Patent ID: 6892580

Claim:
A method for determining a rate of rain falling on a surface wherein the rain causes vibrations of the surface, said method comprising the steps of: sensing the vibrations of the surface; generating a vibration signal proportional to the vibrations of the surface, wherein the vibration signal includes peaks; determining the peaks of the vibration signal; determining intervals of time between the peaks; counting a number n 1 of intervals of time that occur between a first time and a second time and that fall in a first range of the intervals of time; counting a number n 2 of intervals of time that occur between the second time and a third time and that fall in a second range of the intervals of time; and determining the rain rate λ with an equation derived from a point process equation utilizing n 1 and n 2 in order to differentiate vibrations caused by rain from vibrations caused by non-rain disturbances.