JP2011080194A - Light-emitting block for road surface - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a newly-constituted light-emitting block for a road surface, which enables a road user such as a pedestrian to easily and continuously recognize mutual positions of the light-emitting blocks, even when the plurality of light-emitting blocks are disposed while being separated from one another, by securing surface light emission, for the low-intensity light-emitting block. <P>SOLUTION: This light-emitting block for the road surface includes a surface-emitting portion 12 for giving guidance, a warning, etc. to the road user such as the pedestrian. The light-emitting block includes a light transmission plate 14 with the laterally-placed surface-emitting portion 12, a light source 16 such as an LED for the surface-emitting portion, and a solar battery 18 which supplies electric power to the light source 16; and they are set in a case 20. The surface-emitting portion 12 includes irregular reflecting surfaces 28 and 29 performing surface light emission by the light source 16. The axial line of the light source is directed in a predetermined direction with respect to the surface-emitting portion 12, so as to manifest a block position specifying ray which enables the road user to recognize the position of the surface-emitting block from a distance. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a light-emitting block for road surfaces that guides and warns road users, and in particular, is excellent in block position confirmation, and is arranged on curbs and road surfaces to guide and warn pedestrians including visually impaired persons. The present invention relates to a light emitting block for a road surface suitable for the above.

  Here, a light emitting block for pedestrians applied when the road user is a pedestrian will be described as an example, but the road surface light emitting block of the present invention is a driver of a bicycle or a car. It is also applicable to cases.

  Various light-emitting blocks for pedestrians (hereinafter simply referred to as “light-emitting blocks”) have been proposed in which a solar cell is used as a power source and a light-emitting source is used as a light-emitting diode (LED) (Patent Documents 1 to 4). . By using a solar cell, electric wiring work and primary battery replacement when using a public power source (AC power source) are not required. Moreover, since LED consumes little power, it is suitable for using a solar cell as a power source.

  And the light-emitting diode unit (bar-shaped illuminator) which arranged many light-emitting diodes in the light-diffusion pipe was used as the light source, and it irradiated through the irradiation part, and required illuminance was ensured.

  For this reason, it is necessary to use a high output solar cell, that is, a relatively large solar cell, and it is difficult to adjust the housing of the light emitting block to a desired size, for example, the size of the interlocking block.

  This coincides with Patent Document 4 in which the light emitting device (light emitting block) is limited to the curb block.

  Furthermore, Patent Document 4 proposes that a surface light emitting portion (light transmitting portion) is provided with a light diffusion function to make surface light emission from the surface light emitting portion in order to ensure planar visibility (confirmation). Yes. By emitting surface light, the light-emitting block can be easily recognized and has good design as compared with point light emission.

JP-A-8-3948 (summary etc.) JP 2003-138533 A (Claim 4 etc.) JP-A-2004-257182 (summary etc.) JP 2006-207276 A (Claim 1 etc.)

  From the standpoints of space and resource saving, solar cells used for light-emitting blocks tend to have a low light-receiving surface and correspondingly low power consumption of light sources such as light-emitting diodes as much as possible. It is necessary to use a consumption type, and it is desirable from the standpoint of resource saving, energy, etc. to arrange the light emitting blocks apart from each other.

  Then, coupled with a decrease in luminance (for example, 5 to 10 nt) of the surface light emitting unit, it is difficult for pedestrians to continuously recognize the positions of the light emitting blocks that are separated from each other. The inventors have found out. When the pedestrian is a visually impaired person (low vision person, night blindness, visual field narrowing, etc.), the tendency becomes remarkable.

  For this reason, it is necessary for a pedestrian to be able to recognize the position of the light-emitting block even if it is separated from the light-emitting block by a certain distance (for example, 1.5 to 3 m).

  However, the present inventors do not know the technology that can meet the request.

  In view of the above, the present invention allows a road user, such as a pedestrian, to continuously connect light-emitting blocks to each other even if a plurality of light-emitting blocks are arranged apart from each other while securing surface light emission in a low-luminance light-emitting block. An object of the present invention is to provide a road surface light-emitting block having a novel configuration that makes it easy to recognize a specific position.

  In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present inventors have found that the above-described problems can be solved if the following configuration is adopted in the process of earnest development, and have arrived at the present invention having the following configuration.

A light emitting block for a road surface provided with a surface light emitting unit for guiding / warning to a road user,
A light transmission plate having a horizontal surface light emitting unit, a low power consumption type light source for the surface light emitting unit, and a solar cell for supplying power to the light source, and they are set in a case (housing),
The surface light emitting portion includes a diffusely reflecting surface portion capable of surface light emission by the light source, and the road user confirms the surface light emission by directing a radiation axis of the light source in a predetermined direction with respect to the surface light emitting portion. It is possible to emit a block position explicit light capable of recognizing the position of the road surface light emission block at a difficult threshold distance from the surface light emitting unit.

  The light emitting block of the present invention has the above-described configuration, so that when the light emitting block is constructed on the road surface as described above, the light irradiation from the surface light emitting unit is not only the surface irradiation light upward but also a line facing the pedestrian. The presence of the strip-shaped irradiation light (block position explicit light) facilitates continuous position recognition between the light emitting blocks even when a road user such as a pedestrian or the like arranges the light emitting blocks apart from each other. That is, it is possible to sufficiently exhibit the signing function such as guidance / warning for pedestrians.

  In particular, the effect on visually handicapped persons (low-sighted persons and night blindness) is remarkable, and it meets the demand for universal (universal relief).

It is a longitudinal cross-sectional view which shows one Embodiment of this invention (1-1 line arrow line view of FIG. 3). It is a principal part enlarged view of FIG. It is a cross-sectional view similarly (sectional view taken along line 3-3 in FIG. 1). It is also a plan view. It is explanatory drawing of the usage condition of the light emission block of this invention. It is a graph which shows the relationship between the reflectance in glass, and an incident angle.

  Hereinafter, the present invention will be described based on embodiments shown in the drawings.

  The light emitting block B of the present embodiment includes a surface light emitting unit 12 for guiding / warning a pedestrian (road user).

  The basic configuration includes a light transmission plate 14 provided with a horizontal surface light emitting unit 12, a low power consumption type light source 16 for the surface light emitting unit 12, and a solar cell 18 that supplies power to the light source 16, and A case (housing) 20 is set.

  Here, although the surface light emission part 12 is normally horizontal, when making it a curb light emission block like the said patent document 4, you may make it incline a little (for example, about 10-15 degrees).

  In the present embodiment, there is one surface light emitting unit 12, and one light source 16 and one solar cell 18 are arranged on the left and right. The number and arrangement thereof are not limited to this, and can be appropriately changed depending on the light source to be used, the specifications of the solar cell, and the output.

  Here, the low power consumption type light source 16 is not particularly limited as long as it is a low power consumption type that can be handled by the solar battery 18. Usually, a light emitting diode (LED) is used, but electroluminescence (EL) and other low power light sources can also be used.

  The solar cell 18 and the light source 16 are connected to a controller (control unit) 22 having a day / night switching circuit with a power storage function.

  And in this embodiment, while providing the convex part 26 for light incidence to the downward provided with the inclined incident surface 24 which faces the irradiation direction of the said light source 16, the surface light emission part 12 is incident by the incident light of the said light source 16. There are provided irregular reflection surface portions (light diffusion surface portions) 28 and 29 capable of surface light emission.

  In the illustrated example, the light incident convex portion 26 includes inclined incident surfaces 24, 24 facing the pair of light sources 16, 16, and the vertical section is a left / right / front / rear tapered section downward, and the horizontal section is rectangular.

  The shape of the light incident convex portion 26 is not limited to that shown in the figure. That is, the numbers of the inclined incident surfaces 24 and the light sources 16 are not limited, and may be one each (for example, in the case of construction on a one-way path). Further, the incident surface is inclined in all directions with a truncated cone shape. It is good also as a structure which provided the surface and made the number of light sources three or more (when block position recognition from all directions is requested | required).

  Here, the inclination angle (horizontal) β of the inclined incident surface 24 is refracted and transmitted light emitted from the upper surface of the surface light emitting unit 12 when incident light incident on the inclined incident surface 24 from the light source passes through the light transmitting plate 14. That is, the direction of the block position explicit light L2 is assumed to be a position below the approximate line of sight of the road user at a predetermined distance from the light emitting block B and above the chest. Since it may feel dazzling near the line of sight, it is usually matched to the chest height. For example, when the road user is a pedestrian, the horizontal inclination angle α of the block position explicit light L2 is appropriately set in the range of 15 to 30 °, preferably in the range of 18 to 22 °. Most desirably, α = 20 to 22 °.

  The horizontal inclination angle α of the block position explicit light L2 is slightly different from the above range when the recognizable distance is different, the road user is not a pedestrian, the bicycle user or the car driver. Come.

For example, if the distance at which the light-emitting block can be easily recognized is set to 3 m and the average chest height is 120 cm, the horizontal inclination angle α of the block position explicit light L2 is α = 22 °. When the refractive index n _t = 1.59 (polycarbonate) of the light transmission plate 14 and the refractive index n _a = 1 in the air are as follows.

Here, since the refraction angle θ ₂ from the surface light emitting portion is tan α = 1.2 / 3 = 0.4, it is 68 °, which is a remainder angle of α = 22 °.

Then, the incident angle theta ₁ at the interface of the surface emitting part 12 are the _{sinθ 1 / sinθ 2 = 1 /} n t, becomes as follows.

sinθ ₁ / sin68 ° = sinθ ₁ /0.9272=1/1.59
sinθ ₁ = 0.583 ∴θ ₁ ≒ 36 °
Therefore, the horizontal inclination angle β of the inclined incident surface 24 is equal to the transmission interface incident angle θ _{1 in} order to make orthogonal incidence, and β may be set to 36 °. The light source axis L1 is most preferably orthogonal to the inclined incident surface 24, but can be appropriately set within a range of an incident angle within 70 °, further within 45 °, and further within 30 °.

  The protruding height of the light incident convex portion 26 is not particularly limited as long as a necessary light receiving surface can be formed, but is, for example, 2 to 8 mm (desirably 4 to 6 mm).

  The light transmission plate 14 is not particularly limited as long as it has high weather resistance and high light transmission, and various organic glasses and inorganic glasses can be used.

Incidentally, when the refractive index n of the light transmitting plate is 1.5, the incident angle θ ₁ = 0 ° is obtained from the following Fresnel reflection coefficient (reflectance) equations (1) and (2). The reflectivity R is 0.04 (R _p = R _s ), and the reflectivity R is 0.185 (R _p = 0.3, R _s = 0.07) at a 70 ° incident angle θ ₁ = 70 °.

(1) R _p = [(n ₁ cos θ ₂ −n ₂ cos θ ₁ ) / (n ₁ cos θ ₂ + n ₂ cos θ ₁ )] ²
(2) R _s = [(n ₁ cos θ ₁ −n ₂ cos θ ₂ ) / (n ₁ cos θ ₁ + n ₂ cos θ ₂ )] ²
On the other hand, in the case of the present invention, the light incident surface of the light incident convex portion 26 connected to the surface light emitting portion has a substantially orthogonal direction (incident angle θ ₁ = 0 °) or the incident angle is reduced as a whole (for example, (Within 45 [deg.]), It is easy to ensure the brightness of transmitted refracted light for recognizing the block position.

  For reference, FIG. 6 shows a graph of the relationship between the incident angle and the reflectance of inorganic glass (refractive index 1.5). It can be seen from FIG. 6 that the rate of increase in reflectance increases from an incident angle of around 70 °.

  As the material for forming the light transmission plate, various organic glasses and inorganic glasses (n: 1.50) described below can be used, depending on the required strength (whether they walk directly or are curbs and do not normally walk). A refractive index n is shown as an example.

  For example, as organic glass, polycarbonate (PC) (n: about 1.59), polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) (n: about 1.49), diethylene glycol bisallyl carbonate (n: about 1.50), styrene-methyl methacrylate (st -MMA) (n: about 1.56), poly-4-methylpentene-1 (n: about 1.46), etc. can be used suitably.

  Moreover, although the thickness of the light transmissive board 14 changes with request | requirement intensity | strengths and materials, it shall normally be 10-20 mm.

  It is to be noted that the light incident convex portion 26 is formed on the light transmitting plate 14 so as to set the horizontal inclined angle α of the refracted transmitted light from the surface light emitting portion 12, that is, the block position explicit light L 2 to 22 ° as described above. It is also possible to make the light incident surface a horizontal plane without providing it. However, in that case, it is necessary to enter the surface light emitting portion 12 at about 20 ° (incident angle of about 70 °) with respect to the lower surface. When the incident angle is about 70 ° or more, the reflectance on the lower surface of the light transmission plate is increased, the energy of the block position explicit light is lowered, and the level of the position explicit expression of the light emission block B is lowered.

  And the surface light emission part 12 of the light transmission board 14 of this invention is provided with the irregular reflection surface parts 28 and 29 for light diffusion. In the present embodiment, the irregular reflection surface portion includes both a first irregular reflection surface portion 28 formed on the upper surface of the surface light emitting portion and a second irregular reflection surface portion 29 formed on the lower surface. Only the first irregular reflection surface portion 28 on the upper surface may be used, but if the second irregular reflection surface portion 29 is also formed, the surface emission luminance of the surface light emitting portion 12 can be increased. Furthermore, even when the first irregular reflection surface portion 28 on the upper surface gets wet and the irregular reflection effect is reduced, the second irregular reflection surface portion 29 complements the irregular reflection effect, and surface emission due to light diffusion becomes possible.

  Each of the irregular reflection surface portions 28 and 29 can be formed by shot blasting from the surface side of the light transmission plate 14 or an inorganic acid corrosion treatment.

  The irregular reflection surface portion is a pair of glasses with one of the mating surfaces being the irregular reflection surface portion, leaving the irregular reflection surface portion as a laminated glass as a light transmission plate, or the film having the irregular reflection surface portion inside leaving the irregular reflection surface portion. It can also be formed by sticking to the light transmission plate 14.

  When the light transmission plate 14 is manufactured by injection molding, the irregular reflection surface portion can be formed by roughening a part of the molding surface of the mold.

  Although it is conceivable to arrange light diffusing particles in the surface light emitting portion, in the present invention, the light source light incident on the light transmission plate 14 is positively reflected in the predetermined direction from the upper surface of the surface light emitting portion as the refracted transmitted light in the predetermined direction. It is not suitable because it needs to be emitted.

  In the present embodiment, a shallow dish-shaped light source seat body portion 36 integrated with the inner case 21 is disposed on the lower side of the surface light emitting portion 12 so as to face the light incident convex portion 26. The light source seat 36a, which is the inner surface of the shallow dish-shaped edge, is formed on an inclined surface having a predetermined angle in order to direct the light source axis L in a predetermined direction. In the illustrated example, the horizontal inclination angle is 36 ° in order to set the incident angle to 0 °. In addition, although the dish edge part inner surface 36a and / or dish bottom upper surface 36b which are the light source seat parts of the light source seat body part 36 are usually a white reflective surface part, they are good also as a mirror surface part or a irregular reflection surface part.

  The housing can be formed of aluminum die casting, reinforced plastic, ceramic or the like. At this time, the size of the housing is preferably the size of the interlocking block (set block). Only the required part of the interlocking block is removed, and the road surface construction of the light emitting block becomes possible.

  Next, how the light emitting block is used will be described.

  The light transmission plate 14 is a surface light emitting portion 12 having first and second irregular reflection surface portions 28 and 29 at the center, and both sides thereof are protective panel portions 30 for the solar cells 18 and 18. A plurality of anti-slip convex portions 32 are formed on the upper surface of the protective panel portion 30. Notch mounting seats 34 are formed at the four corners of the light transmission plate so that screws can be mounted.

  After setting the inner case 21 in which the controller 22 and the solar cell 18 are assembled to the case (housing) 20, a light transmission plate (transparent protective panel) is attached with a cap screw 34 to be in a sealed state.

  At night, the light source (LED) is turned on by the day / night selector switch, and the light source light enters the surface light emitting portion 12 (light incident convex portion 26) of the light transmission plate.

  The light source light diffused and incident on the surface light emitting part 12 is diffused by the first irregular reflection surface part 28 on the upper surface of the light transmission plate 14 and transmitted and radiated from the surface light emitting part 12, and further irregularly reflected by the first irregular reflection surface part 28. The light is repeatedly re-reflected between the second irregular reflection surface portion 29 and the white reflection surface 36b, and is transmitted through the first irregular reflection surface portion 28 of the surface light emitting portion 12. Thus, good surface emission is exhibited.

  The LED may be a bullet type with a small light emission angle (less than 45 °), but a chip type with a large light emission angle (60 ° or more) is desirable.

  That is, even if the output of the LED (light source) 16 is small, the light emission luminance of the surface light emitting portion becomes a visible height. And when a pedestrian is near the light emission block (for example, within 1 m), the light emission block can be easily visually recognized by surface light emission.

  At this time, the light on the light source axis L1 is also used for surface light emission on the upper surface of the surface light emitting unit 12, but the refracted and transmitted light from the surface light emitting unit 12 retains perceptible energy even at a position 3 m away. Thus, the block position explicit light L2 is obtained. This is because the light on the light source axis L1 has the highest energy and the reflectance is small because the light enters the inclined incident surface 24 of the light incident convex portion 26 in a substantially normal direction (incident angle 0 °). .

  That is, since the inclination angle of the block position explicit light (refracted transmitted light) L2 is set to 22 °, the height is 1.2 m at a position 3 m away from the light emitting block B. Therefore, even a pedestrian at a position 2 to 3 m away from which the position could not be recognized conventionally can recognize the position of the light emission block B (see FIG. 5). Naturally, the block position specifying light beam L2 has a predetermined width, and exhibits a block position specifying function even if it is slightly deviated from the light beam.

<Example of construction>
The road surface light-emitting block having the above structure is interlocked to the road surface at a predetermined interval of 1 to 3 m (desirably around 1.5 m). At this time, since the light emitting block for road surface is the size of interlocking, it is easy to replace bricks or concrete blocks with the light emitting block for road surface of this embodiment at predetermined intervals even on existing paved roads where interlocking is applied. Can be installed.

  In this way, the light emitting blocks that are separately constructed can easily recognize the continuous positions of the light emitting blocks even if a pedestrian or the like is arranged away from each other due to the above-described action. That is, it is possible to sufficiently exhibit the signing function such as guidance / warning for pedestrians.

12 Surface light emitting unit 14 Light transmission plate 16 Low power consumption light source (LED)
18 Solar cell 20 Case 22 Controller 24 Light source light inclined incident surface 26 Light incident convex portion 28 (First) Diffuse reflection surface portion 29 (Second) Diffuse reflection surface portion L1 Light source axis L2 Block position explicit light α Block position explicit light horizontal inclination Angle β Inclination angle of light incident convex part

Claims (8)

A light emitting block for a road surface provided with a surface light emitting unit for guiding / warning to a road surface user,
A light transmissive plate having a horizontal surface light emitting unit, a low power consumption type light source for the surface light emitting unit, and a solar cell for supplying power to the light source, and these are set in a case (housing) Become
The surface light emitting portion includes a diffusely reflecting surface portion capable of surface light emission by the light source, and the road surface user confirms the surface light emission by directing a radiation axis of the light source in a predetermined direction with respect to the surface light emitting portion. It is possible to emit from the surface light emitting unit a block position explicit light capable of recognizing the position of the road surface light emitting block at a difficult threshold distance.
A light-emitting block for road surfaces characterized by the above.   The surface light emitting portion includes a downward light incident convex portion having at least one inclined incident surface, and the light source is disposed so that a light source axis intersects the inclined incident surface. The light-emitting block for a road surface according to claim 1.   The light emitting block for a road surface according to claim 2, wherein an incident angle of the light source axis with respect to the inclined incident surface is set to be within 70 °.   The road surface light-emitting block according to claim 1, wherein when the road surface user is a pedestrian, a horizontal inclination angle of the block position explicit light satisfies 15 to 30 °.   The said irregular reflection surface part is comprised by both the 1st irregular reflection surface part formed in the upper surface of the said surface light emission part, and the 2nd irregular reflection surface part formed in the lower surface, The Claim 1 characterized by the above-mentioned. Light-emitting block for road surface.   6. The road surface light emission according to claim 2, wherein a white reflecting surface is formed with a gap between or in contact with one or both of a peripheral side and a lower side of the light incident convex portion. block.   The light emitting block for road surface according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein a size of the housing is a size of an interlocking block.   The construction method of the light emitting block for road surfaces characterized by performing the interlock construction of the light emitting block for road surfaces as described in any one of Claims 1-7 on a road surface at predetermined intervals of 1-3 m.

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