WO2014072971A1

WO2014072971A1 - Method of determining a license plate of a vehicle tracked by a surveillance system

Info

Publication number: WO2014072971A1
Application number: PCT/IL2013/050910
Authority: WO
Inventors: Assaf GIVON; Yotam ATAD
Original assignee: Givon Assaf; Atad Yotam
Priority date: 2012-11-06
Filing date: 2013-11-06
Publication date: 2014-05-15
Also published as: WO2014072971A9

Abstract

A vehicle is tracked by a VMD -equipped video surveillance system as the vehicle travels along a roadway. ALPR cameras are deployed at one or more points along the roadway. Detection zones are defined in the surveillance system corresponding to target areas of the ALPR cameras. Detection zones may also be defined for areas designating for pay parking. A server receives detection events when vehicles enter or exit a detection zone. The server also receives LPR events when ALPR cameras capture vehicle license plates. Optionally the server receives mobile phone tracking data. The server correlates the time and location of detection events with LPR events and optionally mobile phone tracking events in order to associate a license plate number, and optionally a mobile phone, to a tracked vehicle. The server may also calculate the parking fee and generate a parking bill.

Description

PCT Patent Application

TITLE OF IN VENTION

METHOD OF DETERMINING A LICENSE PLATE OF A VEHICLE TRACKED BY A SURVEILLANCE SYSTEM

TECHNICAL FIELD

The technical field of the invention relates generally to automatically determining a license plate belonging to a vehicle being tracked by a surveillance system, and more particularly to automatically determining a parking payment due for a parked vehicle.

BACKGROUND ART

Modern video camera surveillance systems equipped with automatic video motion detection (VMD) are capable of simultaneously detecting and tracking, i.e. "following", multiple moving objects, such as vehicles, as the objects move about in the monitored area, and even as the objects move between areas monitored by different cameras. Some of the more advanced video surveillance systems include features such as the ability to differentiate between different types of objects and selectively track objects that meet certain criteria (e.g. vehicles), the ability to reacquire previously tracked objects for whom tracking was temporarily lost, for example by periods of occlusion, and the ability for a user to define one or more "detection zones" within the greater monitored area representing specific areas of interest to monitor. For example a user may define a detection zone by viewing an image of the monitored area on a computer screen, using an input device such as a mouse to draw lines on the screen defining the boundaries of a sub-area of interest, and saving the sub-area definition to the surveillance system. Once defined, system may then be configured to generate an alert or take other action if an object resembling a vehicle is detected entering or leaving the detection zone. Methods and systems for automatic detection and tracking and moving objects in a video stream are described in U.S. Patent 8,379,923 to Golan et al., U.S. Patent 8,358,808 to Malinovskiy et al., U.S. Patent Application 1 1/885,751 to Xu et al., and European Patent EP 1 ,606,769 to Comaniciu et al. Additional references include: Borst A., Egelhaaf M., Principles of visual motion detection, Trends Neurosci. 12, 297-306 (1989); S. Smith, Asset-2: Real-time motion segmentation and shape tracking, Proc. 5th Int. Conf. Computer Vision (ICCV',95), pp.237 -244 (1995); A. Lipton, H. Fujiyoshi, and R. Patil, Moving target detection and classification from real-time video, In Proceedings of IEEE

Workshop on Application of Computer Vision, 1998. Video surveillance systems with object tracking can be purchased from companies such as VERINT® located at 330 South Service Road, Melville, New York.

However, a current limitation with the surveillance systems on the market today is that when it comes to tracking vehicles, these systems are usually unable to discern the license plate number of a vehicle due to the wide-angle view required for effective surveil lance and object tracking. As such, while the surveillance system may assign a random internal object identifier to a tracked vehicle, the real identity of the tracked vehicle, and hence the vehicle's owner, cannot be easily determined.

There also exists on the market today specialized license plate capture cameras which, when aimed at a specific spot on a roadway, are capable of automatically capturing an image of a license plate of a vehicle as the vehicle approaches the target spot. These cameras use known technology for detecting Hcense plates called automatic license plate recognition (ALPR), which is sometimes referred to as automatic number plate recognition (ANPR). In addition to capturing an image of the license plate, these systems are often capable of storing the image along with a location identifier and timestamp, extracting the textual characters of the license plate into a text string, querying vehicle registries or other databases using the text string license plate, and storing the results of the query for further action by a user. ALPR camera systems are described in more detail in U.S. Patent 4,817,166 to Gonzalez et al., U.S. Patent 4,878,248 to Shyu et al., U.S. Patent 5,651,075 to Frazier et al, U.S. Patent 8,447,112 to Paul et al., and PCT Patent Application PCT/GB2006/000392 to Lei et al. ALPR systems can be purchased from 3M located at 3M Center, St. Paul, Minnesota.

However a limitation with ALPR camera systems is their inability to track vehicles by following the vehicles' movements, because license plate recognition and decoding requires the camera to be highly focused on one single area of the roadway where the license plate of an approaching vehicle is expected to appear. In some ALPR camera systems, only the license plate is captured and not the rest of vehicle.

There also exists today, methods for locating mobile phones by determining the location of a mobile phone relative to the fixed locations of nearby base stations with which the mobile phone is communicating with. One well known method involves measure the strength of the transmission signal received from the mobile phone at several different base stations, calculating the distance between the mobile phone and each respective base station based on signal strength, and finding the point of intersection between imaginary circles drawn around the base stations at a radius equal to the distance of the mobile phone. Methods for locating mobile phones are described in more detail in U.S. Patent 5,365,544 to Schilling, U.S. Patent 5,508,708 to Ghosh et al, U.S. Patent 5,512,908 to Herrick, U.S. Patent 5,873,040 to Dunn et al., U.S. Patent 6,191,738 to Pfeil et al, and U.S. Patent 8,380,220 to Alles et al. Note that if one does not have access to a base station subsystem, one may install, in several places in a pre-determined monitoring area, antennae that communicate with mobile phones in the area strictly for the purpose of locating their positions.

All of the documents referred to above, together with the references cited therein, are incorporated herein by reference.

SUMMARY OF INVENTION

One aspect of the present invention relates to an improved method and system for automatically tracking vehicles as they move along roadways by automatically determining the identity of a tracked vehicle.

A second aspect of the present invention relates to a method and system for automatically enforcing pay parking by tracking a vehicle's movement into and out of a parking space, determining the identity of the vehicle and the vehicle's owner determining the length of time the vehicle was parked, and generating a parking bill which is to be sent to the vehicle's owner.

Both aspects of the invention use a combination of video surveillance with object tracking, automatic license plate recognition, and optionally mobile phone tracking in order to detect, track, and identify a vehicle as it moves along a roadway and in and out of parking areas.

According to the present invention there is provided a method for tracking of a vehicle and associating the vehicle with a license plate, the method including the steps of (a) using a video surveillance system, monitoring a first area, the monitoring including detecting an entry of a vehicle to the first area and recording a time of the detection, (b) substantially simultaneously with the detecting, using an optical camera, capturing an image of a license plate of the vehicle in the first area and recording a time of the capture, and (c) correlating the time of the capture with the time of the detection. Preferably the method also includes the steps of (d) monitoring and recording a respective location of each of at least one mobile phone in a second area that includes the first area, (e) recording a time of entry of one of the at least one mobile phone to the first area, and (f) correlating the time of the entry with the time of the capture.

According to another aspect of the present invention there is provided a method of identifying a vehicle that is imaged in a video stream, the method including the steps of (a) delineating a monitored zone within a scene that is imaged in the video stream, (b) recording a time of an entry of the vehicle to the monitored zone as imaged within the video stream, (c) using an optical camera aimed at the point of entry to the monitored zone, capturing an image of a license plate of a vehicle substantially simultaneously with the entry of the vehicle to the monitored zone, (d) recording a time of the capture, (e) correlating the time of the capture with the recorded time of the entry of the vehicle to the monitored zone as imaged within the video stream, and (f) associating a license plate to the vehicle in the video stream based on the correlated times.

Preferably the method also includes the steps of (g) monitoring and recording respective location changes of each of at least one mobile phone in an area that includes the monitored zone, (h) upon the location changes of the at least one mobile phone being indicative of the at least one mobile phone entering the monitored zone, recording a time of th e entry by the at least one mobile phone to the monitored zone, and (i) associating the at least one mobile phone with the vehicle in the video stream if the time of the entry of the at least one mobile phone to the monitored zone matches either of the recorded time of the entry of the vehicle to the monitored zone as imaged within the video stream or the time of the capture of the license plate image.

According to yet another aspect of the present invention there is provided a method of identifying a vehicle on a roadway, the method including the steps of (a) using a video camera of a video surveillance system: monitoring an area of the roadway and capturing on video vehicles travelling the roadway and defining a detection zone within the video surveillance system, the detection zone corresponding to a sub-area of the monitored area of the roadway, (b) aiming an automatic license plate recognition (ALPR) camera at a roadway section corresponding to the detection zone, the ALPR camera operative to capture, for each vehicle which enters the roadway section, a respective image of a license plate of the vehicle as the vehicle enters the roadway section, (c) recording, for each vehicle that enters the detection zone, a respective time that each vehicle enters the detection zone, (d) recording, for each license plate image capture, a respective time that each image was captured, (e) correlating the respective entry times with the respective capture times, and (f) associating an image of a license plate to a vehicle imaged in the video according to the correlated times.

According to yet another aspect of the present invention there is provided a system including (a) a video monitoring system operative to track a vehicle as it travels along a roadway, the video monitoring system configured to detect when the tracked vehicle enters and exits a parking space, (b) an ALPR system operative to capture an image of a license plate of a vehicle tracked by the video monitoring system, and (c) a computing machine operative to receive and correlate data from the video monitoring system and data from the ALPR system and to associate a vehicle tracked by the video monitoring system with a license plate image captured by the ALPR system.

Preferably the system also includes a mobile phone tracking system operative to track at least one mobile phone travelling along the roadway, and the computing machine is operative to also correlate data from the mobile phone tracking system to associate a tracked vehicle with a mobile phone. Preferably, subsequent to associating a vehicle with a license plate, the computing machine computes a parking fee for the tracked vehicle based on the detected entry and exit from the parking space. Preferably, subsequent to computing a parking fee, the computing machine generates a parking bill for the tracked bill.

According to yet another aspect of the present invention there is provided a server including (a) a processor, and (b) a non-volatile memory operationally coupled to the processor and on which is stored instructions that when executed by the processor cause the server to: (i) receive one or more vehicle detection events from a video tracking system, the vehicle detection event including at least a time and a location of the vehicle detection event, (u) receive one or more LPR events from an ALPR system, the LPR event including at least a time and a location for the LPR event, and (iii) correlate the vehicle detection events with the LPR events based on the respective times and the respective locations of the events.

Preferably on the non-volatile memory is further stored instructions that when executed cause the server to receive one or more mobile phone tracking events from a mobile phone tracking system, the mobile phone events including at least a time and a location for the mobile phone tracking event, and to correlate the mobile phone tracki ng events with either of the vehicle detection events or the LPR events based on respective times and locations of the events.

Preferably at least one of the vehicle detection events is a vehicle parking event and on which non-volatile memory is further stored instructions that when executed cause the server to generate a parking bill for the parking event.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

Fig. 1 shows a roadway being monitored by the system of the present invention;

Fig. 2 shows a screen view of the roadway being monitored in Fig. 1 ;

Fig. 3 shows a screen view of a tracked vehicle parking;

Fig. 4 illustrates a conceptual view of event correlation;

Fig. 5 is a high level block diagram of the hardware components of the present invention according to one embodiment;

Fig. 6 is a high level block diagram of software configured to implement the present invention according to one embodiment;

DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

Preferred embodiments of the present invention will now be described, however a person skilled in the art will appreciate that other embodiments of the present invention are also possible, and that the embodiments described below are not the only means of carrying out the invention, which is limited only by the claims herein.

A vehicle is tracked as it moves along roadways using a VMD-enabled video surveillance system deployed along the roadways to be monitored, which includes designated pay parking areas for which automatic parking enforcement is desired. Detection zones are defined in the surveillance system for designated pay parking areas. Each time a tracked vehicle enters a detection zone or exits a detection zone, a corresponding detection event is generated by the surveillance system and sent to a server for processing.

A series of ALPR cameras are also installed at key points along the monitored route in order to detect and capture license plate images as vehicles approach (or exit, if the camera is installed to capture a rear license plate) a target area of the roadway. Once ALPR. cameras are deployed and aimed at target areas, those target areas are also defined as detection zones in the VMD~enabled surveillance system. Each time a license plate is captured, a corresponding LPR event is generated by the ALPR system and sent to a server for processing. Because the LPR target area is also a defined detection zone in the surveillance system, each time an LPR event is generated by the ALPR system, a simultaneous detection event is also generated by the surveillance system.

Fig. 1 illustrates a roadway which is being monitored by the system of the present invention. Surveillance camera 12 is deployed along roadway 4 to monitor and track

approaching vehicles. ALPR camera 14 is a!so deployed along roadway 4, and aimed at a particular target area 6 which is on roadway 4. The dotted lines in Fig. 1 indicate the views of the respective cameras. As a vehicle enters target area 6, ALPR camera will automatically capture an image of the vehicle's license plate and generate an LPR event. Target area 6 is also in view of surveillance camera 12 and is a defined detection zone in the surveillance system. Therefore, as a vehicle enters target area 6, a detection event will also be generated.

Fig. 2 shows what an image of the scene recorded by surveillance camera 12 in Fig. 1 might look like in a monitor. Fig. 2 shows that approaching vehicle 16 is being tracked by the surveillance system as indicated by the box around vehicle 16. An arrow is included in order to depict the movement of vehicle 16 as it approaches target area 6.

Fig. 3 shows an image from a different surveillance camera which acquired vehicle 16 and is tracking vehicle 16 as it parks. The box around vehicle 16 visually indicates that the vehicle is being tracked by the surveiliance system. Detection zones 24a-24g are defined for the parking areas shown in the image of Fig. 3, as denoted by dashed rectangles. As vehicle 16 parks, it enters detection zone 24e, triggering the surveillance system to generate a detection event. When vehicle 16 resumes driving after being parked, vehicle 16 will exit detection zone 24e, triggering the surveillance system to generate a new detection event. As can be seen in Fig. 3, the surveillance camera capturing the parking event does not have a view of the license plate of vehicle 16. Preferably, detection zones 24a-24g are each smaller than one car length.

Preferably, the surveillance system can detect when a parked vehicle straddles two detection zones, in which case the location identifier used by the system to identify the parking space in which vehicle 16 parked would be derived from the combination of two distinct location identifiers, each location identifier being associated with a single parking space. In one embodiment, a server is configured to receive a detection event from the surveillance system each time a vehicle enters or leaves a detection zone. The detection event includes data representing at least a unique vehicle identifier V(id) (which could be randomly assigned by the surveillance system), a time of the detection V(t), a unique location identifier V(loc)

corresponding to the particular detection zone where the vehicle was detected, and optionally an indicator representing "in" or "out" depending on whether the detection event corresponds to a vehicle entering or exiting a detection zone. Optionally, the server can also receive a myriad of other data from the surveillance system including images of the vehicle entering or leaving detection zones, tracking data indicating a vehicle's movements other than in or out of detection zones or any other output that may be generated by the surveillance system.

The server is also configured to receive LPR events from the ALPR camera system. An

LPR event is generated each time an ALPR camera captures a license plate. The LPR event includes data representing at least a license plate number LPR(lic) (or alternatively LPR(lic) can reference a license plate image from which the license plate number can be extracted), a time LPR(t) corresponding to the time of the capture, and a location identifier LPR(loc) corresponding to the target area of the ALPR camera that executed the capture. Optionally, the server can also receive images of the license plates captured or any other data generated by the ALPR camera system.

Upon receiving data about the above events, the server can then correlate the events between the separate systems such that vehicle V(id) is associated with license plate LPR(lic) when

V(t) = LPR(t) and V(loc) - LPR(loc)

Fig. 4 provides a conceptual view of the correlations that may be made between the detection events recorded by the surveillance system and the LPR events recorded by the ALPR system. A first conceptual table 30 shows a record of detection events received from the surveillance system. A second conceptual table 32 shows a record of LPR events received from the ALPR system, A third conceptual table 36 shows the correlated entries of tables 32 and 30 by time and location of the event. Looking at the sample data shown in Fig. 3, table 30 shows a vehicle known to the surveillance system only as 1290 (a randomly generated unique ID) was detected as it entered location 7276744 at 14:16:23:06 on 10.09.2013, and a vehicle known to the system as 3414 entered location 2666876 at 14:16:24:06 on 10.09.2013. Table 32 shows that on 10.09.2013 license plate 52-232-87 was captured at location 7276744 at 14:16:23:06 and license plate 28-318-34 was captured at location 2666876 at 14:16:24:06. The correlated data is shown in table 36: vehicle 1290 has license plate 52-232-87 and vehicle 3414 has license plate 28-318- 34.

Table 30 also shows that vehicle 1290 parked in location 845891 1 on 10.09.2013 from

18:07:58 to 21: 18:43 or 3 hours and 1 1 minutes. Parking table 38 shows parking events by license plate number. As table 38 shows, without requiring a separate ALPR camera at parking space 845891 1 a parking bill can be generated for vehicle bearing license plate 52-232-87. Mobile phone tracking

In one embodiment, the server may also receive mobile phone tracking events from a mobile phone tracking system which locates and tracks mobile phones in the monitored area. Mobile phone tracking data can be an effective means of supplementing the video surveillance tracking data. Since a mobile phone in a vehicle will exhibit little to no movement relative to the vehicle, the system can receive location over time data for a mobile phone and determine based on the mobile phone's movements, if the mobile phone is in a vehicle which is being tracked by the surveillance system. If it is, the system can bind the mobile phone to the vehicle, using the mobile phone's unique identifier. If the surveillance system suddenly loses tracking of the vehicle, tracking may be maintained by monitoring the movement of the mobile phone which is bound to the vehicle. Mobile phone tracking may thus be used as a backup tracking system or to fill gaps that may exist in the surveillance system tracking data for a vehicle.

As long as the mobile phone has not been moved to another vehicle (the vehicle has not stopped) the tracking data for the mobile phone will determine the vehicle's locations. One method of ascertaining that the vehicle has not stopped is by calculating the distance it travelled since the last time it was located and computing the time that passed (e.g. if the vehicle travelled 100m in less than 10 seconds it could not have stopped).

A mobile phone tracking event received by the server may include data such as a unique mobile phone identifier M(id), a location identifier M(loc) corresponding to the location of the mobile phone at the time the mobile phone tracking event was generated, and time M(t) corresponding to the time of the event. The unique mobile phone identifier M(id) could correspond to a number already assigned to the mobile phone and obtainable from the base station subsystem (BSS) or "sniffed out" with appropriate antennae and receiving apparatus. For example the International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMS!) number or Temporary Mobile Subscriber Identity (TMSI) number could be used. Alternatively the mobile phone tracking system can assign a randomly generated unique identifier which identifies the mobile phone to the tracking system.

If the server receives tracking data for a mobile phone, it may be able to match the movement of a mobile phone to the movement of a vehicle when both the mobile phone and the vehicle appear to be at the same place at the same time. Or put another way:

M(t) = V(t) when M(loc) = V(Ioc) In that case, the server can associate the mobile phone with the vehicle by identifying mobile phone M(id) with vehicle V(id). In that case, a license plate LPR(lic) may be assigned to vehicle V(id) when:

M(f) = LPR(t) and M(loc) = LPR(Ioc)

It will be appreciated that location identifiers used by the surveillance system, ALPR system and mobile phone tracking system and recorded at the server may be any meaningful value which uniquely identifies a fixed geographic location. In one embodiment the location identifier may take the form XXYY where XX represents a two digit x coordinate and YY represents a two digit y coordinate in ax,y coordinate system. Preferably the respective location identifier which the server receives from each of the separate systems should be in the same format, i.e. use the same reference system, for ease of correlating the data between the different systems. However in the event any received location identifier is in a different format, the server can be configured to automatically map the received location identifier to a new location identifier in the expected format corresponding to the same physical location.

Having now determined the identity (by vehicle license plate) of a tracked vehicle and in particular a parked vehicle, the server may calculate a parking fee and invoice which will be forwarded to the owner of the identified vehicle. In one embodiment the server can look up the vehicle's owner and address information in a database of vehicle registrations. In another embodiment, the license plate lookup can be handled by the ALPR system automatically upon the license plate capture and communicated to the server. In various embodiments, the server can do one or more of automatically calculating a parking fee, automatically generating a paper or electronic format invoice, forwarding an electronic invoice by electronic means (e.g. email, SMS, etc.). In a preferred embodiment, one or more images of the parked vehicle taken from the surveillance system and/or the license plate camera may be retained by the system and sent to the vehicle's owner as well.

In a preferred embodiment, the server can be configured to automatically compute the parking fee using one or more mathematical functions which capture the various factors which must be used to compute the fee due. For example, the actual fee due may not be just a function of duration parked but may also depend on such things as the location, the time of day, the day of the week, or the specific day (for example there may be a reduced or nil fee on a statutory holiday). In another embodiment the server may be configured to automatically accept and process electronic payment of the parking fee using third party payment processing software available on the market.

Fig. 5 is high level block diagram of one embodiment of the hardware components that make up the present invention. A surveillance system 42 includes one or more video

surveillance cameras 44 operationally coupled to a video processing unit 46. Video processing unit 46 is responsible for processing video feeds received from cameras 44, performing object analysis and object tracking, and transmitting data over a computer network. In some surveillance systems, video processing unit 46 may be physically incorporated into one or more of cameras 44 or integrated in a remote server.

An ALPR system 48 includes one or more ALPR cameras 50 operationally coupled to an ALPR processing unit 52. ALPR processing unit 52 is responsible for processing images captured by cameras 50, extracting license plate information, and transmitting data over a computer network. In some ALPR systems, ALPR processing unit 52 may be physically incorporated into one or more of cameras 48 or integrated in a remote server.

In one embodiment, mobile phone tracking system 64 receives data from one or more base station subsystems 68 which mobile phone tracking system 64 uses to locate and track mobile phones which are in the monitored area.

A server 54 is configured to receive detection events, LPR events, and optionally mobile phone tracking events. Server 54 includes one or more processors 62, non-volatile memory (NVM) 60, and communication ports 58 all operationally coupled to one another via a system bus 66. Within NVM 60 is stored machine-readable program code 70 that when executed by the one or more processors 62 causes server 54 to receive via communication ports 58 one or more detection events from video processing unit 46, one or more LPR events from ALPR processing unit 52, and optionally one or more mobile phone tracking events from mobile phone tracking system 64. Only those parts of server 54 which are considered to be germane to the invention are deemed necessary to be shown in Fig. 5 and a person skilled in the art will appreciate that server 54 has a myriad of other components as well. Furthermore it will be appreciated to a person skilled in the art that mobile phone tracking system 64 may be implemented using hardware, software, or a combination of both. Thus it will be readily appreciated mobile phone tracking system 64 may also be incorporated into server 54, either as a software module located in NVM 60 or as a hardware module operationally connected to system bus 66.

Fig. 6 is a high level block diagram of one embodiment of various software modules that together make up program code 70 according to the present invention. Program code 70 may include one or more individual software modules which are in communication with one another. In this particular embodiment of program code 70 receiving logic 72 processes incoming data packets representing events received from the surveillance system, ALPR system and mobile phone tracking system. Once processed, receiving logic 72 passes the data representing events to storing logic 74 which manages the storage and retrieval of event data in a database. Execution continues with correlation logic 78 which correlates the events in the database in order to assign a license plate to a tracked vehicle. Correlation logic 78 may be configured to correlate events continuously as events are received and stored, or alternatively only when a vehicle needs to be identified, for example a vehicle that just left a parking space.

Optionally, in cases where a parking bill is desired, execution may then flow to bill generation logic 80 which searches, using a vehicle license plate, a vehicle registrations database 82 for the vehicle's owner and owner address information. Bill generation logic 80 then uses the correlated data for the tracking events that tracked the vehicle entering and exiting a parking space, including park "in" time and park "out" time to compute the parking fee and generated a bill.

A person skilled in the art will also appreciate that references made herein to "time" includes a date, and that for the purposes of this invention two or more times that are less than one second apart can be considered within the meaning of "same time". Similarly,, two or more locations which differ by less than one car length can be considered within the meaning of "same location". References to a "server" include any one or more physical or virtual machines that process computer instructions.

While the present invention for an improved method of tracking a vehicle by having the vehicle's identity automatically determined is described with reference to its usefulness as a means for automatically enforcing pay parking, a person skilled in the art will readily appreciate that many other uses may be contemplated as well. For example, the present invention can be used to:

1. Gather statistical information about the vehicles (and therefore people) that frequent a particular neighborhood, in order to analyze the socio-economical demographics of the region. This information can be shared with businesses which can then use that information to decide whether or not to open a retail store in that location and what type of retail store. For example a street frequented by luxury automobiles may be a suitable location for jewelry store, while a street frequented by older, cheaper vehicles, or by people who live in a poor neighborhood may be more suitable for a pawn shop.

2. Track the number and locations of available parking spaces in a defined area and share this information with the public in real time, for example via a smartphone application.

3. Automatically notify the police if a stolen vehicle, or any vehicle the police may be looking for, enters the monitored area, and track the vehicle until the police arrive on the scene;

4. Automatically track license plate expiration dates and send reminders to vehicle owners when their license plate is expired or soon to expire, based on information obtained from the vehicle registry.

Claims

What is claimed is:

1. A method for tracking of a vehicle and associating the vehicle with a license plate comprising:

(a) using a video surveillance system, monitoring a first area, said monitoring including:

(i) detecting an entry of a vehicle to said first area, and

(ii) recording a time of said detection;

(b) substantially simultaneously with said detecting, using an optical camera, capturing an image of a license plate of said vehicle in said first area and recording a time of said capture; and

(c) correlating said time of said capture with said time of said detection.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

(d) monitoring and recording a respective location of each of at least one mobile phone in a second area that includes said first area;

(e) recording a time of entry of one of said at least one mobile phone to said first area; and

(f) correlating said time of said entry with said time of said capture.

3. A method of identifying a vehicle that is imaged in a video stream, comprising:

(a) delineating a monitored zone within a scene that is imaged in the video stream;

(b) recording a time of an entry of the vehicle to said monitored zone as imaged within the video stream;

(c) using an optical camera aimed at the point of entry to said monitored zone, capturing an image of a license plate of a vehicle substantially simultaneously with said entry of the vehicle to said monitored zone;

(d) recording a time of said capture;

(e) correlating said time of said capture with said recorded time of the entry of the vehicle to said monitored zone as imaged within the video stream; and

(f) associating a license plate to the vehicle in the video stream based on said correlated times.

4. The method of claim 3 further comprising:

(g) monitoring and recording respective location changes of each of at least one mobile phone in an area that includes said monitored zone;

(h) upon said location changes of said at least one mobile phone being indicative of said at least one mobile phone entering said monitored zone, recording a time of said entry by said at least one mobile phone to said monitored zone; and (ί) associating said at least one mobile phone with the vehicle in the video stream if said time of said entry of said at least one mobile phone to the monitored zone matches either of said recorded time of said entry of the vehicle to the monitored zone as imaged within the video stream or said time of said capture of said license plate image.

5. A method of identifying a vehicle on a roadway comprising:

(a) using a video camera of a video surveillance system:

(i) monitoring an area of the roadway and capturing on video vehicles travelling the roadway, and

(ii) defining a detection zone within said video surveillance system, said detection zone corresponding to a sub-area of the monitored area of the roadway;

(b) aiming an automatic license plate recognition (ALPR) camera at a roadway section corresponding to said detection zone, said ALPR camera operative to capture, for each vehicle which enters said roadway section, a respective image of a license plate of the vehicle as the vehicle enters said roadway section;

(c) recording, for each vehicle that enters said detection zone, a respective time that each vehicle enters said detection zone;

(d) recording, for each license plate image capture, a respective time that each image was captured;

(e) correlating said respective entry times with said respective capture times; and

(f) associating an image of a license plate to a vehicle imaged in said video according to said correlated times.

6. A system comprising:

(a) a video monitoring system operative to track a vehicle as it travels along a roadway, said video monitoring system configured to detect when said tracked vehicle enters and exits a parking space;

(b) an ALPR system operative to capture an image of a license plate of a vehicle tracked by said video monitoring system; and (c) a computing machine operative to receive and correlate data from said video monitoring system and data from said ALPR system and to associate a vehicle tracked by said video monitoring system with a license plate image captured by said ALPR system.

7. The system of claim 6 further comprising a mobile phone tracking system operative to track at least one mobile phone travelling along said roadway, and wherein said computing machine is operative to also correlate data from said mobile phone tracking system to associate a tracked vehicle with a mobile phone.

8. The system of claim 6 wherein subsequent to associating a vehicle with a license plate, said computing machine computes a parking fee for said tracked vehicle based on said detected entry and exit from said parking space.

9. The system of claim 8 wherein subsequent to computing a parking fee, said computing machine generates a parking bill for said tracked bill.

10. A server comprising:

(a) a processor; and

(b) a non-volatile memory operationally coupled to said processor and on which is stored instructions that when executed by said processor cause said server to:

(i) receive one or more vehicle detection events from a video tracking system, said vehicle detection event including at least a time and a location of said vehicle detection event,

(ii) receive one or more LPR events from an ALPR system, said LPR event including at least a time and a location for said LPR event, and

(iii) correlate said vehicle detection events with said LPR events based on said respective times and said respective locations of said events.

1 1. The server of claim 10 on which non-volatile memory is further stored instructions that when executed cause said server to receive one or more mobile phone tracking events from a mobile phone tracking system, said mobile phone events including at least a time and a location for said mobile phone tracking event, and to correlate said mobile phone tracking events with either of said vehicle detection events or said LPR events based on respective times and locations of said events.

12. The server of claim 10 wherein at least one of said vehicle detection events is a vehicle parking event and on which non-volatile memory is further stored instructions that when executed cause said server to generate a parking bill for said parking event.