Monitoring and Notification Apparatus

• US 20090146803A1
• Filed: 12/07/2007
• Published: 06/11/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/07/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Sellen, Abigail, Williamson, John, Frohlich, David, Rumsey, Francis, Lindley, Sian, Oleksik, Gerard, Brown, Lorna, Robson, Dominic, Durrant, Abigail
• Granted Patent: US 7,671,737 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/539.100
• 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

Abstract

The disclosure relates to monitoring and notification apparatus capable of monitoring events at various locations. The apparatus includes a sound receiving unit which receives audio content from various locations. A user can select which of the location is monitored at any one time. In one embodiment, this selection is made depending on the orientation of the sound receiving unit.

Claims

1. Monitoring apparatus comprising:

(i) a plurality of microphones capable of detecting sound and of transmitting a sound data signal representing the detected sound;

(ii) a sound receiving unit comprising a receiving module capable of receiving the sound data signal from the plurality of microphones, a speaker capable of playing sound represented by the data signal received by the receiving module, an orientation sensor capable of determining the orientation of at least a part of the sound receiving unit, and processing circuitry capable of selecting from which microphone sound is played back according to the orientation determined by the orientation sensor.

2. Monitoring apparatus according to claim 1 in which the sound receiving unit is a polyhedron comprising a plurality of faces and the orientation sensor is arranged to determine which of the faces is uppermost.

3. Monitoring apparatus according to claim 2 in which each microphone is associated with a face.

4. Monitoring apparatus according to claim 3 each face which is associated with a microphone displays an image which is associated with the location of the associated microphone.

5. Monitoring apparatus according to claim 3 in which each face of the unit is associated with a microphone.

6. Monitoring apparatus according to claim 3 in which at least one of the faces of the unit is not associated with a microphone.

7. Monitoring apparatus according to claim 6 in which the processing circuitry is arranged such that no sound is played if the orientation sensor determines that a face which is not associated with a microphone is uppermost.

8. Monitoring apparatus according to claim 2 in which the polyhedron is a cube.

9. Monitoring apparatus according to claim 1 which comprises at least one display device arranged to display from which microphone sound is being played.

10. Monitoring apparatus according to claim 9 in which the or each display device is configurable.

11. Monitoring apparatus according to claim 10 in which the or each display device is adapted to receive an adhesive label.

12. Monitoring apparatus according to claim 10 in which the or each display device is adapted to be written or drawn upon.

13. Monitoring apparatus according to claim 1 in which the sound receiving unit is portable.

14. Monitoring apparatus according to claim 1 in which the microphones are repositionable by a user.

15. Monitoring apparatus according to claim 1 in which the microphones and the sound receiving unit communicate via a wireless link.

16. A method of monitoring one of a plurality of remote events comprising:

(i) arranging a plurality of microphones at the location of each event to be monitored,

(ii) causing each the microphone to stream audio content received at that location to a sound receiving device,

(iii) determining the orientation of the sound receiving device,

(iv) selecting one of the remote events to monitor according to the orientation of the sound receiving device,

(v) identifying the audio content received at the location of that event,

(vi) causing the sound receiving device to play the audio content received from that location.

17. A method of monitoring one of a plurality of remote events according to claim 16 which comprises selecting another of the remote events to monitor on determination of a reorientation of the receiving device.

18. A method of monitoring one of a plurality of remote events according to claim 16 in which the audio content is streamed at a characteristic radio frequency and in which the step of identifying the audio content comprises identifying the radio frequency at which the selected microphone is transmitting.

19. Monitoring apparatus comprising:

(i) a plurality of microphones capable of transmitting sound data;

(ii) a sound receiving unit comprising a receiving module capable of receiving sound data from each of the plurality of microphones, a speaker capable of playing sound represented by the sound data received by the receiving module, a display device displaying a representation associated with a location at which a predetermined one of the microphones is located and processing circuitry arranged to play the sound received from the microphone at the location of which a representation is displayed on the display device.

20. Monitoring apparatus according to claim 19 which is arranged to display a different representation depending on the orientation of the sound receiving unit.