Prevent Video from beying played while moving...

Mattlocked · 03-28-2006, 09:30 AM

Hi everybody,

With Car-PC's becoming increasingly popular, and Cops being more and more aware of it, I'd like to call for a new functionality for everybody's protection and safety: both while driving and from a legal standpoint....

As long as watching video on the move is forbidden (its overkill that both things: watching video and driving, are not compatible) and legislations usually prohibit the use of devices capable of displaying video or moving images which may distract the driver from...err... driving.. In several juridisticions We could be fined, just for having a car-pc in our car, even without being actually caught watching video while driving.

The point for this is that we could have a legal defense in case we are pulled over for using our car-pc's if we provide evidence that the car-pc is unable to display any other visual information other than navigation related messages and directions, this has probably been brought up several times, but it would be sweet if RR could monitor the signal from the gps, and prevent the video button in RR to be used, or apply a black overlay on top of any video playing if speed is different than "0", this way we could still listen to the movie...(sometimes dialogs are far better than the images...).

I don't think it would be too difficult, and you could always disable this constraint at will, in fact most stock navigation systems with dvd player which only work while parked, are easily bypassed to play video while moving...

Pheew... a long post, well . I hope this makes sense to somebody else.... ,

I wish I could have this feature, this way if I get fined for having a Car-pc I'm sure I will be able to get the sanction to be declared void.

regards.

MatrixPC · 03-28-2006, 10:37 AM

2 posible way to implement this feature.
- Serial port to detect whether parking brake is engage or not. FrodoPlayer implement this feature. I wrote a small vb app to use this feature to stop most app being display, but haven't really implement it in my car yet. Too freaking busy.
- Use GPS speed. This option is not that really reliable but better than nothing. I am sure it isn't that hard or complicate to implement this feature in RR with current release.

One reason I didn't really implment this feature cuz I still want the 2nd screen (extended desktop or dua view) to be able to view video.

guino · 03-28-2006, 12:14 PM

This has been discussed, while the GPS seems a good idea, it doesn't work when there's no GPS or when there's no signal... and using an option in the software to prevent video from working would most likely not provide you with any legal protection.. you're better off making a big warning screen come up that says "Do not watch videos while driving" cause it will have the same effect, that is, it will still be up to the driver wether to watch videos in movement or not.. cause in the end, no matter what I put in RR, you can always minimize it and double click an AVI file..

VitalRyan · 03-28-2006, 02:16 PM

Thats part of the reason I got a fold away screen,

Cop pulls me over, screen goes bye bye.

But for the ones that are molded into the dash, just put it on your navigation, I mean, seriously, not only do cops not give a crap about it, they would just assume it's a regular navigation which is in MANY cars nowaday's anyways.

I think this is kind of a silly subject.

Mattlocked · 03-29-2006, 02:57 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by VitalRyan

I think this is kind of a silly subject.

I don't think its a Silly Subject at all, I'm well aware that an option in an application to prevent video from playing could be easily overriden, as also a hardware solution like the parking brake can be easily bypassed. the point is being able to prove in front of a court that a reasonable effort has been made to prevent video from playing while driving. I'm a lawyer and I also run a small business of carpc installations, and currently I use the Warning window solution, but I'm concerned that some legal Issues may arise in case some of my customers is pulled over for watching video while driving, I just want to be protected from the point of view that "default" configuration is set to prevent video from playing when the car is moving.. That's all.

Besides, Is there really anyone with a car-pc not using the navigation features??? It is one of the biggest reasons for having one, Isn't it?...

GizmoQ · 03-29-2006, 05:04 AM

MattLocked makes a good point, and timely (I got pulled over last week for the first time in 8 years). The ignorant cop thought my system was a DVD player. If I could have shown him the videos don't play in gear I could have easily shut him up. Many states are enacting new laws, Illinois just this Jan, against screens that aren't for Navi. Illinois was at least smart enough to include the exceptions to the rule within the law and my screen meets three of the six exceptions. I now have a copy of the law loaded on my desktop to educate the next cop that stops me.a

I'm lso comtemplating a hidden button on the main page that to the casual observer seems to disable the video buttons just in case, i.e., switches to a copy of the main screen where those buttons aren't included in the .skin file. I also already have a button on my joystick programmed to jump to main & GPS that I use to spoof a parking switch.

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