Voice recorder based position registration

• US 20100052903A1
• Filed: 09/03/2008
• Published: 03/04/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/03/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: UTC Fire & Security Corporation (Raytheon Technologies Corporation d/b/a RTX)
• Original Assignee: UTC Fire & Security Corporation (Raytheon Technologies Corporation d/b/a RTX)
• Inventors: Netter, Christian M., Gillis, Thomas M., Tiwari, Ankit, Bacellar, Luiz Fer, Oh, Jae-Hyuk
• Granted Patent: US 8,013,737 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/541
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/003 Address allocation methods and details
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/012 using recorded signals, e.g. speech G08B25/08 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 19/00 Speech or audio signals analysis-synthesis techniques for redundancy reduction, e.g. in vocoders; Coding or decoding of speech or audio signals, using source filter models or psychoacoustic analysis in musical instruments G10H

Abstract

A system and method for monitoring a location having at least one sensor for sensing a change in at least one condition using voice tags to announce alarms. The system includes a registration process where a voice recorder and a digital conversion unit form digital voice tags from recorded speech representing the type and location of sensors. The voice tag is sent as part of an alarm message or pre-stored in a control panel for later retrieval such that the type and location of an alarm is reproduced vocally at the time of the alarm. The registration process may be completed with a registration module which may be a keypad or the voice recorder may be included in the sensors. Additional features include sensor location change notification to ensure the stored voice tag represents the current location of the sensor.

Claims

1. A monitoring system comprising:

at least one sensor for sensing a change in at least one condition, the sensor having a unique identification number (ID) and being capable of raising an alarm;

a registration module including a voice recorder for recording a verbal description of the location of the sensor;

a voice to digital conversion unit associated with the voice recorder for creating a voice tag from the verbal description recorded on the voice recorder, the registration module being adapted to send a registration message including the voice tag and the ID associated with the sensor; and

a control panel for receiving the registration message, storing the voice tag and ID, and recalling the ID when the sensor associated with the ID raises the alarm.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the registration message further comprises a group number.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the ID is pre-stored in the sensor.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the condition is selected from the group consisting of motion, smoke, heat, carbon monoxide, water, water vapor, door integrity, window integrity, audio changes, video changes, lock integrity, and location change.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the system includes a speaker for reproducing the voice tag.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the control panel or the registration module includes a speech to text converter for storing a text representation of the voice tag.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the control panel is capable of sending a signal to a remote interface.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the remote interface includes at least one from the following list:

a user web GUI, an email, a central monitoring station, and a mobile phone.

9. The system of claim 4, wherein the sensor, in response to a detected location change, produces a signal indicating that the voice tag associated with the sensor must be updated.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the voice recorder is connected to the sensor over a wired link.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the voice recorder is connected to the sensor over a wireless link.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the alarm includes the message including the voice tag recalled from the storage.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the control panel includes storage and the transmitter sends the message with the voice tag recorded by the voice recorder to the control panel which stores the message in the storage.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the sensor further comprises a unique identification number (ID) and the message includes the ID;

and wherein the control panel associates the voice tag with the ID.

15. A method comprising:

installing a sensor for sensing a change in at least one condition at a location;

recording words spoken describing the location of the sensor;

converting the recorded words to a voice tag using a voice to digital conversion unit; and

storing the voice tag.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the method further comprises first testing network signal strength of the location.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the method further comprises testing the sensor over the network after installing the sensor.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein the condition is selected from the group consisting of motion, smoke, heat, carbon monoxide, water, water vapor, door integrity, window integrity, audio changes, video changes and lock integrity.

19. The method of claim 15, wherein the sensor stores the voice tag.

20. The method of claim 15, wherein storing the voice tag includes the sensor sending the message over the network to a module capable of storing voice.