JP2009271757A - On-vehicle image-recording device and method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an on-vehicle image-recording device which is low in price, detects the occurrence of a traffic accident, and stores, as an image, a traveling record until the accident occurs, and to provide a method for the device. <P>SOLUTION: When power supply is made to an image-pickup device, start-up processing is carried out (S1). Then, markers arranged in a vehicle are recognized from an image obtained by the image-pickup device, and templates are generated (S2), and then recording is started (S3). The storage area provided in the image-pickup device is divided into a memory (A) and a memory (B). A picked-up image is first written to the memory (A) (S4). When the memory (A) becomes full (S5), a picked-up image is written to the memory (B) (S6). Then, when the memory (B) becomes full (S8), it is switched to the memory (A) (S9). It is detected whether a vehicle receives impact of at least prescribed strength (S11); when the vehicle has not receive an impact of at least a prescribed strength, the recording continues. When the vehicle receives the impact of at least the prescribed strength, the recording is forcedly stopped (S12). <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an in-vehicle image recording apparatus and method, and more particularly to an apparatus and method for recording a moving image using an existing digital camera, a mobile phone with a camera function, or the like.

  In recent years, with the increase in the number of automobiles, the frequency of traffic accidents has increased, and in the application of lawsuits and insurance, the identification of the cause of traffic accidents has become important. Against this background, dedicated image recording devices that are mounted and used on vehicles are commercially available, but they are extremely expensive, and a dedicated device is purchased and mounted on the vehicle for unexpected traffic accidents. The current situation is that it is difficult for the user to get out of hand.

Therefore, a proposal has been made to record a running record at the time of an accident by mounting a digital camera or a mobile phone with a camera function on a vehicle and taking an image. For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a converter lens with a mobile phone. An apparatus is disclosed that ensures imaging during traveling by being positioned in front of the camera unit. In addition, it is possible to record a driving situation in which an accident may occur and an image obtained by accurately photographing the driving situation before and after the accident (for example, Patent Document 2), and further widely promoted for general passenger cars. A mobile phone with a drive recorder function that is easy and can contribute to suppression of traffic accidents is disclosed (for example, Patent Document 3).
JP 2004-235964 A JP 2005-165805 A JP 2006-245836 A

However, in such a device using a digital camera or a mobile phone, imaging is performed regardless of whether or not a traffic accident has occurred, and thus imaging continues as it is even after a traffic accident has occurred. In the above-mentioned patent document 1, as the end of imaging, the time when the engine of the automobile is stopped or the time when the mobile phone is removed from the installation location is cited. This not only generates useless image data, but also there is a possibility that image data at the time of the occurrence of a problem accident will be buried in a huge amount of data.
Proposals have been made to add an acceleration sensor to a digital camera or a mobile phone with a camera function as means for detecting the occurrence of a traffic accident, but this causes a problem that the cost for adding the acceleration sensor increases.

  An object of the present invention is to provide an inexpensive in-vehicle image recording apparatus and method capable of solving such conventional problems, detecting the occurrence of a traffic accident, and leaving a travel record up to the occurrence of the accident as an image. It is said.

The in-vehicle image recording apparatus according to the present invention is mounted on a vehicle and records a part of the vehicle and the outside of the vehicle as a subject to be photographed, and records when the position of the vehicle is changed by a set amount or more by image processing. An imaging device that stops and a support device that supports the imaging device on the vehicle so that the position relative to the vehicle changes by a predetermined amount or more when the vehicle receives a predetermined or greater impact.
Further, the vehicle-mounted image recording method according to the present invention supports the imaging device on the vehicle so that the position relative to the vehicle changes by a predetermined amount or more when the vehicle receives a predetermined impact or more. In this method, recording is performed with the outside of the vehicle as a subject of photographing, and the recording is stopped when it is detected by image processing that the position of the imaging device relative to the vehicle has changed by a predetermined amount or more.

  According to the present invention, when the vehicle receives an impact of a predetermined level or more, the imaging device is supported by the vehicle so that the position with respect to the vehicle changes by a predetermined amount or more. Since the recording is stopped upon detection, it is possible to detect the occurrence of a traffic accident and to keep a record of the driving up to the occurrence of the accident as an image, although it is inexpensive.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.
Embodiment 1
FIG. 1 shows the interior of a vehicle equipped with the in-vehicle image recording apparatus according to the first embodiment. The in-vehicle image recording device 1 is attached in the vicinity of the room lamp on the ceiling of the vehicle. In addition, the markers M are respectively attached to the left and right A pillars of the windshield 2, and the in-vehicle image recording apparatus 1 is configured to take an image of the photographing range S including the entire surface of the windshield 1 and both the markers M. .

As shown in FIG. 2, the in-vehicle image recording apparatus 1 includes an attachment part 3 fixed to a ceiling part of a vehicle, an adapter 4 attached to the inside of the attachment part 3, and a digital camera or camera held by the adapter 4. And an imaging device 5 including a mobile phone with a function.
The adapter 4 has a box shape that accommodates the imaging device 5 therein, and has engaging portions 6 that are formed to protrude from the left and right outer portions, respectively. Inside the adapter 4, there is provided an imaging device holding material (not shown) that absorbs a change in shape due to a difference in model of a digital camera or a mobile phone with a camera function, whereby the adopted digital camera or camera The imaging device 5 is firmly held by the adapter 4 regardless of the type of the cellular phone with a function.

The mounting portion 3 includes a pedestal 7 that is fixed to a vehicle ceiling with bolts (not shown) and the like, and a box-shaped adapter receiving portion 8 that is connected to the pedestal 7 and that is open on one side. A pair of left and right rails 9 for guiding the engaging portion 6 of the adapter 4 is disposed on the inner side of the adapter receiving portion 8, and a lock lever 10 for preventing the adapter 4 from falling off is disposed on the outer side. It is pivotally attached.
The base 7 is fixed to the ceiling of the vehicle so that the opening of the adapter receiving portion 8 faces the front of the vehicle, and the adapter 4 is accommodated inside the adapter receiving portion 8 so that the imaging device 5 faces the front of the vehicle. Is done.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the rail 9 of the adapter receiving portion 8 is gently curved with a height difference so that the front side of the vehicle is relatively low and the rear side of the vehicle is relatively high, and the adapter 4 is engaged. The portion 6 is slidably disposed along the rail 9 in a state where the portion 6 is placed on the rail 9. That is, the adapter 4 has a relatively high first position P1 at which the engaging portion 6 engages with the end 9r of the rail 9 on the vehicle rear side, and the engaging portion 6 at the end 9f of the rail 9 on the vehicle front side. It can move between a relatively low second position P2 that engages.

  As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, a protruding portion 11 is fixed to the inside of the adapter receiving portion 8 in the vicinity of the end portion 9 r of the rail 9 on the vehicle rear side. The protruding portion 11 has a position and a size that slightly interferes with the engaging portion 6 of the adapter 4 that slides along the rail 9 and has a predetermined elasticity. When the adapter 4 is inserted into the adapter receiving portion 8 from the front side of the vehicle, the engaging portion 6 of the adapter 4 interferes with the projecting portion 11, but if the adapter 4 is further pushed in as it is, the projecting portion 11 becomes elastic. The engaging portion 6 of the adapter 4 advances along the rail 9 while being deformed. When the engaging portion 6 moves to the rear of the projecting portion 11 and the adapter 4 is positioned at the first position P1, the projecting portion 11 returns to its original shape, and the adapter 4 As long as the acceleration accompanying traveling is received, the engaging portion 6 is held at the first position P1 because it interferes with the protruding portion 11, but when the vehicle receives an impact of a predetermined level or more, the engaging portion 6 When the protrusion 11 is elastically deformed, the adapter 4 moves through the protrusion 11 to the second position P2.

  A restraining bar 12 connected to the lock lever 10 is disposed in the vicinity of the end portion 9f of the rail 9 on the vehicle front side. As shown in FIG. 4, when the lock lever 10 is rotated to the lock position, the stop bar 12 protrudes in the vicinity of the end portion 9f of the rail 9, and thereby the engaging portion of the adapter 4 located at the second position P2. When 6 abuts against the stop bar 12, the adapter 4 is prohibited from moving further forward of the vehicle. That is, the adapter 4 is prevented from dropping from the adapter receiving portion 8. As shown in FIG. 5, when the lock lever 10 is rotated to the unlocking position, the restraining bar 12 moves backward from the end 9 f of the rail 9, so that the adapter 4 can be inserted into and removed from the adapter receiving portion 8. Become.

  It is assumed that software programmed to operate in advance according to the flowchart shown in FIG. 6 is stored in the digital camera or the mobile phone with a camera function constituting the imaging device 5.

Next, the operation of the first embodiment will be described.
First, the adapter 4 holding the imaging device 5 is inserted into the adapter receiving portion 8 of the mounting portion 3 to be held at the first position P1, and the lock lever 10 is rotated to the lock position. In this state, when the imaging device 5 is turned on, a startup process is performed in step S1 of FIG. 6, and the imaging device 5 obtains, for example, an image as shown in FIG.

In the imaging device 5, a marker template is created from the obtained image in the subsequent step S2. In creating the marker template, a predetermined area including the position where the marker M exists is cut out from the image obtained by the imaging device 5. For example, as shown in FIG. 7, since both the markers M are located at the left and right ends of the imaging range S, a predetermined region R is cut out at the left and right ends of the image obtained by the imaging device 5, A binarization process is performed on the cut image of the region R. When an RGB color image is obtained by the imaging device 5, a single color image such as only R, only G, or only B is extracted from the color image, or the color image is converted into a monochrome image and binarized. It is preferable to carry out. The image binarized in this way is stored as a marker template.
Next, in step S3, recording is started. At this time, the storage area provided in the imaging device 5 is divided into the memory A and the memory B, and the captured image is first written in the memory A in step S4.

Thereafter, in step S5, it is determined whether or not the memory A is full (no remaining amount). If the memory A is full, the process proceeds to step S6 to switch to the memory B and write the image in the memory B. In S7, the memory A is cleared.
If it is determined in step S5 that the memory A is not full, or after the memory A is cleared in step S7, it is determined in step S8 whether the memory B is full. For example, the process proceeds to step S9, the image is switched to the memory A and the image is written in the memory A, and the memory B is cleared in step S10.

  When it is determined in step S8 that the memory B is not full or after the memory B is cleared in step S10, it is detected in step S11 whether or not the vehicle has received a predetermined impact or more. If no impact is received, the process returns to step S5 to continue recording. If an impact greater than a predetermined value is received, the recording is forcibly stopped and the image pickup apparatus 5 is provided in advance in step S12. An alarm is issued by a sounding device such as a buzzer.

Here, the impact detection method in step S11 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.
First, in step S21, a predetermined region R is cut out from the image obtained by the imaging device 5 in the same manner as in step S2 described above, and in step S22, binarization processing is performed on the image of the cut out region R. Applied.

  In step S23, the marker template created in step S2 described above is subtracted from the binarized region R image, and based on these differences, a motion vector α is extracted in step S24. This motion vector α represents the current movement amount and direction of the marker M with respect to the marker template, that is, how much the position of the imaging device 5 with respect to the vehicle has changed due to the impact received by the vehicle. ing.

In subsequent step S25, it is confirmed whether or not the magnitude of the motion vector α is equal to or larger than a predetermined value T. If the magnitude is equal to or larger than the predetermined value T, it is determined that the position of the imaging device 5 with respect to the vehicle has changed by a predetermined amount U or more. In step S26, it is determined that the vehicle has received a predetermined impact or more. On the other hand, if the magnitude of the motion vector α is smaller than the predetermined value T, it is determined that the position of the imaging device 5 with respect to the vehicle has not changed to the set amount U, and in step S27, the vehicle has received an impact of a predetermined level or more. Judge that there is no.
The set amount U is set to a value smaller than the amount of movement of the adapter 4 from the first position P1 to the second position P2.

When the vehicle receives an impact of a predetermined level or more while shooting is being performed by the imaging device 5, the adapter 4 that has been held at the first position P1 in the adapter receiving portion 8 until then passes through the protruding portion 11 and the second portion. Move to position 2 P2. Therefore, a value slightly smaller than the amount of movement between the image by the imaging device 5 when the adapter 4 is positioned at the first position P1 and the image by the imaging device 5 when the adapter 4 is positioned at the second position P2 is previously set. A predetermined value T is set. Accordingly, when the adapter 4 moves from the first position P1 to the second position P2, a motion vector α having a magnitude exceeding the predetermined value T is obtained, and it is detected that the vehicle has received a shock exceeding a predetermined value. Can do.
FIG. 9 shows a functional block diagram of the imaging device 5.

  As described above, since the video recording is stopped when it is detected by image processing that the position of the imaging device 5 with respect to the vehicle has changed, the occurrence of an accident such as a traffic accident is detected even though it is inexpensive. It is possible to leave a running record as an image.

Embodiment 2
FIG. 10 shows the configuration of the in-vehicle image recording apparatus according to the second embodiment. An adapter 4 is connected to a pedestal 7 fixed to a vehicle ceiling with a bolt or the like (not shown) via an elastic body 13 such as a spring or rubber material, and the imaging device 5 is held inside the adapter 4.
When the vehicle receives a predetermined impact or more, the elastic body 13 is deformed, and the position of the imaging device 5 with respect to the vehicle changes accordingly. In the same manner as in the first embodiment, based on the position of the marker M on the image, it is detected that the vehicle has received a predetermined impact or more from the change in the position of the imaging device 5 by image processing, and recording is stopped. it can.

  In the first and second embodiments described above, the two markers M are installed in the imaging range S of the imaging device 5, but the present invention is not limited to this, and one marker M or 3 in the imaging range S of the imaging device 5 is used. Two or more markers M may be installed, and a change in the position of the imaging device 5 may be detected based on the positions of the markers M on the image.

Further, although the marker M is installed on the A pillar adjacent to the windshield 2, it can be installed at any location in the vehicle as long as it is located within the imaging range S of the imaging device 5. For example, you may install on the windshield 2. FIG. However, since the marker M overlaps the background through the windshield 2 when installed on the windshield 2, the marker M is displayed in a primary color that does not exist in natural objects in order to make the marker M easier to identify. It is preferable to color or form a shape that does not exist in natural objects.
Furthermore, it is preferable to apply a fluorescent paint to the marker M so that the marker M can be easily recognized even at night.

Instead of the marker M, a unique object inside the vehicle located within the imaging range S of the imaging device 5 is identified by image processing, and a change in the position of the imaging device 5 is detected based on the position of the unique object on the image. It may be. An A-pillar, a room mirror, or the like can be used as a unique object inside the vehicle.
Further, in conjunction with the car navigation, the position information by the GPS sensor can be stored in the storage area of the imaging device 5 together with the travel record image until the accident occurs.

  Since the present invention can be implemented only by preparing a support device for supporting the imaging device and installing software in a digital camera or a mobile phone with a camera function constituting the imaging device, the imaging device owned by the user It is possible to leave a travel record up to the occurrence of an accident as an image at low cost.

It is a figure which shows the inside of the vehicle by which the vehicle-mounted image recording device which concerns on Embodiment 1 of this invention is mounted. 1 is an assembly diagram illustrating a configuration of an in-vehicle image recording apparatus according to Embodiment 1. FIG. It is a side view which shows roughly the principal part of the vehicle-mounted image recording device which concerns on Embodiment 1. FIG. It is a fragmentary top sectional view which shows the inside of the vehicle-mounted image recording device of Embodiment 1 when a lock lever is made into a lock position. It is a fragmentary top sectional view which shows the inside of the vehicle-mounted image recording device of Embodiment 1 when a lock lever is made into a lock release position. 3 is a flowchart showing the operation of the first embodiment. 2 shows an image obtained by an imaging device. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an impact detection method in the first embodiment. 2 is a functional block diagram of the imaging apparatus in Embodiment 1. FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing a configuration of an in-vehicle image recording apparatus according to Embodiment 2. FIG.

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 In-vehicle image recording device, 2 windshield, 3 attachment part, 4 adapter, 5 imaging device, 6 engaging part, 7 base, 8 adapter receiving part, 9 rail, 10 lock lever, 11 protrusion part, 12 stop bar, 13 Elastic body, M marker, S shooting range, P1 first position, P2 second position, R predetermined area, 9r end on the vehicle rear side, 9f end on the vehicle front side.

Claims (6)

An imaging device that is mounted on a vehicle and that records a part of the vehicle and the outside of the vehicle as an object to be photographed, and that stops recording when image processing detects that the position relative to the vehicle has changed more than a set amount;
An in-vehicle image recording apparatus, comprising: a support device that supports the imaging device on the vehicle so that the position of the vehicle changes by the set amount or more when the vehicle receives a predetermined impact or more.   The in-vehicle image recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the imaging apparatus includes a digital camera or a mobile phone with a camera function programmed to stop recording when a position relative to the vehicle changes by the set amount or more.   The support device includes an attachment portion fixed to a vehicle and an adapter that holds the imaging device and is attached to a first position in the attachment portion, and the adapter receives an impact of a predetermined level or more. 3. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the set amount is set to a value smaller than a move amount from the first position to the second position. In-vehicle image recording device. A marker disposed within the imaging range of the imaging device and inside the vehicle;
The in-vehicle image recording device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the imaging device detects a change in position with respect to a vehicle based on a position of the marker in a captured image. Supporting the imaging device on the vehicle so that the position relative to the vehicle changes by more than a set amount when the vehicle receives a predetermined impact or more,
Recording a part of the vehicle and the outside of the vehicle with the imaging device as a subject of photographing,
The in-vehicle image recording method, wherein recording is stopped when it is detected by image processing that the position of the imaging device with respect to the vehicle has changed by the set amount or more. Placing a marker within the imaging range of the imaging device and inside the vehicle;
The in-vehicle image recording method according to claim 5, wherein a change in the position of the imaging device relative to the vehicle is detected based on a position of the marker in a captured image obtained by the imaging device.

Images