US-12626571-B2 - System and method for property monitoring

Abstract

An outdoor camera integrated into an alarm system for property monitoring, configured to monitor a property. The alarm system can have a base station that communicates with all the components of the alarm system, such as an outdoor camera, which can be equipped with an imaging sensor and software capabilities to conduct analysis on data collected by the outdoor camera to determine information about a human or non-human visitor at the property. The outdoor camera provides information about detected events at the property to the base station, where the data can be used to take appropriate action at the property and communicate with either the user or a monitoring service.

Inventors

• Rahul Subramany

Assignees

• SimpliSafe, Inc.

Dates

Publication Date

20260512

Application Date

20250310

Claims (19)

1. 1 . A method, comprising: determining, by a computing system, that a motion event occurred at a property; receiving, by the computing system, data acquired by a camera monitoring the property; determining, by the computing system and using the data, that a visitor on the property is a delivery person based on at least one external feature of the visitor; determining, by the computing system, a risk score representing a likelihood that the motion event is related to criminal activity, wherein the risk score is based at least in part on (i) the visitor having been determined to be a delivery person, (ii) a length of time the visitor has been present at the property, and (iii) a time of day; and causing, by the computing system and based at least in part on the risk score satisfying a threshold, a notification to be sent to an endpoint device.
2. 2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising: performing, by the computing system, recognition processing using the data to recognize the at least one external feature of the visitor.
3. 3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the recognition processing includes facial recognition processing.
4. 4 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising: determining, by the computing system, a path that the visitor takes at the property; wherein determining that the visitor is a delivery person is based at least in part on the path.
5. 5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the computing system is a component of the camera.
6. 6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the risk score is further based on a path the visitor takes at the property.
7. 7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the risk score is further based on information received from one or more sensors at the property other than the camera.
8. 8 . A system, comprising: one or more processors; and one or more computer-readable mediums encoded with instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the system to: determine that a motion event occurred at a property; receive data acquired by a camera monitoring the property; determine, using the data, that a visitor on the property is a delivery person based on at least one external feature of the visitor; determine a risk score representing a likelihood that the motion event is related to criminal activity, wherein the risk score is based at least in part on (i) the visitor having been determined to be a delivery person, (ii) a length of time the visitor has been present at the property, and (iii) a time of day; and based at least in part on the risk score satisfying a threshold, cause a notification to be sent to an endpoint device.
9. 9 . The system of claim 8 , wherein the one or more computer-readable mediums are further encoded with additional instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the system to: perform recognition processing using the data to recognize the at least one external feature of the visitor.
10. 10 . The system of claim 9 , wherein the recognition processing includes facial recognition processing.
11. 11 . The system of claim 8 , wherein the one or more computer-readable mediums are further encoded with additional instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the system to: determine a path that the visitor takes at the property; and determine that the visitor is a delivery person based at least in part on the path.
12. 12 . The system of claim 8 , wherein the one or more computer-readable mediums are further encoded with additional instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the system to: determine the risk score so that the risk score is further based on a path the visitor takes at the property.
13. 13 . The system of claim 8 , wherein the one or more computer-readable mediums are further encoded with additional instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the system to: determine the risk score so that the risk score is further based on information received from one or more sensors at the property other than the camera.
14. 14 . One or more non-transitory computer-readable mediums encoded with instructions which, when executed by one or more processors of a system, cause the system to: determine that a motion event occurred at a property; receive data acquired by a camera monitoring the property; determine, using the data, that a visitor on the property is a delivery person based on at least one external feature of the visitor; determine a risk score representing a likelihood that the motion event is related to criminal activity, wherein the risk score is based at least in part on (i) the visitor having been determined to be a delivery person, (ii) a length of time the visitor has been present at the property, and (iii) a time of day; and based at least in part on the risk score satisfying a threshold, cause a notification to be sent to an endpoint device.
15. 15 . The one or more non-transitory computer-readable mediums of claim 14 , further encoded with additional instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the system to: perform recognition processing using the data to recognize the at least one external feature of the visitor.
16. 16 . The one or more non-transitory computer-readable mediums of claim 15 , wherein the recognition processing includes facial recognition processing.
17. 17 . The one or more non-transitory computer-readable mediums of claim 14 , further encoded with additional instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the system to: determine a path that the visitor takes at the property; and determine that the visitor is a delivery person based at least in part on the path.
18. 18 . The one or more non-transitory computer-readable mediums of claim 14 , further encoded with additional instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the system to: determine the risk score so that the risk score is further based on a path the visitor takes at the property.
19. 19 . The one or more non-transitory computer-readable mediums of claim 18 , further encoded with additional instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the system to: determine the risk score so that the risk score is further based on information received from one or more sensors at the property other than the camera.

Description

RELATED APPLICATIONS This application is a continuation of and claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. § 120 to U.S. application Ser. No. 18/933,433, entitled SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROPERTY MONITORING, filed Oct. 31, 2024, which is a continuation of and claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. § 120 to U.S. application Ser. No. 18/243,191, entitled SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROPERTY MONITORING, filed Sep. 7, 2023, and now U.S. Pat. No. 12,223,813, which is a continuation of and claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. § 120 to U.S. application Ser. No. 17/529,332, entitled SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROPERTY MONITORING, filed Nov. 18, 2021, and now U.S. Pat. No. 11,790,743, which claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. § 119 (e) of U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 63/115,798, entitled SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROPERTY MONITORING, filed Nov. 19, 2020, the entire contents of each of which are incorporated herein by reference for all purposes. FIELD Disclosed embodiments are related to property monitoring technology and related methods of use. BACKGROUND Many homes and businesses are equipped with surveillance systems for monitoring the property with respect to various conditions such as unauthorized entry through doors and/or windows, fire or smoke conditions, movement in a room or around a building, etc. SUMMARY Systems and methods described herein provide the ability to automate the detection and emergency response of a property alarm system to reduce the overall operational costs associated with the manual or human review of detected events at a monitoring site. Outdoor sensors associated with an alarm system typically detect significantly higher volumes of events than indoor sensors. For example, an outdoor camera may detect neighbors passing by the property, delivery personnel entering and exiting the property, or canvassers, as well as non-human objects at the property, such as debris blown through by wind, wild animals and/or pets. In cases where outdoor sensors do not conduct preliminary review of events locally at the monitoring site, information, such as still images, video, and/or audio, may be relayed to an external monitoring center, where the information is manually reviewed. As a result of the high volume of information requiring rapid review, there may be high operational costs associated with alarm systems having outdoor sensors, such as one or more cameras. In some embodiments, an alarm system sensor, such as an outdoor camera, can perform automated or computer-based preliminary review of detected events captured in data such as still images, video, and/or audio, using software capabilities including artificial intelligence analysis. Automated or computer-based analysis or other processing of the information collected from an outdoor sensor can reduce the total number of events and/or the number of false positive detected events reported to the user and/or the monitoring servers, thus reducing the number of events a user or professional staff must manually review to determine an appropriate course of action (for example, communicating with local authorities). In some embodiments, an alarm system includes an outdoor camera configured to generate monitoring data from a property using an image sensor and capable of collecting and analyzing the data. The alarm system may also include a base station configured to communicate with the outdoor camera, the user of the alarm system, and/or a monitoring server which may monitor the property in the absence of or in addition to the user. The base station may be configured in an armed or a disarmed mode, e.g., during which the base station can enter an alarm state based on various sensor conditions such as opening of a door while the door is locked. When the base station is in an armed (or disarmed) mode, the outdoor camera can monitor an outdoor area, detect motion in the area, and in response capture image and/or audio data and analyze the data according to various criteria. (As used herein, video data refers to data including still images, multiple or moving image data, and/or audible or sound information.) In some embodiments, the criteria and/or actions taken by the camera based on the analysis can depend on whether the alarm system is in an armed or disarmed mode. In some embodiments, the camera can identify whether detected motion is that of a human, e.g., if the alarm system is in an armed mode the camera may attempt to identify whether detected motion is that of a human, whereas if the alarm system is in a disarmed mode the camera may not analyze detected motion at all. If the detected motion is caused by a human, the camera and/or base station can send an alert to a user and/or a monitoring server as well as begin recording video data of the detected human and/or displaying a countdown chime or siren that is audible in the area around the detected human. A user can be given a threshold period of time to respond to the alert, such as by dismissing or canceling the alert, di