Self-propelled cleaner with monitoring camera

• US 20050237189A1
• Filed: 04/11/2005
• Published: 10/27/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 04/15/2004
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Funai Electric Co., Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Funai Electric Co., Ltd.
• Inventors: Tani, Takao
• Application Number:
  US11/103,009
• Publication Number:
  US 20050237189A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/541
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 2201/04 Automatic control of the travelling movement; Automatic obstacle detection
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0242 using non-visible light signals, e.g. IR or UV signals
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0246 using a video camera in combination with image processing means
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0272 comprising means for registering the travel distance, e.g. revolutions of wheels measuring distance traversed on the ground by vehicles, e.g. using odometers G01C22/00
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0274 using mapping information stored in a memory device navigation using map-matching G01C21/30
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19697 Arrangements wherein non-video detectors generate an alarm themselves

Abstract

The prior arts have a problem that it is not precisely determined whether or not a human entering a room is an intruder, and consequently raising an alarm when there is a slightest possibility of an intruder, a malfunction may result, and raising an alarm only when there is a strong possibility of an intruder, a response to an intruder actually entered the room may be delayed. A self-propelled cleaner according to this invention is capable of executing a phased security, that is, turning on lights, flashing lights, making a loud sound, generating a go-away message, and generating a police report message upon detection of a human suspected of being an intruder, and takes an image of the room at each stage to transmit the resulting image to a family member away from the home, and determines whether or not the security level should be escalated according to an instruction from the family member

Claims

1. A self-propelled cleaner having a body equipped with a cleaning mechanism and a drive mechanism equipped with a plurality of drive wheels that are disposed on the left and right sides of said body and can be controlled to rotate individually to realize steering and driving said self-propelled cleaner, said body comprising:

a camera device capable of taking an image when so instructed and then outputting resultant image data;

a plurality of human sensors that are disposed on the sides of said body and detect a moving object emitting an infrared based on changes in the amount of receiving infrared;

a wireless transceiver that is equipped with a wireless LAN module, and capable of connecting to a wired LAN through a wireless LAN, communicating with the outside via said wired LAN and the Internet, transmitting predetermined data wirelessly to the outside, and receiving a plurality of instructions from the outside;

an infrared control signal transmitter capable of transmitting an infrared signal to control a plurality of electrical appliances in a room; and

a phased security execution control processor that, when intruder information is obtained from said human sensor, turns on one or plurality of lights in the room and takes an image of the room, transmits image data obtained from said camera device to the outside via said wireless transceiver, controls said electrical appliances in the room through said control signal transmitter based on a plurality of predetermined phased security instructions, responds to a plurality of instructions from the outside based on wireless communication with the outside via said wireless transceiver, and executes a plurality of security tasks step by step according to the plurality of said phased security instructions.

2. A self-propelled cleaner having a body equipped with a cleaning mechanism and a drive mechanism capable of steering and driving said self-propelled cleaner, further comprising:

a camera device capable of taking an image when so instructed and then outputting resultant image data;

a wireless transceiver capable of transmitting predetermined data to the outside and receiving a predetermined instruction from the outside;

a control signal transmitter to control a plurality of electrical appliances in a room;

an intruder information obtaining device to obtain intruder information; and

a phased security execution control processor that, based on a plurality of predetermined phased security instructions, when intruder information is obtained from said intruder information obtaining device, controls said plurality of electrical appliances, takes an image of the room with said camera device, communicate wirelessly with the outside through said wireless transceiver, and execute a plurality of security tasks step by step according to said plurality of phased security instructions in response to a plurality of instructions from the outside.

3. A self-propelled cleaner of claim 2, wherein:

said intruder information obtaining device is equipped with a human sensor that detects presence of a human within a predetermined range around said body; and

said phased security execution control processor controls said drive mechanism to travel on a predetermined route to realize an evacuation behavior, when a human is detected close to said self-propelled cleaner by said human sensor.

4. A self-propelled cleaner of claim 2, wherein:

said intruder information obtaining device is equipped with an acceleration sensor; and

said phased security execution control processor escalates a security level by more than one level at a time when a large acceleration indicating a shock is detected by said acceleration sensor.

5. A self-propelled cleaner of claim 2, wherein:

said control signal transmitter is equipped with an infrared signal transmitter that transmits an infrared signal to remote-control said electrical appliances; and

said phased security execution control processor controls said plurality of electrical appliances with said infrared signal.

6. A self-propelled cleaner of claim 5, wherein:

said phased security execution control processor takes an image of the room with said camera device after turning on the lights in the room with an infrared signal from said infrared signal transmitter and transmits the image data obtained from said camera device to the outside via said wireless transceiver.

7. A self-propelled cleaner of claim 6, wherein:

said phased security execution control processor responds to a plurality of instructions from the outside through wireless communications with the outside via said wireless transceiver, and transmits the image data obtained from said camera device to the outside via said wireless transceiver.

8. A self-propelled cleaner of claim 6, wherein:

said phased security execution control processor takes an image of the room periodically, and transmits the image data obtained from said camera device to the outside via said wireless transceiver.

9. A self-propelled cleaner of claim 5, wherein:

said phased security execution control processor intimidates an intruder by flashing the light in the room with an infrared signal from said infrared signal transmitter.

10. A self-propelled cleaner of claim 5, wherein:

said phased security execution control processor causes one of a plurality of audio apparatuses to make a sound with an infrared signal from said infrared signal transmitter.

11. A self-propelled cleaner of claim 2, wherein:

said wireless transmitter is equipped with a wireless LAN module and connected to a wired LAN through a wireless LAN, and communicates with the outside via said wired LAN.

12. A self-propelled cleaner of claim 2, wherein:

said control signal transmitter and said phased security execution control processor are equipped with an optional unit consisting of an infrared communication unit and an alarm generation device, and serves as a remote controller for the electrical appliance and lights in the room; and

said alarm generation device is equipped with a voice generation function and a speaker, and raises an alarm against an intruder.

13. A self-propelled cleaner of claim 2, wherein:

said phased security execution control processor determines whether or not there is a “

Step-up not allowed”

instruction based on whether a received E-mail includes a word “

Unnecessary”

or “

Step-up not allowed”

, when determining whether or not there is an instruction to step up security level within a specified period of time.

14. A self-propelled cleaner of claim 3, wherein:

it is determined whether or not said cleaner detected an human close to the cleaner, and if an human is detected close to the cleaner said drive mechanism is controlled based on evacuation behavior patterns.

15. A self-propelled cleaner of claim 14, wherein:

on the assumption that multiple human sensors react if an human approaches close to the cleaner if only the presence or absence of an object emitting an infrared, whether or not an human is close to the cleaner is determined based on the number of the human sensors that output detection results.

16. A self-propelled cleaner of claim 4, wherein

when said cleaner suffered a big shock, security level is jumped up to the final level, as the shock is considered as being caused by an attack by an intruder.

17. A self-propelled cleaner of claim 4, wherein

security level is escalated proportionally according to the intensity of a shock.

18. A self-propelled cleaner of claim 2, wherein:

security levels are predetermine and the level is escalated step by step according to the instruction from a family member, so that reduced malfunctions and improved reliability of the security can be achieved.