that traverses at least one intermediate node in the self-organized mobile wireless communications network.

In a self-organized mobile wireless communications network having at least one source node and a destination node, the at least one source node located in at least one input monitoring unit, the destination node located in a central monitoring office, and the at least one input monitoring unit being remote from the central monitoring office, a method for monitoring an environment using the at least one input monitoring unit, and for transmitting real-time video and audio signals corresponding to that environment from the at least one input monitoring unit to the central monitoring office, the method comprising:

• obtaining an image of the environment and producing a video signal corresponding to the image;
• obtaining sound from the environment and producing an audio signal corresponding to the image;
• receiving a position signal from a GPS satellite;
• transmitting the video, audio, and position signals from the at least one input monitoring unit to the central monitoring office over the self-organized mobile wireless communication network, wherein the at least one source node transmits the audio, video, and positional signals directly to the destination node or, when network efficiency would be improved, indirectly to said destination node via a route that traverses at least one intermediate node located in at least one other input monitoring unit;
• and
• displaying information corresponding to the video, audio and position signals in the central monitoring office.

A monitoring system comprising:

• at least one input monitoring unit, associated with a self-organizing wireless communication network, that monitors an environment and produces a video and audio signal corresponding to the environment;
• and
• a central monitoring office, remotely located with respect to the at least one input monitoring unit, that displays video image information corresponding to the video and audio signals,
• wherein the at least one input monitoring unit transmits the video and audio signal directly to the central monitoring office or, when said signals cannot be directly transmitted to the central monitoring office, indirectly to said monitoring office over a route that traverses at least one other monitoring unit coupled to the self-organizing wireless communication network.