JPS6291092A - On-vehicle status recording device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To utilize the titled device for the verification and other objective investigation of the cause of the accident by recording the status of a vehicle accident as a picture signal and a sound signal, and enabling them to be reproduced as necessary. CONSTITUTION:A picture processing circuit 8 adds a vehicle speed data from a signal conversion circuit 12 and a present time data from a time signal generating circuit 14 on the picture signal from an image pickup unit 2 provided facing ahead as the pieces of numeral information and sends them to a picture input terminal in a video recorder 24. A non-directional microphone 20 is provided facing the travelling direction of a vehicle, sending a sound output to a sound input terminal in the video recorder 24. In a magnetic tape in the video recorder 24, an endless tape which continues to record the present picture and sound erasing a past record, for example, in a cycle of 10min, is used. A delay circuit 30 receives a signal from a sensor 26 due to a shock in the occurrence of the accident, and gives a termination signal to the video recorder 24 after a regulated time.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Field of Industrial Application This invention relates to a situation recording device for use in a vehicle, and more specifically, it records the surroundings of a vehicle such as an automobile as images and sounds while the vehicle is in operation; In particular, the present invention relates to a situation recording device that can be used to clarify the cause of a vehicle accident by reproducing the situations before and after the accident.

Conventional technology For example, airplanes are required to record various data such as altitude, heading direction, and speed during flight, as well as communications with the control room, using flight recorders, and these recorders are collected after an airplane accident occurs. The system is designed to recreate the situation at the time of the accident and help determine the cause. Further, commercial vehicles such as taxis and long-distance +-rank vehicles are equipped with tachographs that record the time and speed of the vehicle while they are running, and are used for operation management.

Problems to be Solved by the Invention When driving a vehicle, especially a car, no matter how much the driver complies with traffic laws and how carefully he or she drives,
Often, the driver is placed in the position of the perpetrator because the other party ignores a traffic signal or jumps out unexpectedly. In such cases, it is generally not easy to determine the cause of the accident with certainty.

The reason for this is that the explanations and claims of the perpetrator and the victim about the circumstances at the time of the accident sometimes differ, leading to disputes.

In particular, if the negotiations over the accident resolution are prolonged, the other party's attitude may change, and for example, the other party may reverse their previously admitted faults, such as ignoring traffic lights, and deny it, thereby justifying their own position. . Furthermore, even if there is a third party who witnessed the accident, their memory of their testimony may become unclear as time passes, or they may become reluctant to be questioned in court as a witness, and they may be unable to objectively assess the circumstances at the time of the accident. It has become difficult to reproduce the incident and handle the incident fairly.

In view of the above-mentioned problems, the LI aspect of the present invention has been proposed, in particular, by recording the visual conditions before and after the occurrence of a vehicle accident, and the auditory conditions such as verbal exchanges between the parties involved after the accident, using image signals and audio signals. The purpose of the present invention is to provide a means that can be used to objectively investigate the cause of an accident and conduct post-accident negotiations, etc., by recording the accident information and making it reproducible with audio and images as necessary.

Means to solve problems To suitably achieve the above object, the present invention provides an apparatus.

A means for capturing and recording the forward view of the vehicle driver, a means for recording sounds around the vehicle, and a signal of various data such as the running speed and time of the vehicle to the image capturing and recording means in synchronization with the image recording. and a means for inputting the data as numerical information, and is configured so that the data can be reproduced on the screen as numerical information when reproducing the image recording. At the same time, non-directional sound collection devices are also installed outside the vehicle, and these devices are kept in operation at all times while the vehicle is in operation. Signals captured by these devices are recorded on a recording medium such as an endless tape. After an accident occurs, this recording device will be stopped after the required time has elapsed, and
By recreating records of the conditions surrounding the vehicle immediately before and after the accident, it is useful for verification and objective investigation of the cause of the accident.

Example Next, regarding the vehicle situation recording device according to the present invention.

Preferred embodiments will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 shows as a block diagram one embodiment of the device according to the invention, which is basically applied to a video recorder.

The image pickup device 2 includes an image pickup tube such as a known vidicon, and is arranged, for example, toward the front field of view of a driver of an automobile. A fisheye lens or other wide-angle lens 4 that can cover almost the entire forward field of view of the driver is attached to this image pickup tube, and image signals from the image pickup device 2 are sent to an image processing circuit 8. There is.

Vehicle speed data is input to the image processing circuit 8 through a line 10 via a signal conversion circuit 12 that sequentially converts the vehicle speed when the vehicle is running into an electrical signal. Further, the time signal generation circuit 14 inputs the current time as time data to the image processing circuit 8 through a line 16. The image processing circuit 8 adds these data as numerical information to the image signal, and sends the processed image signal to the image input terminal of the video recorder 24.

Further, an omnidirectional microphone 20 is provided facing the direction of vehicle travel, and its audio output is sent to an audio input terminal of a video recorder 24 through a line 22. A magnetic tape is used as the recording medium of the video recorder, and an endless tape is preferably used as the magnetic tape, which continues to record current images and sounds while erasing past recordings at intervals of, for example, 10 minutes. With such a mechanism, it is possible to constantly capture images of the driver's forward view and record surrounding sounds.

Although the video recorder can be stopped after an accident by operating the manual switch 34 attached to the recorder, it is possible that the user may become mentally upset and forget to turn off the switch. Therefore, in order to prevent the record of the accident from being erased due to forgetting to turn off the switch, a sensor 26 is provided that stops the operation of the device when a mechanical shock above a certain level is applied to the vehicle body. However, the output of the sensor 26 is connected to a delay circuit 30 so that the device does not stop at the same time as an accident occurs, making it impossible to record the situation after the accident. The mechanism is such that a stop signal is given to the video recorder 24 through a line 32 after a certain period of time (a time shorter than the recordable time of the endless tape) has elapsed since the signal from the sensor 26 was received.

FIG. 2 shows another embodiment of the vehicle-mounted situation recording device according to the present invention. In view of the fact that image and audio recordings, even those recorded for a short period of time immediately before and after an accident, can be useful in elucidating the cause of the accident, this embodiment is configured to eliminate moving parts of the device. That is, the image signal is generated as a digital signal, and the audio signal is converted into a digital signal after input to the device, thereby digitally encoding and recording on the memory LSI in the recording device without using magnetic means.

The imaging device 36 includes an LSI-based solid-state imaging device (CCD).
is preferably used, and its optical system is equipped with a fisheye lens or a wide-angle lens 38 of nearly 180 degrees in the horizontal direction that can cover the driver's forward field of vision. The lens focus is fixed at, for example, 25 m. This is because it is possible to reproduce the required image by performing appropriate processing when returning the image recorded in the image recording unit (described later) to an image using a dedicated reproduction device. However, the imaging device 36
The aperture can be automatically adjusted depending on the brightness.

The image captured by the imaging device 36 is output as a digital signal and input to the 1-image processing circuit 42 . Similar to the first embodiment, the image processing circuit 42 is provided with a signal via a signal conversion circuit 44 that converts the vehicle speed of the vehicle into a digital signal.
Vehicle speed data is signaled in via line 46. Further, the current time from a time signal generation circuit built in the central processing unit (CPU) 50 of the apparatus is inputted as a digital signal to the image processing circuit 42 through a line 48. This information is added to the image signal as a digital signal in the image processing circuit 42. The central processing unit 50 sends an image synchronization signal to the line 54 every 0.1 seconds, for example.
and to the image processing circuit 42 and recording device 52 via line 56.

In synchronization with this image synchronization signal, the image processing circuit 42 inputs an image signal to the recording device 52 through the line 48, and the image signal is recorded as a digital number 48 in the image recording section 52a. In this case, for example, the image recording section 52a is
If it is designed to have a recording capacity that can record 0 images, it will be possible to record 6 seconds (0, l×60) images. Further, the recording device 52 continues to record the image input endlessly in synchronization with the synchronization signal until a stop command is issued from the central processing unit 5o by stopping the image synchronization signal.

On the other hand, the audio signal picked up by the microphone 58 is transmitted to the line 60.
The audio signal is applied to the PCM processor 62 via the PCM processor 62, where the audio signal is converted into a digital signal. The central processing unit 50 also sends an audio synchronization signal (for example, one that samples an audio signal every 0.01 seconds) to a line 64 and a line 6 that is synchronized with the image synchronization signal every 0.1 seconds.
6 to the PCM processor 62 and recording device 52, respectively. The audio signal from the microphone 58 is synchronized with the audio synchronization signal by the PCM processor 62, sampled and converted into a digital signal, and then recorded in the audio recording section 52b of the recording circuit 52.

The audio recording section 52b has a recording capacity equivalent to that of the one-image recording section 52a. In other words, the image recording capacity is 6 seconds,
If audio sampling is every 0.01 seconds, 6÷0.
It has a capacity to record encoded audio signals for 01=600 frames.

Similar to the image recording section 52a, the audio recording section 52b continues recording in response to the image recording of the one-image recording section 52a until the audio synchronization signal from the central processing unit 5o is stopped.

The sensor 68 has a mechanism similar to that of the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, and generates a signal in response to a mechanical shock of - chamber or more. The sensor 68 signal is applied to a delay circuit 74 via line 70. This delay circuit 74 outputs an output signal to the central processing unit 50 through a line 76 within a time shorter than the recording time of the recording device 52 (for example, after 3 seconds have elapsed) after the signal is input from the sensor 68. There is. The central processing unit 50 stops the image synchronization signal and the audio synchronization signal at the same time as the output signal from the delay circuit 74 is received. As a result, the recording device 52 records images and audio for a total of 6 seconds, 3 seconds before the accident and 3 seconds after the accident.

Further, the accident occurrence signal from the sensor 68 is not only applied to the central processing unit 50 via a line 70 and a delay circuit, but also directly applied to the central processing unit 50 via a line 72.

The central processing unit 5o receives a direct signal input from the sensor 68 and at the same time issues a recording start command to a microcassette 80 using a magnetic tape through a line 78.The audio signal from the microphone 58 is transmitted through a line 60 to a PCM It is added to the processor 62 and the microcassette 80 in parallel. The micro cassette 80 is connected to the central processing unit 5
The mechanism is such that the audio signal is recorded only within the recording time of the recording tape (for example, one hour) in accordance with a recording start command from scratch. The reason why the microcassette 80 is started before the recording device 52 is stopped is that with a mechanically configured microcassette, there is a time lag required from the 8-note start command to the actual start of recording. Because there is. These mechanisms record images for 3 seconds before and after the accident, and audio from 3 seconds before the accident to 1 hour after the accident (for example, 1 hour).

Note that it is desirable to provide this device with backup means such as a battery so that the records will not be erased due to power supply interruption in the event of an accident.

In the embodiment according to FIG. 2, the recording by the recording device 52 is played back using a dedicated playback device.

For example, the digital audio signal recorded in the a voice recording section 52b is decoded into an analog audio signal by a decoder. Further, the digital image signal recorded in the image recording section 52a is decoded into an analog signal by an image decoder. Appropriate processing is applied during this reproduction to clearly reproduce the necessary portions and re-record them on a video recorder or the like together with the audio signal.

In addition, in the embodiments shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, respectively,
It is more preferable if not only the speed of the vehicle but also signals from brake lights, left and right blinkers, etc. are input to the image processing circuit 8 (42) and added to the image.

The actual use of the 'If situation recording device according to the present invention will be explained. The image pickup device 1 is installed, for example, on the roof of the vehicle #J, facing the direction of travel that provides the driver's forward view. In this case, it is preferable to choose a position where images from rearview mirrors and side mirrors can also be captured. Also, install an omnidirectional microphone outside the vehicle. The main parts of this device, such as the video recorder, image processing circuit, recording device, etc., will be placed safely inside the vehicle, and the main switch for the entire device will be installed in a position where the driver can operate it himself.

By turning on this main switch, the situation of the vehicle being driven continues to be recorded in the form of images and sounds. When an unexpected accident occurs, this device records the circumstances before and after the accident.

According to this device, the state of the traffic light in the direction of travel of the vehicle to which the device is attached, the surrounding conditions such as whether the vehicle has stopped or not, which part of the road it was traveling on, or the other party's vehicle, etc. The progress status etc. are recorded as images. The vehicle speed and time of day at the time of the accident are also recorded, and the situation at the time of the accident can also be determined from audio recordings such as the blinking sound of the vehicle's turn signal, alarm sound, and tire skidding sound. In addition, the situation such as negotiations between the parties after the accident, verification in the presence of a police officer, and testimony from a third party, etc., is also recorded using images and audio in the embodiment shown in Fig. 1, and mainly by images and audio in the embodiment shown in Fig. 2. It can be recorded by audio and reproduced if necessary.

Effects of the Invention As described above, according to the device according to the present invention, the situation at the time of the accident is recorded using images and audio, so it is useful for elucidating the cause of the accident without relying on statements by witnesses or other verifications. can be done. Especially if the driver complies with traffic laws and the other party is at fault, it can be objectively proven.

Be able to assert one's own legitimacy in negotiations regarding accident resolution. Additionally, even if the other party later changes their statements or negotiations, this record can be used as evidence against the other party. Furthermore, even if a police officer is arrested due to a mistake in traffic violation enforcement, it is possible to objectively prove the condition of the vehicle at the time, such as whether the vehicle stopped or how many kilometers the vehicle was traveling. It is possible.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, if a tape capable of recording for a long period of time is used instead of the endless tape, the present device can be used to record operating conditions, and can also be useful for vehicle operation management.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing one embodiment of the in-vehicle situation recording device according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing another embodiment of the device of the present invention. 2... Imaging device 8... Image processing circuit 1
4... Time signal generation circuit 20... Microphone 24...
Video recorder 36...Imaging device 42...Image processing circuit 52...Recording device 58...Micro 2...PCM processor

Claims (1)

[Claims] A means for capturing and recording the forward view of the vehicle driver, a means for recording sounds around the vehicle, and a signal of various data such as the running speed and time of the vehicle to the image capturing and recording means in synchronization with the image recording. 1. A vehicle-mounted situation recording device comprising: means for inputting data as numerical information, and configured to be able to reproduce the data as numerical information on a screen when reproducing an image recording.