Smart security camera with detection of suspicious cellphones

Abstract

A home security camera system captures a picture of a visitor and detects information about the visitor's smartphone, thereby providing a two-part digital ID of the visitor. The two-part ID is particularly useful to law enforcement when the picture portion of the ID happens to be blurry or obstructed. In some examples, a packet scanner sniffs probe requests transmitted by the visitor's phone. The packet scanner can be an integral part of the camera or sold separately. To comply with privacy regulations and bypass obfuscation efforts, the system analyzes various characteristics (e.g., data content and arrangement) of the phone's probe requests, rather than having to discover the true MAC address. The system can notify a resident when a particular friend, mail carrier, or porch pirate returns. The system can share collected digital IDs with other community members to provide neighbors with advanced warnings when certain visitors are in the area.