On-demand system and method for retrieving video from a commercial vehicle

• US 20170054948A1
• Filed: 08/21/2015
• Published: 02/23/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 08/21/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Trimble Navigation Limited (Trimble Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Trimble Navigation Limited (Trimble Inc.)
• Inventors: Dew, David, Angel, James W., Nalepka, Michael D.
• Granted Patent: US 10,204,159 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/7867 using information manually generated, e.g. tags, keywords, comments, title and artist information, manually generated time, location and usage information, user ratings
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/94 Hardware or software architectures specially adapted for image or video understanding
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/41 Higher-level, semantic clustering, classification or understanding of video scenes, e.g. detection, labelling or Markovian modelling of sport events or news items segmenting video sequences G06V20/49
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/44 Event detection
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/56 exterior to a vehicle by using sensors mounted on the vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/008 communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/0808 Diagnosing performance data testing of vehicles G01M17/00; testing of electrical installation on vehicles G01R31/005
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/0866 the electronic data carrier being a digital video recorder in combination with video camera
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/77 between a recording apparatus and a television camera
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/772 the recording apparatus and the television camera being placed in the same enclosure
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/907 using static stores, e.g. storage tubes or semiconductor memories H04N5/91 takes precedence

Abstract

An apparatus for use with a commercial vehicle comprises a media recorder configured to receive video from one or more cameras. The media recorder comprises a memory configured to store a loop of the video as a circular buffer having a predetermined duration. A transceiver is communicatively coupled to the media recorder and configured to receive a video request command generated at a central office. An event detector is configured to communicate with a vehicle computer and detect predetermined events occurring during vehicle operation. The media recorder is configured to retrieve a portion of the loop of video stored in the memory and the transceiver is configured to transmit the portion of the loop of video to the central office in response to the video request command.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

capturing video from one or more cameras provided at each of a plurality of commercial vehicles;

recording, at each of the plurality of vehicles, a loop of the video as a circular buffer having a predetermined duration;

receiving, at a particular vehicle, a video request command generated at a remote location; and

transmitting, from the particular vehicle, a portion of the loop of video to the remote location in response to the video request command.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the video request command specifies at least a calendar date and time; and

transmitting comprises transmitting the portion of the loop of video that includes video recorded on the calendar date and at the time specified in the video request command.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the video request command specifies a duration and a calendar date and time; and

transmitting comprises transmitting the portion of the loop of video equal in length to the duration and that includes video recorded on the calendar date and at the time specified in the video request command.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the predetermined duration of the loop of video is between about 10 minutes and about 4 weeks.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the predetermined duration of the loop of video is between about 1 week and about 2 weeks.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the predetermined duration of the loop of video is equal to a recording capacity of a video recording device at each of the vehicles.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the video comprises video captured by one or more cameras external to the vehicles.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the video comprises video captured by one or more cameras internal to the vehicles.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the video comprises video captured by one or more cameras external and internal to the vehicles.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the video comprises video captured by one or more cameras external or internal to the vehicles; and

the video request command specifies one or more of the cameras of the particular vehicle; and

transmitting comprises transmitting, from the particular vehicle, a portion of the loop of video captured by the specified one or more cameras to the remote location in response to the video request command.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

capturing, at the plurality of commercial vehicles, data associated with predetermined events detected at the vehicles;

wherein the video request command is generated at a time subsequent to occurrence of a predetermined event at the particular vehicle.

12. An apparatus for use with a commercial vehicle, comprising:

one or more cameras;

a media recorder configured to receive video from the one or more cameras, the media recorder comprising a memory configured to store a loop of the video as a circular buffer having a predetermined duration;

a transceiver communicatively coupled to the media recorder, the transceiver configured to receive a video request command generated at a central office; and

an event detector configured to communicate with a vehicle computer and to detect predetermined events occurring during vehicle operation;

wherein the media recorder is configured to retrieve a portion of the loop of video stored in the memory and the transceiver is configured to transmit the portion of the loop of video to the central office in response to the video request command; and

wherein the one or more cameras, the media recorder, the transceiver, and the event detector are configured to be mounted at the vehicle.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the media recorder is further configured to store a video clip of a predetermined duration in the memory in response to detection of a predetermined event by the event detector.

14. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein:

the event detector is configured to produce event data in response to detecting a predetermined event; and

the apparatus comprises a second transceiver coupled to the event detector and configured to transmit the event data to the central office.

15. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein:

the video request command specifies at least a calendar date and a time of day; and

the media recorder is configured to retrieve the portion of the loop of video that includes video recorded on the date and at the time specified in the video request command for transmission to the central office.

16. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein:

the video request command specifies a duration, a calendar date, and a time of day; and

the media recorder is configured to retrieve the portion of the loop of video equal in length to the duration and that includes video recorded on the date and at the time specified in the video request command.

17. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the predetermined duration of the loop of video is between about 10 minutes and about 4 weeks.

18. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the predetermined duration of the loop of video is equal to a recording capacity of the memory configured as the circular buffer.

19. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the video comprises video captured by one or more cameras external or internal to the vehicle.

20. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the video comprises video captured by one or more cameras external and internal to the vehicle.

21. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein:

the video comprises video captured by one or more cameras external or internal to the vehicles; and

the video request command specifies one or more of the cameras of the particular vehicle; and

the media recorder, in response to the video request command, is configured to retrieve the portion of the loop of video captured by the specified one or more cameras for transmission to the central office.

22. An apparatus for use with a commercial vehicle, comprising:

one or more cameras;

a media recorder configured to receive video from the one or more cameras, the media recorder comprising a memory configured to store a loop of the video as a circular buffer having a predetermined duration; and

a transceiver communicatively coupled to the media recorder, the transceiver configured to receive a video request command generated at a central office;

wherein the media recorder is configured to retrieve a portion of the loop of video stored in the memory and the transceiver is configured to transmit the portion of the loop of video to the central office in response to the video request command; and

wherein the one or more cameras, the media recorder, and the transceiver are configured to be mounted at the vehicle.