System and program

Abstract

To provide a user-friendly system and program even for a user having no administrator rights on an operating system when executing a viewer application of a drive recorder.SOLUTION: In a method, a user first selects a card reader targeted for the assignment of an authority from among a card reader list displayed on a pull-down menu by, for example, clicking an acquisition button of a device name selection part, and selects a drive in a drive selection dialog displayed by, for example, clicking a selection button. When the user then performs an operation such as clicking an authority assignment button, a personal computer rewrites a registry so that an authority is assigned to the combination of the card reader and the drive selected by the user. When a view application reads a SD card of a drive recorder, an operating system references this registry to inhibit the request of administrator rights in reading by the card reader.SELECTED DRAWING: None

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a system, a program, and the like. [Background technology]

[0002] For example, drive recorders that record vehicle status information (e.g., forward footage, speed, acceleration, etc.) obtained by the vehicle onto a recording medium are becoming increasingly popular, particularly in transportation vehicles such as trucks, and commercial vehicles such as taxis and buses, and are also beginning to be installed in general vehicles.

[0003] Among drive recorders, there are those that constantly record vehicle status information while the vehicle is traveling, and those that record vehicle status information as needed for a certain period of time before and after an accident or sudden braking occurs.

[0004] The vehicle status information is recorded by such a drive recorder on a removable recording medium such as a memory card, such as an SD card, which is removable from the drive recorder. The analysis of the vehicle status information is generally performed by processing viewer application software (hereinafter referred to as a viewer app) that runs on a personal computer.

[0005] When analyzing, the recording medium is removed from the vehicle's drive recorder and inserted into a memory card reader connected to a personal computer for analysis in an office, etc. The personal computer reads the vehicle status information from the recording medium inserted into the memory card reader through processing by a viewer application, and displays the information in a visualized form on a screen (for example, Patent Document 1). This allows the vehicle status information to be confirmed and analyzed based on the information visualized on the screen. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0006] [Patent Document 1] Patent Publication 2011-114850 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0007] There are various recording formats for recording media that can be read by a personal computer. For example, there are recording formats that can be read by the standard functions of a personal computer's operating system, and recording formats that cannot be read by the standard functions of a personal computer's operating system, but can be read by running a dedicated reading program on the operating system. For example, Microsoft Windows (registered trademark; the same applies below) supports recording formats such as FAT and NTFS (hereinafter also referred to as file systems) as standard functions, but does not support recording formats such as ext4 as standard.

[0008] The recording format of the recording medium used by the drive recorder is generally a format that can be read by the standard functions of the operating system on which the viewer application runs. For example, if the operating system on which the viewer application runs is Windows, a type of FAT file system (e.g. FAT32) is used, which is a standard format that can be read by various devices.

[0009] However, in a configuration in which the drive recorder records information on the recording medium in a recording format that the operating system can read as a standard function, it is easy to delete recorded files using the operating system's own file management software, or to read or rewrite information recorded by the drive recorder using other software that runs on the operating system.

[0010] Therefore, if there is a need to prevent such overwriting using other software of information recorded by the drive recorder, such as vehicle status information, it is possible to adopt a recording format that cannot be read by the standard functions of the operating system for all or part of the recording area of ​​the recording medium, and to store drive recorder information, such as vehicle status information.

[0011] However, some recording media including an area of ​​a recording format that cannot be read by the standard functions of the operating system require administrator privileges of the operating system to read the area due to the security functions of the operating system, etc. In such cases, if the user of the viewer application does not have such administrator privileges of the operating system, the problem has been found that the viewer application cannot read and visualize information recorded in the drive recorder, such as vehicle status information.

[0012] Therefore, an object of the present invention is to solve such problems and provide a system, program, etc. that is easy to use even for a user who does not have administrator authority, which is a predetermined authority in the operating system. [Means for solving the problem]

[0013] (1) It is preferable that the system has a function for controlling the operating system not to display a request for administrator privileges when an application program having a function for reading information stored by a drive recorder in a specified area not supported for reading by the standard functions of the operating system is running.

[0014] In this way, it is possible to make it difficult to rewrite the information recorded by the drive recorder, and the operation of requesting administrator privileges of the operating system is not performed when an application program having the function of reading the information recorded by the drive recorder is executed. Therefore, even a user who does not have administrator privileges of the operating system (e.g., a general user) can read and use the information recorded by the drive recorder using this application program.

[0015] The predetermined area in which reading is not supported by the standard functions of the operating system may be, for example, an area in a recording format that is not supported by the standard functions of the operating system.

[0016] The operation may be, for example, when an application program is in operation, and may include a process for the application program to read information stored by the drive recorder in a predetermined area where reading is not supported by the standard function of the operating system. For example, the operation of the application program may be configured to include access to other programs other than the operation of the application program. It is preferable to configure the operating system to control the operating system so that a request for administrator authority of the operating system is not displayed only when the application program is accessed.

[0017] The administrator authority of the operating system may be the authority required to read information stored by the drive recorder in a predetermined area where reading is not supported.

[0018] It is preferable that the system has a function for controlling the operating system not to display a request for administrator authority when an application program having a function for reading information stored by a drive recorder in a specified area where reading is not supported by the standard functions of the operating system is operating, and for reading and notifying information stored by the drive recorder in a specified area where reading is not supported by the standard functions of the operating system.

[0019] (2) The specified area whose reading is not supported by the standard functions of the operating system is a specified area in the recording medium, and the function of controlling the operating system so that a request for administrator authority is not displayed may include a function of controlling the operating system so that a request for administrator authority is not displayed when reading with a specific reading device.

[0020] In this way, for the recording medium recorded by the drive recorder, the administrator authority of the operating system is not required when reading with this specific reading device, and the state in which the administrator authority of the operating system is required for reading devices other than this specific reading device can be maintained. For example, if the operating system is configured to control not to request administrator authority when reading from such a recording medium as a whole, administrator authority will not be required widely. On the other hand, if the operating system is configured to control not to request administrator authority for each recording medium, it is necessary to set not to request administrator authority for each medium, and it becomes necessary to ask a person with administrator authority to grant authority every time a medium is added. This configuration can also solve such problems. In particular, it is preferable to configure the operating system to control to display a request for administrator authority when reading with a reading device other than the specific reading device.

[0021] The recording medium may be, for example, a medium that can be transferred between the drive recorder and the computer having this system. For example, it may be a USB memory, but it is particularly preferable to use a card-type recording medium, such as an SD card.

[0022] The reading device may be, for example, a card reader, etc. In this way, even general users can view information using an application program only when the recording medium is read using a specific card reader. The reading device may be a reading device that is detachably attached to the computer that includes this system, such as a USB-connected card reader.

[0023] It is preferable that a plurality of reading devices are configured to be detachable from the computer having this system, and it is preferable that the operating system is controlled so that a request for administrator authority is not displayed when reading with a specific reading device among the plurality of reading devices. Also, for example, when the computer having this system has a built-in reading device and an external reading device, it is preferable to have a function to designate the built-in reading device as a specific reading device. In this way, it is possible to reduce the risk that a malicious third party or the like will be able to read without administrator authority with an external reading device.

[0024] Whether or not a reading device is a specific one may be determined based on, for example, identification information of the type of the reading device, identification information of the individual reading device, etc. Identification information that can be acquired by the computer and operating system of the system may be used, and for example, if the card reader is a USB-connected card reader and the operating system is Windows 8, it is possible to identify the card reader by type (or, for example, by type of device driver required by the operating system), so identification information of the type of the reading device may be used.

[0025] However, such a configuration may cause problems such as being unable to identify individual reading devices among those identified as being of the same type. Therefore, the control so as not to display a request for administrator authority of the operating system when reading with a specific reading device may be performed, for example, based on physical identification information of the reading device for identifying the reading device physically connected to the computer on which the operating system is executed, and it is particularly preferable to perform the following.

[0026] (3) The control to prevent a request for administrative privileges of the operating system from being displayed when reading with the specific reading device should preferably be based on both physical identification information of the reading device for identifying the reading device physically connected to the computer on which the operating system is executed and logical identification information recognized and assigned to the reading device by the operating system.

[0027] In this way, for example, when multiple devices with the same physical identification information of the reading device are connected, it is possible to more reliably identify individual reading devices that do not display a request for administrator authority, so that the request for administrator authority of the operating system is not displayed when reading with that reading device, and it is possible to identify individuals that have the same physical identification information as the reading device but are not subject to the request for administrator authority being prohibited, and to have the request for administrator authority of the operating system be displayed when reading with that individual.

[0028] For example, a drive letter may be used as the logical identification information assigned to the reading device by the operating system. In this way, even if it is difficult to identify an individual reading device only by the identification information possessed by the reading device, it becomes possible to more reliably determine whether or not the individual reading device is one that has been granted administrator authority. (4) It is preferable that the system has a function for allowing a user to select the specific reading device from among a plurality of reading devices connected to a computer having the system.

[0029] In this way, the user can select a reading device from among multiple reading devices connected to the computer to be controlled so as not to display a request for administrator privileges of the operating system. It is preferable that a reading device not selected by the user is not set as the specific reading device.

[0030] As a function for allowing a user to select the specific reading device from among a plurality of reading devices connected to a computer having the system, it is preferable to have a function for, for example, obtaining information for identifying a plurality of reading devices connected to a computer having the system from the reading devices, displaying the information in a list, etc., and determining from the list, etc., that the reading device selected by the detected user operation is the one selected as the specific reading device.

[0031] (5) The function for controlling the operating system so that it does not request administrative authority may be a function for rewriting information in an information area used by the operating system to determine whether or not to request administrative authority.

[0032] This can be easily achieved without developing a program that the operating system executes with administrator privileges, such as a device driver for the operating system, and adding processing to prevent operations that require administrator privileges from being performed.

[0033] It is advisable to rewrite the information in the information area used by the operating system to determine whether or not to request administrative privileges to information that controls the operating system not to request administrative privileges. For example, in the case of Microsoft Windows 8, it is advisable to use a function that rewrites the information in the registry area used to determine whether or not to request administrative privileges.

[0034] (6) The information area used by the operating system to determine whether or not to request administrator authority should preferably be an area that is not erased even when the operating system is shut down.

[0035] In this way, once the program that rewrites this information area has been executed, the display requesting administrator authority will no longer be displayed. After that, for example, there is no need to re-execute the program that rewrites this information area each time before executing the application program.

[0036] (7) It is preferable that the function of rewriting the information area used by the operating system to determine whether or not to request administrator privileges be executed prior to the function of reading the information recorded by the drive recorder.

[0037] In this way, when executing a function to read information recorded by the drive recorder, administrator authority is required, which may require calling in a person with administrator authority for the operating system, thereby preventing the problem of not being able to immediately realize the function to read the information recorded by the drive recorder when attempting to read the information recorded by the drive recorder.

[0038] As an example of a configuration in which the function of rewriting the information area used by the operating system to determine whether or not to request administrator authority is executed before the function of reading the information recorded by the drive recorder, when preparing for the operation of an application program having a function of reading information stored by the drive recorder in a predetermined area not supported for reading by the standard functions of the operating system, the state of the storage area is first confirmed, and if the state is such that administrator authority is required, a process of rewriting the information area used by the operating system to determine whether or not to request administrator authority is executed before the function of reading the information recorded by the drive recorder. The preparation for the operation may be, for example, when the application program is started for the first time, but is particularly preferably when the application program is installed.

[0039] In addition, an application program (hereinafter referred to as an information reading application) having the function of reading information stored by the drive recorder in a specified area where reading is not supported by the standard functions of the operating system may be configured as a separate application program, a settings application program (hereinafter referred to as a settings application) having the function of rewriting an information area used by the operating system to determine whether or not to request administrator authority, and the settings application may be configured to be executed first, and then the information reading application may be executed.

[0040] (8) It is preferable to configure a program for causing a computer to realize a function of rewriting an information area used by the operating system to determine whether or not to request administrator privileges, and an application program having a function of reading information recorded by the drive recorder, as separate executable files.

[0041] In this way, it becomes easy to execute a program that causes a computer to realize the function of rewriting the information area used by the operating system to determine whether or not to request administrator privileges only on computers on which you do not want to request administrator privileges, and it is also possible to prevent this program from being installed on computers on which you do want to request administrator privileges, thereby increasing security.

[0042] (9) The function of reading information recorded by a drive recorder through operation of a computer by the application program may be configured to require permission to view the information recorded by the drive recorder that is different from the administrator privileges of the operating system.

[0043] Administrator authority for a computer's operating system is usually given to the administrator of the computer. On the other hand, it has been found that the authority to view information recorded by a drive recorder is not necessarily given to the administrator of the computer. Therefore, by providing a function for requesting the authority to view information recorded by a drive recorder that is different from the administrator authority of the computer's operating system in the function for reading information recorded by a drive recorder, it is easy to specify the two as different persons.

[0044] (10) When an application program having a function for reading information stored by a drive recorder in a specified area not supported for reading by the standard functions of the operating system is running, it is preferable to have a function for disabling a function for controlling the operating system so that a request for administrator privileges of the operating system is not displayed.

[0045] In this way, the operating system can be made to display a request for administrator authority of the operating system. For example, the operating system can be made to once be in a state where it does not display a request for administrator authority of the operating system, and then later be returned to the original state where it displays a request for administrator authority.

[0046] For example, in a configuration in which the function for controlling the operating system to not request administrator privileges is a function for rewriting information in an information area used by the operating system to determine whether or not to request administrator privileges, in a case in which the information in the information area used by the operating system to determine whether or not to request administrator privileges has been rewritten to information that controls the operating system not to request administrator privileges, it is preferable to have a function for changing this information to information that requests administrator privileges.

[0047] (11) It is preferable to determine the version of the operating system, and when an application program having a function of reading information stored by a drive recorder in a specified area not supported for reading by a standard function of the operating system is running, if the version of the operating system does not display a request for administrator privileges of the operating system, the operating system is not configured to perform control to prevent the operating system from displaying a request for administrator privileges of the operating system.

[0048] In particular, due to the recent strengthening of security in operating systems, it has been found that while administrator privileges were not required in past versions of operating systems in such cases, administrator privileges are now required in newer versions of operating systems. (12) For example, the functions described in (1) to (11) above may be configured as a program for causing a computer to realize the functions. Effect of the Invention

[0049] According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a system, program, etc. that is easy to use even for a user who does not have administrator authority, which is a predetermined authority in the operating system. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0050] [Figure 1] FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram for explaining the transfer of an SD card between a drive recorder and a computer. [Diagram 2] FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an example of installation of a drive recorder in a vehicle. [Diagram 3] FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a schematic electrical configuration of a drive recorder. [Figure 4] FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a schematic electrical configuration of a personal computer and devices connected to the personal computer. [Diagram 5] 11 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an example of a screen displayed on the monitor by processing of a personal computer according to a program of the viewer application when the viewer application is executed; [Figure 6] FIG. 13 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of an administrator authority request screen displayed when the authority is not granted; [Figure 7] FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a screen displayed by an authority change application. [Figure 8] FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a screen displayed by an authority change application. [Figure 9] FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a screen displayed by an authority change application. [Figure 10] FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a screen displayed by an authority change application. [Figure 11] FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a screen displayed by an authority change application. [Figure 12] FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a screen displayed by an authority change application. [Figure 13] FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a screen displayed by an authority change application. [Figure 14] FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a screen displayed by an authority change application. [Figure 15]FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a screen displayed by an authority change application. [Figure 16] FIG. 13 is an explanatory diagram of a dialog box for setting the sensitivity of a drive recorder, which is an example of a function of the viewer application. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0051] Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described based on an example in which the present system is realized by a personal computer and the processing of a program executed on the personal computer.

[0052] As shown in FIG. 1, an embodiment of the present system is configured such that an SD card that is inserted into drive recorder 1 and on which vehicle status information is recorded by drive recorder 1 is removed from drive recorder 1 and inserted into SD card reader / writer 36 connected to personal computer 35, and the system is operated by personal computer 35. Windows 8 is running as the operating system on personal computer 35.

[0053] The SD card has a capacity of 16 GB, with the first 1 GB being a partition (hereinafter referred to as the first partition) of FAT32 (hereinafter referred to as the first format) supported by the standard functions of the Windows 8 operating system running on PC 35, and the remaining 15 GB being a partition (hereinafter referred to as the second partition) of a format (hereinafter referred to as the second format) that is neither FAT32 nor NTFS and is not supported by the standard functions but is supported by drive recorder 1.

[0054] In the first format area of ​​the first partition, an installer file is recorded, which includes an executable file for a viewer application, which is an application program for displaying vehicle status information on the monitor of the PC 35, as shown in the display example of Fig. 5. The volume label of the first partition is recorded as "DRIVEREC1" as information for identifying that the SD card is for this system.

[0055] As shown in Fig. 2, the drive recorder 1 is fixed to the vehicle by attaching a mounting member such as double-sided tape to the windshield 3 at a position on the passenger side adjacent to the rearview mirror 4 near the center in the left-right direction on the upper part of the windshield 3. The drive recorder 1 is fixed with the camera lens facing in a direction to record the image in front of the vehicle. The drive recorder 1 is connected to a cigarette lighter socket 5 and a power cable 6, and is powered from the vehicle when the accessory power of the vehicle is on.

[0056] Fig. 3 is a diagram showing a schematic electrical configuration of the drive recorder 1. As shown in Fig. 3, the drive recorder 1 includes a controller MC, a CCD camera 13, an interface 33, a GPS receiver 24, an SD card reader 31, an acceleration sensor 15, and a database 32. The interface 33, which is connected to the CCD camera 13 and converts a video signal from the CCD camera 13 into a digital signal that can be input to the controller MC, the acceleration sensor 15, the GPS receiver 24, the SD card reader 31, and the database 32 are each connected to the controller MC.

[0057] The controller MC is composed of a microcomputer having a known CPU, memories such as ROM and RAM, a timer, other peripheral circuits, etc. Various programs are stored in the ROM of the controller MC, such as a GPS information processing program for storing GPS information received by the GPS receiver 24 in an SD card, an image processing program for storing images captured by the CCD camera 13 in an SD card, an acceleration recording program for storing acceleration information detected by the acceleration sensor 15 over time in an SD card, and an OS (Operation System), and the controller MC realizes various functions by executing these programs.

[0058] The GPS receiver 24 detects the position information of the vehicle at the current time based on an instruction from the controller MC. In this embodiment, the detection timing is every second. The controller MC performs a position history recording process to store the history of the position information (hereinafter referred to as position history data) in the SD card via the SD card reader 31 every second. The position information includes the time, the vehicle's position, speed, latitude, longitude, altitude, etc., obtained based on the signal from the GPS satellite. The controller MC performs a process to record the history of these various data based on the signal from the GPS satellite. The acceleration sensor 15 is a three-axis type sensor that detects the acceleration and inclination in each of the three axes (X, Y, Z), and constantly outputs the detected values ​​to the controller MC. The controller MC performs an acceleration history recording process to associate the three-axis acceleration information with the time information every 10 ms and store the acceleration information history (hereinafter referred to as acceleration history data) in the SD card via the SD card reader 31. The SD card reader 31 reads the data of the SD card inserted from the insertion slot 18 based on the control of the controller MC, or updates the data of the SD card. The database 32 is a non-volatile memory (for example, an EEPROM) externally attached to the controller MC. The CCD camera 13 outputs constantly captured video information to the controller MC via an interface unit 33 that converts the captured video information into digital form. The controller MC performs a constant recording process in which the video information input via the interface unit 33 is stored in an SD card via an SD card reader 31 as video information associated with time (hereinafter referred to as constant recording video data). The controller MC also performs an event recording process in which the video information is temporarily stored in the memory (in this embodiment, a 20-second video), and when the acceleration detected by the acceleration sensor 15 corresponds to the acceleration corresponding to the impact at the time of the accident, data (called event recording video data) in which the video information, which is a combination of the temporarily stored video for 20 seconds before the impact and the video information for 20 seconds after the impact, is associated with information on the time, is stored in the SD card via the SD card reader 31.

[0059] Through these processes by the drive recorder 1, the position history data, the acceleration history data, the continuous recording video data, and the event recording video data are recorded in the second formatted area of ​​the second partition in the SD card.

[0060] The personal computer 35 is a general notebook computer running Windows 8, and FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing a part of the notebook computer and devices connected to the personal computer 35. As shown in FIG. 4, the personal computer 35 has an MPU (Micro Processing Unit) 37, which is a control device. A ROM 38 and a RAM 39 are connected to the MPU 37. A hard disk drive 40, a keyboard 42, a touch pad (not shown), and a monitor 45 are connected to the MPU 37 via corresponding interfaces (not shown). A mouse 43, a printer 44, and an SD card reader / writer 36 are connected to the USB port of the personal computer 35. The hard disk in the hard disk drive 40 stores Windows 8, which is the operating system of the personal computer 35 (programs and data that constitute the operating system), and various application programs and data that run on Windows 8.

[0061] A user can use the functions of the operating system to launch various programs, such as by double-clicking an icon for launching an application program by operating the touchpad or mouse 43 (hereinafter referred to as the pointing device), and have the PC 35 execute the process of the launched application program, thereby enabling the PC 35 to realize a predetermined function. Hereinafter, clicking the mouse 43, tapping the touchpad, pressing the enter key on the keyboard 42, etc. will be referred to as clicking, etc.

[0062] The user removes the SD card on which data has been recorded by the drive recorder 1 from the drive recorder 1 and inserts it into an SD card reader / writer 36 connected to a personal computer 35 . When the SD card is inserted into the SD card reader / writer 36, the operating system of the personal computer 35 accesses the SD card via the USB port.

[0063] The operating system recognizes the first partition in the first format supported by the standard functions of the SD card and displays a list of the files in it. As a result, the installer file for the viewer app is displayed in the list. If the viewer app has not yet been installed, the user can have the operating system execute the installer file by, for example, double-clicking it with a pointing device. Once the installation is complete, the application for executing the viewer app will be displayed in the operating system.

[0064] When the installation of the viewer app is complete or has already been installed, the user can launch the viewer app by double-clicking the viewer app icon displayed by the operating system on the desktop of monitor 45. The operating system detects this operation to launch the viewer app and launches the viewer app.

[0065] When the viewer application is launched, a folder browse dialog similar to that shown in Figure 10 is displayed. The user selects the drive that corresponds to the drive into which the SD card is inserted from among the drives recognized by the operating system. In this example, the drive with drive letter "i:" and with "DRIVEREC1" displayed as the volume label is assumed to be the drive into which the SD card is inserted. When the viewer application detects the user's selection of "DRIVEREC1 i:" by clicking or the like with a pointing device, and detects the click of the "OK" button, the viewer application requests the operating system to access the event recording video data stored in the second partition of the drive with drive letter "i:". The operating system receives this request from the viewer application process and attempts to access the event recording video data stored in the second partition, but determines that the second partition is in a format that is not supported by default, and determines whether the information in the registry area used to determine whether to request administrator authority prepared for each device of the card reader of this drive is set to a value that does not request administrator authority. If the value does not prevent the request for administrator authority, the operating system determines whether the user account currently logged in to this operating system has administrator authority. If the user account does not have administrator authority, the operating system returns information to the viewer application that administrator authority is required. The viewer application requests the operating system to display an administrator authority request dialog of the operating system as shown in FIG. 6. On the other hand, if the user account has administrator authority, the viewer application is permitted to access the area of ​​the second partition.

[0066] The administrator authority request dialog is a dialog that requests the user to input the user name and password of the administrator account. When the user of the viewer application inputs the user name and password of the administrator account and clicks "Yes" or the like, the operating system determines whether the input user name and password combination matches an administrator account registered in the operating system. If they match, the viewer application is permitted to access the area of ​​the second partition, whereas if they do not match, the viewer application is not permitted to access the area of ​​the second partition.

[0067] The viewer application determines whether or not permission to access the second partition area has been obtained from the operating system, and if access permission has not been obtained, an error dialog similar to that shown in Fig. 11 is displayed, and when clicking of "OK" or the like is detected, the viewer application is terminated. In this way, unless the user name and password of the administrator account are entered, the data stored in the second partition area cannot be displayed by the viewer application.

[0068] In addition, when determining whether the information in the registry area used to determine whether or not to request administrator authority prepared for each card reader device of this drive is set to a value that does not request administrator authority, if the information in the registry area used to determine whether or not to request administrator authority prepared for each card reader device of this drive is set to a value that does not request administrator authority, it is not determined whether the user account currently logged in to this operating system has administrator authority, and information that administrator authority is required is not returned to the viewer application with administrator authority. As a result, even a user without administrator authority can obtain access permission and can continue the operation of this application.

[0069] The viewer application includes a program for accessing an area in a second format. This program may be configured to access an area in a unique format, but may incorporate a program for accessing a file system in a format that is not supported by Windows standard but is supported by other existing operating systems.

[0070] If access is granted, the viewer application uses a program for accessing the second format file system that the viewer application possesses to access the data stored in the second partition area, and performs processing to read and display the position history data, acceleration history data, continuous recording video data, and event recording video data recorded by the drive recorder 1 in the second formatted area of ​​the second partition in the SD card.

[0071] 5 is an example of a viewer screen displayed on the monitor 45 by this process. A menu bar 52 for executing various operations is arranged at the upper position of the viewer screen 51. Arranged below and to the left of the menu bar 52 are, from the top, a video display area 53 for displaying a playback video of either the continuous recording video data or the event recording video data stored in the SD card, a driving speed display area 55 for playing and displaying speed information in the position history data, an acceleration display area 56 for playing and displaying acceleration information in the acceleration history data, a latitude and longitude display area 57 for playing and displaying latitude and longitude information in the position history data, a video drive button above the acceleration history display area 59, which is provided from the left with buttons for rewinding, cueing, reverse playback, pausing, playing, skipping to the end, and fast forwarding the video, and an acceleration history display area 59 for playing and displaying the acceleration on three axes for 20 seconds before and after the playback point of the acceleration history data in line graphs, and arranged below and to the right of the menu bar 52 are a playlist 60 and a map area 61, from the top. The playback display of each area is synchronized with the same time information included in each data (hereinafter, playing back this information in synchronization is referred to as synchronous playback).

[0072] A list of event record video data is displayed in the playlist 60. This list is recorded as a group (hereinafter referred to as an event unit) of one event record video data (in this embodiment, 40 seconds before and after the impact occurs), so the start time information is displayed for each group (event unit). Each part that displays the time information is a button, and the user looks at the time of each event displayed in the playlist 60 and clicks the button of the event they want to play.

[0073] The viewer application starts synchronous playback of the event clicked by the user through this process. The image displayed first is a still image of the event record video data at the time when it is determined that the event has occurred. The captured image is played back by detecting the operation of the video drive button, and with this playback, the driving speed display area 55, acceleration display area 56, and latitude / longitude display area 57 display data of the time corresponding to the image, respectively, and the map area 61 displays a surrounding map including the point where the image was captured at that time. The acceleration history display area 59 displays the acceleration history of the captured image in the three axial directions over the saved time (40 seconds in total), and the acceleration position at the time currently displayed in the video display area 53 is plotted as a vertical bar.

[0074] By operating the video drive button, the user can display a still image in the video display area 53 at any position within the 40 seconds of the captured image of the file, and can also display a moving image at any position within the 40 seconds. When a moving image is displayed, the displays of the driving speed display area 55, acceleration display area 56, latitude and longitude display area 57, acceleration history display area 59, and map area 61 also change in sync with the movement. When the press of the "Close" button below the playlist 52 is detected, the video display area 53 is switched to a state where the recorded video data is displayed at all times, and there is also a function for playing back from any position by operating the video drive button. In this manner, when administrator authority is held, data recorded in the drive recorder 1 can be played back and displayed on the SD card.

[0075] However, as mentioned above, if you start the viewer app without logging in to the operating system with an account that has administrator privileges, a dialog box requesting administrator privileges will normally appear, and you will be prompted to enter the user name and password of an administrator account.

[0076] For example, in a corporate organization, administrator privileges for a computer's operating system are only held by specific individuals who have been granted such privileges as system administrators, and users of the viewer app may not have administrator privileges.

[0077] To prevent users from being required to grant administrator privileges each time, a system administrator can, for example, execute the privilege change application described below prior to installing the viewer application mentioned above, thereby preventing the administrator privilege request dialog from being displayed when the viewer application accesses the second partition.

[0078] The authority change application is stored in a USB memory and distributed to a system administrator. The system administrator inserts the USB memory into a USB port of the PC 35. The operating system recognizes the USB memory and displays an icon for launching the authority change application on the monitor 45.

[0079] The system administrator double-clicks this icon, for example, to launch an authority change application (an application program executed on the operating system). The operation of the authority change application will be described with reference to FIGS.

[0080] 7 shows the confirmation screen that is first displayed when the permission change application is executed. This confirmation screen displays text information indicating that the permission to display data by the viewer application is given to users without administrator privileges, that the system administrator must execute this application with administrator privileges for the operating system, that there is a possibility of affecting other software, that the user should be aware of information on devices connected to this PC (not shown, but it is advisable to display information on the model of the SD card reader / writer 36 in particular), and disclaimers, as well as text information indicating the operation instructions for agreeing or not agreeing, and below the text information, an "Agree" button and a "Disagree" button are displayed.

[0081] When a click on the "Agree" button or the like is detected by the operation of the pointing device of the user (the user of this application is the system administrator), a main screen for accepting the selection of the device and drive for which the authority is to be changed, the granting of authority, and the initialization operation shown in Fig. 8 is displayed. This main screen is a window that includes a device name selection section including a text display of the "Device Name" in Fig. 8, a pull-down menu provided to the right of the device name, and an acquisition button provided to the right of the device name and labeled "Acquire", a drive name selection section below that including a text display of the "Drive Name", a selected drive display section labeled "Please select a drive" in Fig. 8, and a selection button provided to the right of the device name and labeled "Select", and below that, from left to right, a reset to default button labeled "Restore to default", an authority grant button labeled "Grant authority", and an exit button labeled "Exit".

[0082] The user first selects the card reader to which to grant authority from the list of card readers displayed in the pull-down menu by clicking the Get button in the device name selection section, then selects a drive in the drive selection dialog displayed by clicking the Select button, and then clicks the Grant Authority button to grant authority to the combination of the selected card reader and drive. On the other hand, by clicking the Reset to Default button, the authority granted to the combination of the selected card reader and drive is cancelled, and the combination returns to a state in which authority is required. The user can also exit this application by clicking the Exit button. The process performed by this application will now be described in more detail.

[0083] When the user clicks the Get button in FIG. 8, etc., the operating system is requested to obtain a list of card readers / writers connected to the PC 35, and this list is received and entered as a list in the pull-down menu (see FIG. 9). As a result, the user can select a specific card reader from the list in the pull-down menu. When a specific card reader is selected, the text displayed when the pull-down menu is not pulled down is changed to the name of the selected card reader, etc. For example, FIG. 9 shows an example in which four types of card readers / writers (one physical device but equipped with slots for four types of media, and recognized by the operating system as four types of card readers / writers) are connected. Here, an example in which the card reader / writer "BUFFALO BSCR20TU3 -CF / MD USB Device (Disk Drive, USBSTOR\DiskBUFFALO_BSCR20TU3_-CF / MD1.00\dDevice\00000096)" is selected will be mainly described. When this card reader is selected, the text display of the device name in the unpulled pull-down menu in Figure 8 will be "BUFFALO BSCR20TU3 -CF / MD USB Device (Disk Drive,USBSTOR\DiskBUFFALO_BSCR20TU3_-CF / MD1.00\dDevice\00000096)," up to the extent that can be displayed within the width of the text display.

[0084] When the user clicks on the select button or the like is detected, a drive selection dialog as shown in FIG. 10 is displayed. The drive selection dialog includes a text display that prompts the user to select the drive for which the authority is to be changed, a drive list display section that displays a list of drives on the PC 35, and an OK button and a Cancel button. When the user clicks on the Cancel button or the like is detected, the screen returns to the main screen. The user, who is the system administrator, selects the drive to which the authority is to be granted. For example, the user can easily select the I drive, which has "DRIVEREC1" displayed as the volume label of the SD card indicating that it belongs to this system, by distinguishing it from other drives unrelated to this system. When a drive is selected from the list of drives displayed in the drive list display section, the OK button can be clicked.

[0085] When a click of the OK button or the like is detected, it is determined whether or not the selected drive is a valid drive, and if it is not a valid drive, an error dialog box is displayed with text information indicating that it is not a valid drive, as shown in Figure 11. When a click of the OK button in the error dialog box is detected, the display returns to the drive selection dialog box shown in Figure 10. Note that whether or not the drive is valid is determined by querying the operating system to find out whether or not the drive selected in the drive selection dialog box is a card reader drive. For example, if "BD-ROM Drive (G:)" is selected, it is not a card reader drive, so an error dialog box is displayed.

[0086] On the other hand, if the determination as to whether the selected drive is a valid drive proves that it is a valid drive, the drive name of the drive selected in the drive selection dialog is displayed in the selected drive display section of Fig. 8. Here, the case where "DRIVEREC1 i:" is selected will be mainly explained. In this case, the display in the selected drive display section, which reads "Please select a drive" in the state of Fig. 8, is changed to display "DRIVEREC1 i:".

[0087] When the click of the Authorize button or the like is detected, it is judged whether the currently selected device and drive are a valid device and drive combination. Whether or not the combination is valid is judged, for example, by inquiring of the operating system as to which drive the selected device is assigned, and checking whether the assigned drive matches the selected drive.

[0088] If the combination of device and drive is not valid, a second error dialog shown in Fig. 12 is displayed. The second error dialog has text information including a message indicating that a valid combination of device and drive has not been selected and a message indicating that a valid combination of device and drive needs to be selected, and an OK button. If clicking on this OK button or the like is detected, the screen returns to the main screen.

[0089] If the device and drive combination is valid, the authorization confirmation dialog shown in Fig. 13 is displayed. The authorization confirmation dialog contains text information asking whether to grant authority, text information of the device name of the selected device, text information of the drive name of the selected drive, and "Yes" and "No" buttons to indicate whether to grant or not.

[0090] If the "No" button is clicked, the screen returns to the main screen. On the other hand, if the "Yes" button is clicked, the information in the registry area of ​​Windows used to determine whether or not to request administrator authority when accessing the selected card reader is rewritten to a value that does not request administrator authority. Since administrator authority is required by the operating system for this rewriting, if administrator authority is not available, the administrator authority request dialog shown in FIG. 6 is displayed and administrator authority is requested. When the rewriting is completed, the permission grant completion dialog shown in FIG. 15 is displayed. As described above, when accessing an area of ​​a second format that is not supported as standard, Windows refers to the value of this registry area prepared for each device of the card reader in which the SD card containing that area is inserted, and determines whether or not to request administrator authority. If the value is not a value that does not request administrator authority, normal processing that requests administrator authority is performed, but if the value is a value that does not request administrator authority is performed, processing that does not request administrator authority is performed. Therefore, by rewriting the value in the registry area provided for each card reader device to a value that does not request administrator privileges, it is possible to prevent the operating system's administrator privileges request dialog shown in Figure 6 from being displayed when accessing the second format area in the viewer application.

[0091] 15, the authorization completion dialog includes a text display indicating that authorization has been granted, a text display requesting that SD card reader / writer 36 be temporarily removed from PC 35 and then reconnected, and an "OK" button. When clicking the OK button or the like is detected, the screen returns to the main screen.

[0092] In this way, authority can be granted to a specific card reader. To remove the granted authority and return to the original state where no authority is granted, a pair of a device and a drive for which authority is to be removed is selected on the main screen in FIG. 8 by the same operation and process as the authorization process, and when a click on the Reset to Default button or the like is detected, the pair of the device and the drive is checked to see if they are correct by the same operation and process as the authorization process. If they are correct, the information in the registry area of ​​Windows used to determine whether or not to request administrator authority when accessing the selected card reader is rewritten to a value that does not request administrator authority (the standard value of the operating system). Among the above-mentioned authorization processes, the difference in the authorization initialization process is that the text display of the authorization initialization confirmation dialog in FIG. 13, "Authorize the following devices" is changed to "Initialize the authority for the following devices", and the authorization change completion dialog in FIG. 15 is displayed instead of the authorization grant completion dialog in FIG. 14, but the other points are the same process. If a click on the exit button on the main screen is detected, the application is terminated. In this manner, authority can be granted to or revoked from a specific card reader.

[0093] When authority is granted as shown in the dialog of FIG. 13, in the process of starting the viewer application described above, if the user selects "DRIVEREC1 i:" in the folder reference dialog by clicking, for example, with a pointing device, and detects a click on the "OK" button, when the viewer application requests the operating system to access the event recording video data stored in the second partition of the drive with drive letter "i:", the operating system determines that the information in the registry area used to determine whether or not to request administrator authority prepared for this card reader device on this drive is set to a value that does not request administrator authority, and does not determine whether the user account currently logged in to this operating system has administrator authority, and does not return information to the viewer application with administrator authority that administrator authority is required, so that even a user without administrator authority can obtain access and the operation of the viewer application can continue. Therefore, the position history data, acceleration history data, continuous recording video data, and event recording video data recorded by the drive recorder 1 in the second formatted area of ​​the second partition in the SD card of this drive can be read and each data can be visualized as shown in Figure 5 described above.

[0094] As described above, the authority change application can control Windows 8 not to display a request for administrator authority of the operating system when a viewer application having a function for reading information stored by the drive recorder 1 from the second partition of the SD card, which is not supported for reading by the standard functions of Windows 8, is operating. This makes it difficult to rewrite data recorded in the second partition by the drive recorder, and the request for administrator authority of the operating system is not displayed when a viewer application having a function for reading information recorded by the drive recorder is operating, so that a user who is a standard user of the operating system can read and use the data recorded by the drive recorder by this application program from the display as shown in FIG. 5.

[0095] The process shown in FIG. 8 and subsequent figures has a function for controlling the operating system so that the request for administrator authority is not displayed when reading with a specific card reader. Therefore, for an SD card recorded in the drive recorder 1, the operating system does not require administrator authority when reading with this card reader, and the operating system can maintain the state in which administrator authority is required for reading devices other than this card reader. For example, if the operating system as a whole is configured to control the operating system so that administrator authority is not requested when reading from such a recording medium, administrator authority becomes unnecessary widely, and if the operating system is configured to control each SD card so that administrator authority is not requested, it is necessary to set each SD card so that administrator authority is not requested, which is time-consuming, such as calling a system administrator, and the viewer app cannot be used immediately. This system can also solve such problems. Only when the SD card is read with a card reader previously selected by the system administrator, even a standard Windows user can view the data in the second partition with the viewer app.

[0096] 13, the system is controlled so that a request for administrator authority of the operating system is not displayed when reading with a selected card reader, but has the function of performing this based on both a physical device for identifying the card reader physically connected to PC 35 and a drive, which is logical identification information recognized and assigned to the card reader by the operating system. Therefore, when a card reader with the same device name is connected, it is possible to more reliably identify an individual card reader that does not display a request for administrator authority and to prevent the request for administrator authority of the operating system from being displayed when reading with that card reader, and also to identify an individual card reader that has the same device name as the card reader but is not a target for which the request for administrator authority is not displayed, and to display a request for administrator authority of the operating system when reading with that individual card reader.

[0097] As shown in Fig. 8, in the initial state of the main screen, the pull-down menu is not initially retrieved and displayed with a list, but rather the pull-down menu is left blank and the list is retrieved and displayed when the retrieve button is clicked, etc. This makes it possible to make the system administrator aware of the need to connect and confirm card readers for which authority is to be granted.

[0098] Since the system is also provided with a function for allowing the user to select a specific card reader from among multiple card readers connected to PC 35, the system administrator can select a card reader from among multiple card readers connected to PC 35 that will be controlled so as not to display a request for Windows 8 administrator privileges.

[0099] In addition, since the system is designed to rewrite the information in the registry area that Windows 8 uses to determine whether or not to request administrator privileges, this can be easily achieved without developing a program that the operating system runs with administrator privileges, such as a Windows 8 device driver, and adding processing to prevent operations that request administrator privileges.

[0100] Furthermore, because the registry area is recorded on a non-volatile recording medium such as a hard disk, it is not erased even when the operating system is shut down. Therefore, by simply running the permission change application once and rewriting this registry area, the request for administrator privileges will no longer be displayed. Therefore, there is no need to go through the trouble of re-running the permission change application every time you run a viewer application, for example. The authority change application may have a function of being executed prior to execution of the viewer application.

[0101] It is recommended to add a function to execute the permission change application to the installer of the viewer application. This can prevent problems such as administrator privileges being requested when executing the viewer application, which may require calling for a system administrator, making it impossible to immediately view data recorded by the drive recorder when trying to use the viewer application.

[0102] In this embodiment, the authority change application and the viewer application are configured as separate executable files. Therefore, the system administrator can easily run the authority change application only on computers on which the administrator does not want to request administrator authority. It is also easy to not run the authority change application on computers on which the administrator wants to request administrator authority, which increases security.

[0103] The viewer application may have a function that allows only the operation manager, who is set up in the organization separately from the system administrator, to view the data in the area of ​​the second partition. For example, immediately after the viewer application starts to run, a screen for inputting the ID and password of the operation manager may be displayed, and the user may enter the ID and password of the operation manager. If the ID and password of the operation manager registered in advance match, the process may proceed to display a folder reference dialog similar to that shown in FIG. 10 described above. In this way, it is easy to operate the system by designating the system administrator and the operation manager as different persons in the organization. The operation manager may be, for example, a person who manages the vehicle in which the drive recorder 1 is installed, or a person who manages the driver of the vehicle. The permission change application has a function for initializing the granted permissions, so that a request for administrator permissions can be displayed.

[0104] It is recommended that the permission change application be configured to determine the Windows version, and if the version in question does not display a request for administrator privileges, not to rewrite the registry as described above. This process is not necessary in Windows XP.

[0105] Although the present invention has been described as an embodiment in which the present system is realized by a personal computer and a program executed on the personal computer, the present invention may also be configured as a program that runs on a terminal on which a multi-user operating system runs, for example, as a program that runs on an operating system used in tablets, etc.

[0106] Although the drive recorder 1 is configured to include a camera that captures images in front of the vehicle, it may be configured to not include a camera. If a camera is included, the image capture location may not be the front, but the rear or side, or a combination of these. The image capture location may not be the outside of the vehicle, but the inside of the vehicle, or both the inside and the outside of the vehicle may be captured. However, it is particularly preferable to include a function for capturing images inside the vehicle. This configuration for acquiring vehicle status information to manage the driver is highly effective.

[0107] This embodiment has been described as being configured to display an operating system administrator privilege request dialog box as shown in FIG. 6 when a user account does not have administrator privileges. However, the same effect of eliminating the need for administrator privileges can also be achieved in a configuration in which whether or not such an administrator privilege request is required is obtained from the operating system, and the application terminates or interrupts processing when an administrator privilege request is required.

[0108] It may be configured such that when the reset to initial value button is clicked, all the authorities that have already been granted are cancelled, and the state returns to one in which the authority change application is not executed at all.

[0109] The setting data of the drive recorder 1 may be recorded in the area of ​​the second partition. For example, when a click on a gear-shaped icon at the right end of the menu bar 52 of the viewer application in FIG. 5 is detected, a setting screen for the operation of the drive recorder 1 may be displayed as shown in FIG. 16, and when a click on an OK button or the like is detected, the setting contents of the setting items on this screen may be stored in the area of ​​the second partition as the setting data of the drive recorder 1. When the drive recorder 1 is powered on, it reads the setting data stored in the second partition and processes the contents of each setting item referenced in the processing of the drive recorder 1 as the setting contents. In this way, it is possible to prevent tampering with the setting data, and even a user without administrator authority can easily view and change the setting data.

[0110] The present invention is not limited to the configurations described in the above-mentioned embodiments. The components of the above-mentioned embodiments can be arbitrarily selected and combined within a range of possible combinations. In addition, the present invention can be combined with any of the components described in the Summary of the Invention within a range of possible combinations.

Claims

1. A viewer application program for causing a computer to realize a function of displaying, on a display means of the computer on which the operating system is executed, information recorded in a second partition of a recording medium, the second partition being a partition of a first format supported by a standard function of the operating system and a second partition being a partition of a second format not supported by the standard function of the operating system but supported by a drive recorder, the program comprising: The function of the operating system is to determine whether or not the viewer application is permitted to access the second partition area by determining that the combination of the user name and password entered by the user matches that registered in the operating system as an administrator account, and if access is permitted, to proceed to a process of accessing data stored in the second partition area, while if access is not permitted, to display an error dialog box and then terminate the viewer application. A program characterized by.

2. When the viewer application is started by the operating system, a function is provided for displaying a dialog for selecting a drive in which a recording medium is inserted, the drive having a first partition which is a partition in a first format supported by a standard function of the operating system and a second partition which is a partition in a second format which is not supported by the standard function of the operating system but is supported by a drive recorder. The program according to claim 1 .

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