Data processing: vehicles – navigation – and relative location – Vehicle control – guidance – operation – or indication – Vehicle diagnosis or maintenance indication
Reexamination Certificate
2000-05-18
2001-06-12
Cuchlinski, Jr., William A. (Department: 3661)
Data processing: vehicles, navigation, and relative location
Vehicle control, guidance, operation, or indication
Vehicle diagnosis or maintenance indication
C701S001000, C701S036000, C340S008100, C340S439000, C303S115600, C303S115600, C188S349000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06246934
ABSTRACT:
INCORPORATION BY REFERENCE
The disclosure of Japanese Patent Application No. HEI 11-150077 filed on May 28, 1999 including the specification, drawings and abstract is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a vehicular data recording apparatus and method and, more particularly, to a data recording apparatus and method that records running data of a vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
A data recording apparatus of a vehicle, such as a motor vehicle or the like, is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-249137. The data recording apparatus records running data (driving data) regarding the vehicle by storing the data into a storage device in a sequential overwrite manner. When the magnitude of acceleration of the vehicle is equal to or greater than a reference value, the apparatus determines that the vehicle has entered an abnormal state, and stops the overwrite storage of data into the storage device.
Since the data recording apparatus records running data of the vehicle into the storage device in the sequential overwrite manner, the storage device of the apparatus does not need to have a large storage capacity. Furthermore, since the data recording apparatus stops the overwrite data storage into the storage device when the magnitude of acceleration of the vehicle becomes equal to or greater than the reference value, the data recording apparatus is able to reliably store running data provided immediately before the magnitude of vehicle acceleration becomes equal to or greater than the reference value.
However, since the data recording apparatus is constructed so as to determine that the vehicle has entered an abnormal state when the magnitude of vehicle acceleration becomes equal to or greater than the reference value, the data recording apparatus sometimes fails to detect an abnormal state although the vehicle is actually in an abnormal state. More specifically, the acceleration of a vehicle becomes relatively great in some cases during normal running of the vehicle. Therefore, in a data recording apparatus that determines whether the vehicle is in an abnormal state on the basis of only the magnitude of acceleration of the vehicle, the reference value for the determination as to whether the vehicle is in an abnormal state needs to be set to a relatively large value. Hence, in some cases, although an abnormal state, such as a crash of the vehicle or the like, has actually occurred, the data recording apparatus fails to detect the abnormal state, and therefore fails to store running data provided immediately before the occurrence of the abnormal state of the vehicle.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, it is an aspect of the invention to reliably determine, when a vehicle enters an abnormal state, that the vehicle is in the abnormal state, so as to store running data provided immediately before the occurrence of the abnormal state of the vehicle.
In accordance with one aspect of the invention, a vehicular data recording apparatus includes a memory that stores running data regarding a vehicle, and a running data recording controller that controls the storage of the running data by the memory. In particular, the running data recording controller: determines whether a magnitude of an acceleration of the vehicle is equal to or greater than a reference value; determines whether a vehicle speed of the vehicle is equal to or less than a reference value; determines whether the vehicle is in an abnormal state based on the determined vehicle acceleration and speed; and controls the storage of the running data into the memory based on whether the abnormal state has been determined.
Normally, when a vehicle crashes, the deceleration of the vehicle sharply increases simultaneously with the crash so that the magnitude of the acceleration reaches a very large value, and the vehicle speed sharply decreases to a very small value. In contrast, when the magnitude of the acceleration becomes relatively great during normal running of the vehicle, the vehicle speed is relatively high. If, due to a crash of a vehicle or the like, the state of the mount of a sensor for detecting the acceleration of the vehicle becomes abnormal or the vehicle becomes abnormally tilted, the sensor comes to constantly indicate a very high value that is normally not reached during normal running or stoppage of the vehicle. Therefore, by taking into consideration the vehicle speed in addition to the acceleration of the vehicle, it becomes possible to more reliably determine whether the vehicle is in an abnormal state such as a crash of the vehicle or the like.
In the above-described vehicular data recording apparatus, it is determined whether the vehicle is in the abnormal state based on the determined vehicle acceleration and speed. Therefore, the e apparatus is able to discriminate the abnormal state from a case where the magnitude of the acceleration of the vehicle becomes relatively great during normal driving or stoppage of the vehicle, and therefore is able to more reliably determine whether the vehicle is in the abnormal state. Hence, the apparatus is able to reliably store running data provided immediately before the vehicle enters the abnormal state.
In the vehicular data recording apparatus, the abnormal state may be determined if the vehicle speed is determined to be equal to or less than the reference speed value within a predetermined length of time following a time point at which the acceleration is determined to be equal to or greater than the reference acceleration value.
Therefore, since it is determined that the vehicle is in the abnormal state if the vehicle speed is determined to be equal to or less than the reference speed value within the predetermined length of time following a time point at which the acceleration is determined to be equal to or greater than the reference acceleration value, it is not necessary to set a large reference value for the determination regarding the acceleration of the vehicle. Thus, the apparatus is able to more reliably determine whether the vehicle is in the abnormal state.
The vehicular data recording apparatus may further have a construction as follows. That is, the acceleration determination may be made by determining whether a magnitude of a longitudinal acceleration of the vehicle is equal to or greater than a corresponding longitudinal acceleration reference value, and whether a magnitude of a lateral acceleration of the vehicle is equal to or greater than a corresponding lateral acceleration reference value. The abnormal state is determined if the vehicle speed is determined to be equal to or less than the reference speed value within the predetermined length of time following one of a time point at which the longitudinal acceleration of the vehicle is determined to be equal to or greater than the longitudinal acceleration reference value and a time point at which the lateral acceleration of the vehicle is determined to be equal to or greater than the lateral acceleration reference value.
The abnormal state may be determined if the vehicle speed is determined to be equal to or less than the reference speed value and the acceleration is determined to be equal to or greater than the reference acceleration value.
Therefore, since it is determined that the vehicle is in the abnormal state if the vehicle speed is determined to be equal to or less than the reference speed value and the acceleration is determined to be equal to or greater than the reference acceleration value, it is not necessary to set a large reference value for the determination regarding the acceleration of the vehicle. Thus, the apparatus is able to more reliably determine whether the vehicle is in the abnormal state.
The vehicular data recording apparatus may further have a construction in which the acceleration determination is made by determining whether a magnitude of a longitudinal acceleration of the vehicle is equal to or greater than a corresponding reference long
Kido Shigeyuki
Otake Hirotada
Cuchlinski Jr. William A.
Oliff & Berridg,e PLC
To Tuan C
Toyota Jidosha & Kabushiki Kaisha
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