Early lighting of brake-lights in vehicles

• US 5,942,972 A
• Filed: 12/15/1997
• Issued: 08/24/1999
• Est. Priority Date: 04/06/1995
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Baran Advanced Technologies
• Original Assignee: Baran Advanced Technologies
• Inventors: Kaner, Avigdor
• Primary Examiner(s): TONG, NINA C
• Application Number:
  US08/913,496
• Time in Patent Office: 617 Days
• Field of Search: 340/479, 340/467, 340/464, 340/463, 340/468, 340/471, 307/10.8, 315/77, 315/80
• US Class Current: 340/479
• CPC Class Codes: B60Q 1/44 for indicating braking action or preparation for braking, e.g. by detection of the foot approaching the brake pedal

Abstract

A safety system for early lighting of stop lights in vehicles comprises the step of measuring the negative rate of change in the fuel supply to the engine, and converting same to an electronic analog or digital value; the step of comparing the value corresponding to the negative rate of change in the fuel supply to the engine to a preassigned threshold level; and the step of lighting the stop lights if the value is larger than the threshold value.

Claims

1. A safety system for early lighting of stop lights in vehicles, which comprises:

means for measuring a negative rate of change in a fuel supply to an engine, and converting same to an electronic analog or digital value;

means for comparing the value corresponding to the negative rate of change in the fuel supply to the engine to a preassigned threshold level; and

means for lighting the stop lights if said value is larger than said threshold level;

comprising means for adapting the system to a driving behavior of a driver actually driving the vehicle, which comprises;

means for storing in a register values corresponds to negative rates of change in the fuel supply to the engine which are actually followed by brake activation;

processing means for reading all values recorded in said register, averaging them, and assigning a resulting average as a reference value; and

means for updating the threshold value by an amount which is dependent from said reference value.

2. A safety system according to claim 1 wherein the processing means comprises a microprocessor or a microcontroller.

3. A safety system according to claim 1, wherein the means for storing the values corresponding to the negative rates of change in the fuel supply to the engine and which are actually followed by braking activations, is the memory of a microprocessor or a microcontroller.

4. A safety system according to claim 1, wherein the means for measuring the negative rate of change in the fuel supply to the engine comprises a sensor which generate a signal related to the movement of an accelerator pedal.

5. A safety system according to claim 1, wherein the means for measuring the negative rate of change in the fuel supply to the engine, comprises a sensor which measure the movement of an accelerator lever in a carburetor.

6. A safety system according to claim 1, wherein the processing means and the means for storing in a register values corresponds to the negative rate of change in the fuel supply to the engine are associated with a built-in vehicle computer.

7. A method for learning the braking behavior of drivers, and setting a threshold value related to a specific driver actually driving the vehicle, comprising performing the following operations:

setting an initial threshold value;

sensing a negative rate of change in a fuel supply to an engine;

measuring the negative rate of change in the fuel supply to the engine and converting the same to an electronic value;

recording in memory means the values corresponding to negative rate of change in the fuel supply to the engine which are actually followed by braking activations;

averaging all values recorded in said memory means, and assigning the result as a reference value; and

adjusting the threshold value by an amount which is directly related to said reference value.