JP6981319B2 - Recording control device, recording control method, and recording control program - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a record control device, a record control method, and a record control program.

When a general drive recorder detects an event such as an impact, the video data for a predetermined time including the detection time of the event is moved to a memory area that is not overwritten. The drive recorder disclosed in Patent Document 1 detects the occurrence of an event based on the pattern of acceleration change.

Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2012-64126

In recent years, the number of vehicles equipped with an automatic braking function is increasing. The automatic braking function is a function that detects obstacles in the traveling direction of the vehicle by using a camera, radar, or the like, and automatically brakes and brakes the vehicle. In a vehicle equipped with such a function, even if the driver does not notice the obstacle, the automatic braking function can suppress an accident such as a collision.
If you turn it over, it can be inferred that it is a dangerous situation such as the driver's carelessness when the automatic braking is operating. Therefore, it is desirable that the drive recorder can appropriately record the situation when the automatic braking is operating. However, since the drive recorder described in Patent Document 1 determines whether or not to save the video data based on the acceleration, there is a case where the event when the automatic brake is operating cannot be saved.

On the other hand, if the video data when the automatic brake is operating is recorded one by one, even the less important video data will be saved, which will put pressure on the recording capacity of the drive recorder. Therefore, it is important to properly record the video data when the automatic braking is operating and an important event occurs.

The present invention has been made to solve such a problem, and is a recording control device, a recording control method, and a recording control method capable of recording video data when an automatic brake is operating and an important event occurs. The purpose is to provide a recording control program.

The recording control device according to the present invention includes a video data acquisition unit that acquires first video data that images the surroundings of the vehicle, and a vehicle information acquisition unit that acquires information on whether or not the automatic brake of the vehicle is operating. When the automatic brake is operating, the occurrence of an event is detected when the magnitude of the acceleration at which the vehicle decelerates is equal to or greater than the first acceleration, and when the automatic braking is not operating, the vehicle The event detection unit that detects the occurrence of the event when the magnitude of the acceleration decelerated by the vehicle is greater than or equal to the second acceleration larger than the first acceleration, and the event detection unit detects the occurrence of the event. A recording control unit for storing the first video data in a recording unit during a period including a time when an event occurs is provided.

The recording control method according to the present invention includes a step of acquiring image data obtained by capturing an image of the surroundings of the vehicle, a step of acquiring information on whether or not the automatic brake of the vehicle is operating, and a step of operating the automatic brake. If so, the occurrence of an event is detected when the magnitude of the acceleration at which the vehicle decelerates is equal to or greater than the first acceleration, and when the automatic brake is not operating, the magnitude of the acceleration at which the vehicle decelerates is A step of detecting the occurrence of the event when the second acceleration is greater than or equal to the first acceleration, and a step of recording the video data in a period including the time of occurrence of the event when the event is detected. , Equipped with.

The recording control program according to the present invention has a step of acquiring video data obtained by capturing an image of the surroundings of the vehicle, a step of acquiring information on whether or not the automatic brake of the vehicle is operating, and a step of operating the automatic brake. If so, the occurrence of an event is detected when the magnitude of the acceleration at which the vehicle decelerates is equal to or greater than the first acceleration, and when the automatic brake is not operating, the magnitude of the acceleration at which the vehicle decelerates is A step of detecting the occurrence of the event when the second acceleration is greater than or equal to the first acceleration, and a step of recording the video data in a period including the time of occurrence of the event when the event is detected. Let the computer execute.

The recording control device according to the present invention detects the occurrence of an event when the acceleration of the vehicle is equal to or higher than the first acceleration when the automatic braking is operating, and when the automatic braking is not operating, the recording control device of the vehicle The occurrence of an event is detected when the acceleration is equal to or higher than the second acceleration. That is, the recording control device according to the present invention changes the event detection condition depending on whether or not the automatic brake is activated. Therefore, it is possible to record video data when the automatic braking is operating and an important event occurs.

According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a recording control device, a recording control method, and a recording control program capable of recording video data when an automatic brake is operating and an important event occurs.

It is a schematic diagram which shows the state that the drive recorder which concerns on 1st Embodiment is installed in a vehicle. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the drive recorder which concerns on 1st Embodiment. It is a conceptual diagram explaining the ring buffer set in the memory card which concerns on 1st Embodiment. It is a flow diagram which shows the control flow of the drive recorder which concerns on 1st Embodiment. It is a modification of the control flow of the drive recorder which concerns on 1st Embodiment. It is a schematic diagram which shows the state that the drive recorder which concerns on 2nd Embodiment is installed in a vehicle. It is a flow diagram which shows the control flow of the drive recorder which concerns on 2nd Embodiment. It is a conceptual diagram explaining the ring buffer set in the memory card which concerns on 3rd Embodiment.

Hereinafter, specific embodiments will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. In each drawing, the same or corresponding elements are designated by the same reference numerals, and duplicate explanations are omitted as necessary for the sake of clarity of explanation.

The plurality of embodiments described below may be implemented independently or in combination as appropriate. These plurality of embodiments have novel features that differ from each other. Therefore, these plurality of embodiments contribute to solving different purposes or problems, and contribute to different effects.

[First Embodiment]
FIG. 1 is a schematic view showing a state in which a drive recorder 100, which is an example of a recording control device according to the first embodiment, is installed in a vehicle 900. The drive recorder 100 includes a camera unit 110. The camera unit 110 includes a camera that captures the surroundings of the vehicle 900. The camera unit 110 is installed on the upper part of the windshield in the traveling direction of the vehicle 900 so that the surrounding environment in front can be imaged, for example. The field of view has an extension of about 130 ° diagonally, for example, as shown by the alternate long and short dash line.

The vehicle 900 includes an acceleration sensor 920 that detects acceleration such as an impact received by the vehicle 900. The acceleration sensor 920 outputs an acceleration signal, which is a detection result, to the drive recorder 100. The accelerometer 920 may be built in the drive recorder 100.

Further, in the present embodiment, the vehicle 900 is provided with an object sensor 930 for detecting an object such as another vehicle or a pedestrian at a plurality of locations in front of the vehicle 900. The object sensor 930 is, for example, a millimeter-wave radar or a stereo camera, and when it detects an object such as another vehicle or a pedestrian, it outputs a detection signal to a traveling control unit included in the vehicle 900.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the drive recorder 100. The drive recorder 100 is mainly composed of a camera unit 110 and a main body unit 130.

The camera unit 110 mainly includes a lens 112, an image sensor 114, and an AFE (analog front end) 116. The lens 112 guides the incident subject luminous flux to the image pickup device 114. The lens 112 may be composed of a plurality of optical lens groups.

The image sensor 114 is, for example, a CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) image sensor. The image pickup device 114 adjusts the charge accumulation time by an electronic shutter according to the exposure time per frame designated by the system control unit 131, performs photoelectric conversion, and outputs a pixel signal. The image sensor 114 passes the pixel signal to the AFE 116. The AFE 116 adjusts the level of the pixel signal according to the amplification gain instructed by the system control unit 131, A / D (analog / digital) converts it into digital data, and transmits it as pixel data to the main unit 130. The camera unit 110 may be provided with a mechanical shutter or an iris diaphragm. If a mechanical shutter or an iris diaphragm is provided, the system control unit 131 can also use these to adjust the amount of light incident on the image pickup device 114.

The main unit 130 includes a system control unit 131, an image input IF (interface) 132, a work memory 133, a system memory 134, an image processing unit 135, a display output unit 136, a memory control unit 137, a memory IF 138, an input / output IF 139, and a bus line. Mainly equipped with 140. The image input IF 132 has a function as a video data acquisition unit that sequentially acquires video data captured by the camera unit 110, acquires pixel data from the camera unit 110 connected to the main unit 130, and goes to the bus line 140. hand over.

The work memory 133 is composed of, for example, a volatile high-speed memory. The work memory 133 receives pixel data from the AFE 116 via the image input IF 132 and stores it as one frame of video data. The work memory 133 delivers video data to the image processing unit 135 in frame units. Further, the work memory 133 is appropriately used as a temporary storage area even in the middle of image processing by the image processing unit 135.

The image processing unit 135 performs various image processing on the received video data to generate video data in a predetermined format. For example, when generating moving image data in MPEG file format, after performing white balance processing, gamma processing, etc. on the video data of each frame, compression processing within the video data of each frame and between the video data of adjacent frames is performed. Run. The image processing unit 135 sequentially generates display video data from the generated video data and delivers it to the display output unit 136. Hereinafter, the video data of each frame constituting the moving image data will be referred to as frame video data, and the image represented by the frame video data will be referred to as frame video.

The display output unit 136 converts the display video data received from the image processing unit 135 into an image signal that can be displayed by the display unit 160 and outputs the data. The display unit 160 may be, for example, a display panel of a car navigation system, or may be a dedicated display panel provided integrally with the drive recorder 100. The display unit 160 can sequentially display the image signals received from the display output unit 136.

The system memory 134 is composed of a non-volatile recording medium such as an SSD (Solid State Drive). The system memory 134 records and holds constants, variables, set values, control programs, and the like necessary for the operation of the drive recorder 100.

The memory IF 138 is a connection interface for mounting a removable memory card 150. The memory card 150 is a non-volatile memory, and for example, a flash memory is used. The memory card 150 serves as a recording unit for recording video data.

The memory control unit 137 executes memory control for writing video data to the memory card 150 mounted on the memory IF 138. That is, the memory control unit 137 has a function as a recording control unit for writing video data to the memory card 150. Specific memory control will be described later.

The input / output IF 139 is an external device that acquires a signal from an external device and delivers it to the system control unit 131, or receives a control signal such as a signal request to the external device from the system control unit 131 and transmits it to the external device. Connection interface. The input / output IF 139 is connected to the above-mentioned acceleration sensor 920 via an in-vehicle network such as CAN (Controller Area Network) 910.
The acceleration signal output by the acceleration sensor 920 is input to the system control unit 131 via the CAN 910 and the input / output IF 139. When the input / output IF 139 acquires an acceleration signal, the input / output IF 139 functions as an acceleration signal acquisition unit in cooperation with the system control unit 131.

Further, the input / output IF 139 is connected to the traveling control unit 940 via the CAN 910. The travel control unit 940 is provided in the vehicle 900 and controls the travel of the vehicle 900 based on the driving operation of the driver. That is, the travel control unit 940 controls the travel of the vehicle 900 based on the driver's steering wheel operation, accelerator operation, brake operation, and the like. Further, when the traveling control unit 940 acquires the detection signal output by the object sensor 930, the traveling control unit 940 performs brake control on the vehicle 900 in preference to the driving operation of the driver. That is, the travel control unit 940 activates the automatic brake when the detection signal output by the object sensor 930 is acquired.

The travel control unit 940 outputs information on the travel condition of the vehicle 900 as a travel condition signal. The traveling state information of the vehicle 900 includes, for example, the speed of the vehicle 900, the steering wheel operation amount, the accelerator operation amount, the brake operation amount, and information on whether or not the automatic brake is operating. The input / output IF 139 functions as a vehicle information acquisition unit in cooperation with the system control unit 131 when acquiring the travel state signal output by the travel control unit 940. In this way, the vehicle information acquisition unit acquires information on the running state of the vehicle 900, such as information on whether or not the automatic braking of the vehicle 900 is operating.

The system control unit 131 is, for example, a CPU, and directly or indirectly controls each element constituting the drive recorder 100. The control by the system control unit 131 is realized by a control program or the like read from the system memory 134.

Further, the system control unit 131 determines that an event has occurred when the acceleration indicated by the acceleration signal is greater than or equal to a preset threshold value. In a general drive recorder, it is determined that an event has occurred in response to the acceleration when another vehicle or object collides with the vehicle. In the drive recorder 100 of the present invention, it is determined that an event has occurred when not only the acceleration in the case of a collision but also the acceleration in the case of sudden braking is detected. Therefore, the system control unit 131 also functions as an event detection unit. As will be described later, the threshold value of the acceleration for determining that an event has occurred differs depending on whether or not the automatic braking is operating.

Here, a specific memory control performed by the memory control unit 137 will be described. FIG. 3 is a conceptual diagram illustrating a ring buffer set in the memory card 150. The drive recorder 100 processes the images sequentially captured by the camera unit 110 by the image processing unit 135 to generate a moving image file for each minute. Then, the memory control unit 137 sequentially records the moving image file generated by the image processing unit 135 on the memory card 150 via the memory IF 138.

Since the memory card 150 has an upper limit on the storage capacity, there is also an upper limit on the number of moving image files that can be recorded. Since the drive recorder 100 continues to generate the moving image file while the vehicle 900 continues to travel, the latest moving image file generated cannot be recorded on the memory card 150 after a certain period of time has elapsed. Therefore, when the memory card 150 reaches the upper limit of the storage capacity, the memory control unit 137 continues the recording process in the ring buffer format in which the latest moving image file is overwritten in the storage area in which the oldest moving image file is stored. ..

FIG. 3A is a conceptual diagram when the entire memory area 151 of the memory card 150 is used as the ring buffer 152. When the memory areas that can store one moving image file are _{represented as X 1} , X ₂ , ..., X _n , respectively, the memory control unit 137 refers to the first moving image file as X ₁ and the next moving image file as X _2. Record in order. Then, after recording the n-th moving picture file X _n, (n + 1) th moving picture file, and overwrites the X ₁ the first moving image file is recorded. Similarly, the n + 2nd moving image file is overwritten with _{X 2.} If the moving image file is recorded in such a ring buffer format, the latest moving image file corresponding to the capacity of the ring buffer 152 can be retained.

FIG. 3B is a conceptual diagram illustrating the concept of write control in the drive recorder 100. FIG. 3B describes a case where the occurrence of an event is detected when the automatic braking is not operating.
If it is determined that the automatic braking is not operating when the system control unit 131 detects the occurrence of an event, the memory control unit 137 overwrites the moving image file of the video data during the period including the time when the event occurs. Copy to the prohibited area. For example, as shown in the figure, if _{the moving image file recorded in the memory area X 4} contains the video data at the time of the event occurrence, the memory area X _n is changed to the non-volatile buffer 153 and the moving image file is recorded as an event. Copy it here as a file. The non-volatile buffer 153 is an area excluded from the storage area recorded in the ring buffer format, in other words, an area in which overwriting is prohibited. If the event occurs a plurality of times, X _n-1 , X _n-2 , ... Are changed to the non-volatile buffer 153 in order each time. That is, the ring buffer 152 decreases each time the non-volatile buffer 153 is added. The memory area of the non-volatile buffer 153 is used again as the ring buffer 152 when the memory card 150 is formatted or the target moving image file is erased according to the user's instruction. The capacity used as the non-volatile buffer 153 may be preset.

FIG. 3C is a conceptual diagram illustrating the concept of write control in the drive recorder 100. FIG. 3C describes a case where the occurrence of an event is detected when the automatic brake is operating.
If it is determined that the automatic braking is operating when the system control unit 131 detects the occurrence of an event, the memory control unit 137 automatically brakes the moving image file of the video data during the period including the time when the event occurs. Add flag 154 and copy to the overwrite-protected area. For example, as shown in the figure, when _{the moving image file recorded in the memory area X 4} contains the video data at the time of the event occurrence and the automatic brake is activated at the time of the event occurrence, the moving image recorded in the memory area X ₄ Add the automatic brake flag 154 to the image file. After that, the memory area _Xn is changed to the non-volatile buffer 153, and the moving image file is copied here as an event recording file. Automatic brake flag 154 is added to the moving image file in the memory area X ₄ is deleted when it is overwritten by the ring buffer format.

Next, the control flow of the drive recorder 100 will be described. FIG. 4 is a flow chart showing a control flow of the drive recorder 100. The flow starts from the time when the vehicle 900 is ready to start running. Completion of the running start preparation of the vehicle 900 is, for example, starting the engine of the vehicle 900 or turning on the power. The drive recorder 100 may be always operated regardless of the state of the vehicle.
The camera unit 110 starts imaging with the start of the flow, and the moving image files sequentially generated by the image processing unit 135 are sequentially recorded in the memory card 150 in the ring buffer format by the memory control unit 137. Further, the system control unit 131 monitors the acceleration signal received from the acceleration sensor 920. The following processing is processing executed during such recording control during normal driving.

In step S110, the system control unit 131 determines whether or not the acceleration indicated by the acceleration signal acquired from the acceleration sensor 920 is equal to or higher than the first acceleration. The first acceleration is a threshold value set with respect to the absolute value of the acceleration, and may be arbitrarily set by the user. The first acceleration referred to here is the acceleration when the vehicle 900 is decelerated or stopped by the automatic brake when the object sensor 930 detects another vehicle, a pedestrian, an obstacle, etc. in the traveling direction while the vehicle 900 is traveling. Is. That is, the first acceleration is an acceleration having an absolute value larger than the acceleration when the driver decelerates or stops while recognizing the stop position in advance, or when accelerating from the stopped state.
If the detected acceleration is equal to or higher than the first acceleration (YES in step S110), the process proceeds to step S120. If the acceleration is less than the first acceleration (NO in step S110), the process proceeds to step S160.

When the system control unit 131 proceeds to step S120, it determines whether or not the automatic braking is operating based on the travel state signal acquired from the travel control unit 940. When the system control unit 131 determines that the automatic braking is operating (YES in step S120), the system control unit 131 detects the occurrence of an event and proceeds to step S130. If the system control unit 131 determines that the automatic brake is not operating (NO in step S120), the process proceeds to step S150. The case where the acceleration equal to or higher than the first acceleration is detected by the operation of the automatic brake is the case where the automatic brake operates because the vehicle 900 detects an object that may collide while traveling in the traveling direction. .. In other words, it is likely that the driver did not or was delayed in braking to avoid a collision with a potential collision object.

When the system control unit 131 proceeds to step S130, the system control unit 131 controls the memory control unit 137 so as to add the automatic brake flag 154 to the moving image file of the video data during the period including the time when the event occurs. That is, the system control unit 131 associates the information that the automatic brake is operating with the video data as the process of step S130. Then, the process proceeds to step S140.

When the system control unit 131 proceeds to step S140, the system control unit 131 controls the memory control unit 137 so as to copy the moving image file of the video data in the period including the time when the event occurs to the overwrite-protected area. That is, as the process of step S140, the system control unit 131 records the video data in the recording unit during the period including the time when the event occurs. Then, the process proceeds to step S160.

When the system control unit 131 proceeds to step S160, it determines whether or not the recording stop signal has been acquired. The recording stop signal is, for example, a signal generated when the vehicle 900 has finished traveling, and is also a signal generated by the operation of the stop button by the user. When the system control unit 131 determines that the recording stop signal has been acquired, the system control unit 131 stops the imaging by the camera unit 110, stops the recording of the generated moving image file in the ring buffer format, and ends a series of processing. If it is determined that the recording stop signal has not been acquired, the process returns to step S110 to continue a series of processes.

When proceeding to step S150, the system control unit 131 determines whether or not the magnitude of the acceleration indicated by the acceleration signal acquired from the acceleration sensor 920 is equal to or greater than the second acceleration larger than the first acceleration. The second acceleration is a threshold value set with respect to the absolute value of the acceleration, and may be arbitrarily set by the user, but a value having an absolute value larger than that of the first acceleration is set. When the acceleration is equal to or higher than the second acceleration (YES in step S150), the system control unit 131 detects the occurrence of an event and proceeds to step S140. If the acceleration is less than the second acceleration (NO in step S150), it is determined that no event has occurred and the process proceeds to step S160. When the automatic brake does not operate and an acceleration equal to or higher than the second acceleration is detected, the driver recognizes that there is an object that may collide in the traveling direction of the vehicle 900 while the vehicle 900 is traveling. This is the case when the brake is suddenly operated. In other words, the second acceleration is the acceleration caused by the driver performing a sudden braking operation before the automatic braking is activated.

The difference in magnitude between the absolute value of the first acceleration and the second acceleration will be described. The system that operates the automatic brake constantly detects an object by the object sensor 930 and operates the brake from a distance that does not collide with an object in the traveling direction of the vehicle 900 in consideration of the traveling speed of the vehicle 900. Let me. On the other hand, when the driver performs a sudden braking operation, the driver does not notice an object that may collide in the traveling direction of the vehicle 900 until the sudden braking operation is performed, and the driver does not notice and then panics. This is often the case when braking. Therefore, the acceleration due to the braking operation by the driver, which is a panic brake, has a larger absolute value than the acceleration due to the automatic braking for avoiding a collision in consideration of the distance to the object and the traveling speed in advance.

By repeating steps S110 to S160 described above, the system control unit 131 detects the occurrence of an event when the acceleration of the vehicle 900 is equal to or higher than the first acceleration when the automatic brake is operating. Further, the system control unit 131 detects the occurrence of an event when the acceleration of the vehicle 900 is equal to or higher than the second acceleration when the automatic braking is not operating. Further, when the system control unit 131 detects the occurrence of an event, the memory control unit 137 saves the video data of the surroundings of the vehicle 900 in the recording unit during the period including the time when it is determined that the event has occurred. do. By doing so, it is possible to appropriately store the video data of the situation where the driver's carelessness has occurred even if the collision does not occur.

On the other hand, when the driver performs a braking operation with an acceleration of 1st acceleration or more and less than 2nd acceleration while the automatic braking is not operating, the driver fully recognizes an object existing in the traveling direction of the vehicle 900. The brake is being operated above. Brake operation that does not hinder safe driving is not included as an event. However, when the automatic braking is performed and the braking operation is performed with an acceleration equal to or higher than the first acceleration, even if the acceleration due to the braking operation is less than the second acceleration, the driver may collide with the object. It's likely that you didn't notice it. For this reason, it is determined that an event has occurred at different accelerations for sudden braking when automatic braking is operating and when it is not operating, and by saving the video, the situation of sudden braking caused by the driver's carelessness can be checked. Can be stored properly. The length of the period of the video data saved by the memory control unit 137 is preferably set between a few seconds and a few minutes, but the time is not particularly limited, and it is a file unit or a data length unit. May be good.

Further, regardless of whether or not the automatic braking is operated, if an acceleration corresponding to a collision is detected, it may be determined that an event has occurred. The acceleration corresponding to the collision is the acceleration when the acceleration is larger than the second acceleration, that is, when the vehicle stops at a steeper slope than the stop by the brake. Conversely, the first acceleration and the second acceleration do not correspond to a collision and are accelerations due to sudden braking. The drive recorder 100 may perform this determination process before step S110.

Further, by adding the automatic brake flag 154 to the moving image file in step S130, information on whether or not the automatic brake was operating at the time of occurrence of the event can be recorded in the recording unit in association with the video data. .. That is, as the information on the running state of the vehicle 900, the information on whether or not the automatic braking is operating can be stored in association with the video data. By configuring in this way, the moving image file when the automatic brake is operating when the event occurs and the moving image file when the automatic braking is not operating when the event occurs can be saved in a distinct state. Can be done.

Further, in step S140 of the present embodiment, the system control unit 131 is a memory control unit so as to record the travel state information of the vehicle 900 in association with the video data based on the travel state signal acquired from the travel control unit 940. 137 may be controlled.
With this configuration, it is possible to record information such as the speed of the vehicle 900 at the time of event occurrence and the accelerator operation amount. Such information is useful for analyzing the cause of the event.

Alternatively, the memory control unit 137 can record information on whether or not the driver is operating the brake when an event occurs. Such information is important in analyzing the driver's reaction when an event occurs. For example, if the driver's attention is significantly lacking or if he is driving asleep, the automatic brake will not respond even if it is activated, but if the driver's carelessness is temporary, it will be automatic. When the brake is applied, the brake may be stepped on reflexively. Therefore, it is possible to measure the degree of carelessness of the driver by analyzing whether or not the driver is operating the brake when the event occurs.

Further, in step S140 of the present embodiment, the system control unit 131 does not show the moving image file of the video data in the predetermined period including the time when the event occurs, instead of copying it to the overwrite prohibited area of the memory card 150. The video file of the video data during the period including the time when the event occurs may be transmitted to another device or server via the communication control unit and the communication unit. In the present embodiment, the video data when the sudden braking is determined as an event is video data recording a state in which the driver is distracted with respect to the traveling direction. Therefore, the data can be useful information for knowing the change in the driver's attention due to the driving situation.
For example, when video data is transmitted to a device owned by the driver, the driver can grasp his / her own tendency and can be useful information for enhancing the safety of his / her driving. In addition, when video data is transmitted to the server of a business operator that employs a driver or a car insurance business operator that the driver or a business operator that employs a driver subscribes to, the situation and tendency of the driver, etc. Can be useful information for the business operator, etc. to understand. Furthermore, when video data is transmitted to a business operator that provides navigation information or map information, or to a server such as a government office that has jurisdiction over the road, the business operator or government office, etc. grasps the location information where the event is likely to occur. Can be useful information for. In this case, it is preferable that the video data is transmitted after ensuring anonymity together with the location information.

Further, as a modification of the flow described above, step S110 and step S120 may be interchanged. FIG. 5 is a flow chart showing a modified example of the control flow of the drive recorder 100.

In the modified example, as shown in FIG. 5, the system control unit 131 first proceeds to step S120 and determines whether or not the automatic braking is operating. If the automatic brake is operating (YES in step S120), the process proceeds to step S110. When the system control unit 131 proceeds to step S110, it determines whether or not the acceleration of the vehicle 900 is the first acceleration or more, and when the acceleration is the first acceleration or more (YES in step S110), the step. Proceed to S130. Other flows are the same as those shown in FIG.
Even with such a flow configuration, if the automatic brake is operating, the occurrence of an event is detected at an acceleration of the first acceleration or higher, and if the automatic brake is not operating, the event is detected at an acceleration of the second acceleration or higher. Can be detected.

[Second Embodiment]
Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described. FIG. 6 is a schematic view showing a state in which the drive recorder 200, which is an example of the recording control device according to the second embodiment, is installed in the vehicle 900. The drive recorder 200 is different from the drive recorder 100 of the first embodiment in that it includes a camera unit 210 that captures an image of the driver's seat of the vehicle 900 in addition to the camera unit 110.

The drive recorder 200 configured in this way can record the second video data of the driver's seat of the vehicle 900 in addition to the first video data of the surroundings of the vehicle 900. In particular, if the automatic braking is operating when an event occurs, it is possible that the driver was careless, so the second video data that captures the driver's seat of the vehicle 900 is used to find the cause of the event. Is useful in.

The drive recorder 200 of the present embodiment may be configured so that two memory cards 150 can be mounted on the memory IF 138. In this case, one memory card 150 may be used for the first video data, and the other memory card 150 may be used for the second video data. Of course, the memory area of one memory card 150 may be used separately for the first video data and the second video data.

FIG. 7 is a flow chart showing a control flow of the drive recorder 200. In the flow chart of FIG. 7, steps S130 and S140 in the flow chart of FIG. 4 are deleted, and steps S230, S241 and S242 are added instead. Therefore, the same reference numerals are given to the processes common to the flow chart of FIG. 4, and the description thereof will be omitted as appropriate.

If the system control unit 131 detects the operation of the automatic brake in step S120 (YES in step S120), the process proceeds to step S230.
When the system control unit 131 proceeds to step S230, the automatic brake flag 154 is added to the moving image file of the first video data and the moving image file of the second video data during the period including the time when the event occurs. Then, the process proceeds to step S241.

When the system control unit 131 proceeds to step S241, the memory control is performed so that the moving image file of the first video data and the moving image file of the second video data in a predetermined period including the time when the event occurs are copied to the overwrite-protected area. The unit 137 is controlled. That is, as the process of step S241, the system control unit 131 stores the first video data and the second video data in the recording unit in a predetermined period including the time when the event occurs. Then, the process proceeds to step S160.

If the acceleration of the vehicle 900 is equal to or higher than the second acceleration different from the first acceleration in step S150 (YES in step S150), the process proceeds to step S242.
When the system control unit 131 proceeds to step S242, the system control unit 131 controls the memory control unit 137 so as to copy the moving image file of the first video data in the predetermined period including the time when the event occurs to the overwrite-prohibited area. That is, as the process of step S140, the system control unit 131 stores the first video data in the recording unit for a predetermined period including the time when the event occurs. Then, the process proceeds to step S160.

Based on the flow described above, the drive recorder 200 can store the second video data of the driver's seat of the vehicle 900 for a predetermined period including the time when the event occurs when the automatic brake is operating. ..

If the acceleration of the vehicle 900 is equal to or higher than the second acceleration in step S150 of the present embodiment (YES in step S150), the flow configuration may proceed to step S241. In this case, the system control unit 131 copies the first video data and the second video data to the overwrite prohibited area. Therefore, even when the automatic braking is not operating, the second video data of the driver's seat of the vehicle 900 can be stored in the recording unit.

[Third Embodiment]
Next, a third embodiment of the present invention will be described. In the present embodiment, the memory control unit 137 stores video data for a predetermined period including the time when an event occurs. Further, the length of the predetermined period is longer when an event occurs when the automatic brake is operating than when an event occurs when the automatic brake is not operating.

FIG. 8 is a conceptual diagram illustrating memory control of the memory control unit 137 according to the present embodiment. FIG. 8A describes a case where the automatic brake is not operating when an event occurs.
When the system control unit 131 detects the occurrence of an event, the memory control unit 137 saves a moving image file including video data in the first period including the time when the event occurs. For example, as shown in the figure, when _{the moving image file recorded in the three memory areas X 3 to} X ₅ contains the video data in the first period including the time when the event occurs, the three memory areas X _n-2 to X _n is changed to the non-volatile buffer 153, and the moving image file is copied here as an event recording file.

FIG. 8B describes a case where the automatic brake is operating when an event occurs.
When the system control unit 131 detects the occurrence of an event, the memory control unit 137 adds the automatic brake flag 154 to the moving image file containing the video data in the second period including the time when the event occurs, and saves the file. .. For example, as shown, five memory areas X ₂ to X ₆ in the recorded moving image file, if including video data of a second period including the generation time of the event, in the memory area X ₂ to X ₆ The automatic brake flag 154 is added to the recorded video file. Then, the five memory areas X _{n-4 to} X _n are changed to the non-volatile buffer 153. Then, the moving image file is copied here as an event recording file.

In this way, the memory control unit 137 saves the video data in the first period including the time when the event occurs when the automatic brake is not operating, and when the automatic brake is operating, the time when the event occurs. The video data in the second period including is saved. By doing so, it is possible to save the video data before and after the event occurs.

By the way, the case where the acceleration of the second acceleration or more is detected in the state where the automatic brake is not operating is the case where the driver is awake but distracted by another state. In this case, the first period including the time when the event occurs is sufficient for the video data to be recorded. On the other hand, when the acceleration equal to or higher than the first acceleration is detected by the operation of the automatic brake, it is highly possible that the driver was not awakened until the automatic brake was operated. Therefore, it is required to save the situation until the automatic braking is operated for a longer time. In this case, the drive recorder 100 can appropriately record the situation before the event occurs by storing the video data of the second period longer than the first period including the time when the event occurs. Further, at this time, it is appropriate that the second period is provided so that the period before the event occurrence time is longer than the period after the event occurrence time.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, and can be appropriately modified without departing from the spirit. For example, in the above embodiment, the example of dividing the memory area 151 into the continuous ring buffer 152 and the continuous non-volatile buffer 153 has been described, but of course, it does not have to be physically continuous. Further, in the above embodiment, a mode is described in which a part of the ring buffer 152 is changed to the non-volatile buffer 153 and the target moving image file is copied to the non-volatile buffer 153, but the write control for prohibiting overwriting is this. Not limited to. For example, by setting an overwrite prohibition flag in the memory area in which the target moving image file is recorded, that area can be treated as the non-volatile buffer 153. In this case, the copying process of the moving image file can be omitted.

Further, in the above embodiment, the example in which the memory area 151 of one memory card 150 is divided into the ring buffer 152 and the non-volatile buffer 153 has been described, but the memory card 150 corresponding to each can be mounted. good. That is, the memory card 150 used as the ring buffer 152 and the memory card 150 used as the non-volatile buffer 153 may be mounted. Further, instead of using the removable memory card 150, the memory mounted on the main unit 130 may be used. Further, the memory IF 138 may be configured as a wireless IF, and the above-mentioned write control may be executed for a memory or another device that is not physically adjacent to each other.

Further, in the above embodiment, for example, a one-minute moving image file has been described as one unit of writing control, but one unit of writing control is not limited to one moving image file. For example, write control may be performed on a frame-by-frame basis. Further, the target video data is not limited to moving image data, and may be, for example, still image data taken at intervals.

For example, when write control is performed on a frame-by-frame basis, a new moving image file is generated by cutting out a file of the target period from the already generated moving image file of, for example, 1 minute, and this is used as an event recording file. It may be recorded in a non-volatile buffer. In this case, it is possible to leave a moving image file starting from the time when the event occurs. Of course, even in the case of recording in the non-volatile buffer from the time retroactive by a predetermined period from the time when the event occurs, the time retroactive by a predetermined time from this starting point can be set as the start time of the prior period. By managing the starting point in this way, regardless of the normal moving image file time, for example, a moving image file consisting of 10 seconds before the event occurs and 10 seconds after the event occurs is surely left as an event recording file. be able to.

Further, in the above embodiment, the acceleration sensor 920 is adopted as the sensor for detecting the occurrence of the event, but other sensors may be used. For example, it may be a strain sensor that detects deformation due to collision of an object, or it may be a temperature sensor that detects an abnormal temperature. Of course, a combination of a plurality of sensors may be adopted. Further, a sensor such as an acceleration sensor 920 may be incorporated in a drive recorder.

Further, in the above embodiment, each element described in the drawing as a functional block that performs various processes can be configured by a CPU, a memory, and other circuits in terms of hardware, and in terms of software, It is realized by a program loaded in the memory. Therefore, it is understood by those skilled in the art that these functional blocks can be realized in various forms by hardware only, software only, or a combination thereof, and the present invention is not limited to any of them.

In addition, the above program can be stored and supplied to a computer using various types of non-transitory computer readable medium. Non-temporary computer-readable media include various types of tangible storage media. Examples of non-temporary computer-readable media include magnetic recording media (eg, flexible disks, magnetic tapes, hard disk drives), magneto-optical recording media (eg, magneto-optical disks), CD-ROMs (Compact Disc-Read Only Memory), CDs. -R (CD-Recordable), CD-R / W (CD-ReWritable), semiconductor memory (for example, mask ROM, PROM (Programmable ROM), EPROM (Erasable PROM), flash ROM, RAM (Random Access Memory)) include. The program may also be supplied to the computer by various types of transient computer readable medium. Examples of temporary computer-readable media include electrical, optical, and electromagnetic waves. The temporary computer-readable medium can supply the program to the computer via a wired communication path such as an electric wire and an optical fiber, or a wireless communication path.

100, 200 Drive recorder 110, 210 Camera unit 112 Lens 114 Image sensor 130 Main unit 131 System control unit 132 Image input IF
133 Work memory 134 System memory 135 Image processing unit 136 Display output unit 137 Memory control unit 138 Memory IF
139 I / O IF
140 Bus line 150 Memory card 151 Memory area 152 Ring buffer 153 Non-volatile buffer 154 Automatic brake flag 160 Display unit 900 Vehicle 910 CAN
920 Accelerometer 930 Object sensor 940 Travel control unit

Claims (8)

A video data acquisition unit that acquires the first video data that captures the surroundings of the vehicle,
A vehicle information acquisition unit that acquires information on whether or not the automatic braking of the vehicle is operating by detecting an object that may collide while the vehicle is running.
When the automatic brake is operating, the occurrence of an event is detected when the magnitude of the acceleration at which the vehicle decelerates is equal to or greater than the first acceleration, and when the automatic brake is not operating, the vehicle is operating. An event detection unit that detects the occurrence of the event when the magnitude of the decelerating acceleration is greater than or equal to the second acceleration larger than the first acceleration.
The event detection unit includes a recording control unit that stores the first video data in the recording unit during a period including the time when the event occurs when the event detection unit detects the occurrence of the event.
Recording control device. The video data acquisition unit further acquires the second video data of the driver's seat of the vehicle, and further acquires the second video data.
When the automatic brake is operating, the recording control unit further stores the second video data in the recording unit during the period including the time when the event occurs.
The recording control device according to claim 1. When the automatic braking is not operating, the recording control unit records the first video data in the first period including the time when the event occurs in the recording unit, and the automatic braking is operating. Stores the first video data in the recording unit in the second period, which is a period longer than the first period including the time when the event occurs.
The recording control device according to any one of claims 1 or 2. The vehicle information acquisition unit further acquires information on the running state of the vehicle, and obtains information on the traveling state of the vehicle.
The recording control unit stores information on the traveling state of the vehicle in the recording unit in association with the first video data.
The recording control device according to any one of claims 1 to 3. The information on the running state of the vehicle includes information on whether or not the automatic braking is operating.
The recording control device according to claim 4. The information on the traveling state of the vehicle includes information on whether or not the driver of the vehicle is operating the brake.
The recording control device according to claim 4 or 5. Steps to acquire video data that captures the surroundings of the vehicle,
A step of acquiring information on whether or not the automatic braking of the vehicle is operated by detecting an object that may collide while the vehicle is running.
When the automatic brake is operating, the occurrence of an event is detected when the magnitude of the acceleration at which the vehicle decelerates is equal to or greater than the first acceleration, and when the automatic brake is not operating, the vehicle is operating. A step of detecting the occurrence of the event when the magnitude of the decelerating acceleration is greater than or equal to the second acceleration larger than the first acceleration, and
When the event is detected, the step of recording the video data in a period including the time when the event occurs is provided.
Recording control method. Steps to acquire video data that captures the surroundings of the vehicle,
A step of acquiring information on whether or not the automatic braking of the vehicle is operated by detecting an object that may collide while the vehicle is running.
When the automatic brake is operating, the occurrence of an event is detected when the magnitude of the acceleration at which the vehicle decelerates is equal to or greater than the first acceleration, and when the automatic brake is not operating, the vehicle is operating. A step of detecting the occurrence of the event when the magnitude of the decelerating acceleration is greater than or equal to the second acceleration larger than the first acceleration, and
When the event is detected, the computer is made to perform a step of recording the video data in a period including the time when the event occurs.
Recording control program.

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