Apparatus for the automatic counting of passengers

• US 4,009,389 A
• Filed: 09/19/1975
• Issued: 02/22/1977
• Est. Priority Date: 09/26/1974
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: ABet Almex
• Original Assignee: ABet Almex
• Inventors: Lindholm, Ulf
• Primary Examiner(s): Nelms, David C.
• Application Number:
  US05/614,865
• Time in Patent Office: 522 Days
• Field of Search: 250/221, 250/222, 340/258 B, 343/5 PD
• US Class Current: 250/221
• CPC Class Codes: G06M 1/101 by electro-optical means
• CPC Class Codes: G06M 3/14 for registering difference of positive and negative actuations
• CPC Class Codes: G06M 7/00 Counting of objects carried by a conveyor
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/00 Individual registration on entry or exit

Abstract

There is provided apparatus for determining the number of passengers entering and/or leaving a collective passenger vehicle. The apparatus comprises means for projecting a pair of light-beams of invisible light across the passageway of said passengers and means for receiving said light-beams. Detecting means which operate in conjunction with the light-beam receiving means are adapted to detect the energized or unenergized state of the receiving means and in response thereto to feed information to a data registering or recording means, said information being indicative of the number of passengers passing through the light-beams.

Claims

1. Apparatus for automatically counting persons entering and leaving a public transportation vehicle having at least two passenger doorways provided with doors, each doorway being the width of an adult person and each doorway being adapted for entry and egress of passengers, comprising:

per doorway, two emitters of invisible light adapted to emit a pair of pulsed parallel beams of said light in a horizontal plane across said doorway, the distance between said parallel beams being less than the thickness of an adult person, said plane being about the height of the hip of an adult in said doorway;

two beam sensors of said light, each adapted to sense an interruption in said pulsed invisible light beam transmitted thereto;

a reflector of invisible light positioned across said doorway opposite said emitters and adapted to reflect one of said beams to one of said sensors and to reflect the other beam to the other sensor, said sensors being visible from said reflector;

electronic means cooperating with each of said sensors to emit a pulse of electric current for each interruption of the pulsed invisible light beam thereto;

electronic pulse sensing means adapted to receive the pulses emitted from each of said sensors and to distinguish between and to separately register pulse pairs produced by interruption of the first beam of said pair of beams before interruption of the second beam of said pair and between pulse pairs produced by interruption of the second beam of a pair of beams before interruption of the first beam of said pair, thereby distinguishing between pulse pairs produced by persons passing inwardly through the doorway and pulse pairs produced by persons passing outwardly through said doorway;

means for separately registering and storing said inward and said outward pulses separately for each doorway of said vehicle; and

switch means cooperating with said doors to supply electric current to said apparatus only when said doors are open.

2. Apparatus according to claim 1 characterised in that the pulse sensors are adapted to sense at a frequency of approximately 10 ms.

3. Apparatus according to claim 1 characterised in that each of said pulse sensors is adapted to be energized for approximately 1.6 ms. in synchronism with said sensor means.

4. Apparatus according to claim 1 characterised in that the wave length of the invisible light which the emitters are adapted to emit is 0.9 μ

m.

5. Apparatus according to claim 1 characterised in that for each door, said electronic means comprises a sequence logic section and a common transmission logic section is arranged for all the doors.

6. Apparatus according to claim 5, characterised in that the sequence logic section is adapted to continuously process data from each door and to sequentially store such data together with vehicle identification information, time information and vehicle stop place information in a register provided with means for transmitting said data to a data collecting station.

7. Apparatus according to claim 1 characterised in that each pair of emitter-receivers is housed in a single box and the reflector employed therewith is divided into two reflecting surfaces.

8. Apparatus according to claim 1 wherein said reflector is not reflective to visible light.

9. Apparatus according to claim 1 wherein said sensors do not sense visible light.

10. Apparatus according to claim 1 wherein said electric current is supplied from a storage battery in said vehicle.