Patent ID: 7254482

Claim:
A vehicle information recording system comprising an information acquisition device which is placed in a vehicle and which acquires predetermined information, and an information management device which is placed outside of the vehicle and which stores and manages the information acquired by said information acquisition device; wherein said information acquisition device includes: a picture acquiring unit operable to take a picture of surroundings and to generate picture data showing the picture, said picture acquiring unit including a camera which is operable to take the picture of the surroundings; an other vehicle data acquiring unit operable to acquire other vehicle data that is identification information which is uniquely assigned to each vehicle and which identifies an other vehicle shown in the picture data, said other vehicle data acquiring unit including a receiver which is operable to receive the other vehicle data transmitted from the other vehicle, wherein directivity of said receiver matches a viewing angle of a picture taken by said camera; and a sending unit operable to send sending data including own vehicle data which identifies the vehicle in which said information acquisition device is placed, the picture data and the other vehicle data; and wherein said information management device includes: a receiving unit operable to receive the sending data sent by said sending unit; an adding unit operable to add the other vehicle data and the own vehicle data which are included in the sending data, as related data, to the picture data included in the sending data received by said receiving unit; a recording unit operable to record the picture data to which the related data is added on a recording medium; and a searching unit operable to search the data recorded in the recording medium for picture data which shows the other vehicle based on one of the added other vehicle data and own vehicle data.