WARNING-DETECTING MEANS WITH DIRECTIONAL INDICATION

• US 3,626,365 A
• Filed: 12/04/1969
• Issued: 12/07/1971
• Est. Priority Date: 12/04/1969
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Elliott H. Press, Hillel Pitlik
• Original Assignee: Elliott H. Press, Hillel Pitlik
• Inventors: Press, Elliott H., Pitlik, Hillel
• Primary Examiner(s): Cooper, William C.
• Application Number:
  US04/882,024
• Time in Patent Office: 733 Days
• Field of Search: 181/26 340/16R,34 179/1VE
• US Class Current: 367/129
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 3/802 Systems for determining direction or deviation from predetermined direction
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/0816 Indicating performance data, e.g. occurrence of a malfunction
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 367/909 Collision avoidance

Abstract

A vehicle is equipped with a plurality of directionally responsive sound detectors, such as microphones, each oriented or baffled to receive sound from a different direction. Warning sounds originating in the vicinity, such as an ordinary automobile horn, or a warning siren of an emergency vehicle, are picked up by the directionally sensitive receivers and are translated through electronic circuits into light signals on a panel visible to the driver of the vehicle, so that by observing the lights on the panel the driver can tell from which direction the warning sound comes, even though he may not hear the sound either because he is hard of hearing or because the windows of the vehicle are closed or the external warning sound is drowned by a high level of noise within the vehicle. In a modification of the invention, a receiver on the vehicle may be responsive to inaudible energy, such as radio waves, emitted by mechanism on an emergency vehicle such as an ambulance or a fire truck. The electronic circuits will light the visible panel to indicate that emergency signals are present.

Claims

1. A warning signal indicator for visually indicating the existence and direction of an audible airborne warning signal in the vicinity of a vehicle, comprising a plurality of microphones mounted on said vehicle, each microphone being oriented and baffled to be selectively responsive mainly to sound waves approaching from a given direction within a limited lateral angle on each side of an axis of orientation of that microphone, the axis of orientation of each microphone being at a material horizontal angle to the axis of orientation of each other microphone, a plurality of visual signal areas in position to be readily observed by the driver of said vehicle while engaged in driving the same, electric lamps for selectively illuminating certain of said signal areas, and electric circuit means operatively interposed between said microphones and said electric lamps for illuminating said lamps selectively in response to sound waves continuing for at least a predetermined minimum time picked up by the different microphones and independently of differences in the time of arrival of incoming sound waves at different microphones.

2. A construction as defined in claim 1, in which the number of visual signal areas is greater than the number of microphones, and in which said electric circuit means includes a logic circuit for illuminating said lamps to illuminate said signal areas in various combinations depending upon which microphone or microphones are activated by incoming sound waves.

3. A warning signal indicator for visually indicating the existence and direction of an audible warning signal in the vicinity of a vehicle, comprising a plurality of microphones mounted on said vehicle, each microphone being oriented and baffled to be selectively responsive mainly to sound waves approaching from a given direction within a limited lateral angle on each side of an axis of orientation of that microphone, the axis of orientation of each microphone being at a material horizontal angle to the axis of orientation of each other microphone, a plurality of visual signal areas in position to be readily observed by the driver of said vehicle while engaged in driving the samE, electric lamps for selectively illuminating certain of said signal areas, and electric circuit means operatively interposed between said microphones and said electric lamps for illuminating said lamps selectively in response to sound waves picked up by the different microphones, said electric circuit means including, with respect to each microphone, a filter passing signals having a frequency above a predetermined frequency and blocking signals having a frequency below said predetermined frequency, and a time delay unit passing signals continuing for longer than a predetermined duration and rejecting signals of less than said predetermined duration, and an output storage and driver unit.

4. A construction as defined in claim 3, in which said predetermined duration is approximately one-half second, and said predetermined frequency is about 1,200 cycles per second.

5. A construction as defined in claim 3, in which said output storage and driver unit for each microphone feeds to at least one gate unit and to an inverter feeding to a different gate unit, and in which each gate unit controls illumination of one of said electric lamps.

6. A construction as defined in claim 3, in which there are three microphones having their axes of orientation spaced at an angle of approximately 120* from each other.

7. A construction as defined in claim 3, in which there are four microphones having their axes of orientation spaced at an angle of approximately 90* from each other.

8. A construction as defined in claim 3, in which at least one microphone is oriented to be responsive to sound waves approaching from the front of the vehicle, another microphone is oriented to be responsive to sound waves approaching from the rear and the right-hand side, and another microphone is oriented to be responsive to sound waves approaching from the rear and the left-hand side.

9. A construction as defined in claim 3, in which said electric circuit means includes means for keeping an illuminated lamp still lit for a predetermined minimum time notwithstanding that an incoming signal which caused illumination of such lamp has meanwhile ceased.

10. The method of visually indicating to the driver of a vehicle the existence and direction of an audible airborne warning signal in the vicinity of the vehicle, which comprises the steps of disposing on the vehicle a plurality of microphones each oriented and baffled to be selectively responsive mainly to sound waves approaching from a given direction within a limited lateral angle on each side of an axis of orientation of the microphone, the axis of orientation of each microphone being in a direction materially different from that of each other microphone, disposing a plurality of visual signal areas in the vehicle in position to be readily observed by the driver of the vehicle while he is driving it, and causing outputs of the respective microphones to illuminate selectively the visual signal areas to indicate to the observing driver the direction from which a signal comes independently of differences in the time of arrival of incoming sound waves at different microphones.