System and method for detecting and analyzing near range weapon fire

A method of determining whether an officer present during a weapon fire incident is out of ammunition or how much ammunition is left, by counting the number of firings, comprising:

• acquiring microphone data during weapon firings with a hand-held communication device having a wireless network connection;
• acquiring inertial data during the weapon firings with the hand-held communication device;
• storing the microphone data and the inertial data in a non-transitory computer readable storage medium;
• using a microprocessor to determine from the inertial data whether each in a plurality of gunshots has been produced from fire produced by a first person in possession of the hand-held device or by one or more other persons spaced away from the hand-held device;
• and
• counting the number of weapon firings produced by the first person.

A method of identifying a gunshot occurrence with a hand-held communication device, comprising:

• performing automatic microphone recording of data with a hand-held communication device upon detection of a signal having a predetermined sound level;
• performing analysis of the data with a processor running on the hand-held device to determine whether the signal having the predetermined sound level has been produced from gun fire;
• and
• providing information based on whether the signal having the predetermined sound level has been produced from gun fire to a computer system via a wireless network.

A method of detecting weapon fire with a hand-held device of the type having a microphone capable of detecting acoustic energy present at the hand-held device, the hand-held device including capability of recording acoustic energy detected by the microphone, the hand-held device having one or more second sensors for detecting inertial movement of the hand-held device, the hand-held device including capability of recording data associated with detected inertial movement, comprising:

• using the microphone to continually generate a first time series of acoustic voltage signals indicative of temporally varying sound pressure levels at the hand-held device;
• using the second sensors to continually generate a second time series of voltage signals indicative of temporally varying inertial movement of the hand-held device;
• analyzing signals in the first series to identify an event for which voltage for the sound pressure level exceeds a predetermined threshold value;
• determining a first set of correlations between signals in the first series and information characteristic of gunfire, wherein a threshold correlation value is associated with each correlation in the first set;
• determining a second set of correlations between signals in the first set and signals in the second set wherein a threshold correlation value is associated with each correlation in the second set;
• when at least one of the correlations of the first set exceeds the associated threshold correlation value, sending information from the hand-held device via the network indicating there has been an occurrence of gun fire;
• and
• when at least one of the correlations of the second set exceeds the associated threshold correlation value, sending information via the network that a weapon which created the occurrence of gun fire has been fired by a person having possession of the hand-held device.