DIRECTIONAL SPEED AND DISTANCE SENSOR
First Claim
1. A directional sensor for the purposes of detecting a presence of a vehicle or of an object within a zone of interest on a roadway or in a parking space, comprising:
- a transmitter for transmitting a low power microwave transmit pulse such that the effective pulse width is less than 10 ns;
a directional antenna system to enable the transmit pulse to be radiated preferentially towards a detection area;
an adjustable receive window to receive reflected, scattered, and bounced signals of transmit pulses, the adjustable receive window being adjustable in relation to the transmit pulse;
an integrator that performs one or more of integrating and combining signals from multiple received pulses to increase a signal to noise ratio;
a digitizer that digitizes the combined signal from the integrator using an analog to digital conversion process;
a module for comparing the digitized signal to at least one of preset and dynamically computed threshold values to determine the presence or absence of an object in the field of view of the sensor; and
at least one pulse generator capable of generating at least one pulse with rise and fall times of less than 3 ns each or less than 10 ns in duration for controlling the transmit pulses and receive windows.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A method of using a directional sensor for the purposes of detecting the presence of a vehicle or an object within a zone of interest on a roadway or in a parking space. The method comprises the following steps: transmitting a microwave transmit pulse of less than 5 feet; radiating the transmitted pulse by a directional antenna system; receiving received pulses by an adjustable receive window; integrating or combining signals from multiple received pulses; amplifying and filtering the integrated receive signal; digitizing the combined signal; comparing the digitized signal to at least one preset or dynamically computed threshold values to determine the presence or absence of an object in the field of view of the sensor; and providing at least one pulse generator with rise and fall times of less than 3 ns each and capable of generating pulses less than 10 ns in duration.
11 Citations
25 Claims
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1. A directional sensor for the purposes of detecting a presence of a vehicle or of an object within a zone of interest on a roadway or in a parking space, comprising:
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a transmitter for transmitting a low power microwave transmit pulse such that the effective pulse width is less than 10 ns; a directional antenna system to enable the transmit pulse to be radiated preferentially towards a detection area; an adjustable receive window to receive reflected, scattered, and bounced signals of transmit pulses, the adjustable receive window being adjustable in relation to the transmit pulse; an integrator that performs one or more of integrating and combining signals from multiple received pulses to increase a signal to noise ratio; a digitizer that digitizes the combined signal from the integrator using an analog to digital conversion process; a module for comparing the digitized signal to at least one of preset and dynamically computed threshold values to determine the presence or absence of an object in the field of view of the sensor; and at least one pulse generator capable of generating at least one pulse with rise and fall times of less than 3 ns each or less than 10 ns in duration for controlling the transmit pulses and receive windows. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A battery operated sensor system for detecting a presence of a vehicle or of an object within a zone of interest on a roadway or in a parking space, comprising:
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a sensing element comprising a transmitter and a receiver and is housed within a sensor enclosure; at least one of a second transmitter and a second receiver collocated with the sensor enclosure that is communicatively coupled with an in-vehicle device; the in-vehicle device, comprising a third transmitter and a third receiver, and further comprising a unique identification of a vehicle; the in-vehicle device being configured to be mounted either inside or on the body of the vehicle; and a processor for combining sensor status information from the sensing element with the unique vehicle identification, received from the in-vehicle device, to enable identification of the vehicle to facilitate processing of the vehicle for one or more of payment, enforcement, data collection, and advertising purposes. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A detection system, comprising:
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a parking occupancy sensor directed towards at least one parking occupancy detection zone that is mounted above a height of a parking surface near a parking space; and the parking occupancy sensor comprising a radar transmitter and a radar receiver. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25)
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Specification