Facilities management system

• US 20050078006A1
• Filed: 11/20/2002
• Published: 04/14/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 11/20/2001
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Hutchins J. Marc, Nicholas D. Hutchins
• Original Assignee: Hutchins J. Marc, Nicholas D. Hutchins
• Inventors: Hutchins, Nicholas D, Hutchins, J. Marc
• Application Number:
  US10/495,480
• Publication Number:
  US 20050078006A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/561
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/28 the pass enabling tracking or indicating presence
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/2454 Checking of authorisation of a person accessing tagged items in an EAS system

Abstract

A system is described for management of an operations area. The management system includes a central processing component with one or more central processors. An active monitoring system component is connected to the central processor. The active monitoring system includes tags and readers for individual identification of one or more tagged entities. The active monitoring system component is arrayed to create a management zone. The tags and readers are linked to the central processing component such that information from the tags and readers is received and analyzed by the central processing component. A passive monitoring system component is connected to the central processor. The passive monitoring system identifies non-tagged entities entering the management zone and additional information is communicated to the central processing component for analysis.

Claims

1. A system for management of an operations area, said management system comprising:

a monitoring system including an active monitoring system component including tags and readers for individual identification of one or more tagged entities, said active monitoring system component arrayed to create said operations area and a passive monitoring system component by which non-tagged entities entering said operations area may be identified and additional information communicated to said central processing component for analysis; and

a central processing component including one or more central processors being in operative communication with said active monitoring system component said passive monitoring system component such that information from said active monitoring system component and said passive monitoring system component may be received and analyzed by said central processing component.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein said operations area includes a plurality of surveillance rings.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein said operations area includes a plurality of nested surveillance rings.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein said operations area includes a surveillance path.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein said operations area includes a plurality of surveillance paths.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein said readers include read/write capability.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein said tagged entities include one or more of personnel, vehicles, equipment and documents.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein said non-tagged entities include one or more of personnel, vehicles, equipment and documents.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein said readers are encapsulated.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein said tags are RFID tags.

11. The system of claim 1 wherein said tags include RFID tags and readers.

12. The system of claim 1 wherein said tags are encapsulated into a weather resistant enclosure.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein said enclosure is sufficiently robust enough to be placed into a road and survive being contacted by vehicles.

14. The system of claim 12 wherein said tags are encapsulated by one of injection molding, extrusion or casting

15. The system of claim 1 wherein said readers are capable of detecting and reporting on one or more of radiological, chemical, biological, proximity, weight, light, electronic, magnetic, and sound properties and tagged signal, video, infra red, and ultra violet video.

16. The system of claim 15 wherein said readers function as an emitter.

17. The system of claim 1 wherein said readers communicate with said passive monitoring system component and function to identify one or more of non-tagged entities.

18. The system of claim 1 wherein said readers function to detect one or more of radiological, chemical, biological, proximity, weight, light, electronic emissions, magnetic, low sound frequency, medium sound frequency, ultrasonic sound frequency, tagged signal, video, infrared, and ultra violet video properties.

19. The system of claim 1 wherein said computer component performs a comparison between said tags and said readers to detect one or more of people, vehicles, animals, items, radiological, chemical, biological, proximity, weight, light, electronic, magnetic, sound, tagged signal, video, infra red or ultra violet video.

20. The system of claim 1 wherein said passive monitoring system includes an electromagnetic emitter which is emitted to form a barrier, said barrier, when broken causes an alert.

21. The system of claim 1 wherein said active monitoring system component and said passive monitoring system component is arranged so as to present hidden gates to define a highly secure management zone within said operations area.

22. The system of claim 21 wherein said highly secure management zone can only be entered from a predetermined direction by authorized personnel.

23. The system of claim 1 wherein said system includes a mechanism to track time of a tagged entity traveling from a first reader to a second reader.

24. The system of claim 1 wherein said tags include a mechanism to identify other tags and report and store information related to the other tags.

25. The system of claim 1 wherein said central processing component includes a mechanism to determine the position of a sensed tag.

26. The system of claim 1 wherein said system is connected through one or more of an Internet or an intranet, by wireless, LAN/WAN, cable, satellite, power line, global positioning system, microwave, low frequency or ultra sonics.

27. The system of claim 1 wherein two or more said systems are interlinked through one or more of an Internet or an intranet, by wireless, LAN/WAN, cable, satellite, power line, global positioning system.

28. The system of claim 1 wherein said readers may be sequenced and act as a switch to turn on a different reader.

29. The system of claim 1 wherein said readers include a RFID antenna that is omni-directional.

30. The system of claim 1 wherein said readers include a RFID antenna that suppresses signals from at least one direction.

31. The system of claim 1 including a plurality of tags deployed onto key components of a vehicle.

32. The system of claim 31 wherein each of said plurality of tags is continuously updated as to the status of the key component.

33. The system of claim 1 wherein communication within said system is encoded.

34. The system of claim 1 wherein said operations area defines one or more boundary.

35. A method of operating a system for management of an operations area comprising:

deploying a monitoring system including an active monitoring system component for individual identification of one or more tagged entities and a passive monitoring system component for identification of one or more non-tagged entities;

providing the tagged entities with tags;

arraying the active monitoring system component to define an operations area;

arraying the passive monitoring system component to monitor the operations area in coordination with the active monitoring area; and

monitoring information from the monitoring system.

36. The method of claim 35 further comprising:

providing a central processing component for said monitoring of the information.

37. The method of claim 35 further comprising:

tracking non-tagged entities with the passive monitoring system component.

38. The method of claim 36 wherein information from the active monitoring system is compared to information from the passive monitoring system by the central processing component and an alarm is triggered when a predetermined condition results from said comparison.