Granted Patent B2

US 12,722,816 · App. 18/634,889 · Granted Sep 1, 2026

Inventors: Patrick Gibbons (Columbia, MD); Gary Berg (Campbell, CA); Giacomo Sacca (Allentown, NJ); Goktug Duman (Miami, FL); Joe Lanzi (Grover, MO); Frank L. Hammond, III (Atlanta, GA); John Bridge (Hillsborough, NC); Cameron Christensen (Mountain View, CA); Arthi Abhyanker (Mountain View, CA); Raj Abhyanker (Mountain View, CA)

B64U80/86F41H1/00G08B6/00B64U2101/15B64U2201/10

Abstract

Claims (74)

1 . A personal protective equipment, comprising:

a drone control apparatus integrated into a chest area of a tactical gear; and

a responsive device integrated in the tactical gear,

wherein the responsive device to notify a wearer of the tactical gear when an unmanned aerial vehicle detects an ambient threat to the wearer, and

wherein the unmanned aerial vehicle is communicatively coupled with the tactical gear.

2 . The personal protective equipment of claim 1 wherein the drone control apparatus to deploy the unmanned aerial vehicle from a vehicle when the drone control apparatus is activated by the wearer.

3 . The personal protective equipment of claim 1 further comprising:

an armored carrier to deploy two of the unmanned aerial vehicles,

wherein the unmanned aerial vehicle is part of a drone system comprising a first unmanned aerial vehicle and a second unmanned aerial vehicle,

wherein the first unmanned aerial vehicle to automatically perform a left reconnaissance around a building, and

wherein the second unmanned aerial vehicle to perform a right reconnaissance around the building.

4 . The personal protective equipment of claim 1 ;

wherein the drone control apparatus to enable the wearer to summon the unmanned aerial vehicle to a location in a visual field of view of a camera of the unmanned aerial vehicle in which the wearer and an ambient environment around the wearer is observable, and

wherein the unmanned aerial vehicle is summoned to the wearer through a double tap action on the drone control apparatus.

5 . The personal protective equipment of claim 1 wherein the responsive device to detect the ambient threat using an artificial intelligence based threat detection model.

6 . The personal protective equipment of claim 1 further comprising:

a patrol vehicle to deploy the unmanned aerial vehicle,

wherein the unmanned aerial vehicle to encircle a suspect vehicle, and

wherein the unmanned aerial vehicle launched from the patrol vehicle to quantify a number of persons in the suspect vehicle using a computer vision based artificial intelligence, and to notify the wearer through at least one of a display in the patrol vehicle and the responsive device when the ambient threat is detected.

7 . The personal protective equipment of claim 6 further comprising:

wherein the unmanned aerial vehicle on the patrol vehicle to automatically detect any one or more of the ambient threat, including a weapon, a furtive movement, and an illegal substance in the suspect vehicle through the computer vision based artificial intelligence, and

wherein the unmanned aerial vehicle to notify the wearer through at least one of the display in the patrol vehicle and the responsive device when the ambient threat is detected.

8 . The personal protective equipment of claim 6 further comprising:

wherein the unmanned aerial vehicle launched from the patrol vehicle to automatically capture at least one of a front license plate and a back license plate of the suspect vehicle using the computer vision based artificial intelligence,

wherein the unmanned aerial vehicle launched from the patrol vehicle to determine whether the back license plate matches the front license plate, and to notify the wearer through at least one of the display in the patrol vehicle and the responsive device whether the license plates are matching, and

wherein the unmanned aerial vehicle launched from the patrol vehicle to automatically utilize infrared sensing to determine a hotspot in the vehicle, and to notify the wearer through at least one of the display in the patrol vehicle and the responsive device when the hotspot is something that the wearer needs to investigate.

9 . The personal protective equipment of claim 6 further comprising:

wherein the drone control apparatus to enable the wearer to summon the unmanned aerial vehicle to follow at least one of a suspect and the suspect vehicle while maintaining a line of sight to an ambient environment surrounding the at least one of the suspect and the suspect vehicle, and providing a visual display of the location of at least one of the suspect and the suspect vehicle on the display in the patrol vehicle,

wherein the unmanned aerial vehicle launched from the patrol vehicle to auditorily communicate a message to the driver of the suspect vehicle when at least one of the wearer speaks into at least one of a microphone in the patrol vehicle and another microphone on the drone control apparatus on tactical gear when the drone control apparatus is depressed, and

wherein the message is delivered directly from a command center in an attempt to de-escalate a situation and encourage peaceful surrender in a manner which is adapted its communication style based on the suspect's response, a background information, or a predefined protocols to increase the chances of compliance.

10 . The personal protective equipment of claim 6 further comprising:

wherein the unmanned aerial vehicle to perform an advance work prior to the wearer exiting the patrol vehicle, and any issues are displayed on the display on the patrol vehicle as the advance work is being carried out,

wherein the advance work includes automatically detecting when an individual intentionally leaving behind an item comprising a backpack, package, and any object that can pose a potential threat through object detection and a behavior of placing items down and then departing without them to determine a security threat level, and

wherein the unmanned aerial vehicle to automatically launch from the patrol vehicle when the suspect vehicle is still moving when the wearer activates police lights on the patrol vehicle.

11 . The personal protective equipment of claim 6 wherein the display in the patrol vehicle to provide at least one of a log file and an analytics summary of reasons why a haptic response was triggered on the personal protective equipment, such that the wearer knows why the haptic response was triggered.

12 . The personal protective equipment of claim 1 :

wherein the drone control apparatus to enable the wearer to summon the unmanned aerial vehicle to follow the wearer while maintaining the line of sight to the ambient environment surrounding the wearer, and haptically notifying the wearer through the responsive device when the ambient threat is detected,

wherein the unmanned aerial vehicle is summoned to the wearer through a triple tap action on the drone control apparatus, and

wherein the unmanned aerial vehicle to follow at least one of the wearer and a suspect through indoor spaces.

13 . The personal protective equipment of claim 1 :

wherein the responsive device to vibrate when a different wearer of a different personal protective equipment to detect the ambient threat to the wearer,

wherein the different personal protective equipment is communicatively coupled with the personal protective equipment through an ad-hoc edge mesh network formed between the personal protective equipment and the different personal protective equipment,

wherein only a subset of an array of haptic sensors on the personal protective equipment closest to the ambient threat to vibrate based on a directionality of the ambient threat, and wherein the personal protective equipment to include a global positioning system, and

wherein the personal protective equipment to vibrate when at least one of the vehicle and a stationary sensory device networked with the personal protective equipment perceives the ambient threat nearby to the wearer.

14 . The personal protective equipment of claim 1 :

wherein at least one of a visual sensor of the tactical gear and the unmanned aerial vehicle to automatically utilize facial recognition technology to determine if a suspect is in a government database, and to notify the wearer when the suspect is in the government database.

15 . The personal protective equipment of claim 1 :

wherein the responsive device to notify the wearer when a target person with a face is detected by at least one of the visual sensor of the tactical gear and the unmanned aerial vehicle, wherein the target person with the face is associated with a photograph of the target person with the face that is shown to a mobile application to train an artificial intelligence model of the tactical gear.

16 . The personal protective equipment of claim 1 :

wherein the responsive device to notify the wearer when a license plate associated with at least one of a stolen vehicle and a suspected criminal is detected by at least one of the visual sensor of the tactical gear and the unmanned aerial vehicle.

17 . The personal protective equipment of claim 1 further comprising a biometric sensor of the tactical gear to measure a biometric information of the wearer, and to calm the wearer down when the biometric sensor detects a high degree of stress on the wearer, and wherein the biometric sensor automatically informs a police command center to send for backup when the biometric sensor detects the high degree of stress.

18 . A method, comprising:

integrating a drone control apparatus into a chest area of a tactical gear;

placing a responsive device in the tactical gear; and

causing the responsive device to notify a wearer when an unmanned aerial vehicle detects an ambient threat to the wearer of the tactical gear,

wherein the unmanned aerial vehicle is communicatively coupled with the tactical gear.

19 . The method of claim 18 further comprising any one of:

deploying the unmanned aerial vehicle from a vehicle when the drone control apparatus is activated by the wearer;

summoning the unmanned aerial vehicle to a location in a visual field of view of a camera of the unmanned aerial vehicle in which the wearer and an ambient environment around the wearer is observable through a first action on the drone control apparatus;

summoning the unmanned aerial vehicle to the location in the visual field of view of the camera of the unmanned aerial vehicle in which a suspect and the ambient environment around the suspect is observable through a second action on the drone control apparatus;

summoning the unmanned aerial vehicle to the location in the visual field of view of the camera of the unmanned aerial vehicle in which a suspect vehicle and the ambient environment around the suspect vehicle is observable through a third action on the drone control apparatus;

causing the unmanned aerial vehicle to encircle at least one of a building and the suspect vehicle;

quantifying a number of persons in the suspect vehicle using a computer vision based artificial intelligence, and to notify the wearer through at least one of a display in a patrol vehicle and the responsive device when the ambient threat is detected;

detecting any one or more of the ambient threat, including a weapon, a furtive movement, and an illegal substance in the suspect vehicle through computer vision based artificial intelligence, and wherein the unmanned aerial vehicle haptically notifies the wearer through at least one of the display in the patrol vehicle and the responsive device when the ambient threat is detected;

utilizing an infrared sensing to determine a hotspot in the vehicle, and to notify the wearer through at least one of the display in the patrol vehicle and the responsive device when the hotspot is something that the wearer needs to investigate;

auditorily communicating a message to a driver of the suspect vehicle when the wearer speaks into at least one of a microphone in the patrol vehicle and another microphone on the drone control apparatus on the tactical gear when the drone control apparatus is depressed;

performing an advance work prior to the wearer exiting the patrol vehicle, and any issues are displayed on the display on the patrol vehicle as the advance work is being carried out;

automatically launching from the patrol vehicle when the suspect vehicle is still moving when the wearer activates police lights on the patrol vehicle; and

describing reasons why a haptic response was triggered on the personal protective equipment on the display in the patrol vehicle.

20 . A system comprising:

a network;

an unmanned aerial vehicle;

a vehicle communicatively coupled with the unmanned aerial vehicle; and

a personal protective equipment communicatively coupled with the vehicle and the unmanned aerial vehicle to cause a responsive device to notify a wearer of the tactical gear when the unmanned aerial vehicle detects an ambient threat to the wearer.

Assignments (10)

Continuity (11)

References Cited (400)