Abstract: A threat detection and warning system for a law enforcement officer includes a recording/sensing device, computing device, and device for providing feedback to the officer. The recording device is controlled manually by the user or can be automatically triggered by either an external or internally derived signal. An external signal can be from another similar device already recording, a signal from a vehicle-based device that has been triggered or any other device within range. An internal trigger can be derived by analyzing locally collected data by the computing device. The computing device can analyze data from the recording device looking for threats or situations of interest or persons of interest to the officer. These threats can include weapons or simply an individual acting in a threatening manner. Fast feedback to the officer can be provided by an augmented reality user interface, which can include a display visor, glasses, contact lenses, wrist-worn devices, cell phones, etc.

Abstract: A device includes a body-worn camera and small form factor digital video recorder that is integrated with a wireless microphone and transmitter that interoperates with an in-car video system.

Abstract: A device includes a body-worn camera and small form factor digital video recorder that is integrated with a wireless microphone and transmitter that interoperates with an in-car video system.

Abstract: An in-car multiple-resolution camera system for first responder vehicles includes a high-resolution camera imager for capturing images in high resolution and outputting the same in a first high-resolution image output stream. A signal processing module is provided for processing the first high-resolution image output stream and producing (1) a reduced-area high-resolution image output stream containing image information for only a selected portion or portions of the original image and (2) a wide-area low-resolution image output stream. The wide-area low-resolution image output stream can represent the full image, if desired. An event recorder is provided for recording the events imaged by the camera imager using the wide-image low-resolution image output stream. A license plate recognition system is provided for using the reduced-area high-resolution image output stream to capture and process images of vehicle license plates nearby.

Abstract: A device includes a body-worn camera and small form factor digital video recorder that is integrated with a wireless microphone and transmitter that interoperates with an in-car video system.

Abstract: An in-car video system and method is provided where a wireless microphone is configured with bi-directional communications capability. In response to a received RF activation signal, the wireless microphone is automatically switched on to capture (and transmit back to the in-car video system) an audio soundtrack that accompanies the images captured by the car-mounted video camera. A wireless microphone controller mounted in the car transmits the RF activation signal to the wireless microphone. The wireless microphone controller is arranged to transmit the RF activation signal when the VCR starts recording. In an illustrative embodiment of the invention, the wireless microphone receives information, including a confirmation that the VCR is recording, from an RF information signal received from the wireless microphone controller mounted in the car. The wireless microphone displays the information to the officer on a display screen.

Abstract: A method of storing digital video is provided where an original video clip is selected, according to selection criteria, from video clips stored on a digital storage medium. The frame rate associated with the selected video clip is lowered and a downgraded version of the original video clip is written to a digital storage medium at the lowered frame rate. The original video clip may then be overwritten or erased to thereby reduce the storage space requirements for the downgraded video clip by approximately the percentage reduction in downgraded frame rate.

Abstract: An in-car video system and method is provided where a wireless microphone is configured with bi-directional communications capability. In response to a received RF activation signal, the wireless microphone is automatically switched on to capture (and transmit back to the in-car video system) an audio soundtrack that accompanies the images captured by the car-mounted video camera. A wireless microphone controller mounted in the car transmits the RF activation signal to the wireless microphone. The wireless microphone controller is arranged to transmit the RF activation signal when the VCR starts recording. In an illustrative embodiment of the invention, the wireless microphone receives information, including a confirmation that the VCR is recording, from an RF information signal received from the wireless microphone controller mounted in the car. The wireless microphone displays the information to the officer on a display screen.

Abstract: An in-car video system and method is provided where a wireless microphone is configured with bi-directional communications capability. In response to a received RF activation signal, the wireless microphone is automatically switched on to capture (and transmit back to the in-car video system) an audio soundtrack that accompanies the images captured by the car-mounted video camera. A wireless microphone controller mounted in the car transmits the RF activation signal to the wireless microphone. The wireless microphone controller is arranged to transmit the RF activation signal when the video recording device starts recording. In an illustrative embodiment of the invention, the wireless microphone receives information, including a confirmation that the video recording device is recording, from an RF information signal received from the wireless microphone controller mounted in the car. The wireless microphone displays the information to the officer on a display screen.

Abstract: An in-car video system and method are provided where a vehicle speed derived from a vehicle speed sensor (“VSS”) signal is compared against a user-settable threshold value. If the vehicle speed exceeds the threshold value, an alarm is generated. The alarm is used by the in-car video system to automatically activate the record function of a video recorder. The alarm may be optionally sent to a remote location, such as a police agency's headquarters as an alert that the vehicle speed has exceeded a set threshold and that a possible high speed pursuit has commenced. Vehicle speed information derived from the VSS signal is generated into a form that is continuously displayable on an in-car video monitor or continuously recordable by the video recorder along with the video and audio information captured by the in-car video system camera and microphones.

Abstract: An in-car video system and method are provided where a GPS speed signal is compared against a user-settable threshold value. If the vehicle speed exceeds the threshold value, an alarm is generated. The alarm is used by the in-car video system to automatically activate the record function of a video recorder. The alarm may be optionally sent to a remote location, such as a police agency's headquarters as an alert that the vehicle speed has exceeded a set threshold and that a possible high speed pursuit has commenced. Vehicle speed information from the GPS speed signal is generated into a form that is continuously displayable on an in-car video monitor or continuously recordable by the video recorder along with the video and audio information captured by the in-car video system camera and microphones.

Abstract: An inventive system and method is provided by an in-car video system that uses a type of electrically erasable programmable read-only memory known as flash memory to store video of an incident or event. In an illustrative embodiment of the invention, a digital video recorder and video camera are fixably mounted in a vehicle such as a police cruiser. An event of interest is captured by a camera and the resulting video stream is converted into a form that writable to a flash memory. The video recorder writes the video to flash memory to thereby store a record of the event on the flash memory as a storage medium.

Abstract: An in-car video system and method are provided where a vehicle speed derived from a vehicle speed sensor (“VSS”) signal is compared against a user-settable threshold value. If the vehicle speed exceeds the threshold value, an alarm is generated. The alarm is used by the in-car video system to automatically activate the record function of a video recorder. The alarm may be optionally sent to a remote location, such as a police agency's headquarters as an alert that the vehicle speed has exceeded a set threshold and that a possible high speed pursuit has commenced. Vehicle speed information derived from the VSS signal is generated into a form that is continuously displayable on an in-car video monitor or continuously recordable by the video recorder along with the video and audio information captured by the in-car video system camera and microphones.

Abstract: An in-car video apparatus and method is provided where a real time continuous video supplied by a vehicle-mounted camera and an audio microphone is processed for storage in a memory in a time-sequential manner for a pre-set time interval to create a time-delayed video stream. Upon activation of the in-car video system by a law enforcement officer (which occurs at an arbitrary reference time), a vehicle-mounted recording device records the time-delayed video stream to create a video recording of the events captured by the video camera. Because the time-delayed video stream is recorded rather than the real time video stream, the start time of the video recording precedes the reference time by the pre-set time interval. The invention provides an ability to create a complete record of a police-citizen encounter, including the initial incident that prompted the officer's subsequent activation of the in-car video system.

Abstract: An in-car video system and method is provided where a wireless microphone is configured with bi-directional communications capability. In response to a received RF activation signal, the wireless microphone is automatically switched on to capture (and transmit back to the in-car video system) an audio soundtrack that accompanies the images captured by the car-mounted video camera. A wireless microphone controller mounted in the car transmits the RF activation signal to the wireless microphone. The wireless microphone controller is arranged to transmit the RF activation signal when the VCR starts recording.

Abstract: The apparatus can manage transfers of video recording media bearing machine readable registration codes. This media is adapted to record video from a vehicle-mounted camera. The management apparatus (and the methods) operate with a user identification key carrying at least one machine readable, identification code, as well as a supplemental code. The apparatus has a port for reading and writing to the key, a registration device, and a processor. The port can provide in response to the key, an identification signal and supplemental signal corresponding to the identification and supplemental code. The registration device can read the registration codes borne by the video recording media and can provide in response thereto a registration signal.