A colleague and i are contemplating building some on board bike DVR kits with 1, 2, 3 or 4 cameras that can be located in various positions on bike. *The DVR will have pre-record so you dont miss anything and also can have GPS so the actual footage is shown on a map
Ahermm! You mean I've been designing this system and sourcing the 'correct' DVRs for a few years and then built and installed the prototype on my bike for our 2012 UK tour and you thought "that's a good idea!"
Only joking!
A bit of background, both Chris and I work for a security integration company. Chris is in Design Estimating and specialises in Fire Detection and Dispersed Alarm Units and I am in Technical Design and specialise in CCTV and I.T.
I've tried recording various trips in the past and found the problem to be that for one reason or another, the camera never seems to be pointing in the right direction at the right time. So I tried to design a system that would get around these problems whilst still being easy to use (and cheap!)
Problem - camera not pointing in right direction.*
Answer - have several fixed and one helmet mount camera.*
Problem - not enough storage (tape, hdd, SD card) to record entire trip on 4 cameras.*
Answer - only record the interesting bits.
Problem - missed the interesting bits because camera wasn't recording.*
Answer - have an internal memory buffer to store the previous one minutes footage from all cameras so that if you miss something you can press a button and you've miraculously recorded it!! (this was the main problem to overcome!)
Problem - video tape and hdd are susceptible to vibration.*
Answer - record on solid state.*
Problem - cant see what the camera is pointing at.*
Answer - fit an onboard monitor that can show a single camera or a quad image (can also be used for playback and system configuration)
Problem - need to record something on the bike DVR but away from the bike (panoramic view from a vista or a conversation with a local)
Answer - make the helmet cam wireless.*
Problem - cant remember the exact route of the trip or where a particular recording was made.*
Answer - have all footage logged with a gps tag so that when you play footage back your location, direction and speed are shown on google maps.*
That's enough for now but suffice it to say that the prototype system was assembled as cheaply as possible to prove that it would work - and it did! It was not designed to be sold to others, but several people have expressed an interest so we MIGHT offer it in individual parts.
Probably:
1. DVR
2. Fixed Camera
3. Microphone*
4. Wireless Camera & Receiver
5. Monitor*
6. Storage Cards
7. Wiring, fittings & brackets.*
Cheers, Simon
PS: if we do make more of these, then my prototype will up for sale for 1/2 price. Has all functions stated above except it only records 2 cameras in full D1 resolution, the remaining 2 cameras are recorded in 2 Cif (1/2 D1).*
