Vehicle Data Collection Using Time-Based Hash Segmentation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing data collection systems for road environments around vehicles can inadvertently reveal personal activities of vehicle owners, posing privacy concerns due to the lack of effective data protection mechanisms.
Innovation Solution
An apparatus that uses a processor to associate data generated by vehicle sensors with different hash values based on predefined time periods, irreversibly transforming the vehicle identifier, to obscure the connection between the data and the vehicle's activities, thereby preventing inference of individual activities.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If data is collected and stored with vehicle identifiers to enable distinction between different vehicles, then data identification and management capability is improved, but privacy protection deteriorates as activities of individual vehicle owners can be guessed
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a hash value as an intermediary element between the vehicle identifier and the collected data. The hash value serves as a mediator that obscures the direct connection between the vehicle identifier and the data, preventing privacy leakage while maintaining data identification capability through the hash function's deterministic nature
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts the vehicle identifier from its direct association with the collected data and replaces it with a hash value. This extraction separates the identification function (performed by the hash value) from the privacy-sensitive vehicle identifier, thereby protecting privacy while maintaining data traceability
2Device complexity
If a single hash value is used for all data from a vehicle, then data processing simplicity is maintained, but privacy protection is insufficient as the connection between data and vehicle activities remains identifiable
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the data collection period into multiple time periods and assigns different hash values to data collected in different periods. This segmentation prevents activity inference by ensuring that data from different time periods have different identifiers, while the overall processing remains simple through automated hash generation and assignment
Solution Approach 2:
The patent makes the hash value dynamic by changing it based on the time period of data collection. Instead of using a static single hash value, the system dynamically generates different hash values for different time periods, thereby preventing activity inference while maintaining processing simplicity through time-based automation
Data Source
AI summary
An apparatus for collecting data includes a memory that stores a vehicle identifier for identifying a vehicle; and a processor configured to associate, when a time of generation of data representing road environment around the vehicle is included in a first period, a first hash value with the data and to associate, when the time of generation is included in a second period different from the first period, a second hash value different from the first hash value with the data. The data is generated by a sensor mounted on the vehicle. The first hash value and the second hash value are obtained by irreversibly transforming the vehicle identifier.