Vehicle Event Playback Synchronization via Timestamp Alignment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing multimedia playback systems for vehicle event recorders lack effective synchronization of data from various sensors, leading to misalignment and difficulty in analyzing vehicle events, as different sensors generate data at varying delays and rates, making it challenging to present a coherent timeline of events.
Innovation Solution
A system that synchronizes data from multiple sensors by compensating for known delays and aligning signals with the most delayed signal, allowing for the creation of a unified event timeline, which is then used to record and playback vehicle events, including audio, video, and safety system data, enabling better understanding of events through synchronized presentation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If data from multiple sensors are collected and stored separately, then each sensor data can be captured independently, but the data becomes misaligned and difficult to analyze due to varying delays and rates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a central processing unit as an intermediary that receives data packets from multiple sensors, extracts timestamps and data values, and performs synchronization operations. This mediator coordinates the timing information across all sensors, aligning their data streams without requiring direct coordination between sensors themselves, thus resolving the contradiction between maintaining data accuracy and managing synchronization complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the temporal parameters of sensor data by adjusting timestamps and synchronizing data rates. The central processing unit modifies the timing parameters of incoming sensor data packets, aligning them to a common time reference frame. This parameter transformation enables coherent analysis of multi-sensor data while accommodating the inherent variations in sensor sampling rates and delays.
2Adaptability or versatility
If sensors generate data at varying delays and rates, then each sensor can operate independently, but the resulting data streams become misaligned making event analysis difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary synchronization actions by extracting and comparing timestamps from sensor data packets before processing the actual sensor values. The central processing unit prepares the data streams by establishing time alignments and adjusting for varying rates in advance of detailed analysis, ensuring that event timeline coherence is maintained throughout subsequent processing steps.
Solution Approach 2:
The synchronization mechanism uses feedback from timestamp comparisons to continuously adjust the alignment of data streams. By monitoring the timing relationships between sensors and making real-time adjustments to synchronize data rates and delays, the system maintains coherent event timelines while accommodating the independent operation of diverse sensors with different characteristics.
Data Source
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AI summary
Vehicle event data playback systems described herein may provide users means for reviewing events recorded by a vehicle event recorder. Circumstances relating to vehicle operation may be visually presented in these playback systems. Video playback from multiple recording devices may be synchronized with each other and/or with information related to the operation of the vehicle during the recorded events to affect a presentation of information related to operation of the vehicle. A user may be presented with many data types in graphical and/or intuitive arrangements.