Traffic caution device which may identify the running direction of vehicle

• US 20040030489A1
• Filed: 09/12/2003
• Published: 02/12/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 10/31/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Shanshan Zhang, Zexiu Huang
• Original Assignee: Shanshan Zhang, Zexiu Huang
• Inventors: Huang, Zexiu, Zhang, Shanshan
• Granted Patent: US 6,909,962 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/117
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/04 using optical or ultrasonic detectors
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/052 with provision for determining speed or overspeed speed measuring in general G01P
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/056 with provision for distinguishing direction of travel

Abstract

The present invention discloses a traffic caution apparatus which may distinguish the running direction of vehicles. The apparatus includes a transmitter and a receiver. The transmitter an ultrasonic transmitting unit and a FM stereo transmitting unit. The receiver includes a FM stereo receiving unit, a decoding unit, an ultrasonic receiving unit, a monolithic processor, an analogy switch, a speed recording/reproducing unit, a given voltage unit. The apparatus uses ultrasonic wave to distinguish running direction and speed of vehicles, and can send caution speech information with accuracy to a vehicle whose speed must be limited. The apparatus has expandable function which may provide other caution information, large number of travel and business information to vehicles. This apparatus may substitute travel caution signs.

Claims

1. A traffic safety caution apparatus having the function for distinguishing the running direction of vehicles, comprises a transmitter and a receiver,

said transmitter comprises a vehicle detect enabling means (1), a power supply (2), a stereo frequency-modulation (FM) receiving means (3), a speech recording/reproducing means (4), a stereo encoding means (5), a FM amplifying transmitting means (6), an ultrasonic frequency stabilization oscillating means (7), and an ultrasonic transmitting head (8);

wherein said vehicle detect enabling means (1) directly connecting to said power supply (2), said vehicle detect enabling means (2) used for controlling the on/off of the power supply and of respective portions of the transmitter based on the detected noise signal from a vehicle, an output channel of said stereo frequency-modulation (FM) receiving means (3) for receiving input speech signal connecting to said speech recording/reproducing means (4), an output of said speech recording/reproducing means (4) connecting to said stereo encoding means (5), an output of said stereo encoding means (5) connecting to said FM amplifying transmitting means (6) for transmitting FM signal, said ultrasonic frequency stabilization oscillating means (7) connecting to the ultrasonic transmitting head (8) for transmitting ultrasonic wave; and

the receiver comprises a stereo frequency-modulation (FM) receiving means (11) for receiving FM signal transmitted from the transmitter;

a set of analog switches (12, 16, 22, 24);

a processor (18);

a speech recording/reproducing means (25);

a remote control receiving means (13);

a remote control decoding means (14);

a quad-latch (15);

a resistor array (17);

an ultrasonic receiving head (19);

an ultrasonic frequency selective amplifying means (20);

a frequency-voltage converting means (21);

a reference voltage generator (23); and

a power amplifying speaker (26);

wherein an output channel of the stereo FM receiving means (11) connecting to a first input of a first analog switch (12) controlled by the processor (18), a second input of the first analog switch (12) connecting to an output of the speech recording/reproducing means (25), the speech output of the first analog switch (12) connecting to the speech recording/reproducing means (25), the reproducing output of the first analog switch (12) connecting to the power amplifying speaker (26), a identity code output of the first analog switch (26) connecting to the remote control receiving means (13);

the output of the remote control receiving means (13) connecting to the remote control decoding means (14);

the output of the remote control decoding means (14) connecting to the quad-latch (15) of which an output in turn connects to the processor (18), and the other output of which connects to an input of a second analog switch (16);

a resistor array (17) connecting to the other input of the second analog switch (16);

a gate level signal output of the second analog switch (16) connecting to an input of a third analog switch (22), and another input of the third analog switch (22) connecting to the output of the reference voltage generator (23);

an output of the ultrasonic receiving means, which is composed of an ultrasonic receiving head (19) for receiving ultrasonic signals transmitted from the transmitter, the ultrasonic frequency selective amplifying means (20) for performing frequency selection and amplifying the output of the ultrasonic receiving head, and the frequency-voltage converting means (21) for receiving the output from the ultrasonic frequency selective amplifying means (20) and converting the output into digital pulse signals, connecting to another input of the third analog switch (22); and

another input of the speech recording/reproducing means (25) connecting to the processor (18) via the first analog switch (12).

2. The traffic safety caution apparatus according to claim 1, wherein in said transmitter, said vehicle detection enabling means (1) includes a detecting microphone MIC, a sound detecting integrated circuit IC7, a transistor Q4 and a delay reset relay J;

said stereo FM receiving means (3) includes a receiving antenna AN1, a stereo FM receiving integrated circuit IC1;

said speech recording/reproducing means (4) includes a speech recording/reproducing integrated circuit IC4;

said stereo encoding means (5) includes a stereo encoding integrated circuit IC6;

said FM amplifying transmitting means (6) includes three transistors Q1 to Q3 and a transmitting antenna AN2;

said ultrasonic frequency stabilization oscillating means (7) includes a crystal oscillator Y3, “

NOT”

circuits IC2/b, IC2/c and IC2/d, and a power transistor Q5;

said ultrasonic transmitting head (8) includes an ultrasonic transmitting sensor Y4;

in said receiver, the stereo FM receiving means (11) includes a receiving antenna AN3 and a stereo FM receiving integrated circuit IC8;

the analog switches (12, 16, 22, 24) includes a analog switch which is composed of a four-tap analog switch IC12 and a transistor Q7, and analog switches IC14, IC13 and IC21;

the processor (18) is a microprocessor IC22;

the speech recording/reproducing means (25) includes a speech recording/reproducing integrated circuit IC20;

the remote control receiving means (13) includes a remote control demodulation integrated circuit IC18;

the remote control decoding means (14) includes a remote control decoding integrated circuit IC17;

the quad-latch (15) includes a dual D-type trigger integrated circuit IC15, IC16;

the ultrasonic receiving head (19) includes an ultrasonic receiving sensor Y8;

the ultrasonic frequency selective amplifying means (20) includes a plurality of operational amplifiers IC26, IC25 and IC24;

the frequency-voltage converting means (21) includes a frequency-voltage converter IC23;

the reference voltage generator (23) includes a resistor R47 and a voltage stabilizing diode D39; and

the power amplifying speaker (26) includes a power amplifying integrated circuit IC11 and a speaker SP.

3. The traffic safety caution apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, wherein in said transmitter, a speech recording/reproducing means (9) is connected between the other output channel of the stereo FM receiving means (3) and the stereo encoding means (5), a recording/reproducing switch circuit (10) is connected between the control signal input of the stereo FM receiving means (3) and the speech recording/reproducing means (4);

in said receiver, the other output channel of the stereo FM receiving means (11) is connected to a MP3 player (27), one of the inputs of the MP3 player (27) is connected to the processor (18), and the other input thereof is connected to the quad-latch (15), the output of the MP3 player (27) is connected to the first analog switch (12).

4. The traffic safety caution apparatus according to claim 3, wherein in said transmitter, the speech recording/reproducing means (9) include a speech recording/reproducing integrated circuit IC5;

the recording/reproducing switch circuit (10) includes a “

NOT”

circuit IC2/a and an analog switch IC3;

in said receiver, the MP3 player (27) includes a MP3 player IC10.

5. The traffic safety caution apparatus according to claim 4, wherein said receiver further comprises a weather detecting means including a sensor (29) for detecting weather and a analog switch (28) connected to the output of the sensor and controlled by the processor (18), and two control signal outputs of the analog switch (28) are connected to the speech recording/reproducing means (25), the data output of the analog switch (28) is connected to the processor (18), the power amplifying speaker (26) in said receiver is connected to volume incrementing means (30) of which a control signal input is connected to a analog switch (24).

6. The traffic safety caution apparatus according to claim 5, wherein said sensor (29) in said receiver is temperature sensor T, the analog switch (28) includes a four-tap analog switch IC19 and a transistor Q6, and the volume incrementing means (30) is a count dividing frequency integrated circuit IC9.