Electronic vehicle product and personal monitoring

• US 7,100,052 B2
• Filed: 01/30/2002
• Issued: 08/29/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 02/01/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Loran Technologies, Inc. (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Loran Technologies, Inc. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Ghazarian, Ohanes
• Primary Examiner(s): Peeso, Thomas R.
• Application Number:
  US10/060,838
• Publication Number:
  US 20020104013A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,672 Days
• Field of Search: 713/182, 713/185, 713/200, 713/201
• US Class Current: 713/182
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 17/74 Systems using reradiation of electromagnetic waves other than radio waves, e.g. IFF, i.e. identification of friend or foe
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/07758 arrangements for adhering the record carrier to further objects or living beings, functioning as an identification tag
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/0008 General problems related to the reading of electronic memory record carriers, independent of its reading method, e.g. power transfer
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/28 the pass enabling tracking or indicating presence
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/2454 Checking of authorisation of a person accessing tagged items in an EAS system

Abstract

A system for detecting presence, identifying, and detecting directional movement of an object or personnel is directional movement installed at points of access for vehicle, object, or personnel tracking. The system has at least a pair of IR heat and/or motion-sensing detectors installed on a scanner panel with a space approximately 2 feet apart from each other for transmitting and receiving optical beams across the point of access. An RFID reader with an antenna is incorporated within the scanner panel. When an object passes through the point of access, the panel scanner is capable of detecting which direction the object traveled. The scanner panel also has the ability to distinguish whether the object is a human or an object. This functionality is dependent on the triggering of heat and or motion sensors/detectors, which can authenticate the objects and/or personnel carrying an RFID tag and information of the RFID tag to a computer interface.

Claims

1. A method for detecting and tracking a plurality of objects passing through or located in a predetermined portal area, comprising:

detecting presence of the objects at a first position within the portal area;

detecting presence of the objects at a second position within the portal area;

identifying the objects by interrogating with tags attached to or carried by the objects; and

determining direction of movement of the objects according to detection sequence between the first and second positions.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising a step of determining whether the objects are human beings or not by sensing temperature of the objects.

3. A system for identifying and tracking an object passing through or located at a portal area, comprising:

a tag carried by or attached to the object, the tag being encoded with unique identification information;

a portal panel unit located at the portal area;

a first set of detectors mounted on the portal panel unit to detect the object; and

a second set of detectors mounted on the portal panel unit to detect the object, the second set of detectors being spaced from the first set of detectors by a predetermined distance.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the tag includes a radio-frequency identification (RFID) tag or a barcode tag.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein each of the first and second sets of detectors includes a plurality of vertically arranged detectors operative to detect presence of the objects.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein each of the vertically arranged detectors includes a diffused-reflection sensor.

7. The system of claim 5, wherein each of the vertically arranged detectors includes an IR sensor and a reflector aligned with each other across the portal area.

8. The system of claim 5, wherein each of the vertically arranged detectors includes an optical emitter and an optical collector aligned with each other across the portal area.

9. The system of claim 3, wherein each of the first and second sets of detector further comprises a human body heat sensor to detect whether the object is a human being or not.

10. The system of claim 3, further comprising a comparator operative to compare detection sequence of the first and second set of detectors, so as to determine movement direction of the object.

11. The system of claim 10, further comprising a reader operative to receive detection information generated by the first and second sets of detectors and the RF antenna and to transmit the detection information to the comparator.

12. The system of claim 3, further comprising a programmable warning device to generate a signal when:

a) no tag information of the object being detected is available;

b) no object information of the identified tag is available;

c) no movement of the object is detected;

d) only human movement is detected;

or

d) any combination of the conditions of (a) to (d).

13. The system of claim 3, further comprising a built-in motion detector or a built-in pressure sensing temper switch.

14. A portal scanner, comprising:

a first set of detectors operative to detect presence of an object at a first position within a portal area; and

an RF antenna operative to interrogate a tag encoded with an identification code located within the portal area, wherein the tag is carried by or attached to the object.

15. The portal scanner of claim 14, the first set of detectors includes a plurality of vertically arranged detectors.

16. The portal scanner of claim 15, wherein each of the vertically arranged detectors includes a diffused-reflection IR sensor, a pair of IR sensor and reflector aligned with other across the first position, or a pair of an optical emitter and collector aligned with other across the first position.

17. The portal scanner of claim 14, further comprising a built-in motion sensor or a pressure sensing tamper switch for detecting movement of the portal scanner.

18. The portal scanner of claim 14, further comprising a comparator operative to count numbers of objects and tags being detected.

19. The system of claim 14, further comprising a second set of detectors spaced from the first set of detectors by a predetermined distance.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the predetermined distance is about 2 feet.

21. The system of claim 19, further comprising a comparator operative to determine direction of movement of the object according to detection sequence of the object by the first and second sets of detectors.

22. The system of claim 19, wherein each of the first and second set of detectors includes an IR body heat sensor operative to detect whether the object is a human being or not.

23. The system of claim 19, wherein the first and second detectors each includes a plurality of vertically arranged IR detectors.

24. The portal scanner of claim 23, wherein each of the vertically arranged detectors includes a diffused-reflection IR sensor, a pair of IR sensor and reflector aligned with other across the second position, or a pair of an optical emitter and collector aligned with other across the second position.

25. The portal scanner of claim 14, further comprising a metal detector circuitry for detecting present of metal within the portal area.

26. The portal scanner of claim 14, further comprising an explosive detection circuitry for detecting presence of explosive material present within the portal area.