CarRec 9000Car alarm with cameras

Reimo, Kätlin, Argo, Kerstin, Norbert, Maria

IMKE 2011

Our solution offers a grand relief for this - automated video recorders that get activated, when the car feels a bump.

Concept of CarRec 9000

Often you can get an unwanted bump in a random parking lot.

A car is equipped with 2 panorama cameras located inside the car, one located at the front windshield and one at the back.

Cameras

Recording starts only when the car is under an alarm.

Recording

Recording is made from all angles creating a 360° view. Panorama cameras are located at the ends of the cars.

Cameras are equipped with night vision.

The vehicle has to have a balance-aware alarm.

In our prototype project we used a touch and an infrared sensors to detect the bump.

Technical details

If a sudden hit is felt by a car (another vehicle bumps the object),

Technical details

the alarm (balance or touch sensor) emits an electro-magnetic impulse to the alarm center.

The impulse triggers the start of the operation:

the computer program activates the cameras which will be set on recording mode

Technical details

The local data collecting device (car computer system) starts importing visual input from the cameras, saving it.

Technical details

The recording of the visual image continues for a preconfigured time since the initiation of the alert.

Technical details

When the owner enters the car, he hears a continuous beep from the data collecting device. This is a sign that the system has recorded something.

The information record now can be then obtained from the system (e.g. via USB stick).

PHIDGET SENSORS for the car to determine the bump

Tools used for prototype

COMPUTER for software programs to connect the Phidgets and camera

Logitech WEBCAM to capture the bumping car after hit

Infrared or touch sensor is connected via PhidgetSBC to computer.

The prototype testing

When a bump is detected,the computer programlistening the Phidgets startsthe webcam.

Webcam starts capturing video (for certain time).

The video is saved in the computer.

In the prototype testing weused Flash ActionScript 3.0

The scripts

When the bump was detected, ActionScript code ran the .bat file.

.bat file started the FFMPEGprogram to stream the video from WebCam

start C:\ffmpeg\bin\ffmpeg –f vfwcap -r 25 -s cif -t 0:0:20 -i :0.0 -y C:\ffmpeg\bin\outputfile.mpg

Thank you!