Automobile black box system for accident analysis

Automobiles and computing technologies are creating a new level of data services in vehicles. The Automobile Black Box has functions similar to an airplane black box. It is used to analyze the cause of vehicular accidents and prevent the loss of life and property arising from vehicle accidents. This paper proposes a prototype of an Automobile Black Box System that can be installed into vehicles. The system aims to achieve accident analysis by objectively tracking what occurs in vehicles. The system also involves enhancement of security by preventing tampering of the Black Box data. In addition, the Black Box sends an alert message to a pre-stored mobile number via Short Message Service (SMS) in the case of occurrence of an accident. The proposed system makes use of 12 sensors to record the various driving data parameters. The Raspberry Pi controller (RPi) and Arduino controllers are used to regulate these sensors. The data received from the sensors are stored on the SD card mounted on RPi for retrieval after the accident. The system uses external sensors such as camera and Global Positioning System (GPS) to collect video and location data.