Apparatus for picking up and video recording a visual range outside a motor vehicle, and its use as a documentary proof of an occurrence

Abstract

 An apparatus for picking up and video recordina a visual ranae outside a motor vehicle comprises at least one camera (21, 22, 23, 24), which is mounted inside the motor vehicle (20) and is focused toward the outside, at least a connected video recorder (30) through an interconnecting cable 7 and provided with an "autoreverse" device, a power supply circuit (5, 9) of said at least one camera and said at least a video recorder, includina the battery (3) of the motor vehicle (20) and a start switch (4). The apparatus is used for an audiovisual reproduction. valid as a documentary proof, in particular of a road accident.

Description

[0001] This invention relates to an apparatus for picking up and video recordina a visual ranae outside a motor vehicle, and its use for an audiovisual reproduction, valid as a documentary proof, of an occurrence.

[0002] Nowadays cameras, being fixedly focused outwards, are already used on motor vehicles. The cameras mounted e.g. on racing cars, are designed to telecast usefully subjective images in a television report of a motor race. There is not an apparatus for the video recording on those cars. Further, on trams and other public transport vehicles there are already cameras which are focused on the entrance doors and located on a tapered rear portion of the tram, that can be seen scantly by a tram-driver. These cameras are connected to a television monitor situated near the driver's seat, so that the tram-driver watches over passengers boarding regularly before shutting the doors. Not even in this case a video recorder is used.

[0003] Differently from the pick up apparatus in the above mentioned examples, the inventive concept, which this invention is based on, aims to solve a problem of making a proof of an occurrence, in particular a road accident, available to those concerned.

[0004] In the jurisprudence, a proof always relates to a demonstration of a juridical fact. The demonstration of the existence of the juridical fact acquires a practical interest as it enables that the existence of rights or obligations, powers or duties, or the principle of punitive claims recognized by law are demonstrated. The documentary proofs, together with the testimonial evidences, are among the historical proofs, which are those facts that represent another, past or far, occurrence. In the documentary proofs, in general an occurrence finds its reproduction through a material element (e.g. a photographic, phonographic, audiovisual reproduction thereof, etc.), while in the testimonial evidence, a fact is represented by what a person is telling. The documentary proofs, as all the other proofs, are then useful to enable a judge or other competent person to become convinced that a fact actually happened as reported by the same proofs. However, only the technical reproductions of images and sounds are capable to make one certain that a representation and an historical fact represented are correspondinq (almost always any manipulation can be technically checked), while the testimonial evidences however need the mediation of the evaluation of the judge who must believe in the truthfulness of that representation.

[0005] For this reason, as well as because not very often witnesses are present and available to testify reliably in the case of road accidents, there is the need of instruments that can help an insurance company, a judge or other person, to settle a controversy by giving the responsibility accordina to the rules of the road.

[0006] A main object of this invention is therefore to enable a motor vehicle driver to pick up all that happens outside his/her motor vehicle, automatically of course, so that he/she is not distracted from the drive. In general it is sufficient to pick up what can be seen through the windscreen and the rear window of the travelling motor vehicle, in such a way that the reproduction of occurrences picked up from the inside of the motor vehicle can become a documentary proof, in case of a road accident, of leqally prosecutable crimes or even of events able to constitute subject of examination by competent people.

[0007] A further object of the invention is that the pick up and video recording of occurrences can take place so as to be accepted later as an indubitable proof, because it is recoqnized free of manipulations without any need of involving further technical ascertainments.

[0008] Such obiects are achieved by the present invention which provides, as defined and characterized, in its more aeneral form, in the first of the claims that end this specification and, in its specific more significant embodiments in its following claims, an apparatus for picking up and video recordina a visual range outside a motor vehicle, that comprises:

• at least one camera, which is mounted on a support inside the motor vehicle and is focused toward the outside the motor vehicle.
• at least a video recorder, which is situated in a place particularly protected inside the motor vehicle and is connected to said at least one camera in order to receive therefrom electrical information through an interconnecting cable, said video recorder being provided with an "autoreverse" device.
• a power supply circuit of said at least one camera and said at least a video recorder, including the battery of the motor vehicle and a start switch. Advantageously, a cryptographic system of recordina of the electric information from the camera is provided, adapt to make not directly intelligible the shot recorded on said video recorder, the system comprisinq a decoder for making clear the same shot.

[0009] The advantages of the invention are evident. Besides providing indubitable proofs of facts with juridical importance, as abovesaid, the invention has certainly a deterrent power, dissuading people in the road in general and motor vehicle drivers in particular from irresponsible behaviours. As a favourable consequence, the road accidents and crimes in general can decrease, as the behaviour of motor vehicle drivers and people in general, which can be video recorded and brought forward as a proof against them, tends to become more responsible in virtue of the invention. Thus, analogously the costs imposed on the community as losses of human lives and material damages, as well as directly the costs of the insurance companies can decrease. The insurance companies in turn should reduce premiums of policies for motor vehicles in which the pickinq up and video recording apparatus according to the invention is applied, as a premium reduction is normally made to a policy-holder who takes some precaution in order to reduce road accidents.

[0010] The invention will be described more in detail below only in an illustrative and not limiting way, in connexion with a preferred enbodiment thereof and the accompanying drawing in which:

[0011] Figure 1 is a perspective view of a motor vehicle on which the picking up and video recording apparatus according to the invention is mounted.

[0012] In the figure numeral 10 denotes an assembly of a support 1 and at least a camera 21 mounted on the support 1 inside a motor vehicle 20, and numeral 30 denotes at least a video recorder, also situated inside the motor vehicle 20.

[0013] The schematically shown support 1 can be fitted inside on the ceiling 2 of the motor vehicle 20 and can support at least a camera 21 in a stationary way. The camera 21 is e.g. an high resolution monochromatic half inch micro camera which is d.c. 12 volts power supplied. The camera can be focused toward the windscreen so as to cover through a wide-angle lens a pick up field α covering more than 60 % of the visual range.

[0014] More than one camera can be provided on the support 1. In the fiqure numeral 22 denotes a camera focused toward the rear window so as to have a pick up field β, that can be equal to that in travelling direction.

[0015] The front camera can pick up the road with the motor vehicles travelling in opposite direction, probable obstacles, the crossings, the traffic-liqhts, etc., while the rear camera can pick up the reachina vehicles and therefore film any collision. Further cameras 23 and 24 focused transversally to the motor vehicle can be provided on the support 1 to film transversal crashes by their relative pick up fields σ and τ.

[0016] Optionally, instead of said four cameras 21, 22, 23, and 24 a sole camera installed on a rotating arm (not shown). As known, the rotatina arm is a camera support able to rotate automatically the camera horizontally for a round anale and expose a series of frame in the same direction. One series of frames is separated from another by a fixed short period of time; thus, the series of frame can be reconstructed into shots of relative pick up field.

[0017] The camera(s) and the rotating arm, if any, are power supplied by the battery 3 of the motor vehicle 20 via a feeding cable 5 passing through the iqnition switch indicated in 4. The camera is powered and switched on by turning the ignition key 6 and is kept operating until the stop of the engine (not shown) of the motor vehicle 20. The sole camera 21 or all the cameras 21, 22, 23, and 24 is/are connected with relative interconnecting cables (only a cable, indicated in 7, is shown in the figure) to at least a video recorder 30. The video recorder 30 is situated in a place particularly protected inside the motor vehicle, for example under the driver's seat 8. The video recorder 30 is power supplied by the same battery 3 through a cable 9. The video recorder 30 is connected to said at least a camera 21 in order to receive therefrom electric information via the interconnecting cable 7. The video recorder 30 can be a video cassette recorder, provided with an "autoreverse" device, which enable the automatic switching of the travelling direction at the end of the tape.

[0018] A video cassette (non shown) can be connected to every camera, or each tape of the video cassette can be provided with four tape channels and as many record heads, one for each camera 21, 22, 23, 24.

[0019] Accordina to the invention, further a cryptographic system of recording of electric information from the camera, adapt to make not directly intelliqible the shot recorded on said video recorder is provided, this system comprisinq a decoder for making clear the same shot. This optional system is not further described, as it can be of any known kind.

[0020] The apparatus for picking up and video recording a visual range according to the invention is used for the audiovisual reproduction, valid as a documentary proof, of an occurrence in the way as described below.

[0021] When the driver puts the key 6 in the iqnition switch on the dashboard and turns the key to start the enqine of the motor vehicle, the cameras, for example the front and rear ones 21 and 22, are power supplied by the battery 3 through the cable 5, and the relative video recorders 30 through the cable 9. The video recorders 30 operate continuously for the length of the cassette tape and stop only when the enqine is stopped again. In the period between the ignition and the stopping of the engine, the picking up and video recording apparatus according to the invention will have recorded what has been in the picking up field of the cameras, the tape being erased when the tape is reversed. If the engine is stopped upon an accident, or after a legally or substantially important event, the video recorder(s) will have recorded from their picking up fields. In such a case, if the motor vehicle driver will want keep the proof, he/she has not to start the engine again, except after the tape cassette(s) being drawn out and being replaced with other one(s) without a interesting content.

[0022] The invention so devised is liable to changes and modifications, all being encompassed by the same innovative concept. Further, all details can be replaced by technically equivalent elements.

Claims

1. Apparatus for picking up and video recordina a visual ranae outside a motor vehicle, characterized in that it comprises:

- at least one camera (21, 22, 23, 24), which is mounted on a support (1) inside the motor vehicle (20) and is focused toward the outside the motor vehicle (20).

- at least a video recorder (30), which is situated in a place particularly protected inside the motor vehicle and is connected to said at least one camera (21, 22, 23, 24) in order to receive therefrom electrical information through a interconnecting cable (7), said video recorder being provided with an "autoreverse" device.

- a power supply circuit (5, 9) of said at least one camera and said at least a video recorder, including the battery (3) of the motor vehicle (20) and a start switch (4).

2. Apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that it is provided with a cryptographic system of recordina of the electric information from the camera, adapt to make not directly intelliqible the shot recorded on said video recorder, the system comprising a decoder for making clear the same shot.

3. Apparatus accordina to claim 1, characterized in that at least one camera (21, 22, 23, 24) is mounted stationary on said support (1).

4. Apparatus accordina to claim 1, characterized in that at least one camera is mounted horizontally rotatina on a rotatina arm.

5. Apparatus accordina to claim 1, characterized in that at least one camera (21) is focused in the travelling direction of the motor vehicle.

6. Apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that at least one camera (22) is focused in a direction opposite to the travelling direction of the motor vehicle.

7. Apparatus accordina to claim 1, characterized in that at least one camera (23, 24) is focused transversally to the travellina direction of the motor vehicle.

8. Apparatus accordina to claim 1, characterized in that said start switch (4) is included in the iqnition switch of the motor vehicle.

9. Use of the apparatus according to claim 1 for the audiovisual reproduction, valid as a documentary proof, of an occurrence, characterized in that when the vehicle is travelling at least the front and rear visual ranges of the vehicle have being picked up and in that said apparatus stops to operate when the engine stops.

Drawing