Stored vision for automobiles

• US 8,319,619 B2
• Filed: 03/12/2010
• Issued: 11/27/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 04/15/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kenneth Eugene Arant
• Original Assignee: Gene W Arant and Juanita F Arant
• Inventors: Arant, Kenneth Eugene
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Hung T.
• Application Number:
  US12/661,217
• Publication Number:
  US 20100171831A1
• Time in Patent Office: 991 Days
• Field of Search: 340/435, 340/436, 340/903, 340/937, 348/47, 348/143, 348/148, 348/151, 382/103, 382/107, 701/28, 701/29, 362/494, 362/103, 362/107, 386/31
• US Class Current: 340/435
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/41422 located in transportation means, e.g. personal vehicle arrangements specially adapted for transportation systems in broadcast systems H04H20/62
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4223 Cameras H04N23/00 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4334 Recording operations recording of a television signal H04N5/76; arrangements for recording or accumulating broadcast information or broadcast-related information H04H60/27
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/76 Television signal recording
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/77 between a recording apparatus and a television camera

Abstract

A method for the driver of an automotive vehicle to avoid distraction from the task of driving, but yet to preserve and later recover legal evidence of events, objects, or conditions that may be encountered during the driving of the vehicle, by utilizing a perimeter optical viewing system in conjunction with a central digital recording system to record and subsequently retrieve images of those events, objects, or conditions.

Claims

1. A method of observing, recording, and recovering visible information about objects, conditions, and events surrounding an automobile during a trip, comprising steps of:

(a) prior to the trip, placing a plurality of cameras in circumferentially spaced positions around the periphery of the automobile at about the middle of its vertical height and fixedly securing them there to the automobile body with their fields of view directed outwardly;

(b) upon starting the trip, activating all of the cameras to operate continuously throughout an entire trip;

(c) throughout the entire trip, recording images acquired by each camera in a corresponding separate file;

(d) using the separate file in a digital memory to separately record an optical data gathered by each one of the cameras, and using separate node files to provide eight separate files of real-time recorded data obtained from the respective cameras;

(e) using the cameras as a set, not a combination, with each of the cameras operating separately and individually, and wherein the optical data which each camera acquires is recorded and recovered from the separate file; and

(f) locating all apparatus needed for carrying out the method so that it is inaccessible to a driver throughout the entire trip while driving the automobile.

2. A method for an automobile driver to automatically obtain throughout an entire trip images of objects, conditions, and events around the body of the automobile and to recover sequences of those images at the conclusion of the trip, comprising steps of:

(a) selecting a plurality of cameras;

(b) prior to the trip, positioning the cameras in circumferentially spaced relationship around the periphery of the automobile by fixedly securing each of the cameras to the automobile body at about the middle of the vertical height of the automobile with its respective field of view directed outwardly;

(c) selecting a digital recording medium having a plurality of separate recording tracks and positioning the digital recording medium in a secure location on the automobile;

(d) upon starting of the trip and continuously throughout the trip, electrically energizing both the recording medium and all of the cameras so as to optically acquire images and convert them in real time into electrical information in the digital recording medium on separate tracks corresponding to the respective cameras;

(e) using the separate tracks in the digital recording medium to separately record an optical data gathered by each one of the cameras, and using separate node files to provide separate tracks of real-time recorded data obtained from respective cameras;

(f) using the cameras as a set, not a combination, with each of the cameras operating separately and individually, and wherein the optical data which each camera acquires is recorded in and recovered from a separate track;

(g) arranging all apparatus needed to carry out the method so that it is inaccessible to the driver of the automobile while the driver is driving; and

(h) when the trip is concluded, retrieving the thus-recorded electrical information from the separate tracks of the digital recording medium so as to reconstitute the sequences of images captured by the respective cameras, not with respect to ground, but relative to movement positions of the automobile at the times when the images were acquired.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the cameras extend in circumferentially spaced positions around the entire periphery of the automobile.