Vehicle black box with privacy protection function

Abstract

The present invention relates to a vehicle black box equipped with a personal information protection function, comprising: a video capturing unit for capturing video of the vehicle's surroundings; an event monitoring unit for outputting an event signal when an event occurs in the vehicle's surroundings; an event video storage unit for storing event video for a set period of time before and after the time of the event occurrence; a processing unit for extracting event video for a set period before and after the time of the event occurrence from the video captured in the video storage unit and storing it in the event video storage unit when an event signal is input from the event monitoring unit; and a near-field communication unit for transmitting the event video stored in the event video storage unit to the driver's mobile terminal; wherein the processing unit transmits the event video stored in the event video storage unit to the driver's mobile terminal via the near-field communication unit and deletes the event video stored in the event video storage unit. According to the present invention, event footage generated due to the occurrence of accidents, etc., within a vehicle black box is transmitted to a mobile terminal of a driver who has legitimate authority regarding the management of the vehicle black box as well as the vehicle itself, and footage stored within the vehicle black box is automatically deleted, thereby blocking unspecified persons other than the driver from illegally viewing footage stored in the vehicle black box, which minimizes the exposure of the vehicle driver's privacy and has an effect favorable to the protection of personal information.

Description

Technology Field

[0001] The present invention relates to a vehicle black box equipped with a personal information protection function, and more specifically, to a vehicle black box that is advantageous for protecting personal information by minimizing the exposure of the driver's privacy, such as by making it impossible to view or copy key footage even if an unspecified person other than the driver occupies the vehicle, while minimizing the exposure of the driver's privacy, by storing video of the vehicle's surroundings captured before and after an event such as a traffic accident in its own memory when installed in a vehicle and linked with the driver's mobile terminal, and then deleting the video stored within the vehicle black box. Background Technology

[0003] As technology advances rapidly and the number of vehicles increases, vehicle-related accidents (traffic accidents) are also on the rise.

[0004] However, when a vehicle accident occurs, securing witnesses near the accident site and the reliability of witnesses can lead to the victim being mistaken for the perpetrator, or the lack of proper preservation of the scene and unclear identification of intersection signals can result in unclear liability and unfair treatment. To resolve these issues, there is an increasing number of cases where dashcams capable of automatically recording and saving accident footage are installed in vehicles.

[0005] These vehicle dashcams primarily analyze the cause of accidents through various sensors and use video cameras to record the situation at the time of the accident and before and after, serving as objective data for subsequent accident analysis.

[0006] Meanwhile, registered patent No. 10-2324278 (Reference 1) and registered patent No. 10-1438563 (Reference 2) have been proposed as prior art regarding vehicle black boxes.

[0007] Reference 1 above relates to a vehicle black box device and a control method thereof, comprising a camera unit that captures video of the vehicle's surroundings in real time, an impact sensor unit that detects an impact occurring in the vehicle, and a control unit that generates a continuous recording video file by inserting a guidance video related to the event recording into a break in the continuous recording video that occurs when an event occurs during the continuous recording of the black box device.

[0008] Reference 2 above relates to a continuous video recording device for a vehicle black box, wherein a driver can set shooting conditions such as the shooting time, number of shots, and shooting speed of still images in a vehicle black box that shoots and records video, and when a continuous shooting button is pressed, still images are shot and saved under the set shooting conditions.

[0009] All of the vehicle dashcams in the above references 1 and 2 record video of the vehicle's surroundings and store it in chronological order in a storage unit or memory unit, and in the event of an accident, the video stored in the vehicle dashcam can be searched and checked through the device's touchscreen, etc.

[0010] However, conventional vehicle black boxes, such as those in references 1 and 2 mentioned above, store video of the vehicle's surroundings in the vehicle's storage unit or memory unit when an accident such as a collision occurs, and anyone can easily search and view the video through operation such as the touchscreen of the vehicle black box, making it easy to check the driver's private life, such as the driver's video, voice, conversation content, or parking location.

[0011] Therefore, it is highly vulnerable to privacy violations resulting from illegal vehicle theft, unauthorized access to vehicle dashcam contents by unknown persons, or the cloning or loss of removable SD cards.

[0012] In addition, if such videos contain sensitive content that can infringe on personal privacy, they can be used for crimes such as fraud and blackmail, which can cause secondary harm to the driver.

[0013] Furthermore, when vehicle black boxes are illegally stolen by unauthorized persons or footage of traffic accidents is intentionally deleted, it is difficult to recover the black boxes or restore the footage, resulting in insufficient protection of information that can be used as important evidence. Prior art literature

[0015] Reference 1: Registered Patent No. 10-2324278. Reference 2: Registered Patent No. 10-1438563. The problem to be solved

[0016] Therefore, the objective of the present invention, which aims to solve the problems of the conventional technology, is to provide a vehicle black box equipped with a personal information protection function that minimizes the exposure of a vehicle driver's privacy. This is achieved by installing the black box in a vehicle to store video footage of the vehicle's surroundings captured before and after events such as accidents, while simultaneously transmitting the video footage of the vehicle's surroundings when linked with a mobile terminal of a driver who has legitimate authority regarding vehicle operation, and then deleting the video stored within the vehicle black box, thereby making it impossible for an unspecified person other than the driver to illegally view the footage captured during operation by manipulating the black box.

[0017] In particular, the present invention aims to provide a vehicle black box that stores footage on a driver's portable device, which prevents or minimizes the leakage of private footage recorded during vehicle operation or accident footage before and after a traffic accident, even in the event of illegal theft or attempted viewing by unauthorized persons, while allowing the driver to easily check the relevant footage at any time via the portable device and utilize it as evidence.

[0018] In addition, the present invention aims to provide a vehicle black box equipped with a personal information protection function that can be manufactured with a compact structure, prevents unspecified persons from viewing video footage directly from the vehicle black box, allows for a compact design that is advantageous for securing the driver's field of vision, and minimizes constraints on installation space within the vehicle. means of solving the problem

[0020] To solve such technical problems, the present invention;

[0021] The present invention provides a vehicle black box equipped with a personal information protection function, comprising: a video capturing unit for capturing video of the vehicle's surroundings; an event monitoring unit for outputting an event signal when an event occurs in the vehicle's surroundings; an event video storage unit for storing event video for a set period before and after the time of the event occurrence; a processing unit for extracting event video for a set period before and after the time of the event occurrence from the video captured in the video storage unit and storing it in the event video storage unit when an event signal is input from the event monitoring unit; and a near-field communication unit for transmitting the event video stored in the event video storage unit to the driver's mobile terminal; wherein the processing unit transmits the event video stored in the event video storage unit to the driver's mobile terminal via the near-field communication unit and deletes the event video stored in the event video storage unit.

[0022] At this time, the system further includes a captured image storage unit that temporarily stores images captured by the above-mentioned image capturing unit continuously or at regular time intervals, and the processing unit is characterized by deleting captured images prior to the time of the last event occurrence from the captured image storage unit when storing an event image in the event image storage unit.

[0023] And the above processing unit is characterized by receiving an event video request signal from the driver's mobile terminal via a near-field communication unit, transmitting the event video stored in the vehicle black box to the driver's mobile terminal, and then transmitting a video transmission completion signal to the driver's mobile terminal, and when receiving an event video deletion request signal from the driver's mobile terminal, deleting the event video stored in the event video storage unit.

[0024] In addition, the above processing unit is characterized by transmitting all event videos stored in the event video storage unit to the driver's mobile terminal when a connection signal is received from the driver's mobile terminal, and deleting all event videos stored in the event video storage unit when a connection signal is not received from the driver's mobile terminal for a set period of time. Effects of the invention

[0026] According to the present invention, event footage generated due to the occurrence of accidents, etc., within a vehicle black box is transmitted to a mobile terminal of a driver who has legitimate authority regarding the management of the vehicle black box as well as the vehicle itself, and footage stored within the vehicle black box is automatically deleted, thereby blocking unspecified persons other than the driver from illegally viewing footage stored in the vehicle black box, which minimizes the exposure of the vehicle driver's privacy and has an effect favorable to the protection of personal information.

[0027] In particular, according to the present invention, even when a driver entrusts their vehicle to another person for reasons such as vehicle theft, valet parking, or vehicle repair, the exposure and leakage of video related to the driver can be prevented or minimized. Furthermore, in the event of a traffic accident while the driver is driving, the driver can conveniently check video related to the accident through a mobile device such as a smartphone without operating the vehicle black box. When using the video as evidence, the loss of important video information due to automatic deletion caused by overwriting, or deletion caused intentionally or accidentally, can also be prevented, which is advantageous for information protection.

[0028] In addition, when a vehicle equipped with a vehicle black box according to the present invention is driven by another person, the recorded video is stored as is, so the responsibility for the accident can be clearly determined. Furthermore, since there is no need for a display unit (or display window) for checking the video stored in the vehicle black box, the vehicle black box can be manufactured in a compact size, which is advantageous for securing the driver's field of vision and has the advantage of minimizing space occupation when installed at any location within the vehicle. Brief explanation of the drawing

[0030] FIG. 1 is a connection configuration diagram of a vehicle black box equipped with a personal information protection function according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a detailed control configuration diagram of a vehicle black box equipped with a personal information protection function according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a control flowchart of a vehicle black box equipped with a personal information protection function according to an embodiment of the present invention. Specific details for implementing the invention

[0031] Hereinafter, a vehicle black box equipped with a personal information protection function according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the attached drawings. Furthermore, the embodiments described in this specification and the configurations illustrated in the drawings are merely the most preferred embodiments of the present invention and do not represent all technical concepts of the present invention; therefore, at the time of filing this application, there may be various equivalents and modifications that can replace them.

[0033] FIGS. 1 and FIGS. 2 are drawings illustrating a vehicle black box equipped with a personal information protection function according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0034] According to this, the vehicle black box (100) equipped with the personal information protection function of the present invention is equipped with a Bluetooth module, etc., to enable bidirectional short-range communication between devices, and can be linked with the driver's mobile terminal (200).

[0035] The vehicle black box (100) of the present invention comprises: a video capturing unit (110) for capturing images of the vehicle surroundings; an event monitoring unit (120) for outputting an event signal when an event occurs around the vehicle; a captured image storage unit (130) for temporarily storing images captured by the video capturing unit (110) continuously or at regular intervals; an event image storage unit (140) for storing event images for a set time period before and after the time of the event occurrence; a processing unit (150) for extracting event images for a set time period before and after the time of the event occurrence from the captured images stored in the captured image storage unit (130) when an event signal is input from the event monitoring unit (120) and storing them in the event image storage unit (140); and a short-range communication unit (160) for transmitting the event images stored in the event image storage unit (140) to the driver's mobile terminal (200).

[0037] Hereinafter, each component of the present invention will be described in detail.

[0038] The above-described image capturing unit (110) is composed of one or more cameras that capture images of the vehicle's surroundings in real time. At this time, the above-described image capturing unit (110) includes at least a front camera that captures the front of the vehicle and a rear camera that captures the rear of the vehicle, thereby capturing images of the vehicle's front and rear.

[0039] The above event monitoring unit (120) is configured to output an event signal when an event occurs around the vehicle, and can use various impact detection means such as acceleration sensors and vibration sensors capable of detecting impacts occurring to the vehicle, thereby detecting events such as impacts occurring while the vehicle is driving. Of course, the above event monitoring unit (120) is not limited to only impact-detecting sensors, but includes various sensors or devices capable of detecting or analyzing sudden video analysis of accidents, sudden acceleration, sudden braking, etc.

[0040] Additionally, the above-mentioned video storage unit (130) temporarily stores the video (video) captured by the video capturing unit (110) continuously or at regular time intervals, and the above-mentioned event video storage unit (140) stores the event video, which is the video (video) during a set time period before and after the time of event occurrence among the video.

[0041] At this time, the above-mentioned video storage unit (130) and event video storage unit (140) may be composed of a non-volatile memory such as a flash memory that can store video even when the power is cut off, and may be composed of an external memory type such as a Mini SD Card, SD Card, or USB Memory that can be detached from the main body.

[0042] Of course, the area of ​​the above flash memory can be divided to use the captured video storage unit (130) and the event video storage unit (140), or the captured video storage unit (130) and the event video storage unit (140) can be divided and used by folder.

[0043] At this time, the captured image stored in the captured image storage unit (130) and the event image stored in the event image storage unit (140) are preferably video images, but they may also be photographs taken continuously at regular time intervals, and it is obvious that such a technical scope also falls within the scope of rights of the present invention.

[0044] Since the storage capacity of these video recording storage units (130) and event video storage units (140) is limited, when continuously storing videos, older videos are overwritten first.

[0045] At this time, since the video recording storage unit (130) is a temporary storage area, it is desirable to operate the system so that when a video is stored in the event video storage unit (140), the video recording prior to the time of the event occurrence stored in the video recording storage unit (130) is deleted.

[0046] Meanwhile, when an event signal is input from the event monitoring unit (120) due to vehicle impact or the like, the above processing unit (150) extracts an event video for a set time period before and after the time of the event from the captured video stored in the captured video storage unit (130) and stores it in the event video storage unit (140).

[0047] At this time, when the above processing unit (150) completes the storage of the event video in the event video storage unit (140), it deletes all footage from the time period prior to the time of the event occurrence stored in the footage storage unit (130), thereby resolving the capacity issue of the footage storage unit (130) and protecting the driver's privacy.

[0048] This computational processing unit (150) can be composed of various application processors capable of controlling the overall operation of the vehicle black box (100).

[0049] Meanwhile, the above-mentioned short-range communication unit (160) is configured to enable the vehicle black box (100) to communicate bidirectionally with the driver's mobile terminal (200). It is preferable to apply a Bluetooth module, but if security can be maintained during data communication, an equivalent short-range communication module can be used as a substitute, and such a degree of design change is also naturally within the scope of the rights of the present invention.

[0050] In addition, the driver's mobile terminal (200) can also be a terminal equipped with a Bluetooth module capable of communicating with the short-range communication unit (160), and such driver's mobile terminal (200) can be a smartphone, which is mainly used as a means of communication these days, as well as a tablet PC.

[0051] When using such Bluetooth communication, if the vehicle black box (100) is displayed by clicking the "BLUETOOTH / PAIRING" button of the driver's mobile terminal (200), wireless communication with the vehicle black box (100) is established through a pairing attempt, and various functions of the vehicle black box (100) can be set using an application program (P) for the vehicle black box.

[0052] At this time, when attempting to pair with the vehicle black box (100) through the driver's mobile terminal (200), the driver's mobile terminal (200) transmits a connection signal indicating that a connection has been established to enable data communication, and when the connection signal is received by the vehicle black box (100), the processing unit (150) of the vehicle black box (100) can determine that it is connected to the driver's mobile terminal (200).

[0053] Of course, when pairing using the driver's mobile terminal (200), it is natural to set a password so that only the driver can wirelessly communicate with the vehicle black box (100), and it is desirable to operate so that the driver's mobile terminal (200) and the vehicle black box (100) are automatically connected with a single setting.

[0054] In addition, the vehicle black box (100) is operated by receiving power from a vehicle battery (300) for continuous video recording, and further comprises a power switch (170) for turning the vehicle battery (300) power on and off, and an operation setting unit (171) for basic operation and settings of the vehicle black box (100). It is preferable that the operation setting unit (171) be formed as a button structure, but is not limited thereto.

[0055] In addition, the vehicle black box (100) described above does not separately provide a display unit (or display window), such as an LCD panel or touch screen, for viewing recorded video or event video, thereby making the overall size compact and also completely preventing unspecified persons from arbitrarily operating the vehicle black box (100) to indiscriminately view recorded video or event video. However, it is obvious that the scope of rights of the present invention also extends to cases where a display unit is provided in the vehicle black box (100) equipped with the video transmission and deletion function of the present invention.

[0056] In addition, the driver's mobile terminal (200) can register and store event video collected from the vehicle black box (100) on a cloud server or the like using an online method. At this time, the driver's mobile terminal (200) can collect event video from the vehicle black box (100) and store it in the driver's mobile terminal (200)'s own memory, but it is also possible to collect event video in real time and simultaneously transmit it to a cloud server or the like for registration and storage.

[0057] Furthermore, in this invention, the technology regarding voice processing and storage is merely a known technology, so a detailed description thereof is omitted.

[0059] Meanwhile, the vehicle black box (100) of the present invention transmits an event video stored in its own event video storage unit (140) to the driver's mobile terminal (200), and when the transmission is completed, the event video stored in the event video storage unit (140) is automatically deleted according to the set conditions.

[0060] Accordingly, with reference to FIG. 3, the control process for transmitting an event video from the vehicle black box of the present invention to the driver's mobile terminal (200) will be explained in detail below.

[0061] First, the vehicle black box (100) records video of the vehicle's surroundings even before the vehicle starts, and when an event occurs, it saves the event video to the event video storage unit (140) and repeats the process of deleting the video recorded before the time of the event from the video storage unit (130).

[0062] At this time, the above event video is a video captured during a set time period before and after the time of the event occurrence (for example, 10 seconds before the time of the event occurrence to 10 seconds after the time of the event occurrence, a total of 20 seconds), and it is desirable to include date and time information in the name of the event video.

[0063] Therefore, when the event video is stored in the event video storage unit (140), all footage prior to the time of the last event occurrence in the footage storage unit (130) is deleted, thereby minimizing the exposure of personal information.

[0064] Meanwhile, when pairing is established between the driver's mobile terminal (200) and the vehicle black box (100), data communication becomes possible (S1). In this case, the driver's mobile terminal (200) transmits a connection signal indicating that a connection has been established for data communication. When the connection signal is received by the vehicle black box (100), the processing unit (150) of the vehicle black box (100) can determine that it is connected to the driver's mobile terminal (200).

[0065] Subsequently, when the application program (P) of the driver's mobile terminal (200) is executed, the driver's mobile terminal (200) transmits an event video request signal to the vehicle black box (100). (S2) At this time, the driver's mobile terminal (200) can automatically transmit an event video request signal when connected to the vehicle black box (100), or transmit an event video request signal to the vehicle black box (100) through the operation of the driver's mobile terminal (200).

[0066] When the processing unit (150) of the vehicle black box (100) receives an event video request signal through the short-range communication unit (160), it transmits one or more event videos stored in the vehicle black box (100) to the driver's mobile terminal (200) in the order of stored time. (S3)

[0067] And when the transmission of all event videos stored in the event video storage unit (140) is completed, the processing unit (150) of the vehicle black box (100) transmits a video transmission completion signal to the driver's mobile terminal (200) via the short-range communication unit (160). (S4)

[0068] Accordingly, a transmission completion message pops up on the application program (P) installed on the driver's mobile terminal (200), and a deletion confirmation window is displayed asking whether to delete the event video stored in the vehicle black box (100). Afterwards, the driver transmits an event video deletion request signal according to the operation of the driver's mobile terminal (200). (S5)

[0069] When the processing unit (150) of the vehicle black box (100) receives an event video deletion request signal from the driver's mobile terminal (200) through the short-range communication unit (160), it deletes one or more event videos stored in the vehicle black box (100). (S6)

[0070] Meanwhile, in the above step (S4), the video transmission completion signal transmitted from the vehicle black box (100) to the driver's mobile terminal (200) may be transmitted for each event video or a single video transmission completion signal indicating that the transmission of all event videos has been completed, and in the above step (S5), the event video deletion request signal transmitted from the driver's mobile terminal (200) to the vehicle black box (100) may be received as a video transmission completion signal for each event video or as a single video transmission completion signal indicating that the transmission of all event videos has been completed.

[0071] Accordingly, in the above step (S6), when an event video deletion request signal is received for each event video, the processing unit (150) of the vehicle black box (100) deletes only the corresponding event video stored in the event video storage unit (140), and when the request is for deletion of all event videos, it deletes all event videos.

[0073] Meanwhile, the transmission and deletion of video of the vehicle black box (100) can be carried out in the following process.

[0074] The processing unit (150) of the above vehicle black box (100) can repeat the process of automatically deleting event videos stored in the event video storage unit (140) and automatically transmitting them to the driver's mobile terminal (200) when wirelessly connected to the driver's mobile terminal (200) according to the setting state of the driver's mobile terminal (200), and when a new event video is extracted and stored in the event video storage unit (140), transmitting it to the driver's mobile terminal (200) and deleting the corresponding event video stored in the event video storage unit (140). In this case, the transmission and reception of a separate event video request signal, an event video transmission completion signal, an event video deletion request signal, etc., are omitted.

[0076] In addition, the transmission and deletion of video of the vehicle black box (100) may be carried out in the following process.

[0077] When the processing unit (150) of the vehicle black box (100) receives a connection signal from the driver's mobile terminal (200) and determines that wireless data communication is possible, it transmits all event videos stored in the event video storage unit (140) to the driver's mobile terminal (200). Afterward, when a new event video is extracted and stored in the event video storage unit (140), it transmits it to the driver's mobile terminal (200). Subsequently, when the processing unit (150) of the vehicle black box (100) does not receive a connection signal from the mobile terminal (200) for a set period of time, such as when the driver exits the vehicle, it deletes all event videos stored in the event video storage unit (140). Of course, in this case, the transmission and reception of a separate event video request signal, an event video transmission completion signal, and an event video deletion request signal are omitted.

[0079] The above description is an illustrative explanation of the technical concept of the present invention, and various modifications and variations are possible to those skilled in the art without departing from the essence of the present invention. The scope of protection of the present invention shall be interpreted by the claims below, and all technical concepts within an equivalent scope shall be included within the scope of rights of the present invention. Explanation of the symbols

[0081] 100: Vehicle dash cam 110: Video recording unit 120: Event Monitoring Unit 130: Recorded Video Storage Unit 140: Event video storage unit 150: Calculation processing unit 160: Near Field Communication Unit 170: Power Switch 171: Operation Settings Section 200: Driver's Mobile Terminal 300: Vehicle Battery P: Application

Claims

Claim 1 The system includes a video capturing unit (110) for capturing images of the vehicle surroundings, an event monitoring unit (120) for outputting an event signal when an event occurs around the vehicle, an event image storage unit (140) for storing event images for a set time period before and after the time of the event occurrence, a processing unit (150) for extracting event images for a set time period before and after the time of the event occurrence from the captured images stored in the captured images storage unit (130) when an event signal is input from the event monitoring unit (120) and storing them in the event image storage unit (140), and a short-range communication unit (160) for transmitting the event images stored in the event image storage unit (140) to the driver's mobile terminal (200), wherein the processing unit (150) transmits the event images stored in the event image storage unit (140) to the driver's mobile terminal (200) through the short-range communication unit (160) and deletes the event images stored in the event image storage unit (140); A vehicle black box equipped with a personal information protection function, characterized in that the processing unit (150) transmits all event videos stored in the event video storage unit (140) to the driver's mobile terminal (200) when a connection signal is received from the driver's mobile terminal (200), and deletes all event videos stored in the event video storage unit (140) when a connection signal is not received from the driver's mobile terminal (200) for a set period of time. Claim 2 A vehicle black box having a personal information protection function, wherein, in claim 1, it further includes a captured image storage unit (130) that temporarily stores images captured by the image capturing unit (110) continuously or at regular time intervals, and wherein the processing unit (150) deletes captured images prior to the time of the last event occurrence from the captured image storage unit (130) when the event image is stored in the event image storage unit (140). Claim 3 delete Claim 4 delete

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