Universal Surveillance Footage Archive System

Abstract

A system and method for archiving digital surveillance footage is disclosed. The system being comprised of a universal software program that interacts with popular network video recording (NVR) and digital video recording (DVR) surveillance systems currently on the market (formerly known as closed circuit televisionCCTV). The software saves footage to the local and/or remote servers and allow users to easily-locate data or isolate key frames of interest. An object of the invention is to enhance the efficiency of surveillance footage management and to eliminate the reliance on a particular type of the NVR or DVR which among other benefits, illiminagtes the solution lock-in. The software allows users to examine and detect any trends in file metadata and migrate footage from one CCTV system to another while preserving the continuity and independence of the video archival process.

Claims

1.) A surveillance footage archiving system comprised of the following parts: (a) software; and (b) local storage (b) a remote (cloud) network (c) a remote (cloud) storage

2.) A method for archiving surveillance footage, the method comprised of the following: (a) interfacing with proprietary surveillance files from popular DVR and NVR systems; (b) organizing surveillance footage; (c) retrieving surveillance footage; (d) archiving surveillance footage when physical proprietary media is filled to capacity; (e) archiving key frames; (f) analyzing surveillance footage metadata for trends; and (e) extracting archived footage based on content of interest.

3.) The method for archiving of surveillance footage of claim 2 wherein the archiving further being performed locally or remotely via the remote (cloud) network of claim 1.

4.) The method for archiving of surveillance footage of claim 2 wherein the organizing of surveillance depending upon the operating system the software resides upon.

5.) The method for archiving of surveillance footage of claim 2 wherein the archiving of key frames can be independent, or embedded with, the surveillance footage.

6.) The method for achieving of surveillance footage of claim 2 wherein the trends in surveillance file metadata being furthermore comprised of automatically examining and notifying the user of file size differences which suggest footage content differences.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

[0020] The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated herein and form a part of the specification, illustrate some, but not the only or exclusive, examples of embodiments and/or features.

[0021] FIG. 1 shows a perspective view of the invention equipment.

[0022] FIG. 2 illustrates a representative view of the invention process.

[0023] FIG. 3 showing an embodiment of the invention process.

[0024] Other aspects of the present invention shall be more readily understood when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, and the following detailed description, neither of which should be considered limiting

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF FIGURES

[0025] In this description, the directional prepositions of up, upwardly, down, downwardly, front, back, top, upper, bottom, lower, left, right and other such terms refer to the device as it is oriented and appears in the drawings and are used for convenience only; they are not intended to be limiting or to imply that the device has to be used or positioned in any particular orientation. Conventional components of the invention are elements that are well-known in the prior art and will not be discussed in detail for this disclosure.

[0026] FIG. 1 shows a perspective view of the invention being used with a typical proprietary surveillance system with camera 1 and receiving unit 2. The figure showing the invention with software 4 operating on a desktop computer 5 and interacting with said receiving unit 2 (some embodiments being remote storage) by means of transmission methods such as but not limited to Ethernet cabling, Wi-Fi networks, cellular networks, local networks and wide area networks etc. The invention software 4 being written from code that may include, but not be limited to: Java, C++, Visual Basic, Linux, Basic and the like. The software also compatible with a plurality of operating systems such as, but not limited to: Windows Apple, and Android, and compatible with a multitude of hardware platforms such as, but not limited to: personal desktops, laptops, tablets, smartphones and the like. The figure also showing an embodiment with a standalone drive bay 22 that is disposed to receive a plurality of selectively removable external hard drives 23 allowing users to store archival footage on such drives. The media (hard drives) may be inserted directly into the computer that is running the software if the form factor of the computer allows is since the software is designed to work with any storage media and is not bound to any particular form factor of the media or the way of attachment of the media. The software notifying a user when drives are approaching a state of being full and when a user should begin considering changing out drives via email messages, SMS and the like.

[0027] FIG. 2 illustrates a representative view of the invention process. The invention being compatible with and receiving digital surveillance footage that includes but is not limited to NVR signals 19, with file types and NVR/DVR signals 20 (MP4, MKV, and AVI etc.). The aforementioned signals being transmitted 21 to the invention software by means of but not limited to Ethernet, Wi-Fi, cellular networks, local networks and wide area networks etc. The figure showing the invention's control management system performing functions such as but not limited to: receiving surveillance feed files 9 and saving them according to user preferences; files then being archived 10 on a user's local drive or said remote (Ex. Cloud) and users having the ability to create custom file naming conventions; once files being archived, the invention software allowing users to query said files 11 based on customized criteria (directory level, external file level, as well as internal file leveldate and time)said queries 11 themselves also being recorded into historical tracks allowing users to perform similar searches without re-creating the criteria and perform administrative services 18 (reminders, notifications using SMS, text messaging and emails etc.). The figure also showing the device interface's transmission capability 21 interacting with remote storage 34 and/or local storage 35. Said device interface also performing the aforementioned administrative services 18 (reminders, notifications using SMS, text messaging and emails etc.).

[0028] The figure showing user inputs and functions including but not limited to: footage organization 6 (determining file naming convention, establishing directories etc.); footage archiving 7 (having the ability to edit and save files, or portions of files using nonproprietary operating systems); and performing footage queries 8 on said files used on predetermined criteriaincluding but not limited to date, time, as well as file metadata therein. Inputs also include keyframe operations 32 wherein these highlighted frames being preset by a user to be isolated and archived and later accessed both separately or embedded with surveillance video locally or remotely.

[0029] The software containing algorithms allowing trend analysis 33 to be performed on surveillance file metadata such as, but not limited to automatically detecting increases and/or differences in average file sizes across filming sessions of equal location and duration. Once such differences being detected, a user being notified (by email, SMS, text messaging etc.) of an issue that may warrant additional investigation. The figure finally showing computing devices interacting with said solution 15 including but not limited to desktop computers 12, tablets 13 and smartphones 14.

[0030] FIG. 3 showing an embodiment of the invention process. User connects invention to NVR/DVR using the method made available by NVR/DVR vendor or operating system where NVR/DVR is installed (Windows, Linux etc.) 24; NVR/DVR is queried 25 and returns the list of surveillance footage files that is available on the permanent storage of the NVR/DVR; invention software downloads the video/audio files 26 from the NVR/DVR sequentially or in groups of multiple files; invention software applies naming convention 27 according to user preferences and operating platform options (windows directories etc.); invention software saves the file (or multiple files or keyframes) in a secondary archive 28 using the folder structure as defined by the user: one example of the folder organization being the following: Top folder: Date (Example 03.23.2018), Sub folder: Camera Name or Camera Number (Example: Camera 1), Sub Folder: Video time stamp duration (Example: 3.23.2018_10.44am_56 sec.mp4).

[0031] Operation 28 being repeated until the media is filled to capacity 29. When invention software memory is filled to capacity, the invention software notifying the user (via text message, SMS etc.) and producing an electronic record 30 describes the identity of the memory drive (or other location in case of remote storage) to be swapped and the range of files archived expressed in terms of time (example: Start: 03.20.2019 10:05 am to End: 03.25.2019 13:07 pm); the user then physically swapping memory drives 31; after swapping drives, downloading NVR/DVR data resumes the operation 26 from the point in time where earlier media finalized the archive (Ex: step 8.b 03.25.2019 13:07 pm). This point in time then becomes the beginning of the next memory drive. Note that the time range describes the range of records if they are available. In other words, if the NVR/DVR did not download any files for 24 hours following the end of the download, the second download will have the time stamp of the next available recordwhich would be 24 hours after the end timestamp of the first download. The process repeats indefinitely as long as a user keeps swapping memory drives when they are filled up to capacity or the remote storage (cloud) has the capacity to save the data. If at any time during this process an NVR/DVR model is replaced with another type of NVR/DVR Model (which stores information in a different format) the process will remain unaffected, although the invention will have to switch/point to the new source the data. In addition, the format of the file itself and the encoding (MP4, MKV, AVI etc.) are not altered by the invention softwareit aids in moving, organizing and maintaining archival data swaps while the content of the video and audio files remains unchanged with the exception of saving the keyframes only. In this case the video is changed from the original by the way of reducing the frame rate.

[0032] It is additionally noted and anticipated that although the device is shown in its most simple form, various components and aspects of the device may be differently shaped or slightly modified when forming the invention herein. As such those skilled in the art will appreciate the descriptions and depictions set forth in this disclosure or merely meant to portray examples of preferred modes within the overall scope and intent of the invention, and are not to be considered limiting in any manner. While all of the fundamental characteristics and features of the invention have been shown and described herein, with reference to particular embodiments thereof, a latitude of modification, various changes and substitutions are intended in the foregoing disclosure and it will be apparent that in some instances, some features of the invention may be employed without a corresponding use of other features without departing from the scope of the invention as set forth. It should also be understood that various substitutions, modifications, and variations may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention.