Illumination – With static structure – Pavement
Reexamination Certificate
1999-05-28
2001-04-03
O'Shea, Sandra (Department: 2875)
Illumination
With static structure
Pavement
C362S153000, C362S240000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06210017
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a self-emission road device that is set on a road at a center line or intersection and used for warning and visually guiding car drivers and pedestrians by emitting lights from light emitting elements using a power unit provided in the self-emission road device, thereby preventing traffic accidents.
(2) Related Art
Self-emission road devices have been used mainly for preventing traffic accidents. These self-emission road devices emit lights from internal light elements so that car drivers and pedestrians can clearly see certain positions such as a center line and a center of an intersection.
Such a self-emission road device has a main body and a protective board. The main body includes light emitting elements, such as light emitting diodes, and a power unit for supplying power for the light emitting elements. The protective board is set on the top of the main body, and has one or more light emitting faces. Here, each light emitting face is set on a different side of the protective board. The lights from the light emitting elements are emitted to the outside through the light emitting faces.
The self-emission road device is set on a road so that the protective board protrudes from the road surface, with the main body being buried in the ground. The lights from the light emitting elements are emitted to the outside through the light emitting faces. By means of the emitted lights, the drivers and pedestrians can clearly see certain positions at nighttime, such as a center line, a center of an intersection, and a pedestrian crossover.
In this example of related art, the lights passing through one light emitting face are emitted in the same direction. As such, this one kind of self-emission road device cannot be applied to all of various shapes of roads, such as a straight road and a curve. Hereinafter, the direction in which a light is emitted is referred to as the “emitting direction (of the light).”
In general, the self-emission road device is set so that the light emitting faces are almost horizontally perpendicular to the direction in which the road runs. Thus, when the self-emission road device is set on a straight road, it needs to be set so that emitting direction of the lights is perpendicular to the light emitting face. Meanwhile, when the self-emission road device is set on a curve, a horizontal angle formed between the emitting direction of the lights and the light emitting face needs to be appropriately set in accordance with the curve. For this reason, different kinds of self-emission road devices, each of which has a different emitting direction, need to be provided corresponding to the various shapes of roads.
Furthermore, prior to the setting of the self-emission road device on a road, the road needs to be checked to select a self-emission road device, out of the different kinds of self-emission road devices, that emits the lights in an optimum direction for the road. Accordingly, the self-emission road device has been set at much expense in time and effort.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Therefore, the object of the present invention is to provide a self-emission road device which emits lights that are clearly seen at nighttime regardless of the shape of a road, i.e., whether it is straight or curved, without providing different kinds of self-emission road devices.
The object of the present invention can be achieved by a self-emission road device which is partially buried in a road surface, the self-emission road device being made up of: a main body which has an opening at a top; an emission unit which is set at an upper part of the main body and emits at least three light beams over a road; and a top board which is set covering the opening of the main body, and has an emission window that is transparent, with the light beams from the emission unit passing through the emission window and being emitted to an outside, where emitting directions in which the light beams are emitted through the emission window include at least first and second directions.
With this construction, the emission unit emits at least three light beams through an emission window provided for the top board, with the number of emitting directions emitted from the emission unit being at least two. Consequently, the lights emitted from the road self-emission device can be seen from various directions.
When at least two light beams, out of the plurality of the light beams emitted to the outside through the emission window, are emitted in the same direction, a light beam emitted in a different direction is situated between two light beams emitted in the same direction.
With this construction, two light beams emitted in the same direction are not situated next to each other. Therefore, areas of the emission window where the light beams respectively pass through are hardly overlapped, and the respective areas exposed to the lights on the emission window are increased. This results in a state where the emission window is fully lighted. Consequently, the lights from the emission unit can be more clearly seen by the car drivers and pedestrians.
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Miura Masanori
Tobiyasu Fumiyoshi
Burns Doane , Swecker, Mathis LLP
Minolta Co. , Ltd.
O'Shea Sandra
Truong Bao
LandOfFree
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