TRACKING COMPLIANCE OF PERSONAL PROTECTION ARTICLES

• US 20110115629A1
• Filed: 07/23/2008
• Published: 05/19/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 08/31/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: 3M Innovative Properties Company (3M Company)
• Original Assignee: 3M Innovative Properties Company (3M Company)
• Inventors: Thomas, Cristina U., Peters, Susan E., Holler, Robert E, Rakow, Neal A., Ptasienski, Lawrence J.
• Granted Patent: US 9,536,209 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/572.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063114 Status monitoring or status determination for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/26 Government or public services business processes related to the transportation industry G06Q50/40
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34

Abstract

Methods and systems for tracking compliance of personal protection (PP) articles in working environments. Tracking compliance includes providing at least one PP article configured with a smart tag; providing at least one predetermined criterion that governs compliance with respect to the at least one PP article in a particular working environment; tracking the PP article by retrieving smart tag data; and determining whether the smart tag data satisfies at least one predetermined criterion; and storing data relating to results of the determination.

Claims

1. A method for tracking compliance with respect to at least one personal protection article:

providing at least one personal protection article configured with a smart tag;

providing at least one predetermined criterion that governs compliance with respect to the at least one personal protection article in a particular working environment;

tracking the at least one personal protection article by retrieving smart tag data;

determining whether the smart tag data satisfies the at least one predetermined criterion; and

storing data relating to results of the determination.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating at least one report relative to at least one of the smart tag data or the data relating to results of the determination.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing at least one sensing device configured to sense data that is related to the at least one predetermined criterion;

acquiring sensed data from the at least one sensing device in the working environment; and

determining whether the sensed data and the smart tag data satisfy the at least one predetermined criterion.

4. The method of claim 3, further including generating at least one report relating to at least one of the sensed data, the smart tag data or the data relating to results of the determination.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the smart tag data includes data relating to at least one of:

usage, processing, location, and condition of an article of personal protection.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein the sensed data includes data relating to at least one of:

usage, processing, location, and condition of an article of personal protection.

7. The method of claim 1, further including generating at least one report on the real-time location of the smart tag in the working environment.

8. The method of claim 1, further including processing the personal protection article following a determination that the at least one predetermined criterion is not satisfied.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising generating at least one report relating to the subsequent processing of the personal protection article.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

acquiring individual data pertaining to a user of the personal protection article;

determining whether the individual data and the smart tag data satisfy the at least one predetermined criterion.

11. The method of claim 10, further including generating at least one report relating to the individual data.

12. The method of claim 3, further including generating at least one report based on which of the at least one predetermined criterion is adapted to be used based on sensed data from the working environment.

13. The method of claim 3, further comprising updating the at least one predetermined criterion based on the sensed data.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising generating at least one report based on the at least one updated predetermined criterion.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising communicating the results of the tracking compliance to a user of the personal protection article.

16. A system of determining if an article of personal protection satisfies at least one predetermined criterion, the system comprising:

at least one personal protection article configured with a smart tag;

a data processing system including at least one predetermined criterion that governs use of the at least one personal protection article;

a retrieval system for retrieving smart tag data from the at least one smart tag in the working environment;

the data processing system including a determining mechanism for processing the retrieved smart tag for determining whether the smart tag data satisfies the at least one predetermined criterion; and

, the data processing system including storage for storing data relating to results of the determination.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the data processing system further comprises a report generating mechanism for generating at least one report of the smart data or the data relating to the results of the determination.

18. The system of claim 17, further including at least one sensing device configured to sense data that is related to the at least one predetermined criterion;

the retrieval system acquires sensed data from the at least one sensing device in the working environment; and

the determining mechanism determines whether the sensed data and the smart tag data satisfy the at least one predetermined criterion.

19. The system of claim 18, further including the report generating mechanism for generating at least one report relating to at least one of the sensed data, the smart tag data or the data relating to results of the determination.

20. The system of claim 16, wherein the smart tag is operable for providing location information.