Data Recorder System and Unit for a Vehicle

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016358386-A1
Application number	US-201615241662-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Aug 19, 2016
Priority date	May 20, 2014
Publication date	Dec 8, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

Disclosed is a data recording unit and data recording system for use in connection with a vehicle, such as a train, a locomotive of a train, a railcar of a train, and the like.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A data recorder unit for a vehicle, comprising:
at least one data recorder enclosure configured to house at least one internal component; at least one data processing unit located in the enclosure and configured to directly or indirectly receive data input from at least one data source associated with the vehicle; and at least one storage device in direct or indirect communication with the at least one data processing unit and configured to store data received from the at least one data processing unit, wherein the at least one storage device is at least one local storage device located within a crash- and/or fire-proof enclosure, which is positioned within the data recorder enclosure, and wherein the at least one local storage device comprises a network-attached storage device.

2 . The data recorder unit of claim 1 , wherein the at least one local storage device comprises a solid-state storage device.

3 . The data recorder unit of claim 1 , further comprising a remote storage device in communication with the at least one data processing unit.

4 . The data recorder unit of claim 1 , wherein the at least one local storage device comprises at least one logical partition that is configured as local storage, and at least one logical portion that is configured as network storage.

5 . The data recorder unit of claim 1 , wherein the at least one local storage device comprises a crash-hardened memory.

6 . The data recorder unit of claim 1 , wherein the at least one data processing unit is configured to transmit or cause the transmission of video data to at least one remote device.

7 . The data recorder unit of claim 1 , wherein the at least one data source comprises at least two cameras, each camera having a time source, and wherein the at least one data processing unit is further configured to store, in the at least one local storage device, video data received from the at least two cameras and the time source from each of the at least two cameras, such that the video data can be synchronized based at least in part on the time source of each camera.

8 . A data recorder unit for a vehicle, comprising:
at least one data recorder enclosure configured to house at least one internal component; at least one data storage device comprising at least one crash-hardened memory, the at least one data storage device located in the enclosure; and at least one data processing unit located in the enclosure and configured to directly or indirectly receive data from a plurality of data inputs and synchronize data from the plurality of data inputs based at least partially on at least one of the following: time data from at least one internal time source, time data from at least one data input of the plurality of data inputs, or any combination thereof.

9 . The data recorder unit of claim 8 , wherein the plurality of data inputs comprises at least one of the following: an Ethernet input, a serial input, a parallel input, an Ethernet interface, a serial interface, a parallel interface, a wireless interface, an Ethernet port, a serial port, a parallel port, or any combination thereof.

10 . The data recorder unit of claim 8 , wherein the plurality of data inputs comprise at least one video camera, wherein the data received from the at least one video camera comprises video data corresponding with independent time data, and wherein the video data received from the at least one video camera is synchronized with the at least one internal time source based at least partially on the independent time data.

11 . The data recorder unit of claim 8 , wherein the plurality of data inputs comprise at least two video cameras, wherein the data received from each video camera of the at least two video cameras comprises video data corresponding with independent time data, and wherein the video data received from the at least two video cameras is synchronized based at least partially on the independent time data.

12 . The data recorder unit of claim 8 , wherein at least two data inputs of the plurality of data inputs are stored in separate logical partitions of the at least one data storage device.

13 . A data recorder unit for a vehicle comprising:
at least one data recorder enclosure configured to house at least one internal component; at least one data processing unit located in the enclosure and configured to directly or indirectly receive data input from at least one data source associated with the vehicle; and at least one storage device in direct or indirect communication with the at least one data processing unit and configured to store data received from the at least one data processing unit, wherein the at least one storage device comprises at least one first storage device comprising at least one non-crash-hardened memory and at least one second storage device comprising at least one crash-hardened memory, wherein the at least one data processing unit is configured to store at least a portion of the data on the at least one crash-hardened memory, and wherein the at least one crash-hardened memory is configured to transfer the portion of the data stored on the at least one crash-hardened memory to the at least one non-crash-hardened memory.

14 . The data recorder unit of claim 13 , wherein the at least one non-crash-hardened memory is configured for wired or wireless transmission of at least a portion of the data transferred to the at least one non-crash-hardened memory to at least one download device.

15 . The data recorder unit of claim 13 , wherein at least one of the at least one first storage device and second storage device comprises at least one solid-state storage device.

16 . The data recorder unit of claim 13 , wherein the at least one non-crash-hardened memory is removable.

17 . The data recorder unit of claim 13 , wherein the at least one data processing unit is configured to record over existing recorded data on the at least one crash-hardened memory when at least one of the following occurs: the at least one crash-hardened memory has reached capacity, a predetermined amount of data has been recorded, a predetermined duration of video data has been recorded, or any combination thereof, wherein the existing data on the at least one crash-hardened memory is recorded over in an order in which it was recorded.

18 . The data recorder of claim 17 , wherein the at least one data processing unit is configured to detect an accident and, in response to detecting the accident, stop recording over existing recorded data on the at least one crash-hardened memory.

19 . The data recorder unit of claim 18 , wherein the at least one data processing unit is configured to detect the accident based at least partially on at least one of the following:
emergency brake application, rapid deceleration, accelerometer data, impact sensor data, an indication from a positive train control (PTC) system, or any combination thereof.

20 . The data recorder unit of claim 13 , wherein the at least one data source associated with the vehicle comprises at least one video camera, and wherein the at least one video camera comprises at least one of the following: a wired video camera, a wireless Internet protocol (JP) video camera, a wireless interface, or any combination thereof.

Assignees

• Wabtec Holding Corp

Inventors

• Allwardt Theodore E
• Bittle Khim
• Haas Carl L
• Kurz Brian

Classifications

• G07C5/008 Primary

  communicating information to a remotely located station (transmission systems for measured values G08C) · CPC title

• H04N1/00103

  specially adapted for radio transmission, e.g. via satellites (H04N1/00098 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G07C5/085

  using electronic data carriers · CPC title

• G07C5/08

  Registering or indicating performance data other than driving, working, idle, or waiting time, with or without registering driving, working, idle or waiting time · CPC title

• G07C5/0866 Primary

  the electronic data carrier being a digital video recorder in combination with video camera · CPC title