Japan CBC have unveiled a drive recorder that takes images of not only the scene in front of a vehicle, but also the driver for behavioural monitoring purposes. The drive recorder ZC-FV52G was exhibited at AT International 2008, which ran from July 23-25 2008 at Makuhari Messe in Chiba Prefecture, Japan.
In operation, the car interior is lit by an infrared LED attached to the drive recorder. The ZC-FV52G could help establish whether or not the monitored driver was to blame for a collision – dozing at the wheel, driving inattentively, or chatting on a mobile phone, for example. Additionally, the monitoring itself could act as a deterrent against negligent acts, but could also potentially spur a backlash against invasion of privacy.
The ZC-FV52G can be attached to a rear-view mirror. Two cameras are used; the one for car interior pictures is installed at the bottom of the recorder, and the other faces the windshield. The image pick-up device used in the two cameras features a CMOS color sensor and a resolution of 640×480. The angles of view are 143° for the camera facing the windshield and 170° for the camera looking at the car interior. They can take pictures at 10fps.