SECURITY SYSTEM FOR A BUILDING

• US 20120001754A1
• Filed: 06/30/2011
• Published: 01/05/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mark Kraus, Paul Toenjes
• Original Assignee: Mark Kraus, Paul Toenjes
• Inventors: Kraus, Mark, Toenjes, Paul
• Granted Patent: US 9,111,430 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/540
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19697 Arrangements wherein non-video detectors generate an alarm themselves
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/004 Alarm propagated along alternative communication path or using alternative communication medium according to a hierarchy of available ways to communicate, e.g. if Wi-Fi not available use GSM
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/005 Alarm destination chosen according to a hierarchy of available destinations, e.g. if hospital does not answer send to police station
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/12 Manually actuated calamity alarm transmitting arrangements emergency non-personal manually actuated alarm, activators, e.g. details of alarm push buttons mounted on an infrastructure

Abstract

A method of operating a security system (20) including a plurality of sensors (30) and cameras (34). The security system (20) includes a monitoring device (24) and a monitoring database (32), at least one of which stores a plurality of contacts and notification methods for contacting the contacts. When one of the sensors (30) or cameras (34) detects an emergency condition, one of the monitoring device (24) or monitoring database (32) automatically sends a notification message to one of the contacts. If the contact rejects the notification message or does not respond, then the monitoring device (24) or monitoring database (32) automatically sends the notification message to the same contact through a different notification method or to a different contact.

Claims

1. A method of operating a security system (20) comprising the steps of:

establishing at least one contact and a first notification method for contacting the contact,

establishing an emergency condition,

automatically sending a notification message to the contact via the first notification method in response to an emergency condition being established, receiving a response from the contact as one of accepted and rejected and unresponsive,

and characterized by

automatically sending the notification message to at least one of the same contact through a different notification method than the first notification method and to a different contact until one of the contacts accepts the notification message.

2. The method as set forth in claim 1 further including the step of arranging the notification methods into a hierarchy with the first notification method being at the top of the hierarchy.

3. The method as set forth in claim 2 further including the step of changing the hierarchy of notification methods according to the time of the day.

4. The method as set forth in claim 2 further including the step of changing the hierarchy of notification methods according to the day of the week.

5. The method as set forth in claim 2 further including the step of changing the hierarchy of notification methods according to the location of the building (22) that the emergency condition took place in.

6. The method as set forth in claim 2 further including the step of changing the hierarchy of notification methods according to the type of emergency condition.

7. The method as set forth in claim 1 wherein the monitoring database (32) includes a panic button (28) and wherein the step of establishing an emergency condition is further defined as establishing an emergency condition in response to the panic button (28) being depressed.

8. The method as set forth in claim 1 further including the step of sensing a condition of building (22) with a sensor (30) and generating a sensor (30) signal associated with the condition,

9. The method as set forth in claim 8 further including the step of comparing the sensor (30) signal with a predetermined emergency value.

10. The method as set forth in claim 9 wherein the step of establishing an emergency condition is further defined as establishing an emergency condition in response to the sensor (30) signal exceeding the predetermined emergency value.

11. The method as set forth in claim 8 further including the step of establishing an internet (26) protocol (IP) address for the monitoring device (24) to connect the monitoring device (24) to the Internet (26).

12. The method as set forth in claim 11 further including the steps of providing a monitoring database (32) and establishing an internet (26) protocol (IP) address for the monitoring database (32) to connect the monitoring database (32) to the Internet (26) and establishing communication between the monitoring device (24) and the monitoring database (32).

13. The method as set forth in claim 12 further including the steps of providing a camera (34) in the building (22) and capturing a video of the building (22) with the camera (34) and generating a video signal with the camera (34).

14. The method as set forth in claim 13 further including the step of sending the sensor (30) and video signals from the monitoring device (24) to the monitoring database (32) via the Internet (26).

15. The method as set forth in claim 14 further including the step of storing the sensor (30) and video signals on the monitoring database (32).

16. The method as set forth in claim 11 further including the steps of providing a user device (36) and establishing an internet (26) protocol (IP) address for the user device (36) to connect the user device (36) to the Internet (26).

17. The method as set forth in claim 16 further including the step of establishing communication between the user device (36) and the monitoring device (24) over the Internet (26).

18. The method as set forth in claim 17 further including the step of sending the sensor (30) and video signals from the monitoring device (24) to the user device (36).

19. The method as set forth in claim 18 wherein the user device (36) is one of the contacts.

20. A method of operating a security system (20) including a plurality of sensors (30) and a plurality of cameras (34) and a user device (36) and a monitoring database (32) and a monitoring device (24) having a panic button (28) comprising the steps of:

establishing an internet (26) protocol (IP) address for the monitoring device (24) to connect the monitoring device (24) to the Internet (26),

connecting the monitoring device (24) to the public switched telephone network (PSTN),

establishing an internet (26) protocol (IP) address for the user device (36) to connect the user device (36) to the Internet (26),

establishing an internet (26) protocol (IP) address for the monitoring database (32) to connect the monitoring database (32) to the Internet (26),

connecting the monitoring database (32) to the PSTN,

establishing communication over the Internet (26) between the monitoring database (32) and the monitoring device (24),

establishing a plurality of contacts and notification methods for contacting the contacts,

arranging the notification methods into a hierarchy including a first notification method at the top of the hierarchy,

sensing a condition of the building (22) with each of the sensors (30) and generating a sensor (30) signal associate with the condition,

sending the sensor (30) signals from the sensors (30) to the monitoring device (24),

capturing a video of the building (22) with each of the cameras (34) and generating a video signal,

sending the video signals from the cameras (34) to the monitoring device (24),

sending the sensor (30) and video signals from the monitoring device (24) to the monitoring database (32) via the Internet (26),

storing the sensor (30) and video signals on one of the monitoring device (24) and the monitoring database (32),

comparing each of the sensor (30) signals to a predetermined emergency value,

establishing an emergency condition with one of the monitoring device (24) and the monitoring database (32) in response to one of the sensor (30) signals exceeding the predetermined emergency value and in response to the panic button (28) on the monitoring device (24) being depressed,

automatically sending a notification message from one of the monitoring device (24) and the monitoring database (32) to the user device (36) in response to an emergency condition being established,

receiving a response with one of the monitoring device (24) and the monitoring database (32) from the user device (36) as one of accepted and rejected and unresponsive,

automatically establishing communication between the user device (36) and one of the monitoring device (24) and the monitoring database (32) in response to one of the monitoring device (24) and the monitoring database (32) receiving an accepted response from the user device (36),

automatically sending the sensor (30) signals and the video signals from one of the monitoring device (24) and the monitoring database (32) to the user device (36),

and characterized by

changing the hierarchy of notification methods according to the time of the day and the day of the week and the location of the building (22) that the emergency condition took place in and the type of emergency condition,

automatically sending the notification message from one of the monitoring device (24) and the monitoring database (32) to one of the contacts via the first notification method at the top of the hierarchy in response to an emergency condition being established,

receiving a response with the one of the monitoring device (24) and the monitoring database (32) from the contact as one of accepted and rejected and unresponsive, and

automatically sending the notification message to at least one of the same contact through a different notification method than the first notification method and to a different contact according to the hierarchy until one of the monitoring device (24) and the monitoring database (32) receives an accepted response from one of the contacts.