ThinkWare F750 Suggested Feature: Driver Rest Alert

[Paul Mumby]

Hey, noticed many other cameras will do the audible "time to take a break" alert at programmable intervals. This would be a super easy feature to implement, and would be a welcome addition I think. Just a suggestion.

 

[Dee_82]

I'm in two minds about this, its similar to the LDWS etc, as a safe driver, I don't need to be told these things, and I actually found them a distraction, the only time I can think that these things are useful is if your in a position to fall asleep, which your suggestion would be helpful for, I guess my problem still comes down to this, if you don't know your too tired to drive then you really should have already pulled over. is it possible to have an over reliance on technology to substitute good driving habits? The single best feature they should add is a built in web service to allow cross platform access and fix their computer software for playback.

however, clearly there is a market for driver aids, so the feature would be handy, along with something to tell warn cars if they are driving too fast in the rain and snow. the collision warning system should be extended to stopping distances in relation to speed, at the moment, it warns if you are approaching something too quick, but if you remain at a close distance at relative speeds then it wont warn you

 

[Paul Mumby]

Yeah you have some good points. I agree on the LDWS, for the most part it's un-needed, though I do find it neat. Same with the collision warning, I think your point about being speed/distance based rather than simply "approaching" would be much better.

I also thought of another one, since they obviously know how to track the car in front of you (to some degree) they should be able to put a bounding box around it. And using a histogram they could look for spikes in the red levels, and look for sudden positive changes in those levels. (ie: the vehicle in front of you suddenly put on it's brake lights). That would be handy as a trigger for the collision warning as well. (I have written computer vision systems before and I imagine this should be fairly simple to add to what they are already detecting)

For the "take a break" timer, I mainly want it for long drives. Not so much to know when I'm too tired to drive, that's obvious. But more to remind me say every hour to just pull over and stretch so I don't get into driving and go 2-3 hours before I realize it, and then end up with cramps or sore muscles... I find if I drive non-stop I can only go about 4 hours max and I'm pretty sore. But if I stop every hour or two, I can drive like 8 hours straight. (for example yesterday I left home at 10am and got to my hotel in the USA for my first stop at 10:30pm, but I stopped twice for about half an hour or so, and several times for just a few minutes to stretch). If I program it for every hour, it could remind me, if I know I'm near my destination I can choose to ignore it. Or if I hear the reminder I can know "ok next rest-stop I can take a break" kind of thing.

Now for the web interface... I agree completely! That's a major feature that's missing.

I've got an android device (several) so no issues on configuring, and the android app seems solid... But one thing I notice is downloading videos is a bit of a pain.

The android device has little storage, and my windows laptop could connect to wifi, and access the files it would be far simpler than having to remove the camera, remove the card, bring it in the house, and so on... Having the web interface being able to basically do the config, and access files, would be fairly easy one would imagine, and would certainly help in both of these areas (easier downloading, and config from any platform)

Anyone from Thinkware actually watch these forums?

 

[Dee_82]

I did tell them about here and they said they would keep an eye on it but I'm unsure if they are actually checking it out. I can see that having t keep removing the card is going to do one of two things, break the card or the mechanism for it.

That and the small blue led, oh and the missing right angle USB adaptors.... and the grey white sticky pads are the only real hardware issues I have.

From there tech support people I've been told from one person wp support isn't going to happen because they are focusing on android and ios, from another person its in the pipe, no real answer to my cheaper cross platform web service idea. I suspect the biggest problem we may have with the f750 is after sales support, including software