JP2009020902A - Light emitting type road stud - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a light emitting type road stud embedded in an intersection of a road and having a traffic control function by raising or indicating a predetermined warning with light emission to improve safety of persons or traveling of vehicles. <P>SOLUTION: When a vehicle passes by a road stud, it is detected by a microphone 32, an acceleration sensor or the like. A light emitting part emits warning light in response to the warning operation. A demodulator demodulates currents to be applied to the light emitting part from a drive circuit of the light emitting part. Information on each warning or indicating operation is superimposed on the light from the light emitting part. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a light-emitting roadway, and more particularly to a light-emitting roadway that is embedded in a road and emits light to perform a predetermined alarm operation or display operation.

  For example, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. 7-105500 and 7-109713, road fences that have been buried on the road surface and almost in the center of the intersection have been used. Such road fences emit warning light so that vehicles traveling from different directions do not collide at the intersection at intersections without traffic lights.

FIG. 11 shows an example of a conventional road fence 1 of this type. Here, a light emitting portion 2 is provided on each of the four sides of the upper surface, and the central portion is surrounded by the light emitting portion 2. Is the solar cell 3. And the electromotive force of this solar cell 3 is stored in the storage battery 4 shown in FIG. 12, and the light emission part 2 is controlled to blink by the blinking controller 5.
JP 2001-174473 A JP 2001-159106 A JP-A-11-191197

  Although the road fence disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-174473 is designed to detect a vehicle by the magnetic impedance effect of a magnetic field sensor, it cannot detect humans. In addition, such a road fence cannot judge the surrounding situation from moment to moment, and can not respond promptly to send information. Therefore, it does not have the function of increasing traffic safety.

  The present invention has been made in view of such problems, and judges the surrounding situation and transmits warning or warning information, and statistically processes the surrounding situation to provide higher-level information externally. The purpose is to provide a road fence that can be provided.

The main invention of this application is:
In a light-emitting road fence that is buried in the road and emits light to perform a predetermined alarm operation or display operation,
A modulator that superimposes a signal for warning or display on the light emitted from the light emitting unit;
Detecting means for detecting the vehicle;
A light emitting means for emitting a warning light or light superimposed with warning information in conjunction with a detection operation by the detection means;
The present invention relates to a light-emitting roadway.

  Here, the light emitting means may emit light superimposed with warning light or warning information to a vehicle traveling in a direction crossing the detected traveling direction of the vehicle or a human being walking. Further, a storage means for storing the detection output of the detection means for detecting the vehicle may be provided so that the amount of traffic of the vehicle can be known based on the output information of the detection means stored by the storage means. The detecting means is preferably a microphone. The detecting means is preferably an acceleration sensor. Moreover, it has a transmission means, You may transmit the information regarding the traffic of the vehicle memorize | stored by the said memory | storage means to the exterior.

  Further, the information processing apparatus includes a storage unit that stores the information detected by the detection unit, and a transmission unit that transmits the information stored in the storage unit to the outside. The transmission unit receives the transmission request signal from the outside. The transmitting means may transmit information. Also, a predetermined type of information or a predetermined range of information stored in the storage means may be transmitted in response to a request signal from the outside. Further, when the transmission request signal from the outside includes a retransmission request signal, the transmission means may retransmit the information. In response to a transmission request from the outside, the transmission means may transmit the requested information together with the unique data of the roadway. Further, it is preferable that the light emitting means blinks when transmitting the information requested by the transmitting means. In addition, when transmitting the information requested by the transmission means, it is possible to emit light on which a signal indicating that the light emission means is transmitting information is superimposed.

  A preferable aspect of the invention included in the present application is a roadway having a light receiving unit for receiving an optical signal and having a so-called communication means capable of sending an information message by blinking, and can detect a person or a vehicle. It has possible detection means, and makes it possible to know the traffic volume based on the detection result of such detection means. Further, at the intersection, when an intersecting vehicle or person is detected, it is an intersection roadway that transmits information to the vehicle or person in an orthogonal direction.

  Furthermore, the preferable aspect of this invention has a receiving means to receive a service request, and transmits the information according to a request with respect to the exterior. In addition, it is preferable to perform blinking of visible light especially at the time of data transmission, thereby indicating that a reaction operation is performed with an external transmission / reception device.

  According to the above aspect, the safety management of the vehicle to pass can be easily performed, or it contributes to ensuring the safety of a human walking. In addition, smooth traffic is possible by transmission and reception. Traffic statistics can also be obtained by acquiring data from this roadside. Here, the data is data such as the traffic volume of pedestrians per day or per hour, the traffic volume of vehicles per hour per day, the presence or absence of pedestrians at the moment of travel of a certain vehicle, and the like.

  A main invention of the present application is a modulator that superimposes a signal for warning or display on light emitted from a light emitting unit in a light-emitting road fence that is embedded in a road and emits light to perform a predetermined warning operation or display operation. And a detecting means for detecting the vehicle, and a light emitting means for emitting light superimposed with warning light or warning information in conjunction with the detection operation by the detecting means.

  Therefore, according to such a roadway, it is possible to detect the traffic of the vehicle and generate warning light in conjunction with this detection. In addition, since a signal for alarm or display can be superimposed on the light emitted from the light emitting unit by the modulator, the light emitted from the light emitting unit can display various or advanced warnings or displays. This makes it possible to provide a road fence having a high-performance warning function.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the road fence 10 according to the present embodiment is embedded in a substantially central part of an intersection of a road without a traffic light, and with respect to a vehicle 20 that has traveled from different directions due to light emitted by the light emitting part 11. It emits warning light, and its basic function is the same as that of a conventional roadway.

  As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the roadway 12 has a feature of transmitting necessary information to the vehicle 20 as well as conventional warning light emission. That is, the road fence 10 is connected to the warning light driving circuit 12 and the modulator 13, and the modulator 13 modulates the driving current of the light emitting unit 11 generated by the warning light driving circuit 12 and superimposes the signal. Therefore, the light emitting unit 11 emits light on which a signal is superimposed.

  When the light superimposed with the signal is emitted from the light emitting unit 11 of the roadway 10, the light is received by the light receiving unit 21 of the vehicle 20, decoded by the decoder 22, and displayed on the display panel 24 via the drive circuit 23. To display. That is, a signal superimposed on the light of the light emitting unit 11 of the road fence 13 is displayed on the display panel 24.

  FIG. 3 particularly shows the system configuration of the road fence 10, which comprises a CPU 14 for processing information and a memory 15 for storing processed information. Further, a solar cell 27 is provided on the upper portion of the road fence 10, and the solar battery 27 generates electric power, and the light emission control of the light emitting unit 11 of the road fence 10 is performed via the warning light driving circuit 12 and the modulator 13. To do. A phototransistor 30 is connected to the CPU 14 via a demodulator 29, and a pyroelectric sensor 31 for detecting humans and a microphone 32 for detecting vehicles are connected to the CPU 14 via detection circuits 33 and 34, respectively. ing.

  In addition, as shown in FIG. 4, the road fence 10 can exchange information with an external transmission / reception device. FIG. 5 shows a block diagram of a system configuration for exchanging information between such an external transmission / reception apparatus and the roadway 10.

  The configuration on the side of the roadside 10 is shown by converting the system shown in FIG. 3 into a form that can be transmitted and received. A modulator 13 is connected to the CPU 14 connected to the memory 15. Is used to control the blinking controller 12, thereby superimposing information on the light emitting unit 11. The blinking controller 12 is connected to a storage battery 28 that stores electric power generated by the solar battery 27. The CPU 14 is connected to a phototransistor 30, a pyroelectric sensor 31, and a microphone 32 via a demodulator 29 and detection circuits 33 and 34, respectively.

  On the other hand, the transmission / reception apparatus side includes a CPU 37, a keyboard 38 and a display 39 are connected to the CPU 37, and a function button 46 is directly connected to the CPU 37. Further, the CPU 37 includes an encoder 40 for transmission, a transmitter 41, and a light emitting element 42. Further, a decoder 43 for reception, a receiver 44, and a light receiving element 45 are connected to the CPU 37.

  Here, various modulation methods are possible as a modulation method for modulating the signal to the driving current of the signal lamp 11 of the roadway 10 by the modulator 13, and AM modulation, FM modulation, pulse width modulation, pulse code modulation, etc. These various modulation schemes are employed as appropriate.

  FIG. 6 shows a configuration example of a signal by the pulse code modulation method, and here, an example is shown in which one frame is configured as a cycle frame having a time of 45 ms. Here, each frame includes a guide pulse, a data code, and a category code. Table 1 shows a specific configuration example of these pulses.

  As is apparent from Table 1 above, the guide pulse has a pulse width of 2.4 ms, whereas the data code has a pulse width of 0.6 ms indicating “0” and 1 indicating “1”. .2 ms pulses are sequentially formed to transmit predetermined information. Such pulse formation by the modulator 13 is merely an example, and various forms can be employed according to the purpose and the length of information.

  In the configuration as described above, a signal transmitted from the roadway 10 superimposed on the light is written in the memory 15 of FIG. This signal is read by the CPU 14 and transmitted to the modulator 13. The modulator 13 superimposes the command signal on the drive current of the light emitting unit 11 generated by the traffic light drive circuit 12. Therefore, the light emitting unit 11 emits light with the command signal superimposed on the light for display lighting.

  The light superimposed with the command signal is received by the light receiver 21 of the vehicle 20 in FIG. 2, and the signal is demodulated by the decoder 22. Accordingly, such a signal is supplied to the drive circuit 23 and displayed on the display panel 24.

  Here, the information superimposed on the light of the light emitting unit 11 may be information on traffic regulation, information on prohibition of right turn, or information on one-way traffic. Alternatively, the road in which the road fence 10 is buried may be closed, and the time such as when it is possible to pass may be displayed. This information is issued at regular intervals or as needed.

  The road fence 10 shown in FIGS. 1 to 3 detects the amount of traffic of humans and vehicles. That is, the pyroelectric sensor 31 connected to the demodulator 33 in FIG. 3 detects a person passing near the roadway 10. Therefore, based on such detection, as shown in FIG. 7A, the CPU 14 performs a counting operation and stores the totaled result in the memory 15, thereby detecting the amount of human traffic.

  Further, the microphone 32 connected to the CPU 14 shown in FIG. 3 via the demodulator 34 detects a vehicle passing near the roadway 10. Accordingly, as shown in FIG. 7B, according to such a detection operation, the value of the register is added one by one and the addition result is stored in the memory 15, thereby detecting the amount of traffic of the vehicle. . An acceleration sensor may be used in place of the microphone 32 as detection means for detecting the passage of the vehicle.

  1 to 3 detects a person passing by the pyroelectric sensor 31 and detects a vehicle passing by the microphone 32 as described above. Accordingly, it is possible to issue an alarm action or warning information in conjunction with the detection of these persons or vehicles. That is, as shown in FIG. 8A, for example, when the pyroelectric sensor 31 detects human traffic, the light emitting unit 11 may directly emit warning light to a vehicle in a direction orthogonal to the human traffic direction. Good. This operation is performed when the light emitting unit 11 blinks red warning light.

  Alternatively, as shown in FIG. 8B, when the pyroelectric sensor 31 detects human traffic or when the microphone 32 detects the proximity of the vehicle, the CPU 14 causes the modulator 13 to emit light by the modulator 13 accordingly. The light emitting operation is performed by superimposing warning information on the light to be emitted. Therefore, in this case, the vehicle decoder 22 shown in FIG. 2 that has received the light from the light emitting unit 11 demodulates the warning information contained in the light from the light emitting unit 11 and supplies it to the display panel 24 via the drive circuit 23. Will be displayed. Therefore, in this case, an alarm operation can be performed on the vehicle 20 that can decode the information superimposed on the light from the light emitting unit 11 of the road fence 10.

  Next, information on human traffic detected using the pyroelectric sensor 31 of the road fence 10 or information on vehicle traffic collected by the microphone 32 is obtained by the system shown in FIGS. 4 and 5. The operation of taking out from the road fence 10 will be described.

  FIG. 9 particularly shows an operation of making an information transmission request by an external transmission / reception apparatus. First, communication with the roadway 10 is started by the transmitting / receiving device. This operation is performed by the operator using the function buttons 46 or the keyboard 38 shown in FIG. Then, the CPU 37 performs request light emission by the light emitting element 42 via the encoder 40 and the transmitter 41. Such request light emission is received by the phototransistor 30 on the roadside 10 side. Note that light can be received by the solar battery 27 instead of the phototransistor 30.

  When the phototransistor 30 receives the request light emission from the transmission / reception device, it stores or displays a message from the roadway 10. That is, the responding road fence 10 controls the blinking controller 12 via the modulator 13 by the CPU 14, and the light emitting unit 11 emits the light superimposed with the message. The message at this time is displayed on the display 39 of the transmission / reception device.

  At this time, the CPU 14 of the road fence 10 transmits information on the unique data of the road fence 10. Thereafter, the CPU 37 of the transmission / reception apparatus emits visible light by the light emitting element 42 through the encoder 40 and the transmitter 41, indicating that the information has been received. Thereafter, the CPU 37 determines whether or not the communication is completed. If the communication is not completed, the CPU 37 further sends a request signal to the phototransistor on the roadside 10 via the light emitting element 42 via the encoder 40 and the transmitter 41. 30.

  In this way, the information transmission request requests information such as request information, for example, a traffic volume within 24 hours, whether or not a person is currently around the roadway 10. When the transmission / reception device transmits and the road fence 10 receives, the light emission from the road fence 10 side is received as an acknowledgement.

  Thereafter, the data from the road fence 10 is decoded and written in the memory 47 on the transmitting / receiving device side. Next, the data sent from the road fence 10 is loaded, displayed on the display 39, and then the visible light emission indicating that it has been received is given to the light emitting element 42, and the communication is terminated. The visible light emission may be light that can be directly visually confirmed by the operator, or the encoder 40 may generate light on which a signal is superimposed. If the light from the roadside 10 cannot be received due to detection of a communication error or the like, the request signal is sent again.

  FIG. 10 shows an operation in which the roadway 10 transmits information in response to such request information. When the phototransistor 30 on the roadside 10 receives the signal light from the transmission / reception device, the CPU 14 receives the command signal through the demodulator 29. Then, the CPU 14 on the side of the road fence 10 loads information relating to the traffic amount stored in the memory 15 into the communication buffer. After this, the presence or absence of a request request is detected, and if there is a request request, the CPU 14 issues a light emission notification by the light emitting unit 11 via the modulator 13 and the blinking controller 12.

  After that, transmission loading of necessary data is performed. This data transmission load is performed by the CPU 14 by superimposing the above information on the light emitted from the light emitting unit 11 by the modulator 13. Accordingly, the road fence 10 transmits data accordingly. Then, the CPU 14 determines whether or not the data is received by the transmission / reception device side by a signal from the transmission / reception device side via the phototransistor 30. If the data reception is not completed, the CPU 37 on the transmission / reception device side performs the data re-request operation and the data loading is executed again.

  As described above, the transmission operation on the side of the road fence 10 includes transmission for exchanging the embedding time, transmission data, etc. of the road fence 10 by communication. When the data included in the received data is a request signal, the request is first notified by the above-described light emission. Then, the requested information is loaded from the storage device, and at the same time, unique data such as the position where the roadway 10 is embedded is also transmitted. In addition, it is possible to send stored data for several hours as well as whether or not there are people around. When data is received, it blinks in response to this, or it is also possible to confirm the exchange of information by receiving reception blinking of the transmission / reception device.

  Although the invention included in the present application has been described with the illustrated embodiment, the invention included in the present application is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and various modifications are possible within the scope of the technical idea of the invention included in the present application. Is possible. For example, the operation relating to the exchange of information between the road fence 10 and the transmission / reception apparatus in the above embodiment is not necessarily limited to the operation shown in FIG. 9 or FIG. 10, and various other changes can be made.

  The present invention can be widely used as a road fence that is embedded in a road and generates a warning light by generating a warning light.

It is a top view which shows the road fence arrange | positioned at the intersection. It is a block diagram which shows the apparatus for communication with a road fence and a vehicle. It is a block diagram which shows the system configuration | structure of a road fence. It is a perspective view which shows the exchange of information with a roadway and a transmission / reception apparatus. It is a block diagram of a system for showing exchange of information between a roadway and a transmitting / receiving device. It is a wave form diagram which shows the structure of the information pulse transmitted by a roadway. It is a flowchart which shows the detection operation of traffic amount. It is a flowchart which shows alarm operation | movement. It is a flowchart which shows the information transmission request operation | movement by a transmission / reception apparatus. It is a flowchart which shows the transmission operation | movement of the information on a roadside. It is the top view and front view of the conventional road fence. It is a block diagram which shows the system configuration | structure of the road fence.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Road light, 2 ... Light emission part, 3 ... Solar cell, 4 ... Storage battery, 5 ... Flashing controller, 10 ... Road light, 11 ... Light emission part, 12 ... Warning light drive circuit ( (Flashing controller), 13 ... modulator, 14 ... CPU, 15 ... memory, 20 ... vehicle (automobile), 21 ... light receiver, 22 ... decoder, 23 ... drive circuit (driver), 24 Display panel 27 Solar cell 28 Storage battery 29 Demodulator 30 Phototransistor 31 Pyroelectric sensor 32 Microphone 33 33 Detection circuit (demodulator) ), 37 ... CPU, 38 ... Keyboard, 39 ... Display, 40 ... Encoder, 41 ... Transmitter, 42 ... Light emitting element, 43 ... Decoder, 44 ... Receiver, 45 ... Light receiving element , 46 Function buttons, 47 Memory

Claims (12)

In a light-emitting road fence that is buried in the road and emits light to perform a predetermined alarm operation or display operation,
A modulator that superimposes a signal for warning or display on the light emitted from the light emitting unit;
Detecting means for detecting the vehicle;
A light emitting means for emitting a warning light or light superimposed with warning information in conjunction with a detection operation by the detection means;
A light-emitting road fence characterized by providing   2. The light-emitting road according to claim 1, wherein the light-emitting unit emits a warning light or light superimposed with warning information to a vehicle traveling in a direction intersecting the detected traveling direction of the vehicle or a walking person.鋲.   It has a storage means for storing the detection output of the detection means for detecting a vehicle, and the amount of traffic of the vehicle can be known based on the output information of the detection means stored by the storage means. The light-emitting road fence according to claim 1.   The light-emitting roadway according to claim 1, wherein the detecting means is a microphone.   The light-emitting roadway according to claim 1, wherein the detecting means is an acceleration sensor.   The light-emitting roadway according to claim 1, further comprising: a transmission unit configured to transmit information relating to a vehicle traffic stored by the storage unit to the outside.   A storage means for storing the information detected by the detection means; and a transmission means for transmitting the information stored in the storage means to the outside. The transmission means receives information in response to a transmission request signal from the outside. The light-emitting road fence according to claim 1, wherein   8. The light-emitting roadway according to claim 7, wherein a predetermined type of information or a predetermined range of information stored in the storage means is transmitted in response to a request signal from the outside.   8. The light-emitting roadway according to claim 7, wherein said transmission means retransmits information when an external transmission request signal includes a retransmission request signal.   8. The light-emitting road fence according to claim 7, wherein the transmission means transmits the requested information together with the unique data of the road fence in response to a transmission request from the outside.   The light-emitting road fence according to claim 7, wherein the light-emitting means blinks when transmitting the information requested by the transmission means.   8. The light-emitting roadway according to claim 7, wherein when transmitting the information requested by the transmission means, the light-emitting means emits light superimposed with a signal indicating that the light-emitting means is transmitting information.

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