Self-locating remote monitoring systems
DCFirst Claim
1. A man-over-board alarm system, comprising:
- a remote unit including a navigational receiver for receiving navigational information defining a location of the remote unit, and a radio transmitter for transmitting the remote unit location;
a base station including a radio receiver for receiving the remote unit location;
the remote unit and the base station defining a separation distance between the remote unit and the base station;
the base station including measuring means for determining whether the separation distance exceeds a predetermined limit, and means responsive to the measuring means for giving an alarm and a display for displaying the remote unit location,whereby, a separation distance exceeding the predetermined limit causes a man-over-board alarm and the base station displays the location of the remote unit.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A self-locating remote monitoring system (750) includes a supervising base station (754) and one or more remote monitoring units (752). A remote unit (752) includes a navigational receiver (756) operating with an existing navigational system for providing a remote unit location (759) and includes a transmitter (758) for communicating the location (759) to the base station (754) for display (772). The remote unit (752) includes one or more physiological/environmental sensors (760) for monitoring at the remote location. In a specific embodiment a change in sensor status (761) results in the status and the location being transmitted to the base station (754). The base station (754) includes alarms (776) and displays (772) responsive to the change in status. One embodiment defines a man-over-board system (300) which combines water immersion (308) and distance (334) from the base station (318) to trigger an alarm (332) and begin location tracking (324). Another embodiment defines an invisible fence system (1020) which uses location (1035) and time (1039) to define boundaries for containment and exclusion. Another embodiment includes a weather surveillance radar receiver (1188) providing weather parameters (1189) within a weather region (1193) and defines a remote weather alarm system (1180). The weather alarm system (1180) uses the weather receiver (1188) to monitor weather within a defined region (1193) and to provide the base station (1184) with location (1187) and weather parameters (1199) if the parameters fall outside defined limits (1195).
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Citations
83 Claims
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1. A man-over-board alarm system, comprising:
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a remote unit including a navigational receiver for receiving navigational information defining a location of the remote unit, and a radio transmitter for transmitting the remote unit location; a base station including a radio receiver for receiving the remote unit location; the remote unit and the base station defining a separation distance between the remote unit and the base station; the base station including measuring means for determining whether the separation distance exceeds a predetermined limit, and means responsive to the measuring means for giving an alarm and a display for displaying the remote unit location, whereby, a separation distance exceeding the predetermined limit causes a man-over-board alarm and the base station displays the location of the remote unit. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. An invisible fence system for monitoring a movable subject, comprising:
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a remote unit including, a navigational receiver providing a remote unit location, means for providing time-of-day, and a radio transmitter; a base station including, receiving means defining a one-way communication link with the remote unit, and an alarm; the remote unit further including, a first memory for storing information defining a geographic region, a second memory storing information defining a predetermined positional status and a predetermined time interval, and further defining a curfew, and a circuit for comparing the remote unit location, the defined geographic zone, the predetermined positional status, the time-of-day and the curfew, and defining a positional and time status, and the circuit connected to the transmitter for communicating the positional and time status; the base station being responsive to the communicated positional and time status and defining a curfew violation, and the alarm being responsive to the curfew violation. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10)
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11. An invisible fence system, comprising:
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a remote unit including, a navigational receiver providing a remote unit location and a time-of-day, a radio transmitter connected for transmitting the remote unit location and the time-of-day; a radio receiver, alarm and enforcement means responsive to the radio receiver; a base station including, means for receiving the remote unit location and the time-of-day, a first memory storing information defining a geographical region, a second memory storing information defining a predetermined positional status and a time curfew, a circuit for comparing the remote unit location, the defined geographical region and the predetermined positional status, and the time-of-day and the time curfew and for providing a positional and curfew status, a control circuit responsive to the positional and curfew status and defining an enforcement command, and means for transmitting the enforcement command; and the remote unit alarm and enforcement means being responsive to the transmitted enforcement command. - View Dependent Claims (12)
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13. A personal alarm system, comprising:
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a remote unit including a navigational receiver for receiving navigational information, a demodulator for demodulating the receiver navigational information, timing circuits for providing precise time-of-day information, a manually operated switch, defining a panic button and having an output signal defining a switch status, operation of the panic button producing a change in the switch status, and a radio transmitter for transmitting the demodulated navigational information, the precise time-of-day information, and the switch status; a base station including a radio receiver for receiving the demodulated navigational information, the precise time-of-day information, and the switch status; the base station also including computational means connected for combining the received demodulated navigational information and the precise time-of-day information to determine a location of the remote unit, and a display for displaying the location of the remote unit; and the base station also including means for displaying the switch status and means responsive to a change in the switch status for giving an alarm, whereby, the remote unit location is displayed, and the alarm is responsive to the panic button.
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14. A personal alarm system, comprising:
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a remote unit including a navigational receiver for receiving navigational information defining a location of the remote unit, a manually operated switch defining a panic button and having an output signal defining a switch status, operation of the panic button producing a change in the switch status, and a radio transmitter for transmitting the remote unit location and the switch status; a base station including a radio receiver for receiving the remote unit location and the switch status; the base station also including a display for displaying the remote unit location and the switch status; and the base station also including means responsive to a change in the switch status for giving an alarm, whereby, the remote unit location is displayed and a change in the switch status produces an alarm.
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15. A personal alarm system, comprising:
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a remote unit including a navigational receiver for receiving navigational information defining a location of the remote unit, the navigational receiver having a low power standby mode and a normal operating mode, the remote unit also including a sensor for detecting a personal hazard, the sensor having an output signal and defining a sensor status, means responsive to the sensor output signal for causing the navigational receiver to switch from the standby mode to the normal operating mode when a hazard is detected, and a radio transmitter for transmitting the remote unit location and the sensor status; a base station including a radio receiver for receiving the remote unit location and the sensor status; the base station also including a display for displaying the remote unit location and the sensor status; and the base station also including means responsive to a change in the sensor status for giving an alarm, whereby, the remote unit location is displayed and a change in the sensor status produces an alarm.
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16. A personal alarm system, comprising:
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a remote unit including radio transmitting means, radio receiving means, at least one sensor means for detecting a personal hazard, the remote unit transmitting means responsive for communicating a detected hazard; the remote unit transmitting means being able to transmit at more than one power level and defining a higher power level, and the remote unit including means for enabling transmission at the higher power level when a personal hazard is detected; a base station including radio transmitting means and radio receiving means; the remote unit and the base station defining a two-way radio communication link, and also defining a separation distance between the remote unit and the base station; measuring means for determining whether the separation distance exceeds a predetermined limit; means responsive to the measuring means for causing the remote unit to transmit at the higher power level when the separation distance exceeds the limit; and alarm means for indicating when the separation distance exceeds the limit, and for indicating when a personal hazard is detected.
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17. A personal alarm system, comprising:
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a remote unit including radio transmitting means and radio receiving means; the remote unit transmitting means being able to transmit at more than one power level and defining a plurality of transmitting power levels; a base station including radio transmitting means and radio receiving means. the remote unit and the base station defining a two-way radio communication link, and the remote unit radio receiving means defining a received signal strength; the remote unit including control means responsive to the received signal strength for causing the remote unit to transmit at a power level selected by a predetermined power-level function of the received signal strength; the remote unit including at least one sensor means for detecting a personal hazard, and means for communicating the detected hazard to the base station; and the remote unit including means for communicating an alarm function of the received signal strength, and the base station including means responsive to the communicating for giving an alarm. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19)
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20. A personal alarm system, comprising:
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a remote unit including a transmitter and a receiver, the remote unit transmitter being capable of transmitting at more than one power level and defining a plurality of power levels, a base station including a transmitter and a receiver, and defining a two-way communications link with the remote unit, the base station receiver defining a received signal strength, the base station transmitting a command responsive to the received signal strength, the remote unit including a control circuit responsive to a received command for selecting the transmission power level, the remote unit including a sensor for detecting a hazard, the sensor defining a sensor status, and the remote unit transmitter connected for communicating the status, the base station including an alarm responsive to the communicated status for giving an alarm when a hazard is detected. - View Dependent Claims (21)
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22. A weather alarm system, comprising:
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a remote unit including, a navigational receiver providing a remote unit location, a weather surveillance radar receiver providing weather parameters within a predetermined weather region, and identifying the weather region, a first memory storing information defining a geographical zone relative to the remote unit location, a circuit combining the remote unit location and the geographical zone to define a local weather zone, a second memory storing information defining at least one weather parameter threshold, means for determining that the local weather zone is within the identified weather region, and that a received weather parameter exceeds the at least one weather parameter threshold, a transmitter connected to communicate the result of the determination; and a base station including means responsive to the communication for giving an alarm and for displaying the result of the determination. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24, 25, 26, 27)
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28. A personal alarm system remote unit, comprising:
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a radio transmitter and radio receiver for providing a two-way radio communication link; a navigational receiver for providing a location of the remote unit; a manually operated switch defining a pair of electrical contacts for providing an output signal; the radio transmitter connected for transmitting the remote unit location and the switch output signal; and a microphone and speaker connected with the radio transmitter and receiver for providing a two-way voice channel via the two-way radio communication link. - View Dependent Claims (29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36)
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37. A remote unit, comprising:
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a communications transmitter a circuit for providing a first variable having a value; a circuit for determining whether a predetermined change in the value of the first variable has occurred; a circuit for providing a second variable having a value; and the communications transmitter connected for transmitting the value of the second variable and the value of a function of the first variable when the predetermined change in the value of the first variable has occurred. - View Dependent Claims (38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81)
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82. A remote unit, comprising:
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a communications transmitter; a circuit for providing a first variable having a value; a circuit for determining whether a predetermined change in the value of the first variable has occurred; the communications transmitter connected for transmitting the value of the first variable when the predetermined change in the value of the first variable has occurred; and a communications receiver.
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83. A remote monitoring system, comprising:
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a remote unit including, a communications transmitter, a circuit for providing a first variable having a value, a circuit for determining whether a predetermined change in the value of the first variable has occurred, the communications transmitter connected for transmitting the value of the first variable when the predetermined change in the value of the first variable has occurred, and a communications receiver; and a base station including, a communications transmitter, a communications receiver defining a two-way communications link with the remote unit, and the base station including alarm and display means responsive to a received value of the first variable.
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Specification