Communications: electrical – Condition responsive indicating system – Specific condition
Patent
1999-06-15
2000-08-15
Lefkowitz, Edward
Communications: electrical
Condition responsive indicating system
Specific condition
340632, 340928, 3409322, 73 2338, 73 2341, 73 3102, 194205, 194212, G08B 2100
Patent
active
061042994
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to apparatus for monitoring pollution generated by motor vehicles in an urban area.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention can be applied particularly advantageously to detecting and preventing motor vehicle pollution in an urban environment, regardless of whether the pollution is due to the presence in ambient air of a chemical pollutant, of the exhaust gas type, or is due to the noise produced by the engines and the motion of the vehicles.
Today, the constant increase in motor vehicle traffic in the centers of large conurbations gives rise to atmospheric pollution which, for example, can in some cases reach a level such that it endangers peoples' health.
Already, certain local authorities have shown concern for this problem, and have attempted to install apparatus for monitoring air quality. Such apparatus is, in general, constituted by instrument cabinets provided with detectors and placed high up, and suitable for measuring the concentration of polluting gases that are to be encountered in an urban atmosphere. In addition to being very voluminous, complex, and costly, known monitoring apparatus suffers from the drawback that the number of installed items of such apparatus is very small, in the range 1 to 10 items of apparatus in any one town or city, and the geographical distribution of pollution cannot therefore be determined accurately. In addition, such apparatus measures pollution as a whole, regardless of its origin. In particular, especially because of the height at which the detectors are situated, it is not possible to determine the pollution actually suffered by the people in town, or the proportion of the pollution that is generated by motor vehicles. Finally, current monitoring apparatus merely records pollutant concentration measurements during the day so that they can be centrally processed at a later date, without it being possible to react in real time, within an acceptable time limit, when pollution peaks are reached.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The technical problem to be solved by the present invention is thus to provide apparatus for monitoring pollution generated by motor vehicles in an urban area, which apparatus makes it possible, in simple and low-cost manner, to establish accurately the distribution of motor vehicle pollution in the area in question, and to offer means for reacting in real time on motor vehicle traffic so as to reduce the pollution as quickly as possible when a determined threshold is exceeded.
According to the invention, the solution to the technical problem posed consists in that, with said area being equipped with a plurality of items of street furniture, each of which is provided with data acquisition and processing means for acquiring and processing data and with communications means for communicating said data to a central site, said monitoring apparatus includes at least one item of street furniture further provided with at least one detector for detecting a magnitude characteristic of pollution, and suitable for delivering a measurement of said magnitude to said data acquisition and processing means.
In particular, in an embodiment of the invention, said items of street furniture are pay-and-display parking meters.
Similarly, the invention makes provision for said magnitude characteristic of pollution to be constituted by the concentration of a chemical pollutant in ambient air and/or the sound level due to noise produced by said motor vehicles.
The monitoring apparatus of the invention offers numerous advantages. Firstly, it uses an already-existing infrastructure of street furniture, which means that the cost is relatively low, the cost being represented essentially by installing a pollutant detector and/or a sound transducer, and by adapting the data acquisition and treatment means merely by modifying software. In addition, items of street furniture, such as pay-and-display parking meters offer dense geographical coverage, making it possible to obtain accurate knowledge of pollution distribut
REFERENCES:
patent: 4526028 (1985-07-01), Hubner
patent: 4943929 (1990-07-01), Simonoff
patent: 5276434 (1994-01-01), Brooks et al.
patent: 5406265 (1995-04-01), Trozzo et al.
patent: 5442348 (1995-08-01), Mushell
patent: 6031454 (2000-02-01), Lovejoy et al.
Brusseaux Thierry
Flinois Xavier
Goins Davetta W.
Lefkowitz Edward
Schlumberger Systemes
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