Patent ID: 7466223

Claim:
A system for monitoring and controlling access of vehicles as the vehicles seek access to and travel within a secure facility, the system comprising: one or more vehicle databases for storing first license plate characters associated with a vehicle located within the secure facility, first location coordinates corresponding to a first location at which the first license plate characters were captured in a first image, and a first timestamp corresponding to a first time at which the first license plate characters were captured in the first image; one or more mobile monitoring stations distributed within the secure facility, each mobile monitoring station comprising: a video imaging device for capturing a second images of indicia on vehicles located within the facility; a location determination device for determining second location coordinates of the mobile monitoring station positioned at a second location; and a video image processing system in communication with the video imaging device for operating on the second images of the indicia to identify second license plate characters therein, the video image processing system for wirelessly transmitting the second license plate characters, the second location coordinates, and a second timestamp indicating a second time at which the second image was captured; one or more processors in communication with one or more of the video imaging processing systems of the one or more mobile monitoring stations and in communication with the one or more vehicle databases, the one or more processors for receiving the second license plate characters, the second location coordinates and the second timestamp, accessing the one or more vehicle databases to determine whether the second license plate characters match the first license plate characters, and when the second license plate characters match the first license plate characters, processing the first and second location coordinates to determine information indicative of movement of the vehicle during an elapsed time between the first time and the second time, and generating an output based on the information indicative of movement of the vehicle during the elapsed time; and a communication network for providing communication between the processors, the mobile monitoring stations, and the vehicle databases.