ITTV20130058A1 - MONITORING AND / OR SECURITY SYSTEM - Google Patents

Description

"Surveillance and / or security system."

DESCRIPTION

The invention mainly refers to a surveillance and / or security system.

Technology and digital networks have made it possible to create sophisticated surveillance systems, often interactive with the user to avoid false alarms and reduce intervention times, among other things by enlarging the area within which the user can be reached in order to be warned.

Eg. GB 2475578 describes a surveillance system where the signal from one or more cameras is sent to a mobile phone for viewing. A SIP server is used to collect the signal and route it to the cell phone, which is expensive and inexpensive for the average home surveillance user. Similarly WO2009 / 097157.

WO 2010/048243, on the other hand, presents mobile phones adapted to wirelessly transmit an audio / video stream for surveillance or personal security purposes.

Basically, there is no remote surveillance system that is simple, inexpensive, does not require complicated installation and can reuse components already commonly in use by a user, eg. a smartphone.

The main object of the invention is to solve at least one of the above problems.

According to an aspect of the invention, a surveillance and / or security system is proposed in a place to be monitored, comprising:

- a device capable of generating a hotspot;

- one or more sensor devices to acquire data, capable of connecting to the hotspot and sending the detected data to it,

- a control device capable of connecting to the hotspot and, through this, controlling the functions of a sensor device,

The device capable of generating a hotspot being capable of transmitting data via a network to a remote server (not included in the system), which server is capable of establishing a communication with NAT crossing or port-forwarding to and from a user device remote in order to make the data available to the latter and / or allow it to communicate with the control device.

This simplifies the system architecture, in particular because standard and / or commonly used components can be used but not directly exploitable, eg. in the event that the device capable of generating a hotspot and the control device are integrated into a single device, eg. included in a mobile device, e.g. a smartphone. You can also maximize the integration between system components and minimize the cost. The term "mobile device" here refers in particular to all those electronic devices for wireless data communication that can be used despite or during the user's mobility, such as mobile phones, PDAs, smartphones, tablets, laptops, GPS receivers, etc. Properly programmed, a mobile device can replace an apparatus dedicated to surveillance / security, which on the contrary is expensive, difficult to install and bulky.

Therefore also the "local" system, formed only by the components placed in the place to be monitored and able to communicate with the remote server, is advantageous.

UDP hole punching is just one of the techniques that can allow the establishment of bi-directional UDP connections between computers or devices belonging to networks, eg. private, connected over the Internet using a NAT. This technique can be used with TCP connections, albeit with less success. In general here is meant a network technique or transmission method designed to establish a communication of digital data between two points, located in separate places or organizations, both of which are behind restrictive firewalls or restrictions by NAT or port filtering. They are usable eg. also ICMP hole punching, TCP hole punching, ICM, User Datagram and TCM (Transmission Control Protocols). In other words, it is possible in general to use a data communication technique or method that allows the reaching, and therefore the connection, of one or more devices otherwise unreachable due to NAT or port filtering. Then install a server that facilitates the connection by acting as a mediator between the two connection points: the server analyzes the public IP addresses and the number of ports used by the two connection points to allow direct communication between them. Then the server acts as a mediator between the end user's devices and those in the place under control. The same applies in the case of using an ADSL router or using a Hackberry or other device with an Android operating system. In this case the NAT will be only that of the ADSL router and a port forwarding to the IP address of the acquisition devices may be sufficient. To avoid configuring the router to the user, UDP hole punching is the best way to bypass NAT.

Preferably one or each of the sensor devices comprises an actuator to direct the sensor in space, and the user device comprises a control interface capable of sending signals to the server, repeated by the latter to the control device which consequently drives the actuator. The advantage is to make the devices, or eg. remotely orientate cameras.

The system may include various beneficial features, such as alarms or warnings. Eg. the control device can transmit an alarm message to the user device if a predetermined condition occurs in a sensor device or in the control device itself (break-in, movement, data exceeding a set threshold, etc.).

According to another aspect of the invention, a system is proposed that includes the server, or a surveillance and / or security system placed in a place to be monitored, comprising:

- a device capable of generating a hotspot;

- one or more sensor devices to acquire data, capable of connecting to the hotspot and sending the detected data to it,

- a control device capable of connecting to the hotspot and, through this, controlling the functions of a sensor device,

- a remote user device,

- a remote server designed to establish a NAT or port-forwarding communication to and from the user device in order to make the data available to the latter and / or allow it to communicate with the control device.

The communication with NAT crossing or port-forwarding to and from the remote user device allows to simplify the system architecture, as well as integrate the aforementioned mobile devices.

Preferably, the remote server includes a memory area in which to store data and is accessible after authentication from the remote user device. Advantageously, data or surveillance recordings can be saved remotely.

Preferably, the remote server comprises a portal which the remote user device can access, after authentication, to connect and control a determined set of sensor devices associated with a control device via the hotspot. Advantageously, the user is allowed to manage many sensor devices in a simple and safe way.

Another aspect of the invention is an application or program that can be loaded and run on a control device as defined herein. The application or program when executed is adapted to manage a flow of data from one or more sensor devices as defined herein to a server as defined herein.

Another aspect of the invention is an application or program that can be loaded and executed on a server as defined herein. The application or program when executed is adapted to manage a flow of data from one or more sensor devices as defined herein to a control device as defined herein.

The application or program that can be loaded and executed on the server or on the control device may be able, through programming, to perform all or some of the functions described here for the relative device on which it runs, and for the sake of brevity they are not re-listed even though they are explicitly to be understood in the invention.

Another aspect of the invention is a computer readable medium or logical unit on which the aforementioned program or application is recorded.

Another aspect of the invention is a method for monitoring and / or controlling a place, comprising the steps of:

- generate a hotspot via a mobile device;

- associate a sensor to the hotspot,

- acquire data with the sensor

- send data from the sensor to the controller via the hotspot,

- send data from the control device to a remote server via a data communication network.

In the method it is advantageous to establish a communication with NAT crossing or portforwarding between the mobile device and a remote user device in order to make the data available to the latter and / or allow it to communicate with the control device. In this way the mobile device frees itself from network obstacles to communication.

The advantages of the invention will be clearer from the following description of a preferred embodiment of the device, referring to the attached drawing in which

Fig. 1 shows a diagram of a surveillance system,

Fig. 2 shows a diagram of a variant of the system.

In the figures, like elements are indicated with like numbers.

The system 10 comprises a monitored location or area 20, a user 40 and a remote server 60. The location or area 20 is monitored by one or more image and / or sound detection devices 24, e.g. IP cameras, which are in wireless communication with a device 22, e.g. a mobile phone or smartphone 22.

Device 22 has a transmitter circuit, e.g. according to Wi-Fi or Bluetooth protocol and architecture, settable in hotspot mode; that is, such as to make a connection 70 to the Internet of the devices 24 possible. In other words, the creation of a hotspot 28 allows a device 24 to be connected to the Internet or to an external network using a 3G data connection (see reference 70) of the device 22, which effectively becomes a hotspot as if it were a modem.

It should be noted that a characteristic of the system 10 is to have a device or any Android device as an intelligence point interposed between the cameras or devices 24 and the central data collection server 60.

An application 26, loaded and executed in the device or smartphone 22, can manage the data communication with the, and the operation of the devices 24. For example. you can download it on the smartphone 22 from the network, eg. being compatible with Android operating system.

It should be noted that a second variant of operation is also possible (fig. 2) in the case in which the place 20 is equipped with an Internet connection via its own or dedicated router 110, e.g. via ADSL line. It can then be used as a device 22 e.g. a single plate computer such as a Hackberry, or an Android USB key (USB device without 3G, but with wifi and bluetooth and with an Android operating system on top). The device 22 would in any case contain an operating system, e.g. Android, to run the server application and / or that 26. In this case, therefore, both the device (s) 24 and the device 22 (Android) will be connected to the same Wi-Fi network generated by the router 110. In the variant of fig .2 smartphone functions 22 are not available. However the functionalities of the system 100 are identical to the system 10, with the only difference that the connection point towards the Internet is the router 110 (or optical fiber). The application 26 in this case is preconfigured and installed in the Hackberry or USB device with the customer data already (due to the lack of a configuration screen). However, the installed application 26 can be the same, and the whole operating procedure remains the same.

In system 10 which uses a smartphone 22 as a connection point, server 60 is used to initialize UDP Hole Punching, which is a method used to bypass the NAT imposed by the telephone operator.

Server 60 has three features:

1) initialize the connection between the user 40 and the remote smartphone 22;

2) allow the management of the data sent by the devices 22, such as eg. the display of n cameras placed in n apartments or places 20;

3) the storage of data or images, eg. those saved following the generation of an alarm.

In the variant in fig. 2, on the other hand, it would be possible (after configuring the router 110) to reach the device 22 or an IP camera 24 directly by performing a port forwarding. In this case the server 60 would no longer be necessary to initialize the connection, but it would then not be possible to store the images there and the user 40 would have to configure a new connection for each device or camera 24 in each location 20.

The device 22, or smartphone 22, through the application 26 can generally send to the cameras or devices 24:

�� of the movement commands, and / or

�� the infrared on or off signal; and / or

�� the setting or unsetting signal of the motion detection.

�� the activation of the audio and / or video stream of a camera or sensor.

The camera or device 24, on the other hand, can send the application 26 data and / or images acquired, eg. following an alarm, and the application 26 transmits the images to the server 60 via connection 70.

A device used by a user 40 to analyze the images (or in general the data) emitted by the devices 24, can be e.g. a smartphone 42, a tablet PC or a laptop computer 44.

On the remote server 60 the user can register on a portal 62, contained in a memory 66, in order to have a unique virtual space regardless of the number of devices 24 used and the number of places or areas 20 kept under control.

In the server 60 there is a system or program for initializing the connection 70 through UDP hole punching, which is also used in the case of an ADSL connection (fig. 2) to save the user the configuration of the router 110. The space or memory 60 of saving images or data acquired by devices 24 is optional, eg. when the primary interest of the user is to be notified if an alarm is triggered. That is, when the system 10 is a video surveillance system only and not an alarm system.

System 10 operates as follows (the same applies to system 110, mutatis mutandis).

When running application 26, the antenna and the circuitry of the smartphone 22 are set to hotspot mode. In general, the application 26 can manage some features of the underlying hardware in the smartphone 22, such as the wi-fi antenna mode.

Once the hotspot is enabled, the devices 24 associate themselves with the network thus generated by the smartphone 22 (or router 110). They do this automatically either because they have been provided to the user already associated previously, or when the wi-fi antenna of the smartphone or device 22 is in hotspot mode, an SSID (name of the Wi-Fi network) and a password will be generated. . These two data will be manually entered in the devices 24 in order to allow the association.

Registered through connection 70 user 40 on portal 62, application 26 connects to central server 60 sending the public IP address of connection 70, authenticates the surveillance domain 20 via username and password, and sends the MAC address and IP of the devices 24 connected to the network.

In practice, the user registration is created upstream on the portal 62 following the purchase of the system 10. The application 26 is configured with the relative user name and password and authenticates itself in the server 60. In this way the server 60 can know who is connected and which cameras or devices 24 are connected to each smartphone or device 22 (or router 110), allowing the logical USER association�� CAMERAS OR DEVICES 24.

The server 60 then listens, knowing the public IP address of the smartphone 22 and the number of the external UDP port of the connection 70, and records these two parameters on an internal database 64 (together with the number of connected devices 24) present in the memory 66 .

A user 40 can connect via the Internet to the server 60 with a device 42, 44, and after a login and authentication procedure the system 10, i.e. the server 60, initializes the UDP hole punching to allow a direct connection 30 of the two endpoints , elements 40 and 20, crossing the NAT of the 3G network.

Sooner or later a device 44 or 42 wants to communicate with the device 22 to request the display or transmission of the video or data stream of a device 24. The device 22 is connected to the Internet but, if it is a smartphone, without the possibility of being reached directly from the outside due to the NAT imposed by the telephone operator. Server 60 has a known, fixed public IP. Both devices 44 and 22 initiate a UDP connection to server 60. In this stage both devices will have an external UDP port with a random number (for example 1049 and 2280 respectively). Server 60 records these two numbers, and communicates the port of the other to each device. Then the device or smartphone 22 will initiate a connection to the port 1049 of the IP address of the device 44. In the same way, the device 44 will initiate the connection to the device or smartphone 22 to the port 2280 of its IP address. In this way the two devices connect to each other bypassing the NAT. In other words, the user 40 communicates with the smartphone or device 22 via the server 60.

The application 26 will continue to send keep-alive packets to the server 60 to allow the updating of all the data in the database 64 necessary to establish the connection 30 through UDP hole punching.

The application 26 through the connection 30 can generally notify the user 40 eg. in the event that the power status of the device or smartphone 22 changes, or in the event of a power failure or return. For this purpose, application 26 through connection 30, intended for example as a connection via the cellular network (not data) of the telephone operator, it can send an SMS. Similarly, application 26 can also notify user 40, eg. with an e-mail, sending the mail data via the 3G or ADSL connection to the user's mail server (which can obviously vary).

Application 26 can generally notify the user, in the same manner described above, even in the event of a malfunction or disconnection of a camera or device 24.

The application 26 can expose the user to control methods on the functionality of the devices 24, such as for example. their movement, or the activation and / or deactivation of features (eg. infrared detection and / or motion detection). Eg. the application 26 can send commands to a camera or device 24 using the CGI-BIN of the web server of the device itself.

Each command can correspond to an action such as those described below.

The said methods are usable by the user 40 eg. through one of the devices 42, 44.

Eg. about motion control, the IP cameras or devices 24 can be remotely orientated by means of the devices 42, 44. The devices 24 can be motorized and / or equipped with an internal motor that allows them to rotate on one, two or three axes .

A particular graphic control interface can be provided on one of the devices 42, 44 for controlling the devices 24. For example. this interface may include arrows that, once touched or pressed, allow the movement or orientation in real time of the cameras or devices 24 and / or some icons that can be touched and / or pressed to enable or disable the various functions.

If the motion detection function is enabled, a device 24 autonomously sends the images detected in real time to a preconfigured space (e.g. in the memory 66) on the server 60 in real time, e.g. via FTP or HTTP protocol. If the motion detection function is not activated, an alarm is not generated, in which case the camera 24 can be used to view the images in real time.

The images are preferably stored in the memory 66 and made available to the user 40, who can for example copy them to a device 42, 44 or delete them or other, through the portal 62.

The system 10 through the device 22 can generate a warning message and can also notify the user 40 via e-mail that new images have been recorded on the server 60.

System 10 avoids having to bring a fixed line and related data lines from scratch to the area or place 20, eg. the domestic or industrial ADSL one, with the associated port forwarding configurations in order to pass through a router 110 (fig. 2). Or it allows to simplify the known surveillance architectures, using only the device or smartphone 22. In fact, the use of the smartphone or device 22 advantageously integrates three elements: a storage server, capable of developing alarms, a wireless network that connects all the sensors or devices 24, and a gateway server, which allows remote access.

Simplification is evident!

The system 10 uses only the device or smartphone 22 as a connection point between one or more devices 24 and the Internet (or an external network).

Another advantage of the system 10 is its scalability with any type of bluetooth or wi-fi device, and its versatility. By changing the application 26, you can add features that go beyond those associated or associated with cameras or devices 24.

An advantage of the 110 system is that it can be used in an environment with fixed telephony.

A device 24 can also be e.g. a sensor, such as a home sensor, a smoke, presence, bluetooth telemedicine sensor, or wi-fi home automation components, such as consumer readers, switches, etc.

Since the use of the smartphone or device 22 as a "server" is independent of the data transmitted, the system 10 and its network architecture can be used for any application that provides for a control of what happens at the connection point provided by the smartphone or device 22, therefore where there is no fixed line for logistical or technical reasons.

A great advantage of the server 60 is that it allows the initialization of the connection through UDP hole punching (or technical equivalent) and the simultaneous management for each single user of n cameras or devices 24 in n places 20. Without the server 60 the user should configure on his device 42, 44 a connection for each device 24. Instead, the user 40 does not have to worry about it, and only has to access a single system regardless of the number of cameras or devices 24, the number of apartments or areas 20 and the type of remote connection 70 (cellular or ADSL).

Claims (10)

"Surveillance and / or security system." CLAIMS 1. Surveillance and / or security system (22; 24; 28) located in a place to be monitored (20), comprising: - a device (22) suitable for generating a hotspot (28); - one or more sensor devices (24) to acquire data, capable of connecting to the hotspot and sending the detected data to it, - a control device (22) capable of connecting to the hotspot and, through this, controlling the functions of a sensor device, the device capable of generating a hotspot being capable of transmitting data via a network to a remote server (30), which server is capable of establishing a communication with NAT crossing or port-forwarding to and from a remote user device (40 ) in order to make the data available to the latter and / or to allow it to communicate with the control device. System according to claim 1, wherein the device for generating a hotspot and the control device are comprised in a mobile device, e.g. a smartphone. System according to claim 1, wherein the device adapted to generate a hotspot comprises an ADSL router (110). 4. System according to claim 1 or 2 or 3, in which one or each of the sensor devices comprises an actuator for directing the sensor in space, and the user device comprises a control interface adapted to send signals to the server, which are repeated by it to the control device which consequently drives the actuator. System according to any one of the preceding claims, in which the control device is adapted to transmit to the user device an alarm message in the event of a predetermined condition in a sensor device or in the control device itself. 6. Surveillance and / or security system located in a place to be monitored (10; 110), comprising: - a device capable of generating a hotspot; - one or more sensor devices to acquire data, capable of connecting to the hotspot and sending the detected data to it, - a control device capable of connecting to the hotspot and, through this, controlling the functions of a sensor device, - a remote user device, - a remote server designed to establish a NAT or port-forwarding communication to and from the user device in order to make the data available to the latter and / or allow it to communicate with the control device. 7. System according to any one of the preceding claims, in which the remote server comprises a memory area (66) in which to store the data and accessible after authentication from the remote user device. System according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the remote server comprises a portal (62) which the remote user device can access, after authentication, to connect and control a determined set of sensor devices associated with a control device through the hotspot. Application or program (26) that can be loaded and executed on a control device according to any one of the preceding claims, which when executed is capable of managing a flow of data from one or more sensor devices according to any of the preceding claims towards a server according to any of the preceding claims. 10. Method for monitoring and / or controlling a place (20), comprising: - generating a hotspot (28) via a mobile control device (22); - associate a sensor device (24) to the hotspot; - acquire data with the sensor device; - send data from the sensor to the controller via the hotspot, - sending the data from the control device to a remote server (60) via a data communication network (70).