Traffic condition displaying system

A system for providing warning notices of potentially unsafe road conditions ahead. The system includes a graphic display unit, having a plurality of light emitting pixels, for displaying a road condition ahead, a display unit driver for driving the light emitting pixels of the graphic display unit, a controller for transmitting control signals and graphic data to be displayed to the display unit driver, a plurality of manually operable switches for commanding the controller to perform a programmed operation, and a car speed sensor for detecting car speed and transmitting the detected car speed to the controller.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
1. Field of the Invention 
The present invention relates to a traffic condition displaying device, and 
more particularly to a device designed to inform a car driver that a 
dangerous traffic condition exists by noticing such as displaying letters, 
warning lamp, or warning tone, etc., before approaching a dangerous road 
such as a tunnel or a sharp curve. 
2. Discussion of Related Art 
Generally, a car runs at a high speed on the express highway and a long 
distance is needed to stop. Thus accidents involving vehicles colliding 
with obstacles happens quite often even though the driver sees such 
obstacles ahead and has applied a sudden break. Particularly in a 
dangerous place of a road where visibility is limited as with a sharp 
curve or tunnel, etc., many car accidents occur. If a car accident occurs 
within a tunnel, following cars may collide thereby causing a large car 
accidents. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
An object of the present invention is to provide a traffic condition 
displaying system capable of preventing car accidents on a dangerous place 
such as a tunnel or a sharp curved road, by displaying a traffic condition 
of the dangerous road so that car drivers may acknowledge dangers before 
entering into the dangerous place, thereby avoiding the car accident. 
To achieve the object, the present invention is to provide a traffic 
condition displaying system having an graphic display unit; an graphic 
display unit driver; a controller supplying control signals and data to 
drivers; and a plurality of switches generating signals so that the 
controller may perform the programmed operations; and a car speed sensor, 
thereby displaying a warning notice according to the signals of the car 
speed sensor or operation signals of the hand-operated switches if an 
emergency state has happened on the road. 
A further object of the present invention is to provide a traffic condition 
displaying system further having a warning lamp for informing drivers of 
the emergency state, a lamp driver for turning on the warning lamp, a 
warning tone generator for informing drivers of the emergency state, and a 
warning tone generator driver for driving the warning tone generator, 
which are installed on a display panel, and also having a photo sensor 
making the controller control the brightness of the graphic display unit 
according to signals thereof, and a modem for exchanging information with 
a central computer. 
Additional features and advantages of the invention will be set forth in 
the description which follows, and in part will be apparent from the 
description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The 
objectives and other advantages of the invention will be realized and 
attained by the structure particularly pointed out in the written 
description and claims hereof as well as the appended drawings. 
It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the 
following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory and are 
intended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
Reference will now be made in detail to the preferred embodiments of the 
present invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying 
drawings. 
FIG. 1 is a view showing a displaying system panel for displaying the road 
traffic condition to be installed at the roadside of the place where 
drivers can easily find before approaching a tunnel or a sharp curve of 
the road. 
In FIG. 1, the displaying system panel 1 is installed at a post 5. An 
graphic display unit 2, a warning lamp 3 and a warning tone generator 4 
are individually installed at the displaying system panel 1. Various kinds 
of drivers, a controller and a modem, etc., are built in the displaying 
system panel. An operation switch 6 is installed at a lower portion of the 
post 5. Text displays such as "tunnel ahead", "sharp curve", or "Lower 
Speed", etc. may be displayed on the upper portion of the graphic display 
unit 2. Some advertisement may be displayed on the lower portion of the 
display. 
FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a preferred embodiment of a traffic 
condition displaying system in accordance with the present invention. 
The traffic condition displaying system has a warning lamp 25; a warning 
lamp driver 26; a warning tone generator 27; a warning tone generator 
driver 28; an graphic display unit 21; an graphic display unit driver 22; 
a controller 23 supplying control signals and data to the drivers; and a 
plurality of switches 24 generating signal so that the controller may 
perform the programmed operations, and a car speed sensor 32. 
The system displays a warning notice according to the signals of the car 
speed sensor if car speed reduces under a threshold value or if operation 
signals of the hand-operated switches are occurred. 
Most parts of the traffic condition displaying system are installed within 
the displaying system panel, but the car speed sensor 32 and switches are 
installed at a proper sides of a tunnel or a sharp curve road. The sensor 
and manual switches are installed in a place where a probability of a car 
accidents is high. For example, in case of informing the traffic condition 
of the tunnel, the displaying system panel is installed about five hundred 
meters ahead of the tunnel, and the car speed sensor 32 is installed on 
the both sides of the tunnel at 50 m or 100 m distance from an entrance of 
the tunnel. Among switches SW1, SW2, SW3, . . . , SWn, one is installed at 
the lower portion of the post 5, another is installed at the entrance of 
the tunnel, and the others are installed at the inside of the tunnel at 
regular intervals. Here, it is preferable that these switches are 
installed at intervals of fifty meters or one hundred meters. In case of 
the sharp curve, switches may be installed in the manner similar to the 
method used in the tunnel. 
The graphic display unit 21 is constructed selectively among several 
displaying elements, however, in the present embodiment, it comprises 
light-emitting diode (LED) pixels in an array form. Graphics, text, or 
symbols may be displayed in LED pixel array by driving pixels 
corresponding to image to be displayed. The light-emitting diode of the 
graphic display unit is driven by the display unit driver 22. 
The display unit driver 22 has LED controller 40 and four pixel drivers 
41-44. The LED controller 40 is connected to four pixel drivers 41, 42, 43 
and 44 as shown in FIG. 3. The light-emitting state of each pixel is 
controlled by a corresponding pixel driver, and then each pixel driver is 
controlled by the LED controller. The LED controller 40 is connected to 
the controller 23 to be controlled according to control signals 
transmitted from the controller 23. 
The warning lamp 25 is an incandescent bulb or a discharge lamp, and the 
warning lamp driver 26 turns on and off the warning lamp 25 according to 
signals from the controller 23 continuously. Alternatively, the lamp 
driver 26 may simply supply the operation power to warning lamp 25 in 
accordance with the control signals of the controller 23. 
The warning tone generator 27 is a speaker or siren, and the warning tone 
generator driver 28 includes electronic circuits. The warning tone 
generator driver 28 receives signals from the controller 23 to generate a 
alternating current power to drive the speaker. 
The controller 23 comprises computer system. The controller 23 generates 
operation control signals to the graphic display unit driver 22, the 
warning lamp driver 26 and the warning tone generator driver 28, 
respectively. The controller 23 receives signals from the photo sensor 29, 
switches 24 and the car speed sensor 32 to generate several operation 
control signals to be supplied to the aforesaid drivers according to 
program previously stored. 
The controller 23 inputs the brightness signal from the photo sensor 29, 
car speed signal from the car speed sensor 32 and operation signal from 
switches to generate control signals used for controlling the drivers 22, 
26 and 28. 
If only one of switches is operated, the controller 23 performs the steps 
for transmitting an image predetermined by the program to the graphic 
display unit driver 22 so that graphic data may be displayed on the 
graphic display unit. Further the controller 23 transmits control signals 
to lamp driver 26 to operate the warning lamp 25 and to the warning tone 
generator driver 28 to make a warning sound from the speaker 27. 
If the controller is installed to the lower portion of the post and each 
driver is positioned within the displaying system panel, each driver is 
connected to the controller by a cable. If the distance between the 
controller and the drivers to be connected by the cable is long, the 
number of lines in the cable can be reduced by installing the 
parallel-serial/serial-parallel converter. 
With a signal from the photo sensor connected to the controller, the 
controller 23 can control the brightness of the light-emitting diodes 
according to the brightness of the road. The brightness of the 
light-emitting diode at day time must be much brighter than that at night 
The controller may be connected to the central computer through a modem to 
a central computer to exchange information, and send some information to 
the central computer in unusual state. Sometimes the controller 23 may 
display data supplied from the central computer. 
If the accident happened on the road where the present system is installed, 
and any one of switches is operated or the car speed sensor detects a car 
traveling at a speed below the threshold value, the controller senses this 
and immediately transmits control signals for displaying a warning notices 
to the LED controller 40 for informing this road traffic condition. The 
LED controller receives the graphic data from the controller 23 and sends 
the data to each pixel drivers 41-44 for displaying. Then, notices such as 
"accident ahead" or "prominent danger", etc., is displayed. 
Further, the controller transmits control signals to the warning lamp 
driver 3, thereby drives the warning lamp, and also transmits control 
signals to the warning tone generator driver, thereby generating the 
warning tone. The warning tone is generated with magnitude about 100 
phone, thereby being able to warn car drivers by sound even if the car 
drivers do not notice a visible notice displayed in the panel 21. 
If a traffic condition is normalized, the system is reset by using a reset 
switch (not shown). Accordingly, the traffic condition displaying system 
stops operations of displaying warning notices and returns to the normal 
operation. 
In the present invention, the controller has the function of automatically 
controlling the brightness of the graphic display unit according to the 
brightness of the road, and also, informs the central computer of the road 
traffic condition through the modem. Accordingly, in case that the unusual 
state is happened, this state is provided to the central computer to be 
displayed on a displaying system panel installed at another place. 
Moreover, by using the aforesaid controller 23, several commands by the 
central computer 31 can displayed. 
Accordingly, the present invention has an advantage capable of preventing 
an accident that may have otherwise happened from an express highway on a 
dangerous place such as the sharp curve on the general road, or, in the 
tunnel. 
It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications 
and variations can be made in a traffic condition displaying system of the 
present invention without departing from the spirit or scope of the 
invention. Thus, it is intended that the present invention cover the 
modifications and variations of this invention provided they come within 
the scope of the appended claims and their equivalents.