System and Method of Telephone Input for Alarm Events

• US 20090296897A1
• Filed: 05/29/2008
• Published: 12/03/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 05/29/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Original Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Inventors: Pearson, Charles, Leach, Jonathan W.
• Granted Patent: US 9,319,533 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/39
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/012 using recorded signals, e.g. speech G08B25/08 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/08 using communication transmission lines G08B13/19658, G08B21/0286, G08B25/016 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 11/04 with alarm systems, e.g. fire, police or burglar alarm systems

Abstract

An interface between a telephone-type communications system and a regional ambient condition monitoring system receives incoming verbal status information relative to the region. That information can be transferred to the monitoring system. Verbal messages can be fed back to the communications systems to provide information as to responding to conditions in the region being monitored.

Claims

1. A monitoring system comprising:

a condition monitoring control unit;

a plurality of ambient condition detectors and a plurality of output devices coupled to the unit; and

a communications interface coupled to the unit, the interface having at least one input port for receipt of incoming voice communications and, reply circuitry, responsive thereto, for emitting an automatically produced verbal reply.

2. A system as in claim 1 where the interface includes speech recognition circuitry.

3. A system as in claim 1 which includes circuitry to transfer selected indicia to the monitoring unit.

4. A system as in claim 1 where the interface includes circuitry coupled to the port that responds to at least one of wired or wireless telephone-type communications.

5. A system as in claim 4 where the interface includes additional circuitry which evaluates a received communication, and responsive thereto, determines if a representation of the communication should be transferred to the monitoring unit.

6. A system as in claim 5 where the monitoring unit includes circuitry responsive to a transferred representation.

7. A system as in claim 5 where the additional circuitry evaluates the communication to determine if it is from an authorized source.

8. A system as in claim 7 where, responsive to a determination that the communication is from an authorized source, the interface circuitry requests entry of a condition specifying indicium.

9. A system as in claim 8 where, responsive to receipt of the indicium, the interface transfers a representation to the control unit.

10. A system as in claim 9 which includes a regional announcement system, coupled to the unit, with the unit including circuitry to broadcast audio announcements from the announcement system.

11. An interface comprising:

telephone system interface circuits;

monitoring system interface circuits;

control circuits coupled to both interface circuits, and responsive to incoming telephone-type voice communications including communications evaluation circuitry; and

speech production circuitry to verbally request entry of a condition specifying indicator.

12. An interface as in claim 11 which includes additional circuits to transfer at least one of source identification information, or, condition specifying information to the monitoring system interface circuits.

13. An interface as in claim 11 where the control circuits include circuits for coding and decoding speech signals.

14. An interface as in claim 11 which includes executable software, to evaluate at least in part, incoming speech.

15. An interface as in claim 11 which includes executable software to produce verbally a request to enter a condition specifying indicator via the telephone system interface circuits.

16. A method comprising:

monitoring status of a telephone-type communications system;

if the system is in a selected state, await an incoming communication;

evaluating a source of the communication, and, if acceptable, requesting entry of a condition specifying indicator; and

forwarding information specifying the indicator to a regional monitoring system.

17. A method as in claim 16 which includes emitting a selected warning indicator if the system does not exhibit the selected state.

18. A method as in claim 17 where requesting includes generating a verbal request.

19. A method as in claim 18 which includes transmitting the generated verbal request in real-time to the source.

20. A method as in claim 19 where forwarding includes forwarding an indicator of a response from the source.