1. A rail vehicle, comprising:
an underbody, subjectable to thrown up ballast when the rail vehicle is operating on a ballasted section of track, the underbody including at least one acoustic signal pickup, to acoustically sense ballast stones striking the underbody;
a signal processing device to receive a signal from the at least one acoustic signal pickup and to process the signal such that a thrown up ballast signal is generated which represents the impacting of ballast stones on the underbody, the thrown up ballast signal from the signal processing device being included in a mode of operation of the rail vehicle.
2. The rail vehicle as claimed in claim 1, wherein the signal processing device is used to process the signal of the at least one acoustic signal pickup to detect individual ballast stone strikes and to count the ballast stone strikes, and wherein an acquired number of ballast stone strikes per time unit is included in the thrown up ballast signal.
3. The rail vehicle as claimed in claim 1, wherein the signal processing device is used to evaluate the thrown up ballast signal with respect to the exceeding of a predetermined safety level, and wherein, when the safety level is exceeded, a warning signal is output.
4. The rail vehicle as claimed in claim 3, wherein the warning signal is feedable to at least one of a train driver of the rail vehicle, a train control system and a control center at the infrastructure end.
5. The rail vehicle as claimed in claim 1, wherein the signal processing device contains electronic components for bandpass filtering, squaring signals and forming sliding sums.
6. The rail vehicle as claimed in claim 1, wherein the signal processing device is able to operate digitally and by scanning the signal from the at least one signal pickup in a signal processor.
7. The rail vehicle as claimed in claim 1, wherein the number of ballast stones which strike the underbody is calculated with respect to one or more predetermined time intervals.
8. The rail vehicle as claimed in claim 1, wherein individual sensed ballast stones are indicated acoustically by way of a warning signal.
9. The rail vehicle as claimed in claim 1, wherein the thrown up ballast signal is displayed visually.
10. The rail vehicle as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:
a signal transmitter to generate the noise of a ballast stone striking the underbody, arranged in the vicinity of the at least one acoustic signal pickup.
11. The rail vehicle as claimed in claim 1, wherein the at least one signal pickup is formed by a sound microphone.
12. The rail vehicle as claimed in claim 1, wherein the at least one signal pickup is an acceleration pickup which is connected to the rail vehicle structure.
13. The rail vehicle as claimed in claim 1, wherein a multiplicity of signal pickups are arranged distributed over the underbody of the rail vehicle and connected to the signal processing device, to processes the multiplicity of signals of the signal pickups.
14. The rail vehicle as claimed in claim 2, wherein the signal processing device is used to evaluate the thrown up ballast signal with respect to the exceeding of a predetermined safety level, and wherein, when the safety level is exceeded, a warning signal is output.
15. The rail vehicle as claimed in claim 14, wherein the warning signal is feedable to at least one of a train driver of the rail vehicle, a train control system and a control center at the infrastructure end.
16. The rail vehicle as claimed in claim 2, wherein the signal processing device contains electronic components for bandpass filtering, squaring signals and forming sliding sums.
17. The rail vehicle as claimed in claim 2, wherein the signal processing device is able to operate digitally and by scanning the signal from the at least one signal pickup in a signal processor.
18. The rail vehicle as claimed in claim 2, wherein the number of ballast stones which strike the underbody is calculated with respect to one or more predetermined time intervals.
19. The rail vehicle as claimed in claim 2, wherein individual sensed ballast stones are indicated acoustically by way of a warning signal.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. A map generation system that facilitates automatically providing map related information with minimal user data input comprising:
a location component that automatically detects a dynamic location; and
a mapping processor that analyzes and correlates the dynamic location with respect to at least one static location to facilitate the generation of at least one customized map view of the static location with respect to the dynamic location.
2. The system of claim 1, wherein the static location corresponds to a location of network-based content.
3. The system of claim 1, wherein the content comprises at least one of a website or a web page.
4. The system of claim 1, wherein the dynamic location comprises a current user location.
5. The system of claim 1, wherein the location component comprises at least one of a GPS device, GSM, WiFi location finder, and IP detection.
6. The system of claim 1, wherein the mapping processor further facilitates the generation of at least one set of customized directions from the dynamic location to the static location.
7. The system of claim 1, wherein the mapping processor selects one static location that is most reachable from the dynamic location when more than one static location exists based at least in part on at least one of the following: time of day, current traffic conditions, historical traffic patterns, current weather conditions, distance between the dynamic and static locations, and user preferences.
8. The system of claim 1 further comprises a mapping service that generates at least one of the following: at least one customized map view of the dynamic location and selected static location and at least one set of customized directions that connect the dynamic location to the static location based on data received from the mapping processor.
9. The system of claim 1 further comprises a privacy control component that manages access to and communication of the dynamic location.
10. The system of claim 1 is employed remotely or locally on at least one of the following computing devices: desktop, laptop, PDA, smart phone, mobile phone, mini laptop, or any other portable handheld device where a user interface and input means are limited.
11. A map generation method that facilitates automatically providing map related information for content with minimal user data input comprising:
automatically detecting a dynamic location; and
analyzing and correlating the dynamic location with respect to at least one static location to facilitate the generation of at least one customized map view of the static location with respect to the dynamic location.
12. The method of claim 11 further comprises accessing the content to find its static location.
13. The method of claim 12 further comprises selecting to view at least one map view of the content’s static location, wherein such selection triggers an automatic detection of the dynamic location.
14. The method of claim 12, wherein the dynamic location comprises a current location of the user and computing device that is accessing the content.
15. The method of claim 11, wherein detecting the dynamic location comprises employing at least one of the following to find a current location of a computing device: GPS, GSM, WiFi location identifier, and IP detection.
16. The method of claim 11 further comprises analyzing the dynamic location with respect to a plurality of static locations for the content; and selecting one static location that is most reachable from the dynamic location based at least in part on one of the following: distance, traffic conditions, time of day, user preferences, current weather conditions, and historical traffic patterns.
17. The method of claim 11 further comprises controlling automatic detection of the dynamic location in part by verifying a requisite permissions level.
18. The method of claim 11 further comprises automatically generating at least one of the following: at least one customized map view and at least one set of customized directions based on the dynamic location and at least one static location.
19. The method of claim 11 further comprises selecting one static location from a plurality of static locations that is most relevant to the dynamic location based in part on any one of the following: distance between the two locations, time of day, traffic conditions, weather conditions, and user preferences in order to facilitate generating at least one map view of the static location relative to the dynamic location.
20. A map generation system that facilitates automatically providing map related information for content with minimal user data input comprising:
means for automatically detecting a dynamic location; and
means for analyzing and correlating the dynamic location with respect to at least one static location to facilitate the generation of at least one customized map view of the static location with respect to the dynamic location.