JPH10310088A - Accident recorder for vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To use contents recorded in a recording means when a traffic accident occurs as an evidence by providing an image pickup means performing an image pickup for an object at the outside of the own vehicle and the recording means recording an image for which the image pickup is performed. SOLUTION: When an engine revolves, a CPU automatically drives each CCD camera 5 to 8 by a signal from a distributer. Image pickups are performed for objects (other persons or other objects) at the outside of the own vehicle of the front forward direction, a left side forward direction and a right side forward direction by CCD cameras 5 to 7 provided, so as to correspond to the appoint of a driver 2, the image pickups are recorded in an IC memory via the CPU by being made into data. An image pickup is performed for an object in the rear of the own vehicle by a CCD camera 8 for coping with a rear-end collision and the image pickup is recorded in the IC memory in the same way. If a traffic accident should occur, the driving condition when the accident occurs can be relatively judged by the relative location change with the object by reproducing recording contents and recording contents can be used a sufficient evidence.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a vehicular accident recording apparatus which takes an image of an object (a person or another vehicle) in front of a vehicle and uses it as evidence when a traffic accident occurs.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, when a traffic accident such as an object accident such as a collision, a rear-end collision, or a collision with another vehicle or a personal accident has occurred, the statements between the parties concerned are different from each other, which causes a problem. There was a point. For this reason, conventionally, an image of an object ahead of the own vehicle can be taken and used as evidence to prove, for example, at which position the brake was operated and how the steering was operated in the event of a traffic accident. It is desired to develop a recording device that can do this, but it has not yet been put to practical use.

[0003]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image pickup means for picking up an image of an object (such as a person or another vehicle) outside the own vehicle, and recording the image picked up (recorded as a video). And a recording means for recording the data as data) to provide a vehicle accident recording device that can use the contents recorded in the recording means as evidence when a traffic accident occurs. And

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in addition to the object of the first aspect of the present invention, imaging is performed at respective positions for imaging the front front, the left front, and the right front corresponding to the driver's eye point. By providing the means, 3
The purpose of the present invention is to provide a vehicular accident recording device that can record the images of the vehicle and can relatively judge the driving situation of the vehicle at the time of the occurrence of an accident such as braking, steering operation, etc., and can use the recorded contents as sufficient evidence. I do.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in addition to the object of the first or second aspect of the present invention, by providing the above-mentioned image pickup means on the roof side of the vehicle, water droplets, an oil film, and a window glass are provided. It is an object of the present invention to provide a vehicular accident recording device capable of capturing a clear image as much as possible under the influence of fogging, reflected light and the like.

[0006]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a vehicle accident recording apparatus for dealing with a traffic accident, comprising at least one image pickup means for picking up an object outside the vehicle. And a recording means for recording an image captured by the imaging means.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in addition to the configuration of the first aspect of the present invention, the image pickup means is provided so as to correspond to an eye point of a driver, a front front image pickup position, a left front image pickup position, and a right image pickup position. It is a vehicular accident recording device arranged at a front imaging position.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in addition to the configuration of the first or second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a vehicle accident recording apparatus in which the imaging means is provided on a roof side of a vehicle. And

[0009]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, the above-mentioned image pickup means takes an image of an object outside the vehicle, and the above-mentioned recording means records an image taken by the image pickup means. . Therefore, when a traffic accident occurs, there is an effect that the contents (video data) recorded in the recording means can be used as evidence.

According to the second aspect of the present invention,
In addition to the effect of the first aspect of the present invention, since the imaging means arranged at each position corresponding to the driver's eye point images front front, left front, and right front, three directions viewed from the driver. Of the vehicle can be recorded in the recording means, which makes it possible to relatively judge the driving condition of the vehicle at the time of occurrence of an accident such as braking, steering operation, etc., and to use the recorded contents as sufficient evidence. is there.

According to the third aspect of the present invention,
In addition to the effects of the first or second aspect of the present invention, the above-described image pickup means is provided on the roof side of the vehicle, and the object is directly imaged without passing through a window glass such as a front window or a side window. It is possible to capture as clear an image as possible without being affected by water droplets, oil film, fogging of window glass, reflected light and the like.

[0012]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. The drawings show a vehicle accident recording device, and are shown in FIGS.
In the vehicle accident recording device for dealing with traffic accident processing, a position where an image of the front front is taken on the roof 4 side of the vehicle 3 and a position of the left front are taken in correspondence with the eye point of the driver 2 sitting on the driver's seat 1. CCD cameras 5, 6, 7, and 8 (imaging means) are mounted so as to be directed to an imaging position, a right front imaging position, and a rear imaging position, respectively.

Here, the above-mentioned CCD cameras 5 to 8 (CC
D means a charge-coupled device) using a 310,000-pixel CCD camera or a 810,000-pixel CCD camera to secure an imaging range of a predetermined wide angle θ as shown in FIG.

The CCD camera 5 has a closed section 11 between a roof panel 9 and a front header 10 joined to a lower front portion of the roof panel 9 as shown in FIG.
It is installed by making effective use of. That is, closed section 1
1, a mounting hole 12 is formed in the roof panel 9 corresponding to
The CCD camera 5 is attached to the attachment hole 12 via an insulator 13 (an insulating member such as rubber), and the CCD camera 5 is configured to take an image of the front front.

The above-mentioned CCD camera 5 may be provided with a hood 14 as shown by a virtual line in FIG. 3 for the purpose of preventing disturbance light from entering and rainwater from adhering. In FIG. 3, 15 is a front window glass, and 16 is a glass mount member. CCD cameras 6 to 8 other than the CCD camera 5
3 is provided on the roof 4 side in substantially the same configuration as that of FIG. 3 and a hood may be provided in the same manner as described above.

FIG. 4 shows a control circuit of the vehicular accident recording apparatus. The CPU 20 reads out a ROM based on a signal from the operation unit 17 and an engine speed Ne from the distributor 18.
In accordance with a program stored in the RAM 19, the CCD cameras 5 to 8 and the IC memory 22 are driven and controlled.
Stores necessary data. The illustration of the input / output interface is omitted.

The CPU 20 automatically drives the CCD cameras 5 to 8 when the engine rotates (can be set to a predetermined rotation speed such as an idle rotation speed) based on an input from the distributor 18, and the CCD cameras 5 to 8 are automatically driven. 5
8 are signal-amplified and A / D-converted, and the IC memory 22 (recording means) together with date and time data (output from a timer with a built-in CPU) so as to obtain four divided screens A5 to A8 shown in FIG. ) And the recording control is automatically stopped when the engine stops.

Here, the divided screen A5 corresponds to a reproduction screen of an image picked up by the CCD camera 5, and the divided screen A6 corresponds to C
The divided screens A7 and A8 correspond to the reproduction screens based on the CCD cameras 7 and 8, similarly, corresponding to the reproduction screen of an image captured by the CD camera 6.

A vehicle speed sensor may be used in place of the distributor 18, and the recording may be automatically executed when the vehicle speed reaches a predetermined value. The recording control for the IC memory 22 may be executed only during the running of the vehicle including the temporary stop.

The operation unit 17 is a data updateable 1
This is an input operation unit for updating and recording an image of the current traveling (in this case, digitized image data) in a recording area of the previous traveling by a driver's manual operation in order to use the two memories 22 for a long period of time. . Instead of the manual operation of the operation unit 17, a configuration may be adopted in which update recording can be automatically performed when an ignition key (engine key) is inserted or removed. In other words, the ignition
A switch may be provided so as to be turned on when the key is inserted and turned off when the key is removed, and the switching from ON to OFF may be read to enable update recording. Note that, instead of the IC memory 22, another recording means such as a MEM (large capacity recording device) or a floppy disk (so-called FD) may be used.

The operation of the thus constructed vehicle accident recording device will be described below. When the engine rotates, the CPU 20 controls each CCD according to a signal from the distributor 18.
The cameras 5 to 8 are automatically driven, and the CCD cameras 5 to 7 provided so as to correspond to the eye points of the driver 2, the front objects, the left front objects, and the right front objects outside the own vehicle (other persons and persons). Or another object), and converts the image into data in the IC memory 22 via the CPU 20 and records the image. The CCD camera 8 for rear-collision captures an image of an object behind the host vehicle. To record.

For this reason, in the event of a traffic accident, the contents recorded in the IC memory 22 are reproduced so that the driving situation at the time of the occurrence of the accident, such as braking or steering operation, can be determined by the relative position with respect to the object. The relative judgment can be made based on the change, and the recorded contents can be used as sufficient evidence.

In addition, since the above-mentioned CCD cameras 5 to 8 are provided on the roof 4 side of the vehicle 3, an object can be directly imaged without passing through a window glass such as a front window or a side window, and adheres to the window glass. There is an effect that a sharpest possible image can be captured without being affected by water droplets, oil film, fogging of window glass, reflected light, and the like. In addition, each element 17, 19, 20, 21, shown in FIG.
Needless to say, the unit 22 is mounted as a unit on the vehicle 3.

FIG. 6 shows another embodiment of the vehicle accident recording apparatus.
VTR cameras 25 to 28 are used in place of 8. These VTR cameras 25 to 28 are mounted on the roof 4 side of the vehicle 3 similarly to the CCDs 5 to 8 (see FIG. 1).

The output lines of the VTR cameras 25 to 28 described above are connected to a camera mixer 29 so that the four divided screens A5 to A8 shown in FIG. Are connected to a VTR 30 (video tape recorder). Here, the above-mentioned split screen A5 corresponds to the playback screen of the video imaged by the VTR camera 25, and similarly, the screens A6, A7, and A8 are VT
This corresponds to a playback screen based on the R cameras 26, 27, 28. Further, the CPU 20 determines R based on a signal from the operation unit 17 and an engine speed Ne from the distributor 18.
The VTR 30 and the like are driven and controlled according to the program stored in the OM 19, and the RAM 21 stores necessary data.

When the engine rotates based on the input from the distributor 18, the CPU 20 operates the VTR camera 2.
The VTR 30 is driven in a recording mode in order to automatically record the images picked up at 5-28 via the camera mixer 29, and the date and time data are simultaneously recorded by an output from a CPU built-in timer. Stop recording control at In this case, assuming that the predetermined number of times of the engine such as the idling speed is N ₀ , it is also possible to perform control to start imaging and recording when Ne = N ₀ and stop recording when Ne = 0.

The operation unit 17 is an input operation unit for updating and recording the image of the current driving in the recording area of the previous driving by a driver's manual operation in order to use one VTR tape for a long period of time. VT at ON operation
The R tape is automatically rewound and stopped automatically.

Even in such a configuration, the VTR cameras 25, 26 and 27 provided so as to correspond to the eye points of the driver 2 similarly to the previous embodiment, the front front, left front and right front outer sides of the vehicle. Of the subject, the video is recorded on the tape of the VTR 30 via the camera mixer 29, and the subject behind the vehicle is captured by the VTR camera 28 for rear collision, and similarly recorded on the VTR tape.

Therefore, when a traffic accident occurs, the contents recorded on the VTR tape are reproduced to relatively judge the driving condition of the vehicle 3 at the time of the occurrence of an accident such as braking and steering operation. Yes, and the recorded content can be used as sufficient evidence.

In short, the above-described image pickup means (see the CCD camera 5 and the VTR camera 25) is the own vehicle (see the vehicle 3).
An image of an external object is taken, and the above-mentioned recording means (IC memory 2
2, VTR tape) records an image captured by the imaging means. Therefore, when a traffic accident occurs, the recording means (I
There is an effect that the contents (video data) recorded in the C memory 22 and the VTR tape can be used as evidence.

Further, imaging means (CCD cameras 5, 6, 6) arranged at each position corresponding to the eye point of the driver 2
7, VTR cameras 25, 26, 27)
Since the left front and right front are imaged, images corresponding to three directions visible to the driver 2 are recorded by the recording means (IC memory 2).
2, VTR tape), so that the vehicle 3 in the event of an accident such as braking, steering wheel operation, etc.
This makes it possible to relatively judge the driving situation of the vehicle and to use the recorded contents as sufficient evidence.

Further, the above-mentioned image pickup means (CCD camera,
A VTR camera is provided on the roof 4 side of the vehicle 3 and images an object directly without passing through a window glass such as a front window or a side window, so that water droplets, oil films, fogging and reflection of the window glass adhere to the window glass. There is an effect that a sharpest image can be captured without being affected by light or the like at all.

In the correspondence between the configuration of the present invention and the above-described embodiment, the image pickup means of the present invention corresponds to at least one of the CCD cameras 5 to 8 and the VTR cameras 25 to 28 of the embodiment. The recording means is an IC memory 22, a VT
Although the present invention corresponds to a tape for R30, the present invention is not limited to only the configuration of the above-described embodiment.

For example, in the above embodiment, the vehicle is 3
Although a box-type passenger car is illustrated, this may be a one-box type, a two-box type car, or another vehicle such as a bus or truck. The recording means is a floppy disk instead of the illustrated IC memory and VTR tape. , A magneto-optical disk, or a hard disk.

Further, imaging and recording are started simultaneously with insertion of an ignition key (engine key), imaging and recording are stopped (stopped) simultaneously with removal of the ignition key, and update recording is possible in preparation for the next run. The configuration may be such that

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing a vehicle accident recording device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing the vehicle accident recording device of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view showing a mounting structure of the CCD camera.

FIG. 4 is a control circuit block diagram of the vehicle accident recording device.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing a divided screen configuration during reproduction.

FIG. 6 is a control circuit block diagram showing another embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 4 Roof 5-8 CCD camera 22 IC memory 25-28 VTR camera

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A vehicle accident recording device for dealing with a traffic accident processing, comprising: at least one image pickup means for picking up an image of an object outside of the vehicle; and a recording means for recording an image picked up by the image pickup means. Vehicle accident recording device equipped with 2. An accident recording apparatus for a vehicle according to claim 1, wherein said imaging means is disposed at a front front imaging position, a left front imaging position, and a right front imaging position corresponding to an eye point of a driver. 3. The vehicle accident recording device according to claim 1, wherein said imaging means is provided on a roof side of the vehicle.