EP0784303A1

EP0784303A1 - Outdoor display device for road information

Info

Publication number: EP0784303A1
Application number: EP96100224A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Ryutaro Kishishita
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1996-01-09
Filing date: 1996-01-09
Publication date: 1997-07-16

Abstract

An outdoor display device includes road signs disposed at the road side or above the road, said road signs being supported by a supporting member such as a support column, a pole, a mounting beam or the like. Additional display portions each having a suitable size are attached to the rear surface or the lateral sides of the road signs. A plurality of light emitting members such as LEDs or miniature bulbs are arranged over the whole surface of each additional display portion. A pattern of illuminated or intermittently illuminated light emitting members defines characters, figures or marks to be displayed.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the invention

The present invention relates to an outdoor display device mounted on the rear surface of a support column or a pole for a road guide display plate, a traffic mark plate or the like or attached to the unused space of a support column to display, e.g., weather information, road information or news having high public value while the content of display can controllably be changed.
To assure safety and smoothness of traffic, various kinds of display plates such as traffic mark plates, road guide display plates or the like are hitherto mounted not only on a high speed road, a driveway or the like but also on a national road, a prefecture road, a city road or the like while they are supported by means of a support column, a pole or a mounting beam.

2. Description of the Related Art

As shown in Fig. 3, since display plates 11 and 12 such as traffic mark plates, road guide display plates or the like mounted in accordance with a road traffic act for the purpose of controlling roads are disposed with display surfaces DP1 and DP2 oriented opposite to the running direction of vehicles Ca1 and Ca2 on vehicle lines R1 and R2, the rear surface 12b of the display surface DP1 is kept opened merely as a dead space.
In the case that the display plates 11 and 12 are mounted on a beams 31 for gate type mounting frames F within the full width of the upstream vehicle line R1 and the downstream vehicle line R2 as shown in Fig. 3, the foregoing dead space, i.e., the rear sides 11b and 12b of the display plates 11 and 12 for the vehicle lines R1 and R2 do not exhibit any indication, but merely the structure of the beam 31 and the rear sides 11b and 12b of the display plate 11 or 12 are visually recognized by drivers on the vehicles Ca1 and Ca2 running on the opposite vehicle side. Thus, this is not favorable from the viewpoint of spectacle. In addition, since the grey zone is uselessly left as an extra space, this is a loss from the viewpoint of economy.
Further, since the display plates 11 and 12 for the upstream vehicle line R1 and the downstream vehicle line R2 are disposed only on the front surface or the rear surface of the beam 31 located opposite to the vehicle line R1 or R2, the opposite surface of the beam 31 is held in the idle state. This is unfavorable from the viewpoint of economy.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention has been made in consideration of the aforementioned background.
A primary object of the present invention is to provide an outdoor display device which makes it possible to display advertisement, campaign, public message or the like by utilizing the empty space on the rear surface of a display plate such as a road guide display plate or the like or the lateral surface of the same.
A secondary object of the present invention is to provide an outdoor display device which assures that the content of display can arbitrarily be changed, and moreover, the displaying timing and the displaying time can arbitrarily be controlled without any necessity for exchanging the display plate with another one or rewriting the content of display.
To accomplish the primary object, according one aspect of the present invention, there is provided an outdoor display device including road guide display plates or road mark plates installed on the road side or on the road by means of supporting members such as a support column, a pole, a mounting beam or the like, wherein another display plate having advertisement, campaign, public message or the like displayed thereon each having a suitable content is attached to the rear surface side of the road guide display plates or the road mark plates while it is supported by the road guide display plate, the road mark plate or the supporting members.
Further, to accomplish the secondary object, according to other aspect of the present invention, there is provided an outdoor display device including a road guide display plate or a road mark plate installed on the road side or on the road by means of a supporting member such as a support column, a pole, a mounting beam or the like, wherein an additive display portion having a plurality of light emitting members such as LEDs, miniature bulbs or the like arranged on the whole area thereof in the planar relationship is formed on the rear side of the road guide display plate or the road mark plate or the lateral side of the latter while having a certain size, and a pattern of turning on or intermittently turning on the light emitting members is controlled in such a manner that characters, figures and marks are combined with each other to exhibit a certain content to be displayed.
It is preferable that a plurality of additive display portions each including a plurality of planar light emitting members are disposed along the road, and a display surface of each additive display portion is connected to a display control computer via a communication line, the computer controlling a content of display.
Further, the computer is connected to one or all of road controllers of Japan Road Association, traffic police sections, Weather Agency, various mass communication organizations via a telephone line(s) or an exclusively usable line(s).
The content of display is road traffic information, various kind of news, weather forecast, official report of governmental of public enterprise, advertisement of a company and a combination of the aforementioned items suitably combined thereamong.
It is preferable that the display time is controlled by a timer.
According to the present invention, when, e.g., an advertisement plate(s) is disposed at a location on, e.g., a support beam of which one surface is uselessly left, a so-called dead space can effectively be utilized, and moreover, the content of display of the advertisement plate can individually be changed and the display timing and the display time can be controlled. Consequently, a so-called dead space of the support beam can usefully be utilized, and the advertisement plate can exhibit an excellent display effect.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of an outdoor display device of the present invention wherein the present invention is applied to a conventional display device shown in Fig. 3.
Fig. 2 is a perspective view of on outdoor display device which shows by way of another example that the present invention is applied to the conventional display device shown in Fig. 3.
Fig. 3 is a perspective view of the conventional display device, showing the state of the rear surface side of the conventional display device.
Fig. 4 is a perspective view of a front side which shows by way of example a conventional road guide display plate.
Fig. 5 to a perspective view of the rear surface side of the display plate shown in Fig. 4.
Fig. 6 is a perspective view which shows by way of example that the present invention is applied to the conventional display device shown in Fig. 5.
Fig. 7 is a functional block diagram of the display device of the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The present invention will now be described in detail hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings.
Fig. 1 is a perspective view which shows by way of example on outdoor display device of the present invention wherein the present invention is applied to a conventional display device shown in Fig. 3.
In Fig. 3, reference characters R1 and R2 denote an upstream vehicle running line and a downstream vehicle running line, reference character Cb denotes a central separating zone, reference character Ca1 denotes a vehicle running on the upstream running line R1, and reference character Ca2 denotes a vehicle running on the downward vehicle running line R2. Reference numerals 11 and 12 denote road guide display plates of which display surfaces DP are disposed opposite to the running lines R1 and R2 extending in the running directions at the vehicles Ca1 and Ca2 on the running lines R1 and R2, reference numeral 21 denotes support columns standing upright on the opposite sides of the road, and reference numeral 31 denoted a beam member which is horizontally bridged between the upper ends of the support columns 21 so that a gate type frame F is formed by the support columns 21 and the beam member 31. Thus, road guide display plates 11 and 12 are fixed to the beam member 31 with rear surfaces 11b and 12b. Incidentally, the rear surface 11b is not shown on the drawings.
As shown in Fig. 3, the rear surfaces of the road guide display plates 11 and 12 are exposed to the outside without any displaying thereon. The present invention has been made in consideration of the location and the space which are not utilized at any rate, and a characterizing feature of the present invention consists in that an additive display portion 41 exemplified in Fig. 1 is disposed on the beam member 31.
The additive display portion 41 shown in Fig. 1 is such that a number of LEDs 5 each serving as a lighting element are arranged on the whole surface area of a display surface LB to represent a certain character, figure or the like. The content of the display pattern is a combination of characters and figures to be published by the associated governmental organization, informations on road guide display, road traffic information on the opposite vehicle running lines, various kind of news and weather forecast. The characters and figures are used in the suitably combined state or independently to express an item to be published therewith. In the present invention, an advertisement display plate 41 is attached to the rear surface 12b side of the display plate 12 for the downstream running line R2 and a hand writing or photographed advertisement display plate 41' is disposed on the upstream running line R1 side while the display surface DP is oriented toward the running care as exemplified in Fig. 3.
Fig. 4 to Fig. 6 are drawings which show by way of another example the structure of a display device of the present invention. In Fig. 4, reference numeral 22 denotes a support column, and reference numeral 23 denotes an arm member which is made integral with the support column 22 by bending a part of the support column 22. As shown in Fig. 5, merely a skeleton 13S of the display plate 13 is recognized on the rear surface 13b of the display plate 13. To carry out the present invention, a board 5a is attached to the rear surface 13b so as to allow a number of LEDs 5 to be regularly arranged thereon. To express desired characters on the board 5a with LEDs, the latter are turned on or intermittently turned on with the aid of a computer.
With this construction, the rear surface 13b side of the display plate 13 which is not usefully utilized as a dead space of the conventional display device can effectively be utilized as a space for a variable electrical lighting display plate for the purpose of road guiding or the like.
Since the additive displaying portions 41 and 42 are attached to the existent road guide plates or display plates arranged on a main road or a high speed road, a number of additive display portions are arranged in the spaced relationship along the road side. Since turning-on or intermittently turning-on of the LEDs on each display board LB is controlled on the total basis with the aid of a control system as exemplified in Fig. 7, the control system will be described below.
In Fig. 7, reference numerals 61 to 64 denote information sources for providing traffic information, various kind of news, weather forecast or the like. Concretely, the information sources 61 to 64 are road controllers in Japan Road Association, governmental associations, local governmental associations, traffic controlling police stations, Weather Agency, weather information providing companies, newspaper companies, television stations or the similar information providing organizations. Reference numeral 65 denotes a display control center for totally controlling the displaying operations of the additive display portions 41 to 4n in response to the informations from the information sources 61 to 64. The control center 65 is connected to respective display portions 41 to 4n via communication circuits 66c with modems 66a and 66b interposed therebetween. Not only a telephone line but also an exclusively usable line and an optical fiber communication line are utilized for the communication circuits 66c. In addition, a telephone line or facsimile line 67 can be connected to the control center 65 so as to allow display informations given by companies and persons to be directly received in the control center 65.
The display control center 65 allows traffic informations, news or weather forecast to be displayed separately at each of the display portions 41 to 4n or displayed at the display portions 41 to 4n in union while the content of display is changed. In addition, since the content of display varies depending on the time of displaying of traffic guide, news, advertisement or the like, causing the content of display to be easily changed, the display control center 65 exhibits a high efficiency as displaying means. Further, with respect to each of the display portions 41 to 4n, a display timing or a display time can freely be set or changed with the aid of a timer incorporated in the computer of the display control center 65.
As is apparent from the above description, since a display surface BL of each of the additive display portions 41 to 4n which is illuminated so as to allow a required content of display to be displayed in that way can visually be recognized only by a driver and passengers in his vehicle running along the opposite running route, there do not arise malfunctions that traffic display on the running route side located opposite to the front side of a display plate can not be effected or a vehicle running on the foregoing running route side can not be driven. Therefore, the additive display portions 41 to 4n do not obstruct the vehicle from being driven in the same manner as other advertisement boards in a city.
While the present invention has been described above with respect to a few preferred embodiments thereof, it should of course be understood that the present invention should not limited only to these embodiments but various change or modification may be made without departure from the scope of the present invention as defined by the appended claims.

Claims

In an outdoor display device including road guide display plates or load mark plates installed on the road side or on the road by means of supporting members such as a support column, a pole, a mounting beam or the like, the improvement wherein another display plate having advertisement, campaign, public message or the like displayed thereon each having a suitable content is attached to the rear surface side of said load guide display plates or said load mark plates while it is supported by said road guide display plate, said load mark plate or said supporting members.
In an outdoor display device including a road guide display plate or a road mark plate installed on the road side or on the road by means of supporting members such as a support column, a pole, a mounting beam or the like, the improvement wherein an additive display portion having a plurality of light emitting members such as LEDs, miniature bulbs or the like arranged on the whole area thereof in the planar relationship is formed on the rear side of said road guide display plate or said road mark plate or the lateral side of the latter while having a certain size, and a pattern of turning on or intermittently turning on said light emitting members is controlled in such a manner that characters, figures and marks are combined with each other to exhibit a certain content to be displayed.
The outdoor display device as claimed in claim 2, wherein a plurality of additive display portions each including a plurality of planar light emitting members are disposed along the road, and a display surface of each additive display portion is connected to a display control computer via a communication line, said computer controlling a content of display.
The outdoor display device as claimed in claim 2 or claim 3, wherein said computer is connected to one or all of road controllers of Japan Road Association, traffic police sections, Weather Agency, various mass communication organizations via a telephone line(s) or an exclusively usable line(s).
The outdoor display device as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein a content of display is road traffic information, various kind of news, weather forecast, official report of governmental or public enterprise, advertisement of a company and a combination of the aforementioned items suitably combined thereamong.
The outdoor display device as claimed in claim 5, wherein the display time is controlled by a timer.