Guard tour system

• US 7,363,196 B2
• Filed: 04/04/2007
• Issued: 04/22/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 10/15/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Timekeeping Systems Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Timekeeping Systems Incorporated
• Inventors: Cross, Jay, Dutton, Tom, Markwitz, Barry, Chriss, Dean, O'Flaherty, Mike, Gribov, Michael, Morman, Tom, Boswell, Scott, Nicholson, Jim
• Primary Examiner(s): Tsai; Carol S. W.
• Application Number:
  US11/732,188
• Publication Number:
  US 20070219753A1
• Time in Patent Office: 384 Days
• Field of Search: 702 81- 84, 702/108, 702/122, 702182-185, 702/187, 702/188, 235/375, 235/382, 235/383, 235/385, 340/596, 340/5.71, 340/825.27, 340/825.49, 340/825.36, 340/306, 340/506, 340/572.1, 340/825.31, 705/11
• US Class Current: 702/187
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06311 Scheduling, planning or task assignment for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 1/20 Checking timed patrols, e.g. of watchman

Abstract

The guard tour system of the present invention is comprised of a central computer which runs a computer program that enables a variety of electronic hardware components to function as the guard tour system. As a guard progresses through a guard tour, he or she uses a touch button reader to read information stored within a plurality of touch memory buttons located along the patrol route. At the end of the patrol, the guard places the touch button reader in a downloader that transfers the stored data to the central computer which processes the data and generates reports summarizing the patrol data. The computer program of the present invention provides a novel method of organizing security information in hierarchical categories. Further, the guard tour system of the present invention uses a novel method to determine the number of times a guard visited a location in a given time period.

Claims

1. A computer program product for monitoring and evaluating guard patrols of one or more sites comprising a computer readable medium, a first computer executable program code for causing a computer to process information gathered from one or more checkpoints during a guard tour patrol of one or more sites, said checkpoints being nonprioritized permitting said information to be gathered therefrom in any sequence, and a second computer executable program code for causing said computer to download said information, wherein said first computer executable program code need not be running while said second computer executable program code causes said computer to download said information.

2. The computer program product as defined in claim 1 wherein said second computer executable program code comprises an attendant program.

3. The computer program product as defined in claim 2 wherein said attendant program is set to start execution when said computer is started.

4. The computer program product as defined in claim 1 wherein said second computer executable program code causes said computer to store said information that has been downloaded for later processing.

5. The computer program product as defined in claim 1 wherein said second computer executable program code starts execution of said first computer executable program code in response to the downloading of said information.

6. The computer program product as defined claim 1 wherein said second computer executable program code starts execution of said first computer executable program code in response to the entering of a password.

7. The computer program product as defined in claim 1 further including a remotely located computer and a device connected to said remotely located computer, said connected device having information stored therein, wherein said second computer executable program code causes said computer to download said information via said remotely located computer.

8. The computer program product as defined in claim 2 wherein said second computer executable program code comprises a communication layer and a plurality of hardware drivers.

9. The computer program product as defined in claim 1 wherein said second computer executable program code comprises an attendant program, and wherein said second computer executable program code causes said computer to store said information that has been downloaded for later processing.

10. The computer program product as defined in claim 9 wherein said second computer executable program code comprises an attendant program that is set to start execution when said computer is started, and wherein said second computer executable program code starts execution of said first computer executable program code in response to the downloading of said information.

11. A computer program product for monitoring and evaluating guard patrols of one or more sites comprising a computer readable medium, a first computer executable program code for causing a computer to process information gathered from one or more checkpoints during a guard patrol of one or more sites, said checkpoints being nonprioritized permitting said information to be gathered in any sequence, and a second computer executable program code to detect a device connected thereto and having information stored therein and to download said information from said connected device, wherein said first computer executable program code need not be running on said computer while said second computer executable program code causes said computer to download said information from said connected device.

12. The computer program product as defined in claim 11 wherein said second computer executable program code comprises an attendant program.

13. The computer program product as defined in claim 12 wherein said attendant program is set to automatically start execution when said computer is started.

14. The computer program product as defined in claim 11 wherein said second computer executable program code causes said computer to store said information that has been downloaded from said connected device for later processing.

15. The computer program product as defined in claim 11 wherein said second computer executable program code starts execution of said first computer executable program code in response to downloading said information from said connected device.

16. The computer program product as defined in claim 11 wherein said second computer executable program code starts execution of said first computer executable program code in response to the entering of a password.

17. The computer program product as defined in claim 11 further including a remotely located computer and a device connected to said remotely located computer, said device connected to said remotely located computer having information stored therein, wherein said second computer executable program code causes said computer to download said information via said remotely located computer.

18. The computer program product as defined in claim 12 wherein said second computer executable program code comprises a communications layer and a plurality of hardware drivers.

19. The computer program product as defined claim 11 wherein said second computer executable program code comprises an attendant program, and wherein said second computer executable program code causes said computer to store said information that has been downloaded from said connected device for later processing.

20. The computer program product as defined in claim 19 wherein said second computer executable program code comprises an attendant program that is set to automatically start execution when said computer is started, and wherein said second computer executable program code starts execution of said first computer executable program code in response to the downloading of said information from said connected device.

21. A computer program product for monitoring and evaluating guard patrols of one or more sites comprising a computer readable medium and a computer executable program code for causing a computer to process information gathered from one or more checkpoints during a guard patrol of one or more sites, said checkpoints being nonprioritized permitting said information to be gathered in any sequence.