Patent ID: 11863712
Assignee: SAMSARA INC.
Field: Audio-visual technology (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H | IPC H

Claim 0:
1. A camera kit comprising:
a controller configured to store video data from a plurality of camera devices positioned on a vehicle;
the plurality of camera devices each including at least:
an optical sensor configured to capture a video data stream;
a deserializer configured to receive a serial data stream from a downstream camera device and to convert the serial data stream into one or more separate video data streams;
a serializer configured to generate an output serial data stream including the captured video data stream and the deserialized separate video data streams, and
an output port configured to transmit the output serial data stream to an upstream camera device;

wherein the controller is further configured to:
detect sequential powering-on of individual camera devices of the plurality of camera devices;
in response to detecting a newly powered on camera device, assign a virtual channel identifier to the newly powered on camera device, wherein each of the plurality of camera devices is assigned a unique virtual channel identifier;
receive a combined serial data stream from a proximal camera device of the plurality of camera devices, the serial data stream including a series of virtual channel identifiers followed by video data from the respective camera device; and
deserialize the combined serial data stream based on associations between virtual channel identifiers and video data in the combined serial data stream to generate a plurality of separate video data streams associated with a corresponding plurality of camera devices; and
store the separate video data streams for the corresponding plurality of camera devices.