GB2517901A - Information capture system and method - Google Patents

Abstract

A method for embedding information within an image file, the method comprising taking a photograph, storing the photograph as an image file, receiving information associated with the photograph, and embedding the received information in the image file.

Description

INFORMATION CAPTURE SYSTEM AND METHOD

Field of Invention

A system for capturing information is disclosed herein. More specifically, but not exclusively, this disclosure relates to a system and method for use in capturing information relating to health and safety incidents. A means for authentication of a user capturing the information is disclosed. In addition, a means for embedding of captured information with other captured information is disclosed for improved security and data rates. Furthermore, means for enriching captured information with additional information is also disclosed.

Background to the Invention

Incidents (near misses and accidents causing damage) at workplaces or public areas are commonplace and also often result in insurance and/or legal claims being made by a person that may have been hurt or injured or owns property damaged in such incidents. Such areas therefore need to have systems in place for documenting incidents so that steps can be taken to avoid reoccurrence of incidents and so that evidence is available in the event that a claim is made in respect of the incident.

Such incidents are typically documented using paper-based reports or more recently in similar electronic-based reports. It can take some time for all of the necessary information relating to an incident to be collected and the passage of time may result in information being lost or overlooked. Furthermore, once all information is collected it needs to be collated and such a process is time consuming and may not take place until a long after the incident. This can additionally result in inaccuracies, confusion or omissions in the incident report.

Another problem with such processes for logging incidents is that since the information comes from a number of different sources, possibly using different mediums such as emails, paper reports, or other evidence, it is difficult at a later date to search through all of the collected information in order to check specific details of the source of certain aspects of the reported incident.

A further problem with existing reporting processes is that it is relatively easy to falsify reports, make assertions or claims on behalf of others, gain unauthorised access to reports or destroy existing reports.

Summary of Invention

In accordance with an aspect of the invention there is provided a method for embedding information within an image file, the method comprising taking a photograph, storing the photograph as an image file, receiving information associated with the photograph, and embedding the received information in the image file.

The received information may include one or more of a time indicative of a time that the photograph was taken, a location indicative of a location at which the photograph was taken, and identification of a user associated with the device that took the photograph. Embedding the received information in the image tile may comprise storing the received information as metadata of the image file. The received information may be embedded within image data of the image file, the received information replacing portions of the image data. The received information may be text. The method may further comprise receiving information indicative of a position for the embedding the received information with the image data from a user interface.

The method may further comprise analysing the image data to determine an image data relevance level, and determining a position for embedding the received information with the image data in accordance with the image data relevance level.

The received information may be positioned where the image data relevance level is low. The image data relevance level may be determined by analysing a variation in colour characteristics between adjacent pixels. The method may further comprise encrypting the received information prior to embedding the received information in an image file.

According to another aspect of the invention there is provided an apparatus for embedding information within an image file, the apparatus comprising a processor arranged to perform any method disclosed herein. The apparatus may be a hand-held electronic device and the processor may be arranged to run a mobile application for performing any method disclosed herein.

According to a further aspect of the invention there is provided a computer program product operable in use to instruct a computer to perform any method as disclosed herein.

Also disclosed is a method for verifying an authenticity of a user operating a user device, the method comprising providing a number of images for display on a display

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of a user device, receiving identification of a plurality of the number of images as input on the user device, and comparing the plurality of the number of images with a set of images associated with the user, the set of images corresponding to images included in the number of images for display, wherein the authenticity of the user is verified if the plurality of the number of images are the same as the set of images.

The authenticity of the user may be verified if the plurality of the number of images are the same as the set of images and in the same order.

The number of images for display may be selected from a number of images available for display, wherein the number of images available for display is greater than the number of images for display.

The method may further comprise setting an order for displaying the number of images to be displayed on the display of the user device, wherein the order for displaying the number of images to be displayed differs to a previous order for displaying a number of images to previously be displayed.

The number of images for display may be profile pictures of people known to the user of the user device. The profile pictures may be extracted from a mobile application on the user device. The mobile application may be associated with a social media service.

The method may further comprise transmitting a message indicative of successful verification to a user device.

Also disclosed is apparatus for verifying an authenticity of a user operating a user device, the apparatus comprising a processor arranged to perform any method disclosed herein. The apparatus may be a server.

Also is disclosed is a computer program product operable in use to instruct a computer to perform any method disclosed herein.

Also disclosed is a method for adding additional information to images, the method comprising taking a photograph, storing the photograph as an image file, displaying the photograph to a user on a display of a user device, receiving inputs from a user j for adding additional information to the photograph, and adding the additional information to the image file.

The additional information may be one or more of highlighting of a portion of the photograph, lines, and reference letters and/or numerals. The additional information may be added to the image file by creating an additional layer comprising the additional information which is stored with the photograph in the image file. The additional information may be added to the image file by replacing pixels of the photograph with the additional information. The additional information may provide information indicative of active events that were taking place when the photograph was taken. The active events may be represented by providing directional information to the photograph by one or more of: smearing of the photograph, a line, and an arrow.

Embodiments of the invention allow for collection of data regarding incidents that can be used by organisations associated with the incidents in order to accurately identify where incident hotspots are, where improvements can be made and ultimately how to make workplaces safer.

In embodiments of the invention a process for adding or updating a report is provided which is designed to be simple, intuitive and fast.

Brief Description of the Drawings

Exemplary embodiments of the invention shall now be described with reference to the drawings in which: Figure 1 illustrates an incident information capture system; Figure 2 a flow diagram of a process for logging a new incident; Figure 3 illustrates a security authentication screen for logging into the incident information capture system of Figure 1; Figure 4 shows how time and location information related to a photograph can be embedded within a photograph; and Figure 5 shows how a user can enrich the information provided by a photograph by highlighting specific areas of the photograph.

Throughout the description and the drawings, like reference numerals refer to like parts.

Specific Description

Figure 1 illustrates a health and safety incident information capture system. The system works by enabling users to login to a mobile application on a smart phone device, capture and input information about the incident using the mobile application, and then submit the obtained information to a central system where it is stored and recorded. This arrangement therefore provides a system that allows for accurate data to be captured at the time of the incident, easily provided to a central system, which is then accessible at a later date for the incident to be examined in detail if required. The data capture and storage process shall now be described in detail with reference to Figures 1 and 2.

A mobile application for recording incidents can be downloaded onto a smart phone 2. It will be appreciated that alternative applications for use on other computing devices can also be provided, but this description concentrates on the mobile application. When the mobile application is downloaded an initial registration process is required, which includes the user providing login information for future verification of their identity. While anyone can download the mobile application to their device, only registered users within an organisation may login to be able to submit reports. The registration process therefore allows for organisations to verify users for submitting reports.

When an incident occurs, any incident reporter' 1, i.e. a person who has the mobile application downloaded on their smart phone 2, firstly needs to login to the mobile application on the smart phone 2. Once successfully logged in, the incident reporter 1 does not need to login again. Instead, second level authentication in the form of a memorable pin or other unique identifier applies at the end of each new or updated report before submission.

The incident reporter 1 creates a new incident report using the mobile application on their smart phone 2. When a new incident report is created the user is asked to fill in certain information about the incident as shown in Figure 2. Once the new report is set-up Si, the user is prompted to add information including: the type of incident S2, a written description of what has occurred S3, media such as photo, video or audio recordings S4, time and location of the incident (which may be automatically input by the phone if the user indicates that the report is being made immediately at the scene) S5, details of the people affected by the incident S6, any property affected by the incident 57, and a summary of the incident 58. Other information such as local conditions, e.g. weather and/or light conditions, may also be input by an incident reporter.

Once all of the available information is collected, the smart phone 2 is able to submit the collected data. Firstly, the incident reporter is asked to verify their identity by inputting a pin or other unique identifier, and then submission is confirmed. Once submitted the collected information is transmitted to a remote server 3 via a network 4. In the example shown in Figure 1 the remote server is shown as secure cloud-based storage, but it will be appreciated that any suitable type of storage could be used.

After a report is submitted an incident reporter can access their report in order to add information to a previously recorded incident, but they cannot access or edit existing information. This therefore ensures that the information is secure once submitted and prevents fraudulent adjustments of facts. If there is no internet connection, the system is arranged to submit the report as soon as an internet connection is available. However, as soon as the user submits the report, even if it has not yet been submitted to the server, the user is not able to further edit their submitted report.

Administrators 5 who have the relevant level of access are able to view reports, administrate users, and configure the mobile application using a desktop application at a desktop computer 6 or such like.

Various features of the incident information capture system shall now be discussed in detail.

In order to ensure that information provided regarding incidents is accurate and is not tampered with it is critical that users who log reports are authorised to do so, and unless opting to submit anonymously (in relation to near misses i.e., an incident which causes no injury or damage), do so in their name. Submitting a report fraudulently in someone else's name can have significant repercussions, so the smart phone application is designed to be highly secure, without being a barrier for completion. The following security procedure is therefore provided.

When the mobile application is opened for the first time, the user enters their username or email address and a password, assigned to them separately by their employer or the organisation providing access. This data is submitted from the smart phone 2, over the network 4 to the web server 3 to authenticate user access.

An additional level of security is also provided in the form of a unique character code.

The first time authenticated users log in they are asked to enter the unique character code. In addition, this code needs to be entered for every new report to prevent unauthorised users accessing someone else's device. As such, the authentication has to be simple and memorable yet hard to guess by anyone else.

Rather than simply entering a 4-digit numerical code as is well known for providing security, the user is presented with a set of images that must be selected in a specific order. As shown in Figure 3, the user is presented with a security screen 100 and a number of different pictures 101-115. On a touch screen smart phone the user simply selects four pictures in the specific order. On other devices the user may select the pictures using a cursor. For example, the pin code may be the camera 115, the computer mouse 102, the games controller 112, and the globe 104. The user can therefore remember the pin as a story such as filming a mouse playing games on a ball. This provides the same level of security as a 4-digit PIN but makes it easier to remember for the individual.

Technically, a remote server 3 has a four-picture pin code stored within the user's profile. When a picture pin is entered into the smartphone 2, the smartphone 2 sends this four-picture pin over a network 4 to the server 3. The server 3 then compares the picture pin received from the smartphone 2 with the four-picture pin code within the user's profile. If the pins are the same then a positive verification message is sent back to the smartphone 2 and the user is able to proceed. lithe pins are not the same then the user is asked to re-enter the four-picture pin. The user is provided with three attempts to correctly enter the pin and if the pin is incorrectly entered on three consecutive attempts the user is locked out of the mobile application.

It will be appreciated that the pictures displayed need not be those shown in Figure 3.

Any pictures could be used. In order to increase the user's memory of picture pin, the pictures could be of people's faces and those people could include a number of friends of family. For example, the pictures could be extracted from a social networking application such as Facebook. The picture pin can then be the faces of four friends and/or family members.

In order to provide an additional level of security alternative systems are arranged to change the pictures that are displayed each time the user is presented with login screen 100. For example, a bank of pictures are available for being displayed and only a subset of the bank of pictures are used each time the user logs in, with the subset changing for every login. Obviously, the pictures that are part of the user's pin would always be present. This makes it harder for those looking over the user's shoulder or tracing fingerprints on a touchscreen to see a particular input pattern, or for hackers to determine the user's picture pin. In order to prevent multiple login attempts making it obvious which pictures are in the user's picture pin the system is arranged to always provide a certain number of pictures, e.g. 6 pictures, the same on the picture pin login screen. The pictures that remain the same are changed when the user's account has to be reset due to being locked out for entering an incorrect pin on three consecutive attempts.

In alternative systems, the set of pictures stays the same, but the order in which they are displayed is changed so that a pattern of the pin is not easily recognisable to onlookers or hackers. It will be appreciated that the additional security provisions provided by these alternative systems are combined with one another in yet further alternative systems.

In this example, the picture pin authentication is only requested after the report has been prepared and prior to the report being submitted. However, it will be appreciated that in alternative systems the pin may be required at the beginning of the procedure.

Photographs are one of the largest types of data that will are recorded within a report. When photographs are taken, they are attached securely to the report and submitted to the web server 3. They are only stored on the user device 2 temporarily while the report is being created and they are deleted from the user device 2 after the report is submitted. The temporary storage of photographs does not allow any user access to them via the smartphone application or the smartphone's built in camera roll. Furthermore, in case the photographs are ever detached from the report, or there is an attempt to alter them, they automatically carry non-detachable metadata within them to add a layer of security to photographs. For example, as shown in Figure 4, the time 201 and location 202 of the person taking the photo 200 are encoded within the photograph automatically. The time is obtained from the mobile device 2 that has taken the photograph 200 and the location is obtained via the mobile device's 2 GPS. The location is only attached to the photograph if GPS is available when the image is captured.

Only authorised users of the admin system can access the information. It is not readable on the photograph or by any other means. This is achieved by encoding the time and date information directly into the photograph file. Authorised administrators can then verity the time, date and location the photograph was taken, but cannot change this information.

Created dates and locations for unencoded photographs can easily be changed, whereas automatic encoding ensures their authenticity when taken. As such, clear evidence can be provided that the photograph is of the actual scene of an incident.

Since a relatively large amount of data can be collected as part of a report the mobile application of the incident information capture system is arranged to perform certain data compression functionalities. In alternative arrangements of the system the size of the report is reduced by incorporating the date and time information into the photograph itself. In particular, the date, time and location information replaces some of the pixels of the photograph that are of less importance, such as those at the bottom of the photograph or in large areas of homogeneous colour. This information therefore also acts as watermark for the photograph. The date, time and location information may be encrypted prior to replacing pixels on the photograph into an alternative form so that it cannot be obtained simply by looking at the photograph itself. For example, the additional information may be encrypted into a string of undecipherable symbols or blend into the photograph itself so that they can only be understood by authorised administrators of the desktop application.

Since the date and time information replaces some of the less important pixels in the photograph the date and time information is effectively provided within the report without increasing the size of the report. Hence, memory usage of the system is decreased as is the amount of data that needs to be transmitted over the network.

Furthermore, once pixels of the photograph are changed to incorporate the additional information it is very difficult for someone to change the additional information because photographic restoration of certain pixels would be required, which is a complex and time consuming process.

The position at which the date and time information is inserted is automatically selected. For example, the photograph is analysed to determine an area of the photograph with as little change in colour as possible, indicative of a plain and unimportant surface such as a wall, road, or trees. Areas with high levels of change in colour are seen to be important for the photo. The additional information is then placed in the area determined to be of less relevance. Other image parameters such as contrast could be utilised to determine a relevance of areas of an image.

Furthermore, one or more combinations of parameters could be utilised. Other methods for determining the area of a photograph of less relevance can be provided.

Furthermore, the user has the option to relocate the additional information on the photograph if it is determined by the user that the additional information is not provided in an ideal location.

The incorporation of the location of a photograph within the metadata is also advantageous because this additional information can be used to map to a location for use in mapping applications and location-based searches. Similar advantages derive from storing the associated time with the photograph.

It will be appreciated that any other additional information may be incorporated into the photograph and it need not only be time and location information. For example, the identity of the user associated with the user device 2 that has taken the photo may be incorporated. Furthermore, it will be appreciated that the same techniques apply to insertion of additional information into frames of video. Inserting such additional information into individual frames of video means that the additional information is more securely hidden because when the video is playing it is unlikely that the additional information will be seen.

In order to further save on the data size of the report the user is able to add information to the photograph. As shown in Figure 5, a user 1 is able to highlight an area 201 of a photograph 200 taken through the application using a highlight tool.

The highlighted area indicates a relevant area of the photograph to the incident.

Furthermore, the highlighted area may correspond to something referred to in the written report that the photograph accompanies. Such highlighting of areas of photographs reduces the amount of description of an incident that is required thereby reducing the data size of the report, which in turn reduces data storage and data transmissions bandwidth requirements. Since the highlighting just adjusts characteristics of some of the pixels of the photograph, information is added without increasing the size of the data for the photograph.

In alternative systems, the highlight information is attached as a separate layer on the photograph in order to provide additional information without loss of quality in the original image, which can be viewed separately without the highlight. While this increases the data size, it does increase the quality of information provided by the report. The highlighting process itself still significantly reduces the amount of written data required to provide the required information about the incident, so data usage is still reduced overall even when the highlighting is provided as a separate layer.

The process to highlight images is very intuitive and is done via the mobile device immediately after the photo is taken. Users can optionally touch the desired highlight over the image in multiple places then confirm or redo before submitting.

It will be appreciated that the photograph can be enriched with additional information other than highlighting. For example, the user is able to add arrows with reference numerals to be referred to in their description, or circles in order to identify certain aspects the photographed incident. All such photographic enrichment techniques add information useful for understanding the incident without increasing the size of the image file.

The user can also use the highlighting tool, or lines, to indicate active events associated with an incident within the still photograph. For example, movement of a vehicle or the trajectory of a projectile can be represented. When using the highlighting tool the direction of travel can be represented by smearing the highlighting tool across the photo.

It will be appreciated that the login procedure is not only applicable to incident logging application and has industrial applicability in other fields including, but not limited to, banking, ecommerce, password change, and personal details access.

It will also be appreciated that the photographic encoding methods described herein can be used in any application where photographs are used as evidence and encoded metadata is required. In addition, any application where additional information is provided with a photograph could include that information stored within the image of the photograph to reduce data usage.

The photograph enrichment techniques described herein could be used in any application in which photographs could benefit from including additional information such as inventory reports, appliance checks and vehicle damage reports.

The various methods described above may be implemented by a computer program.

The computer program may include computer code arranged to instruct a computer to perform the functions of one or more of the various methods described above.

The computer program and/or the code for performing such methods may be provided to an appalatus, such as a computer, on a computel ieadable medium or computer program product. The computer readable medium could be, for example, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, or a propagation medium for data transmission, for example for downloading the code over the Internet. Alternatively, the computer readable medium could take the form of a physical computer readable medium such as semiconductor or solid state memory, magnetic tape, a removable computer diskette, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), a rigid magnetic disc, and an optical disk, such as a CD-ROM, CD-R/W or DVD.

An apparatus such as a computer may be configured in accordance with such code to perform one or more processes in accordance with the various methods discussed herein. Such an apparatus may take the form of a data processing system. Such a data processing system may be a distributed system. For example, such a data processing system may be distributed across a network.

Claims (12)

1. Claims: 1. A method for embedding information within an image file, comprising: taking a photograph; storing the photograph as an image file; receiving information associated with the photograph; and embedding the received information in the image file.
2. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the received information includes one or more of: a time indicative of a time that the photograph was taken; a location indicative of a location at which the photograph was taken; and identification of a user associated with the device that took the photograph.
3. 3. The method according to claim 1 or claim 2, wherein embedding the received information in the image file comprises storing the received information as metadata of the image file.
4. 4. The method according to claim 1 or claim 2, wherein the received information is embedded within image data of the image file, the received information replacing portions of the image data.
5. 5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the received information is text.
6. 6. The method according to claim 4 or claim 5, further comprising receiving information indicative of a position for the embedding the received information with the image data from a user interface.
7. 7. The method according to claim 4 or 5, further comprising: analysing the image data to determine an image data relevance level; determining a position for embedding the received information with the image data in accordance with the image data relevance level, wherein the received information is positioned where the image data relevance level is low.
8. 8. The method according to claim 7, wherein the image data relevance level is determined by analysing a variation in colour characteristics between adjacent pixels.
9. 9. The method according to any preceding claim, further comprising encrypting the received information prior to embedding the received information in an image file.
10. 10. Apparatus for embedding information within an image file, the apparatus comprising a processor arranged to perform the method of any preceding claim.
11. 11. The apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the apparatus is a hand-held electronic device and the processor is arranged to run a mobile application for performing the method of claims ito 9.
12. 12. A computer program product operable in use to instruct a computer to perform the method of any one of claims ito 9.