US 11,722,761 B2
Dashboard camera device
Tomohito Higuma, Toyota (JP); and Yohei Satomi, Okazaki (JP)
Assigned to TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA, Toyota (JP)
Filed by TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA, Toyota (JP)
Filed on May 13, 2021, as Appl. No. 17/319,377.
Claims priority of application No. 2020-114385 (JP), filed on Jul. 1, 2020.
Prior Publication US 2022/0006947 A1, Jan. 6, 2022
Int. Cl. B60R 11/04 (2006.01); H04N 5/77 (2006.01); H04N 23/61 (2023.01)
CPC H04N 23/61 (2023.01) [B60R 11/04 (2013.01); H04N 5/77 (2013.01)] 5 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A dashboard camera device comprising:
a camera configured to image rearward from a self-vehicle and to detect illumination and blinking of a headlight of a following vehicle traveling behind the self-vehicle;
a recorder configured to record a video image captured by the camera;
an acceleration sensor configured to detect a vehicle vertical direction acceleration of the self-vehicle; and
a processor coupled to a memory, the processor configured to:
set a headlight-flashing threshold value based on a travel environment of the self-vehicle, the headlight-flashing threshold value being a threshold value for a change amount of a light intensity caused by blinking of the headlight of the following vehicle as detected by the camera,
in a case in which the vehicle vertical direction acceleration exceeds a predetermined threshold value, determine that the self-vehicle is traveling along an uneven road, and set the headlight-flashing threshold value to a higher threshold value as compared to the threshold value when the vehicle vertical direction acceleration does not exceed the predetermined threshold value, and
in a case in which the change amount of the light intensity, due to blinking of the headlight of the following vehicle, has exceeded the headlight-flashing threshold value plural times, cause the camera to record the video image.