Accident reporting system for vehicles

• US 9,349,225 B2
• Filed: 06/17/2014
• Issued: 05/24/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 06/20/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Original Assignee: DENSO Corporation
• Inventors: Wanami, Shingo, Kobayashi, Shigenori
• Primary Examiner(s): Phan, Hai
• Assistant Examiner(s): Yacob, Sisay
• Application Number:
  US14/306,558
• Publication Number:
  US 20140375446A1
• Time in Patent Office: 707 Days
• Field of Search: 340/436
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/008 communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/0891 Video recorder in combination with video camera
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/016 Personal emergency signalling and security systems emergency non-personal manually actuated alarm activators G08B25/12
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/205 Indicating the location of the monitored vehicles as destination, e.g. accidents, stolen, rental

Abstract

An accident report system for a vehicle includes an accident detection section to detect an accident; an information collection section to collect information; and an information report section to report the collected information to an external agency when the accident is detected. The information collection section differentiates the collected information before and after the detection of the accident such that (i) an accident cause data is collected before the detection of the accident to confirm an exterior outside of the vehicle and (ii) an accident damage data is collected after the detection of the accident to confirm an interior inside of the vehicle. The collection and report of the accident cause data and accident damage data permits the external agency to recognize states of the vehicle or states of an occupant of the vehicle before and after the detection of the accident.

Claims

1. An accident-report system for a vehicle, comprising:

an accident detection section to detect an occurrence of an accident about the vehicle;

an information collection section to collect information; and

an information report section to report the information collected by the information collection section to an external agency when the occurrence of the accident is detected by the accident detection section,

wherein;

the information collection section provides, as the information collected,

(i) an accident cause data that is collected before the occurrence of the accident is detected to confirm a cause of the accident and

(ii) an accident damage data that is collected after the occurrence of the accident is detected to confirm a damage of the accident,

the accident damage data being differentiated from the accident cause data; and

the information collection section designates

first sampling time intervals with which the accident cause data are sampled and

second sampling time intervals with which the accident damage data are sampled,

the first sampling time interval being designated to be smaller than the second sampling time interval.

2. The accident report system according to claim 1, wherein

the information collection section differentiates the accident damage data from the accident cause data in respect of a target of data collected.

3. The accident report system according to claim 1, further comprising:

a data save portion to save, after the occurrence of the accident is detected, the accident cause data and the accident damage data.

4. The accident report system according to claim 1, wherein

the information collection section designates

a first collecting time duration during which the accident cause data are collected and

a second collecting time duration during which the accident damage data are collected,

the first collecting time duration being designated to be smaller than the second collecting time duration.

5. The accident report system according to claim 1, wherein

the accident cause data contains an image capture data that captures an image of an exterior of the vehicle.

6. The accident report system according to claim 1, wherein:

the accident damage data contains an image capture data that captures an image of an interior of the vehicle.

7. The accident report system according to claim 1, wherein

the information collection section includes a camera, which takes (i) a first posture to capture an image of an exterior of the vehicle before the occurrence of the accident is detected and (ii) a second posture to capture an image of an interior of the vehicle after the occurrence of the accident is detected.

8. The accident report system according to claim 1, wherein

the information collection section collects the information that contains a sound data recorded with a microphone.

9. The accident report system according to claim 1, further comprising:

a plurality of power sources including a first power source and a second power source; and

a power switch section to perform switchover to switch the first power source to the second power source when the first power source does not supply an electric power,

wherein the information collection section and the information report section operate with an electric power supply due to the switchover performed by the power switch section.

10. The accident report system according to claim 1, wherein

the information collection section includes a camera that contains

(i) a first camera unit to capture an image of an exterior of the vehicle before the occurrence of the accident is detected and

(ii) a second camera unit to capture an image of an interior of the vehicle after the occurrence of the accident is detected.

11. The accident report system according to claim 10, wherein

the camera containing the first camera unit and the second camera unit is provided as a modularized package.

12. The accident report system according to claim 1, further comprising:

an anomaly detection section to detect, in the vehicle, an occurrence of a behavior anomaly not yet reaching the accident, by determining a threshold-exceding variation on a detection signal outputted from a sensor unit at least including one of an acceleration sensor, a speed sensor, or an angle sensor,

wherein;

the information collection section provides, as the accident cause data to confirm the cause of the accident,

(i) a prior-anomaly data that is collected before the occurrence of the behavior anomaly is detected and before the occurrence of the accident is detected and

(ii) a post-anomaly data that is collected after the occurrence of the behavior anomaly is detected and before the occurrence of the accident is detected; and

the information collection section

designates, as the first sampling time intervals, post-anomaly sampling time intervals from a time when the behavior anomaly is detected to a time when the occurrence of the accident is detected, and

further designates prior-anomaly sampling time intervals until the time when the occurrence of the behavior anomaly is detected,

the prior-anomaly sampling time interval being designated to be greater than the post-anomaly sampling time interval being the first sampling time interval.

13. The accident report system according to claim 1, wherein the first sampling time interval is before a collision and the second sampling time interval is after the collision.