US Patent 11157745 Automated proximity discovery of networked cameras

Automated discovery of the relative positioning of a network of cameras that view a physical environment. The automated discovery is based on comparing TimeLines for the cameras. The TimeLines are time-stamped data relating to the camera's view, for example a sequence of time stamps and corresponding images captured by a camera at those time stamps. In one approach, the relative positioning is represented by a proximity graph of nodes connected by edges. The nodes represent spaces in the physical environment, and each edge between two nodes represents a pathway between the spaces represented by the two nodes.