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 configured to couple with a vehicle, the system comprising:
a camera configured to acquire visual information representing a vehicle environment, the vehicle environment including spaces in and around an interior and an exterior of the vehicle; one or more vehicle systems transducers configured to generate output signals conveying vehicle usage information, the one or more vehicle systems transducers forming at least part of an on-board databus system, the vehicle usage information including information related to one or more of a drive-train, a transmission, an engine, brakes, or lights of the vehicle; a managed loop memory configured to electronically store information; a buffer memory configured to electronically store information; a transceiver configured to wirelessly transmit information to a remotely located server via a cellular communication network; and a microprocessor configured to:
effectuate storage of the visual information and the vehicle usage information in the managed loop memory in temporary datasets, the temporary datasets being stored for predetermined periods of time, the temporary datasets including a first dataset stored for a first period of time;compress the temporary datasets, the compressed datasets comprising less bytes of data than the temporary datasets;effectuate storage of the compressed datasets in the buffer memory, andfacilitate wireless transmission of the compressed datasets via the transceiver.