FR2628770A1 - Vehicular traffic approach indicator for crossroads and junctions - has optical fibre pick=up box relaying headlamp illumination as red warning for conflicting traffic on each side - Google Patents

Abstract

A box installed at the centre of a crossroads or intersection incorporates a set of magnifying lenses (4) located along each side (6) in front of cavities (3). Optical fibres terminating in these cavities have their other ends fed into a junction unit (2) in the box centre. The junction unit is arranged so that light impinging on any one side of the central box is fed (e.g. 7) to the lenses of two adjacent sides. A red filter in the junction unit ensures that these present a danger aspect to traffic approaching from either direction. The central box has as many sides as there are intersecting roadways. Its internal connections ensure that conflicting traffic is always warned of the approach of another vehicle. ADVANTAGE - Use of optical pickups and interconnecting fibres ensures that conflicting traffic has individual warning of each others' approach to intersection. Road safety is thus enhanced.

Description

The present invention relates to a device which, placed in the middle of a crossing of two or more roads, signals the arrival of a vehicle to drivers coming from the right or from the left of this vehicle as soon as it has switched on. lighthouses. This signaling is caused by the lighting of the headlights of the vehicles which causes the red lights to appear on the vehicles coming from the right or from the left. This signaling is traditionally made at night by a call of headlights but is not always clearly visible especially in rainy weather, which causes traffic accidents in crossings or crossroads. The device according to the invention overcomes this drawback. The device comprises a box of four, five or six sides depending on the configuration of the crossing where it is installed. The device, the shape and dimensions of which we will specify below and in the attached drawings, must be placed in the middle of the crossing or crossroads so that its sides are perpendicular to the roads that form the intersection. On each side of the device, cables containing optical fibers leave; one half of the cables on one side will connect the right lateral side and the other half the left lateral side.

The cables connecting the sides are not in one piece but will be joined together after having inserted a red, transparent, thin glass or plastic screen.

The optical fiber has among other peculiarities that of transmitting the received light.

It therefore appears that the light from the headlights of a vehicle approaching the device will be transmitted to the lateral sides of the device. The light emitted by the headlights of a vehicle on one side of the device of the invention is transmitted by the optical fiber cables to the red interlayer screens. After this screen, the light initially emitted becomes red and is in turn transmitted by the cables located on the other side of the screen to the lateral sides of the device.

 When a vehicle presents itself alone at a crossing, it does not encounter visible red light on its path.

In order to increase the optical effects, cavities of aluminum or other reflective material in the form of a funnel are made along each side of the device of the invention. In front of each cavity in place, an optical magnifier that will increase and focus on the open
the light received. The fiber optic cables are placed behind the opening of the cavity. There are as many cavities as there are cables. When a vehicle arrives at a road intersection equipped with the device, with its headlights on, drivers arriving laterally are warned that another vehicle will meet them and that extreme caution is required.

The shape of the device object of the invention is for a
intersection of two roads a square twenty centimeters wide and five centimeters thick. For an intersection of five roads, the device will have five sides and six sides for a junction of six roads.

 The device is enclosed in a solid and transparent glass dome.

The accompanying drawings illustrate the invention schematically.

Figure 1 shows the interior of the device seen from above.

Figure 2 shows the four connection ducts
placed in the center of the device.

FIG. 3 represents a cavity provided with a magnifying glass and a
optical fiber sheath.

Figure 4 shows the junction of two connector sleeves
dement with the screen.

Figure 5 shows a side seen from the front.

The device, the interior of which is shown in the figure, comprises the fiber optic cables (1) which run from each side (6) to communicate with the lateral sides (6) after passing through the center where a transparent glass screen of red color (7) has been inserted.

Thus, when the light of a vehicle headlight illuminates one side (6), the light passes into the cavities (3). In front of which are placed magnifying glasses (4) and emerges through the openings (5) of the cavities (3) where the fiber optic cables are located (1). These cables are joined in half in the central sheaths (2) to communicate with the lateral sides (6). This junction is made after having inserted the red pad or screen (7) as shown in Figure 4. Thus the light when it passes from a central sheath (2) to the opposite central sheath (2), after having crossed the pastille (7), turns red to the lateral ends.

The device according to the invention is particularly intended for signaling the arrival of a motor vehicle in an intersection of roads.

Claims (1)

CLAIM 1. Road signage device placed in the center  of a road intersection is characterized in that it  has a generally square box or  hexagonal whose sides are DerDendicular to the roads which form this intersection. The box closes optical fiber cables (1) which leave from each of its sides to connect the lateral sides after having inserted a patch or screen made of red transparent glass or plastic (7).