Emergency rescue vehicle video based violation enforcement method and system
View Patent ↗Disclosed are methods and systems for monitoring and reporting road violations of vehicles sharing roads with responding emergency vehicles. According to an exemplary method video is captured from a forward and/or rear facing camera mounted to an emergency vehicle, and the video is processed to identify any vehicles in violation within a prescribed distance from the emergency vehicle. A license plate id of a vehicle determined to be in violation is identified and communicated to the appropriate authorities.
1. A computer-implemented method of detecting a vehicle that fails to yield to an emergency vehicle traveling on a section of road and detecting a vehicle that follows an emergency vehicle too close on the section of road, the method comprising:
A) receiving a first video stream from a forward facing image capturing device mounted to an emergency vehicle, the first video stream including a first plurality of temporally spaced video frames;
B) processing the first video stream to identify a first set of two or more video frames including a first detected vehicle within a first prescribed distance in a front of the emergency vehicle;
C) processing the identified first set of two or more video frames to determine if the first detected vehicle is yielding to the emergency vehicle according to a first prescribed law, the first prescribed law requiring the first detected vehicle to yield a right of way to the emergency vehicle within the first prescribed distance by moving the first detected vehicle to a prescribed side of a section of road and stopping on the prescribed side of the section of road;
D) receiving a second video stream from a rear facing image capturing device mounted to an emergency vehicle, the second video stream including a second plurality of temporally spaced video frames;
E) processing the second video stream to identify a second set of two or more video frames including a second detected vehicle within a second prescribed distance in a rear of the emergency vehicle; and
F) processing the identified second set of two or more video frames to determine if the second detected vehicle is following the emergency vehicle in violation of a second prescribed law, the second prescribed law requiring the second detected vehicle to not follow the emergency vehicle at a distance closer than the second prescribed distance in the rear of the emergency vehicle,
wherein the first set of two or more video frames includes a license plate associated with the first detected vehicle, the license plate including a height and width, and step B) comprises:
determining if the first detected vehicle is within the first prescribed distance by determining one or both of a pixel height and a pixel width associated with the license plate.
2. The computer-implemented method of detecting a vehicle according to claim 1 , further comprising:
if the first detected vehicle is in violation of the first prescribed law, identifying a license plate mounted to the detected vehicle.
3. The computer-implemented method of detecting a vehicle according to claim 1 , wherein the emergency vehicle includes one or both of an operator actuated siren and operator actuated emergency light, and the method further comprises:
initiating the computer-implemented method by one or both of the operator actuated siren and emergency light.
4. The computer-implemented method of detecting a vehicle according to claim 1 , step B) comprising:
comparing the determined one or both of the pixel height and the pixel width associated with the license plate to a mapping of a plurality of license plate pixel heights and/or widths with a plurality of respective distances to determine a distance of the detected vehicle in front of the emergency vehicle.
5. The computer-implemented method of detecting a vehicle according to claim 1 , step C) comprising:
determining if the first detected vehicle is one of decreasing in speed and maintaining a substantially constant speed.
6. The computer-implemented method of detecting a vehicle according to claim 1 , the first set of two or more video frames including a license plate associated with the first detected vehicle, the license plate including a sequence of characters and a state name and step B) comprising:
determining if the detected vehicle is within the first prescribed distance by determining a pixel height associated with one of the license plate sequence of characters and state name.
7. The computer-implemented method of detecting a vehicle according to claim 6 , step B) comprising:
comparing the determined pixel height to a mapping of a plurality of license plate character pixel heights associated with a plurality of respective distances to determine a distance of the first detected vehicle in front of the emergency vehicle.
8. The computer-implemented method of detecting a vehicle according to claim 1 , step C) comprising:
determining if the first detected vehicle is one of decreasing in speed, and maintaining a substantially consistent speed.
9. A system that facilitates detecting a vehicle that fails to yield to an emergency vehicle, the system comprising:
a forward facing image capturing device mounted to an emergency vehicle, the forward facing image capturing device configured to provide a first video stream of an area in a front of the emergency vehicle, the first video stream including a first plurality of temporally spaced video frames;
a rear facing image capturing device mounted to the emergency vehicle, the rear facing image capturing device configured to provide a second video stream of an area in a rear of the emergency vehicle, the second video stream including a second plurality of temporally spaced video frames;
one or more processors operatively connected to the forward facing image capturing device and the rear facing image capturing device, the one or more processors configured to execute stored computer-executable instructions for:
A) receiving a first video stream from the forward facing image capturing device, the first video stream including the first plurality of temporally spaced video frames;
B) processing the first video stream to identify a first set of two or more video frames including a first detected vehicle within a prescribed distance of road in a front of the emergency vehicle;
C) processing the identified first set of two or more video frames to determine if the first detected vehicle is yielding to the emergency vehicle compliance according to a first prescribed law, the first prescribed law requiring the first detected vehicle to yield a right of way to the emergency vehicle within the predetermined distance by moving the first detected vehicle to a prescribed side of a section of road and stopping on the prescribed side of the section of road;
D) receiving a second video stream from a rear facing image capturing device mounted to an emergency vehicle, the second video stream including a second plurality of temporally spaced video frames;
E) processing the video stream to identify a second set of two or more video frames including a second detected vehicle within a second prescribed distance in a rear of the emergency vehicle; and
F) processing the identified second set of two or more video frames to determine if the second detected vehicle is following the emergency vehicle in violation of a second prescribed law, the second prescribed law requiring the second detected vehicle to not follow the emergency vehicle at a distance closer than the second prescribed distance in the rear of the emergency vehicle.
10. The system that facilitates detecting a vehicle according to claim 9 , the first set of two or more video frames including a license plate associated with the first detected vehicle, the license plate including a height and width, step B) comprising:
determining if the detected vehicle is within the prescribed distance by determining one or both of a pixel height and a pixel width associated with the license plate.
11. The system that facilitates detecting a vehicle according to claim 10 , step B) comprising:
comparing the determined one or both of the pixel height and the pixel width associated with the license plate to a mapping of a plurality of license plate pixel heights and/or widths with a plurality of respective distances to determine a distance of the first detected vehicle in front of the emergency vehicle.
12. The system that facilitates detecting a vehicle according to claim 10 , step C) comprising:
determining if the first detected vehicle is one of decreasing in speed and maintaining a substantially constant speed.