Portable communication device alerting apparatus

• US 20060273895A1
• Filed: 06/07/2005
• Published: 12/07/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 06/07/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: RHK Technology, Inc.
• Original Assignee: RHK Technology, Inc.
• Inventors: Kollin, Adam
• Application Number:
  US11/146,746
• Publication Number:
  US 20060273895A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/539.170
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 1/08 using electric transmission ; transformation of alarm signals to electrical signals from a different medium, e.g. transmission of an electric alarm signal upon detection of an audible alarm signal
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/10 using wireless transmission systems G08B25/009 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 7/06 using electric transmission , e.g. involving audible and visible signalling through the use of sound and light sources

Abstract

A portable communication device alerting apparatus includes visual and/or audible and/or tactile indicators of the occurrence of remotely located events which are recognized by detectors which transmit a signal to receivers in a communication device base station or directly to a communication device. The receivers recognize the specific detector output and cause the communication device to generate visual, audible and/or tactile indicators identifying the specific detected event occurrence. The indicators on the communication device may include pre-stored audio streams mimicking the occurrence of an audio component of the detected event or the actual sounds of the event. The indicators may also be a sequence of discrete audible tones and/or tactile pulses and/or illuminatable lights on the communication device which alert the user of a detected event occurrence. The receivers can learn the identification of a receiver. The data communication link between each receiver and transmitter may be supervised or unsupervised.

Claims

1. An alerting apparatus comprising:

means for detecting the occurrence of at least one event;

means, responsive to the detecting means, for wirelessly transmitting a signal upon detection of the event occurrence;

means for receiving the transmitted signal; and

communication means, capable of receiving and transmitting telephone messages using wireless communication and responsive to the receiving means, for generating a recognizable indication of the occurrence of the event.

2. The alerting apparatus of claim 1 wherein the communication means comprises a portable communication means.

3. The alerting apparatus of claim 1 wherein the communication means comprises a portable telephone.

4. The alerting apparatus of claim 1 wherein:

the receiving means is coupled to the communication means.

5. The alerting apparatus of claim 1 wherein the communication means comprises:

a base station including the receiving means, the base station including means for wirelessly transmitting a signal associated with the received signal associated with an event occurrence to the communication means.

6. The alerting apparatus of claim 5 wherein the communication means comprises a telephone.

7. The alerting apparatus of claim 1 wherein the communication means further comprises:

means for generating the recognizable indication of the occurrence of an event in at least one of a visual, a tactile, and an audible indicator.

8. The alerting apparatus of claim 7 wherein the indicator comprises:

visual means, carried on the communication means, for visually indicating the occurrence of an event.

9. The alerting apparatus of claim 8 wherein the visual means is a light producing illumination means.

10. The alerting apparatus of claim 9 wherein the illumination means comprises a flashable strobe light.

11. The alerting apparatus of claim 9 wherein the illumination means comprises:

a discrete light generating means associated with each discrete detecting means.

12. The alerting apparatus of claim 8 wherein the visual means comprises:

an alphanumeric display carried on the communication means, the display generating pre-stored messages identifying the specific detecting means which detected an event occurrence.

13. The alerting apparatus of claim 7 wherein the audible indicator comprises:

a unique sequence of ring tones generated and audibly output by the communication means.

14. The alerting apparatus of claim 7 wherein the audible indicator comprises:

at least one pre-stored audible message identifying one detecting means.

15. The alerting apparatus of claim 7 wherein the audible indicator comprises:

audible tones mimicking an audio component of the discrete event detected by each detecting means.

16. The alerting apparatus of claim 7 further comprising:

the transmitting means and the receiving means capable of transmitting and receiving actual audio signals generated by the at least one event; and

the communication means, responsive to the receiving means, for generating an audible signal corresponding to the audio component of the at least one event.

17. The alerting apparatus of claim 1 wherein the communication means further comprises:

means for generating a recognizable tactile indication of the occurrence of an event.

18. The alerting apparatus of claim 17 wherein:

the tactile pulses are vibrations detectable by a user carrying the communication means.

19. The alerting apparatus of claim 1 wherein:

the detecting means includes means for detecting an audible sound associated with the occurrence of the at least one event.

20. The alerting apparatus of claim 1 further including:

means for providing a supervised data communication link between one transmitting means and one receiving means.

21. The alerting apparatus of claim 1 wherein the transmitting means further includes:

means for learning a transmitter ID so that only a signal from one transmitting means is accepted by one receiving means.