US-20260127961-A1 - INFRINGEMENT DETECTION METHOD, DEVICE AND SYSTEM

US20260127961A1US 20260127961 A1US20260127961 A1US 20260127961A1US-20260127961-A1

Abstract

A method for detecting an infringement by vehicle operator is described. The method comprises detecting a vehicle; receiving one or more image of at least a part of the vehicle operator; automatically analysing with a neural network the one or more captured received image to detect an infringing act; and providing the one or more captured received images comprising the detected infringing act to thereby detect the infringement. Also described are a system, a device, a computer system and a computer program product all for detecting an infringement by a vehicle operator. The device may comprise one or more flash for illuminating the vehicle or a part thereof with light at a narrow band and one or more camera comprising a narrow band filter that lets through only the wavelengths of light produced by the one or more flash.

Inventors

Alexander Jannink

Assignees

ACUSENSUS IP PTY LTD

Dates

Publication Date: 20260507
Application Date: 20251219
Priority Date: 20180719

Claims (20)

1 . An infringement detection system, comprising: one or more cameras; one or more sensors configured to detect an actively-operated vehicle and trigger the one or more cameras configured to capture, prior to any infringement detection, one or more images of at least a part of the vehicle when the actively-operated vehicle reaches an image capture point; one or more flashes configured to illuminate the vehicle or a part thereof with light at a narrow band when the actively-operated vehicle reaches the image capture point, wherein at least one of the one or more cameras comprises a narrow band filter that lets through only or substantially only wavelengths of the light produced by the one or more flashes and eliminates a majority of ambient light and/or light produced by the sun, and wherein the light produced by the one or more flashes is able to penetrate a windshield of the actively-operated vehicle; and one or more computer processors configured to automatically analyse the one or more captured images and/or one or more further images derived from the one or more captured images to detect one or more infringements corresponding to one or more of: (i) distracted driving; (ii) illegal mobile phone or mobile device use; (iii) failure to wear a seatbelt; (iv) incorrect seating; and (v) incorrect restraint; wherein, for each of the infringements, the automatic analysis comprises processing each of the one or more analysed images to generate a corresponding confidence score representing a likelihood that the analysed image shows the infringement, and using the confidence score to classify the analysed image as showing the infringement or as not showing the infringement.
2 . An infringement detection method, comprising: detecting an actively-operated vehicle with one or more sensors and triggering one or more cameras to capture, prior to any infringement detection, one or more images of at least a part of the vehicle when the vehicle reaches an image capture point; illuminating the actively-operated vehicle with one or more flashes with light at a narrow band when the actively-operated vehicle reaches the image capture point, wherein at least one of the one or more cameras comprises a narrow band filter that lets through only or substantially only wavelengths of the light produced by the one or more flashes and eliminates a majority of ambient light and/or light produced by the sun, and wherein the light produced by the one or more flashes is able to penetrate a windshield of the actively-operated vehicle; automatically analysing, using one or more computer processors, the one or more captured images to detect one or more infringements corresponding to one or more of: (i) distracted driving; (ii) illegal mobile phone or mobile device use; (iii) failure to wear a seatbelt; (iv) incorrect seating; and (v) incorrect restraint; (vi) wherein, for each of the infringements, the automatic analysis comprises processing each of the one or more analysed images to generate a corresponding confidence score representing a likelihood that the analysed image shows the infringement, and using the confidence score to classify the analysed image as showing the infringement or as not showing the infringement.
3 . A computer-readable storage medium having stored on processor-executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to: receive, from one or more sensors, one or more signals representing detection of an actively-operated vehicle; trigger one or more cameras to capture, prior to any infringement detection, one or more images of at least a part of the actively-operated vehicle when the vehicle reaches an image capture point; cause illumination of the detected vehicle or part thereof with one or more flashes with light at a narrow band for the capture of one or more images, wherein at least one of the one or more cameras comprises a narrow band filter that lets through only wavelengths of the light produced by the one or more flashes and eliminates a majority of ambient light and/or light produced by the sun, and wherein the light produced by the one or more flashes is able to penetrate a windshield of the detected vehicle; automatically analyse the one or more captured images and/or one or more further images derived from the one or more captured images to detect one or more infringements corresponding to one or more of: (i) distracted driving; (ii) illegal mobile phone or mobile device use; (iii) failure to wear a seatbelt; (iv) incorrect seating; and (v) incorrect restraint; wherein, for each of the infringements, the automatic analysis comprises processing each of the one or more analysed images to generate a corresponding confidence score representing a likelihood that the analysed image shows the infringement, and using the confidence score to classify the analysed image as showing the infringement or as not showing the infringement.
4 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the automatic analysis is configured to detect an infringement by a driver of the vehicle corresponding to distracted driving or illegal mobile phone or mobile device use.
5 . The system of claim 4 , wherein the automatic analysis further comprises: processing each of one or more of the one or more captured images to determine a corresponding location of the driver in the captured image; and processing the captured image and the determined location of the driver in the captured image to derive a corresponding cropped image showing only the driver and the driver's immediate surrounds; wherein one or more analysed images comprises the cropped image or a corresponding further image derived from the cropped image.
6 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the automatic analysis is configured to detect infringement by a driver of the vehicle corresponding to failure to wear a seatbelt or incorrect restraint.
7 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the automatic analysis is configured to detect one or more infringements by one or more passengers of the vehicle corresponding to: failure to wear a seatbelt, incorrect seating, or incorrect restraint.
8 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more captured images have a spatial resolution of at least 5 MP.
9 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the narrow band filter lets through light having wavelengths between one of: 700 and 1000 nm; 750 and 950 nm; 800 and 900 nm; 820 and 890 nm; 830 and 880 nm; 850 and 870 nm; or 840 and 860 nm.
10 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the narrow band filter comprises an infra-red (IR)-blocking filter.
11 . The system of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the one or more cameras is mounted to capture images at a high angle into the vehicle.
12 . The system of claim 11 , wherein at least one of the one or more cameras is mounted at least 4 m above a road surface on which the vehicle is actively operated.
13 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more sensors comprise a radar sensor.
14 . The system of claim 1 , wherein one or more of the one or more captured images shows a license plate of the vehicle.
15 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more flashes comprise one or more capacitors to store charge between flashes.
16 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more flashes are capable of firing 10,000 to 100,000 times per day.
17 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more computer processors are configured to transmit analysed images classified as showing an infringement over a computer or telecommunications network.
18 . The system of claim 17 , wherein if an analysed image is classified as showing an infringement of illegal phone or mobile device use, the phone or mobile device location associated with the analysed image is transmitted with the analysed image.
19 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more computer processors are associated with a neural network configured to at least partially conduct the automatic analysing.
20 . The system of claim 1 , wherein automatically analysing further comprises determining one or more brightest pixels and one or more darkest pixels of a captured image or image derived therefrom, and applying an offset to two or more pixels of the image to linearly scale the two or more pixels between the one or more brightest pixels and the one or more darkest pixels to yield an enhanced image, wherein one or more analysed images comprises the enhanced image or a corresponding further image derived from the enhanced image.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This Application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 18/633,672, filed Apr. 12, 2024, now allowed, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 18/109,677, filed Feb. 14, 2023, now U.S. Pat. No. 11,990,035, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 17/261,247, filed Jan. 19, 2021, now U.S. Pat. No. 11,610,481, which is a National Stage Application under 35 U.S.C. § 371 of PCT Application No. PCT/AU2019/000086, filed Jul. 19, 2019, which claims priority to Australian Patent Application No. 2018902619, filed Jul. 19, 2018, the entire contents of which are incorporated by reference herein. FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an infringement detection method, device and system. In one embodiment this invention relates to an infringement detection method device and system for detecting distracted operation of a vehicle. BACKGROUND TO THE INVENTION Traffic infringements such as, distracted driving and speeding, are a major source of death, injury and financial cost. While autonomous cars have the potential to solve or at least lessen this problem, these cars are not immediately available. Also, while device-based lockouts and in-vehicle technology may reduce instances of distracted driving and speeding, these are not across the board viable solutions because vehicle operators must opt-in. US Patent Publication Nos. 20110009107 and 20130271605 describe examples of in-vehicle lock-out devices. Accordingly, enforcement is currently the only credible short term solution. Video cameras and other cameras are known to be used to detect vehicles and record evidence. This approach is deficient in the areas of 24/7 operation and generation of high quality prosecutable evidence. Australian Patent No. 20020141618 discloses a system for monitoring and reporting incidences of traffic violations at a traffic location. The system comprises a digital camera system deployed at a traffic location. The camera system is remotely coupled to a data processing system. The data processing system comprises an image processor for compiling vehicle and scene images produced by the digital camera system, a verification process for verifying the validity of the vehicle images, an image processing system for identifying driver information from the vehicle images, and a notification process for transmitting potential violation information to one or more law enforcement agencies. Australian Patent No. 20120162432 describes a point to point speed system, the implementation of which uses an anonymised method of storing the images. Australian Patent No. 20120007983 describes a two-image process, whereby a first image is used to obtain a licence plate and a second image is used to gather evidence of the offence. Australian Patent No. 20090046897 describes secondary image speed verification, using two photos to confirm speed via image means. Australian Patent No. 20090207046 discloses a method for detecting vehicles by first detecting the licence plate. Australian Patent No. 20060047371 describes coupling an automated number plate recognition (ANPR) camera to a loop detector. Australian Patent No. 20050073436 teaches alerting an officer on a licence plate hit. U.S. Pat. No. 6,266,627 describes detecting a vehicle's speed using radar, and capturing photos if vehicle is over a threshold. Various technologies have been described which provide rudimentary mechanisms for detecting distracted driving. US Patent Publication No. 2008/0036623, the publication of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/678,489, describes a method and apparatus for automated detection of mobile telephone usage by drivers of vehicles. The apparatus includes a detection system comprising at least one mobile phone signal receiving device, at least one image capturing device, and at least one computer. The mobile phone signal receiving device is operative to detect a mobile phone signal transmitted from a vehicle. The at least one image capturing device is operative to capture at least one image of the vehicle. The at least one computer is operative to store in a storage device, information associated with at least one of the mobile phone signal transmitted from the vehicle; and the at least one image of the vehicle. The information stored in the storage device may be used to determine if a person associated with the vehicle should be prosecuted for illegal use of a mobile phone while driving the vehicle. This document also teaches using vantage points offset to the left or right of the driver to capture a respective hand gripping a mobile telephone, or a vantage point sufficiently close to straight in front. The use of an Artificial Intelligence system to detect use of a phone by an occupant, or other infringements, is also described. US Patent Publication No. 2010/00271497, the publication of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/769,41, describes a traffic monitoring system