Process and apparatus for automatic surveillance of a site
First Claim
1. An automatic surveillance process for a site in which the occurrence of incidental events is awaited, according to which a recording is made, on an erasable medium of finite storage capacity, of data collected at the time of occurrence of said awaited event;
- wherein said process essentially comprises;
dividing said recording medium into a series of successive sections each corresponding to a fraction of the total recording length provided by said medium;
while said awaited event does not occur, repeatedly recording on a same section of said medium data collected in the course of time, with concomitant erasure of data previously recorded on that section;
when said awaited event occurs, causing a transfer of said same section to the following section, on which is continued said data recording, without erasure of data recorded on the previous section.
0 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
The invention relates to a system for automatic surveillance of a site by recording data collected by a video camera 3 upon the occurrence of an incidental event (e.g. a road accident). The apparatus comprises an accident detector and a video tape recorder equipped with a controller device that causes the recorder to operate on successive sections of the magnetic tape, each section corresponding to a sequence of predetermined length. At the end of recording on each section, the controller determines whether to continue recording images either repeatedly on the same section after returning to the beginning thereof, in the case of there being no accident or, in the case of an accident, recording the images onto the following section. The autonomy of the magnetic tape recorder is thereby considerably increased.
10 Citations
14 Claims
-
1. An automatic surveillance process for a site in which the occurrence of incidental events is awaited, according to which a recording is made, on an erasable medium of finite storage capacity, of data collected at the time of occurrence of said awaited event;
- wherein said process essentially comprises;
dividing said recording medium into a series of successive sections each corresponding to a fraction of the total recording length provided by said medium; while said awaited event does not occur, repeatedly recording on a same section of said medium data collected in the course of time, with concomitant erasure of data previously recorded on that section; when said awaited event occurs, causing a transfer of said same section to the following section, on which is continued said data recording, without erasure of data recorded on the previous section.
- wherein said process essentially comprises;
- 2. An apparatus for recording collected data upon the occurrence of an awaited incidental event, said apparatus comprising at least one data sensor and a recorder receiving said collected data and storing said data on an erasable storage medium, wherein said apparatus comprises a detector signalling the appearance of an awaited event, and controlling means for operating said recorder on successive sections of said medium, each section corresponding to a sequence having a predetermined time period, and for commanding, at the end of recording on each section, either a continuation of the recording on the section just ended, after a return to the start thereof, in the absence of said event, or a continuation onto the succeeding section, upon detection of said event.
-
13. A method for automatically recording and saving on a nonvolatile erasable medium of finite information storage capacity information received from a sensor prior to, contemporaneously with, and subsequent to an unpredicted event, comprising the steps of:
-
(a) dividing said recording medium into a series of successive sections each constituting a portion of the total information recording capacity of said medium; (b) designating one of said sections as an interim storage section; (c) recording information received from said sensor in said interim storage section; (d) detecting a non-occurrence of said event to be recorded; (e) erasing information recorded in said interim storage section; (f) repeating steps c, d and e while detecting said non-occurrence of said event to be recorded; (g) detecting an occurrence of said event to be recorded; (h) recording information received from said sensor in said interim storage section; (i) designating a next one of said successive sections as said interim storage section; and (j) repeating steps c, d and e while detecting said non-occurrence of said event to be recorded and repeating steps g, h and i while detecting said occurrence of said event to be recorded.
-
-
14. An apparatus for recording and storing data collected from a sensor prior to, during, and subsequent to an unpredicted trigger event, comprising:
-
event sensor means for detecting an occurrence of said trigger event and, in response, supplying a record control signal; memory means including a nonvolatile, erasable storage medium having a finite information storage capacity for recording information, said storage medium including a series of successive sections each constituting a portion of the total information recording capacity of said medium; memory section designation control means for designating one of said storage medium sections as an interim storage portion and, in response to said record signal indicating an occurrence of said predetermined trigger event, designating a next one of said storage medium sections as said interim storage section; sensor means for detecting data and supplying a data signal representative thereof; recording means receiving said data signal and continually recording said data on said designated interim storage portion of said storage medium from an initial end to a terminal end of said interim storage portion; re-recording control means responsive to record control signal and to said recording means reaching said terminal end of said interim storage portion for erasing data recorded on said designated interim storage portion and reinitializing said recording means to said initial end of said interim storage portion when said predetermined trigger event has not been detected during a time period in which said recording means records data from said initial end to said terminal end of said interim storage portion; and storage medium advancing means responsive to record control signal and to said recording means reaching said terminal end of said interim storage portion for advancing said recording means to said next one of said storage medium sections designated as said interim storage portion by said memory section designation control means whereby previously recorded data is retained upon detection of said trigger event.
-
Specification