Patent ID: 7148815

Claim:
An apparatus for detecting objects on an airport runway, comprising: a plurality of transmitters adapted to emit incident beams and positioned along a first side of said airport runway; a plurality of receivers adapted to receive said incident beams and positioned along a second side of said runway; a processor operably linked to each of said plurality of receivers; and a user interface operably linked to said processor, wherein each of said plurality of transmitters are adapted to emit said incident beams across at least a portion of said runway, and each of said plurality of receivers being configured to receive one of said incident beams, wherein said plurality of receivers are adapted to indicate a first indication to said processor if any of said incident beams are interrupted by an object on or over said runway, wherein said processor is adapted to send a second indication to said user interface in response to said first indication, said second indication being a warning indication; and wherein said user interface is adapted to enable a user to receive a third indication in response to said second indication further comprising a reflector positioned adjacent to said runway, wherein said reflector is adapted to reflect said incident beams from said plurality of transmitters to said plurality of receivers.