Vehicle navigation system, method for controlling vehicle navigation system, and vehicle black box

• US 9,702,708 B2
• Filed: 03/02/2011
• Issued: 07/11/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 03/03/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Thinkware Systems Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intellectual Discovery Co., Ltd.
• Inventors: Lee, Haeil, Woo, Seungwan, Kim, Heungwon, Lee, Wonkeun
• Primary Examiner(s): Beaulieu, Yonel
• Assistant Examiner(s): WEEKS, MARTIN A
• Application Number:
  US13/519,688
• Publication Number:
  US 20120323490A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,323 Days
• Field of Search: 701488
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/26 specially adapted for navigation in a road network
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3602 Input other than that of destination using image analysis, e.g. detection of road signs, lanes, buildings, real preceding vehicles using a camera

Abstract

Disclosed are a vehicle navigation system and a method for controlling a vehicle navigation system. The vehicle navigation system of the present invention comprises: a storage unit; a communication unit for receiving image data mapped with route guidance information from a vehicle black box provided in a vehicle; and a control unit for storing the received image data in a storage unit. The present invention can utilize the image data mapped with the route guidance information as reference data for determining details of an accident by storing the image data mapped with the route guidance information to confirm information including a destination of a driver of an accident vehicle when an accident happens.

Claims

1. A vehicle navigation apparatus for a vehicle comprising:

a storage unit;

a communication unit configured to receive image data from a vehicle black box mounted in the vehicle; and

a controller configured to map the received image data to route guidance information and store the received image data at the storage unit,

wherein the route guidance information comprises a plurality of sub-route guidance information each of which corresponds to a respective division of the route guidance information,

wherein the image data are captured by the vehicle black box while the vehicle is driven along the route according to guidance information and divided into a plurality of captured image data each of which has a predetermined recoding time interval or a predetermined file size, and

wherein the controller maps the received image data to route guidance information in such a way that one or more captured image data of the plurality of captured image data correspond to one or more sub-route guidance information of the plurality of sub-route guidance information.

2. The navigation apparatus of claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to map each of the plurality of sub-route guidance information to the received image data using identification information of the captured image data.

3. The navigation apparatus of claim 2, wherein the controller is configured to map the first and second sub-route guidance information to identification information of the captured image data one-to-one.

4. The navigation apparatus of claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to store the plurality of captured image data each of which the corresponding sub-route guidance information is included into.

5. The vehicle navigation apparatus of claim 1, wherein the captured image data comprises a plurality of image frames, and the controller is configured to map one or more image frame to the sub-route guidance information.

6. The navigation apparatus of claim 1, wherein the route guidance information comprises route setting time information, which is a time point to which a route found by a user request is set.

7. The navigation apparatus of claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to divide the received image data according to the route guidance information mapped to the received image data and to store separately the divided image data at the storage unit.

8. The navigation apparatus of claim 7, wherein the controller is configured to divide the received image data according to acquired segment information using the route guidance information mapped to the received image data and to store the divided image data at the storage unit.

9. The navigation apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a display unit, wherein the controller is configured to output the route guidance information mapped to the received image data to the display unit.

10. The navigation apparatus of claim 1, wherein the received image data is mapped to location information, and the controller is configured to acquire trace information corresponding to the received image data using the location information mapped to the received image data.

11. A black box for a vehicle comprising a storage unit, a communication unit configured to receive route guidance information from a vehicle navigation apparatus mounted in the vehicle;

and

a controller configured to map image data acquired by photographing the inside and the outside of the vehicle to the route guidance information and to store the image data at the storage unit,

wherein the route guidance information comprises a plurality of sub-route guidance information each of which corresponds to a respective division of the route guidance information,

wherein the image data are captured by the vehicle black box while the vehicle is driven along the route according to guidance information and divided into a plurality of captured image data each of which has a predetermined recoding time interval or a predetermined file size, and

wherein the controller maps the received image data to route guidance information in such a way that one or more captured image data of the plurality of captured image data correspond to one or more sub-route guidance information of the plurality of sub-route guidance information.

12. The black box of claim 11, wherein the controller is configured to map each of the plurality of sub-route guidance information to the image data using identification information of the captured image data.

13. The black box of claim 12, wherein the captured image data identification information comprises at least one of storage medium information, folder information, and file information.

14. The black box of claim 12, wherein the controller is configured to map the sub-route guidance information to identification Information of the captured image data one-to-one.

15. The black box of claim 11, wherein the controller is configured to store the plurality of captured image data each of which the corresponding is included into.

16. The black box of claim 11, wherein the captured image data comprises a plurality of image frames, and the controller is configured to map one or more image frame to the sub-route guidance information.

17. The black box of claim 11, wherein the received route guidance information comprises re-route guidance information acquired by re-searching when the vehicle deviates from the route.

18. The black box of claim 17, wherein the image data comprises image data before being deviated from the route and image data after being deviated from the route, and the controller is configured to distinguish and separately store the image data before being deviated from the route and the image data after being deviated from the route.

19. The black box of claim 18, wherein the controller is configured to store the image data before being deviated from the route and the image data after being deviated from the route at different folders.

20. The black box of claim 18, wherein the controller is configured to store the image data before being deviated from the route and the image data after being deviated from the route as different files.

21. The black box of claim 11, wherein the received route guidance information comprises route setting time information, which is a time point in which a route found by a user request is set.

22. The black box of claim 11, wherein the controller is configured to divide the image data according to the received route guidance information and store separately the divided image data at the storage unit.

23. The black box of claim 22, wherein the controller is configured to divide the image data according to segment information acquired using the received route guidance information and to store separately the divided image data at the storage unit.

24. The black box of claim 22, wherein the controller is configured to store image data belonging to the same segment among the image data as a single file.

25. The black box of claim 11, wherein the controller is configured to transmit the image data to which the received route guidance information is mapped to the vehicle navigation apparatus through the communication unit.

26. The black box of claim 11, wherein the controller is configured to map the image data to location information.