Automatic activation of an in-car video recorder using a vehicle speed sensor signal

• US 20050088291A1
• Filed: 10/22/2003
• Published: 04/28/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 10/22/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SF Mobile-Vision Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Mobile-Vision, Inc. (Safe Fleet Holdings LLC)
• Inventors: Lorenzetti, Leo, Blanco, Louis W.
• Granted Patent: US 7,023,333 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/441
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/0891 Video recorder in combination with video camera

Abstract

An in-car video system and method are provided where a vehicle speed derived from a vehicle speed sensor (“VSS”) signal is compared against a user-settable threshold value. If the vehicle speed exceeds the threshold value, an alarm is generated. The alarm is used by the in-car video system to automatically activate the record function of a video recorder. The alarm may be optionally sent to a remote location, such as a police agency'"'"'s headquarters as an alert that the vehicle speed has exceeded a set threshold and that a possible high speed pursuit has commenced. Vehicle speed information derived from the VSS signal is generated into a form that is continuously displayable on an in-car video monitor or continuously recordable by the video recorder along with the video and audio information captured by the in-car video system camera and microphones.

Claims

1. An activation controller for automatically activating an in-car video system that includes a car-mounted camera and video recorder, comprising:

an input for receiving a vehicle speed sensor signal that is indicative of a speed of a vehicle in which the in-car video system is installed;

a comparator for comparing the speed of the vehicle against an activation threshold;

an alarm generator coupled to the comparator for generating an alarm signal if the speed of the vehicle exceeds the threshold; and

an output for transmitting the alarm signal to a trigger input of the in-car video system so that the video recorder is activated into the record mode of operation upon receiving the alarm signal.

2. The activation controller of claim 1 further including a selector for selectively adjusting the activation threshold.

3. The activation controller of claim 2 further including a graphical user interface that is displayable on a display device for providing user-selectable control over the activation controller.

4. The activation controller of claim 3 where the user-selectable control includes control over the selector to set the activation threshold to a setting desired by the user.

8. The activation controller of claim 1 further including a transmitter coupled to receive the alarm signal for transmitting an indication to a remote location that the speed of the vehicle has exceeded the activation threshold.

9. The activation controller of claim 8 where the transmitter comprises a wireless transmitter.

5. The activation controller of claim I further including a character generator for creating a video overlay that includes a graphical representation of the speed of the vehicle.

6. The activation controller of claim 5 where the activation controller is arranged so that video overlay is displayable on a video monitor and superimposed on a video image captured by the car-mounted camera.

7. The activation controller of claim 6 where the activation controller is arranged so that the captured video and superimposed video overlay of the speed of the vehicle is recordable by the video recorder.

10. A method of operating an in-car video system including a car-mounted camera and video recorder that is installed and operated in a vehicle, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving a vehicle speed sensor signal that is indicative of a speed of the vehicle; and

activating the in-car video system into a record mode of operation if the speed of the vehicle exceeds a threshold speed so that a video image captured by the car-mounted camera is recorded by the video recorder.

11. The method of claim 10 further including a step of transmitting an alarm signal to a remote location to indicate that the vehicle has exceeded the threshold speed.

12. The method of claim 10 further including a step of providing a user with an interface to adjust the threshold speed.

13. The method of claim 12 where the interface comprises a graphical user interface displayed on a display device.

14. The method of claim 10 further including a step of generating a video overlay that includes a representation of the speed of the vehicle.

15. The method of claim 14 where the video overlay is combined with a video image captured by the car-mounted camera and provided to the video recorder as a recordable video stream.

16. An in-car video system, comprising:

a video recorder mountable in a vehicle and arranged to be coupled to a camera mounted in a vehicle so as to receive video captured by the camera; and

a controller that is arranged to be coupled to receive a signal from a vehicle speed sensor mounted in the vehicle, the signal being indicative of speed of the vehicle, for triggering the video recorder into record mode when the speed of the vehicle exceeds a threshold speed.

17. The in-car video system of claim 16 further including a metadata generator for generating metadata that is recordable by the video recorder.

18. The in-car video system of claim 17 where the metadata includes vehicle speed data derived from the signal from the vehicle speed sensor.

19. The in-car video system of claim 16 further including a user interface coupled to the controller for providing user-selection over the speed threshold.

20. The in-car video system of claim 19 where the user interface includes an on-screen menu that provides the user with a selection of speed thresholds in incremental units of speed.