Vehicle event recorder systems and networks having integrated cellular wireless communications systems
View Patent ↗Vehicle event recorder systems are arranged to be in constant communication with remote servers and administrators via mobile wireless cellular networks. Vehicle event recorders equipped with video cameras capture video and other data records of important events relating to vehicle use. These data are then transmitted over special communications networks having very high coverage space but limited bandwidth. A vehicle may be operated over very large region while maintaining continuous communications connections with a remote fixed server. As such, systems of these inventions may be characterized as including a mobile unit having: a video camera; a microprocessor; memory; an event trigger; and mobile wireless transceivers, and a fixed network portion including: mobile wireless cellular network, a protocol translation gateway, the Internet and an application-specific server.
1. A vehicle event recorder system comprising:
a video camera configured to capture image data, wherein the video camera has a field of view arranged to include an environment in and/or around a vehicle;
a communications transceiver configured to transmit information via a communication network to a server computer;
an electronic memory configured to electronically store information; and
a microprocessor configured to:
effectuate storage of captured image data in the electronic memory,
responsive to physical anomaly event triggers, create detailed complete datasets that correspond to individual physical anomaly event triggers, wherein the detailed complete datasets include image data captured by the video camera;
create abbreviated datasets by parsing the detailed complete datasets such that the abbreviated datasets include less bytes of data than the corresponding detailed complete datasets;
effectuate storage of the abbreviated datasets in the electronic memory, and
facilitate transmission of an individual one of the detailed complete datasets and the abbreviated datasets via the communications transceiver based on an amount of available bandwidth in the communication network,
wherein the microprocessor is configured to facilitate transmission of an individual one of the abbreviated datasets responsive to the amount of available bandwidth being sufficient to permit transmission of the abbreviated datasets in real-time or near real-time, and
wherein the microprocessor is configured to facilitate transmission of an individual one of the detailed complete datasets responsive to the amount of available bandwidth being sufficient to permit transmission of the detailed complete datasets.
2. The vehicle event recorder system of claim 1 , wherein the microprocessor is further configured to determine the amount of available bandwidth in the communication network for use by the communications transceiver, wherein the amount is determined prior to transmission of one or both of the abbreviated datasets and the detailed complete datasets.
3. The event recorder system of claim 1 , wherein the captured image data includes video images associated with a prescribed moment in time, wherein the prescribed moment corresponds to a given physical anomaly event trigger, and wherein the captured image data includes video images captured prior to and after the prescribed moment in time.
4. The vehicle event recorder system of claim 3 , wherein the given physical anomaly event trigger corresponds to a collision.
5. The vehicle event recorder system of claim 1 , wherein the detailed complete datasets include a first detailed complete dataset and a second detailed complete dataset, wherein the first detailed complete dataset corresponds to a first physical anomaly event trigger, wherein the second detailed complete dataset corresponds to a second physical anomaly event trigger, wherein the first detailed complete dataset includes more bytes of data than the second detailed complete dataset wherein the abbreviated datasets include a first abbreviated dataset and a second abbreviated dataset, wherein the first abbreviated dataset corresponds to the first detailed complete dataset, and wherein the second abbreviated dataset corresponds to the second detailed complete dataset.
6. The vehicle event recorder system of claim 5 , wherein the microprocessor is configured to facilitate transmission of the first detailed complete datasets responsive to the amount of available bandwidth being sufficient to permit transmission of the first detailed complete dataset, and wherein the microprocessor is configured to facilitate transmission of the second detailed complete datasets responsive to the amount of available bandwidth being sufficient to permit transmission of the second detailed complete dataset.
7. The vehicle event recorder system of claim 1 , further comprising a vehicle system transducer configured to collect data during use of the vehicle, wherein detection of the physical anomaly event triggers is based on the data collected by the vehicle system transducer.
8. The vehicle event recorder system of claim 1 , wherein the electronic memory includes managed loop memory and buffer memory, wherein the microprocessor is configured to effectuate storage of captured image data in the managed loop memory, and wherein the microprocessor is further configured to transfer, responsive to the physical anomaly event triggers, the captured image data from the managed loop memory to the buffer memory.
9. The vehicle event recorder system of claim 8 , wherein the microprocessor is configured to effectuate storage of the abbreviated datasets in the buffer memory, and wherein the communications transceiver is configured to transmit information from the buffer memory via the communication network to the server computer.
10. The vehicle event recorder system of claim 1 , wherein the microprocessor is configured to create the abbreviated datasets through compression of the detailed complete datasets.
11. The vehicle event recorder system of claim 1 , wherein transmission of the individual one of the abbreviated datasets via the communications transceiver is performed wirelessly.
12. The vehicle event recorder system of claim 1 , further comprising the server computer configured to receive transmission from the communications transceiver.
13. The vehicle event recorder system of claim 12 , further comprising an authentication client configured to provide authentication services, wherein the server computer includes an authentication component and vehicle event recorder application specific software, wherein the authentication component authenticates transmissions of one or both of the abbreviated datasets and the detailed complete datasets using the authentication client.