173results about "External collision fittings" patented technology

The system described in this invention can be used for monitoring and analyzing real time visual and non-visual information pertaining to the occupant, vehicle, and surroundings prior to, during and post eccentric operating conditions for a given period of time. The system stores vehicle and occupant data from sensors throughout the vehicle and also makes use of existing vehicle sensors that may already be present in the vehicle. The invention also includes a video recording module that makes use of a fish-eye camera to capture video from the inside and the outside of the vehicle. Real-time data analysis is performed to detect and to recognize vehicle occupants, and recognize impending eccentric events. Vehicle, occupant, and video data are stored in circular buffers. When an eccentric event, a collision for example, has been detected, the device continues to record data and video for a fixed period of time. Once this time has elapsed, the data is transferred from volatile to non-volatile memory for later retrieval. A computer may be used to retrieve and display the vehicle and occupant data in a synchronization with the video data for the purposes of accident recreation, driver or vehicle monitoring.

The system described in this invention can be used for monitoring and analyzing real time visual and non-visual information pertaining to the occupant, vehicle, and surroundings prior to, during and post eccentric operating conditions for a given period of time. The system stores vehicle and occupant data from sensors throughout the vehicle and also makes use of existing vehicle sensors that may already be present in the vehicle. The invention also includes a video recording module that makes use of a fish-eye camera to capture video from the inside and the outside of the vehicle. Real-time data analysis is performed to detect and to recognize vehicle occupants, and recognize impending eccentric events. Vehicle, occupant, and video data are stored in circular buffers. When an eccentric event, a collision for example, has been detected, the device continues to record data and video for a fixed period of time. Once this time has elapsed, the data is transferred from volatile to non-volatile memory for later retrieval. A computer may be used to retrieve and display the vehicle and occupant data in a synchronization with the video data for the purposes of accident recreation, driver or vehicle monitoring.

A vehicle includes a communication unit including an antenna array having a plurality of antenna elements for transmitting and receiving a signal and a beamformer for forming a beam pattern focused in a specific direction by adjusting a phase of the signal transmitted from the plurality of antenna elements, and a controller for controlling the communication unit to transmit a request signal of accident associated information by focusing the beam pattern onto a peripheral vehicle.

A vehicular data recording apparatus records running data regarding a vehicle into a memory in an overwrite manner when the running data needs to be recorded. If the vehicle enters an abnormal state, such as a crash or the like, the apparatus prevents the recording, and retains the running data recorded up to that moment in the memory. The apparatus determines whether the vehicle is in the abnormal state, for example, on the basis of a determination as to whether the vehicle has entered a stopped state within a predetermined time Tc following a time point at which the absolute value of a longitudinal acceleration Gx of the vehicle becomes equal to or greater than a reference value Gx1 and / or a time point at which the absolute value of a lateral acceleration Gy becomes equal to or greater than a reference value Gy1. Alternatively, or in addition, the vehicle is determined to be in an abnormal state based on a determination as to whether the vehicle is in the stopped state and the absolute value of the longitudinal acceleration Gx is equal to or greater than a reference value Gx2, and / or the absolute value of the lateral acceleration Gy is equal to or greater than a reference value Gy2.

In an automobile drive recorder, if a detection signal indicating an occurrence of an abnormal driving state is output by an abnormal state detection sensor, image data of a scene taken by a monitoring camera is recorded for a period with a particular length together with additional information associated with the driving state into a record memory as drive record data. The automobile drive recorder includes a magnetic sensor serving as the abnormal state detection sensor adapted to detect a magnetic field in a close region around the automobile, approaching vehicle detection means for detecting an abnormally approaching vehicle by detecting a change at a rate greater than a predetermined value in the signal level of the detection signal output by the magnetic sensor, and frame rate switching means for controlling the frame rate at which to record the image data.

A vehicle behavior analysis system performs an analysis of vehicle operation by displaying behavior data in an organized and analyzed form. A vehicle behavior data collecting unit records information on the vehicle's driving as behavior data and an analysis unit analyzes a recorded content of the vehicle behavior data collecting unit. A recorded data unit obtaining part obtains the recorded data units recorded in a memory of the vehicle behavior data collecting unit and a displaying part displays the content concerning at least a predetermined item among the contents shown by obtained each recorded data unit in a form of a table sectioned for each recorded data units and arranged at a side of the analysis unit, and a risk degree calculated based on the content shown by each recorded data units is contained in the predetermined item displayed by the displaying part.

Provided are a vehicular image processing apparatus and a method of sharing data using the same that may verify a driving route of a vehicle or detect and share a location of a vehicle by analyzing recorded images of the image processing apparatus, for example, a black box, thereby increasing data usage and utilization.

A drive recorder 1 comprises a volatile memory 15, a nonvolatile memory 16, an image collection unit 111 that stores in real-time image data into the volatile memory 15, an acceleration collection unit 112, a sound collection unit 113 that stores in real-time sound data into the volatile memory 15, an acceleration comparison unit 114 that determines in real-time whether the acceleration exceeds a threshold value, a sound recognition unit 115 that determines if the sound data includes an accident sound which is a distinctive sound that is generated at an accident, by performing sound recognition on sound data when the acceleration exceeds the threshold value, and a data transcribe unit 116 that transcribes image data stored in the volatile memory 15 into the nonvolatile memory 16 when it is determined that the accident sound is included in the sound data.

An automatic emergency response system is operable to notify an emergency center of a defined event, such as a vehicle accident. The system facilitates location of the event, by using position determining means, such as GSP, to establish its at least approximate location. A control circuit includes code generating means to generate a coded signal incorporating the position location information. An alarm signal transmitter is operable on occurrence of the defined event to transmit an alarm signal incorporating the coded signal to a receiving station, which may be a satellite, which relays the message to the emergency center, including the positional information relating to the location of the transmitter. A relative low power homing signal transmitter simultaneously transmits a homing signal either continuously or at periodic intervals.

A vehicle drive recorder is provided for recording a signal onto a hard disk, such signal obtained while vehicle is in operation. The recorder inhibits data recording upon receipt of an inhibit signal. Inhibit canceling signal is also available.

A vehicle behavior analysis system performs an analysis of vehicle operation by displaying behavior data in an organized and analyzed form. A vehicle behavior data collecting unit records information on the vehicle's driving as behavior data and an analysis unit analyzes a recorded content of the vehicle behavior data collecting unit. A recorded data unit obtaining part obtains the recorded data units recorded in a memory of the vehicle behavior data collecting unit and a displaying part displays the content concerning at least a predetermined item among the contents shown by obtained each recorded data unit in a form of a table sectioned for each recorded data units and arranged at a side of the analysis unit, and a risk degree calculated based on the content shown by each recorded data units is contained in the predetermined item displayed by the displaying part.

A system for analyzing vehicle and driver behavior includes: a data preprocessing unit that converts operation information of an in-vehicle electrical system, data available via an in-vehicle data network, and additional information available from an electrical device constituting a vehicle into a format capable of calculation therein; a vehicle model and estimation unit that estimates variables which can not be measured by means of in-vehicle sensors based on the preprocessed data; a model-based reconstruction unit that reconstructs an accident scenario by unifying the preprocessed data and the estimated variables from the vehicle model and estimation unit to a common time stamp; and an assessment unit that assesses vehicle and driver behavior based on the accident scenario reconstructed by the model-based reconstruction unit.

A drive recorder is provided that can reduce a risk of losing evidence data in the event of occurrence of an accident. The drive recorder includes an image capture unit that captures a front view of a vehicle in a traveling state, a movie image data generation unit that generates movie image data from a captured video signal, a storage section that stores movie image data, a recording unit that records movie image data into the storage section, an event occurrence detection unit that detects the occurrence of an accident, a still image data generation unit that generates still image data including a plurality of still images at predetermined intervals from the video signal, a first transmission unit that transmits still image data to an external device via a wireless network when the event occurrence detection unit detects the occurrence of an accident, and a second transmission unit that transmits the movie image data after the completion of the transmission by the first transmission unit.

A road shape recognition device checks a position of a currently travelling vehicle detected by a position detection device with map information so that a road shape at each travelling spot of the currently travelling vehicle is recognized. An image division device divides a display screen of surrounding image data of the currently travelling vehicle into a plurality of divided regions depending on the road shape and sets a data compression rate suitable for the road shape in each of the plurality of divided regions. An image compression device compresses the surrounding image data in each of the plurality of divided regions into codes based on the data compression rate set for each of the divided regions.

A gateway control apparatus for vehicles includes a receiver receiving travel state information sent from sensors and vehicle ECUs through interfaces, a first memory storing the travel state information, a determination unit determining occurrence of a vehicle accident or an ECU malfunction based on the travel state information, a second memory, and a controller allowing the second memory to store malfunction information of an associated ECU among the travel state information if the ECU malfunction has occurred, and allowing the first memory to store pre-accident travel state information and post-accident vehicle state information with reference to an accident occurrence time point if the vehicle accident has occurred. The gateway control apparatus enables not only data communication between the ECUs having different communication modes, but also accurate analysis of causes of the vehicle accident or the ECU malfunction. A travel information recording method of the gateway control apparatus is also disclosed.

A gateway control apparatus for vehicles includes a receiver receiving travel state information sent from sensors and vehicle ECUs through interfaces, a first memory storing the travel state information, a determination unit determining occurrence of a vehicle accident or an ECU malfunction based on the travel state information, a second memory, and a controller allowing the second memory to store malfunction information of an associated ECU among the travel state information if the ECU malfunction has occurred, and allowing the first memory to store pre-accident travel state information and post-accident vehicle state information with reference to an accident occurrence time point if the vehicle accident has occurred. The gateway control apparatus enables not only data communication between the ECUs having different communication modes, but also accurate analysis of causes of the vehicle accident or the ECU malfunction. A travel information recording method of the gateway control apparatus is also disclosed.

An imaging apparatus mounted on a vehicle and imaging a vicinity of the vehicle, includes a photographic lens, an image pickup device, an accident detection sensor, an image processing section, and a recording section. The image pickup device generates an image signal by performing photoelectric conversion of an object image based on a light flux from the photographic lens. The accident detection sensor detects an accident occurrence based on a shock to the vehicle. The image processing section generates first accident image data and second accident image data which photograph the same accident situation at an accident occurrence, based on the image signal. The recording section records the first accident image data and the second accident image data in different states of security levels regarding data credibility, respectively.

An apparatus and method for recording an image from a vehicle using On Board Diagnostic (OBD) information are provided. A vehicle state information acquirer receives state information about a devices loaded on the vehicle and an OBD terminal provided in the vehicle. A sensor unit senses movement of the vehicle. An image input unit captures images related to vehicle driving. A controller senses a value that is greater than or equal to a predetermined threshold received from the sensor unit or receives vehicle state information related to an occurrence of an event is received from the OBD terminal, starts capturing the images through the image input unit, and controls storing of the captured images with the vehicle state information. A memory that stores the captured images with the vehicle state information.

An imaging apparatus mounted on a vehicle and imaging a vicinity of the vehicle, includes a photographic lens, an image pickup device, an image processing section, an accident detection sensor, a controlling section, and a recording section. The image pickup device generates an image signal by performing photoelectric conversion of an object image based on a light flux from the photographic lens. The image processing section generates moving image data during vehicle driving based on an image signal. The accident detection sensor detects an accident occurrence based on a shock to the vehicle. The controlling section makes the image processing section generate accident image data representing an accident situation based on an output of the accident detection sensor in a manner different from that in a normal situation. Then, the accident image data is recorded in the recording section.

System and method for capturing video data, comprising buffering video data captured from a video recording device in a vehicle, detecting a triggering event, saving a portion of the video data occurring within a specified period of time near the event, and naming a saved portion of video data with a label associated with the triggering event.

A car-mounted image recording apparatus comprises an imager operable to take a moving image of outside scene of a vehicle, an image quality controller operable to determine importance of present position of the vehicle, and controlling image quality of the moving image on the basis of the importance, and an image recorder operable to compress the taken moving image so as to obtain image quality controlled by the image quality controller, and record the compressed image in a recording medium.

An automatic emergency response system is operable to notify an emergency center of a defined event, such as a vehicle accident. The system facilitates location of the event, by using position determining means, such as GSP, to establish its at least approximate location. A control circuit includes code generating means to generate a coded signal incorporating the position location information. An alarm signal transmitter is operable on occurrence of the defined event to transmit an alarm signal incorporating the coded signal to a receiving station, which may be a satellite, which relays the message to the emergency center, including the positional information relating to the location of the transmitter. A relatively low power homing signal transmitter simultaneously transmits a homing signal either continuously or at periodic intervals.

An accident information management apparatus for acquiring accident associated information such as images stored in a black box (i.e., black box images) from a peripheral vehicle through direct communication between vehicles when an accident such as a traffic accident occurs, a vehicle including the accident information management apparatus, and a method for managing accident information are disclosed. The vehicle includes an antenna array having a plurality of antenna elements configured to transmit and receive a signal; and a beamformer configured to adjust a phase of the signal transmitted from the antenna elements so as to form a beam pattern focused in a specific direction; and a controller configured to focus the beam pattern onto a peripheral vehicle so as to control a communication unit to transmit a request signal of accident associated information. The antenna array and the beamformer are contained in the communication unit.

A consistent and effective method of identifying and documenting vehicle dent damage includes the steps of identifying dents on a damaged vehicle, applying an easily visible magnetic marker over each dent on the damaged vehicle, counting the markers on the damaged vehicle, photographing the markers on the damaged vehicle and removing the markers from the damaged vehicle.

An automatic accident reporting apparatus for a two-wheeled vehicle, which can detect an accident with a simple construction but without using any acceleration sensor. The automatic accident reporting apparatus comprises an accident detecting unit (3) for detecting that the two-wheeled vehicle has been involved in an accident; and an accident reporting unit (7) for reporting predetermined accident information to the outside if the accident detecting unit (3) has detected an accident. The accident detecting unit (3) includes an inclination sensor (2) for measuring the angle of inclination of the vehicle; and an accident judging unit (340) for judging that an accident has occurred if the angle of inclination measured by the inclination sensor (2) is more than a predetermined value for a predetermined or longer time period.