A bed status information system for indicating to attending personnel the status of a patient bed includes bed condition input signal generators carried by the bed and coupled to operational elements on the bed, which have one or more monitorable conditions. The signal generators are operable to monitor a bed element condition and input signal indicative of the status of the monitored condition. An interface board on the bed processes the bed condition input signal and generates bed condition me...

A system for reducing the collision rate between vehicles and obstacles in confined areas comprising a photoelectric emitter on the vehicle adapted to project light substantially vertically from the vehicle; one or more substantially downwardly facing reflectors strategically placed above the vehicle approach path to obstacles in the confined area comprising the working environment for the vehicle such that the projected light will be reflected back to the vehicle in the event that the vehicle a...

A device for supervising movable articles or objects has a supervising member which can be attached thereto. The device includes a connector disposed in a housing. The housing includes an aperture and a rotary blocking member positionable between the connector and the aperture of the housing. The supervising member is coupled to the connector. The blocking member prevents the supervising member from being recoupled to the connector after it has been removed from the housing. An alarm system is a...

The present invention includes an apparatus and method of monitoring a power transmission line. According to one embodiment, an apparatus adapted to monitor a power transmission line supported by a plurality of structures includes a first measuring device located at a position in space; and a second measuring device coupled with the power transmission line, the first measuring device and second measuring device being configured to provide position information of the second measuring device relat...

A control system for an engine low oil sensor prevents engine starting if the oil level is below a predetermined level, but thereafter enables the engine to run uninterrupted even if the oil level becomes low during engine operation. After the engine is shut off for any reason, the control system resets so that the low oil switch is operable during the next attempted restart of the engine. The control system also includes a visual or audible indicator that indicates when engine starting is preve...

A system for monitoring the vehicle tire inflation pressure has a device for detecting the vertical acceleration of the tire or of a vehicle component connected therewith and the longitudinal speed of the vehicle, as well as having an analyzing unit which determines the tire inflation pressure from the measured vertical acceleration data and the measured vehicle longitudinal speed data. The analyzing unit contains a trainable estimating unit, particularly a neuronal network, which is trained by ...

A device and a process for indicating the exhaustion of an adsorption filter to indicate a necessary filter change in time is provided. The monitoring device has a gas concentration-measuring device (8), a temperature-measuring device (9) for determining the temperature of the ambient air, a memory unit (3) with a first memory field (4), in which filter data sets associated with individual filters are stored, with a second memory field (5), in which data specific of toxic substances are stored, ...

An apparatus and method warn drivers of a hazardous condition experienced by another driver. The apparatus generally includes a warning indicator, such as for example a strobe light, coupled to a vehicle warning controller. The vehicle warning controller is connected between a power source and a plurality of vehicle detecting circuits which detect the activation of a safety device. Vehicle detecting circuits can include an antilock braking system (ABS) detecting circuit, an airbag deployment det...

An object sensing device and method for a motor vehicle utilizes one or more transmitter/receiver pairs to obtain a reflex signal from an object from an object situated in front of the motor vehicle in terms of the driving directions. In a first operating mode for clear visibility, a reflex signal is emitted for the object when it is standing still or driving more slowly relative to the motor vehicle containing the device. In a second operating mode for poor visibility the reflex signal is addit...

For a position detector of a motor actuator, two types of flanges are provided. Each flange has a movable contact, on which fixed sliding contacts slide to detect a predetermined rotational position of a motor when the flange is driven by the motor. Either one of the flanges is used in the position detector depending on the combination of motor rotation directions (forward/reverse) and doors (left/right). Thus, a single cover plate which accommodates the flange may be used for both doors irrespe...