TH20965A - Signaling pathway - Google Patents

Abstract

This invention concerns signaling, specifically road signaling pathways. Specifically, reflective signaling pathways emitting various types of light are known to be used to provide guidance to drivers of vehicles, particularly and especially important for drivers at night on dark roads or in cold weather where light fog or thick fog covers the road. Known signaling pathways are not sufficient to adequately guide drivers to the appearance of other vehicles ahead, especially in light or thick fog conditions. The primary objective of this invention is to provide a signaling pathway capable of adequately guiding drivers to the appearance of other vehicles nearby, which is found to be, by means of a structure consisting of at least one capacitive pathway (7, C3) capable of being energized by vehicle headlights, and visible signaling pathways (8, 13, 15) connected inversely and energized by such capacitive pathway (7, C3), and by means of the energization of these pathways. The charged pathway light (7, C3) will activate the signal pathway (8; 13, 15) for discontinuous time intervals after the headlight has stopped emitting light to the charged pathway (7, C3) and until the charged pathway (7, C3) has been discharged. This results in the signal trail being firmly positioned behind the leading vehicle to warn the vehicle behind the preceding vehicle and to provide a distance that determines a safe braking distance.

Claims (14)

1. The signaling device (1,11) consists of a visible signaling pathway (8; 13,15) for the production of a visible signal and a minimum chargeable pathway (7, C3) for charging to a level determined by the duration of time when the light from passing vehicle headlights illuminates such a minimum chargeable pathway, and for activating such visible signaling pathway (8, 13,15) for a period of time determined by the level at which such a minimum chargeable pathway is ignited by the illumination of such headlights after such headlights have stopped illuminating such a minimum chargeable pathway (7, C3), and until such a minimum chargeable pathway (7, C3) discharges. 2. The signaling device according to claim 1 is characterized in which such a chargeable pathway consists of a photosensitive cell (7) to receive light from such headlight and one or more capacitors (C1, C2, C3) which can be charged by such photosensitive cell. 3. The signaling device according to clause 1 or 2 has the characteristic that the visible signaling path is on the lamp (8) in the form of one or more incandescent lamps or one or more light-emitting diodes (LEDs). 4. The signaling device in clause 1 also consists of a sensing pathway (VR1) arranged to detect the presence of light from the vehicle's headlights directed at the signaling device. This arrangement continues until the sensing pathway (VR1) stops detecting light from the vehicle's headlights. Energy from the charged pathway (7, c3) is then passed to a second charged pathway (C2), from which it is passed to the visible signaling pathways (8; 13,15) to maintain the signal on the signaling pathway until the charged pathway (C3) is discharged. 5. The signaling device according to clause 1 has the characteristic that one or more sensing pathways (18) can be arranged along three or more visible signaling pathways (8; 13, 15) to provide the desired color signal to be output along the signaling pathway that follows the excitation of that sensing pathway. 6. The signaling device as described in clause 1 is characterized by a photosensitive pathway arranged to detect ambient light conditions above a defined maximum, thereby preventing the activation of the signaling device when the ambient light conditions are above that maximum, and allowing the activation of the signaling device when the ambient light conditions are below that maximum. 7. The signaling device under claim 1 has a characteristic in which the transmitter-receiver path (20) is arranged so that one such signaling path can trigger a second such signaling device mounted either ahead of or behind the first such signaling device in the direction of vehicle flow. 8. The signaling device under claim 7 has the characteristic that a remotely mounted transmitter path is arranged to trigger a number of such signaling devices mounted along a length of the road on which the signaling devices are mounted. 9. The signaling device as specified in Requirement 1 also includes a guiding path for directing such chargeable trajectory along the road for impact by illumination from such vehicle headlights on such road. 10. Signaling equipment as specified in claim 9 where the navigation path consists of a supporting structure that extends into the road. 11. The signaling device (1,11) consists of two visible signaling pathways: a first and a second visible signaling pathway (8,13,15) for producing a visible signal, and at least one chargeable pathway (7,C3) for charging to a level determined by the duration of time the passing vehicle headlights illuminate, and for activating the visible signaling pathways (8,13,15) for a period of time determined by the level at which at least one chargeable pathway is charged by the illumination of the headlights, after the headlights have stopped illuminating the at least one chargeable pathway (7,C3), and until the at least one chargeable pathway (7,C3) discharges. A sensing pathway (VR1) detects the presence of light from the vehicle headlights directed at the signaling device. This arrangement occurs when the sensing pathway (VR1) stops detecting the vehicle headlights. Energy from the capacitive pathway (7, C3) is passed to a second capacitive pathway (C2), from which it is passed to the visible signaling pathway (8; 13, 15) to maintain the signal on the signaling device until the capacitive pathway (C3) discharges, and the next capacitive pathway (C1) is provided for the electrical energy from the photoreactive cell (7). This energy is simultaneously directed to the next capacitive pathway (C1) at a low rate, in addition to the energy passed to the capacitive pathway (C3) during the time the sensing pathway (VR1) detects the presence of the vehicle headlights directed at the signaling device, and when the sensing pathway (VR1) stops detecting the light, energy from the capacitive pathway (C3) is passed to the capacitive pathway (C2). The second chargeable pathway (C1) from which it is transferred to the first visible signaling pathway (8; 13, 15) at a higher rate, while energy from the next chargeable pathway (C1) is transferred to the second visible signaling pathway (8; 13, 15) at a lower rate than the second. Each of these visible signaling pathways and the second visible signaling pathway are of different colors so that they are combined to emit the desired color light from the signaling device. 12. The signaling device according to clause 10 is characterized by which, when a charge is supplied to such a chargeable pathway (7, C3), before such a chargeable pathway is discharged, electrical energy is transferred to the chargeable pathway (C1), causing it to reach and exceed a predetermined maximum under which electrical energy is allowed to be directed to one of the first and second visible signaling pathways (8; 13, 15) at a higher rate to change the output signal color to the second output signal color. 13. The signaling device consists of a visible signaling pathway for the production of a visible signal; a capacitive pathway for charging to a level determined by the time period during which the headlights pass through and illuminate the capacitive pathway; and for activating the visible signaling pathway at intervals determined by the level to which the capacitive pathway is charged by the illumination of the headlights, after the headlights have ceased to illuminate the capacitive pathway, and until the capacitive pathway is discharged, where the visible signaling pathway is provided by a reflector (15) enclosed in a blank liquid crystal (13) which is made translucent or opaque by the presence or absence of charge on the capacitive pathway (7, c3). 14. The signaling device according to clause 13 is characterized in which such reflector (15) contains sections of different colors and such liquid crystal blank (13) has separate sections to cover sections of the reflector in sequence which are transparent sheets that reflect light by selection or in combination to provide a reflected signal of one or more of the desired colors.