Mobile sensor-based railway crossing safety device

A railway crossing safety device comprising:

• a housing;
• a microphone for capturing ambient sound and providing a corresponding data signal, the microphone being disposed outside the housing and being operatively coupled to the microphone;
• a processor housed within the housing to receive and process the data signal;
• a memory operatively coupled to the processor, the memory storing train audio signature data and comparison instructions executable by the processor to process the data signal and determine whether at least one characteristic of the data signal matches stored train audio signature data;
• and
• an output device operatively coupled to the processor and configured to issue an intervention signal if the processor determines that the data signal indicates that at least a portion of the ambient was produced by a train, said output device comprising an interface configured for operative connection to and data communication with a vehicle's onboard computer system, said interface being operatively connected to a communication bus of the vehicle's on-board computing system.

A method for providing a railway crossing safety intervention using a railway crossing safety device comprising a microphone for capturing ambient sound and providing a corresponding data signal, a processor operatively coupled to the microphone to receive and process the data signal, a memory operatively coupled to the processor and storing train audio signature data and comparison instructions executable by the processor to process the data signal and determine whether at least one characteristic of the data signal matches stored train audio signature data, and an output device operatively coupled to the processor and configured to issue an intervention signal if the processor determines that the data signal indicates that at least a portion of the ambient sound was produced by a train, the method comprising:

• receiving an ambient audio signal via the microphone and providing a corresponding data signal;
• processing the audio data signal to identify audio signal characteristics;
• retrieving from the memory train audio signature data, the train audio signature characteristics identifying audio signal characteristics associated with acoustic signals produced by trains;
• comparing at least one identified audio signal characteristic to the retrieved train audio signature data;
• determining whether the at least one identified audio signal characteristic matches at least one train audio signature characteristic;
• and
• outputting at least one of a warning signal and a control signal.