Patent Application
20200398877
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The disclosure and prior art relates to railroad safety devices and more particularly pertains to a new railroad safety device for alerting authorities to an obstruction on a railroad crossing.
An embodiment of the disclosure meets the needs presented above by generally comprising a plurality of object sensors that is each positioned on a respective one of four corners of a railroad crossing. The object sensors emit a sensing signal across the railroad crossing to detect an obstruction on the railroad crossing. A data storage unit is provided and each of the object sensors is in electrical communication with the data storage unit. The data storage unit is in electrical communication with emergency responders thereby facilitating the emergency responders to be notified of the obstruction on the railroad crossing. Additionally, the data storage unit is in communication with a railway operation department thereby facilitating the railway operation department to alter railway scheduling in response to the obstruction.
There has thus been outlined, rather broadly, the more important features of the disclosure in order that the detailed description thereof that follows may be better understood, and in order that the present contribution to the art may be better appreciated. There are additional features of the disclosure that will be described hereinafter and which will form the subject matter of the claims appended hereto.
The objects of the disclosure, along with the various features of novelty which characterize the disclosure, are pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part of this disclosure.
The disclosure will be better understood and objects other than those set forth above will become apparent when consideration is given to the following detailed description thereof. Such description makes reference to the annexed drawings wherein:
With reference now to the drawings, and in particular to
As best illustrated in
A plurality of cameras 18 is provided and each of the cameras 18 is positioned around the railroad crossing 14 to capture images of the railroad crossing 14. Each of the cameras 18 is turned on when any of the object sensors 12 senses the obstruction 16. In this way each of the cameras 18 captures images of the obstruction 16. Each of the cameras 18 may comprise a digital video camera or the like. A transceiver 20 is positioned adjacent to the railroad crossing 14 and the transceiver 20 is in remote communication with a global positioning system (gps) 22. In this way the transceiver 20 can receive a physical location of the railroad crossing 14. The transceiver 20 may be a radio frequency transceiver or the like.
A data storage unit 24 is provided and each of the object sensors 12 is in electrical communication with the data storage unit 24. Additionally, each of the cameras 18 is in electrical communication with the data storage unit 24. The data storage unit 24 receives the images from the cameras 18 when any of the object sensors 12 senses the obstruction 16. The transceiver 20 is in electrical communication with the data storage unit 24. The transceiver 20 communicates the physical location of the railroad crossing 14 to the data storage unit 24 when any of the object sensors 12 senses the obstruction 16. The data storage unit 24 may comprise, but not be limited to, a personal computer, solid state memory banks or any other type of electronic data storage. Each of the object sensors 12, the cameras 18, the transceiver 20 and the data storage unit 24 are electrically coupled to a power source 25 that may comprise an electrical utility service line or the like.
The data storage unit 24 is in electrical communication with an extrinsic communication network 26, including but not being limited to, the internet or a cellphone network. In this way the data storage unit 24 is in communication with emergency responders, such as local police or fire departments, thereby facilitating the emergency responders to be notified of the obstruction 16 on the railroad crossing 14. Moreover, the data storage unit 24 is in communication with a railway operation department. In this way the railway operation department can alter railway scheduling in response to the obstruction 16.
A data server 28 is provided and the data server 28 is in electrical communication with the extrinsic communication network 26. In this way the data server 28 is in communication with the data storage unit 24. The data server 28 receives the images from the cameras 18 and the physical location of the railroad crossing 14 from the data storage unit 24. Moreover, the data server 28 compiles the images and the physical location into a database stored on the data server 28 for subsequent analysis.
The data server 28 may be positioned in an operations headquarters of a company that is contracted to monitor railroad crossings or the like. A representative of the company can employ the data server 28 to remotely access the data storage unit 24. In this way the representative can send the images and the physical location to the emergency responders and the railway operation department in response to the obstruction 16.
In use, the object sensors 12 sense an obstruction 16, such as a vehicle or any other solid object that is positioned on the railroad crossing 14. The cameras 18 are turned on the capture images of the obstruction 16. The images of the obstruction 16 and the physical location of the railroad crossing 14 are communicated to the data storage unit 24. The data storage unit 24 subsequently communicates the images of the obstruction 16 and the physical location of the railroad crossing 14 to the data server 28, the emergency responders and the railway operations department. In this way emergency responders can immediately respond to the obstruction 16 and the railway operations department can make any scheduling changes to avoid a crash at the railroad crossing 14.
With respect to the above description then, it is to be realized that the optimum dimensional relationships for the parts of an embodiment enabled by the disclosure, to include variations in size, materials, shape, form, function and manner of operation, assembly and use, are deemed readily apparent and obvious to one skilled in the art, and all equivalent relationships to those illustrated in the drawings and described in the specification are intended to be encompassed by an embodiment of the disclosure.
Therefore, the foregoing is considered as illustrative only of the principles of the disclosure. Further, since numerous modifications and changes will readily occur to those skilled in the art, it is not desired to limit the disclosure to the exact construction and operation shown and described, and accordingly, all suitable modifications and equivalents may be resorted to, falling within the scope of the disclosure. In this patent document, the word “comprising” is used in its non-limiting sense to mean that items following the word are included, but items not specifically mentioned are not excluded. A reference to an element by the indefinite article “a” does not exclude the possibility that more than one of the element is present, unless the context clearly requires that there be only one of the elements.
