JP2008065454A - Operation status storing apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an operation status storing apparatus securely storing important image data etc. <P>SOLUTION: The operation status storing apparatus is equipped with a camera 1 mounted in the vehicle V, an acceleration detecting means 2 for detecting the acceleration of the vehicle V, and a storing means 32 for always storing image data photographed by the camera 1, and stores image data which is stored in the storing means 32 into a non-volatile storage medium 5 when detected acceleration satisfies a predetermined condition. The apparatus comprises a non-volatile sub storage medium 7, and stores image data including image data when the acceleration data satisfies the condition in the sub storage medium 7 if the image data cannot be stored in the storage medium 5. <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.

  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 When the threshold value is continuously exceeded for a certain time or longer, this is used as a trigger, and the second storage unit is configured to read the image stored in the first storage unit and store the image data before and after the trigger detection. (For example, see Patent Document 1).

  In the above-described conventional operation status storage device, the first storage means continues to store the image data taken by the camera. However, since the storage capacity is limited, all data will be stored after a certain period of time. Is erased, and the image data stored in the first storage means is erased collectively.

That is, when the trigger is not detected, the image data stored in the first storage means is not important data for accidents and operation management, and therefore is not transferred to the second storage means. High-level image data and the like can be stored in the second storage means, and the storage capacity of the second storage means can be used effectively.
Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2005-165805 (paragraph numbers 0020 to 0033, FIG. 1)

  In the conventional operation status storage device, as described above, when there is no failure or abnormality in the second storage means, it is possible to store highly important image data or the like in the second storage means. Although it is good, in a situation where it cannot be stored in the second storage means, highly important image data or the like cannot be left.

  That is, even when a trigger is detected, in a situation where it cannot be stored in the second storage means, image data or the like with high importance cannot be left in the second storage means. Since the data stored in the storage means is erased all at once after a lapse of a predetermined time, highly important image data or the like cannot be stored anywhere in the operation status storage device.

  Therefore, the present invention was created to improve the above-described problems, and its main purpose is to provide an operation status storage device that can reliably store highly important image data and the like. Is to provide.

  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, a storage means for constantly storing image data taken by the camera, and a detected acceleration having a predetermined condition. In the operation status storage device that stores the image data stored in the storage means in the nonvolatile storage medium when the storage condition is satisfied, the storage means is provided in a situation in which the nonvolatile storage medium is provided and the image data cannot be stored in the storage medium. Finally, image data including image data when acceleration data satisfies a condition is stored in a secondary storage medium.

  According to the operation status storage device of the present invention, even when the storage medium is in an unusable state, highly important image data is reliably stored in the non-volatile secondary storage medium. There is no fear of being lost.

  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 configuration example of an operation status storage device according to an embodiment. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a system configuration of the operation status storage device according to the embodiment. FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a processing procedure in the operation status storage device.

  As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, an operation status storage device according to an embodiment includes a camera 1 installed in a vehicle V, acceleration detection means 2 that detects acceleration acting on the vehicle V, and storage means described later. Control unit 3 including 32, and image data including image data captured when the above condition is satisfied among the image data stored in the storage unit 32 when the detected acceleration data satisfies a predetermined condition. A storage medium 5 to be stored, a holding mechanism 6 that detachably holds the storage medium 5 and allows data to be transferred to the storage medium 5, a non-volatile sub-storage medium 7, and a standby power supply 9 are provided. The control unit 3, the holding mechanism 6, the secondary storage medium 7, and the standby power supply 9 are accommodated in the same housing 8.

  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 acceleration of the front, rear, left and right of the vehicle V, and more operations can be performed. When it is desired to obtain information, a three-axis 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 detecting means 2 detects the acceleration of the front, rear, left and right of the vehicle V at a predetermined sampling period, for example, a period of 10 ms (milliseconds), and outputs 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. The acceleration detection means 2 may be accommodated in the housing 8.

  Furthermore, in this embodiment, speed detecting means 4 for detecting the speed of the vehicle V is provided, and this speed detecting means 4 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. In addition to obtaining the speed a by calculating from the vehicle speed pulse, the speed detecting means 4 is provided with a GPS (Global Positioning System) receiving device as the speed detecting means 4 and this GPS reception. The velocity may be obtained from position data obtained from the apparatus.

  The storage medium 5 is a non-volatile storage medium, specifically, for example, a flash memory or the like, and is detachably held by a holding mechanism 6 provided in the housing 8.

  In addition, the holding mechanism 6 is provided at an arbitrary position of the housing 8 and has a holding portion that holds the storage medium 5 facing outward, so that the storage medium 5 can be attached and detached from the outside of the housing 8. It has become. The holding mechanism 6 is placed under the control of the control unit 3 to be described later so that data can be transferred between the storage medium 5 and the control unit 3 and stored in the storage unit 32 to be described later. It is possible to write the image data or the like to the storage medium 5.

  As the holding mechanism 6, one suitable for the format of the storage medium 5 can be adopted. For example, when the storage medium 5 is provided with a data transfer terminal in a card format, It is only necessary to provide a terminal connected to the terminal of the storage medium 5 in the accommodated and held state. When the storage medium 5 is an optical disk such as a CD-ROM or a DVD, the holding mechanism 6 What is necessary is just to set it as the disk drive apparatus which can be accommodated inside and can access an optical disk and can read and write data.

  The standby power source 9 is a secondary battery, a storage battery, or the like, and the camera 1, the acceleration detecting unit 2, the speed detecting unit 4, the control unit 3, and the holding mechanism that require power supply to operate the operation status storage device. 6 and the secondary storage medium 7 can be supplied with power. When power supply by the standby power supply 9 is not necessary, power is supplied to each part via a power cord 8a that extends outside the housing 8 and is connected to the external power supply. The operation status storage device can be started by turning on the power switch 10 installed in the power supply unit 8 by turning on the power to the above-described units, and the operation status storage device can be activated by turning off the power switch 10. The operation can be stopped.

  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. The longitudinal acceleration data in the direction and the lateral acceleration data in the lateral direction of the vehicle V, and further, the storage means 32 for always storing the speed data detected by the speed detecting means 4, the longitudinal acceleration data detected by the acceleration detecting means 2 and the lateral acceleration data. A determination unit 33 that determines whether to process the acceleration data and store the image data in the storage medium 5, and a storage medium 5 that extracts and stores predetermined image data from the image data stored in the storage unit 32. And an abnormality detection unit 34 for recognizing a state in which data cannot be written to the storage medium 5 and a warning output unit 35. The control unit 3 is connected to a non-volatile secondary storage medium 7 constituted by a lash ROM or the like, and can read / write data from / to the secondary storage medium 7 and erase it at once.

  As will be described later, the control unit 3 is realized by a computer system having a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 23 and a storage area necessary for calculation, and the hardware resource is an electronic circuit formed on the board A. This is a circuit, and the secondary storage medium 7 is also attached to the same substrate A.

  Then, power can be supplied to the camera 1, the acceleration detection means 2, the speed detection means 4, the control unit 3, the holding mechanism 6, and the secondary storage medium 7 via the substrate A.

  In addition, the power switch 10 is configured to turn on the power to the board A when the operation is turned on. However, when the operation is turned off, the power supply 10 is not directly cut off from the power supply to the board A. A process is performed, and the control unit 3 cuts off the power supply after the process is completed.

  Subsequently, each part of the control unit 3 will be described. 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 converts the still image into a predetermined amount. Image data in a compression format such as JPEG or GIF 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 storage unit 32 stores the image data output by the image processing unit 31 and the acceleration data and the speed data at the time when the image data was obtained. The acceleration data and the velocity data at the time when the data is obtained are associated and stored so as to be compatible.

  Specifically, when the image data, acceleration data, and speed data are stored in the storage unit 32, they are stored in association with the date and time, respectively. The image data, longitudinal acceleration and lateral acceleration data, and velocity data stored in the secondary storage means 32 are deleted in order from the old data when they are accumulated in a certain amount, or collectively deleted, and new data is obtained. It has been updated. In the case where a GPS receiving device is provided, position data composed of longitude and latitude obtained from the GPS receiving device may also be stored in the storage unit 32 in association with the image data.

  Then, the determination unit 33 takes in the longitudinal acceleration and the lateral acceleration detected by the acceleration detecting means 2, and either the absolute value of the longitudinal acceleration exceeds the longitudinal acceleration threshold or the absolute value of the lateral acceleration exceeds the lateral acceleration threshold. On the condition that one of the conditions is satisfied, it is determined whether or not this condition is satisfied. If the condition is satisfied, the image is taken at the time when the camera 1 satisfies the above condition from the image data stored in the storage unit 32. The image data including the processed image data is extracted and stored in the storage medium 5. On the other hand, if it is not satisfied, the image data is not stored in the storage medium 5.

  That is, the determination unit 33 shoots at the time when the camera 1 satisfies the above condition in the storage medium 5 regardless of whether the absolute value of the longitudinal acceleration exceeds the longitudinal acceleration threshold value or the absolute value of the lateral acceleration exceeds the lateral acceleration threshold value. The image data including the processed image data is stored.

  Therefore, in determining whether or not the above condition is satisfied, the absolute value of the longitudinal acceleration in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle V is compared with the longitudinal acceleration threshold value, and the absolute value of the lateral acceleration in the lateral direction of the vehicle V and the lateral acceleration threshold value are compared. A comparison will be made.

  The longitudinal acceleration threshold and the lateral acceleration threshold necessary for the above determination are values independent of each other. Basically, the vehicle starts suddenly, stops suddenly, suddenly turns even if the speed is too high or an accident occurs. The absolute value of the acceleration that is assumed to act on the vehicle V in a situation that may be judged as a driving situation that may cause a vehicle accident such as skidding or skidding, that is, a driving situation in which a driver gets tired or frustrated during driving, that is, a so-called near-miss In some cases, the absolute value of acceleration assumed to act on the vehicle V is set.

  In the case of this embodiment, the image data stored in the storage medium 5 is image data taken within a predetermined range of time including the time when the above conditions are satisfied. Furthermore, the storage medium 5 Along with the longitudinal acceleration and lateral acceleration data detected within the predetermined range of time associated with the image data to be stored, and the speed data, these are stored as one operation history data. That is, the storage medium 5 can store not only the image data at the time satisfying the above conditions, but also the image data before and after that time, and 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 determination unit 33 makes the above determination on only the acceleration in the front-rear direction and the lateral direction of the vehicle V. However, when the acceleration detection unit 2 is a three-axis acceleration sensor, Similarly to the processing of acceleration data in the front-rear and left-right directions of the vehicle V, a threshold for the vertical acceleration is provided for the acceleration in the vertical direction of the vehicle V, and the image is stored in the storage medium 5 when the vertical acceleration exceeds the threshold. Data may be stored.

  In addition, since the operation history data including the image data includes image data detected within a predetermined range including the time when the longitudinal acceleration or the lateral acceleration satisfies the condition, the absolute values of the respective accelerations correspond to each other. It is possible to confirm before and after reaching a situation exceeding each threshold, making it easy to investigate the cause of a vehicle accident or violent driving, and because data on longitudinal acceleration or lateral acceleration is included, It is possible to grasp the braking and steering conditions, and furthermore, since speed data is included, it is possible to investigate the causes of vehicle accidents and violent driving more precisely, and the accurate operation status from all data Can be grasped.

  As described above, normally, the operation history data including the image data described above can be stored in the storage medium 5 via the holding mechanism 6, but the storage medium 5 cannot be recognized if there is any failure in the storage medium 5. In this case, or when the storage medium 5 is not properly held by the holding mechanism 6 or the storage medium 5 does not exist, the operation history data cannot be stored in the storage medium 5.

  In such a case, the control unit 3 includes the abnormality detection unit 34, and after the abnormality detection unit 34 recognizes that data cannot be written to the storage medium 5, the absolute value of the longitudinal acceleration is determined as the longitudinal acceleration threshold value. Or the absolute value of the lateral acceleration exceeds the lateral acceleration threshold value, and the condition for storing the above-mentioned operation history data in the storage medium 5 is satisfied, the storage medium 5 is not operated to store the operation history data. Instead, the operation history data is not erased in the storage means 32 but is maintained in the saved state.

  In the abnormality detection unit 34, the power switch 10 provided in the casing 8 of the operation status storage device is turned on, and an application program necessary for operating the operation status storage device is started after the operating system is started. After that, it is recognized whether or not the storage medium 5 is appropriately held by the holding member 6 and can write and read data. In this recognition, a well-known method such as data writing or reading test is adopted, and when the storage medium 5 does not exist or data cannot be read or written, the storage medium 5 is used. Recognizing that it is impossible, the abnormality detection unit 34 sends a control command to the warning output unit 35.

  The warning output unit 35 includes an LED (Light Emitting Diode) that is visible from the outside of the housing 8, and the warning output unit 35 that has received the control command causes an abnormality in the storage medium 5 by turning on the LED. Let the user know that is accepted. When the warning output unit 35 is provided with a speaker, the user may be informed that an abnormality is recognized in the storage medium 5 by voice or warning sound using the speaker.

  In this case, the operation history data may be stored in the storage means 32 as it is. However, in this case, since the storage capacity of the storage means 32 is compressed, the operation history data having a large capacity is thinned out to have the capacity. It is made to memorize | store in the memory | storage means 32 as new operation history data with small. Specifically, for example, as described above, the original operation history data including image data of about 30 seconds including condition fulfillment at about 5 to 10 frames per second and acceleration and speed data associated with the image data. Is stored in the storage unit 32 as new operation history data including image data of about one frame per second and acceleration and speed data associated with the image data. When data is thinned out, the image data taken when the acceleration satisfies the condition is left in the new operation history data without being thinned out. In addition, when there is no image data when the acceleration satisfies the condition according to the sampling period of the image and the acceleration, the image data sampled earliest after the acceleration satisfies the condition will not be thinned out and new It remains in the operation history data. By doing so, it is possible to securely store the most important image data even if the data is thinned out.

  The new operation history data is stored in the storage means 32 without being erased until the acceleration data satisfies the condition next time. When the acceleration data satisfies the condition in turn, the new operation history data is renewed. The operation history data having a small capacity is generated, and the new operation history data stored until then is updated to the latest new operation history data.

  As described above, in the state where the storage medium 5 cannot be used, the above-described operation is continuously repeated while the operation status storage device is in operation, and the storage means 32 always includes the acceleration during the operation of the operation status storage device. The latest operation history data that is operation history data including image data when the data satisfies the conditions is thinned out and stored.

  When the use of the operation status storage device is finished and the power switch 10 provided in the housing 8 is turned off, the control unit 3 sub-stores the latest operation history data stored in the storage unit 32. After being stored in the medium 7, the operation status storage device is terminated. When power supply from the external power supply is interrupted, the control unit 3 stores the latest operation history data stored in the storage unit 32 in the secondary storage medium 7 while receiving power supply from the standby power supply 9. Then, the operation status storage device is terminated.

  Therefore, even if the power is turned off, the latest operation history data from which data has been thinned is stored in the non-volatile secondary storage medium 7, so that operation history data including highly important image data is lost. There is no fear of it.

  In addition, since the latest operation history data is stored in the secondary storage medium 7, it is possible to store image data at the time of the accident by turning off the power in the event of an accident. is there.

  Furthermore, since the standby power supply 9 is provided, it is possible to save the image data at the time of the accident even if the power supply from the external power supply is interrupted due to the accident, and it has been thinned out Since the operation history data is written in the secondary storage medium 7, the writing time is shortened, and it is possible to prevent a situation where the power supply is interrupted during the writing and the data is lost.

  In addition, since the operation history data is written to the secondary storage medium 7 when the operation of the operation status storage device is terminated, the operation history data stored in the secondary storage medium 7 is always stored in the operation status storage. Since the acceleration satisfies the condition at the end of the operation of the apparatus and the writing is performed once, the secondary storage medium 7 is practically used even when the number of data writing and erasing is limited. There is no adverse effect on the above, and even if such a secondary storage medium 7 is adopted, it can be used for a long period of time.

  If the secondary storage medium 7 has no limit on the number of times data can be written and erased or if the number of times is very large, the operation history data is stored in the storage means 32 without being erased. Instead of the state, the data obtained by thinning the operation history data stored in the storage means 32 in the secondary storage medium 7 as described above may be stored in the secondary storage medium 7 each time the acceleration is met. Also in this case, what is saved in the secondary storage medium 7 is operation history data including image data when the acceleration satisfies the condition at the end of the operation of the operation status storage device. Further, in this case, it is not necessary to store operation history data whose erasure is restricted in the storage unit 32, which is advantageous in that there is no need to compress the storage area of the storage unit 32.

  As described above, in the operation status storage device according to the present embodiment, operation history data having a high degree of importance can be stored in the secondary storage medium 7 when the storage medium 5 cannot be used. However, when the power switch 10 is turned on and power is supplied to the operation status storage device, the abnormality detection unit 34 checks whether or not the storage medium 5 can be used, and the storage medium 5 is used. If determined to be possible, the control unit 3 transfers the operation history data stored in the sub storage medium 7 to the storage medium 5. That is, the control unit 3 reads the operation history data stored in the secondary storage medium 7, writes the data to the storage medium 5, and erases the data stored in the secondary storage medium 7 at once. When no data is stored in the secondary storage medium 7, the storage medium 5 was operating normally when the previous operation status storage device ended, and the control unit 3 does not perform the above operation. .

  Therefore, when the storage medium 5 becomes usable in this way, the data stored in the secondary storage medium 7 is transferred to the storage medium 5 that can be detached from the housing 8. It becomes easy to move the data to an external device (not shown) such as a terminal.

  As described above, when the operation status storage device is started after being stopped or restarted, data is transferred from the secondary storage medium 7 to the storage medium 5, but the operation status storage device is started. Even when the abnormality detection unit 35 recognizes that the storage medium 5 cannot be used, the abnormality detection unit 35 checks whether the storage medium 5 is usable during the operation of the operation status storage device. When the storage medium 5 becomes usable, the operation history data stored in the sub storage medium 7 may be read and the data may be written to the storage medium 5.

  Even if the operation history data is stored in the secondary storage medium 7 and the abnormality detection unit 34 determines that the storage medium 5 can be used, it is stored in the secondary storage medium 7 for some reason. When it becomes impossible to transfer the operation history data, a communication terminal 11 is provided so that communication between the control unit 3 and an external device (not shown) is possible, and the communication terminal 11 is connected via the communication terminal 11. The operation history data stored in the storage medium 7 can be transferred to a storage device of an external device. Note that the communication via the communication terminal 11 may be serial communication or the like.

  Therefore, in the operation status storage device according to the present embodiment, even if some malfunction occurs in the operation status storage device itself, the highly important image data stored in the nonvolatile secondary storage medium is transferred to the external device. It can be transferred, and there is no risk of losing highly important image 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. 3, the operation status storage device includes a camera 1, acceleration detection means 2, and speed detection means as hardware. 4, a video decoder 20 that decodes image data of the camera 1, an A / D converter 21 that converts an acceleration signal that is an analog voltage output from the acceleration detection means 2 into a digital signal, and a speed detection means 4 An image signal, an acceleration signal, and a velocity signal are taken in via the A / D converter 22 that converts the analog pulse signal to be output into a digital signal, and the video decoder 20 and the A / D converters 21 and 22, and the above-described control is performed. CPU 23 for executing the processing of section 3, and SDRAM (Synchronous) for providing a storage area to CPU 23 dynamic random access memory) 24, a flash memory 25 as a storage medium in which operation history data is stored, a holding mechanism 6 that detachably holds the flash memory 25, and an application executed by the CPU to perform processing of the control unit 3 And ROM (Read Only Memory) 26 for storing programs such as operating system, LED 27, flash ROM 28 as a secondary storage medium, and operation history data stored in flash ROM 28 for outputting to an external device not shown The communication terminal 11 is configured, and the configuration of each unit of the control unit 3 can be realized by the CPU 23 executing an application program to perform the processing of the control unit 3.

  Specifically, the image processing unit 31 is realized by compressing the image data by the CPU 23 that has captured the image data, and the determination unit 33 is configured such that the CPU 23 that has captured the longitudinal acceleration and lateral acceleration data from the SDRAM 24 in the storage area. The storage means 32 is realized by calculating whether the absolute values of the longitudinal acceleration and lateral acceleration data exceed the corresponding longitudinal acceleration threshold and lateral acceleration threshold, respectively, while being provided. This is realized by writing data, acceleration data, and speed data in the SDRAM 24 and storing these data in the SDRAM 24. When the acceleration satisfies the above-described condition, the CPU 23 extracts and reads image data, acceleration data, and velocity data within a predetermined range of time before and after the condition is satisfied from the SDRAM 24, and includes the image data. An operation history data file is generated and stored in the flash memory 25.

  The abnormality detection unit 34 is realized by the CPU 23 executing an abnormality detection program for the flash memory as a storage medium, and turns on the LED 27 when an abnormality is detected.

  Next, a processing procedure for storing operation history data including image data in the storage unit 34 described above in the control unit 3, that is, a procedure of an image data storage method will be specifically described. The process 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 checks whether or not there is an abnormality in the storage medium 5.

  Subsequently, the process proceeds to step F2, and the control unit 3 proceeds to step F3 when there is no abnormality, and proceeds to step F6 when there is an abnormality.

  In step F3, since there is no abnormality in the flash memory 25 as the storage medium, the control unit 3 checks whether the operation history data is stored in the flash ROM 28 as the sub storage medium. If the data exists, the process proceeds to step F4. If the data does not exist, the process proceeds to step F5.

  In step F4, the control unit 3 reads the operation history data from the flash ROM 28, writes the data to the flash memory 25 as a storage medium, erases the data stored in the flash ROM 28, and proceeds to step F5.

  Further, in step F5, since there is no abnormality in the flash memory 25 as the storage medium, the control unit 3 performs normal processing. That is, the acceleration data, the speed data, the date and the position data are associated with the image data taken by the camera 1 and continuously stored as operation history data in the SDRAM 24. When the acceleration satisfies the condition, the SDRAM 24 serving as storage means is stored. The operation history data including image data within a predetermined time range including when the condition is fulfilled is extracted and stored in the flash memory 25.

  In step F6, since an abnormality is recognized in the flash memory 25, which is a storage medium, the LED 27 is turned on, and processing at the time of abnormality is performed. That is, the acceleration data, speed data, date and position data are associated with the image data captured by the camera 1 and continuously stored in the SDRAM 24 as operation history data. When the acceleration satisfies the condition, The operation history data including the image data within the predetermined time range is thinned out as described above to generate new operation history data, and the new operation history data is stored in the SDRAM 24. Next, the acceleration satisfies the condition. Do not delete until the operation history data thinned out is generated. Further, when the power switch 10 is turned off and the operation status storage device is stopped, the operation history data stored in the SDRAM 24 is written in the flash ROM 28.

  As described above, according to this operation status storage device, even when the storage medium 5 is in an unusable state, highly important image data is reliably stored in the nonvolatile secondary storage medium 7. There is no fear that high image data will be lost.

  In addition, since the latest operation history data is stored in the secondary storage medium 7, it is possible to store image data at the time of the accident by turning off the power in the event of an accident. is there.

  The operation status storage device may be provided with a GPS receiver, and the position data obtained from the GPS receiver may be included in the operation history data.

  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 the figure which showed the example of 1 structure of the operation condition memory | storage device in one Embodiment. It is a figure which shows the system configuration | structure of the operation condition memory | storage device in one Embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows an example of the process sequence in an operation condition memory | storage device.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Camera 2 Acceleration detection means 3 Control part 4 Speed detection means 5 Storage medium 6 Holding mechanism 7 Secondary storage medium 8 Case 9 Spare power supply 10 Power switch 11 Communication terminal 20 Video decoders 21, 22 A / D converter 23 CPU
24 SDRAM
25 Flash memory as a storage medium 26 ROM
27 LED
28 Flash ROM as secondary storage medium
31 Image Processing Unit 32 Storage Unit 33 Judgment Unit 34 Abnormality Detection Unit 35 Warning Output Unit A Substrate V Vehicle

Claims (10)

A camera installed in the vehicle, an acceleration detection means for detecting the acceleration of the vehicle, a storage means for always storing image data taken by the camera, and a memory means that stores the detected acceleration when the detected acceleration satisfies a predetermined condition In an operation status storage device that stores image data in a non-volatile storage medium, in a situation where a non-volatile sub-storage medium is provided and the image data cannot be stored in the storage medium, the image when acceleration data satisfies the condition An operation status storage device that stores image data including data in a secondary storage medium. The operation status storage device according to claim 1, further comprising a holding mechanism that detachably holds the storage medium and enables data to be transferred to the storage medium. The operation status storage device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the image data stored in the storage means is thinned out and stored in the secondary storage medium. 4. The image data stored in the storage means is thinned out when the condition is satisfied, new image data is generated and stored in the storage means, and the new image data is stored in the secondary storage medium. The operation status storage device according to any one of the above. The operation status storage device according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the secondary storage medium stores image data including image data when acceleration data finally satisfies a condition. 6. The operation status storage device according to claim 1, wherein image data is stored in the secondary storage medium when a power-off operation is performed. The operation status according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein when returning to a situation in which image data can be stored in the storage medium, the image data stored in the secondary storage medium is transferred to the storage medium. Storage device. 7. The image data stored in the secondary storage medium is transferred to the storage medium when the image data can be stored in the storage medium during the power-on operation. The operation status storage device described. When a power supply from an external power supply is interrupted with a standby power supply, image data including image data when acceleration data satisfies a condition is stored in the secondary storage medium while receiving power supply from the standby power supply The operation status storage device according to any one of claims 1 to 8. The operation status storage device according to any one of claims 1 to 9, further comprising a communication terminal capable of transferring image data stored in the secondary storage medium to an external device.

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