JP2000159010A - Character-lighting number plate device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To precisely recognize the characters of a number plate by a vehicle number recognizing device or naked eyes by providing floodlights within a case body to emit both visual ray and infrared ray toward the number plate. SOLUTION: In a number plate 3, the infrared ray of the rays from floodlights 6a-6c is diffused by a diffusing plate 4, transmitted by a swollen character 18 and an infrared transmitting filter, and emitted to the outside, while the visual ray is transmitted by the swollen character 18 and then reflected by the infrared transmitting filter, and the resulting reflected light is reflected by, for example, a character base plate 16, and emitted to the outside from the inclined surface of the swollen character 18. The visual ray is directly emitted to the outside from the inclined surface of the swollen character 18, and the profile of the black or dark color infrared transmitting filter, or the profile part of the swollen character 18 shines and appears on the surface by the visual ray emitted from the inclined surface.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a luminous license plate device for a motor vehicle, and more particularly to a luminous license plate device which is attached to a mini vehicle and which can accurately recognize characters by a vehicle number recognition device and the naked eye. About.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a light-emitting license plate device used in a mini vehicle is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 8-1692.
No. 77 discloses this. This character-type license plate device is provided with an opaque character portion that punches out a character portion and exhibits a predetermined character shape and coloring, and a transparent or semi-transparent license plate provided around the character portion and a transparent hole having the same color. And a pair of illumination lamps arranged on the back side of the license plate main body, wherein the license plate main body has a synthetic resin character having a portion attached to the character portion.

[0003]

However, in this character-type license plate device, the character portion is simply raised by transmitting the light of the illuminating lamp through the through-hole portion and displayed in a predetermined color. For example, a vehicle number recognition device (for example, Japanese Patent Publication No.
However, there is a problem in that it is difficult to accurately recognize characters at night, for example, according to Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 86600/86.

[0004] Further, since only a pair of illuminating lights are arranged on the back side of the license plate main body, it is difficult to illuminate the entire area of the portion of the license plate main body where characters are provided with the light of the illuminating lights substantially uniformly. However, there is also a problem that characters in a substantially central portion of the license plate body, which is a substantially intermediate portion of the illumination lamp located on a straight line, tend to be dark, and it is difficult to perform good recognition of characters with the naked eye at night. Was.

The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a vehicle number recognizing device and a character light number which can accurately recognize characters on a license plate with the naked eye. A second object of the present invention is to provide a plate device, and in addition to the first object of the present invention, to provide a character-type license plate device capable of more accurately recognizing characters at night. It is in.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, according to the first aspect of the present invention, an opaque character substrate is locally punched to form a character hole corresponding to a predetermined character. A text character having an infrared transmission filter made of a translucent material having a predetermined thickness in the character hole and transmitting infrared light,
The license plate includes a license plate protruding outward and fixed to the front opening of the case, and an illumination lamp arranged inside the case and radiating both visible light and infrared light to the license plate. It is characterized by the following.

With this configuration, of the visible light and the infrared light emitted from the illumination lamp, the infrared light is transmitted through the infrared transmission filter provided on the physical character of the license plate, and the infrared light is transmitted. For example, it is recognized as a character by a vehicle number recognition device. On the other hand, visible light is transmitted only through the portion of the character which is not provided with the infrared transmission filter, so that the character is highlighted in outline and the character is recognized by the naked eye. In addition, in a daytime part where the illumination lamp is not turned on, the infrared transmitting filter reflects the visible light of the sun and emits a predetermined character to the outside, and is recognized as a flesh character.

[0008] According to a second aspect of the present invention, the illumination lamp comprises:
It is arranged at at least three places, and one of the lights is located a predetermined distance away from a straight line connecting the lights on both sides. With this configuration, when the illuminating lamps provided at least at three locations inside the case are turned on, an area that cannot be covered by the two illuminating lamps located on the right and left straight lines is provided away from the straight line. It can be covered with a single substantially central illumination lamp, so that substantially the entire area of the license plate can be irradiated with infrared light and visible light almost uniformly. As a result, the physical characters at night can be more accurately recognized.

[0009]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. 1 to 5 show an embodiment of a character-type license plate device according to the present invention. FIG. 1 is an overall perspective view, FIG. 2 is a front view thereof, and FIG.
4 is a cross-sectional view taken along line A, FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of the license plate, and FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view taken along line BB of FIG.

In FIG. 1 to FIG. 4, a character-type license plate device 1 is formed of a sheet metal material, has a flat container shape, has an opening 2a (see FIG. 3) on the front surface, and is formed in a rectangular shape in a front view. A case 2, a license plate 3 attached to an opening 2a of the case 2 via a diffusion plate 4 and a mounting frame 5, and three illuminating lamps 6a arranged inside the case 2.
To 6c (see FIG. 2).

The case 2 is provided with a diffusion plate 4 in an opening 2a, and a rectangular mounting frame 5 along the periphery of the case 2 is provided on the front side of the diffusion plate 4 via a hinge 7 (see FIG. 3). The case 2 is attached so as to be openable and closable, and a pair of slide knobs 8 are provided on both sides of the lower edge of the case 2. Further, inside the case 2, three lighting lamp mounting portions 9 are provided.
The illumination lamps 6a to 6c are attached via screws 11, respectively. These three lamps 6a to 6c are:
Appropriate light bulbs that emit both visible light and infrared light are used, and two illuminating lamps 6a and 6c on both sides are arranged at upper portions on both sides inside the case 2 and an illuminating lamp 6b located in the middle
Is disposed substantially below the intermediate portion inside the case 2.

That is, as shown in FIG. 2, the illumination lamp 6b located in the middle is disposed at a position separated by a predetermined distance L1 from a straight line L connecting the two illumination lamps 6a and 6c on both sides. With this arrangement, as described later, substantially the entire area of the license plate 3 is evenly illuminated by the three illumination lamps 6a to 6c. A pair of mounting plates 12 (see FIG. 3) used for mounting to the vehicle body are fixed to the back surface of the case 2 with screws 13, and a cushion 14 is attached to a lower portion of the back surface of the case 2. A harness 15 for supplying power to the illumination lamps 6a to 6c is drawn out of the case 2.

The license plate 3 is formed in a rectangular shape by an opaque character substrate 16 made of a metal plate.
The character substrate 16 is formed with a character hole 17 such as a numeral or a kanji corresponding to a predetermined character by punching locally. The character substrate 16 has a surface 16a coated with yellow paint, and a character hole 18 fixed to a character hole 17 formed of a transparent or translucent plastic material to a predetermined thickness.

As shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, the physical character 18 has a vertical width (vertical direction) and a horizontal width (horizontal direction) whose width gradually decreases from the base 18a toward the top 18b.
Is formed in a substantially trapezoidal shape, and an inclined surface 1 is formed on an outer surface thereof.
8c are respectively formed. In addition, a black infrared transmission filter 19 is provided on the top 18b of the physical character 18 over the entire surface.

The infrared transmission filter 19 is formed by two-color molding of an acrylic resin, printing with silk screen ink, or hot stamping of a heat transfer foil.
It is formed integrally with the top 18 b of the physical character 18. This infrared transmitting filter 19 allows the illumination lamps 6a to 6
Among the rays emitted from c, visible rays and ultraviolet rays are cut (blocked), and only infrared rays are transmitted to irradiate the outside.

The real character 18 is fixed to the character substrate 16 as follows. That is, the base 18a of the physical character 18
The leg portion 20 (FIG. 5) having a width slightly smaller than the line width of the
), And this leg 20 is attached to the character board 16.
Is fitted into the character hole 17 from the surface 16a side of the
The end portion of the letter 0 is heated and softened, and is pressed in the direction of the back surface 16b of the character board 16 to form a wide flange 21. As a result, the flange 21 and the base 18
The character "a" clamps the periphery of the character hole 17, and the solid character 18 is fixed to the character substrate 16.

The number plate 3 manufactured as described above is screwed onto a pair of cap nuts 22 (see FIG. 3), the upper portions of which are integrally provided by inserts on the upper sides of both sides of the mounting frame 5 on the hinge 7 side. While being fixed at 23,
The lower end thereof is engaged with the slide knob 8 to be mounted on the case 2 via the mounting frame 5.

When the license plate 3 is mounted on the case 2, the groove 3a provided on the outer peripheral edge of the license plate 3 is fitted into the ridge 5a provided on the outer peripheral edge of the mounting frame 5. , Mounting frame 5 and license plate 3
By displacing the slide knob 8 in the direction indicated by the arrow A in FIG. 2, the engagement between the mounting frame 5 and the slide knob 8 is released, and the mounting frame 5, that is, the license plate 3 is moved via the hinge 7 in FIG. It is configured to rotate in the direction of arrow B.

The license plate 3 has illumination lamps 6a to 6a.
6c, the infrared rays are diffused by the diffusion plate 4 and transmitted through the inside of the real character 18 and the infrared transmission filter 19 to be irradiated to the outside. The visible light passes through the inside of the real character 18 and then passes through the infrared transmission filter 19. The reflected light is reflected by, for example, the character substrate 16 and is emitted to the outside from the inclined surface 18c of the real character 18. Further, the visible light is directly radiated to the outside from the inclined surface 18c of the physical character 18, and the visible light emitted from the inclined surface 18c causes the outline of the black or dark infrared transmission filter 19, that is, the outline of the natural character 18. Will shine and emerge.

Therefore, this license plate 3 is
When the vehicle is recognized by the vehicle number recognition device (see Japanese Patent Publication No. 5-86600), the illumination lights 6a to 6c are used at night because the CCD camera has sensitivity from visible light to infrared light.
Lights up, and when visible light and infrared light are applied to the back surface of the license plate 3 via the diffusion plate 4,
The outline (visible light transmitting portion) 8 and the inside of the physical character 18 (infrared transmitting portion) are both recognized by the CCD camera.

The recognized portion (that is, the physical character 18 and its outline portion) becomes data different from that of the character substrate 16 which is determined to be white by the vehicle number recognition device and determined to be black, for example. 18 is correctly recognized. At this time, three illuminating lamps 6a to 6c for irradiating the visible light and the infrared ray to the license plate 3 are provided, and the illuminating lamp 6a located on both sides is provided with the illuminating lamp 6b located in the middle.
The intermediate portion of the license plate 3 that cannot be covered by the illumination lamps 6a, 6c on both sides can be illuminated by the illumination lamp 6b because it is located below the central portion at a predetermined distance L1 away from the straight line L connecting 6c. it can. Thereby, substantially the entire area of the license plate 3 can be evenly illuminated, and the recognition of the physical character 18 can be performed more accurately.

Also, in the daytime, the vehicle number recognition device determines that the physical character 18 is black and the yellow character substrate 16 is white by the visible light of the sun, and the physical character 18 is accurately recognized. You. In addition, when viewed with the naked eye at night, the outline of the flesh character 18 shines, and the inside of the flesh character 18 looks black.

As described above, according to the character-type license plate device 1 of the above-described embodiment, the illumination lamp 6 is provided by providing the infrared transmission filter 19 on the top 18b of the physical character 18.
Since only the infrared rays among the light rays generated by the lighting of a to 6c are transmitted through the infrared transmission filter 19 and radiated to the outside, the vehicle number recognition device can clearly identify the infrared rays as noise, so that it can be used at night. Also the real character 1 of the character board 16
8 can be accurately recognized.

As a result, the character substrate 16 is yellow and the
Even if 8 is a light license plate 3 of a black light vehicle, it is possible to accurately recognize nighttime flesh characters 18 by a vehicle number recognition device that has been impossible in the past,
For example, accurate traffic information can be displayed on a display board or the like provided on an expressway.

The outer surface of the physical character 18 is
Is formed by an inclined surface 18c which is tapered from the side toward the top 18b, so that the illumination lamp 6 can be used at night.
When the characters a to 6c are turned on, the light beam passes through the character character 18 through the character hole 17 and is emitted to the outside from the inclined surface 18c of the character character 18. Thereby, the infrared transmission filter 19
A light ray is emitted from the outline portion of the character 18, that is, the outline portion of the physical character 18, in the front direction, and a black character by the infrared transmission filter 19 emerges. Further, when the illumination lamps 6a to 6c are turned off in the daytime, the infrared transmission filter 19 receives the sunlight and emits the same black characters to the outside as described above.
8, the recognition with the naked eye is good.

Also, three illuminating lamps 6a to 6c for irradiating visible light and infrared light are provided on the back side of the license plate 3, and an intermediate illuminating lamp 6b connects the illuminating lamps 6a and 6c located on both sides. A predetermined distance L from the straight line L
Since they are one distance apart, these illumination lamps 6a to 6c can illuminate substantially the entire area of the license plate 3, and the illumination state of all the real characters 18 can be made substantially uniform. As a result, the recognition by the vehicle number recognition device can be performed with higher accuracy, and the recognition with the naked eye can be further improved.

In the above embodiment, the illumination lamp 6a
Although the case where three to 6c are arranged inside the case 2 has been described, for example, four or more illuminating lights can be arranged in a staggered or appropriate state inside the case. Further, in the above-described embodiment, the arrangement position of the infrared transmission filter 19 on the physical character 18, the shape of the physical character 18 itself, and the like are merely examples, and do not depart from the gist of each invention according to the present invention.
It goes without saying that various changes can be made.

[0028]

As described above in detail, according to the first aspect of the present invention, an infrared transmitting filter is provided on a physical character of a light-emitting license plate, and both visible light and infrared light are provided inside a case. Since the illuminating lamp that can be illuminated is provided, the real characters are recognized by the vehicle number recognition device and the like by the infrared rays radiated from the illuminating lamp, and the real characters emerge with visible light and are recognized by the naked eye,
It is possible to accurately recognize a character on a license plate by a vehicle number recognition device or the naked eye.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, in addition to the effects of the first aspect, when at least three illuminating lamps are turned on, two illuminating lamps located on a straight line are used. Since the uncoverable area can be covered by a single illuminator located at a certain distance from the straight line and approximately at the middle of the straight line, the infrared light and visible light are almost evenly distributed over almost the entire area of the illuminated license plate. And it is possible to more accurately recognize nighttime physical characters.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing one embodiment of a character license plate device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a front view of the same.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along the line AA of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a sectional view of the license plate.

FIG. 5 is a sectional view taken along the line BB of FIG. 4;

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 ... License-type license plate device 2 ... Case 3 ... License plate 4 ... Diffusion plate 5 ... -Mounting frame 6a-6c-Illumination light-7-Hinge 8-Slide knob 16-Character board 17-Character hole 18- ····· Natural character 18a ···· Base 18b ···· Top 18c ···· Slope surface 19 ···· Infrared transmission filter

Claims (2)

[Claims] An opaque character substrate is locally punched to form a character hole corresponding to a predetermined character, and the character hole is formed of a translucent material having a predetermined thickness and has an infrared transmission filter through which infrared light is transmitted. A license plate that is attached to the front opening of the case by projecting and fixing the characters outward, and an illumination lamp that is disposed inside the case and emits both visible light and infrared light toward the license plate. And a light-emitting license plate device. 2. The character light according to claim 1, wherein the illuminating lights are arranged in at least three places, and one of the illuminating lights is separated by a predetermined distance from a straight line connecting the illuminating lights on both sides. License plate device.