VEHICLE EVENT RECORDER SYSTEMS AND NETWORKS HAVING INTEGRATED CELLULAR WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS

• US 20150317846A1
• Filed: 07/13/2015
• Published: 11/05/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/16/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SmartDrive Systems, Inc. (Solera Holdings Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: SmartDrive Systems, Inc. (Solera Holdings Incorporated)
• Inventors: PLANTE, James
• Granted Patent: US 9,545,881 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 11/04 Mounting of cameras operative during drive; Arrangement of controls thereof relative to the vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 16/0232 for measuring vehicle parameters and indicating critical, abnormal or dangerous conditions
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2300/8006 for monitoring and displaying scenes of vehicle interior, e.g. for monitoring passengers or cargo
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 2300/8073 for vehicle security, e.g. parked vehicle surveillance, burglar detection
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 17/00 Digital computing or data processing equipment or methods, specially adapted for specific functions information retrieval, database structures or file system structures therefor G06F16/00
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 2209/10 Comprising means for protocol conversion, i.e. format conversion
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/008 communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/085 using electronic data carriers
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/0866 the electronic data carrier being a digital video recorder in combination with video camera
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/0891 Video recorder in combination with video camera
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/64 Computer-aided capture of images, e.g. transfer from script file into camera, check of taken image quality, advice or proposal for image composition or decision on when to take image
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/80 Camera processing pipelines; Components thereof
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/183 for receiving images from a single remote source
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/188 Capturing isolated or intermittent images triggered by the occurrence of a predetermined event, e.g. an object reaching a predetermined position signal generation from motion picture films H04N5/253
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/042 Public Land Mobile systems, e.g. cellular systems

Abstract

Vehicle event recorder systems are arranged to be in constant communication with remote servers and administrators via mobile wireless cellular networks. Vehicle event recorders equipped with video cameras capture video and other data records of important events relating to vehicle use. These data are then transmitted over special communications networks having very high coverage space but limited bandwidth. A vehicle may be operated over very large region while maintaining continuous communications connections with a remote fixed server. As such, systems of these inventions may be characterized as including a mobile unit having: a video camera; a microprocessor; memory; an event trigger; and mobile wireless transceivers, and a fixed network portion including: mobile wireless cellular network, a protocol translation gateway, the Internet and an application-specific server.

Claims

1. A vehicle event recorder system configured to couple with a vehicle, the system comprising:

a camera configured to acquire visual information representing a vehicle environment, the vehicle environment including spaces in and around an interior and an exterior of the vehicle;

one or more vehicle systems transducers configured to generate output signals conveying vehicle usage information, the one or more vehicle systems transducers forming at least part of an on-board databus system, the vehicle usage information including information related to one or more of a drive-train, a transmission, an engine, brakes, or lights of the vehicle;

a managed loop memory configured to electronically store information;

a buffer memory configured to electronically store information;

a transceiver configured to wirelessly transmit information to a remotely located server via a cellular communication network; and

a microprocessor configured to;

effectuate storage of the visual information and the vehicle usage information in the managed loop memory in temporary datasets, the temporary datasets being stored for predetermined periods of time, the temporary datasets including a first dataset stored for a first period of time;

compress the temporary datasets, the compressed datasets comprising less bytes of data than the temporary datasets;

effectuate storage of the compressed datasets in the buffer memory, and

facilitate wireless transmission of the compressed datasets via the transceiver.

2. The vehicle event recorder of claim 1, wherein the microprocessor is configured to effectuate the compression of the temporary datasets and facilitate the storage of the compressed datasets responsive to events occurring while the temporary datasets are stored on the managed loop memory such that the first dataset is compressed and stored on the buffer memory responsive to a first event occurring while the first dataset is stored on the managed loop memory.

3. The vehicle event recorder of claim 2, wherein the microprocessor is configured such that the first event includes one or more of a vehicle accident, swerving, or hard braking.

4. The vehicle event recorder of claim 2, wherein the microprocessor is configured such that the first dataset includes visual information and vehicle usage information from before and after the first event.

5. The vehicle event recorder of claim 2, wherein the microprocessor is further configured to facilitate transmission of the first dataset responsive to compression and storage of the first dataset in the buffer memory after the first event.

6. The vehicle event recorder of claim 1, wherein the microprocessor is configured to facilitate transmission of the compressed datasets from the buffer memory to the remotely located server via the transceiver responsive to electronic requests from the remotely located server such that the microprocessor facilitates transmission of the first dataset from the buffer memory to the remotely located server responsive to a first request from the remotely located server.

7. A method for transmitting information from a vehicle event recorder system to a remotely located server, the vehicle event recorder system including a managed loop memory and a buffer memory both configured to store information, the vehicle event recorder system configured to couple with a vehicle, the method comprising:

acquiring visual information representing a vehicle environment, the vehicle environment including spaces in and around an interior and an exterior of the vehicle;

generating output signals conveying vehicle usage information, the vehicle usage information including information related to one or more of a drive-train, a transmission, an engine, brakes, or lights of the vehicle;

effectuating storage of the visual information and the vehicle usage information in the managed loop memory in temporary datasets, the temporary datasets being stored for predetermined periods of time, the temporary datasets including a first dataset stored for a first period of time;

compressing the temporary datasets, the compressed datasets comprising less bytes of data than the temporary datasets;

effectuating storage of the compressed datasets in the buffer memory, and

facilitating wireless transmission of the compressed datasets to the remotely located server via a cellular communication network.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising effectuating the compression of the temporary datasets and facilitating the storage of the compressed datasets responsive to events occurring while the temporary datasets are stored on the managed loop memory such that the first dataset is compressed and stored on the buffer memory responsive to a first event occurring while the first dataset is stored on the managed loop memory.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the first event includes one or more of a vehicle accident, swerving, or hard braking.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the first dataset includes visual information and vehicle usage information from before and after the first event.

11. The method of claim 8, further comprising facilitating wireless transmission of the first dataset responsive to compression and storage of the first dataset in the buffer memory after the first event.

12. The method of claim 7, further comprising facilitating transmission of the compressed datasets from the buffer memory to the remotely located server responsive to electronic requests from the remotely located server such that transmission of the first dataset from the buffer memory to the remotely located server is responsive to a first request from the remotely located server.

13. A vehicle event recorder system configured to couple with a vehicle, the system comprising:

a camera configured to acquire visual information from a vehicle environment, the vehicle environment including spaces in and around an interior and an exterior of the vehicle;

one or more vehicle systems transducers configured to generate output signals conveying vehicle usage information, the one or more vehicle systems transducers forming at least part of an on-board databus system, the vehicle usage information including information related to one or more of a drive-train, a transmission, an engine, brakes, or lights of the vehicle;

an electronic memory configured to electronically store information;

a transceiver configured to wirelessly transmit information to a remotely located server via a cellular communication network; and

a microprocessor configured to;

effectuate storage of the visual information and the vehicle usage information in the electronic memory in datasets, the datasets including a first dataset and a second dataset, the second dataset comprising more bytes of data than the first dataset; and

facilitate the wireless transmission of the datasets via the transceiver, the microprocessor configured to facilitate wireless transmission of the datasets to the remotely located server via the transceiver based on an amount of available bandwidth in the cellular communication network;

wherein the microprocessor is configured to facilitate transmission of the first dataset responsive to the amount of available bandwidth being sufficient to permit transmission of the first dataset, and

wherein the microprocessor is configured to facilitate transmission of the second dataset responsive to the amount of available bandwidth being sufficient to permit transmission of the second dataset.

14. The vehicle event recorder of claim 13, wherein the microprocessor includes a download module configured to determine the amount of available bandwidth in the cellular communication network and facilitate transmission of the datasets to the remote server via the transceiver based on the determination and the amount of data bytes in the datasets.

15. The vehicle event recorder of claim 14, wherein the download module is configured to determine the amount of available bandwidth one or more times during operation of the vehicle.

16. The vehicle event recorder of claim 15, wherein the download module is configured to determine variations in the amount of available bandwidth during operation of the vehicle and facilitate transmission of the datasets to the remote server via the transceiver based on the variations and the amount of data bytes in the datasets.

17. A method for transmitting information from a vehicle event recorder system to a remotely located server, the vehicle event recorder system configured to couple with a vehicle, the method comprising:

acquiring visual information from a vehicle environment, the vehicle environment including spaces in and around an interior and an exterior of the vehicle;

generating output signals conveying vehicle usage information, the vehicle usage information including information related to one or more of a drive-train, a transmission, an engine, brakes, or lights of the vehicle;

effectuating electronic storage of the visual information and the vehicle usage information in datasets, the datasets including a first dataset and a second dataset, the second dataset comprising more bytes of data than the first dataset; and

facilitating wireless transmission of the datasets to the remotely located server via a cellular communication network, the facilitation based on an amount of available bandwidth in the cellular communication network;

wherein facilitating wireless transmission of the first dataset is responsive to the amount of available bandwidth being sufficient to permit wireless transmission of the first dataset, and

wherein facilitating wireless transmission of the second dataset is responsive to the amount of available bandwidth being sufficient to permit wireless transmission of the second dataset.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising determining the amount of available bandwidth in the cellular communication network and facilitating the wireless transmission of the datasets to the remote server based on the determination and the amount of data bytes in the datasets.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising determining the amount of available bandwidth one or more times during operation of the vehicle.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising determining variations in the amount of available bandwidth during operation of the vehicle and facilitating the wireless transmission of the datasets to the remote server based on the variations and the amount of data bytes in the datasets.