Patent ID: 8319619

Claim:
A method of observing, recording, and recovering visible information about objects, conditions, and events surrounding an automobile during a trip, comprising steps of: (a) prior to the trip, placing a plurality of cameras in circumferentially spaced positions around the periphery of the automobile at about the middle of its vertical height and fixedly securing them there to the automobile body with their fields of view directed outwardly; (b) upon starting the trip, activating all of the cameras to operate continuously throughout an entire trip; (c) throughout the entire trip, recording images acquired by each camera in a corresponding separate file; (d) using the separate file in a digital memory to separately record an optical data gathered by each one of the cameras, and using separate node files to provide eight separate files of real-time recorded data obtained from the respective cameras; (e) using the cameras as a set, not a combination, with each of the cameras operating separately and individually, and wherein the optical data which each camera acquires is recorded and recovered from the separate file; and (f) locating all apparatus needed for carrying out the method so that it is inaccessible to a driver throughout the entire trip while driving the automobile.