Patent Application
20200130579
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The disclosure and prior art relates to parking safety systems and more particularly pertains to a new parking safety system for alerting drivers to unsafe parking practices.
An embodiment of the disclosure meets the needs presented above by generally comprising a housing having a front side separated from a rear side, a left side separated from a right side, and a bottom side separated from a top side. The rear side, the left side, the right side, and the bottom side form a cavity within the housing. The front side of the housing has a speaker grille extending through to the cavity. A plurality of lights is coupled to the front side of the housing. A speaker is coupled to the housing within the cavity adjacent the speaker grille of the front side. A tone generator that is in operational communication with the speaker is coupled within the cavity of the housing. A microprocessor is coupled within the cavity of the housing and is in operational communication with the tone generator. A sensor array is in operational communication with the microprocessor and is configured to be in operational communication with a parking brake of a truck, a driver's door of the truck, and a trailer brake of a trailer. The sensor array detects the driver's side door status as open or closed, the parking brake engagement and disengagement, and the trailer brake engagement and disengagement. The microprocessor generates an audio-visual alarm through the plurality of lights and the speaker when the sensor array detects that the parking brake or the trailer brake is disengaged and the driver's door is in the open position. The microprocessor ceases the audio-visual alarm when the sensor array detects that the parking brake and the trailer brake are each engaged.
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 sensor array 36 is in operational communication with the microprocessor 34 and is configured to be in operational communication with a parking brake of a truck, a driver's door of the truck, and a trailer brake of a trailer. The sensor array 36 may comprise a brake system sensor 38, a brake initiated sensor 40, and a door ajar sensor 42. The brake system sensor 38 is configured to detect parking brake disengagement and trailer brake disengagement, the brake initiated sensor 40 detects parking brake and trailer brake engagement, and the door ajar sensor 42 detects driver's door position. The driver's door has a closed position and an alternate open position.
A pair of brake controls 44 may be coupled to the housing and comprises a square truck brake control 46 and an octagonal trailer brake control 48. The truck brake control 46 is coupled to the front side 12 of the housing adjacent the truck light 28 and the trailer brake control 48 is coupled to the front side 12 of the housing adjacent the trailer light 29. The pair of brake controls 44 is in operational communication with the sensor array 36. The truck brake control 46 is configured to engage and alternatively disengage the parking brake and the trailer brake control 48 is configured to engage and alternatively disengage the trailer brake.
In use, the microprocessor 34 generates an audio-visual alarm through the plurality of lights 27 and the speaker 30 when the sensor array 36 detects that the parking brake or the trailer brake is disengaged and the driver's door is in the open position. The truck light 28 illuminates when the brake system sensor 38 detects parking brake disengagement and the trailer light illuminates when the brake system sensor 38 detects trailer brake disengagement. The microprocessor 34 ceases the audio-visual alarm when the brake initiated sensor 40 detects that the parking brake and the trailer brake are each engaged.
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.
