EP1908026A1

EP1908026A1 - A method for managing data of a vehicle traveling data recorder

Info

Publication number: EP1908026A1
Application number: EP06763974A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Bao Tang
Original assignee: Siemens AG; Siemens VDO Automotive AG
Current assignee: Continental Automotive GmbH
Priority date: 2005-06-30
Filing date: 2006-06-30
Publication date: 2008-04-09
Also published as: CN1889082A; CN100449550C; BRPI0613073A2; WO2007003586A1

Abstract

This invention proposes a method for managing data of a vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) ; firstly, a mediator component is set in a vehicle traveling data recorder data management system (VDRDMS), the mediator component is connected to a smart card component, a vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) communication component, a database component and a user interface component, and each of the components communicates with the other components through the mediator component; secondly, the attributes of the mediator component, the smart card component, the vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) communication component, the database component and the user interface component are set as active attributes. A process, a set of state variables, a message queue and a set of buffers are set for the active attributes of each of the components. A data beginning identifier and a data length identifier are added in an upload speed command. The method of this invention increases the response speed of the vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) system, and avoids the problem of single-point blocking, and can inform the other components in time when the state of one component changes.

Description

A Method for Managing Data of a Vehicle Traveling Data Recorder

I. Technical Field This invention relates to a method for managing data, and more particularly, to a method for managing data of a vehicle traveling data recorder data management system.

II. Technical Background A vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) is an electronic device for recording a vehicle' s traveling speed, time, mileage and other status information. The formation of a vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) system is shown in Fig. 1. The figure includes a vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) device mentioned above which is usually fitted on-board, a card reader, a series of cards (such as a workshop card, a driver card and a company card) adapted for using with the card reader, and a computer.

A vehicle traveling data recorder data management system (VDRDMS) is a piece of application software used in a Windows environment operating in the above computer, which was developed in accordance with the national standards for vehicle traveling recorders, GB/T 19056-2003. A vehicle traveling data recorder data management system (VDRDMS) exchanges data with a vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) device by communication via a serial port (COM) or a USB port, and it can also exchange data with a driver card or a company card by communication via the USB port; and by way of a user-friendly graphic interface, it provides to users functions such as data communication, data display (tables and graphs), data searching, data statistics, data printing, historical data analysis and management, etc.

Current vehicle traveling data recorder data management system (VDRDMS) software usually comprises a series of components as follows : Smart Card Component: a functional entity responsible for communicating with a card reader and a smart card; vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) Communication Component: a functional entity responsible for providing communication between different components;

Database Component: for storing a vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) system's full historical records, workshop activities and driver information.

User Interface Component: a component for interacting between a terminal user and the vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) system.

There are the following problems in the prior art: firstly, due to a large number of interfaces and links existing between the above components, they form a complicated web-like connection which is disadvantageous for maintenance at a later stage and for locating any problem once it is found. Secondly, there is high inter-dependency between the components, which further increases the system's complexity. Thirdly, such a vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) system has poor scalability.

In a patent application by Siemens (China) Co., Ltd., a technical solution to the above problems is proposed, in which a mediator component is introduced as a central component for connecting the other components, so as to form a star-like connection structure, which solves the above problems successfully .

However, in the current vehicle traveling data recorder data management system (VDRDMS) software and those vehicle traveling data recorder data management system (VDRDMS) software using mediator components, all the components' objects are used as passive objects. Such so-called passive objects are the ones without their own thread control, so their operations are performed under the thread control in active components. The above vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) systems using passive objects have the following problems:

Firstly, such a system has a slow response speed. For example, if a terminal user wants to read via a user interface from the vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) system the speed data of the last 360 hours, since the data of 360 hours are about 20k bytes, it will take a vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) system about 2 minutes to read the data of 20k bytes. For another example, if a terminal user wants to read via a card from the vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) system the speed data of the last 60 hours, it will take about 20 seconds. When reading a large volume of data, a response speed like this would not satisfy the needs of terminal users.

Secondly, single-point blocking exists in the system. In vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) systems using passive objects, a terminal user can only perform one operation in a time session. Due to the system's slow response speed, terminal users usually want the system to achieve other functions and perform other operations when waiting for the system to respond to an operation. If all the components in the system are passive objects, no other operation can be performed while waiting for the results of one operation.

Thirdly, if the status of a component in a vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) system has changed, since every component in a vehicle traveling data recorder data management system (VDRDMS) software system uses passive objects, the other components have no way to get information about the changes that have happened to the components in the system. For example, after a vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) device has just been replaced by another vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) device, if at this moment a terminal user clicks a button via the user interface to request data uploading (uploading is to read data from a vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) device into a PC) , then the user interface component issues a data-reading instruction, but the user interface component does not know that the original vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) device has been replaced by a new vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) device, therefore it still performs the data-reading operation to the original vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) device. Since the original vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) device has been removed, the system will inform the user interface component that this data-reading operation cannot be performed. At this time the user interface has to update its status, then the terminal user can perform the previous operation once again to read data from the new vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) device. That is to say, after the replacement of a vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) device, the user has to click twice every time to be able to read data from a new vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) device, and the delayed information updating causes inconveniency to the users.

III. Contents of the Invention The main object of this invention is to provide a method for managing data of a vehicle traveling data recorder, which can improve the system response speed in the vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) system, at the same time being able to perform other operations during the time session waiting for the system to respond to an operation, and when the state of a component in the system is changed, can inform the other components quickly of the change that has happened to this component in the system.

To achieve the above object, the technical solution according to this invention is realized as follows: a method for managing data of a vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) , in which, firstly, a mediator component is set in a vehicle traveling data recorder data management system (VDRDMS) , the mediator component is connected to a smart card component, a vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) communication component, a database component and a user interface component, and each said component communicates with said other components through said mediator component; secondly, the attributes of said mediator component, said smart card component, said vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) communication component, said database component and said user interface component are set as active attributes.

According to one aspect of this invention, a process, a set of state variables and a message queue are set for each said component, said process of each component maintains the state variables of the same component, and when any state variable of any said component changes, that component sends a message to inform said mediator component, which message is stored in the message queue of said mediator component, then said mediator component sends a message to inform the other components relevant to that component.

According to another aspect of this invention, a set of buffers are set for said vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) communication component for storing the data from the vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) device. A set of buffers are also needed by any other component having speed problems. Typically, if said user interface component is at a remote position, a set of buffers are set for said user interface component for storing the data required by said user interface component.

According to yet another aspect of this invention, except said mediator component, the process of any other component responds to a message from the message queue of that component, and which message comes from said mediator component or that component itself. A message from said mediator component has a higher priority than a message from that component itself.

According to yet another aspect of this invention, a communication protocol between said vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) communication component and the vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) device, or between said smart card component and a card reader is defined.

According to another aspect of this invention, at least one slice command is set in the communication protocol, which slice command includes a data beginning identifier and a data length identifier. Said slice command is an upload speed command of the vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) . Alternatively, a head is added in the data block of at least one command in said command protocol, which head includes a data beginning identifier and a data length identifier. The command in said communication protocol is an upload speed command of the vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) .

According to yet another aspect of this invention, the length of the data beginning identifier and data length identifier is 2 bytes respectively.

It can be seen from the above solution that the key point of this invention is that the attributes of the mediator component, smart card component, vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) communication component, database component and user interface component in the vehicle traveling data recorder data management system (VDRDMS) are all set as active attributes .

It can be seen that the method for managing data of a vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) provided by this invention has the following advantages and features:

(1) By setting the attributes of the mediator component, smart card component, vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) communication component, database component and user interface component in the vehicle traveling data recorder data management system (VDRDMS) of this invention as active attributes, the system can actively access data, therefore the system' s response speed is increased.

(2) In this invention, the attributes of said components are set as active objects; since the initiation and execution of a process in an active object are separated and an active object has its own independent execution thread, the initiation of a process in an active object is made by another thread, but the process is executed by its own thread, therefore the initiation of an active object's process is non-blocking, which avoids the problem of single-point blocking.

(3) In this invention, a message queue is set for a component having active objects. When a component's status changes, this component will inform the mediator component, which in turn informs other relevant components, therefore the other components can know the changes to that component in the system in time. Furthermore, since all the components with active objects have their own independent threads, so the other components can update their own status in time once they are informed of the message about the change that has happened to that component, and can display the same to a terminal user.

IV. Description of accompanying drawings

Fig. 1 is an illustrating diagram of the system structure of a vehicle traveling data recorder.

Fig. 2 is an illustrating diagram of the method for managing data of a vehicle traveling data recorder in this invention.

V. Embodiments This vehicle traveling data recorder data management software system (VDRDMS) is a piece of application software used in a Windows environment, which was developed in accordance with the national standards for motor vehicle traveling recorders, GB/T 19056-2003. The embodiments of this invention are built on the basis of the method for managing data of a vehicle traveling data recorder as shown in the illustrating diagram of Fig. 2. In Fig. 2, the external system includes a vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) , a card reader and various cards, such as a workshop card, a driver card, a company card, etc. The vehicle traveling data recorder data management system (VDRDMS) communicates and exchanges data with the vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) communication component via a serial port (COM RS232 port) or a USB port; also communicates and exchanges data via the USB part with the smart card component, such as a driver card or a company card; and via a user-friendly graphic interface provides to a user data communication, data display

(tables and graphs), data search, data statistics, data printing, historical data analysis and management, and other functions. The vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) communication component and the smart card component are device-related software components. Due to the introduction of a mediator component into the vehicle traveling data recorder data management system (VDRDMS) by this invention, the other components such as the vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) communication component, the smart card component, the database component and the user interface component, all communicate via the mediator component, therefore the mediator component plays the role of a control logic component. A user operates on a PC via a user interface.

This invention is described hereinbelow by the embodiments, but these embodiments are not in any way to limit the scope of this invention.

In this invention, the active object mode is used in the vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) software system. The so- called active object is considered in contrast with a passive object, where the initiation and execution of a process in the passive object is within the same thread, so the initiation of the process in the passive object is synchronized and blocked, and the ordinary objects all belong to the passive ones; while the initiation and execution of a process in an active object are separated and an active object has its own independent execution thread, the initiation of a process in an active object is made by another thread, but the process is executed by its own thread, therefore the initiation of an active object's process is asynchronized and non-blocking.

A first embodiment of this invention is described here first, in which an original vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) device is replaced by another vehicle traveling data recorder

(VDR) device and data are uploaded from the new vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) device to a PC.

According to the method of this invention for managing data of a vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) , a mediator component is set in a vehicle traveling data recorder data management system (VDRDMS), and the smart card component, vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) communication component, database component and user interface component in the vehicle traveling data recorder data management system (VDRDMS) are connected, via the mediator component, to the other components respectively. The components have many attributes, such as mobility, reliability and scalability, and according to this invention, these attributes of said mediator component and said other components are set as active attributes.

As to the vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) communication component, its active attributes are set to include a process, a set of state variables, a set of buffers and a message queue. The message queue means that the communication between the components is by way of sending messages. The process of the vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) communication component maintains its own state variables, and when any of its state variables change, the vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) communication component sends a message to inform the mediator component, which message is stored in the message queue of the mediator component, then the mediator component sends a message to inform the user interface component.

For example, when an original vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) device is disconnected, the process of the vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) communication component will detect this change, and will update the corresponding state of the vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) communication component to "disconnected"; on the other hand, when another vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) device is connected, the process of the vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) communication component will detect this change, and will update the corresponding state of the vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) communication component to "connected". The vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) communication component sends a message to inform the mediator component that the vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) communication component's state is "disconnected" or "connected", and this message is kept in the message queue of the mediator component. Depending on a user's needs, the mediator component decides which relevant components should be informed. Furthermore, the component relevant to the vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) communication component is the user interface component, so the mediator component sends a message to inform the user interface component, and this message is kept in the message queue of the user interface component. When the process of the user interface component receives the message sent from the mediator component, it updates its own state, which is shown by the fact that an originally clickable button now changes to non- clickable (when the corresponding state in the vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) communication component is updated to "disconnected") or an originally non-clickable button now changes to clickable (when the corresponding state in the vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) communication component is updated to "connected") . After the vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) device has been connected to the PC via a serial port, due to the fact that the attributes of the vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) communication component are set to active attributes, even if there is no instruction from the terminal user, it would actively upload data from the vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) device to the PC. The uploaded data would be stored first in the buffer area set for the data in the vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) communication component, and when the mediator component requests the data (for example, when the terminal user requests to view the data) , the vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) communication component would send the data to the mediator component, and the mediator component in turn would send the data to a corresponding user interface component. The data in the buffer area of the vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) communication component will go on being kept there, just like keeping a backup set locally for the data sent to the mediator component. When the data are read through a user interface, if the data currently required are not in the buffer area of the vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) communication component, the vehicle traveling data recorder

(VDR) communication component would read the data from the vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) device and store the same in its buffer area, then forward the data through the mediator component to the user interface; if the currently required data are available in the buffer area of the vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) communication component, the vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) communication component would be able to forward the data in the buffer area quickly to the mediator component, without the need to read the data from the vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) device again, which would save the time for reading the data significantly.

If the state of the vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) communication component changes, (e.g. "disconnected" or

"connected") , the data in the buffer area of the vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) communication component are cleared.

The process of the vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) communication component responds to the messages in its own message queue. Such a message may come not only from the mediator component (called as an external message) , but also from the vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) communication component itself (called as an internal message) . For example, the mediator component may request via a message to read the speed data for the last 360 hours, and the vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) communication component may also request via a message to read the complete logging session data. As to the message coming from the vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) communication component itself, its priority level is below that of the message from the mediator component.

The second embodiment of this invention is about the time spent during the process of uploading speed data from the vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) device to the PC.

Assuming a message is received by the vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) communication component from the mediator component while the vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) communication component is in the process of uploading speed data, as mentioned above, the message coming from the mediator component has a priority lever higher than that of the message coming from the vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) communication component itself, therefore the message from the mediator component should be executed first.

There is a communication protocol between the vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) communication component and the vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) device, and this protocol has a format similar to that of the communication protocol between the vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) components, but not identical. There is an upload speed command in the original communication protocol between the vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) communication component and the vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) device. According to this invention, a sliced upload speed command is added in the original communication protocol. Since the upload speed command is set as a slice command, the slice command includes a data beginning identifier and a data length identifier. Alternatively, a head is added to the data block of the original upload speed command in said communication protocol, which head includes a data beginning identifier and a data length identifier. The data beginning identifier and data length identifier are in 2 bytes respectively.

Since a data beginning identifier and a data length identifier are added to the upload speed command, they would allow a relatively small amount of data being uploaded each time by the vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) communication component. Assuming Pl is the upper byte representing the beginning of the upload data, P2 is the lower byte representing the beginning of the upload data, Ll is the upper byte representing the length of the upload data and L2 is the lower byte representing the length of the upload data. To an external message coming from the mediator component, if none of the upload data are in the local (PC) buffer area, the time for the process to respond to the message is Pi; and for this external message, if all the upload data are in the local (PC) buffer area, the time for the process to respond to the message is Ci, and it is know that Ci<<Pi.

It can be seen from the above definition that, firstly, the best situation would be that if all the upload data are in the local (PC) buffer area (e.g. in the buffer area of the vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) communication component) , then the time for the process to respond to the external message is Ci. Secondly, if the vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) communication component is idle (e.g. the process of the vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) communication component has just finished responding to an external message, and is in the middle of checking whether there is any new message) , and at this moment the vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) communication component receives an external message coming from the mediator component, and in this case none of the data are in the local buffer area, then the time for the process to respond to the external message is Pi.

Furthermore, if the vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) communication component first receives an internal message from itself, then the process of the vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) communication component would respond to this message, namely by uploading data from the vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) device to the buffer area of the vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) communication component. If during the time of responding to this internal message, an external message coming from the mediator component is received, although the message from the mediator component has higher priority than that of the message from the vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) communication component itself, since the response to the message from the vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) communication component is an original operation which cannot be interrupted during its execution, it is necessary to wait for the process of the vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) communication component to complete its response to this message, then it is possible to respond to the message coming from the mediator component. Assuming from the moment that the vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) communication component receives the message from the mediator component to the moment that the process of the vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) communication component responds to the message, the time interval is BT, in the worst case when none of the data are in the local buffer area, the maximum responding time to this external message would be BT+Pi.

Generally speaking, after the vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) device has been connected to the PC, since the vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) communication component would, from time to time, actively upload data to the local PC and store them in the local buffer area, as more and more data are uploaded to the local PC and stored in the local buffer area, the system's response time to a message would become shorter and shorter. That is to say, at the early stage after the vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) device has been connected to the PC, the response time by the process may sometimes be BT+Pi, but as the connection time becomes longer and longer, the occurrences for the response time by the process to be BT+Pi would be fewer and fewer, and the occurrences of Ci would be more and more, until the time that all the data of vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) device have been uploaded and the process response time would always be Ci.

Since the data are uploaded batch by batch, the time for the vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) communication component to respond to an internal message would not be long, i.e. the value of BT would be very small, therefore, even if during a uploading process a message is received from the mediator component, it needs to wait only a very short time to respond to the message from the mediator component, so a significant saving is made in the waiting time.

This invention is described above by way of embodiments, and those skilled in the art would be able to make alterations without departing from the spirit of this invention, and all such alterations would be within the scope of the claims attached herewith.

Claims

1. A method for managing data of a vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) , characterized in that, firstly, a mediator component is set in a vehicle traveling data recorder data management system (VDRDMS) , the mediator component is connected to a smart card component, a vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) communication component, a database component and a user interface component, and each said component communicates with said other components through said mediator component; secondly, the attributes of said mediator component, said smart card component, said vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) communication component, said database component and said user interface component are set as active attributes .

2. The method for managing data of a vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) as described in claim 1, characterized in that a process, a set of state variables and a message queue are set for each said component, said process of each component maintains the state variables of the same component, and when any state variable of any said component changes, that component sends a message to inform said mediator component, which message is stored in the message queue of said mediator component, then said mediator component sends a message to inform the other components relevant to that component.

3. The method for managing data of a vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) as described in claim 2, characterized in that a set of buffers are set for said vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) communication component for storing the data from the vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) device.

4. The method for managing data of a vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) as described in claim 2, characterized in that if said user interface component locates in a remote position, a set of buffers are set for said user interface component for storing the data required by said user interface component.

5. The method for managing data of a vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) as described in any of claims 2 to 4, characterized in that except said mediator component, the process of any other component responds to a message from the message queue of that component, and which message comes from said mediator component or that component itself.

6. The method for managing data of a vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) as described in claim 5, characterized in that a message from said mediator component has a higher priority than that of a message from that component itself.

7. The method for managing data of a vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) as described in claim 1, characterized in that a communication protocol between said vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) communication component and the vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) device, or between said smart card component and a card reader is defined.

8. The method for managing data of a vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) as described in claim 7, characterized in that at lease one slice command is set in said communication protocol, which slice command includes a data beginning identifier and a data length identifier.

9. The method for managing data of a vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) as described in claim 8, characterized in that said slice command is an upload speed command of the vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) .

10. The method for managing data of a vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) as described in claim 7, characterized in that a head is added in the data block of at least one command in said communication protocol, which head includes a data beginning identifier and a data length identifier.

11. The method for managing data of a vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) as described in claim 10, characterized in that the command in said communication protocol is an upload speed command of the vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) .

12. The method for managing data of a vehicle traveling data recorder (VDR) as described in claim 8 or 10, characterized in that the length of said data beginning identifier and said data length identifier is 2 bytes respectively.