In-vehicle monitoring camera selection via IP table

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Solution Overview

Problem

In railway vehicles, the varying positional relationships between monitoring cameras and emergency call devices complicate the display of accurate images when an emergency call is made, as existing systems either lack integration or cannot satisfy the vibration specifications required for railway vehicles.

Innovation Solution

An in-vehicle monitoring system that uses an information control device to coordinate monitoring cameras and emergency call devices via an in-train network, selecting and displaying relevant imaging data based on pre-defined IP addresses or multicast addresses to ensure detailed images of the in-vehicle status are captured and displayed.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Adaptability or versatility

If monitoring cameras are installed at various angles to suit different vehicle purposes, then the adaptability of the monitoring system is improved, but the complexity of coordinating camera display during emergencies increases due to varying positional relationships

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveadaptability of monitoring systemVSAvoidcomplexity of camera coordination
Core Design Contradiction:
Adaptability or versatilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The system performs preliminary actions by pre-storing the positional relationships between emergency call devices and monitoring cameras in a table during system setup. When an emergency occurs, the control device simply retrieves the pre-stored camera identification from the table based on the emergency call device's location, eliminating the need for complex real-time coordination calculations and reducing operational complexity.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

2Device complexity

If conventional monitoring systems are used without integration, then the device complexity is reduced, but the measurement precision of incident location and image relevance deteriorates

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvesimplicity of system structureVSAvoidprecision of incident location
Core Design Contradiction:
Device complexityVSMeasurement precision

Solution Approach 1:

The system merges the emergency call device information with the monitoring camera selection process through centralized control. The control device integrates the emergency call device's location data with the pre-stored camera position table to automatically identify and display the most relevant camera images, achieving precise incident location tracking while maintaining relatively simple system structure.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #5Merging (Combining)

3Loss of information

If real-time image display from multiple cameras is implemented during emergencies, then the information completeness is improved, but the loss of time for processing and transmitting multiple image streams increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvecompleteness of incident informationVSAvoidtime for image processing
Core Design Contradiction:
Loss of informationVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The system extracts only the necessary image information by using the pre-stored positional relationship table to identify and retrieve images from specific monitoring cameras that are most relevant to the emergency location. This selective extraction approach provides complete incident information while minimizing processing time by avoiding unnecessary transmission of images from all cameras.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

Data Source

PatentEP2945370B1Vehicle interior monitoring system, and vehicle interior monitoring method
Publication Date: 2021.05.05 MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC CORP
  • EP2945370B1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP2945370B1 patent drawingFigure 2
  • EP2945370B1 patent drawingFigure 3

AI summary

An in-vehicle monitoring system including monitoring cameras 1 and emergency call devices 2, a display unit 4, and an information control device 3, and monitoring inside of a vehicle by using images taken by the monitoring cameras 1, wherein a table, in which IP addresses of the emergency call devices 2 and IP addresses of the monitoring cameras 1 are stored in association with each other in a one-to-one relationship or a one-to-many relationship, is set in the information control device 3, and upon receiving a call signal 2a from an operated emergency call device 2, the information control device 3 specifies an IP address of a monitoring camera 1 corresponding to the operated emergency call device 2 from the IP addresses of the monitoring cameras 1 based on the table, selects imaging data 1a from the specified monitoring camera 1 from pieces of imaging data 1a from the monitoring cameras 1, and transmits it to the display unit 4.