JP2010128610A - Drive recorder - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To solve the problem that it is necessary to install a sensor exclusive for security countermeasures to thereby increase cost in a conventional drive recorder, and that even when an acceleration sensor or the like is used as it is, small acceleration to be generated when burglary occurs is not detectable, and even when burglary occurs, it is not possible to record a video by the driver recorder as a result. <P>SOLUTION: The drive recorder includes a control unit for comparing an output signal from an acceleration sensor with a preliminarily set determination threshold, and for making a storage unit store a captured image, based on the comparison results. The control unit is configured to change the determination threshold of the acceleration sensor based on the change of a signal for detecting the parking state of a vehicle. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a drive recorder, and more particularly to a drive recorder that continues to operate even when a vehicle is parked.

  The drive recorder records video, etc. when driving a vehicle, etc., or the driving situation, etc., and can perform verification when an accident etc. occurs or investigate the operating situation of the vehicle afterwards. it can. A configuration of a conventional drive recorder is shown in FIG. 1 (for example, Patent Document 1). As shown in FIG. 1, a conventional drive recorder includes a main body 101 having a camera 102 for recording video, a microphone 104 for recording sound, a shooting switch 105 for starting shooting, and a GPS antenna 106. .

  Here, the vehicle on which the drive recorder is mounted includes an accessory switch (ACC switch) that is electrically integrated with an engine start key cylinder provided in the vehicle. When the ACC switch is turned on by the user's key operation, an accessory on signal is transmitted to the drive recorder. The drive recorder starts control by receiving the accessory on signal of the ACC switch.

  Generally, when the user parks the vehicle and turns off the engine key, the ACC switch is also turned off, and the drive recorder also stops operating. On the other hand, in order to prevent the drive recorder from being stolen, there is known one that operates the drive recorder for a certain period of time after the accessory signal is turned off (Patent Document 1). This conventional drive recorder can input a signal for alarming from the security control means for alarming when the vehicle theft is detected, and the theft output by the security control means within a predetermined time after the vehicle accessory signal is turned off. When a signal indicating that the monitoring state has been entered is input to the driving information recording device, the control means continues the starting state of the driving information recording device, monitors whether there is an alarm signal in the starting state, and generates an alarm. The driving information stored in the storage means (ring buffer) is recorded using a signal as a trigger. With such a configuration, even after the accessory signal is turned off, the drive recorder is operated to monitor theft, so that the video of the theft can be recorded.

JP2007-238093

  However, in the conventional drive recorder, it is necessary to install a dedicated sensor or the like for security measures, and there is a problem that the cost increases. Also, if the acceleration caused by the vibration of the vehicle body when using the acceleration sensor as it is is smaller than the threshold set during normal driving, it cannot be detected by the acceleration sensor, and even if the theft is performed, the drive recorder There arises a problem that video cannot be recorded.

  The drive recorder of the present invention is a drive recorder including a control unit that compares an output signal from the acceleration sensor with a preset determination threshold value and stores a photographed image in a storage unit based on the comparison result, A control part changes the determination threshold value of an acceleration sensor based on the change of the signal which detects the parking state of a vehicle, It is characterized by the above-mentioned.

  When operating the drive recorder after parking the vehicle, by changing the threshold value of the acceleration sensor, small vibrations that could not be detected before parking the vehicle can be detected, and a special device is added. In addition, it is possible to detect the vibration of the vehicle body in the case of theft or the vibration caused by a contact accident, and it is possible to accurately record an image at the time of the accident even when the vehicle is parked.

  Hereinafter, a drive recorder according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. However, it should be noted that the technical scope of the present invention is not limited to these embodiments, but extends to the invention described in the claims and equivalents thereof.

  A drive recorder according to a first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the drive recorder according to the first embodiment of the present invention. An acceleration sensor 3 for detecting acceleration caused by a collision, sudden acceleration, sudden deceleration, or vibration (impact) is provided inside the main body of the drive recorder 1, and a detection value of the acceleration sensor 3 is transmitted to the control unit 2. The memory 8 stores a determination threshold value for comparison with the detection value of the acceleration sensor, and there is an event such as an accident when the detection value of the acceleration sensor received by the control unit 2 exceeds the determination threshold value. Judge. The memory 8 can also store a plurality of determination threshold values. For example, as will be described later, when a certain determination threshold is exceeded, it is determined that a collision has occurred, and when another determination threshold smaller than this is exceeded, vibration or collision that occurs during theft does not occur. It may be determined that a certain degree of contact accident has occurred.

  The drive recorder 1 receives video signals from the first camera 41 and the second camera 42 installed outside the drive recorder, and performs image processing by the shooting control unit 5. The video signal after image processing is cyclically stored in the RAM 6 constituting the ring buffer. When it is determined that a collision or the like needs to be stored, an image of a desired fixed period is stored in a memory card 16 such as an SD card, which is a non-volatile memory, via the I / F 7, and the subsequent It is used when analyzing to. It is also possible to receive an audio signal collected by a microphone 13 provided inside the drive recorder and record it.

  When the ACC switch 9 is turned on by a user key operation, an accessory on signal is transmitted to the drive recorder 1. That is, the accessory (ACC) signal is an activation signal for a predetermined control device such as a drive recorder. The drive recorder 1 starts the control by receiving the accessory ON signal of the ACC switch 9. The power of the drive recorder 1 is supplied from a battery 10 installed outside, and the voltage is adjusted by a power supply control circuit 12 provided in the drive recorder 1.

  The drive recorder of the present invention is a signal for operating the drive recorder even when the vehicle is parked, for example, after the accessory signal is turned off (hereinafter referred to as “after ACC is turned off”), continuously recording the video, and detecting the parking state of the vehicle. The determination threshold value of the acceleration sensor is changed based on the change of the acceleration sensor. For example, the determination threshold value of the sensor after ACC is turned off is set to a value different from that when the accessory signal is turned on during normal operation (hereinafter referred to as “when ACC is turned on”). The present invention is made by paying attention to the fact that the vibration (impact) generated at the time of vehicle theft is different from the vibration (collision) generated at the time of vehicle collision. When the accessory signal is turned off, the vehicle is in a parked state. At this time, for example, by lowering the determination threshold value of the acceleration sensor from the determination threshold value during normal driving, vibrations generated during theft or the vehicle is parked. In this case, it becomes possible to detect the shake of the vehicle body that occurs when another vehicle comes into contact, and it is possible to record the scene of theft or the image of the vehicle that has touched. Here, the “parking state” means a state in which the vehicle is continuously stopped. Further, signals indicating the parking state include signals such as a parking (P) range and a parking brake.

  The operation procedure of the drive recorder according to the first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. First, in step S301, the control unit 2 (see FIG. 2) of the drive recorder 1 determines whether or not the ACC signal is turned off. If the ACC signal is not turned off, the process returns to step S301.

  If the ACC signal is turned off, the determination threshold value of the acceleration sensor is changed in step S302. For example, when the determination threshold is changed from 0.45 G to 0.2 G, the control unit 2 reads the value of 0.2 G from the memory 8 and sets this as the determination threshold when the ACC signal is off. In this manner, by lowering the determination threshold value of the acceleration sensor after ACC is turned off than the determination threshold value when ACC is turned on, acceleration caused by minute vibrations that are difficult to detect when ACC is turned on during normal operation is detected. be able to. As a result, it is possible to record an image at the time of theft or contact accident when the vehicle is parked.

  Although the example which changes the determination threshold value of an acceleration sensor was shown in the present Example, the sensor which changes a determination threshold value is not restricted to this. For example, the determination threshold value of the vehicle speed sensor may be changed. That is, since the vehicle speed during parking should be zero, if the threshold value of the vehicle speed sensor after the accessory signal is turned off is set to 0 km / h, the vehicle speed will be output if the vehicle is moved for some reason. The detection value of the sensor exceeds the determination threshold value, and recording can be performed by the drive recorder.

  A drive recorder according to a second embodiment of the present invention will be described. The drive recorder according to the second embodiment is characterized in that the frame rate of the video when the vehicle is parked is different from the frame rate before the vehicle is parked. For example, by lowering the frame rate after ACC is turned off, the capacity of the video storage memory can be saved, and recording can be performed for a long time.

  The operation procedure of the drive recorder according to the second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. First, in step S401, the control unit 2 of the drive recorder 1 determines whether or not the ACC signal is turned off. If the ACC signal is not turned off, the process returns to step S401.

  If the ACC signal is turned off, the imaging control unit 5 changes the frame rates of the first camera 41 and the second camera 42 in step S402. For example, the frame rate can be changed from 30 FPS to 15 FPS. Here, FPS (Frame Per Second) is an index representing the smoothness of a moving image, and indicates how many images are displayed per second. In this way, by making the frame rate after ACC off smaller than the frame rate when ACC is on, the capacity of the video storage memory can be saved, and recording can be performed for a long time.

  A drive recorder according to a third embodiment of the present invention will be described. The drive recorder according to the third embodiment is characterized in that the compression rate of the video signal at the time of recording the video when the vehicle is parked is different from the compression rate before the vehicle is parked. For example, by increasing the compression rate after ACC is turned off to reduce the size of the video data, the capacity of the video storage memory can be saved, and recording can be performed for a long time.

  The operation procedure of the drive recorder according to the third embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. First, in step S501, the control unit 2 of the drive recorder 1 determines whether or not the ACC signal is turned off. If the ACC signal is not turned off, the process returns to step S501.

  When the ACC signal is turned off, in step S502, the control unit 2 changes the compression rate when recording the video signal to the video storage memory card 16 via the I / F 7. For example, the compression rate can be changed from 0% to 50%. In this way, by increasing the compression rate when ACC is off than the compression rate when ACC is on, the capacity of the video storage memory can be saved, and recording can be performed for a long time.

  Further, when shooting using a plurality of shooting devices, the compression rate of the video signal from each shooting device may be individually changed. For example, when the first camera 41 captures the outside of the vehicle and the second camera 42 captures the interior of the vehicle, the ACC is set to a low compression rate for the video outside the vehicle, and the high compression rate for the video inside the vehicle. The compression rate of the image outside the vehicle may be set high, and the compression rate of the image inside the vehicle may be set low. In this way, the image outside the vehicle can be recorded in high definition during normal operation when the ACC is on, and the image inside the vehicle can be recorded in high definition while the vehicle is stopped after the ACC is off. It is possible to increase the amount of information collected from the video during theft.

  In the first to third embodiments described above, an example in which the determination threshold value, the frame rate, and the compression rate of the sensor are individually changed has been described. However, the values at the time of vehicle parking may be changed in combination. For example, the memory capacity can be further saved by changing both the frame rate and the compression rate when the ACC is off.

  In addition, when video signals are received from a plurality of imaging devices during normal traveling, the number of imaging devices that are the targets of the video to be recorded in the recording means after the vehicle is parked may be limited. For example, when the first camera 41 captures the outside of the vehicle when the ACC is on and the second camera 42 captures the interior of the vehicle, the ACC Only the video of the in-vehicle second camera 42 may be recorded after the vehicle is turned off. By selecting and recording only the necessary video in this way, a limited recording capacity can be used effectively.

  Furthermore, when not only video but audio is recorded during normal driving, the target to be recorded in the recording means after the vehicle is parked may be limited to only video signals. For example, when the audio signal collected by the microphone 13 is recorded in addition to the video from the first camera 41 and the second camera 42 when the ACC is on, the audio data collected by the microphone is large due to external noise. If it cannot be effective evidence, only the video signal may be recorded. By selecting and recording only necessary information in this way, a limited recording capacity can be used effectively.

  A drive recorder according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. The drive recorder according to the fourth embodiment is characterized in that a power supply voltage monitoring unit 14 is provided in addition to the drive recorder shown in the first embodiment. The power supply voltage monitoring unit 14 monitors the voltage of the battery 10 installed outside the drive recorder. If the voltage drops below a predetermined voltage, the drive recorder setting condition is returned to the state before the vehicle is parked. Stop. By monitoring the voltage supplied to the drive recorder, it is possible to avoid a sudden stop of the operation due to a decrease in the supply voltage. Further, by returning the determination threshold value of the sensor changed after the vehicle is parked, the frame rate, and the like to the setting conditions before the vehicle is parked, the operation can be normally started when the vehicle is restarted.

  A drive recorder according to a fifth embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. The drive recorder according to the fifth embodiment is characterized in that a timer 11 is provided in addition to the drive recorder shown in the fourth embodiment. The timer 11 can measure an elapsed time from when the vehicle is parked and can set a time during which the drive recorder operates after the vehicle is parked. The operation time that operates after the vehicle is parked can be stored in the memory 8, and the control unit 2 reads the operation time and transmits it to the timer 11. The timer 11 notifies the control unit 2 when the elapsed time after parking the vehicle reaches the operation time, and the control unit 2 receives this and stops the power supply of the power supply control circuit 12. In the case where the power supply voltage monitoring unit 14 is provided, the operation of the drive recorder is stopped when the power supply voltage falls below a predetermined voltage even if the elapsed time by the timer 11 is within the operation time. Can do.

  Next, the operation procedure of the drive recorder according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. The operations in steps S801 and S802 are the same as those in FIG. If it is detected in step S803 that the timer 11 has passed a certain operating time, the setting condition changed after ACC is turned off is returned to the state before ACC is turned off in step S804. For example, as shown in FIG. 8, when the determination threshold value of the acceleration sensor is changed from 0.45 G to 0.2 G after ACC is turned off, this is restored. Thereby, it is possible to operate normally when the drive recorder is restarted. Thereafter, the operation of the drive recorder is stopped in step S805.

  In this embodiment, the determination threshold is changed to a value before parking the vehicle after a certain time has elapsed, and then the operation of the drive recorder is stopped. However, the drive recorder is not changed after the certain time has elapsed. The operation may be stopped.

In the first to fifth embodiments described above, the ACC signal, which is an example of the activation signal for the predetermined control device, has been described as an example of the signal for detecting the parking state of the vehicle. However, the present invention is not limited thereto. That is, as a signal for detecting the parking state of the vehicle, the determination threshold value of the acceleration sensor may be changed based on changes in signals such as the P range and the parking brake.
In the first to fourth embodiments, the timer process of the fifth embodiment can be used in combination.

It is a block diagram of the conventional drive recorder. 1 is a configuration diagram of a drive recorder according to a first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. It is a flowchart which shows the operation | movement procedure of the drive recorder which concerns on 1st Example of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the operation | movement procedure of the drive recorder which concerns on 2nd Example of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the operation | movement procedure of the drive recorder based on the 3rd Example of this invention. It is a block diagram of the drive recorder based on the 4th Example of this invention. It is a block diagram of the drive recorder based on the 5th Example of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the operation | movement procedure of the drive recorder which concerns on the 5th Example of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Drive recorder 2 Control part 3 Acceleration sensor 41 1st camera 42 2nd camera 5 Shooting control part 6 RAM
7 I / F
8 Memory 9 ACC Switch 10 Battery 11 Timer 12 Power Supply Control Circuit 13 Microphone 14 Power Supply Voltage Monitoring Unit 16 Memory Card

Claims (10)

A drive recorder including a control unit that compares an output signal from the acceleration sensor with a predetermined determination threshold and stores a captured image in a storage unit based on the comparison result,
The control unit changes a determination threshold value of an acceleration sensor based on a change in a signal for detecting a parking state of the vehicle.   The drive recorder according to claim 1, wherein the signal for detecting the parking state of the vehicle is an activation signal for a predetermined control device.   The drive recorder according to claim 1, wherein the control unit changes a frame rate of a captured image based on a change in a signal for detecting a parking state of the vehicle.   The drive according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the control unit changes a compression ratio of a captured image stored in the storage unit based on a change in a signal for detecting a parking state of the vehicle. Recorder. When video signals are received from multiple photographic devices,
The drive recorder according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the number of imaging devices to be recorded in the recording unit is changed based on a change in a signal for detecting a parking state of the vehicle.   The drive recorder according to claim 1, wherein the captured image includes an image inside the vehicle. A voice receiver for receiving a voice signal from the microphone;
7. The vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the recording unit records a video signal and an audio signal before parking the vehicle, and the parking unit records only the video signal after parking the vehicle. The described drive recorder. A power supply voltage monitoring unit for detecting a voltage supplied to the drive recorder;
8. The control unit according to claim 1, wherein when the voltage detected by the power supply voltage monitoring unit is equal to or lower than a predetermined voltage, the control unit ends the operation after parking the vehicle. Drive recorder. A timer for measuring the elapsed time after the accessory signal is turned off;
The drive recorder according to any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein when the elapsed time has passed a predetermined time, the control unit ends the operation after parking the vehicle.   10. The drive recorder according to claim 8, wherein the control unit returns the setting condition before parking the vehicle before ending the operation after parking the vehicle. 11.

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