Patent ID: 7275864

Claim:
A self-contained roadway temperature monitoring module, comprising: (a) a housing comprising a block of light-transmissive material having a top surface, a bottom surface and a side surface of a predetermined height dimension, the bottom surface having a cavity formed therein; (b) a solar cell array disposed in the cavity proximate the top surface for producing an electrical potential at a pair of output terminals; (c) a microprocessor disposed in the cavity at a location between the solar cell array and the bottom surface, the microprocessor having a plurality of data input terminals; (d) an RF transmitter disposed in the cavity and coupled to receive output signals from the microprocessor; (e) means coupling the output terminals of the solar cell array to the microprocessor and to the RF transmitter; and (f) a plurality of temperature sensing elements embedded in said block proximate the side surface, the temperature sensing elements being electrically coupled to said data input terminals of the microprocessor.