System and Method for Adjusting Recording Modes for Driver Facing Camera

Abstract

A system for recording vehicle occupants and their immediate environments includes a driver-facing camera having a plurality of recording modes; an input that receives vehicle related data from one or more sensors configured to detect the vehicle related data, including one or more of: time, occupant location in the vehicle, vehicle behavior, parking brake status, ignition status; and a processor configured to determine a mode-changing event based on the detected vehicle related data, and to alter the recording mode of the driver-facing camera in response to determining the mode-changing event.

1 . A system for recording vehicle occupants and their immediate environment, comprising:
 a driver-facing camera having a plurality of recording modes;   an input that receives data from one or more sensors configured to detect vehicle related data; and   a processor configured to determine a mode-changing event based on the detected vehicle related data, and to alter the recording mode of the driver-facing camera in response to determining the mode-changing event,   wherein altering the recording mode includes separating video data into multiple streams that separate the video data and thereby obscures at least part of the video data.   
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein altering the recording mode changes at least one of:
 frame rate, frame resolution, pixel colors, local defocus degree, contrast, detail level, compression ratio, pixel order, icon or fixed snapshot substitution, recording time, pixel content, exposure, brightness, obscuration boundaries, and recording on/off.   
     
     
         3 . (canceled) 
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein altering the recording mode is situation dependent and includes spatial weighting, such that a degree of obscuration increases with distance from an area-of-interest. 
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 4 , wherein altering the recording mode includes a gradual transition to unobscured near detected events in time and/or space. 
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein altering the recording mode is situation dependent and includes temporal weighting, such that a degree of obscuration increases with time from a triggering event. 
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 6 , wherein altering the recording mode includes a gradual transition to unobscured near detected events in time and/or space. 
     
     
         8 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the vehicle related data includes one or more of:
 time, driver and/or passenger location in the vehicle, vehicle behavior, parking brake status, ignition status.   
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein setting the parking brake turns the driver facing camera recording off. 
     
     
         10 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein image regions that are unassociated with the vehicle controls are selectively obscured in accordance with an obscuring recording mode. 
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein detection of movement in the vicinity of the cabin doors turns a recording mode on. 
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein detection of a collision turns a recording mode on. 
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to attach a value set to video data generated by the driver facing camera, the value set indicates a degree, type, and local image area coverage for an obscuration region to be applied to the video data. 
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 13 , further comprising:
 a transceiver configured to transmit the video data to an off-vehicle server of an obscuration system, wherein the value set is used to obscure the video data at the off-vehicle server.   
     
     
         15 . The system of  claim 13 , further comprising:
 an obscuration unit configured to obscure the video data on-vehicle.   
     
     
         16 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the processor adjusts the recording mode to a low-power, situation driven recording mode in response to the detection of the engine as off 
     
     
         17 . The system of  claim 16 , further comprising:
 a transceiver configured to transmit recorded video data to an off-vehicle server, wherein the recorded video data is transmitted to the off-vehicle server when the engine is restarted.   
     
     
         18 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the processor adjusts the recording mode such that, when recorded video data is played back on a video player, low-quality or obscured video is played by default and high-quality or unobscured video is played when an encryption key is provided. 
     
     
         19 . A method for recording vehicle occupants and their immediate environment, comprising:
 receiving vehicle-related data from one or more sensors;
 determining a mode-changing event based on the detected vehicle-related data; 
 altering a recording mode of a driver-facing camera having a plurality of recording modes in response to determining the mode-changing event 
 wherein altering the recording mode includes separating video data into multiple streams that separate the video data and thereby obscures at least part of the video data. 
   
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 19 , wherein the vehicle related data includes one or more of: time, driver and/or passenger location in the vehicle, vehicle behavior, parking brake status, ignition status.