Infant monitoring and identification apparatus
First Claim
1. Infant monitoring and identification apparatus comprising an infant station having attachment means enabling secure attachment thereof to the body of an infant and a separate cooperating mother station having attachment means enabling secure attachment thereof to the body of an adult, each station having communication means enabling wireless communication of identification data directly between them, recognition means in at least one of the infant and mother stations for recognizing the identification data transmitted by the other of such stations and indicator means for indicating that recognition of the data has taken place, the identification data being substantially unique to a particular mother station and associated infant station or stations so as to result in positive identification to the mother station of such infant station.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
A system and component parts thereof are provided for monitoring a controlled area in a maternity or other healthcare facility. Access-ways to and from the controlled area are each provided with an access-way monitoring station and all infants and mothers subject to monitoring are provided with an infant mother station of a cooperant pair thereof. Each of the infant and mother rations has attachment means enabling secure attachment thereof to the body of the infant or mother. All stations have communication means enabling wireless communication of identification data directly between them. The infant and mother stations recognize unique identification data transmitted by one to the other of such stations, and indicator means such as an LED indicate that recognition of the unique identification data has taken place so as to result in positive identification to the mother station of the associated infant station. The access-way monitoring stations repeatedly interrogate all infant stations within a short range and check that the corresponding mother station is also present within that range. If not, an alarm is given.
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Citations
13 Claims
- 1. Infant monitoring and identification apparatus comprising an infant station having attachment means enabling secure attachment thereof to the body of an infant and a separate cooperating mother station having attachment means enabling secure attachment thereof to the body of an adult, each station having communication means enabling wireless communication of identification data directly between them, recognition means in at least one of the infant and mother stations for recognizing the identification data transmitted by the other of such stations and indicator means for indicating that recognition of the data has taken place, the identification data being substantially unique to a particular mother station and associated infant station or stations so as to result in positive identification to the mother station of such infant station.
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9. An access-way monitoring station having transmitter and receiver means for communication with infant and mother stations as defined above over a limited range which extends over at last the extent of an access-way to and from a controlled area, the transmitter means being operative to transmit repeated messages receivable by all infant stations within said range, the infant stations being programmed to identify such messages received as originating from an access-way monitoring station and to respond by transmitting a message embodying its unique identification data and wherein the receiver means is adapted to receive said infant station identifying messages from all infant stations within said limited range;
- the transmitter means being operative to thereafter send a message to each mother station associated with any responding infant station to trigger the mother station to respond by transmitting its unique identification data if it is also within said limited range, and alarm means for giving an alarm in the event of the infant and mother stations not being both within said range at the same time.
- View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12)
Specification