Vehicle video camera/recorder initiated emergency calling

• US 9,979,924 B1
• Filed: 02/13/2014
• Issued: 05/22/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 02/13/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ambarella International LP (Ambarella Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Ambarella Incorporated
• Inventors: Fink, Alexander, Pertsel, Shimon
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran, Thai
• Assistant Examiner(s): Hasan, Syed
• Application Number:
  US14/179,715
• Time in Patent Office: 1,559 Days
• Field of Search: 386228, 180274, 180282, 348148, 348143, 4554042, 701 334
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 28/14 responsive to accident or emergency, e.g. deceleration, tilt of vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 25/102 a signal being sent to a remote location, e.g. a radio signal being transmitted to a police station, a security company or the owner
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/6091 including a wireless interface
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72418 for supporting emergency services
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72421 with automatic activation of emergency service functions, e.g. upon sensing an alarm
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/45 for generating image signals from two or more image sensors being of different type or operating in different modes, e.g. with a CMOS sensor for moving images in combination with a charge-coupled device [CCD] for still images
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/77 between a recording apparatus and a television camera
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/9201 involving the multiplexing of an additional signal and the video signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8042 involving data reduction
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/40 for vehicles, e.g. vehicle-to-pedestrians [V2P]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/90 Services for handling of emergency or hazardous situations, e.g. earthquake and tsunami warning systems [ETWS]

Abstract

A system includes a processing device and a personal communication device. The processing device may be configured to (i) be mounted in a vehicle, (ii) detect conditions indicative of an accident, (iii) communicate collected data to the personal communication device via a wireless protocol, and (iv) initiate an emergency call using the personal communication device. The personal communication device may be configured to upload at least a portion of the collected data to a remote location in response to the emergency call being initiated.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a dash camera comprising a processing device and configured to be removably mounted in a vehicle with a view of a direction ahead of said vehicle and no further installation to said vehicle, said dash camera further comprising one or more sensors configured to generate location data, orientation data, and motion data related to said vehicle; and

a personal communication device separate from said dash camera and said vehicle, wherein

(a) said processing device is configured to (i) collect said location data, said orientation data, said motion data and video, (ii) detect conditions indicative of an accident, and (iii) in response to detection of said conditions, automatically communicate collected data and a video sequence recorded prior to detection of said conditions to said personal communication device via a wireless protocol and automatically initiate an emergency call using said personal communication device, and

(b) said personal communication device is configured to automatically upload at least a portion of the collected data and the video sequence received from the processing device to a remote location in response to the emergency call being initiated.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein said dash camera comprises a video camera that is (i) separate from said processing device and said personal communication device and (ii) configured to generate and store the video sequence, and said processing device is further configured to communicate the video sequence from said video camera to said personal communication device via said wireless protocol as part of said collected data.

3. The system according to claim 2, wherein said video camera is further configured to record a high resolution video sequence and a reduced bitrate video sequence in parallel, a bitrate of said reduced bitrate video sequence being reduced through at least one of lower resolution, lower frame rate, higher predicted frames to reference frame ratio, and change in one or more quantization parameters.

4. The system according to claim 1, wherein said dash camera is further configured to stream video live to said personal communication device in addition to uploading a portion of a stored video sequence.

5. The system according to claim 1, wherein said processing device is further configured to generate and store one or more of audio data and log data.

6. The system according to claim 5, wherein said log data comprises one or more of direction information, weather conditions, global positioning system (GPS) data, and motion information.

7. The system according to claim 1, wherein said processing device is configured to initiate said emergency call in response to one or more predetermined emergency-related events, and at least one of the predetermined emergency-related events comprises a large shock followed by vehicle motion stopping suddenly.

8. The system according to claim 1, wherein said processing device is further configured to analyze a video sequence to detect one or more of:

a number of lanes of a road currently being traveled;

a current lane of the number of lanes in which said vehicle is traveling;

road signs present along the road being traveled;

weather conditions; and

police vehicles being present.

9. The system according to claim 1, wherein said processing device comprises a wireless communication interface supporting one or more of Bluetooth, ZigBee, IEEE 802.11, IEEE 802.15, IEEE 802.15.1, IEEE 802.15.2, IEEE 802.15.3, IEEE 802.15.4, IEEE 802.15.5, and IEEE 802.20.

10. The system according to claim 1, wherein said dash camera is configured to be mounted on or near one or more of a windshield of a vehicle, a dashboard of said vehicle, a rear-view mirror of said vehicle, a motorcycle helmet, and a pair of eyeglasses.

11. The system according to claim 1, wherein said collected data is stored in a non-volatile memory.

12. The system according to claim 11, wherein said non-volatile memory is located remotely from said processing device.

13. The system according to claim 11, wherein said non-volatile memory comprises one or more of a flash memory, an SD card, an xD-picture card, a subscriber identity module (SIM) card.

14. A method of initiating an emergency call comprising:

removably mounting a camera in a vehicle with no further installation to said vehicle, wherein said camera operates independently of said vehicle, views a direction ahead of said vehicle, and comprises one or more sensors configured to generate location data, orientation data, and motion data related to said vehicle;

storing a video sequence generated by said camera;

detecting conditions indicative of an accident using said camera;

automatically communicating the video sequence stored prior to detecting said conditions to a user device separate from the camera and said vehicle via a wireless protocol in response to detecting said conditions;

automatically initiating an emergency call using said user device in response to detecting said conditions; and

using the user device to automatically upload at least a portion of the video sequence received by the user device to a remote location in response to the emergency call being initiated.

15. The method according to claim 14, wherein said user device comprises at least one of a cellular telephone, a tablet computer, and a personal digital assistant.

16. The method according to claim 14, wherein said user device communicates said video sequence to at least one of a secure server, a cloud-based service, a security service, a police department, and a location associated with a predefined entry in a contacts list.

17. The method according to claim 14, wherein said conditions indicative of said accident comprise a large shock followed by vehicle motion stopping suddenly.

18. A method of preserving a record of an accident comprising:

removably mounting a camera in a vehicle with no further installation to said vehicle, wherein said camera operates independently of said vehicle, views a direction ahead of said vehicle, and comprises one or more sensors configured to generate location data, orientation data, and motion data related to said vehicle;

storing a video sequence generated by said camera;

logging data comprising one or more of direction information, weather conditions, global positioning system (GPS) data, and motion information using said camera;

detecting conditions indicative of an accident using said camera;

automatically communicating the stored video sequence and the logged data from prior to detection of said conditions to a user device separate from the camera via a wireless protocol in response to detecting said conditions indicative of said accident;

automatically initiating an emergency call using said user device in response to detecting said conditions indicative of said accident; and

using said user device, automatically uploading at least a portion of the video sequence and the logged data to a remote location in response to the emergency call being initiated.

19. The method according to claim 18, wherein said user device is configured to upload said video sequence using a wireless protocol comprising one or more of GSM, CDMA, GPRS, UMTS, CDMA2000, 3GPP LTE, 4G/HSPA/WiMAX, and SMS.

20. The system according to claim 18, wherein said conditions indicative of said accident comprise a large shock followed by vehicle motion stopping suddenly.