Patent Abstract:
Disclosed are methods for a point to node based surveillance applicable prioritized wireless communication system comprising one or more wireless communication devices and one or more wireless networking nodes using a prioritized wireless communication method, capable of faster response to emergencies and faster and more secured acquisition of real time scene evidences.

Full Description:
TECHNICAL FIELD 
     This application involves methods, technologies and applications of wireless devices and network communication system. 
     BACKGROUND 
     Conventional video surveillance systems are usually pre-installed and therefore static. Their weakness includes fixed coverage scope and easy to get around. Point to Point based mobile surveillance system and applications have been proposed to complement it. However, their merits suffer from network delay, bandwidth limit among other issues. As mobile phones and other mobile communication devices are becoming more and more popular, being able to collect, process and transmit a rich variety of data such as video, image, GPS among others, with powerful host computation and sensing resources running all kinds of applications, they are applicable yet to provide us a new utility as a personal security guard by working as a mobile surveillance terminal. Off the shelf mobile phones and state of art wireless communication systems have some deficiencies to accomplish this task. Firstly, off the shelf mobile phones are usually not optimized for surveillance operations, and a dedicated optimized design and related service routines are required; Secondly, the time for a mobile communication device to connect to a wireless node in the service area could be delayed due to things like channel congestion and bandwidth limit by state of the art communication methods; Thirdly, the time for the data transmission through the network could also be delayed for similar reasons; Finally, in an extreme case, the person in possession of the device may be in a bad situation not to be able to send an alarm, or the device is damaged or robbed by an offender even before the alarm and related scene information are sent out. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The intent is to introduce a Point to Node based wireless communication method to build a faster and more reliable real time mobile surveillance network communication system, comprising the following three major components: 1. A mobile phone or other types of mobile communication devices with properly designed features capable of monitoring and analyzing the scene and in emergency situation collecting, processing and sending the data and alarm promptly via the available wireless network. 2. A wireless networking node and system capable of emergency handling mechanisms such as prioritized connecting, transmission and temporary data buffering and storage. 3. A third party surveillance service provider or public security surveillance center at the back end capable of monitoring and processing incoming alarms and data, and responding promptly. The merits of such as a system is faster response to emergencies and faster and more secured acquisition of scene evidences. The advantage of Point to Node over the Point to Point method is such that for the former, transmission could start as soon as the Point Device and the Node are ready, while for the latter, both Points at two ends and wireless network in between need to be ready. Another advantage is for the former, the data transfer bandwidth is more or less only limited by the channel bandwidth between the sending Point and the Serving Node, due to the emergency data could be more or less of a burst nature to start, and temporary data buffering within the wireless node and network could help, even if down streaming has bottle necks. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DISCUSSION OF THE DRAWING 
         FIG. 1  Illustration of the system structure and its operation mechanism 
         FIG. 2  and  FIG. 3  a preferred embodiment of a hidden surveillance panorama camera built into the mobile phone 
         FIG. 4  is an example set up for a surveillance mobile phone application 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     Nomenclature 
     SG: security guard. 
     SGP: A security guard mobile telephone or mobile communication device. 
     Operator: In some mobile phone designs and usage, only the owner as an administrator has the privilege to use all functionalities of the device, though the owner may allow someone else to use the phone as an option. To simplify the description, it is assumed the actual operator of SGP is either the owner or an authorized user, having the same privileges to access the full functions of the SGP and is named operator hereafter in this disclosure. 
     A point to node wireless network surveillance communication system, as illustrated in  FIG. 1 , comprises a wireless communication node  20  and a SGP device  10 , and the former has prioritized communication protocols including prioritized connection between the node and the device, prioritized routing scheme, including prioritized connection to the SGP device  10  and destination devices and temporary emergency data buffering by the node of the received data from the device, while the latter has an ordinary state and SG state, and the SG state further comprises an Alert Step and an Alarm Step. A SGP could be switched from an ordinary state to SG state by an operator pushing an Alarm Button or ether another interactive method, and when it enters into Alarm Step, the SGP activates SG service routines fast collecting, processing and packaging selectively data such as video, image, GPS, thermostats, gyro sensor, lux meter etc., and uploads the data packets via prioritized data service communication protocols to the wireless networking node, which prioritizes by module  40  the routing of the data packets and at the same time store the data packets in an temporary emergency data buffer  30 , wherein storing the data packets in the temporary emergency buffer  30  has a higher priority than routing the data packets if the speed of routing the data packets is slower than storing the data packets in the temporary emergency buffer  30 . 
     The uploaded data packets comprises a header section and a data section, and the header comprises the phone number of the SGP, the Emergency Level Code and network destination addresses. The communication protocol between the wireless network and the SGP supports and interprets the header format and the wireless network supports the prioritized data transmissions and concurrent temporary data buffering. 
     Besides the operator switching method, the SG Alarm Step could also be triggered by certain preset conditions, and when met, the SGP activates Alarm service automatically. The activation could also be remotely controlled by an operator, a Third Party Surveillance Provider, or a Public Security Surveillance Center. 
     Further, the loud speaker of the SGP could be remotely controlled and used to send warning-off message if necessary. 
     Further, the data uploaded could be captured real time data or pre-acquired history data. 
     Further, the Alert Step can run in background in the ordinary state, conducting automatic scene analysis, system resource budgeting, wireless network connecting, data collecting, processing and other initialization services. The Alarm Step will be automatically triggered once preset conditions are met. 
     Further, some selective Alert Step procedures could keep working even when the ordinary services of the SGP is powered off, to provide around the clock protection. 
     Further, the lux meter on the SGP can switch the camera operation between ordinary illumination and infrared illumination. 
     Further, a preferred embodiment of a hidden surveillance panorama camera apparatus built into the a corner of the mobile phone to enhance its video surveillance capabilities as illustrated by  FIG. 2  and  FIG. 3 , wherein the panoramic camera operates as an usual fixed view angle camera when under a convertible mechanical cover, and once the cover is removed as in security guard mode, the panoramic camera makes up to three dimensional rotations and translations to acquire panoramic images or videos. The panorama camera apparatus could also be used in non-surveillance mode of the device. 
     Further, SGPs has have prioritized voice channel connection and usage. 
     Further, the mobile phone needs to be registered with and granted SGP privilege by the wireless network communication service provider prior to its actual usage, the Emergency Level Code and destination network addresses could be set as default at registration and changed later by an operator, an operator authorized Third Party Surveillance Provider or Public Security Surveillance Center. 
     Further, the emergency data buffer of the wireless network could reside in a node resource area or its extended network storage area. 
     Further, the wireless networking node comprises mobile network stations and WIFI AP nodes. 
     The above described method and system is realized in the following steps: 
     A mobile communication device acquires the security guard priority communication privilege via a registration process with a security guard wireless network communication service provider; the wireless service provider stores the registered device identification number, Emergency Level Code and destination network addresses of the mobile communication device in the service provider&#39;s network prioritized emergency service data base. 
     The wireless networking node of the service provider checks when receiving a connection request, the identification number of the requesting device to verify if the identification number belongs to a registered security guard mobile-communication device, and if it does, the prioritized communication is granted. 
     The wireless networking node of wireless network communication service provider acknowledges the connection request from the registered security guard mobile communication device and at the same time initializes prioritized communication process of the wireless networking node and its wireless network, comprising allocation of channel bandwidth and temporary emergency buffer space as well as locating proper back end services available in nearby area of the wireless networking node and the registered security guard mobile communication device. 
     The registered security guard mobile communication device enters into Alert Step, running procedures to allocate system resources, connect to the wireless networking node, and conduct data collection, processing and scene analysis, and when Alarm Step is triggered, selectively packs the data into data packets and uploaded the data packets to the network via the wireless networking node; The destination addresses and Emergency Level Code within the header section of data packets could be updated. 
     The wireless networking node prioritizes the routing of uploaded data packets to the destination addresses according to the priorities defined in Emergency Level Code, and store the uploaded data packets to temporary emergency buffer of the wireless networking node concurrently; wherein, if the Emergency Level Code in the data packets indicates a Third Party Surveillance Provider or a Public Security Surveillance Center to be a destination, the wireless networking node checks if the service of the Third Party Surveillance Provider or the Public Security Surveillance Center is available in the serving area of the wireless networking node, and if not, the wireless networking node has the option to route the data packets to applicable Public Security Surveillance Centers as the highest priority. 
     The networked devices comprising the destinations devices  50  receiving the data packets from the registered security guard mobile communication device have the privilege to remotely control operations of the sending security guard mobile communication device. 
     An example of the Emergency Level Code organization is illustrated in the below table 1 
     
       
         
               
               
             
           
               
                   
               
             
             
               
                 0 
                 Ordinary State 
               
               
                 1 
                 SG State with Private Addresses (PA) 
               
               
                 2 
                 SG State with Third Party Surveillance Providers (TPSP) 
               
               
                 3 
                 SG State with Public Security Surveillance Centers (PSSC) −&gt; 
               
               
                   
                 mobile 911 
               
               
                 4 
                 SG State with PA + PSSC 
               
               
                 5 
                 SG State with TPSP + PSSC 
               
               
                 6 
                 SG State with PA + TPSP + PSSC 
               
               
                   
               
             
          
         
       
     
     Some application scenarios are as follows. One person is traveling and staying in a hotel suit, who does not expect any visitors or room services when in sleep. The first SGP is set up in Alert Step and the Emergency Level Code at 6, the destination addresses include the person&#39;s second SGP nearby the bed. The camera head points to the doorway or the windows, and video surveillance service is on while voice service is off. If there is an intruder trying to enter or entered the room, an alarm signal would wake the person up and the captured image will show up on the screen of the second SGP, which would give the person some time to react. At the same time, the alarm and the captured images are stored in the network and sent to the hotel&#39;s security service center and public surveillance center, before the intruder could locate the SGP and damage it. The little time gained by the SGP probably may save the person&#39;s life, and the securely stored data could be a valuable evidence in the case. 
     Using the loudspeaker on the SGP to warn off the intruder could be another interesting application. A robber sneaks into a house trying to find something, who is welcomed by a voice from the SGP:” welcome to this house, your picture has been taken and sent to police”. In this and similar scenarios, SGP could not only work as a passive reporter but also an active defender. 
     Other scenarios including in accidents such as crash, fire, or medical emergencies, where the SGP could trigger the alarms, before the operator could do something or anything. 
     Finally, although the above description is focused on SGP as a preferred application, the disclosed method and system applies in general to other mobile communication devices as well, if they acquire the SG priority communication privilege and have the SG capabilities.

Technology Classification (CPC): 7