Combined road information and warning device
The pedestrian traffic light with adjustable LED lighting and enhanced visual cues addresses the lack of warning features in existing systems, ensuring improved visibility and safety at pedestrian crossings.
Patent Information
- Authority / Receiving Office
- DE · DE
- Patent Type
- Patents
- Current Assignee / Owner
- SENYUSHKINA MARINA SERGEYEVNA POS KARACHIKHA
- Filing Date
- 2019-03-15
- Publication Date
- 2026-06-11
AI Technical Summary
Existing pedestrian traffic lights lack structural elements to effectively warn drivers about pedestrian crossings, especially in conditions of poor visibility, and fail to adjust illumination angles based on road width, compromising traffic safety.
A pedestrian traffic light with adjustable LED lighting to illuminate the pedestrian crossing area and waiting zone, featuring a two-part housing with LED matrices forming figures and countdowns, and ultra-bright LEDs providing beam-adjustable light flows to enhance visibility and information content.
Enhances driver awareness of pedestrian crossings by providing clear visual cues and adjustable illumination, improving traffic safety in various lighting conditions and road widths.
Smart Images
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Abstract
Description
field of technology
[0001] The present invention relates to the field of road traffic control, and in particular to traffic devices that provide information and warning signals for road users to ensure safe crossing of the roadway for pedestrians within the pedestrian crossing. Current state of the art
[0002] Information and warning devices in the form of a pedestrian traffic light are known from the prior art. These devices have a two-part housing with a semi-transparent protective screen rigidly attached to it and internal light sources in the form of LED matrices mounted on printed circuit boards and equipped with an electronic control circuit. The upper part contains an LED matrix for the red signal, composed of red fluorescent diodes forming a stylized figure of a "standing person," and green fluorescent diodes forming a digital display with a countdown of the time in seconds. The lower part contains an LED matrix for the green signal, composed of green fluorescent diodes forming a stylized figure of a "walking person" (see, for example, RF patent for invention no. 2266570, IPC G08G1 / 095, published on December 20, 2005; RF patent for utility model no.87552, IPC G08G1 / 095, published on 10.10.2009).
[0003] Typically, pedestrian traffic lights are installed at road sections equipped with traffic signals that indicate to drivers that they must yield to pedestrians at the crossing. However, due to various circumstances, such as poor or insufficient visibility, drivers may ignore the traffic signal.
[0004] In this context, the main disadvantage of existing pedestrian traffic lights is that they structurally lack functional elements to warn drivers about the situation in the crosswalk area, thus failing to guarantee maximum traffic safety in the road sections where they are installed. Therefore, these information and warning devices do not provide sufficient information.
[0005] Information and warning devices known from the prior art (see, for example: RF Utility Model Patent No. 92869, IPC E01F9 / 06, published on 10 April 2010; RF Utility Model Patent No. 117690, IPC G08G1 / 095, published on 27 June 2012; RF Utility Model Patent No. 122795, IPC G08G1 / 09, published on 12 October 2012), as well as systems of information and warning devices (see, for example: RF Utility Model Patent No. 122514, IPC G08G1 / 09, published on 27 November 2012; RF Utility Model Patent No. Utility model no. 123111, IPC F21S8 / 00, published on 20.12.2012), which includes LED lighting sources installed in the housing, which provide a luminous flux for illuminating the road marking of a pedestrian crossing.
[0006] The publication DE 20 2016 004 063 U1 describes a traffic light which, instead of LEDs or light bulbs, is equipped with laser diodes and a control system that controls them.
[0007] German patent application DE 200 18260 U1 describes a traffic light control device capable of displaying a moving figure and a countdown timer. The control device consists of a control circuit and a display plate. The control circuit includes a half-wave processor, a flashing signal processor, a display processor, a oscillator, an image generator, a shift register, and a driver. A signal source outputs a timing signal to the control circuit, which processes this signal and then sends it to the display plate. The display plate comprises a variety of light sources that can form the figure and the number.
[0008] These known technical solutions share a common disadvantage: the lack of structural elements typical of pedestrian traffic lights. This makes it impossible to inform pedestrians about the possibility of crossing the road. Therefore, installing such devices or systems is only advisable on lightly trafficked road sections where traffic lights are not necessary for traffic management. Furthermore, these devices do not allow for adjusting the illumination angle along the direction of the pedestrian crossing based on the road width. This reduces the technical capabilities and informational value of known solutions, and consequently, they do not adequately guarantee traffic safety in the sections where such devices and systems are installed.
[0009] Of the above-mentioned analogous solutions, a technical solution according to RF patent no. 2266570 was adopted as the prototype of the claimed invention.
[0010] The present invention is intended to eliminate the aforementioned disadvantages of the prior art and ensures the achievement of the technical result, which consists of increasing the information content of the road information and warning device. Disclosure of the technical solution
[0011] The present invention relates to a road information and warning device according to claim 1.
[0012] In accordance with the above, an invention is proposed whose essential features, listed below, make it possible to overcome the existing disadvantages of the prior art and to ensure the achievement of the technical result disclosed in the present description.
[0013] According to the present invention, an information and warning device including a pedestrian traffic light is proposed, comprising a two-part housing with at least one semi-transparent protective screen rigidly attached thereto and internal light sources in the form of LED matrices installed on printed circuit boards and equipped with an electronic control circuit, wherein in the upper part an LED matrix is arranged which is composed of red fluorescent diodes forming a stylized figure of a "standing person", as well as green fluorescent diodes forming a digital display with a countdown of the time in seconds, while in the lower part an LED matrix is arranged which is composed of green fluorescent diodes, the design of which makes it possible to form a figure of a "walking person";The road information and warning device additionally includes a lighting device, the housing of which is installed in the lower part of the pedestrian traffic light body and contains internal light sources in the form of ultra-bright LEDs arranged on circuit boards and equipped with an electronic control circuit; at least one LED is installed on the front surface of the lighting device housing, capable of producing a beam angle-adjustable light flow towards the road marking area of the pedestrian crossing, and at least one LED is installed on the underside of the lighting device housing, capable of producing the light flow towards the pedestrian waiting area located below the information and warning device.
[0014] Additional embodiments of the proposed invention are provided as set out below.
[0015] The light source directing the luminous flux towards the road marking area of the pedestrian crossing can be implemented as one or at least two LED lamps installed on the same horizontal plane on the front surface of the lighting device housing. The light source directing the luminous flux towards the pedestrian waiting area can be implemented as one or at least two LED chips mounted on a circuit board and lighting elements installed in series along the underside of the housing. This configuration of light sources provides high clarity of the illuminated areas, which generally increases the informational value of the proposed device.
[0016] The LED matrix of at least one part of the pedestrian traffic light may contain an additional information field on which LEDs or LED segments are mounted, the luminous color of which corresponds to the LEDs of the main light signal of their part and which form a ring scale with a countdown of the remaining display time of the main signal in the form of a stylized human figure, by changing the operating state of the LEDs or LED segments successively clockwise or counterclockwise, by switching them on successively until a closed luminescence loop is formed, or by switching them off successively until a closed loop of LEDs is formed; the LEDs of the countdown ring scale correspond in luminous color to the LEDs of the main signal of their part, which form a stylized human figure.Such an embodiment generally makes it possible to increase the information content of the proposed device by simplifying the mechanism of visual perception of the time interval remaining until the change of the light signal.
[0017] The LED matrix of the lower part of the pedestrian traffic light can additionally include an information field on which the LEDs of the digital display of the ambient temperature are mounted, which correspond in color to the LEDs of the main light signal of the adjacent part (red light color), which generally increases the information content of the proposed device.
[0018] The LED matrix of the main signal from the lower part can be composed of LEDs whose design makes it possible to form two overlapping figures of a “walking person” with fixed movement phases, which generally increases the information content of the proposed device. Brief description of the drawings
[0019] The concept behind the invention is explained through drawings. Fig. 1 - Road information and warning device, main view. Fig. 2 - Road information and warning device, right side view. Fig. 3 - Road information and warning device, rear view. Fig. 4 - Operation of the road information and warning device, operating mode prohibition signal, main view. Fig. 5 - Operation of the road information and warning device, operating mode release signal, main view. Fig. 6 - Lighting device, overall view. Fig. 7 - Lighting device, right side section view. Implementation of the invention
[0020] The following description contains references to the drawing elements ( Fig. 1, Fig. 2, Fig. 3, Fig. 4, Fig. 5, Fig. 6 to Fig. 7), which are intended to illustrate the basic concept of the claimed invention. It should be noted that the information disclosed in the drawings is intended only to illustrate the preferred embodiment, and that the person skilled in the art will understand other possible embodiments of the invention.
[0021] Thus, in Fig. Figure 1 shows a road information and warning device consisting of a two-part housing (1) and a housing for the lighting device (2), which are structurally connected. The housing (1) is a single, flat design consisting of a semi-transparent protective screen (3) and a plastic end cap (4), which are mechanically fastened along the edge by means of an aluminum profile frame (5). Inside the upper part, a printed circuit board module with a matrix (6) is installed, composed of red fluorescent LEDs (7) forming a stylized figure of a "standing person", and green fluorescent LEDs (8) forming a digital display with a countdown of the time in seconds ( Fig. 5) The lower part consists of a matrix of LEDs (9) composed of green fluorescent LEDs (10) forming the figure of a "walking person". In a preferred embodiment, the matrix (6) additionally encloses a ring scale made up of paired segments of red fluorescent LEDs (11) ( Fig. 4) and the matrix (9) - a ring scale made up of paired segments of red fluorescent LEDs (12), as well as the red fluorescent LEDs of a digital ambient temperature display (13). All circuit boards of the LED matrices are connected to the power supply unit via a control controller (not shown in the drawings) through corresponding relay contacts of an electronic control circuit installed in the housing.
[0022] The housing (2) of the lighting device made of aluminium alloy is attached to the lower part of the cover (4) by means of fastening elements, including the front (14) and lower (15) surfaces ( Fig. 6) with optical windows (16) and (17) ( Fig. 7), in whose recesses the circuit boards (18), (19) with ultra-bright LEDs are installed – LED lamps (20) (at an angle of 55–65 degrees to the vertical in the working position) and a set of LED chips (21). Screens (22) with a protruding rounded surface are attached to the sides of the housing, which serve to prevent glare for drivers from the lighting elements. On the inside of the screens are longitudinal guide grooves (23) with rounded surfaces for moving a flexible curtain (24). The guide grooves have diagonal grooves (25) along their entire length for fixing the curtain in one of the positions, thus ensuring adjustable partial overlap of the lights to obtain the required angle of light diffusion towards the road marking area of the pedestrian crossing.The circuit boards (18), (19) are connected to the power supply unit (not shown in the drawings) via the control controller through corresponding relay contacts (not shown in the figure) of the electronic control circuit (26).
[0023] Horizontal brackets (27) are provided for attaching the information and warning device to the supports.
[0024] The operation of the proposed information and warning device according to the preferred embodiment is carried out as follows (see Fig. 4, Fig. 5).
[0025] Upon signal from the controller in operating mode, a red prohibition signal ( Fig. 4) The supply voltage is applied to the elements of the pedestrian traffic light, namely the red LEDs (7) and (11) of matrix (6), the red LEDs (13) of matrix (9), and the LED chips (21) of the lighting device. As a result, the figure of a "standing person" and the red ring scale of the countdown timer for the remaining display time of the main prohibition signal illuminate in the upper part of the pedestrian traffic light, while in the lower part, the red digital display of the ambient temperature illuminates, and an additional light for the pedestrian waiting area is switched on in the lighting device. During the prohibition signal operation of the device, the LED scale is filled by sequentially switching off segments until a closed loop of switched-off LEDs is formed, which corresponds to the end of the red prohibition signal's runtime.
[0026] Then, in operating mode, a green release signal will appear ( Fig.5) The supply voltage is applied in a similar manner to the elements of the pedestrian traffic light, namely green LEDs (10) and (12) of matrix (9), green LEDs (8) of matrix (6), and LED lamps (20) of the lighting device. As a result, the figure of a "walking person" and the green ring scale of the countdown timer for the remaining display time of the main green signal illuminate in the lower part of the pedestrian traffic light, while in the upper part, the green digital display counts down the time in seconds. Meanwhile, additional lighting for the pedestrian crossing road marking zone is switched on in the lighting device. During the operation of the green signal, the LED scale is filled by sequentially switching off segments synchronously with the decreasing digital symbols of the display countdown until a closed loop of switched-off LEDs is formed, which corresponds to the end of the runtime of the green signal of the pedestrian traffic light.
[0027] Then the operating diagram of the information and warning device repeats itself.
[0028] The above information has been presented in a comprehensive manner that enables a person skilled in the art familiar with this field of technology to clearly understand the basic idea of the proposed invention and to carry it out, based on descriptive documents and known information available in the prior art at the time of filing the priority application.
Claims
[1] A road information and warning device, including a pedestrian traffic light, comprising a two-part housing with at least one semi-transparent protective screen rigidly attached thereto and internal light sources in the form of LED matrices mounted on printed circuit boards and equipped with an electronic control circuit, wherein the upper part contains an LED matrix composed of red fluorescent diodes forming a stylized figure of a ‘standing person’ and green fluorescent diodes forming a digital display counting down the time in seconds, while the lower part contains an LED matrix composed of green fluorescent diodes designed to form a figure of a ‘walking person’ characterized bythat it additionally has a lighting device whose housing is installed in the lower part of the pedestrian traffic light body and contains internal light sources in the form of ultra-bright LEDs arranged on circuit boards and equipped with an electronic control circuit; wherein at least one LED is installed on the front surface of the housing of the lighting device, capable of forming a beam angle-adjustable light flow towards the road marking area of the pedestrian crossing, and at least one LED is installed on the underside of the housing of the lighting device, capable of forming the light flow towards the pedestrian waiting area located below the information and warning device, wherein screens with a protruding rounded surface are attached to the sides of the housing of the lighting device, which serve to prevent the drivers from being dazzled by LEDs, wherein longitudinal guide grooves with rounded surfaces are provided on the inside of the screens for moving a flexible curtain, which have diagonal grooves along their length for fixing the curtain in a position, This ensures an adjustable partial overlap of LEDs to achieve the required angle of light flux dispersion towards the road marking area of the pedestrian crossing. [2] Device according to claim 1, characterized bythat the light source which forms the luminous flux in the direction of the road marking area of the pedestrian crossing is designed in the form of one or at least two LED lamps installed on the same horizontal plane on the front surface of the housing of the lighting device. [3] Device according to claim 1, characterized by , that the light source which forms the light flow towards the pedestrian waiting area is designed in the form of an LED chip or at least two LED chips arranged on the circuit board, as well as the lighting elements which are installed in series along the underside of the housing. [4] Device according to claim 1, characterized by, that the LED matrix of at least one part of the pedestrian traffic light includes an additional information field consisting of LEDs or LED pair segments, which forms a ring scale with a countdown of the remaining display time of the main signal of this part, by means of the sequential change of the operating state of the LEDs or LED segments clockwise or counterclockwise, by means of their sequential switching on until a closed luminescence loop is created, or their sequential switching off until a closed luminescence loop is created from switched-off LEDs. [5] Device according to claim 4, characterized by , that the LEDs of the ring scale with the backward counting correspond in color to the LEDs of the main signal of its part, which form a stylized human figure. [6] Device according to claim 1 or claim 4, characterized by, that the LED matrix of the lower part of the pedestrian traffic light contains an additional information field on which red fluorescent LEDs of the digital display of the ambient temperature are mounted. [7] Device according to claim 1, characterized by , that the LED matrix of the main signal is composed of LEDs from the lower part, the design of which makes it possible to form two overlapping figures of a "walking person" with fixed movement phases.