Antitheft system

• US 6,531,961 B2
• Filed: 04/02/2001
• Issued: 03/11/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Patrenella Capital Ltd LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: Sanyo Electric Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation), Sanyo Tuner Industries Co. Ltd. (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Matsudaira, Shinji
• Primary Examiner(s): MULLEN, THOMAS J
• Application Number:
  US09/822,416
• Publication Number:
  US 20010038331A1
• Time in Patent Office: 708 Days
• Field of Search: 340/571, 340/693.3, 340/568.8, 340/568.1
• US Class Current: 340/571
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/2482 EAS methods, e.g. description of flow chart of the detection procedure
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/2488 Timing issues, e.g. synchronising measures to avoid signal collision, with multiple emitters or a single emitter and receiver

Abstract

The invention provides an antitheft system comprising an alarm unit 1 attachable to a commodity, and an antitheft gate 2 installed in the vicinity of an exit of a store and having incorporated therein a transmitting circuit for producing an alarm activating signal for the alarm unit 1. The alarm unit 1 comprising a buzzer 1, receiving antenna 15 and control circuit 18. The control circuit 18 comprises an interrupt detecting circuit 18b alternatively settable in an interrupt permitting mode wherein the signal received by the antenna 15 is permitted to pass through the circuit 18b or an interrupt prohibiting mode wherein the received signal is prevented from passing therethrough, and a CPU 18a for judging whether the received signal input from the interrupt detecting circuit 18b is the alarm activating signal. The CPU 18a activates the buzzer 11 when the received signal is the alarm activating signal, while setting the detecting circuit 18b in the interrupt prohibiting mode for a predetermined period of time when the received signal is not the alarm activating signal. This suppresses shortening of the life of battery due to useless power consumption of the alarm unit 1.

Claims

1. An antitheft system comprising an alarm unit attachable to an article to be protected from theft, and a signal transmitter for transmitting an alarm activating signal to the alarm unit, the alarm unit comprising:

receiving means for receiving signals from outside,

alarm means for producing an alarm in response to an alarming command,

nullifying means operable in response to a nullifying command to nullify the signal received by the receiving means for a predetermined period of time subsequent to the reception of the nullifying command, and

control means operable upon reception of the received signal from the receiving means to judge whether the received signal is the alarm activating signal, and give the alarming command to the alarm means when the signal is the alarm activating signal or give the nullifying command to the nullifying means when the signal is not the alarm activating signal.

2. An antitheft system according to claim 1 wherein the nullifying means of the alarm unit comprises a gate circuit interposed between the receiving means and the control means and operable in response to the nullifying command to prevent the signal received by the receiving means from passing through the gate circuit for a predetermined period of time subsequent to the reception of the nullifying command.

3. An antitheft system according to claim 1 wherein the alarm unit comprises signal processing means capable of processing as specified the signal received by the receiving means and feeding the processed signal to the control means while being supplied with electric power, and power source means for supplying electric power to the signal processing means, and the nullifying means comprises a deenergizing circuit operable in response to the nullifying command to cease the supply of electric power from the power source means to the signal processing means for a predetermined period of time subsequent to the reception of the nullifying command.

4. An antitheft system according to claim 1 wherein the control means of the alarm unit judges whether the received signal is the alarm activating signal in response to a clock signal supplied from outside, and the alarm unit further comprises clock supply means for supplying the clock signal to the control means, and a clock halting control means for ceasing the clock signal supplying operation of the clock supply means for the predetermined period of time when the received signal is not found to be the alarm activating signal.