JP2006234638A - Information recording device for vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To record a large capacity of image data unaccompanied by cost increase by utilizing an optical driving device used also for reading map data for car navigation for recording image data acquired by photographing the road state in front of a vehicle. <P>SOLUTION: A hybrid optical disk 17 has a form equipped with a recording layer for DVD-ROM for recording map data for car navigation and a recording layer for DVD-RW capable of recording the image data. A control unit 2 determines whether own vehicle reaches a specific area (a crossing or the like) determined beforehand or not based on an output from a position detector 3 and the map data read from the hybrid optical disk 17, photographs the front of the vehicle as long as a set period by a video camera 11 every time when reaching the specific area, and records the photographed image data from a DVD driver 4 into the recording layer for DVD-RW of the hybrid optical disk 17. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a vehicle information recording apparatus for recording image data obtained by photographing the front of a vehicle.

Conventionally, when a vehicle accident or the like occurs, it has been considered to use an in-vehicle camera in order to easily and accurately investigate the cause of the accident. In Patent Document 1, when the occurrence of a vehicle accident is detected based on, for example, the operating state of an airbag, the vehicle front and in-vehicle situations are photographed by a vehicle-mounted camera, and the photographed image data is stored in a semiconductor memory (VRAM, SRAM, flash). A device for recording and storing in a memory or the like is described.
JP 2000-43764 A

  In the apparatus described in Patent Document 1, since a semiconductor memory is used for recording image data, when the capacity of image data to be recorded is large (for example, when the recording object is moving image data, In the case where it is necessary to store image data for a long period of time), it is necessary to increase the capacity of the semiconductor memory, which causes a problem of cost increase.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide an optical drive device that is also used for reading map data for car navigation for recording image data obtained by photographing road conditions ahead of the vehicle. It is an object of the present invention to provide a vehicular information recording apparatus that can record large-capacity image data without increasing costs.

  According to the vehicle information recording apparatus of the first aspect, the operation command signal is output from the vehicle position determination means each time the own vehicle reaches a predetermined specific area. Each time the operation command signal is output in this way, the control means images the front of the vehicle for a set period by the imaging means, and records the captured image data in the rewritable record layer of the hybrid optical disk by the optical drive device. To come.

  In this case, the hybrid optical disc has a read-only record layer in which map data for car navigation is recorded and a rewritable record layer in which image data can be recorded. Therefore, an optical drive device that is also used for reading map data for car navigation can be used for recording image data. Therefore, the hardware can be compared with a case where this type of image data recording device is provided separately. Increase in cost can be suppressed. In addition, since the storage ratio of the storage capacity of the hybrid optical disk can be greatly reduced as compared with the semiconductor memory, the increase in hardware cost can be suppressed as described above, and the cost is not increased. Large-capacity image data can be recorded.

  According to the vehicle information recording apparatus of the second aspect, the determination operation as to whether or not the host vehicle has reached the specific area is output from the map data read from the hybrid optical disk through the optical drive device and the position detector. Therefore, the determination operation can be performed accurately. Further, since the position detector provided for car navigation can be used, the increase in hardware cost can be suppressed also from this aspect.

  According to the vehicle information recording apparatus of the third aspect, the image data in a compressed state is stored in the rewritable record layer of the hybrid optical disc, so that the storage efficiency is improved. In addition, when the remaining storage capacity of the rewritable record layer is reduced, the data compression rate of the image data is increased, so that even when the remaining storage capacity is reduced, recording of the image data is ensured. It can be carried out.

  Also in the vehicle information recording apparatus according to the fourth aspect, since the image data in a compressed state is stored in the rewritable record layer of the hybrid optical disc, the storage efficiency is improved. In addition, since the data compression rate is changed according to the traveling speed of the host vehicle when the photographing operation is performed, for example, when the host vehicle is traveling at a relatively high speed ( When the time required to pass through a specific area is short), it is possible to reduce the data compression rate so that high-precision image data can be reproduced, and the host vehicle can move at a relatively low speed. When traveling (when the time required to pass through a specific area becomes longer), it is possible to increase the data compression rate and suppress the necessary storage capacity.

  Also in the vehicle information recording apparatus according to the fifth aspect, since the image data in a compressed state is stored in the rewritable record layer of the hybrid optical disc, the storage efficiency is improved. In addition, since the data compression rate is changed according to the standard (road width, etc.) of the traveling road of the own vehicle when the photographing operation is performed, for example, an area where the own vehicle has a wide road width. When driving on the road (when it takes a long time to pass through a specific area), it is possible to increase the data compression rate and reduce the required storage capacity. When the vehicle is traveling in a narrow area (when the time required to pass through the specific area is short), it is possible to reduce the data compression rate and to reproduce highly accurate image data.

Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 schematically shows an electrical configuration of a car navigation apparatus 1 provided with a function as a vehicle information recording apparatus according to the present invention by a combination of functional blocks. In FIG. 1, a car navigation device 1 has a position detector 3 and a DVD driver 4 (corresponding to an optical drive device) with respect to a control unit 2 for controlling navigation operations (corresponding to control means and vehicle position determination means). , External memory 5, display device 6, operation switch group 7, audio output device 8, remote control sensor 10 for detecting a signal from remote control 9, camera having a function of controlling a photographing operation by video camera 11 (photographing means), etc. The interface unit 12 and the like are connected.

  The control unit 2 is configured as a microcomputer, and includes a CPU, a ROM, a RAM, an I / O interface, a bus for connecting them, and the like (all not shown). Among these, the ROM stores a car navigation program, an image data compression program, and the like, and the RAM temporarily stores processing data at the time of program execution, road map data acquired from the DVD driver 4, and the like. .

  The position detector 3 includes a geomagnetic sensor 13 for detecting an absolute azimuth, a gyroscope 14 for detecting a yaw angular velocity (yaw rate), a distance sensor 15 for detecting the travel distance of the vehicle, and a GPS satellite. The GPS receiver 16 is configured to receive a signal, and is a part for calculating longitude and latitude information corresponding to the current position of the vehicle.

  The DVD driver 4 has a configuration capable of executing an operation of reading data from the hybrid optical disk 17 that is a large-capacity information recording medium and an operation of writing data to the optical disk 17. In this case, the hybrid optical disc 17 has a DVD-ROM recording layer 17b (corresponding to a read-only recording layer) and a DVD-RW recording on a polycarbonate substrate 17a as shown in a schematic sectional structure in FIG. A layer 17c (corresponding to a rewritable record layer) is laminated. In particular, in the DVD-ROM recording layer 17b of the hybrid optical disc 17, in addition to map data for car navigation, that is, various types of map drawing data and map matching data, facility names are arranged in order of, for example, 50 sounds. Facility name database, facility database that covers specific information about each facility in the facility name database (facility name, genre name indicating job category, facility location data (longitude and latitude data), etc.), telephone number A variety of map data is stored, such as a telephone number database showing the correspondence between the facilities.

  The external memory 5 is composed of a flash memory card or the like, for example, for storing program software for handling information recording media of other standards, or for saving or calling specific data. Is provided.

  The display device 6 includes, for example, a color liquid crystal display for displaying a map screen, and is installed near the driver's seat of the vehicle. The operation switch group 7 includes a mechanical switch disposed around the display device 6 and a touch switch formed on the color liquid crystal display of the display device 6. The control unit 7 controls operation inputs such as various data and setting items. 2 is provided. The remote control sensor 10 is also provided as an operation input means, and receives an operation input from the remote control 9 and gives it to the control unit 2.

The audio output device 8 includes an audio synthesis circuit, an amplifier, a speaker, and the like, and can generate an arbitrary audio output according to audio information from the control unit 2.
The video camera 11 is installed, for example, in a vehicle interior in a state in which a road condition ahead of the vehicle can be photographed in a relatively wide field of view, and its operation start and stop is controlled by the control unit 2 through the camera interface unit 12. More specifically, the operation is started when a shooting start command signal (corresponding to an operation command signal) is received through the camera interface unit 12, and the operation is stopped when the shooting stop command signal is received. ing. Further, the moving image data shot by the video camera 11 is given to the control unit 2 through the camera interface unit 12 and is compressed to be output to the DVD driver 4 here.

  In addition to the basic function of executing the map matching process for positioning the current position of the vehicle on the map, the control unit 2 receives point data such as a destination and a waypoint through the operation switch group 7 and the remote controller 9. Sometimes, a route calculation function (so-called a so-called “Dijkstra method”) is used to search for a route from the current position to the destination based on the point data, and a guidance route corresponding to the route search result is displayed on a map screen (so-called In addition to well-known functions such as a route guidance function for performing various guides by voice or display based on the guidance route obtained by this function, an image data collection function as described below It is the composition provided with.

  That is, FIG. 3 shows the basic contents of a control routine related to the image data collection function set in the control unit 2. This control routine is incorporated as a subroutine in the main program of the control unit 2, and is repeatedly executed at a relatively fast cycle of, for example, several milliseconds or less.

  In FIG. 3, the control unit 2 has a plurality of areas such as intersections, pedestrian crossings, near the intersection of automobile roads, near parking lot entrances, and the like that are relatively likely to cause traffic accidents due to vehicles. The area is stored as a specific area in a state associated with the map data, and whether or not the own vehicle has reached the specific area and whether or not the own vehicle has escaped from the specific area are determined as a hybrid optical disc. A determination is made based on the map data read from 17 through the DVD driver 4 and the longitude and latitude information output from the position detector 3 (steps S1 and S2). If it is determined “NO” in any of these steps S1 and S2, that is, if the host vehicle is in an area unrelated to the specific area, the process directly returns to the main program.

  When the host vehicle reaches a specific area, a shooting start command signal is output through the camera interface unit 12 (step S3). In response to this, the video camera 11 starts to operate and the road condition ahead of the vehicle is checked. Come to shoot. Further, after outputting the shooting start command signal, the image data from the video camera 11 is compressed and transferred to the DVD driver 4 to start the image data writing process (step S4). As a result, the DVD driver 4 starts processing to write the moving image data (compressed data) taken by the video camera 11 to the DVD-RW recording layer 17c of the hybrid optical disc 17.

  After execution of the image data writing process start step S4, the process proceeds to step S2 in which it is determined whether or not the own vehicle has escaped from the specific area. When the host vehicle escapes from the specific area, a shooting stop start command is output through the camera interface unit 12 (step S5), and the video camera 11 is stopped in response to this. Further, after outputting the photographing stop command signal, the image data writing process by the DVD driver 4 is terminated (step S6), and the process returns to the main program.

On the other hand, the control unit 2 is configured to perform control as described in (1) to (3) below in addition to the control routine.
(1) The data compression rate when moving image data shot by the video camera 11 is recorded on the DVD-RW recording layer 17c of the hybrid optical disc 17 is reduced to the remaining storage capacity of the DVD-RW recording layer 17c. Control to increase accordingly.

  (2) Control for erasing moving image data recorded on the DVD-RW recording layer 17c at a preset timing. As the erasing timing, for example, the next starting time of the car navigation device 1 or the timing at which the own vehicle has passed the specific area (or a plurality of continuous specific areas) to be photographed can be set.

  (3) Control for reproducing the moving image data recorded on the DVD-RW recording layer 17c on the display device 6 in accordance with an operation through the remote controller 9 or the like. Incidentally, by providing the DVD driver 4 with a video output terminal for connecting to an external monitor, it is possible to reproduce the moving image data on the external monitor.

  In short, according to the configuration of the present embodiment described above, the control unit 2 has a plurality of specific areas in which the vehicle is preset (intersections, pedestrian crossings, the vicinity of the intersection of the car road, the vicinity of the entrance / exit of the parking lot, etc.) Each time the vehicle reaches the shooting position, a shooting start command signal is output, and each time the vehicle exits the specific area, a shooting stop command signal is output. These command signals are given to the video camera 11 through the camera interface unit 12. It is done. As a result, the video camera 11 shoots the road condition ahead of the vehicle for a set period (period from the output timing of the shooting start command signal to the output timing of the shooting stop command signal), and the video shot in this way The image data is recorded on the DVD-RW recording layer 17 c of the hybrid optical disk 17 by the DVD driver 4.

  In this case, the hybrid optical disc 17 is provided with a DVD-ROM recording layer 17b on which map data for car navigation is recorded in addition to the DVD-RW recording layer 17c. In other words, the DVD driver 4 that is also used for reading map data for car navigation can be used for recording moving image data (however, it is necessary to change the structure of the optical head). As compared with a case where a data recording device is provided separately, an increase in hardware cost can be suppressed. In addition, the cost ratio of the storage capacity of the hybrid optical disk 17 can be greatly reduced as compared with the semiconductor memory. Therefore, the increase in hardware cost can be suppressed as described above, and the cost increases. It is possible to record a large amount of moving image data.

  Further, the control unit 2 determines whether or not the host vehicle has reached a specific area based on the map data stored in the hybrid optical disc 17 and the longitude and latitude information output from the position detector 3. Because of the configuration, the determination operation can be performed accurately. In this case, since the position detector 3 is provided for car navigation, an increase in hardware cost can be suppressed also from this aspect.

  In the DVD-RW recording layer 17c of the hybrid optical disc 17, moving image data in a compressed state is stored, so that the storage efficiency is improved. In addition, when the remaining storage capacity of the upper DVD-RW recording layer 17c is reduced, the data compression rate of the moving image data is increased. Therefore, even when the remaining storage capacity is reduced, the moving image data is reduced. Can be reliably recorded.

  Since the moving image data recorded on the DVD-RW recording layer 17c of the hybrid optical disc 17 is controlled to be erased at a preset timing, the free capacity of the DVD-RW recording layer 17c is large. It becomes possible to prevent a situation where it is reduced in vain.

(Other embodiments)
The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and for example, the following modifications or expansions are possible.

  A configuration in which the data compression rate when moving image data shot by the video camera 11 is recorded on the DVD-RW recording layer 17c of the hybrid optical disc 17 is changed according to the traveling speed of the host vehicle when the shooting operation is performed. It is also good. According to this configuration, for example, when the host vehicle is traveling at a relatively high speed (when the time required for passing through the specific area is shortened), the data compression rate is reduced to provide a high-precision image. Data can be replayed, and when the host vehicle is traveling at a relatively low speed (when it takes a long time to pass through a specific area), the data compression rate is increased. As a result, the required storage capacity can be suppressed.

  Moreover, it is good also as a structure which changes a data compression rate according to the specification (road width etc.) of the driving road of the own vehicle. According to this configuration, for example, when the host vehicle is traveling in a wide road area (when the time required for passing through a specific area is long), the data compression rate is increased and the required storage capacity is increased. In addition, when the vehicle is traveling in an area where the road width is narrow (when the time required for passing through a specific area is shortened), the data compression rate is lowered and increased. It becomes possible to reproduce accurate image data.

  A receiver that receives position information of the specific area from a roadside transmitter installed corresponding to the specific area is installed, and whether or not the own vehicle has reached the specific area is determined based on the received position information by the receiver It is also possible to adopt a system configuration for determination.

  In the above embodiment, the moving image data is obtained by the video camera 11, but it may be a group of still image data obtained by frame taking. In this case, a digital camera may be provided as a photographing means.

Although the GPS receiver is used for acquiring the longitude and latitude information, the longitude and latitude information indicating the current position of the host vehicle may be acquired through communication with the communication base station.
The format of the hybrid optical disk is not limited to the above embodiment, and may be, for example, a combination of CD-ROM and CD-RW, a combination of DVD-ROM and CD-RW, or the like.

Functional block diagram of the entire apparatus showing an embodiment of the present invention Schematic cross section of hybrid optical disc Flow chart showing the main part of the control content by the control unit

Explanation of symbols

1 is a car navigation device (vehicle information recording device), 2 is a control unit (control means, vehicle position determination means), 3 is a position detector, 4 is a DVD driver (optical drive device), and 11 is a video camera (photographing means). , 17 is a hybrid optical disk, 17b is a DVD-ROM recording layer (read-only record layer), and 17c is a DVD-RW recording layer (rewritable record layer).

Claims (5)

An optical drive device for a hybrid optical disc having a read-only record layer that records map data for car navigation and a rewritable record layer that can record image data;
Photographing means capable of photographing the road conditions ahead of the vehicle;
Vehicle position determination means for outputting an operation command signal each time the host vehicle reaches a predetermined specific area;
Each time an operation command signal is output from the vehicle position determining means, the photographing means photographs the front of the vehicle for a set period, and the photographed image data is recorded on the rewritable record layer of the hybrid optical disk by the optical drive device. An information recording apparatus for a vehicle, comprising: a control means for recording on the vehicle. It has a position detector that acquires longitude and latitude information indicating the current position of the vehicle,
The vehicle position determination means is based on map data read from the hybrid optical disk through the optical drive device and longitude and latitude information output from the position detector as to whether or not the host vehicle has reached the specific area. The vehicle information recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the determination is performed.   The control means is configured to record the image data photographed by the photographing means in the rewritable record layer in a compressed state, and the data compression rate is reduced to the remaining storage capacity of the rewritable record layer. The vehicle information recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the vehicle information recording apparatus is increased accordingly.   The control means is configured to record the image data photographed by the photographing means in the rewritable record layer in a data compressed state, and the data compression rate is determined based on the traveling speed of the host vehicle when the photographing operation is performed. 4. The vehicular information recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the vehicular information recording apparatus is changed depending on the vehicle. The control means is configured to record the image data photographed by the photographing means in the rewritable record layer in a data-compressed state, and changes the data compression rate according to the standard of the traveling road of the own vehicle. The vehicle information recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the vehicle information recording apparatus is a vehicle information recording apparatus.

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