Vehicle Camera Control for Independent Power Outage Detection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing vehicle systems fail to effectively detect power outages independently, limiting the utilization of power supply functions during disasters.
Innovation Solution
A control device that acquires images from vehicles equipped with power supply functions, identifies turned-off lights, and refers to definition data to determine power outages, causing the vehicle's lights or horn to alert users.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the vehicle relies on central information to detect power outages, then the system complexity is reduced, but the ability to independently detect power outages is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The vehicle performs power outage detection independently using its own camera and processing units, without relying on external central systems. The vehicle captures images, identifies electric lights, and determines power outage status autonomously, enabling self-service detection capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces traditional mechanical or centralized detection systems with an optical-based image recognition system. The camera captures visual information of electric lights, and image processing algorithms automatically identify whether lights are on or off, substituting physical detection mechanisms with optical-electronic methods.
2Measurement precision
If the vehicle uses image processing to identify electric lights, then the measurement precision of power outage detection is improved, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system creates a visual copy of the real-world scene through camera imaging. By capturing images of electric lights and processing these visual copies, the system can analyze light states without physically interacting with the lights, enabling non-contact detection with high precision.
Solution Approach 2:
The camera and image processing algorithms serve as intermediaries between the vehicle and the electric lights. Instead of directly detecting light states through complex sensors, the system uses image capture and digital processing as an intermediary step to indirectly but accurately determine whether lights are on or off.
3Loss of information
If the vehicle activates lights or horn to alert users of power outages, then the information transmission effectiveness is improved, but the energy consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of continuous alerting, the system uses periodic or intermittent activation of lights or horn to notify users of power outages. This periodic action achieves effective information transmission while minimizing energy consumption compared to continuous operation.
Solution Approach 2:
The notification system activates specific components (lights or horn) locally based on the detected power outage condition, rather than activating all vehicle systems. This localized response ensures effective alerting while consuming minimal energy by only engaging necessary notification components.
Data Source
AI summary
A control device includes a control unit that acquires an image taken by a vehicle provided with a power supply function for a user, identifies an electric light that is turned off and that is included in the acquired image, refers to definition data that defines whether the identified electric light should be turned on during a time zone when the image was taken to determine whether a power outage has occurred.