Integrated retroreflective electronic display

DETAILED DESCRIPTION To overcome the limitations in the prior art described above, and to overcome other limitations that will become apparent upon reading and understanding the present specification, the present invention provides an integrated retroreflective electronic license plate and an integrated retroreflective road sign that may be used in electronic vehicular identification and communication systems as well as in vehicle to roadside communication systems.
The integrated retroreflective electronic license plate has printed visual information for visual communication of information similar to the information on traditional license plates.
The printed visual information is printed on retroreflective sheeting, thereby improving the optical efficiency of locating and visually reading the information on the license plate.
To communicate information electromagnetically, an antenna network is integrated with the retroreflective visual portion of the electronic license plate.
Because traditional license plate retroreflective sheeting occludes radiation from antennas placed within prior art electronic license plates, the present invention discloses embodiments wherein retroreflective sheeting will not occlude the radiating elements of the antenna networks.
For example, different types of antennas may be used to avoid the continuous conductive reflective layer of the retroreflective sheeting, new types of retroreflective sheeting may be utilized that are not opaque to electromagnetic radiation, and the continuous conductive reflective layer of the retroreflective sheeting may be used as the ground plane for the antenna network.