Crash prevention recorder (CPR)/video-flight data recorder (V-FDR)/cockpit-cabin voice recorder for light aircraft with an add-on option for large commercial jets

• US 20030152145A1
• Filed: 11/15/2001
• Published: 08/14/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 11/15/2001
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Kawaboingo Corporation
• Original Assignee: Kawaboingo Corporation
• Inventors: Kawakita, Kevin
• Application Number:
  US09/999,589
• Publication Number:
  US 20030152145A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 375/240.12
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/77 between a recording apparatus and a television camera
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/002 Special television systems not provided for by H04N7/007 - H04N7/18 still pictures via a television channel H04N1/00098
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/083 with signal insertion during the vertical and the horizontal blanking interval , e.g. MAC data signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/088 the inserted signal being digital
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/181 for receiving images from a plurality of remote sources
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8042 involving data reduction

Abstract

FIG. 1 shows a light airplane with the installed invention comprising: an Electronic Rear-view Mirror Component (100) in the cockpit usable by the pilot or co-pilot from the adjustment of twin mechanical arms, a Video Local Area Network (V-LAN) Component (3000), several Bug-Eye Sensor Components (2000) for the front-video camera (2004), rear video camera (2008), right video camera (2012), and left video camera (2016), and a Crash Prevention Recorder (CPR) Component (4000).

Claims

1. A method or process of integrating previously defined and used, prior art, system components including an electronic rear view mirror component, a video camera component, a video local area network component, a crash prevention recorder component with means of audio/video recording and flight data recording of data for later retrieval through the steps of:

a) capturing of audio/video images by the video camera,

b) capturing of digital flight data to be inserted into the audio/video data stream to create audio/video/flight data,

c) merging and sequencing of frames by the frame merger and sequencer unit with human judgement and selection as to which of many views are selectable for video display and video recording with use of selective merging mode to merge selected views and selective sequencing mode to sequence selected views with audio/video recording of all pilot selected displays,

d) transferring of data by the video local area network component,

e) displaying of video data by the electronic rear view mirror component,

f) playing of audio data by the speakers on the electronic rear view mirror component,

g) storing of audio/video/flight data by the crash prevention recorder component.

2. The process of claim 1 whereby the step b) of capturing of digital flight data to be inserted into the audio/video data stream to form audio/video/flight data includes Global Positioning System (GPS) date, Global Positioning System time, Global Positioning System latitude, Global Positioning System longitude, Global Positioning System altitude, Global Positioning System delta latitude, Global Positioning System delta longitude, and other relevant flight data parameters in example being attitude or angle data from an Inertial Reference Unit (IRU) used to position stamp the video data, and GPS intialization information such as almanac and crude initial position.

3. The process of claim 1 whereby the step d) of transferring of data by the video local area network component does both integrated analog and digital data modulated to analog with the analog transferring consisting of the substeps of:

a) frame synchronising of frames using timing pulses,

b) transferring of analog signals or s-shaped video signals of one picture frame consisting of analog lines of video, line synchronisation timing pulses, and a horizontal blanking period, followed by,

c) inserting of digital flight data modulated to analog data by known modulation techniques during the vertical blanking period which occurs between picture frames,

d) transferring of analog audio signals through known modulation techniques with example means being Frequency Modulation on a different frequency.

4. The process of claim 3 whereby the horizontal blanking period also has inserted digital data modulated to analog data.

5. The process of claim 3 whereby the video local area network medium used is Closed Circuit TeleVision (CCTV), coaxial cable.

6. The process of claim 3 whereby the sub-step c) of inserting of digital data modulated to analog data by known techniques during the vertical blanking period is done by the electronic rear view mirror component'"'"'s frame merger/sequencer unit.

7. The process of claim 6 whereby the frame merger/sequencer unit inserts current satellite navigation date, time, and position stamp data into the audio and video data stream in a very precise date and time stamp and also a position stamp which allows highly accurate space time diagram re-construction of events by post-event investigators.

8. The process of claim 7 whereby the digital date, and time stamp in particular and additional digital data is subject to hybrid key cryptography techniques which is combined Secret Key cryptography for the legal attributes of speed and secrecy and Public Key cryptography for the legal attributes of authentication and integrity of data.

9. The process of claim 6 whereby the frame merger/sequencer unit inserts Global Positioning System (GPS) initialization data such as current satellite almanac and initial crude position into the audio and video data stream for recording and initialization use by the Crash Prevention Recorder component'"'"'s independent Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver which is not yet deployed until during a crash.

10. The process of claim 6 whereby the frame merger/sequencer unit inserts Inertial Reference Unit (IRU) attitude data into the audio video data stream for recording by the Crash Prevention Recorder component as an attitude stamp for space and time diagram reconstruction by post-event investigators.

11. The process of claim 6 whereby the frame merger/sequencer unit inserts additional compressed, digital audio channels modulated to analog into the audio video data stream for recording by the Crash Prevention Recorder component.

12. The process of claim 3 whereby the sub-step d) is followed by the sub-step of playing of the analog audio/video/flight data modulated to analog on the digital display, electronic rear-view mirror with dis-inserting of the digital flight data for display over-writing for uses such as but not limited to satellite navigation date, time, position, etc.

13. The process of claim 3 whereby the sub-step d) is followed by the sub-step of playing of the analog audio/video/flight data modulated to analog on the analog speakers of the electronic rear-view mirror with separation of the audio frequency from the video frequency.

14. The process of claim 3 whereby the sub-step d) is followed by the sub-step of recording of the analog audio/video/flight data modulated to analog on the crash prevention recorder component'"'"'s analog video recorder medium.

15. The process of claim 14 whereby the recording of the analog audio/video/flight data modulated to analog is done by a video cassette recorder player with storage of data upon an appropriate, removable, analog, magnetic tape, cartridge medium.

16. The process of claim 1 whereby the step d) of transferring of data by the video local area network component does only integrated, fully, digital data transferring consisting of the substeps of:

a) frame synchronising of frames using timing pulses,

b) transferring of compressed digital video signals or binary 1'"'"'s and 0'"'"'s signals of one picture frame consisting of digital lines of video, presentation time stamps, furthermore, an example means of compression is given as Moving Picture Experts Group Level II (MPEG II) digital video compression, which is followed by,

c) inserting of binary encoded data with example means being American Standards for Computing Information and Interchange (ASCII) encoded digital flight data which is inserted into a static background video area which does not vary between picture frames, furthermore, the digital flight data is marked for non-lossy digital compression with compression means such that all non-changing digits of the digital flight data are differenced out by the digital compression process, furthermore, the static video background area is transmitted for background video re-construction, furthermore, a protocol means is provided for indicating the starting address and byte length of the variably positioned flight data as well as the displaced background video such as through example means use of a static field in the last bytes of the video frame,

d) transferring of compressed digital audio signals on a separate digital channel with presentation time stamps synchronising it to the video data, furthermore, an example means of digital audio compression is MPEG I Level 3 (MP3) audio compression.

17. The process of claim 16 whereby the video local area network medium used is fiber, optic cable of some kind given by specific example such as single frequency or single-mode, multi-frequency or multi-mode fiber.

18. The process of claim 16 whereby the video local area network media used is coaxial cable or Closed Circuit TeleVision (CCTV) cable using a fully digital, full-duplex, multi-frequency, symmetric, cable modem which is also called a digital, broadband modem.

19. The process of claim 16 whereby the sub-step c) of inserting of binary encoded digital flight data into static video background areas is done by the electronic rear view mirror component'"'"'s frame merger/sequencer unit.

20. The process of claim 19 whereby the frame merger/sequencer unit inserts current digitally encoded satellite navigation date, time, and position stamp data into the audio and video data stream in a very precise date and time stamp and position stamp allowing accurate space and time diagrams done by post-event investigators.

21. The process of claim 19 whereby the frame merger/sequencer unit inserts digital Global Positioning System (GPS) initialization data such as current satellite almanac and initial crude position into the audio and video data stream for recording and use by the Crash Prevention Recorder component'"'"'s independent Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver.

22. The process of claim 21 whereby the digital date, and time stamp in particular and additional digital data is subject to hybrid key cryptography techniques which is combined Secret Key cryptography for the legal attributes of speed and secrecy and Public Key cryptography for the legal attributes of authentication and integrity of data.

23. The process of claim 19 whereby the frame merger/sequencer unit inserts digitally encoded Inertial Reference Unit (IRU) attitude data into the audio video data stream for recording by the Crash Prevention Recorder component in an attitude stamp for accurate attitude re-construction by post event investigators.

24. The process of claim 16 whereby the sub-step d) is followed by the sub-step of playing of the compressed, digital video on the digital display, electronic rear-view mirror with dis-inserting of the digital flight data for display over-writing for uses such as but not limited to satellite navigation date, time, position, etc.

25. The process of claim 16 whereby the sub-step d) is followed by the sub-step of playing of the compressed, digital audio on the analog speakers of the electronic rear-view mirror.

26. The process of claim 16 whereby the sub-step d) is followed by the sub-step of storing of the compressed digital audio and digital video data by the crash prevention recorder component using a digital video recorder.

27. The process of claim 26 whereby the storing of the compressed digital audio and digital video data is done on a Digital Versatile Disk (DVD) Player on an appropriate removable disk data storage medium.

28. The process of claim 26 whereby the storing of the compressed digital audio and digital video data is done by a digital computer tape drive also known as a streaming tape drive with storage done upon appropriate removable digital computer tape cassette.

29. The process of claim 16 whereby the Video Local Area Network (V-LAN) medium used is digital, fiber optic cable with a duo-redundant, star topology with passenger seat-back, electronic rear view mirror components and a master cockpit electronic rear view mirror component used in a winged body transport.

30. A method or process of using a crash prevention recorder component having the processes of:

a) modeling by computer of electronic motion sensors and transducers used to detect crash conditions for ejection, slow water immersion, end of parachute fall, water landings and upside-down landings,

b) ejecting of float package or child sub-component which contains the recording medium from the mother sub-component by the crash prevention recorder component such as through example means of solid rocket propellant, air foil, or pneumatic push,

c) deploying of parachutes on the float package by the crash prevention recorder component,

d) deploying of float on the float package by the crash prevention recorder component,

e) releasing of parachute on the float package by the crash prevention recorder component,

f) reading of electronic motion sensor for water landings and upside-down landings,

g) deploying of ballast only in water landings and upside-down landings to reduce rocking and to right a child sub-component of crash prevention recorder component which is capsized by large ocean waves,

h) deploying of satellite navigation antenna by the crash prevention recorder component,

i) receiving of radio frequency signals by the satellite navigation receiver in the crash prevention recorder component,

j) deploying of radio location antenna by the crash prevention recorder component,

k) transmitting of radio location beacon signals by the crash prevention recorder component.

31. The process of claim 30 whereby the step a) of modeling by electronic motion sensors and transducers for detecting crash conditions for ejection, end of parachute fall, water landings and upside-down landings, is done by computer with electronic slow water immersion sensors, electronic leveling sensors, and rate accelerometer sensors.

32. The process of claim 30 whereby the step b) of ejecting of float package or the child sub-component which holds the recording medium from the mother sub-component of the crash prevention recorder is done with solid rocket propellant.

33. The process of claim 32 whereby the solid rocket propellant containers end with directional thrust nozzles controlled by the smart, motion control computer to direct the Crash Prevention Recorder away from the aircraft in an upwards direction despite aircraft orientation.

34. The process of claim 32 whereby the Crash Prevention Recorder has deployable mini-winglets to allow aerodynamic control during ejection.

35. The process of claim 30 whereby the step k) of transmitting of radio location beacon data by the radio location beacon is done with a prior art, standard, US Coast Guard approved, Emergency Positioning Independent Radio Beacon (EPIRB) doing the fully automatic sub-steps of:

a) broadcasting of satellite navigation historic date and time of crash,

b) broadcasting of historic satellite navigation position of crash site with plane and pilot,

c) broadcasting of current date and time, and current, satellite navigation drift position of float with recording medium.

36. The process of claim 30 whereby the step k) of transmitting of radio location beacon data by the radio location beacon is done with a prior art, US Air Force Electronic Location Transmission (ELT) component doing the fully automatic sub-steps of:

a) broadcasting of satellite navigation historic date and time of crash,

b) broadcasting of historic satellite navigation position of crash site with plane and pilot,

c) broadcasting of current date and time, and current, satellite navigation drift position of float with recording medium.