Importance

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Abstract

A vehicle accident recording system employs a digital camera connected to a controller, a non-volatile memory, and an accident-sensing interrupter. The controller accesses images from the digital camera periodically and stores the images in a limited space of n sectors. After all n sectors are filled, each new image is overwritten to the oldest stored image. In the event of an accident, the interrupter causes the operation of storing images to cease. The result is a recorded history of n images spanning a time period up to the incidence of an accident of the number of images stored times the average time period between images. In a preferred embodiment the system has a communication port whereby the stored images may be downloaded after an accident to a digital device capable of displaying the images, thereby providing a visual record of the time period immediately preceding an accident. In alternative embodiments vehicle operating data is recorded, positional information is accesses and recorded, and on-board control routines convert raw data to meaningful information.

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First Claim