JP2008065362A - Operation status storing apparatus and threshold value setting method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an operation status storing apparatus and image data storing method selecting and storing important image data in a storing device. <P>SOLUTION: The operation status storing apparatus comprises a camera 1 mounted on a vehicle V, an acceleration detecting means 2 for detecting acceleration Gx, Gy of the vehicle V, a storing means 34 for storing image data including image data photographed when the camera 1 satisfies a condition that respective absolute values of the detected acceleration Gx, Gy exceed respective threshold values α, β, a position detecting means 4 for detecting a position of the vehicle V, and a geographical condition determining means 35 for determining a geographical condition based on the position of the vehicle, wherein the threshold value is set based on the geographical condition. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an operation status storage device that stores an operation status of a vehicle and a threshold setting method in the operation status storage device.

  In this kind of operation status storage device, for example, a camera installed in a vehicle, an acceleration sensor for detecting the acceleration of the vehicle, a first storage means for constantly storing images taken by the camera, and acceleration data A second storage unit configured to read an image stored in the first storage unit and store the images before and after the trigger detection when the threshold value is continuously exceeded for a predetermined time or longer. (For example, refer to Patent Document 1).

  In the conventional operation status storage device described above, image data or the like is always stored in a storage device such as a RAM, and when the acceleration detected by the acceleration sensor exceeds a threshold value, this is used as a trigger to store the image data in the storage device such as a RAM. The method of storing the stored image data in another memory can be adopted, and the image data and acceleration data at the time of the vehicle accident can be stored as operation history data.

  In addition, for the purpose of preventing vehicle accidents, there is a demand to understand the driving situation that may cause a vehicle accident even if it does not lead to a vehicle accident. Especially, operation history data is used for business vehicles such as taxis and railways. The threshold is set to a value lower than the acceleration value expected at the time of a vehicle accident, and the operation history is not acquired only when a vehicle accident occurs, but the vehicle encounters an accident. Regardless of whether or not to do so, a large number of operation histories are stored in the storage device.

Therefore, this operation status storage device is not only for operation history data at the time of a vehicle accident, that is, data such as images and impacts, but also when braking suddenly before turning too fast or accidents The detected acceleration also exceeds the above-mentioned threshold value, and the driving situation where the driver is dismissed or disappointed during driving, so-called near-miss image data, is also stored in the storage device. In addition to the testimony of the accident, in addition to the original purpose of investigating the cause of the accident objectively from data such as images and shocks at the time of the accident, it is made useful for operation management.
Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2005-165805 (paragraph numbers 0020 to 0033, FIG. 1)

  However, when the threshold value is set to a low constant value in this way, there is no particular problem in the driving situation depending on the geographical conditions (geographical conditions) in which the vehicle is traveling, such as an expressway, a curved road, and an ascending / descending board road. Even if a trigger is detected, the amount of image data stored in the storage device may become enormous, and depending on the storage capacity of the storage device, the image data at the time of the accident Before storing the image data, it may become impossible to store the image data at the time of an important accident by exceeding the storage capacity.

  In addition, when carrying out operation management work that refers to or analyzes the operation history, among the operation history data, the user of the operation status storage device particularly stores operation history data that may lead to a vehicle accident. I want to analyze and refer to it, but as mentioned above, since the operation history data becomes enormous, it becomes difficult to access notable operation history data as soon as possible. Since it must be confirmed, the above operation history data reference / analysis operation and operation management operation become very complicated.

  Accordingly, the present invention was created to improve the above-described problems, and the purpose of the present invention is to provide an operation situation in which highly important image data can be selected and stored in a storage device. A storage device and an image data storage method are provided.

  The operation status storage device in the problem solving means of the present invention includes a camera installed in a vehicle, acceleration detection means for detecting the acceleration of the vehicle, and the camera on condition that the absolute value of the detected acceleration exceeds a threshold value. In an operation status storage device comprising storage means for storing image data including image data photographed at a time that satisfies the above conditions, a position detection means for detecting the position of the vehicle, and a geographical condition based on the position of the vehicle A geographic condition judging means for judging, wherein the threshold value is set based on the geographic condition.

  Further, the threshold setting method in the problem solving means of the present invention includes a camera installed in a vehicle, an acceleration detection means for detecting the acceleration of the vehicle, and the camera on condition that the absolute value of the detected acceleration exceeds the threshold In a threshold setting method in an operation status storage device comprising storage means for storing image data including image data taken at a time when the above condition is satisfied, a geographical condition determination step for determining a geographical condition based on the position of the vehicle And a threshold value setting step for setting a threshold value based on geographical conditions.

  According to the operation status storage device and the image data storage method of the present invention, since the threshold corresponding to the acceleration is set based on the geographical condition at the position of the vehicle, even if the vehicle is not in a dangerous state, frequent accidents or It is prevented from being determined as a near-miss, and the problem of storing unnecessary image data in the storage means can be solved.

  Therefore, it is possible to avoid a huge amount of image data stored in the storage means, and before storing the image data at the time of the accident, the storage capacity is exceeded and the image data at the time of the important accident is stored. You will not be able to memorize.

  In addition, since the storage unit has fewer opportunities to perform the storage operation than the conventional device, the lifetime of the storage unit can be extended, and the power consumed for the storage operation can be reduced, thus saving the operation status storage device. It becomes possible.

  Furthermore, since the operation history data including the image data stored in the storage means is only data that seems to be particularly important, the user who refers to the operation history data later saves the trouble of referring to unnecessary data, Since it becomes unnecessary to sort the operation history data into the necessary and unnecessary ones, the operation history data reference / analysis work and the operation management work can be facilitated, and the burden on the user can be reduced.

  Further, since unnecessary data is prevented from being stored in the storage means, it is easy to pick up operation history data having a particularly high importance from a plurality of operation history data.

  The present invention will be described below based on the embodiments shown in the drawings. FIG. 1 is a diagram in which an operation status storage device according to an embodiment is mounted on a vehicle. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a system configuration of an operation status storage device according to an embodiment. FIG. 3 is a table showing an example of the relationship between the geographical condition classification and the threshold value. FIG. 4 is a table showing another example of the relationship between the geographical condition classification and the threshold value. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a position detected by the position detecting means and its error range. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of hardware resources of the operation status storage device according to the embodiment. FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a processing procedure of the threshold setting method and the image data storage method in the operation status storage device.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the operation status storage device in one embodiment detects a camera 1 installed in a vehicle V, acceleration detection means 2 that detects acceleration acting on the vehicle V, and a position of the vehicle V. The position detection means 4 and the control part 3 provided with the memory | storage means are provided and comprised.

  Hereinafter, the camera 1 will be described in detail. The camera 1 includes a CCD (charge coupled device, not shown) and a lens (not shown), and is configured as a CCD camera so that the front of the vehicle V can be photographed. V is installed. Note that a plurality of cameras 1 may be installed in the vehicle V so that, for example, the rear and sides can be photographed in addition to the front of the vehicle V.

  The camera 1 continuously captures an imaging range in front of the vehicle V, converts the captured image into an electrical signal, and outputs the electrical signal to the control unit 3. Note that images are interpreted in a broad sense, and images include moving images as well as still images. Further, the camera 1 can be a camera using a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) in addition to being configured as a CCD camera.

  Further, the acceleration detecting means 2 is specifically an acceleration sensor, and basically only needs to be able to detect the front and rear, left and right biaxial accelerations Gx and Gy of the vehicle V. When it is desired to obtain a lot of operation data, a triaxial acceleration sensor that can detect the vertical acceleration of the vehicle V may be used. As the acceleration detection means 2, specifically, for example, a piezoelectric type, a semiconductor piazo resistance type, a capacitance type, and other various acceleration sensors can be used.

  The acceleration detection means 2 detects accelerations Gx and Gy of the front, rear, left and right axes of the vehicle V at a predetermined sampling period, for example, a period of 10 ms (milliseconds), and an acceleration signal which is an analog voltage signal. The acceleration signal is converted into a digital signal and input to the control unit 3.

  Furthermore, in this embodiment, speed detection means 5 for detecting the speed of the vehicle V is provided, and this speed detection means 5 is specifically a speed sensor. The speed sensor is a rotary encoder or the like, and outputs a pulse signal (vehicle speed pulse) corresponding to the speed to the control unit 3.

  Further, the position detection means 4 can detect the current position (latitude and longitude) of the vehicle V. Specifically, for example, the position detection means 4 receives radio waves including positioning data from a plurality of GPS satellites, It is a GPS (Global Positioning System) receiver that can detect the position of a vehicle based on the time difference between radio waves transmitted from a plurality of GPS satellites. The absolute position data of the vehicle V obtained by the position detecting means 4 is input to the control unit 3.

  Further, the GPS receiving device in the position detecting means 4 may be connected to the vehicle speed detecting means 5 and an angular velocity sensor for detecting the turning angular velocity of the vehicle, and the vehicle position detection accuracy may be improved based on each data sent from these. . In the above description, the speed detection unit 5 is a speed sensor that detects a vehicle speed pulse. However, when the position detection unit 4 includes a GPS receiver, the position data obtained from the GPS receiver is used. This may be used as the speed detection means 5 so as to obtain the speed.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the control unit 3 includes an image processing unit 31 that processes an image captured by the camera 1, an image data output by the image processing unit 31, and a vehicle V that is detected by the acceleration detection unit 2. Longitudinal acceleration data in the direction, lateral acceleration data in the lateral direction of the vehicle V, and further, secondary storage means 32 for always storing the speed data detected by the speed detection means 4, and image data stored in the secondary storage means 32 The storage means 34 for extracting and storing predetermined image data from the image data, and the judgment for determining whether or not the longitudinal acceleration data and the lateral acceleration data detected by the acceleration detection means 2 are processed to store the image data in the storage means 34 And a threshold value setting unit 35 for setting a threshold value necessary for the determination by the determination unit 33.

  The image processing unit 31 captures an image captured by the constantly operating camera 1 as a moving image, cuts out a still image from the moving image at a predetermined frame rate, and compresses the still image into a predetermined compression format such as JPEG or GIF. Format image data is generated. If the frame rate is increased too much, the volume of image data generated per second becomes too large and a large-capacity storage device is required, so that there is insufficient image data for verification at the time of a vehicle accident. For example, it is set to about 5 to 10 frames per second.

  Subsequently, the sub storage unit 32 stores the image data output from the image processing unit 31, acceleration data and speed data at the time when the image data was obtained, and latitude and longitude as position data of the vehicle V. When storing, the image data and the acceleration data, the velocity data, and the position data at the time when the image data is obtained are associated and stored so as to be compatible.

  Specifically, when the image data, acceleration data, speed data, and position data are stored in the sub storage means 32, they are stored in association with the date and time, respectively. The image data, longitudinal acceleration and lateral acceleration data, velocity data, and position data stored in the sub storage means 32 are deleted in order from the old data or collectively when a certain amount is accumulated, Updated to new data.

  Then, the determination unit 33 takes in the longitudinal acceleration Gx and the lateral acceleration Gy detected by the acceleration detecting means 2, and the absolute value of the longitudinal acceleration Gx exceeds the longitudinal acceleration threshold α that is a threshold for the longitudinal acceleration Gx and the lateral acceleration Gy. Whether or not this condition is satisfied is determined on the condition that one of the absolute values exceeds the lateral acceleration threshold value β that is a threshold value for the lateral acceleration Gy. Among the image data stored in the storage means 32, image data including image data photographed at the time when the camera 1 satisfies the above conditions and associated with acceleration data or the like is extracted and used as a set of operation history data. If it is not satisfied, the image data is not stored in the storage unit 34.

  That is, the determination unit 33 determines that the camera 1 satisfies the above condition in the storage unit 34 even if the absolute value of the longitudinal acceleration Gx exceeds the longitudinal acceleration threshold α or the absolute value of the lateral acceleration Gy exceeds the lateral acceleration threshold β. The operation history data, which is image data including image data photographed at a certain time, is stored.

  Therefore, in determining whether or not the above condition is satisfied, the absolute value of the longitudinal acceleration Gx in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle V is compared with the longitudinal acceleration threshold value α, and the absolute value of the lateral acceleration Gy in the lateral direction of the vehicle V is compared with the lateral value. The acceleration threshold value β is compared.

  The longitudinal acceleration threshold value α and the lateral acceleration threshold value β necessary for the above determination are values independent of each other. Basically, sudden start, sudden stop, even if an excessive speed or an accident during turning is not reached. The absolute value of the acceleration that is assumed to act on the vehicle V in a situation that can be judged as a driving situation that may cause a vehicle accident such as a sudden turn or a side slip, that is, a driving situation in which the driver is tired or frustrated during driving. In this case, the absolute value of acceleration assumed to act on the vehicle V is set.

  Here, when the vehicle V is traveling on a curved road as compared with the case where the vehicle V is traveling on a flat straight road, the vehicle V is in a turning state, and therefore the lateral acceleration Gy among the accelerations detected by the acceleration detecting means 2. In addition, the longitudinal acceleration Gx tends to increase on the uphill / downhill road, and the lateral acceleration Gy tends to increase even if the steering speed of the vehicle V is large and the steering is slight on the highway. A tendency of depending on the geographical conditions at the position where the vehicle V is traveling appears in the longitudinal acceleration Gx and the lateral acceleration Gy. The geographical condition is a geographical condition at the position where the vehicle V travels, such as the shape of the road on which the vehicle V travels, the undulations, the gradient, the radius of curvature, the surrounding situation, legal regulations, and the like. These include highways, curved roads, climbing board roads, urban roads, and mountainous roads.

  The longitudinal acceleration threshold value α and the lateral acceleration threshold value β are constant although the longitudinal acceleration Gx and the lateral acceleration Gy detected by the geographical condition tend to depend on the geographical condition at the position where the vehicle V is traveling. If the absolute value of the longitudinal acceleration Gx exceeds the longitudinal acceleration threshold α or the absolute value of the lateral acceleration Gy exceeds the lateral acceleration threshold β, even though there is no particular problem in traveling, Therefore, the image data is stored in the storage unit 34 while satisfying the above-described conditions.

  Therefore, the present invention includes a threshold setting unit 35 that sets the longitudinal acceleration threshold α and the lateral acceleration threshold β based on the current position of the vehicle V detected by the position detection means 4 and the geographic data.

  The threshold setting unit 35 refers to the geographic data based on the latitude and longitude, which are data of the current position of the vehicle V detected by the position detection means 4, and determines the geographical condition of the position where the vehicle V is traveling. In addition to functioning as a geographical condition determination means for determination, the longitudinal acceleration threshold value α and the lateral acceleration threshold value β are set based on the geographical conditions determined in this way.

  The geographic data is composed of map data and various data of road attributes, individuality, legal regulations and surrounding conditions associated with the map data, and the threshold setting unit 35 is detected by the position detecting means 4. With reference to the geographic data from the latitude and longitude, which are data of the current position of the vehicle V, it is possible to determine and recognize what geographical condition the vehicle V is currently traveling on.

  Further, the threshold value setting unit 35 can recognize the traveling direction of the vehicle V from the progress of the position data detected by the position detecting unit 4. For example, when the geographical condition is an uphill / downhill road, the vehicle V You can also recognize whether you are doing or descending. In addition, when the vehicle V is located on the road boundary with different geographical conditions, it is possible to recognize whether or not the vehicle V will enter the road with different geographical conditions from the recognition of the traveling direction.

  Then, the threshold value setting unit 35 recognizes the geographical condition during travel of the vehicle V in this way, and sets the longitudinal acceleration threshold value α and the lateral acceleration threshold value β to optimum values that match the geographical condition. Specifically, for example, when the geographical condition is a curved road, the lateral acceleration threshold value β is set to be larger than the threshold value when traveling on a straight flat road, and the geographical condition is an ascending / descending board road. In this case, the longitudinal acceleration threshold value α is set to be larger than the threshold value when traveling on a straight flat road.

  Therefore, specifically, as shown in FIG. 3, for example, the threshold value determination unit 35 determines the threshold values α and β in accordance with the types of geographical conditions such as curved roads, climbing board roads, and urban roads. Thus, the threshold values α and β are set in advance according to the classification table created. In addition, when the geographical condition extends over a plurality of categories, for example, when it corresponds to a curved road category and an uphill road category, a priority category is determined in advance, The threshold values α and β may be determined. Alternatively, as shown in FIG. 4, the threshold values α and β may be determined in advance when a plurality of sections are used with the sections as a matrix table. Further, when the curvature radius is different even on the curved road, the thresholds α and β may be determined by subdividing the section of the curved road according to the size of the curvature radius, and the subdivided sections. Even in the above-mentioned section, the gradient may be similarly subdivided according to the size. The unit of each threshold value α and β is the gravitational acceleration.

  Since the threshold values α and β are changed in accordance with the geographical conditions as described above, there is no problem in traveling of the vehicle V due to the accelerations Gx and Gy indicating a tendency depending on the geographical conditions. Even in situations other than this, it is prevented that this is frequently determined as an accident or a near-miss, and the problem of storing unnecessary image data in the storage means 34 can be solved.

  Therefore, a huge amount of image data or the like stored in the storage means 34 can be avoided, and an important accident image can be obtained by exceeding the storage capacity before storing the accident image data. There will be no loss of data. Further, since the threshold values α and β can be set to optimum values according to geographical conditions, the condition for storing the image data in the storage unit 34 is also satisfied by the noise output from the acceleration detection unit 2. A serious situation is also avoided.

  In addition, since the storage unit 34 has fewer opportunities to perform a storage operation than the conventional device, the life of the storage unit can be extended, and the power consumed for the storage operation can be reduced, thereby saving the operation status storage device. It becomes possible to do.

  Furthermore, since the operation history data including image data stored in the storage means 34 is only data that seems to be particularly important, the user who refers to the operation history data later saves the trouble of referring to unnecessary data, Since it becomes unnecessary to sort the operation history data into the necessary and unnecessary ones, the operation history data reference / analysis work and the operation management work can be facilitated, and the burden on the user can be reduced.

  In addition, since unnecessary data is prevented from being stored in the storage means 34, it is easy to pick up operation history data having a particularly high degree of importance from a plurality of operation history data.

  Furthermore, in the operation status storage device according to the present embodiment, the threshold values α and β are set according to the geographical conditions at the travel position of the vehicle V. Therefore, the threshold values α and β are set to small values. In such a situation, the threshold values α and β can be set small, and in addition to preventing unnecessary image data from being stored, there is no problem that accidents and near-misses cannot be detected.

  Further, as described above, according to the operation status storage device in the present embodiment, since the traveling direction of the vehicle V can be recognized, the vehicle V enters a road with different geographical conditions by recognizing the traveling direction. It can be determined whether or not. That is, for example, it is possible to determine whether or not the vehicle V is currently traveling on a straight road but is traveling from the traveling direction toward a certain direction. Therefore, when the vehicle V enters a road having different geographical conditions, the threshold values α and β can be set to optimum values in advance before entering the vehicle.

  Thus, since the threshold values α and β can be set to appropriate values in correspondence with the geographical conditions from the beginning when the geographical conditions change, the acceleration of the vehicle V is determined by the accelerations Gx, Gy and noise depending on the geographical conditions. There is no problem in traveling, and it is reliably prevented that the vehicle is judged as an accident or near-miss even in situations other than an accident or near-miss, and the problem of storing unnecessary image data in the storage means 34 is more reliably solved. Can do.

  Furthermore, according to the operation status storage device in the present embodiment, since the speed detection means 5 is installed, the threshold setting unit 35 differs depending on the recognition of the traveling direction of the vehicle V and the detected speed. It is also possible to recognize the timing of entering the conditions, and to set the threshold values α and β to optimum values at the timing when the vehicle V enters different geographical conditions.

  Therefore, in this case, it is possible to match the change of the geographical condition and the timing of the change of each threshold value α, β, so that each threshold value α, β is optimal for the geographical condition at the current position where the vehicle V travels. When there is no problem in traveling of the vehicle V, there is a condition for storing the image data in the storage means 34 due to the difference in the timing of the change of the geographical condition and the change of the respective threshold values α and β. It is possible to reliably prevent the possibility of being prepared.

  As described above, in the operation status storage device according to the present embodiment, the setting of the longitudinal acceleration threshold value α and the lateral acceleration threshold value β is basically referred to the geographic data from the position of the vehicle V. Since the threshold values α and β that are optimum for the position where the vehicle V travels are set, if the geographic data is complete, the condition for storing the image data in the storage means 34 in the travel state with no problem is set. It is possible to avoid such a situation, but when installing such geographic data in the operation status storage device, a large-capacity storage device or storage medium for storing the geographic data is required, The device is also expensive.

  Therefore, in order to set the threshold values α and β to optimum values without including data such as road surface roughness, power spectral density, and the presence / absence of steps at the travel position of the vehicle V, an operation status storage device is installed. When the number of times of fulfillment of the position of the vehicle V to be stored and the condition for storing the image data at the position is counted, for example, when the number of thresholds set for the condition fulfillment number is exceeded, the longitudinal acceleration threshold α and The longitudinal acceleration threshold value α and the lateral acceleration threshold value β at the travel position are corrected by adding a predetermined value to the lateral acceleration threshold value β.

  When the position detection means 4 recognizes an error in the position of the vehicle V, when counting the number of times the condition is fulfilled at a certain position, as shown in FIG. Count the number of conditions fulfilled at each position in L.

  Since the longitudinal acceleration threshold value α and the lateral acceleration threshold value β are corrected in this way, it is possible to prevent the condition for storing the image data in the storage means 34 from being prepared by the geographical condition that is leaked from the geographical data. Furthermore, it is possible to eliminate the problem that the geographic data becomes large capacity so as to make the geographic data complete, and the operation status storage device can be made inexpensive.

  Returning to the case of this embodiment, the image data stored in the storage means 34 is image data photographed within a predetermined range of time including the time when the above condition is satisfied, and further, the storage means 34 stores the data of the longitudinal acceleration Gx and the lateral acceleration Gy detected within the predetermined range of time associated with the image data to be stored, and the speed data, as one operation history data. ing. That is, the storage means 34 can store not only the image data at the time satisfying the above-described conditions but also the image data before and after the time, so that the entire situation at the time of an accident or near-miss can be stored. You can remember it.

  In addition, the time of the predetermined range is specifically set to about 30 seconds in total of 20 seconds before and 10 seconds after the condition satisfaction time, and by storing this degree of operation history data, You can remember all the details of the situation at the time of an accident or near-miss.

  In the above description, the above determination is made for the accelerations Gx and Gy only in the front-rear direction and the lateral direction of the vehicle V. However, when the acceleration detection means 2 is a three-axis acceleration sensor, the vehicle V Similarly to the processing of acceleration in the front-rear and left-right directions of the vehicle V, a threshold for the acceleration in the vertical direction is provided and image data is stored in the storage means 34 even when the vertical acceleration exceeds the threshold. You may make it make it. And in such a case, you may make it set the threshold value set with respect to a vertical acceleration so that it may become an appropriate value according to geographical conditions similarly to the place mentioned above.

  In addition, since the operation history data includes image data detected within a predetermined range including the time when the longitudinal acceleration Gx or the lateral acceleration Gy satisfies the condition, the absolute values of the accelerations Gx and Gy correspond to each other. Before and after reaching the thresholds α and β, it is easy to investigate the causes of vehicle accidents and violent driving, and data on longitudinal acceleration Gx or lateral acceleration Gy is included. Therefore, it is possible to grasp the braking and steering status of the vehicle V, and since the speed data is included, it becomes possible to investigate the cause of the vehicle accident and the violent driving more precisely. It is possible to grasp the exact operation status from the data.

  Next, the configuration of the hardware resources of the operation status storage device in the present embodiment will be described. As shown in FIG. 6, the operation status storage device includes the camera 1, the acceleration detection means 2, and the vehicle V as hardware. In addition to the GPS receiving device 40 and the speed detecting means 5 which are position detecting means for detecting the position, a video decoder 20 for decoding the image data of the camera 1 and an acceleration signal composed of an analog voltage output from the acceleration detecting means 2 are digital signals. An A / D converter 21 that converts the analog pulse signal output from the speed detector 4 to a digital signal, a video decoder 20 and A / D converters 21 and 22. Via the image signal, acceleration signal, velocity signal and position data input from the GPS receiver 40 via the control unit described above The CPU (Central Processing Unit) 23 that executes the process of FIG. 8, the SDRAM (Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory) 24 that provides a storage area for the CPU 23, the flash memory 25 that stores the operation history data, and the process of the control unit 3 And a ROM (Read Only Memory) 26 for storing programs such as applications executed by the CPU and an operating system, and a geographic data storage device 27 such as a hard disk drive for storing geographic data. The configuration of each unit of the unit 3 can be realized by the CPU 23 executing the application program in order to perform the processing of the control unit 3. Instead of the geographic data storage device 27, a drive device that can read data from a storage medium such as an optical disk that stores geographic data may be provided. Further, geographic data sent from a host computer may be provided. A receivable wireless communication device may be provided.

  Specifically, the image processing unit 31 is realized by the CPU 23 that has captured the image data compressed by the image data, and the determination unit 33 is the CPU 23 that has captured the data of the longitudinal acceleration Gx and the lateral acceleration Gy. Is realized by performing an operation to determine whether the absolute values of the longitudinal acceleration Gx and lateral acceleration Gy exceed the corresponding longitudinal acceleration threshold α and lateral acceleration threshold β, respectively, while receiving the storage area from The sub storage means 32 is realized by writing compressed image data, acceleration data, and speed data into the SDRAM 24 and storing these data in the SDRAM 24. The storage means 34 is stored in the SDRAM 24 by the CPU 23 from the SDRAM 24 before and after the above condition is satisfied. Extract and read image data, acceleration data, and velocity data within a range of time And the operation history data file including the image data is generated and stored in the flash memory 25. The threshold value setting unit 35 includes the longitude and latitude of the vehicle V captured by the CPU 23 from the GPS receiver 40. Based on the position data, the longitudinal acceleration threshold value α and the lateral acceleration threshold value β are set by referring to the geographic data stored in the geographic data storage device 27.

  Subsequently, the setting of the threshold values α and β in the control unit 3 and the processing procedure until the operation history data including the image data is stored in the storage means 34 described above, that is, the procedure of the threshold setting method and the image data storage method are specifically described. I will explain it. The processing of the control unit 3 is executed according to an example of the procedure shown in FIG. This procedure is stored in the ROM 26 in advance as described above.

  In step F1, the control unit 3 reads the longitudinal and lateral accelerations Gx and Gy of the vehicle V detected by the acceleration detecting means 2.

  Subsequently, the process proceeds to step F <b> 2, and the control unit 3 reads the speed of the vehicle V detected by the speed detection unit 4 and the position data of the vehicle V detected by the GPS receiver 40.

  Furthermore, in step F3, the control unit 3 refers to the geographic data based on the speed of the vehicle V read in step F2 and the position data of the vehicle V, determines the geographical condition at the current travel position of the vehicle V, A longitudinal acceleration threshold value α and a lateral acceleration threshold value β that are optimum for the geographical condition are set with reference to the classification table based on the geographical condition.

  In step F4, the control unit 3 determines whether or not the longitudinal acceleration threshold α and the lateral acceleration threshold β set in step F3 need to be corrected. If correction is necessary, the longitudinal acceleration threshold α and The lateral acceleration threshold value β is corrected. That is, when the condition fulfillment count at the position of the vehicle V read in step F2 is equal to or greater than the count threshold, the above correction is executed.

  Subsequently, in Step F5, the control unit 3 determines whether or not the absolute value of the longitudinal acceleration Gx exceeds the longitudinal acceleration threshold α, and if the absolute value of the longitudinal acceleration Gx exceeds the longitudinal acceleration threshold α, Move to F7.

  In Step F6, it is determined whether or not the absolute value of the lateral acceleration Gy exceeds the lateral acceleration threshold value β. If the absolute value of the lateral acceleration Gy exceeds the lateral acceleration threshold value β, the process proceeds to Step F7.

  In step F7, since the condition for storing the image data in the storage means 34 is satisfied, the control unit 3 obtains the time when the longitudinal acceleration Gx satisfies the condition or the lateral acceleration Gy from the SDRAM 24 as the secondary storage device 32. Image data captured and detected within a predetermined range of time including the time when the condition is satisfied, and the longitudinal and lateral acceleration data and speed data associated therewith are read, and these are collected as operation history data. Create a file.

  Then, it transfers to step F8 and the control part 3 memorize | stores the operation history data file created by the said step F6 in the flash memory 25. FIG.

  If it is determined in step F5 or F6 that none of the conditions are satisfied, no processing is performed thereafter, and the process returns to step F1.

  As described above, when the series of determination processes is completed, the same process is repeatedly executed. In this way, the operation history data including the image data photographed at the time when the condition is satisfied is stored as the storage unit 34. It is stored in the flash memory 25.

  In the above description, in determining whether the condition for storing the image data in the storage unit 34 in the determination unit 33 is satisfied, the two steps of Step F5 and Step F6 are performed. Instead, for example, when the sign of the value obtained by subtracting the longitudinal acceleration threshold α from the absolute value of the longitudinal acceleration Gx is positive, the longitudinal judgment result is 1, and when the sign is negative, the longitudinal judgment result is 0. When the sign of the value obtained by subtracting the lateral acceleration threshold value β from the absolute value of the longitudinal acceleration Gy is positive, the lateral determination result is 1 when it is negative, the lateral determination result is 0, and the longitudinal determination result and lateral When the logical sum of the side determination results is 1, it may be determined that the condition is satisfied, and the determination of the condition is performed in one step.

  As described above, according to the operation status storage device and the image data storage method, the time when the highly important image data is determined with high accuracy and the flash memory 25 as the hardware resource of the storage unit 34 satisfies the above condition is satisfied. Since the operation history data including the captured image data is stored, important operation history data can be surely stored, and the storage area of the flash memory 25 is wasted. Immediately after the occurrence of a vehicle accident, the image data and acceleration data remain in the SDRAM 24, which is a hardware resource of the secondary storage means 32, and the important data is stored in the two storage means 32, Therefore, the reliability of the operation status storage device is improved.

  Furthermore, since each of the processing procedures described above is an example, it can be changed so as to be optimal depending on the specifications of the operation status storage device.

  Further, in each of the above-described embodiments, the operation status storage device has been described using an example applied to an automobile. However, the vehicle is not limited to an automobile, and the operation status storage device is also applied to a railway vehicle, a two-wheeled vehicle, etc. can do.

  This is the end of the description of the embodiment of the present invention, but the scope of the present invention is of course not limited to the details shown or described.

It is the figure which mounted the operation condition storage device in one embodiment in the vehicle. It is a figure which shows the system configuration | structure of the operation condition memory | storage device in one Embodiment. It is a table | surface which shows an example of the relationship between a geographical condition division | segmentation and a threshold value. It is a table | surface which shows the other example of the relationship between a geographical condition division | segmentation and a threshold value. It is a figure which shows the position detected by a position detection means, and its error range. It is a figure which shows the structure of the hardware resource of the operation condition memory | storage device in one Embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows an example of the process sequence of the threshold value setting method and image data storage method in an operation condition memory | storage device.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Camera 2 Acceleration detection means 3 Control part 4 Position detection means 5 Speed detection means 20 Video decoders 21 and 22 A / D converter 23 CPU
24 SDRAM
25 Flash memory 26 ROM
27 Geographic Data Storage Device 31 Image Processing Unit 32 Secondary Storage Unit 33 Judgment Unit 34 Storage Unit 35 Threshold Setting Unit 40 GPS Receiver V Vehicle

Claims (16)

A camera installed in the vehicle, acceleration detecting means for detecting the acceleration of the vehicle, and image data taken at a time when the camera satisfies the above condition on condition that the absolute value of the detected acceleration exceeds a threshold value An operation status storage device comprising a storage means for storing image data, comprising: a position detection means for detecting the position of the vehicle; and a geographical condition determination means for determining a geographical condition based on the position of the vehicle, wherein the threshold is An operation status storage device that is set based on geographical conditions. The operation condition storage device according to claim 1, wherein the geographical condition determining means stores geographical data and determines the geographical condition based on the position of the vehicle and the geographical data. The operation condition storage device according to claim 1, wherein the geographical condition determining means determines the traveling direction of the vehicle from a change in the position of the vehicle, and determines the geographical condition based on the position and the traveling direction of the vehicle. . The geographical condition determining means has geographical data, determines the traveling direction of the vehicle from a change in the position of the vehicle, and determines the geographical condition based on the position of the vehicle, the traveling direction of the vehicle, and the geographical data. The operation status storage device according to claim 1. The vehicle is provided with speed detecting means for detecting the speed of the vehicle, and the geographical condition judging means holds geographical data, judges the traveling direction of the vehicle from the change in the position of the vehicle, and determines the position of the vehicle, the traveling direction of the vehicle, the speed, and the geography. 2. The operation status storage device according to claim 1, wherein the geographical condition is determined based on the data. The operation status storage device according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the threshold value is changed based on the number of times that the acceleration when the vehicle passes the same position exceeds the threshold value. The acceleration detection means detects longitudinal acceleration and lateral acceleration of the vehicle, respectively, and sets threshold values for the absolute value of the longitudinal acceleration and the absolute value of the lateral acceleration, respectively. The operation status storage device described in 1. Sub-storage means for storing image data taken by the camera is provided, and image data including image data taken at a time when the camera satisfies the above conditions is extracted from the image data stored in the auxiliary storage means and stored in the storage means. The operation status storage device according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein the operation status storage device is stored. 9. The operation status storage device according to claim 1, wherein the storage unit also stores acceleration data associated with the image data. A camera installed in the vehicle, acceleration detecting means for detecting the acceleration of the vehicle, and image data taken at a time when the camera satisfies the above condition on condition that the absolute value of the detected acceleration exceeds a threshold value In a threshold setting method in an operation status storage device comprising storage means for storing image data, a geographical condition determining step for determining a geographical condition based on the position of the vehicle, and a threshold setting step for setting a threshold based on the geographical condition A threshold value setting method characterized by comprising: 11. The threshold setting method according to claim 10, wherein in the geographical condition determining step, the geographical condition is determined based on the position of the vehicle and the geographical data. 11. The threshold setting method according to claim 10, wherein in the geographical condition determining step, the traveling direction of the vehicle is determined from a change in the position of the vehicle, and the geographical condition is determined based on the position and the traveling direction of the vehicle. 11. The geographical condition determining step determines a traveling direction of the vehicle from a change in the position of the vehicle, and determines a geographical condition based on the position of the vehicle, the traveling direction of the vehicle, and geographic data. Threshold setting method. 11. The geographical condition determining step determines a traveling direction of the vehicle from a change in the position of the vehicle, and determines a geographical condition based on the position of the vehicle, the traveling direction and speed of the vehicle, and geographic data. The threshold setting method described. The threshold value setting method according to any one of claims 10 to 14, further comprising a threshold value changing step of changing the threshold value based on the number of times that the acceleration when the vehicle passes the same position exceeds the threshold value. The threshold value setting method according to any one of claims 10 to 15, wherein a threshold value is set for each of an absolute value of longitudinal acceleration and an absolute value of lateral acceleration.

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