In-vehicle Camera System with GPS and GPRS

In-vehicle Camera System (IVCS) takes and stores pictures related to certain trigger events (ignition, door opening, taxi meter on, and manual emergency button pressed). The stored pictures are secured by encryption and can only be viewed and downloaded through the USB port using specialized software. The emergency button triggered alert is sent to the central server or a designated cell phone number through SMS at the time when it occurs. With the GPS built-in, it provides location data for the pictures and serves as a GPS tracker for the vehicle. Furthermore, the user can cut off the ignition of the car by sending an SMS command. There are four trigger events – ignition, door opening, taxi meter on, and manual emergency button pressed. The unit is capable of saving pictures several seconds before and several seconds after a certain trigger event occurs. To achieve that, the device continuously takes pictures at 1 frame per second after the ignition is on, and stores the pictures in a buffer storage area in a first-in-first-out mode. When a certain trigger event occurs, the device saves the pictures that were taken several seconds before and several seconds after the trigger into a “permanent” storage area for future retrieval. The pictures are saved in the “permanent” storage area also in a first-in-first-out mode. The most important trigger event is the manual emergency button pressed. Once it occurs, the pictures related to the event are saved for 72 hours without being deleted. To guarantee the safe storage of these pictures, a special storage area is assigned to store pictures for up to 10 emergency events (max number to be determined). This storage area still operates in a first-in-first-out mode, but with one constraint – the pictures in this storage area can only be deleted when they are 72 hours old. If the emergency button is pressed when this storage area is full with pictures taken within 72 hours, the trigger is ignored. The trigger event of a higher priority order supersedes the trigger event of a lower priority order. The trigger event of the same priority order (for example, Taxi Meter On vs. Door Opening) or of the same type (Taxi Meter On vs. another Taxi Meter On) supersedes each other. When the unit is processing a trigger event, if there occurs another trigger event which has a higher priority order than the event being processed, the unit stops processing the current event and starts right away to process the new event. When the unit is processing a trigger event, if there occurs another trigger event which has a lower priority order than the event being processed, the unit continues processing the current even and ignores the new event. When the unit is processing a trigger event, if there occurs another trigger event of the same priority order or of the same type as the event being processed, the unit stops processing the current event and starts right away to process the new event. When the unit stops processing a previous event, whatever has been saved about that event remains saved (is not deleted). The stored pictures can be viewed (browsed) and downloaded with a PC, through the USB port on the unit. To protect the privacy of the passengers, the pictures cannot be retrieved or viewed by unauthorized personnel. Only the police can download and watch the pictures for criminal investigation. Two measures are taken to guarantee data security. 1) The saved picture data are encrypted. 2) The pictures can only be retrieved by using special software with a user name and password. Furthermore, each access to the pictures is logged in the unit. When the door is opened, in addition to saving the pictures, the unit sends an SMS message to a pre-determined cell phone number. The content of the message should include the following, one line each item. (a) Text “Door opened.”; (b) License number, in the format of “Lic# 3PZS675”; (c) Date and time when the door opened, in the format of “Time: mm-dd-yy, hh:mm:ss”; (d) Longitude and latitude for the location where the door opened; and, in the format of ‘Lon: 33°24’25”, Lat: 45°32’18”’ This feature can be enabled or disabled by the installation software. A relay is built into the unit for connecting and disconnecting the ignition line. The user can send an SMS command to the unit to cut off the ignition. Like all other SMS commands, this command should incorporate user name and password, to avoid tampering. GPS tracking feature is integrated into the unit. The unit can be programmed to update its location once every 15 seconds to once every 10 minutes. The default update frequency is once every minute.