Abstract:
Disclosed herein are vehicle accident recorders and methods for generating accident information thereof. A method may include receiving an accident message transmitted from an accident vehicle; confirming a distance between a vehicle and an accident point and whether or not a view confirming the accident point is secured, based on accident data included in the accident message; and generating witness data for the accident point depending on results of the confirming of the distance between the vehicle and the accident point and whether or not the view is secured.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION 
     This application is based on and claims the benefit of priority to Korean Patent Application No. 10-2015-0081327, filed on Jun. 9, 2015 in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference. 
     TECHNICAL FIELD 
     The present disclosure relates to vehicle accident recorders in which a vehicle witnessing a vehicle accident among vehicles receives witness data as a broadcast message transmitted by an accident vehicle when the vehicle accident generates accident related data, and methods for generating accident information thereof. 
     BACKGROUND 
     As black boxes have become more available in vehicles, black boxes are more regularly utilized as evidence when a vehicle accident occurs. However, there is a limit to accurately determining circumstances of the accident just by the black box installed in a vehicle. In this case, if black box images of vehicles witnessing the accident around the scene of the accident are present, or infrastructures such as a closed-circuit television (CCTV) screen installed therearound, and the like are used, an accident situation may be more objectively analyzed and a cause of the accident may be perceived. 
     Thus, data for reproducing the accident situation may be collected by a method in which a vehicle broadcasts a message informing the accident to surrounding vehicles and infrastructures, and the vehicles and infrastructures receiving the message transmit data in which an accident surrounding situation is recorded to a server, in the case in which the vehicle senses the accident. 
     However, in the case in which all of the vehicles receiving the message transmit the data, since data which is not associated with the accident may be collected, storage of the server and network channels are wasted. Further, as data to be analyzed is increased, this increased data may become an obstacle to an accident analysis. Therefore, a need exists for an economical data transmission method for refining and transmitting only data which is associated directly with the accident among a variety of surrounding data. 
     SUMMARY 
     The present disclosure has been made to address the above-mentioned problems occurring in the prior art while still maintaining the advantages that the prior art achieved. 
     An aspect of the present disclosure provides a vehicle accident recorder in which a vehicle witnessing a vehicle accident among vehicles receiving a broadcast message transmitted by an accident vehicle in the case of the vehicle accident is configured to generate accident related data as witness data, and a method for generating accident information thereof. 
     According to an exemplary form of the present disclosure, a method for generating accident information of an vehicle accident recorder includes: receiving an accident message transmitted from an accident vehicle; confirming a distance between a vehicle and an accident point and whether or not a view confirming the accident point is secured, based on accident data included in the accident message; and generating witness data for the accident point depending on results of the confirming of the distance between the vehicle and the accident point and whether or not the view is secured. 
     The accident data may include an accident time and an accident position. 
     The accident data may further include a movement direction of the accident vehicle, crash information of the accident vehicle, a request distance of the witness data, altitude, a recent driving trajectory, speed immediately before an accident, and position accuracy. 
     The confirming of the distance between the vehicle and the accident point and whether or not the view is secured may include confirming a position of the accident point by parsing the accident message; operating distance data between the accident point and the vehicle; confirming whether the distance data is not more than a reference distance; and when the distance data is not more than the reference distance, confirming whether or not the view of the accident point is secured. 
     In the operating of the distance data, the distance data may be operated by using a Haversine operation. 
     In the operating of the distance data, a request distance of the witness data included in the accident data and the distance data may be operated by reflecting satellite accuracy. 
     The confirming of whether or not the view of the accident point is secured may include confirming whether the accident vehicle and the vehicle are positioned on the same road; operating an altitude difference of the accident vehicle and the vehicle; when the accident vehicle and the vehicle are positioned on the same road, confirming whether or not the vehicle obtains image data of the accident point; and when the image data of the accident point is obtained, generating the witness data. 
     The confirming of whether or not the accident vehicle and the vehicle are positioned on the same road may include operating the altitude difference of the accident vehicle and the vehicle; and confirming whether the altitude difference is less than tolerance. 
     In the confirming of whether or not the image data of the accident point is obtained, a driving path, a movement direction and steering angle information of the vehicle may be pieced together to confirm whether the accident point is positioned within a view range of the vehicle. 
     The witness data may include a data acquisition time, a data acquisition position, a movement direction of a data acquisition vehicle, and image data. 
     The witness data may further include speed and an image device specification of the data acquisition vehicle. 
     According to another exemplary form of the present disclosure, a vehicle accident recorder includes: a communicator configured to receive an accident message broadcasted from an accident vehicle; a vehicle information collector configured to collect vehicle data; and a controller configured to confirm a distance between a vehicle and an accident point and whether or not a view is secured based on accident data included in the accident message received through the communicator and generate witness data for the accident point. 
     The controller may be configured to process distance data between the accident point and the vehicle based on the accident data and configured to confirm whether the vehicle is positioned within a reference distance from the accident point. 
     The controller may reflect satellite accuracy at the time of operating the distance data. 
     The controller may be configured to process an altitude difference of the accident point and the vehicle and configured to confirm whether the accident point and the vehicle are positioned on the same road. 
     When the accident point and the vehicle are positioned on the same road, the controller may be configured to confirm whether the vehicle obtains image data of the accident point. 
     The controller may be configured to piece together a driving path, a movement direction, and steering angle information of the vehicle and be configured to confirm whether the accident point is positioned within a view range of the vehicle. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present disclosure will be more apparent from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. 
         FIG. 1  is a block configuration diagram of a vehicle accident recorder. 
         FIG. 2A  is a diagram illustrating a configuration of accident data. 
         FIG. 2B  is a diagram illustrating a configuration of witness data. 
         FIG. 3  is a flowchart illustrating a process of transmitting an accident message by an accident vehicle. 
         FIG. 4  is a flowchart illustrating a method for generating accident information from a vehicle accident recorder. 
         FIG. 5  is a flowchart illustrating a process of confirming a distance up to an accident point illustrated in  FIG. 4 . 
         FIG. 6  is a flowchart illustrating a process of confirming a view of the accident point illustrated in  FIG. 4 . 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     Hereinafter, exemplary forms of the present disclosure will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. 
     The present disclosure relates to a technology of efficiently transmitting witness data to reproduce an accident situation of a vehicle using the witness data of vehicles witnessing a vehicle accident. 
       FIG. 1  is a block configuration diagram of a vehicle accident recorder,  FIG. 2A  is a diagram illustrating a configuration of accident data, and  FIG. 2B  is a diagram illustrating a configuration of witness data. 
     Vehicle accident recorders  100  are mounted in an accident vehicle and witness objects. The witness objects are referred to as witness vehicles and infrastructures (e.g., CCTV, a security camera, etc.), and the like which are located around an accident point at which a vehicle accident occurs. 
     When the vehicle accident occurs, the vehicle accident recorder  100  collects information associated with the accident and generates an accident message. In addition, the vehicle accident recorder  100  broadcasts the generated accident message to surrounding vehicles and infrastructures. 
     In addition, when the vehicle accident recorder  100  receives the broadcasted accident message, the vehicle accident recorder  100  analyzes accident information included in the accident message to confirm a distance up to an accident point and a view of the accident point and then generates witness data to be transmitted to a server (not illustrated). Here, the server (not illustrated) collects accident related data transmitted from the vehicle accident recorders ( 100 ). In addition, the server (not illustrated) analyzes the collected data, and pieces together and processes data associated with the corresponding accident to be provided to the accident vehicle. 
     The vehicle accident recorder  100  includes a sensor  110 , a vehicle information collector  120 , a communicator  130 , a storage  140 , and a controller  150 . 
     The sensor  110  senses an occurrence of the vehicle accident using a sensor. For example, the sensor  110  senses the occurrence of the vehicle accident in the case in which impact of a threshold value or more is sensed by an impact sensor. 
     The vehicle information collector  120  collects vehicle data using a variety of sensors and electronic control units. The vehicle information collector  120  may collect the vehicle data using various sensors such as a black box, a forward camera, a backward camera, a lateral camera, a speed sensor, a global positioning system (GPS) module, and the like. The vehicle data includes a model, vehicle speed, a position, a specification of an electronic image device, image data, and the like. The vehicle data is used to generate accident data or witness data. 
     The communicator  130  performs data communication with the surrounding vehicles and/or the infrastructures. The communicator  130  may use a wireless communication technology such as Vehicle to Vehicle (V2V), Vehicle to infra (V2I), Bluetooth, local area communication, or the like. 
     The storage  140  stores the vehicle data collected by the vehicle information collector  120 . In addition, the storage  140  includes a program (software) for controlling an operation of the vehicle accident recorder  100 . The storage  140  may also store data generated according to the operation of the vehicle accident recorder  100 . 
     The storage  140  may include one or more types of storage medium of a flash memory type of memory, a hard disk type of memory, a multimedia card micro type of memory, a card type of memory (e.g., an SD or XD memory, or the like), a random access memory (RAM), a static random access memory (SRAM), a read only memory (ROM), an electrically erasable programmable read only memory (EEPROM), a programmable read only memory (PROM), a magnetic memory, a magnetic disk, and an optical disk. 
     The controller  150  controls an operation of each of the above-mentioned components. 
     When the sensor  110  senses the occurrence of the vehicle accident, the controller  150  collects the accident related data and generates the accident message. The controller  150  transmits the accident message generated by the communicator  130  to the surrounding vehicles and infrastructures, and the server. In this case, the controller  150  transmits unique accident identifier (ID) together with the accident message. 
     The accident message is configured of a header, a payload, and a check sum. The accident data is input to the payload of the accident message. As illustrated in  FIG. 2A , the accident data includes a time field, a position field, a heading field, a portion field, a distance field, and the like. The time field stores an accident time, the position field stores an accident occurrence position (latitude and longitude), the heading field stores a movement direction of the accident vehicle, the portion field stores a portion at which impact occurs on the basis of a vehicle body of the accident vehicle, the distance field stores a radius within which the witness data is to be requested, from the accident point (an absolute distance+a distance compensation according to satellite accuracy), and other fields store altitude, satellite accuracy, a recent driving trajectory, speed immediately before the accident, and the like. 
     As such, the accident data includes the accident time, the accident position (latitude and longitude), the movement direction of the accident vehicle, crash information, a request distance of the witness data, and the like. Here, the request distance of the witness data is calculated by reflecting the satellite accuracy to the absolute distance from a vehicle to the accident point. For example, when the request distance of the witness data is calculated, in the case in which the absolute distance from the vehicle to the accident point is 50 m and the satellite accuracy is 10%, the request distance of the witness data is the radius of 55 m (=50 m×(1+0.1)). 
     The controller  150  determines whether accident image data needs to be transmitted by considering a receiving rate of global navigation satellite system (GNSS) using national marine electronics associations (NMEA) information. 
     The NMEA information includes global positioning system fix data (GGA) information including a time, a position, fix related data, etc., information (GPS satellites in view: GSV) of all of the satellites which may be currently received by the GPS module, and recommended minimum data (RMC) information. 
     The GGA information includes a GNSS scheme, the number of usable satellites, horizontal dilution of precision (HDOP), differential GPS (DGPS) data age, and DGPS base station ID. 
     The GSV information includes the number of satellites which are viewed at a current position, a satellite number, altitude, azimuth, and signal to noise ratio (SNR). 
     RMC information includes universal time coordinated (UTC) and GNSS reliability. 
     The controller  150  may calculate accuracy for a corresponding position signal using the NMEA information. Thereby, a distance between the accident vehicle and the vehicle receiving the accident message, and a distance to which position accuracy is reflected may be calculated. In addition, the controller  150  may use the calculated distance information to determine whether the accident image data needs to be transmitted. 
     When the controller  150  receives the accident message through the communicator  130 , the controller  150  re-calculates the request distance of the witness data by reflecting position accuracy of the vehicle. For example, if the request radius included in the received accident message is 55 m and the position accuracy of the vehicle is 20%, the re-calculated request radius is 66 m (=55 m×(1+0.2)). 
     In addition, the controller  150  calculates a distance (D) between the accident point and the vehicle using longitude and latitude. Here, the controller  150  performs the calculation by using a Haversine operation. 
     If the distance between the accident point and the vehicle is shorter than the request distance of the witness data, the controller  150  generates the witness data and transmits the witness data to the server (not illustrated). For example, the controller  150  confirms whether the vehicle is positioned within a radius of 66 m from the accident point. 
     The controller  150  confirms whether the vehicle secures a view in which the accident point may be confirmed. In other words, the controller  150  confirms whether the vehicle may acquire image data of the accident point. 
     To this end, the controller  150  confirms whether the accident vehicle and the vehicle are on the same road by confirming altitude. In other words, the controller  150  confirms whether an altitude difference between the accident vehicle and the witness object (e.g., the witness vehicle) is less than a tolerance, using altitude information included in the NMEA information. 
     In addition, the controller  150  confirms whether an image of the accident point may be acquired by confirming a recent driving path and a movement direction (heading). 
     If the vehicle is positioned within a reference distance from the accident point and the image data of the accident point may be acquired, the controller  150  generates the witness data using the vehicle data collected by the vehicle information collector  120 . 
     As illustrated in  FIG. 2B , the witness data includes a time field, a position field, a heading field, a vehicle speed field, a device specification (H/W Spec) field, and an image data field. The time field stores a data acquisition time, the position field stores a data acquisition position (longitude and latitude), the heading field stores a movement direction of a data acquisition vehicle, the vehicle speed field stores speed of the data acquisition vehicle, the device specification field stores hardware information (e.g., a viewing angle, maximum resolution, the number of frames per second) of an image device (a camera), an image acquired by the image device, and the like. 
       FIG. 3  is a flowchart illustrating a process of transmitting an accident message by an accident vehicle. 
     The vehicle accident recorder  100  of the accident vehicle senses an accident occurrence through the sensor  110  (S 101 ). 
     If the accident occurrence is sensed, the vehicle accident recorder  100  collects the accident data using the vehicle information collector  120  (S 103 ). The accident data includes an accident time, an accident position (latitude and longitude), a movement direction of the accident vehicle, crash information, a request distance of the witness data, and the like. 
     The vehicle accident recorder  100  generates the accident message using the collected accident data (S 105 ). The accident message includes accident ID and the accident data. 
     The vehicle accident recorder  100  transmits the generated accident message to surrounding vehicles and infrastructures, and a server (not illustrated) (S 107 ). That is, the vehicle accident recorder  100  of the accident vehicle broadcasts the accident message informing the accident occurrence. In addition, the server (not illustrated) analyzes the received data, pieces together data associated with the vehicle accident, and provides accident information to the accident vehicle. 
       FIG. 4  is a flowchart illustrating a method for generating accident information from a vehicle accident recorder. In the present exemplary form, the object witnessing the vehicle accident transmits the witness data associated with the corresponding accident, and the case in which the witness object is a vehicle will be described by way of example. 
     Referring to  FIG. 4 , the vehicle accident recorder  100  of the witness vehicle receives the accident message transmitted from the accident vehicle through the communicator  130  (S 110 ). In this case, the vehicle accident recorder  100  of the witness vehicle is driven in a message reception standby state. 
     The controller  150  of the vehicle accident recorder  100  confirms a distance from the vehicle to the accident point based on the accident data included in the accident message (S 120 ). That is, the controller  150  confirms whether the vehicle is positioned within the request distance of the witness data included in the accident data from the accident point. 
     If the vehicle is positioned within the request distance from the accident point, the controller  150  confirms whether the accident point is in a view (S 130 ). In other words, the controller  150  determines whether the vehicle may obtain image data of the accident point. 
     If the accident point is in the view of the vehicle, the controller  150  generates and transmits the witness data (S 140 ). 
     Meanwhile, if a distance to the accident point is more than the request distance of the witness data or the accident point is out of a view of the vehicle, the controller  150  transmits a message informing no information (S 150 ). 
       FIG. 5  is a flowchart illustrating a process of confirming a distance up to an accident point illustrated in  FIG. 4 . 
     First, the controller  150  parses the accident message received through the communicator  130  (S 121 ). 
     The controller  150  confirms a position of the accident point (accident position) based on the accident data included in the parsed accident message (S 123 ). 
     The controller  150  calculates distance data between the vehicle and the accident point (S 125 ). In this case, the controller  150  calculates the reference distance (request distance of the witness data) by confirming satellite accuracy and reflecting the confirmed satellite accuracy. That is, the controller  150  re-calculates the request distance of the witness data by reflecting the satellite accuracy to the request distance of the witness data stored in the distance field of the accident message. 
     The controller  150  confirms whether the calculated distance data is not more than the reference distance (S 127 ). In other words, the controller  150  confirms whether the vehicle is positioned within the request distance of the witness data re-calculated based on the accident point. 
     If the calculated distance data is not more than the reference distance, the controller  150  performs an operation (S 130 ). Meanwhile, if the calculated distance data exceeds the reference distance, the controller  150  performs an operation (S 150 ). 
       FIG. 6  is a flowchart illustrating a process of confirming a view of the accident point illustrated in  FIG. 4 . 
     The controller  150  calculates altitudes of the accident vehicle (accident point) and the vehicle (witness vehicle) (S 131 ). The controller  150  confirms the altitude of the accident vehicle using altitude information included in the accident message and confirms the altitude of the vehicle based on GPS information obtained by the GPS module of the vehicle. In addition, the controller  150  calculates an altitude difference of the accident vehicle and the vehicle. 
     The controller  150  confirms whether the altitude difference is less than tolerance (S 133 ). The controller  150  confirms whether the accident vehicle and the vehicle are positioned on the same road using the altitude information. 
     If the altitude difference is less than the tolerance, the controller  150  confirms a driving path of the vehicle (S 135 ). The controller  150  may confirm a movement direction of the vehicle by confirming the driving path of the vehicle. Meanwhile, if the altitude difference exceeds the tolerance, the controller  150  performs the operation (S 150 ). 
     Next, the controller  150  confirms whether the accident point is positioned within a view range of the vehicle based on the movement direction and steering angle information of the vehicle (S 137 ) In other words, the controller  150  confirms whether the vehicle may acquire image data of the accident point. 
     If the accident point is positioned within the view range of the vehicle, the controller  150  performs the operation (S 140 ), and if the accident point is out of the view range of the vehicle, the controller  150  performs the operation (S 150 ). In other words, if the image data of the accident point may be acquired, the controller  150  generates the witness data and transmits the witness data to the server (not illustrated). Meanwhile, if the image data of the accident point may not be acquired, the controller  150  informs the server (not illustrated) that no information is to be provided. 
     As described above, according to exemplary forms of the present disclosure, since the vehicle receiving the broadcast message transmitted by the accident vehicle in the case of the vehicle accident generates only the data associated with the corresponding accident as the witness data, the data may be rapidly and accurately analyzed. 
     In addition, in forms of the present disclosure, system resources such as the storage of the server and the network channels may be saved, and the data may be rapidly and accurately analyzed. 
     Although the exemplary forms of the present disclosure have been disclosed for illustrative purposes, those skilled in the art will appreciate that various modifications, additions and substitutions are possible, without departing from the scope and spirit of the present disclosure as disclosed in the accompanying claims. Accordingly, such modifications, additions and substitutions should also be understood to fall within the scope of the present disclosure.