Attachment to traffic light apparatus for visual indication of traffic light duration

• US 6,552,668 B1
• Filed: 11/27/2000
• Issued: 04/22/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 11/27/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Yefim Berezovsky
• Original Assignee: Yefim Berezovsky
• Inventors: Berezovsky, Yefim
• Primary Examiner(s): Wu, Daniel J.
• Application Number:
  US09/722,831
• Time in Patent Office: 876 Days
• Field of Search: 340/907, 340/908, 340/929, 340/930
• US Class Current: 340/929
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096 provided with indicators in which a mark progresses showing the time elapsed, e.g. of green phase

Abstract

An attachment to a traffic light apparatus for indicating duration of a current traffic light signal comprises a panel that consists of a plurality of lamps which are electrically connected in parallel to a source of power supply and are controlled by a clock signal from the traffic light apparatus via a central processing unit and a controller. Each lamp is connected to the power supply line via an individual relay, the contacts of which are opened and closed under control of commands from the aforementioned central processing unit via the controller. The indication panel is divided into a plurality of color cells. Each cell contains a lamp. On the oncoming traffic side each cell is closed with a transparent color plate that defines the color of the light with which the cell is illuminated when the lamp is lit. The color cells may have different arrangements such as an alternating order in each row or the same color of cells in each row with alternation of vertical or horizontal rows. When a green light signal is switched on, at the initial moments green lamps are lit in all the cells. With the laps of time, however, the green lamps are switched off in a stepwise manner, e.g., from the top to the bottom of the indication panel, so that a viewer sees a gradually decreased rectangular green image.

Claims

1. An attachment to a traffic light apparatus for visual indication of a current traffic light signal duration comprising:

a single display means without physically moving parts for sequentially reproducing on the same surface area colored visual images of the same color as the color of the current traffic light and with said surface area being reduced substantially in proportion with the time remaining till switching of said current traffic light signal to another traffic light signal, said single display means comprising a housing separated into a plurality of individual colored cells having light-impermeable walls from all sides, except for the sides that face the oncoming traffic, and having transparent walls on said sides that face oncoming traffic;

said plurality of color cells being divided into green cells, red cells, and yellow cells;

said transparent walls being formed by colored transparent plates, which define the color of respective color cells on which said color transparent plates are installed;

said plurality of color cells being arranged in a matrix form with parallel horizontal and vertical rows with at least one light source in each said individual color cell.

2. The attachment of claim 1, wherein in each said vertical and horizontal row said green cells, red cells, and yellow cells are arranged in an alternating order.

3. The attachment of claim 1, wherein each said vertical and horizontal row is formed by said color cells of the same color and wherein said vertical and horizontal rows with the cells of the same color are arranged in an alternating order.

4. The attachment of claim 2, wherein each said light source is an incandescent lamp.

5. The attachment of claim 3, wherein each said light source is an incandescent lamp.

6. The attachment of claim 1, further provided with control means for controlling operation of said light sources, so that only light sources of the color cells of the same color as the color of the current traffic light are lit at the same time.

7. The attachment of claim 6, where said control means comprises a clock circuit that receives clock signals from said traffic light apparatus and a central processing unit that switches said lamps row in a row by row sequence required to ensure a decrease of said surface area in proportion with the time remaining till switching of said current traffic light signal to another traffic light signal.