Vehicle event recorder systems and networks having integrated cellular wireless communications systems

摘要

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.

主权项

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, wherein the physical anomaly event triggers include a particular individual physical anomaly event trigger, and wherein the detailed complete datasets include a particular individual detailed complete dataset that corresponds to the particular individual physical anomaly event trigger;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, wherein the abbreviated datasets include a particular individual abbreviated dataset that has been created by parsing the particular individual detailed complete dataset such that the particular individual abbreviated dataset corresponds to the particular individual physical anomaly event trigger;effectuate storage of the abbreviated datasets in the electronic memory, andfacilitate transmission of an individual one of the detailed complete datasets and the abbreviated datasets via the communications transceiver, wherein the microprocessor is further configured to prioritize transmission of the abbreviated datasets over the detailed complete datasets such that the particular individual abbreviated dataset is transmitted without delay via the communication network, and subsequently the particular individual detailed complete dataset is transmitted via the communication network responsive to the amount of available bandwidth being sufficient to permit transmission of the particular individual detailed complete dataset.