VJER-Vishwakarma Journal of Engineering Research www.vjer.

in
Volume 2 Issue 3, September 2018 ISSN: 2456-8465

Black Box in Car

Abstract:--A Black Box is designed for accident investigation, and its functionality is same as that of airplane Black Box. This
paper proposes a prototype of an Automobile Black Box System that can be installed into vehicles. This system make use of 5
different sensors to record various driving parameters. The ARM 7 microcontroller is used to regulate these sensors. The design
in vehicle is equipped with accident analysis system. Which also consist of a Global Positioning System (GPS), to get
geographical co-ordinates of vehicles. In case of accident the Black Box sends message to a pre-stored number using Short
Messaging System (SMS). The proposed system also aims to record audio and video using external camera and microphone. The
collected data from different sensors and modules are stored in the memory card, and can be retrieved back.

Keywords: -- Black Box, Accident Detection, Microcontroller, GPS, and GSM.

1. INTRODUCTION

Road accidents causes’ death of millions of people daily and there is chances of improper investigation due
to lack of evidences. The propose paper gives an idea about a Black Box system which is helpful in accident
investigation analysis. For a truthful investigation it is important to record the status of vehicle before, during and
after the crash. This could be done effectively using Black Box. This system comprises of two main section. The
first consist of all the sensors to calculate the physical parameters whereas the second section consist of
differentmodules which is helpful for storing as well as displaying all the important information to the users in an
easy and user friendly way. To implement first section sensors like temperature, pressure, alcohol, seatbelt and brake
are usedwhile in second section Global Positioning System (GPS), Global System for Mobile Communication
(GSM), Memory card, camera and microphone are used for tracking geographical co-ordinates, sending the alter
message over Short Messaging Service (SMS), storing the data from various sensors and recording the audio and
video respectively.

2. LITERATURE SURVEY

In this paper, “Black Box in Car” is an attempt to provide safer vehicles, enhancing the quality of

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investigation for victims, helping insurance companies and police to reach a correct reason of accident so that the
victim gets the justice, and improving vehicle status. [1] This paper presents a cost effective system which helps in
solving the existing automotive control problems. This system has two main areas of interest namely Vehicle to
Vehicle Collision Avoidance Unit (VVCAU) which is used to neglect crashing between vehicles and Black Box
(BB) records the relative information about a vehicle such as Engine Temperature, Distance from obstacle, Speed of
vehicle, Brake status, CO2 Content, Alcohol content, Accident Direction, trip Time and Date. [2]In this paper, it is
explained how to effectively gather and managedata obtained from a vehicle’s black box. The major part of this
system is to record video images based on CCTV,which also monitorsGPS position,sound, time and speed. These
informationcan be used for precise car accidentanalysis.However, there are major drawback such as user
privacydecreases and poor data management for a vehicle-based CCTV records.The proposed evidence collection
system can result in decrease indriver privacy. [3] In this paper, SoC (System on Chip)technique is used to develop
an embedded system which is very productive technique to implement car Black Box. This system comprises of
processor, memory, I/O peripheral and variousinterfaces. SoC for Car Black Box system is implemented using
8051processor, CAN (Controller Area Network) controller,JPEG compressor, SDcard for storing the data, ROM for
programmingand SRAM acting as memory buffer. The hardware and softwaredesign process are described, in
which vehicle control parameters are recorded, which includes location, images and the status of sensors. [4] In this
paper, the vehicular safetysystem is implemented, and its purpose is not only to record the video and audio,but also
try to avoid a possible accident by controlling the speed of the car in accident-prone areas. If the vehicle crashes, the
geographical co-ordinates (location) is sentusing GSM to a pre-stored mobile number to seek help. The forensic
scientist uses this recorded data which was obtained from the Black Box to revile the actual reason of the accident.
This data can be provided to the manufacturers giving them scope of improvement in their design. So the agenda is
tobuild an embedded integrated system in which amicrocontroller is interfaced with differentsensors along with
amotor driver unit, memory and a GPS/GSM modem.

3. BLOCK DIAGRAM

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Figure. 1. Block Diagram of BLACK BOX.

4 COMPONENT DESCRIPTION

It consist of LPC21xx ARM 7 microcontroller. We are using LPC2138 as it satisfies our requirement. It is
64 pin IC having two 32 bit port, timers, ADC, and 2 UART. It have 512K Flash – Program Memory 32K+8K
RAM – Data Memory. LPC2138 is interfaced with several sensors such as Alcohol, temperature, pressure,
break, seatbelt, GSM, GPS, Memory and RTC.

The GPS locates the exact location of the accident, by showing Altitude, Latitude and Longitude.
GSM send the SMS to saved cell phone number. As soon as the p ressure reached the threshold value, the
GSM send the message to the saved numbers and the status of sensors get stored. This black box uses the
power supply from the car battery. It also consist of the pen camera which is used to record the video and
audio signals. The RTC is used to monitor the real time of the accident.

Alcohol, temperature, and pressure have the analog output. So it is interfaced on ADC pin of the
controller. While other sensor such as seatbelt and break have the digital output so it is directly interfaced

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to the controller. LCD is used to display the current status of the sensors. The black box is enclosed in
Titanium box which is rigid and hard.

Vibration Sensor:The piezo electric disc sensor is a stainless steel piezo element with ceramic disc having the outer
diameter of 35mm thick piezoelectric PVDF polymer film. It generates voltagewhen the piezo film get displaced,
and very high voltage is generated when the film get bend. When the piezo electric material undergoes a mechanical
force and is allowed to vibrate in free space it generates electrical pulses, grater the amplitude of the pulse generated
grater will be the voltage. Whereas if the sensor is feed with electrical signal it will generate a mechanical vibration.

Alcohol Sensor:The alcohol sensor works on the principle of change in resistivity. When the concentration of
alcohol increases, there is a change in temperature due to which the resistivity of the sensor increases and thus the
alcohol concentration is detected by the microcontroller. Thus the output is analog in nature. It should be very
sensitive to change in alcohol concentration, also the speed of response is very high.

Temperature sensor: The sensor used for sensing the temperature is LM35. Its output is in terms of voltage which
varies with a change of 10mv per degree Celsius. Its temperature ranges from -55 to 150 degree Celsius. The output
provided by the sensor is in analog form and is interfaced on the ADC port of the microcontroller.

Seatbelt and break: For seatbelt and break sensors, limit switches can be used directly, the status of the switch will
indicate whether the particular switch was pressed at the time of accident. The output of these switches are in form
of digital pulses so can be given to the microcontroller directly without and signal conditioning requirement, and the
output of this is periodically recorded in the memory card.

Global positioning system: The GPS module is interfaced with the microcontroller to record the geographic
coordinates of the car in terms of its latitude and longitude. After the vibration goes beyond a threshold, the location
will be locked and sent to the pre saved mobile number along with an emergency message using GSM system.

Memory card: Periodically collecting the status of the sensor is an importantfactor but storing is also required for
future reference and use, but the microcontroller memory is not sufficient. Therefore an external memory card is
interfaced with the controller to store the output and status of all the sensors at the time of accident. The memory is
interfaced with the SPI master slave protocol.

Global System for Mobile Communication:The GSM module interfaced with this microcontrolleris required to send
a pre stored message to saved number, to inform or to seek help in case of the accident. This message will be
automatically generated and sent via SMS (Short Messaging Service) whenever the vibration level rises above a
preset threshold condition.

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5 RESULT AND ANALYSIS:

The Black box is implemented and the simulation results are shown in the given figures. All the sensors are
interfaced with the microcontroller including memory, GSM and GPS modules. The microcontroller is chosen such
that it have two UART so that the GSM and GPS can be interfaced on individual UART using serial transmission.
Figure 1 shows the interfacing diagram of various sensors and modules with microcontroller. Figure 2 shows the
location tracked by the GPS module and its virtual terminal is shown in Figure 3.

Figure. 2. Simulation results

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Figure. 3. Virtual Terminal – GPS.

Figure. 4. Virtual Terminal of GPS.

6 FUTURE SCOPE:
1. Wecan store the entire data over cloud using IOT to get more storage. Also this data will be easily available
for some pre-approved users so they have all access of the information from anywhere at any time. Hence
the rigidness of the Black Box need not to be very high.
2. We can also implement ABS along with this project.

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3. Anti-theft system can also be implemented in the black box to provide a safer and secure vehicle.
4. By processing the camera images using DIP techniques it will be able to recognize the symbols and signs
on the road.

7 CONCLUSION:

In this project we present the design of a Car Black Box. We have successfully implemented the embedded
system which gave good results and expected functioning. The data can be retrieved as required with great ease. The
Black Box has a compact design and can be implemented in any vehicle. When the driver starts the car, all the
sensors are activated and the data is stores in memory card periodically. The data saved can be retrieved after the
accident.

8 REFERENCE:

[1] P. Ajay Kumar Reddy, P.Dileep Kumar, K. Bhaskarreddy, E.Venkataramana, M.Chandrasekhar Reddy, “BLACK BOX FOR
VEHICLES”, International Journal of Engineering Inventions.

[2] Liewei Jiang and Chunxuan Yu., “Design and Implementation of Car Black Box Based on Embedded System”, 2010 IEEE DOI
10.1109/iCECE.2010.860.

[3] DaeGeun Lee, Se Myoung Jung , MyoungSeob Lim, “System on Chip design of Embedded Controller for Car Black Box”, 2007
IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Symposium Istanbul, Turkey, June 13-15, 2007.

[4] DheerajPawar, PushpakPoddar, “Car Black Box with Speed Control in Desired Areas for Collision Avoidance”, ETASR -
Engineering, Technology & Applied Science Research Vol.2, _o.5, 2012, 281-284. Volume 1, Issue 7(October2012).

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