JP2008221970A - Operation state storing device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an operation state storing device capable of providing a less blurred image even if mounted on a two-wheeled vehicle. <P>SOLUTION: The operation state storing device is provided with a camera 1 mounted on the two-wheeled vehicle B, an acceleration detection means 2 for detecting a longitudinal acceleration Gx and a lateral acceleration Gy of the two-wheeled vehicle B and a storing means 34 for storing the image data including image data which is pictured at a time when the following condition is satisfied by the camera 1, on condition that either one of the following is satisfied; an absolute value of a detected longitudinal acceleration Gx exceeds a longitudinal acceleration threshold value α and an absolute value of a detected lateral acceleration Gy exceeds a lateral acceleration threshold value β. The camera 1 is mounted to a frame F for rotatably supporting a front wheel steering shaft in a manner capable of picturing the front of the two-wheeled vehicle B. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an operation status storage device that stores an operation status of a motorcycle.

  In this kind of operation status storage device, for example, a camera installed in a four-wheeled vehicle, an acceleration sensor for detecting the acceleration of the four-wheeled vehicle, and a first storage means for always storing images taken by the camera; Second storage means for reading the image stored in the first storage means and storing the images before and after the trigger detection when the acceleration data continuously exceeds the threshold value for a certain time or more as a condition (trigger) (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 automobile accident can be stored as operation history data.

  In addition, there is a request to understand the driving situation that may lead to a car accident without leading to a car accident in order to prevent a car accident in advance. Therefore, the above threshold is set to a value lower than the acceleration value expected at the time of a car accident, and the above operation history is not acquired only when a car accident occurs. Regardless of whether or not an accident is encountered, a large number of operation histories are stored in the storage device.

Therefore, this operation status storage device is not only the operation history data at the time of the car accident, that is, the data such as images and impacts, etc. 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 operation status storage device is applied to a two-wheeled vehicle to store the operation status of the two-wheeled vehicle, it is not possible to appropriately collect operation history data simply by installing a camera on the two-wheeled vehicle.

  This is because two-wheeled vehicles, unlike four-wheeled vehicles, tend to wobble from side to side when driving at low speeds, especially with scooters, and the image taken with the camera is blurred. There is a possibility that it becomes difficult to specify the cause of the accident when the cause of the accident is verified using the image data.

  Therefore, the present invention has been developed to improve the above-described problems, and the object of the present invention is to provide an operation status storage device that can obtain an image with less blur even when mounted on a motorcycle. Is to provide.

  The operation status storage device in the problem solving means of the present invention includes a camera installed in a two-wheeled vehicle, acceleration detecting means for detecting longitudinal acceleration and lateral acceleration of the two-wheeled vehicle, and an absolute value of the detected longitudinal acceleration exceeding a longitudinal acceleration threshold value. Storage means for storing image data including image data taken at a time when the camera satisfies the above condition on condition that either of the absolute value of the detected lateral acceleration exceeds a lateral acceleration threshold value is satisfied. In the operation status storage device provided, the camera is installed on a frame that rotatably supports the front wheel steering shaft so that the front of the motorcycle can be photographed.

  According to the operation status storage device of the present invention, since the camera is installed on the side of the frame where the left-right wobbling of the front wheels during low-speed running is insulated, it is possible to take a blur-free image and investigate the cause of the accident Can be simplified.

  The present invention will be described below based on the embodiments shown in the drawings. FIG. 1 is a side view of a two-wheeled vehicle equipped with an operation status storage device according to an embodiment. FIG. 2 is a plan view of the two-wheeled vehicle in which the camera of the operation status storage device according to the embodiment is installed. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a system configuration of the operation status storage device according to the embodiment. FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of hardware resources of the operation status storage device according to the embodiment.

  As shown in FIG. 1, an operation status storage device according to an embodiment includes a camera 1 installed in a two-wheeled vehicle B, an acceleration detection unit 2 that detects acceleration acting on the two-wheeled vehicle B, and a control unit including a storage unit. 3.

  The camera 1 will be described in detail below. The camera 1 includes a CCD (charge coupled device, not shown) and a lens (not shown), and is configured as a CCD camera. As shown in FIGS. It is installed on the front side of a frame F that pivotally supports a steering shaft (not shown) of the front wheel R of the motorcycle B so that the front of B can be photographed.

  The frame F is provided with a cylindrical socket S at the tip, and a steering shaft (not shown) of the two-wheeled vehicle B is rotatably inserted into the socket S and can rotate with respect to the frame F. It is like that.

  The camera 1 is specifically attached to the front surface of the socket S in the frame F so as to be able to photograph the front of the motorcycle B. In the case of this embodiment, the camera 1 is installed on the vehicle body center line Z in the socket S of the frame F so that the shooting range of the camera 1 does not deviate to the left or right. It has become. Although the vehicle body center line Z is a center line with respect to the left and right sides of the vehicle body of the motorcycle B, the camera 1 may be provided at a position offset from the vehicle body center line Z to the left and right.

  In this embodiment, the camera 1 is directly installed on the frame F. However, in order to install the camera 1 on the frame F, the camera 1 is indirectly installed in addition to being directly attached to the frame F of the motorcycle B. In addition, for example, attaching the camera 1 to the frame F indirectly through a bracket or a decorative cover that can adjust the shooting angle of the camera 1 up and down is also included. Furthermore, in this embodiment, the single camera 1 is used for shooting. However, in addition to the camera 1, a camera for shooting the rear and sides may be installed in the motorcycle B.

  Therefore, the camera 1 always faces in the direction in which the vehicle body faces, regardless of whether the vehicle is traveling straight or turning, and the front of the two-wheeled vehicle B is set as the photographing range.

  As described above, the camera 1 in the operation status storage device according to the present embodiment is installed on the frame F side where the fluctuation of the front wheel R to the left and right during low-speed traveling is insulated. There is no fear of producing.

  In order to cope with the wobbling when traveling at low speed, the rider of the motorcycle B tries to eliminate the wobbling by steering the front wheel R to the left and right. Even if the frame F is rotated, the frame F remains stationary. In this case as well, there is no possibility that the image captured by the camera 1 will be blurred.

  Furthermore, even if the front wheel R is suddenly shaken due to an impact at the time of the accident, the shake of the front wheel is not transmitted to the camera 1, so that it can be expected that the entire accident is photographed without blur.

  Subsequently, the camera 1 continuously captures the imaging range, 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.

  The acceleration detecting means 2 is specifically an acceleration sensor, and basically only needs to be able to detect the accelerations Gx and Gy of the front, rear, left and right of the two-wheeled vehicle B. When it is desired to obtain a lot of operation information, a three-axis acceleration sensor that can detect the vertical acceleration of the motorcycle B 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 the accelerations Gx and Gy of the front, rear, left and right axes of the two-wheeled vehicle B 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 4 for detecting the speed v of the two-wheeled vehicle B is provided, and this speed detection 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 v to the control unit 3. In addition to obtaining the speed v by calculating from the vehicle speed pulse, the speed detecting means 4 is provided with a GPS (Global Positioning System) receiving device, which is used as the speed detecting means 4 to receive the GPS. The velocity v may be obtained from position data obtained from the apparatus.

  As shown in FIG. 3, 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 front and rear of the two-wheeled vehicle B that is detected by the acceleration detection unit 2. Longitudinal acceleration data in the direction and lateral acceleration data in the lateral direction of the motorcycle B, further, the secondary 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 A determination unit 33 that determines whether to process the lateral acceleration data and store the image data in the storage unit 34, and a memory that extracts and stores predetermined image data from the image data stored in the sub storage unit 32 Means 34 are provided.

  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 in the event of a motorcycle 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 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 image data is obtained are associated and stored so as to be compatible.

  Specifically, the image data, acceleration data, and speed data are stored in association with the date and time, respectively, when stored in the sub storage means 32. 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.

  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 and the absolute value of the lateral acceleration Gy is the lateral acceleration threshold β. It is determined whether or not this condition is satisfied on the condition that one of the above conditions is satisfied. If the condition is satisfied, the camera 1 out of the image data stored in the secondary storage unit 32 is determined. Extracts the image data including the image data taken at the time when the above condition is satisfied, and stores it in the storage means 34 as a set of operation history data. Do not store image data.

  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 two-wheeled vehicle B is compared with the longitudinal acceleration threshold value α, and the absolute value of the lateral lateral acceleration Gy in the two-wheeled vehicle B 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 motorcycle B in a situation that can be judged as a driving situation that may cause a motorcycle accident such as a sudden turn or a side slip, that is, a driving situation in which the driver is tired or struck during driving. In this case, the absolute value of acceleration assumed to act on the motorcycle B is set.

  Returning, the image data stored in the storage means 34 is image data taken within a predetermined range of time including the time when the conditions are satisfied, and the storage means 34 further stores the image to be stored. Along with the longitudinal acceleration Gx and lateral acceleration Gy data detected within the predetermined range of time associated with the data, and the speed data, these are stored as one operation history data. 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 longitudinal and lateral accelerations Gx and Gy of the two-wheeled vehicle B. However, when the acceleration detecting means 2 also detects the vertical acceleration Gz, three accelerations are detected. The above determination may be made for Gz, Gx, Gy, or the image data may be stored in the storage means 34.

  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 and lateral acceleration Gy is included. Therefore, it is possible to grasp the braking and steering status of the motorcycle B, and since the speed data is included, it becomes possible to investigate the causes of motorcycle accidents and violent driving more precisely. It is possible to grasp the exact operation status from the data.

  And since the camera 1 in this operation status storage device is installed on the frame F side where the left and right wobbling of the front wheels during low speed running is insulated, it is possible to take a blur-free image and investigate the cause of the accident. Can be simplified.

  Next, the configuration of the hardware resources of the operation status storage device in the present embodiment will be described. As shown in FIG. 4, this 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 1 into a digital signal, and a speed detection means 6 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 (Central Processing Unit) 23 for executing the processing of unit 3 and the CPU 23 SDRAM (Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory) 24 that provides an area, a flash memory 25 that stores operation history data, and a ROM that stores programs such as applications and operating systems executed by the CPU to perform the control unit 3 processing (Read Only Memory) 26, 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 performed by the CPU 23 that has captured the data of the accelerations Gx and Gy in the front and rear and the lateral directions. This is realized by performing calculation for determining whether or not the absolute values of the accelerations Gx and Gy exceed the corresponding threshold values while receiving the storage area from the SDRAM 24. This is realized by writing data, acceleration data and speed data to the SDRAM 24 and storing these data in the SDRAM 24. The storage means 34 is the image data, acceleration data within a predetermined range of time before and after the above condition is satisfied by the CPU 23 from the SDRAM 24. And speed data is extracted and read, and an operation history data file including the image data is generated. It will be realized by causing stored in the flash memory 25 in Te.

  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 a side view of a two-wheeled vehicle carrying an operation status storage device in one embodiment. It is a top view of the two-wheeled vehicle which installed the camera 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 figure which shows the structure of the hardware resource of the operation condition memory | storage device in one Embodiment.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Camera 2 Acceleration detection means 3 Control part 4 Speed detection means 20 Video decoders 21 and 22 A / D converter 23 CPU
24 SDRAM
25 Flash memory 26 ROM
31 Image processing unit 32 Sub storage unit 33 Judgment unit 34 Storage unit B Motorcycle F Frame S Socket R in frame R Front wheel Z Body center line

Claims (1)

A camera installed in the two-wheeled vehicle, acceleration detecting means for detecting the longitudinal acceleration and lateral acceleration of the two-wheeled vehicle, the absolute value of the detected longitudinal acceleration exceeding the longitudinal acceleration threshold, and the detected absolute value of the lateral acceleration being the lateral acceleration threshold And a storage means for storing image data including image data photographed at a time when the camera satisfies the above condition on the condition that either one of the above conditions is satisfied. An operation status storage device, wherein the front of the two-wheeled vehicle is photographably installed on a frame that rotatably supports the vehicle.

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