JP4766325B2 - Drive recording apparatus and drive recording method - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a drive recording apparatus and a drive recording method, and more particularly to sorting of drive information.

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a drive recorder is known that is mounted on a vehicle and records information such as the behavior of the vehicle before and after the collision and the operation of the driver when a collision occurs (for example, Patent Document 1). Generally, in a drive recorder, an acceleration sensor is used to detect the magnitude of an impact applied to a vehicle. If the acceleration is equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold, the drive information as described above is recorded in the memory as an accident has occurred. Many pieces of drive information can be recorded in a memory for a predetermined number of cases. The drive information recorded in the memory is used for analysis of driving history and cause of accidents.
However, as in the prior art, if the drive information is recorded only when acceleration exceeding a predetermined threshold is detected, for example, the impact is detected even if the vehicle passes through a step on the road, and the drive information is recorded. May have been recorded. Therefore, when analyzing the driving history, there is a problem that it takes time and effort to separate drive information in a scene that is not an accident and drive information in a scene where an accident really occurred. In order to prevent drive information from being recorded in a non-accident scene, it may be possible to increase the acceleration threshold to determine that it is an impact due to an accident. There is a problem that drive information is not recorded.

JP 2004-291673 A

  It is an object of the present invention to provide a drive recording apparatus and a drive recording method that can easily identify drive information at the time of an accident and other drive information.

(1) A drive recording apparatus for achieving the above object includes an acceleration acquisition unit that acquires acceleration from an acceleration sensor mounted on a vehicle, and a drive information acquisition unit that acquires drive information including a surrounding situation of the vehicle. Position information acquisition means for acquiring position information indicating the traveling position of the vehicle, position information recording means for recording the position information corresponding to the acceleration equal to or greater than the threshold when the acceleration equal to or greater than the threshold is acquired, Recording means for determining , based on the position information indicating the travel position of the vehicle, whether the acceleration equal to or greater than a threshold value is caused by the occurrence of an accident, and the drive information corresponding to the acceleration determined to be caused by the occurrence of an accident Recording means for recording on a medium. In addition, if the acceleration that is equal to or greater than the threshold value has already been acquired N times or more at the same position as the travel position where the acceleration equal to or greater than the threshold value has been acquired, It is determined that it is not caused by the occurrence.
According to this drive recording device, it is determined whether or not the acceleration exceeding the threshold is caused by the occurrence of the accident based on the position information indicating the traveling position of the vehicle, and corresponds to the acceleration determined to be caused by the occurrence of the accident. Drive information to be recorded is recorded on a recording medium. Therefore, compared with the case where the acceleration is determined to be caused by the occurrence of the accident based only on the condition that the acceleration is equal to or greater than the threshold, the drive recording apparatus is Thus, it is possible to accurately determine the acceleration due to the drive and record the corresponding drive information on the recording medium.
In addition, if acceleration that exceeds the threshold value has already been detected multiple times at the same point, the speed bump that is regularly present on the road surface at that point rather than the possibility that multiple accidents have occurred at that point. It is conceivable that the possibility that the vehicle passes through a step such as the above is higher. According to this drive recording apparatus, it is determined whether or not it is caused by the occurrence of an accident based on the position information indicating the traveling position of the vehicle. Therefore, compared with the case where it is determined that the acceleration is caused by the occurrence of an accident based only on the condition that the acceleration is equal to or greater than the threshold, the drive recording apparatus can accurately determine the acceleration caused by the occurrence of the accident. it can.

(2) In the drive recording apparatus for achieving the above object, the position information indicating the traveling position of the vehicle includes at least one of point information, a traveling road link number, a traveling direction, and a traveling lane.

( 3 ) In the drive recording apparatus for achieving the above object, the recording means includes the drive information corresponding to the acceleration determined to be caused by an accident and the acceleration determined not to be caused by the accident. The corresponding drive information may be recorded separately on the recording medium.
According to this drive recording apparatus, drive information corresponding to an acceleration determined to be caused by the occurrence of an accident and drive information corresponding to an acceleration determined not to be caused by the occurrence of an accident are distinguished and recorded on a recording medium. Therefore, when analyzing the driving history and the cause of the accident based on the plurality of drive information recorded on the recording medium, the user easily identifies the drive information at the time of the accident and the drive information not at the time of the accident. be able to. In addition, the drive information corresponding to the acceleration determined not to be caused by the occurrence of the accident is also recorded on the recording medium without being discarded, so that the corresponding drive information can be analyzed when it is erroneously determined not to be caused by the occurrence of the accident. The situation that disappears can be prevented.

( 4 ) A drive recording method for achieving the above-described object is a position that acquires acceleration from an acceleration sensor mounted on a vehicle, acquires drive information including a surrounding situation of the vehicle, and indicates a traveling position of the vehicle When the information is acquired and the acceleration equal to or higher than the threshold is acquired, the position information corresponding to the acceleration equal to or higher than the threshold is recorded, and whether or not the acceleration equal to or higher than the threshold is caused by the occurrence of an accident is determined. The drive information corresponding to the acceleration determined to be caused by the occurrence of an accident is recorded on a recording medium . In addition, when the acceleration that is equal to or higher than the threshold is already acquired at the same position as the travel position where the acceleration equal to or higher than the threshold is acquired this time, the acceleration that is acquired this time is not caused by the occurrence of an accident. Including determining .
According to this drive recording method, it is determined whether or not the acceleration exceeding the threshold is caused by the occurrence of the accident based on the position information indicating the traveling position of the vehicle, and corresponds to the acceleration determined to be caused by the occurrence of the accident. Drive information to be recorded is recorded on a recording medium. Therefore, compared with the case where the acceleration is determined to be caused by the occurrence of the accident based only on the condition that the acceleration is equal to or greater than the threshold, the drive recording apparatus is Thus, it is possible to accurately determine the acceleration due to the drive and record the corresponding drive information on the recording medium.

  The functions of the plurality of means provided in the present invention are realized by hardware resources whose functions are specified by the configuration itself, hardware resources whose functions are specified by a program, or a combination thereof. The functions of the plurality of means are not limited to those realized by hardware resources that are physically independent of each other. The present invention can be specified not only as an apparatus invention but also as a program invention, a recording medium recording the program, and a method invention.

Hereinafter, a plurality of embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
(First embodiment)
FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the drive recording apparatus 1 according to the first embodiment of the present invention. The drive recording device 1 is a device that is mounted on a vehicle such as an automobile or a motorcycle, and records information (hereinafter referred to as drive information) such as a surrounding image of the vehicle, a behavior of the vehicle, and a driver's operation content when an accident occurs. . The drive information recorded by the drive recording device 1 is used for analysis of the operation history and the cause of the accident. The drive recording apparatus 1 of the present embodiment shares most of the hardware with the navigation apparatus 2 that guides the recommended route to the destination and the travel point of the host vehicle. The drive recording device 1 may be configured by hardware independent of the navigation device 2.

The acceleration sensor 10 serving as an acceleration acquisition unit detects acceleration applied to the vehicle. It includes a longitudinal acceleration sensor that detects acceleration applied in the traveling direction of the vehicle, a lateral acceleration sensor that detects acceleration applied in the width direction of the vehicle, a yaw rate sensor that detects acceleration applied in the rotational direction of the vehicle, and the like.
The camera unit 38 as drive information acquisition means is attached to the back of the rearview mirror or the like, and records images such as signals, signs, road surfaces, etc. in front of the vehicle. When the camera unit 38 uses a wide-angle lens, it can record the situation around the vehicle in a wider range. The camera may be further provided with a camera that captures the rear of the vehicle so that an image around the vehicle can be taken without blind spots.

  An HDD (Hard Disk Device) 56 as position information acquisition means stores map data and various programs and data for controlling the drive recording device 1 and the navigation device 2. The map data is composed of information obtained by digitally representing the map in a graph format, and is used for detecting the vehicle position, searching for a recommended route, and displaying it. In the map data, intersections, turning points, dead ends, and the like are nodes, and roads are defined as links connecting nodes. In addition, distance, speed limit, number of lanes, width, corner radius, etc. are defined as attribute information for each link.

  The direction sensor 32 as position information acquisition means includes a geomagnetic sensor, a left and right wheel speed difference sensor, a vibration gyro sensor, a gas rate gyro sensor, an optical fiber gyro sensor, and the like used for dead reckoning navigation.

  The GPS unit 34 serving as position information acquisition means outputs an antenna that receives orbit data transmitted from three or four satellites used for satellite navigation, latitude / longitude data of the current position of the vehicle, and the current time. ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit).

  The vehicle speed sensor 36 as position information acquisition means is a vehicle speed sensor used for autonomous navigation and used in a speedometer. The mileage is obtained by integrating the vehicle speed with time. The vehicle speed sensor 36 may include a vehicle speed sensor using wheel rotation speed, a Doppler ground vehicle speed sensor using radio waves or ultrasonic waves, a ground vehicle speed sensor using light and a spatial filter, and the like.

  The CPU 50 controls each part of the drive recording device 1 and the navigation device 2 by executing various control programs. Further, the CPU 50 functions as an acceleration acquisition unit, a drive information acquisition unit, a determination unit, a recording unit, and a position information acquisition unit according to the claims by executing various control programs including drive recording processing described later.

The RAM 52 is a volatile storage medium that temporarily stores data and programs processed by the CPU 50.
The flash memory 54 is a non-volatile storage medium that stores a program executed by the CPU 50. A program executed by the CPU 50 may be stored in the HDD 56. Various programs, map data, and the like can be stored in the HDD 56 or the flash memory 54 by downloading from a predetermined server via a network, reading from a computer-readable storage medium such as a removable memory (not shown), and the like.

  The removable memory 40 corresponds to a recording medium described in claims, and records drive information. A memory card is used in consideration of the fact that it is not easily damaged even under impact, but drive information may be recorded in the HDD 56.

The operation unit 58 includes a touch switch, a remote controller, and the like for the user to input various instructions and information. You may provide the voice recognition apparatus for enabling voice input, and the reader for reading the data recorded on the IC card or the magnetic card.
The display 60 is configured by an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display), a HUD (Head Up Display), or the like used for displaying a map and various types of information.
The speaker 62 is used for sound output for guiding the travel route of the vehicle, the travel state, and sound output for notifying various warnings. The speaker 62 may be shared with the audio speaker, or a dedicated navigation device may be provided.
The configuration of the navigation device 2 has been described above.

  FIG. 1 is a flowchart showing the flow of drive recording processing. This drive recording process is started when a recording start instruction is input through the operation unit 58 by a driver, for example.

  In step S100, it is determined whether an acceleration equal to or greater than a threshold value has been detected. Specifically, for example, as shown in FIG. 3, the acceleration is sequentially acquired from the acceleration sensor 10, and it is determined whether the acquired acceleration is equal to or greater than a threshold value. When acceleration equal to or greater than the threshold is acquired, the process proceeds to step S102.

  In step S102, it is determined whether the acceleration determined to be equal to or greater than the threshold value in step S100 protrudes from the vehicle speed. Specifically, when the vehicle speed is acquired from the vehicle speed sensor 36 and the acceleration is large with respect to the vehicle speed, it is determined that there is a high possibility of an accident, and the process proceeds to step S110. If it does not protrude and is not large, the process proceeds to step S104.

  For example, in the case of passing through the same unevenness on the road surface at 100 km / h and in the case of passing at 20 km / h, the detected acceleration is greater in the former than in the latter. On the other hand, if a large acceleration is detected, for example, when traveling at 20 km / h and passing through unevenness at 100 km / h, the vehicle is more likely to have been involved in a collision accident rather than passing through the unevenness. It is possible. Thus, the determination based on the relationship between the acceleration and the traveling speed is compared with the case where it is determined that the acceleration is caused by the occurrence of an accident based only on the condition that the acceleration is equal to or greater than the threshold. Thus, it is possible to accurately determine the acceleration resulting from the occurrence of the accident.

  In step S104, it is determined whether irregularities are detected on the road surface in the traveling direction. When unevenness is detected in the vehicle periphery image processing described later, the process proceeds to step S105. If the unevenness is not detected, the process proceeds to step S106.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the flow of vehicle periphery image processing. The process shown in FIG. 4 is executed in parallel with the drive recording process. In the present embodiment, for example, an image of 30 frames per second is taken by the camera unit 38, and a frame image for the last 30 seconds is always held in the RAM 52 retroactively from the present.
In step S <b> 200, a frame image is acquired from the camera unit 38 to the RAM 52.

In step S202, the presence / absence of unevenness of the road surface in the traveling direction, the size of the unevenness, the approaching speed to the unevenness, and the like are analyzed from each frame image, and the predicted acceleration when the unevenness passes is obtained. Specifically, for example, the predicted acceleration applied to the vehicle when passing through the unevenness is derived based on the size of the analyzed unevenness, the approach speed to the unevenness, and the like. The approach speed to the unevenness may be acquired from the vehicle speed sensor 36. When the unevenness is detected, for example, until the vehicle passes through the unevenness, such information regarding the unevenness is held in the RAM 52 so that it can be referred to from the drive recording process.
In step S204, frame images before a predetermined time are discarded. Specifically, images past 30 seconds or more from the present are discarded from the RAM 52.
The vehicle periphery image processing has been described above.

Returning to the description of the drive recording process.
In step S105, it is determined whether the predicted acceleration at the time of passing through the unevenness and the actually detected acceleration are substantially equal. When the derived predicted acceleration is substantially equal to the acceleration that is actually detected or greater than the threshold value, the process proceeds to step S112. When the predicted acceleration and the actually detected acceleration are greatly different, for example, when the actually detected acceleration is larger than the predicted acceleration, the process proceeds to step S110.

  Thus, for example, when the road surface in front of the vehicle has unevenness and the vehicle is approaching the unevenness, if acceleration equal to or greater than the threshold is acquired, it may not be caused by the occurrence of an accident. In this embodiment, when an image of the road surface in the traveling direction of the vehicle is analyzed and unevenness is detected on the road surface, the actual acceleration is detected this time by comparing the predicted acceleration when passing the unevenness with the actually detected acceleration. It is determined whether the acceleration exceeding the threshold value is caused by the occurrence of an accident. For this reason, it is possible to accurately determine the acceleration caused by the occurrence of the accident as compared to the case where it is determined that the acceleration is caused by the occurrence of the accident based only on the condition that the acceleration is equal to or greater than the threshold value as in the prior art.

  In step S106, vehicle position information is acquired. Specifically, the vehicle position is determined from latitude / longitude data representing the current position of the vehicle acquired from the GPS unit 34, the traveling direction input from the direction sensor 32, and the travel distance calculated from the vehicle speed sensor 36 and the like. Detected. The point information and the traveling road are derived from the result of matching the deviation between the detected vehicle position and the vehicle position in the map data. For example, as shown in FIG. 5, the position information is managed as point information, a traveling road link number, a traveling direction, and a traveling lane. The traveling direction is obtained by, for example, the displacement of the point information, and the traveling lane is obtained by analyzing an image from the camera unit 38, for example. The design of the position information may be changed as appropriate according to the data structure of the road data in the map data.

  In step S108, it is determined whether an acceleration equal to or greater than a threshold value has been detected at the same position N times or more. Specifically, for example, in the present embodiment, the position information and the number of detections at a position where acceleration equal to or greater than the threshold is detected are managed by a management table as shown in FIG. The number of acceleration detections equal to or greater than the threshold value is referred to and determined. The number of times of detection is counted up in the process of step S110 or S112, for example. If it is determined that N or more times have already been detected, the process proceeds to step S112. If it is determined that less than N times have been detected, the process proceeds to step S110.

  If acceleration that exceeds the threshold is already detected multiple times at the same point, speed bumps, etc. that are constantly present on the road surface rather than the possibility of multiple accidents at that point. It is possible that the possibility that the vehicle is passing through the step is higher. In the present embodiment, it is determined whether the acceleration equal to or greater than the threshold is caused by the occurrence of an accident based on the travel history information including the position information indicating the travel position where the vehicle has detected the acceleration equal to or greater than the threshold. Therefore, it is possible to accurately determine the acceleration caused by the occurrence of the accident as compared with the case where it is determined that the acceleration is caused by the occurrence of the accident based only on the condition that the acceleration is equal to or greater than the threshold.

  In step S110, drive information is recorded in the accident folder of the removable memory 40. The drive information is recorded, for example, in a subfolder created every time an acceleration greater than a threshold value is detected in the accident folder. Corresponding position information and number of detections may also be recorded in the subfolder. In step S110, the aforementioned management table is updated. In the present embodiment, the drive information recorded in the accident folder is an acceleration that is determined to be caused by the occurrence of an accident and is an image of the front of the vehicle for 15 seconds before and after the moment corresponding to the acceleration.

  In step S112, drive information is recorded in the non-accident folder of the removable memory 40. The drive information is recorded, for example, in a subfolder created every time an acceleration greater than a threshold value is detected in the accident folder. Corresponding position information and number of detections may also be recorded in the subfolder. In step S112, the aforementioned management table is updated. In the present embodiment, the drive information recorded in the non-accident folder is an acceleration equal to or higher than a threshold value determined not to be caused by the occurrence of an accident, and an image ahead of the vehicle for 15 seconds before and after the moment corresponding to the acceleration.

  As described above, in this embodiment, drive information corresponding to acceleration determined to be caused by the occurrence of an accident and drive information corresponding to acceleration determined not to be caused by the occurrence of an accident are sorted and recorded in different folders. Thus, the user can easily identify them. In addition, since the drive information corresponding to the acceleration determined not to be caused by the occurrence of the accident is also recorded in the removable memory 40 without being discarded, the corresponding drive information is analyzed when it is erroneously determined not to be caused by the occurrence of the accident. The situation where it becomes impossible can be prevented.

In addition to the above, as the drive information, impact detection date and time, acceleration for several seconds before and after the collision, vehicle speed, accelerator, brake, steering operation record, and the like may be recorded. In this case, like the image, the RAM 52 sequentially stores acceleration, vehicle speed, accelerator, brake, accelerator operation record, etc. for a predetermined time.
Note that after this drive recording process is completed, the drive recording process may be repeated by returning to the process of step S100 again.

  As described above, in the present embodiment, it is determined based on the drive information and the vehicle travel history information whether or not the acceleration equal to or higher than the threshold value is caused by the occurrence of an accident. Then, drive information corresponding to the acceleration determined to be caused by the occurrence of the accident and drive information corresponding to the acceleration determined not to be caused by the occurrence of the accident are distinguished and recorded in the removable memory 40. Therefore, when analyzing the operation history and the cause of the accident based on the plurality of drive information recorded in the removable memory 40, the user can easily identify the drive information at the time of the accident and the drive information not at the time of the accident. can do.

(Other embodiments)
The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and can be applied to various embodiments without departing from the gist thereof. For example, it may be determined whether or not it is caused by the occurrence of an accident based on at least one of the relationship between the vehicle speed and acceleration, the image analysis result in the traveling direction, and the travel history information. The determination may be made based on other drive information and travel history information. In the above embodiment, the acceleration threshold value may be variably set according to the vehicle speed.

In addition to recording in the accident folder and the non-accident folder, the gray drive information, which can be said to be clearly an accident or not an accident, is further recorded in another folder. You may do it. In addition to sorting and recording in different folders, it is possible to identify drive information resulting from an accident by the file name and others, or create drive information index tables etc. so that drive information can be identified May be managed.
In the above embodiment, the drive information corresponding to the acceleration caused by the occurrence of the accident and the drive information corresponding to the acceleration determined not to be caused by the occurrence of the accident are distinguished and recorded in the removable memory 40. Although described, the drive information corresponding to the acceleration determined not to be caused by the occurrence of an accident may be configured not to be recorded in the removable memory 40.

3 is a flowchart showing drive recording processing according to the first embodiment of the present invention. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a drive recording apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention. The schematic diagram which concerns on 1st Embodiment of this invention. The flowchart which shows the vehicle periphery image process which concerns on 1st Embodiment of this invention. The schematic diagram which concerns on 1st Embodiment of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

1: drive recording device, 2: navigation device, 10: acceleration sensor (acceleration acquisition means), 32: bearing sensor (position information acquisition means), 34: GPS unit (position information acquisition means), 36: vehicle speed sensor (position information) Acquisition means), 38: camera unit (drive information acquisition means), 40: removable memory (recording medium), 50: CPU (acceleration acquisition means, drive information acquisition means, determination means, recording means and position information acquisition means), 52 : RAM, 54: Flash memory, 56: HDD (positional information acquisition means), 58: Operation unit, 60: Display, 62: Speaker

Claims (4)

Acceleration acquisition means for acquiring acceleration from an acceleration sensor mounted on the vehicle;
Drive information acquisition means for acquiring drive information including a surrounding situation of the vehicle;
Position information acquisition means for acquiring position information indicating the traveling position of the vehicle;
Position information recording means for recording the position information corresponding to the acceleration equal to or greater than the threshold when acceleration equal to or greater than the threshold is acquired;
Determining means for determining whether an acceleration greater than or equal to the threshold value is caused by an accident based on the position information indicating a traveling position of the vehicle ;
Recording means for recording the drive information corresponding to the acceleration determined to be caused by the occurrence of an accident on a recording medium;
Equipped with a,
The determination means determines that the acceleration acquired this time is the occurrence of an accident when the acceleration equal to or higher than the threshold has already been acquired at least N times at the same position as the travel position from which the acceleration higher than the threshold has been acquired. A drive recording device that is determined not to be caused . The drive recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the position information indicating the traveling position of the vehicle includes at least one of point information, a traveling road link number, a traveling direction, and a traveling lane . The recording means records the drive information corresponding to the acceleration determined to be caused by the occurrence of an accident and the drive information corresponding to the acceleration determined not to be caused by the occurrence of an accident on the recording medium. To
The drive recording apparatus according to claim 1 or 2 . Get the acceleration from the acceleration sensor mounted on the vehicle,
Get drive information including the surrounding situation of the vehicle,
Obtaining position information indicating the traveling position of the vehicle;
When the acceleration equal to or higher than the threshold is acquired, the position information corresponding to the acceleration equal to or higher than the threshold is recorded,
Determining whether an acceleration equal to or greater than the threshold value is caused by an accident based on the position information indicating a travel position of the vehicle ;
Recording the drive information corresponding to the acceleration determined to be caused by the occurrence of an accident on a recording medium ,
This time, if the acceleration that is equal to or greater than the threshold value has already been acquired N times or more at the same position as the travel position where the acceleration equal to or greater than the threshold value is acquired, it is determined that the acceleration acquired this time is not caused by the occurrence of an accident. A drive recording method.

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