JP7226394B2 - Recording device and recording method - Google Patents

Description

The present disclosure relates to a recording device that controls storage of video data captured by a camera.

As data is repeatedly written to and deleted from a storage medium such as an SD card (registered trademark), fine empty areas gradually increase in the storage area. Then, when a large file is saved, it is divided little by little and stored intermittently across a plurality of areas, resulting in a fragmented file. As a result, performance degradation such as a decrease in data write/read speed occurs.

A recording device such as a drive recorder in which data is frequently stored has a problem that fragmentation is likely to occur. In Patent Document 1 below, by dividing the storage area of a memory card and securing a plurality of areas for recording video data, it is possible to suppress the need to secure a writing area each time data is written, thereby preventing fragmentation. Techniques have been proposed to suppress the

JP 2017-134526 A

The technique of Patent Document 1 avoids fragmentation by preparing a video recording file in advance and overwriting a data area in which the file is stored. However, as a result of detailed examination by the inventor, in the technique of Patent Document 1, when a user manually deletes a data file on a memory card using an external device such as a PC, the data area prepared in advance by the drive recorder is deleted. become unable to recognize As a result, a problem was found that the area that can be used for storing video data is reduced.

One aspect of the present disclosure provides a technology capable of suppressing decrease in a pre-allocated storage area even if files are manually deleted by a user.

One aspect of the present disclosure is a recording device (1) that stores video data in a storage area configured in a storage medium (3), comprising a storage control unit (41), a determination unit (42), a generation a part (43); The storage control unit is configured to store a video file by overwriting a plurality of recording files stored in each of the plurality of predetermined data areas with the video file containing the video data. The determination unit is configured to refer to address information indicating positions of the plurality of data areas in the storage area and determine whether or not the recording file exists in each of the plurality of data areas. The generation unit is configured to generate and store a new recording file in the data area determined by the determination unit that the recording file does not exist.

According to such a configuration, when a recording file does not exist in any one or more data areas, a recording file is generated and stored in that data area. That is, the recording file reserves a storage area for storing the video file. For example, even if a recording file has been deleted by the user using an external personal computer or the like, a new recording file is generated in the one or more data areas. It becomes possible to store video files. Therefore, it is possible to prevent the storage area allocated in advance for storing the video file from decreasing.

In the recording device described above, the recording file may include a video file representing video data and a dummy file generated by the generation unit. According to such a configuration, the video file can be stored in the data area where the video file or the dummy file exists.

Another aspect of the present disclosure is a recording method for storing video data in a storage area configured in a storage medium (3), wherein address information indicating the position of each of a plurality of predetermined data areas in the storage area is By referring to it, it is determined whether or not a recording file exists in each of the plurality of data areas. A new recording file is generated and stored in the data area in which it is determined that no recording file exists. A video file is stored by overwriting a plurality of recording files stored in each of a plurality of data areas with a video file containing video data.

According to such a method, as in the recording apparatus of one aspect of the present disclosure described above, even if the recording file has been deleted, a new recording file is generated and stored. It is possible to suppress the decrease in the storage area pre-allocated to the .

1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a drive recorder; FIG. FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining an overview of storage control of video files; FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining division of a storage area; It is an example of a file management table. 9 is a flowchart of data area allocation processing;

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present disclosure will be described with reference to the drawings.
[1. embodiment]
[1-1. composition]
A drive recorder 1 shown in FIG. 1 is a device that stores video data captured by a camera in a storage area configured in a memory card 3 . This drive recorder 1 corresponds to a recording device. The memory card 3 is a storage device configured to be detachable from the drive recorder 1, and may contain, for example, a flash memory.

The drive recorder 1 has a control section 11 . The drive recorder 1 also includes a memory card interface 12, a G sensor 21, a GPS (Global Positioning System) receiver 22, a camera 23, a volatile memory 24, a nonvolatile memory 25, a display 26, an LED lamp 27, a speaker 28, a microphone 29 and an operation button 30 may be provided.

The control unit 11 performs overall control of the drive recorder 1 . The control unit 11 includes a microcomputer having a CPU 11a and a semiconductor memory such as RAM or ROM (hereinafter referred to as memory 11b). Each function of the control unit 11 is realized by the CPU 11a executing a program stored in a non-transitional substantive storage medium. In this example, the memory 11b corresponds to a non-transitional substantive storage medium storing programs. Also, by executing this program, a method corresponding to the program is executed. The CPU 11a may have one microcomputer, or may have a plurality of microcomputers. The details of the control by the control unit 11 will be described later.

The memory card interface 12 has an integrated circuit for controlling the memory card 3 inserted in the memory card slot 12a. Through the memory card interface 12, the control unit 11 writes data to the memory card 3, reads data from the memory card 3, formats the memory card 3, and the like.

The G sensor 21 detects an external impact on the vehicle on which the drive recorder 1 is mounted. The G sensor 21 outputs an impact detection signal when an external impact of a predetermined size or more is detected. The impact detection signal output by the G sensor 21 is sent to the control section 11 .

The GPS receiver 22 receives GPS signals from GPS satellites. A GPS signal received by the GPS receiver 22 is sent to the control unit 11 . The control unit 11 acquires the current position and current time of the vehicle based on the GPS signal.

The camera 23 photographs the surroundings of the drive recorder 1. - 特許庁Data of the image captured by the camera 23 is sent to the control unit 11 .
The volatile memory 24 is a cache memory that temporarily stores video data captured by the camera 23 . The nonvolatile memory 25 stores address information, which will be described later.

The display 26 displays an image captured by the camera 23, a setting screen of the drive recorder 1, a notification image indicating a guide or an alarm, and the like. The LED lamp 27 emits, for example, red light that indicates a guide or alarm. The speaker 28 outputs a notification sound indicating a guide, an alarm, or the like, and an operation sound of the operation button 30 . A microphone 29 collects the sound inside the vehicle in which the drive recorder 1 is mounted. The operation button 30 is one or more buttons for the user to operate the drive recorder 1 .

The control unit 11 includes a storage control unit 41, a determination unit 42, and a generation unit 43 as functional units executed by programs.
The storage control unit 41 stores a video file containing video data in a storage area configured in the memory card 3 . The outline of the video file storage control by the storage control unit 41 will be described with reference to FIG.

Of the storage areas configured in the memory card 3, the video storage area 61 for storing video files is divided in advance into N data areas (that is, areas R ₁ , R ₂ . . . _RN in FIG. 2). It is These multiple regions are simply referred to as region R when not distinguished. The video data acquired from the camera 23 and the audio data collected from the microphone 29 are sequentially stored in the area R described above as video files. One video file has a size smaller than the size of the area R, and may be, for example, a file of a predetermined file size or a file containing video data of a predetermined shooting time.

This area R stores a recording file. A recording file may include a video file and a dummy file. In other words, the recording file may be either a video file or a dummy file. A dummy file is a file generated by the generation unit 43 . A video file to be newly stored is stored in the area R by overwriting the recording file. The order of areas R in which new video files are stored is predetermined. For example, the i-th video file may be overwritten and stored in the area _Ri in order of shooting time. Specifically, the first generated file is stored in area _R1 , the second generated file is stored in area _R2 , and the Nth generated file is stored in area _RN. stored in Files generated after the N+1th file are overwritten in order from the area R where the old file is stored. That is, the N+1th generated file is stored in the area _R1 , and the N+2th generated file is stored in the area _R2 .

In this manner, the storage control unit 41 overwrites the plurality of recording files stored in each of the predetermined plurality of data areas with the video file containing the newly acquired video data. In other words, the storage control unit 41 stores the newly acquired video file in the memory card 3 by overwriting the video file captured in the past and the dummy file generated by the generation unit 43 .

The storage control unit 41 may, for example, always store the image captured by the camera 23 in the memory card 3, or store the image before and after the event including the image at the time of the event triggered by the impact detection signal output by the G sensor 21. image may be stored. Further, the control unit 11 may measure the current position of the vehicle equipped with the drive recorder 1 based on the signal from the GPS receiver 22, and then add the position information to the created video data.

The determination unit 42 is configured to determine whether or not the recording file described above exists in each of the plurality of data areas. The determination unit 42 acquires the position of the recording file, that is, the positions of the plurality of data areas in the storage area of the memory card 3 by referring to the address information. Details of the address information will be described later.

The generation unit 43 is configured to newly generate and store a dummy file, which is one of the recording files, in the data area determined by the determination unit 42 that no recording file exists. The dummy file may have an extension of ".tmp", for example, so that it can be distinguished from the video file. Also, the dummy file may be a newly rewritten file. That is, the newly created data is stored so as to erase the contents of the previously stored file.

After the dummy file is created at the time of initial setting, the area R usually stores the video file. A case where the recording file does not exist is, for example, a case where the user has manually deleted the video file.

[1-2. process]
<Initial setting process>
In the initial setting, the control section 11 formats the memory card 3 as follows. The initialization is started, for example, when the drive recorder 1 is activated with the memory card 3 used for the first time in the drive recorder 1 inserted in the memory card slot 12a.

First, the CPU 11a divides the video storage area 61 formed in the memory card 3 into a plurality of data areas, as shown in FIG. For example, it may be divided into N data areas from area _R1 to area _RN . Note that the data area here means a group of areas such as continuous clusters that are not separated from each other. A file system used in the memory card 3 is not particularly limited. The start position of each data area _Ri is "startAddress data area Ri", and the end position thereof is "endAddress data area Ri". Recording files are stored in the divided data areas. For example, a dummy file is generated and stored in the data area.

For each data area _Ri , information on the start position and end position is address information indicating the position of the data area. The address information obtained by the division described above is stored as a file management table. Note that the address information may be stored by a method other than the file management table.

An example of the file management table shown in FIG. 4 stores information on file names, start positions, and end positions. For example, the file name may be set as "recording file i" for the file stored in area _Ri . That is, the start positions and end positions of a plurality of data areas are stored in association with the file names of the recording files stored in the data areas. Here, an extension such as ".avi" or ".tmp" may be added to the file name. By adding an extension in this way, it is possible to determine whether the file is a video file or a dummy file by the extension.

As for the start position and the end position, if the position of the data area can be specified, it is not necessary to store both the start position and the end position in each data area. For example, when data area _Ri and data area Ri ₊₁ are arranged consecutively, "endAddress data area Ri" can be specified from "startAddress data area R(i+1)" and can be omitted.

The storage destination of the file management table may be the non-volatile memory 25 or an area other than the video storage area 61 allocated to the video file among the storage areas of the memory card 3 . In this embodiment, as an example, both are stored.

<Startup processing>
Next, data area allocation processing executed by the CPU 11a will be described using the flowchart of FIG.

First, in S1, the CPU 11a starts a processing loop of S2 to S5, which will be described later. The loop is executed until the variable i, which has an initial value of 1, reaches the final value of N. The variable i is incremented by 1 each time S5 ends.

In S2, the CPU 11a acquires information on the start position and end position of the recording file i from the file management table.
In S3, the CPU 11a acquires the state of the file in the data area (that is, area R _i ) from the start position to the end position of the recording file i acquired in S2.

In S4, the CPU 11a determines whether or not the file exists. For example, it is determined whether or not "recording file i" is stored in area _Ri . If the file exists, the process proceeds to S6. On the other hand, if it is determined in S4 that the file does not exist, the process proceeds to S5. A case where the corresponding file does not exist is, for example, a case where the user connects the memory card 3 to another computer or the like and deletes one or more recording files. For example, when the operation button 30 is used to delete the video file as a function of the drive recorder 1, a dummy file may be generated at the same time.

In S5, the CPU 11a creates a dummy file in the data area _Ri from the start position to the end position of the recording file i. For example, a dummy file may be created with an extension indicating that it is a file other than a video file, such as "recording file i.tmp". In this embodiment, the dummy file is created after actually rewriting the information stored in the area _Ri . After S6, the process proceeds to S6.

In S6, if i<N, 1 is added to i and the process returns to S2. Also, in S6, if i=N, that is, if the recording file i exists in all the areas i, this processing ends.

[1-3. effect]
According to the embodiment detailed above, the following effects are obtained.
(1a) The drive recorder 1 is configured to store a video file by overwriting the area _Ri where the video file or dummy file exists. Also, it is determined whether or not those files (that is, recording files) exist in a plurality of areas _Ri . If the recording file does not exist in the area _Ri , a dummy file is generated and stored in the area _Ri . Therefore, even if the video file has been deleted by the user, by generating a dummy file based on the address information, the video file can be stored in the data area in which the file was stored. Thus, in the drive recorder 1, even if the recording file is lost, the data area can be used for storing the video file, so the area allocated in advance for storing the video file is reduced. It can be suppressed.

(1b) The drive recorder 1 creates a dummy file that is not a video file as a recording file. Therefore, it is possible to prevent the file deleted by the user from becoming available for viewing again. The dummy file is created by newly rewriting the data stored in the data area. Therefore, it is possible to suppress the viewing of the deleted video file to a higher degree.

(1c) In the drive recorder 1, both the memory card 3 and the nonvolatile memory 25 store file management tables indicating address information. Therefore, even if one of the file management tables is lost, it can operate without problems. Further, the address information stored in the memory card 3 and the nonvolatile memory 25 are synchronized when the drive recorder 1 is started or when the memory card 3 is replaced, so that the pace of synchronization of the memory card 3 can be reduced. , the processing load of the control unit 11 can be reduced.

[2. Other embodiments]
Although the embodiments of the present disclosure have been described above, the present disclosure is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various modifications can be made.

(2a) In the above embodiment, the configuration in which the file management table including the address information is stored in both the memory card 3 and the nonvolatile memory 25 was exemplified, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the address information may be stored only in the nonvolatile memory 25 . With this configuration, the memory inside the drive recorder 1 has a high access speed, resulting in a high processing speed when updating the address information. Also, the rewriting load of the memory card 3 can be reduced. Alternatively, for example, the address information may be stored only in the memory card 3 . With this configuration, the drive recorder 1 does not need to hold information for identifying the memory card 3 . Address information may also be stored in the cloud.

(2b) If a file other than the recording file is found in S3 of FIG. 2, for example, the data area may be configured not to be used for storing the video file.
(2c) In S5 of FIG. 2, a configuration for generating and storing a dummy file is exemplified. However, the file stored in the data area in S5 is not particularly limited as long as it is a file of the type set as the recording file and is a file other than the video file.

(2d) The specific configuration of the dummy file is not particularly limited. A dummy file may be a file that does not contain any special information. In addition, when a dummy file is generated and stored in the deleted data area, the data may not be rewritten. In other words, the configuration may be such that a dummy file is generated in a state where there is a possibility that the deleted file can be restored.

(2e) Control unit 11 and techniques described in this disclosure may be provided by configuring a processor and memory programmed to perform one or more functions embodied by a computer program. It may be implemented by a computer. Alternatively, the controller 11 and techniques described in this disclosure may be implemented by a dedicated computer provided by configuring the processor with one or more dedicated hardware logic circuits. Alternatively, the control unit 11 and techniques described in this disclosure are a combination of a processor and memory programmed to perform one or more functions and a processor configured by one or more hardware logic circuits. may be implemented by one or more dedicated computers configured by Computer programs may also be stored as computer-executed instructions on a computer-readable non-transitional tangible storage medium.

(2f) A plurality of functions possessed by one component in the above embodiment may be realized by a plurality of components, or a function possessed by one component may be realized by a plurality of components. . Also, a plurality of functions possessed by a plurality of components may be realized by a single component, or a function realized by a plurality of components may be realized by a single component. Also, part of the configuration of the above embodiment may be omitted. Moreover, at least part of the configuration of the above embodiment may be added or replaced with respect to the configuration of the other above embodiment.

(2g) In addition to the drive recorder 1 described above, a system having the control unit 11 as a component, a program for causing a computer to function as the control unit 11, a non-transitional physical storage medium such as a semiconductor memory storing this program, The present disclosure can also be implemented in various forms such as a recording control method.

1 -- drive recorder, 3 -- memory card, 41 -- memory control section, 42 -- determination section, 43 -- generation section.

Claims (8)

A recording device (1) for storing video data in a storage area configured in a storage medium (3),
a storage control unit (41) configured to store a video file by overwriting a plurality of recording files stored in each of a plurality of predetermined data areas with a video file containing the video data;
A determination unit (42) configured to refer to address information indicating positions of the plurality of data areas in the storage area and determine whether or not the recording file exists in each of the plurality of data areas. and,
A recording device comprising: a generation unit (43) configured to generate and store a new recording file in the data area determined by the determination unit that the recording file does not exist. The recording device according to claim 1,
The recording device, wherein the generation unit generates a file other than a video file as the recording file. The recording device according to claim 2,
The recording device, wherein the generation unit generates a newly rewritten file as the recording file. The recording device according to any one of claims 1 to 3,
The recording device, wherein the address information is stored in the storage medium or a non-volatile memory of the recording device. The recording device according to claim 4,
The recording device, wherein the address information is stored in the storage medium and a non-volatile memory of the recording device. The recording device according to any one of claims 1 to 5,
The recording apparatus stores the address information by associating start positions and end positions of the plurality of data areas with file names of the recording files stored in the data areas. The recording device according to any one of claims 1 to 6,
The recording device, wherein the recording file includes a video file representing video data and a dummy file generated by the generation unit. A recording method for storing video data in a storage area configured in a storage medium (3),
determining whether or not a recording file exists in each of the plurality of data areas by referring to address information indicating the position of each of the plurality of predetermined data areas in the storage area;
generating and storing a new recording file in the data area where it is determined that the recording file does not exist;
A video recording method, comprising: storing a video file by overwriting a video file containing video data in the plurality of recording files stored in each of the plurality of data areas.

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