VEHICLE EVENT RECORDERS WITH INTEGRATED WEB SERVER

• US 20160316179A1
• Filed: 07/01/2016
• Published: 10/27/2016
• 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 9,942,526 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces
• 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 5/0891 Video recorder in combination with video camera
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/22 comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/60 Network streaming of media packets
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• 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 23/62 Control of parameters via user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/661 Transmitting camera control signals through networks, e.g. control via the Internet
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/77 between a recording apparatus and a television camera
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/181 for receiving images from a plurality of remote sources
• 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

Abstract

Vehicle event recorders are arranged with integrated web servers to provide a simple user interface and control mechanism which may be address with commonly available hardware and software. A vehicle event recorder of these inventions couples to a network having a workstation node. The workstation having either of the many available web browsers can be used to view, address, control, perform data transfer, et cetera, by way of data exchange in accordance with simple IP protocols. A vehicle equipped with these systems returns to a household to make a network connection. A local server is used to see all exposed system controls as provided by predefined web pages provided by a web server integrated as part of the vehicle event recorder unit.

Claims

1. A vehicle event recorder comprising:

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

a memory configured to electronically store information; and

a microprocessor configured to;

detect a vehicle event based on vehicle performance information, wherein detection uses an adjustable sensitivity level;

responsive to detection of the vehicle event, effectuate storage of visual information associated with the vehicle event in the memory;

facilitate wireless communication of information between the vehicle event recorder and a remotely located computing device using HTTP; and

adjust the adjustable sensitivity level based on information received from the remotely located computing device.

2. The vehicle event recorder of claim 1, wherein the microprocessor is further configured to cause communication of the visual information associated with the vehicle event stored in the memory to the remotely located computing device.

3. The vehicle event recorder of claim 2, wherein the remotely located computing device:

determines an adjustment to the adjustable sensitivity level based on one or more previously detected vehicle events; and

communicates the adjustment to the microprocessor, and wherein the microprocessor adjusts the adjustable sensitivity level based on the adjustment received from the remotely located computing device.

4. The vehicle event recorder of claim 1, wherein the microprocessor is further configured to adjust the adjustable sensitivity level based on information received from a user via the remotely located computing device.

5. The vehicle event recorder of claim 4, wherein the microprocessor is further configured such that facilitating wireless communication includes generating one or more web pages for presentation to the user via a web browser on the remotely located computing device, and wherein the one or more web pages are configured to receive entry and/or selection of the information from the user.

6. The vehicle event recorder of claim 5, wherein the microprocessor is further configured such that the one or more web pages comprise one or more fields configured to receive entry and/or selection of the information from the user.

7. The vehicle event recorder of claim 1, wherein the microprocessor is further configured such that detection of the vehicle event is based on the vehicle performance information breaching an event trigger threshold level.

8. The vehicle event recorder of claim 7, wherein the microprocessor is further configured such that the adjustable sensitivity level is adjusted by an increase and/or decrease in the event trigger threshold level.

9. The vehicle event recorder of claim 8, wherein the vehicle performance information is based on an acceleration of the vehicle, and wherein the event trigger threshold level is an acceleration threshold level.

10. The vehicle event recorder of claim 1, further comprising an output port configured to facilitate the wireless communication between the vehicle event recorder and the remotely located computing device.

21. The vehicle event recorder of claim 1, further comprising an e-mail server, wherein the microprocessor is further configured to:

prepare an e-mail message responsive to detection of the vehicle event; and

send the e-mail message using the e-mail server.

11. A computer implemented method for adjusting vehicle event recorder settings with the vehicle event recorder, the vehicle event recorder comprising a video camera, a memory, and a microprocessor, the method comprising:

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

detecting a vehicle event based on vehicle performance information, wherein detection uses an adjustable sensitivity level;

responsive to detecting the vehicle event, effectuate, with the microprocessor, storage of visual information associated with the vehicle event in an electronic memory;

facilitating, with the microprocessor, wireless communication of information between the vehicle event recorder and a remotely located computing device using HTTP; and

adjusting, with the microprocessor, the adjustable sensitivity level based on information received from the remotely located computing device.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising causing communication of the visual information associated with the vehicle event stored in the memory to the remotely located computing device.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

determining an adjustment to the adjustable sensitivity level based on one or more previously detected vehicle events;

communicating, by the remotely located computing device, the adjustment to the microprocessor;

wherein adjusting the adjustable sensitivity level is based on the adjustment received from the remotely located computing device.

14. The method of claim 11, further comprising adjusting the adjustable sensitivity based on information received from a user via the remotely located computing device.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein facilitating wireless communication includes generating one or more web pages for presentation to the user via a web browser on the remotely located computing device, wherein the one or more web pages receive entry and/or selection of the information from the user.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the one or more web pages comprise one or more fields that receive entry and/or selection of the information from the user.

17. The method of claim 11, wherein detecting the vehicle event is based on the vehicle performance information breaching an event trigger threshold level.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein adjusting the adjustable sensitivity level is accomplished by an increase and/or decrease in the event trigger threshold level.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein detecting the vehicle event is based on an acceleration of the vehicle, and wherein event trigger threshold level is an acceleration threshold level.

20. The method of claim 11, further comprising facilitating the wireless communication between the vehicle event recorder and the remotely located computing device with an output port of the vehicle event recorder.