Vehicle backing aid
First Claim
1. A system for effectively assisting in the backing of a vehicle comprising:
- sonar ranging means having a transducer mounted to the rear of said vehicle, said sonar ranging means including means for generating and projecting a beam of pulsed acoustic energy horizontally through the air behind said vehicle, and for receiving returned pulses and generating therefrom a number corresponding to the distance from said transducer to an object reflecting said beammeans for converting said number into an audible human speech equivalent, whereby the operator of said vehicle is assisted in the backing thereof through the range callout; and
,means for detecting a rapid change of detected range in terms of Δ
R/Δ
T for predetermined Δ
R/Δ
T and means for providing an alarm indication responsive thereto.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A method and apparatus is provided for alerting the operator of a vehicle as to the distance from the rear of the vehicle to a structure such as a loading dock to which the vehicle is being backed through the utilization of sonar ranging and means for converting a detected range into an audible call out of the distance from the back of the vehicle to the structure to which the vehicle is being backed. In one embodiment the talking unit is activated upon the placing of the vehicle in reverse gear. When used on trucks, the transducer is removably mountable to the rear of the truck, with a transmission line lead to the cab of the truck. In the preferred embodiment, a 50 kH2 transducer is utilized to project a fan beam of radiation from the back of the vehicle so that not only is the closest projecting object in the path of the beam detected and the distance thereto annunciated, any pedestrians or persons having a height commensurate with that of the mounted transducer will cause the range to that person to be annunciated, thereby providing an alarm indication to the driver. In a further embodiment, the transducer is protected from the elements and is either open to the elements only during backing, or is cleaned such that road grime and other hydrocarbons do not contaminate the transducer surface except at such limited times as when the vehicle is in reverse. The audiblization of the distance between the back of the truck and the structure to which it is backed may be provided at a predetermined rate, or may be predicated on a predetermined range change or, may be called out only at preset distances.
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Citations
16 Claims
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1. A system for effectively assisting in the backing of a vehicle comprising:
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sonar ranging means having a transducer mounted to the rear of said vehicle, said sonar ranging means including means for generating and projecting a beam of pulsed acoustic energy horizontally through the air behind said vehicle, and for receiving returned pulses and generating therefrom a number corresponding to the distance from said transducer to an object reflecting said beam means for converting said number into an audible human speech equivalent, whereby the operator of said vehicle is assisted in the backing thereof through the range callout; and
,means for detecting a rapid change of detected range in terms of Δ
R/Δ
T for predetermined Δ
R/Δ
T and means for providing an alarm indication responsive thereto. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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12. A system for effectively assisting in the backing of a vehicle comprising:
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sonar ranging means having a transducer mounted to the rear of said vehicle, said sonar ranging means including means for generating and projecting a beam of pulsed acoustic energy horizontally through the air behind said vehicle, and for receiving returned pulses and generating therefrom a number corresponding to the distance from said transducer to an object reflecting said beam; means for converting said number into an audible human speech equivalent, whereby the operator of said vehicle is assisted in the backing thereof through the range callout; means for removing contamination from the face of said transducer; and
,means for ascertaining the efficiency of said transducer and for activating said contamination removing means responsive to a drop in efficiency of said transducer.
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Specification