Patent ID: 7986339

Claim:
A system for monitoring and reporting a potential traffic violation at a traffic intersection, comprising: a violation detection system configured to detect when a vehicle is at least partially within a virtual loop that is defined by an enclosed area at the traffic intersection when a traffic signal is in a red light phase thereby committing a potential traffic violation; a camera system comprising: one or more digital still cameras mounted at the traffic intersection and configured to obtain at least one still image of a vehicle at the traffic intersection; and one video camera mounted at the traffic location and configured to continuously record video data of the traffic intersection from a fixed position and output the video data in an encrypted format; a timer coupled to the violation detection system that starts timing upon receipt of a signal indicating that the vehicle is at least partially within the virtual loop from the violation detection system when the traffic signal is in the red light phase, and stops timing after a first predetermined time period; a buffer memory that is coupled to the one digital video camera and stores a continuous video loop of the encrypted format video data recorded by the one video camera; a video clip recorder coupled to the one video camera, the detection system, the timer and the buffer memory and wherein the video clip recorder starts extracting a first portion of a video clip of the potential traffic violation from the buffer memory in response to receiving the signal indicating that the vehicle is at least partially within the virtual loop from the violation detection system and stop extracting the video clip after receiving a signal from the timer indicating that the first predetermined time period has expired and extract a second portion of the video clip from the buffer memory during a second predetermined time period immediately prior to the detection of the vehicle at least partially within the virtual loop in response to receiving the signal indicating that the vehicle is at least partially within the virtual loop from the violation detection system; a persistent memory configured to receive and store the first portion of the video clip and the second portion of the video clip extracted from the buffer by the video clip recorder; and a data processing system coupled to the enforcement camera system, the data processing system comprising a compiler for compiling in a data file that includes the at least one still image obtained by the one or more digital still cameras with the video clip recorded by the one digital video camera.