Proximity alarm system for articles

• US 7,535,357 B2
• Filed: 10/30/2006
• Issued: 05/19/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/31/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Olusola Enitan, Wale Ajayi
• Original Assignee: Olusola Enitan, Wale Ajayi
• Inventors: Enitan, Olusola, Ajayi, Wale
• Primary Examiner(s): Bugg; George A
• Assistant Examiner(s): Labbees; Edny
• Application Number:
  US11/554,200
• Publication Number:
  US 20070096933A1
• Time in Patent Office: 932 Days
• Field of Search: 340/539.11, 340/539.23, 340/539.32, 340/541, 340/568.1, 340/571, 455/550.1, 455/575.1, 455/575.4, 455/575.6, 455/575.8, 455/550, 379/37, 379/39, 379/40, 379/42
• US Class Current: 340/571
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/1427 with transmitter-receiver for distance detection
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/24 Reminder alarms, e.g. anti-loss alarms

Abstract

This patent discloses a proximity alarm system for an article. The proximity alarm system may include a transmitter to attach to the article and a receiver having an alarm, a set of combination dials, and a deactivation button. When the article is a cell phone, the receiver may attach to a person'"'"'s belt and hold the cell phone. The transmitter and receiver may be in wireless communication with each by infrared radiation signals and/or radio frequency signals. When the communication between the transmitter and receiver is interrupted by distance, objects, or otherwise interfered with, the receiver may generate a sound, visible light, and/or vibratory alarm. The alarm may be quashed by turning the receiver off, moving the article closer to the receiver, and/or turning the set of combination dials to a secret predetermined number and pressing the deactivation button.

Claims

1. A proximity alarm system for a cell phone, the proximity alarm system comprising:

a transmitter configured to be attached to the cell phone and having a transmitter circuit having an antenna; and

a receiver having a receiver circuit having an alarm, the receiver further including a housing having a front face, a top face, and a rear face, where extending from the front face is a first arm positioned to oppose a second arm, where the first arm and second arm are configured to expand away from each other to receive a cell phone and then resiliently return towards each other to retain the cell phone, where the receiver further includes a bottom clip and an On/Off switch, each extending from the front face to function with first arm and second arm to hold cell phone in place, where the receiver further includes an alarm speaker openwork near a center portion of the front face between the first arm, the second arm, and the bottom clip, where the alarm speaker openwork includes diagonal slots enclosed within a circular perimeter,

where extending from the top face are four combination dials and a deactivation button, where each combination dial is marked with numbers zero through nine and configured to be rotated so that only one number on each combination dial is closest to the front face and where each combination dial may cause the number closet to front face to be registered and stored such that, when the four combination dials are positioned to present a predetermined four digit number, the proximity alarm system may be temporarily deactivated by pressing the deactivation button, where the deactivation button is clear to allow a neon flashing light to emanate upward from the deactivation button,

where attached to the rear face are a belt clip that is configured to rotate with respect to the housing, a battery compartment, a battery light emitting diode, and a data port, where the data port is configured to permit phone users to back up/store/save information on a subscriber identity module to a remote location, and

where separation of the transmitter and the receiver by more than a predetermined distance is configured to cause the alarm to one of vibrate, emanate a sound, and emanate a flashing neon light, where the predetermined distance is a protected area and is one of two feet, three feet, and ten feet, and where the alarm is configured to turn off automatically when the transmitter and the receiver are back together within the protected area.

2. The proximity alarm system of claim 1, where the transmitter is embedded in the cell phone and the antenna does not physically extend external to the cell phone.

3. The proximity alarm system of claim 1, where the transmitter is configured in such a way that the transmitter functions off of 2.5 volts when utilized with the cell phone and function off 6-9 volts when utilized with an article other than a cell phone, where power to the transmitter is supplied by the subscriber identity module (SIM) voltage of the cell phone.

4. The proximity alarm system of claim 1, where the transmitter is configured to be in wireless communication with the receiver and the receiver is configured to receive incoming infrared radiation signals from the transmitter.

5. The proximity alarm system of claim 4, where the transmitter circuit includes an encoder, a first timer, a second timer, an AND gate, a first dual in-line package (DIP) switch, a second DIP switch, an output transistor, and the antenna, where the first DIP switch is a nine-position (18-pin) DIP switch connected between a ground and address pins and a ground pin of the encoder, where the first DIP switch is set with a unique binary address, where the second DIP switch is a five-position (10-pin) DIP switch connected between address/data bit pins and a transmission enable pin of the encoder and ground and an output pin the first timer, where a first input of the AND gate is connected to an output pin of the encoder and a second input of the AND gate is connected to an output pin of the second timer and where an output of the AND gate is connected to the output transistor, and where the antenna is an infrared emitter connected to the output transistor.

6. The proximity alarm system of claim 5, where the encoder is a HT-12E radio frequency remote control encoder integrated circuit, where the first timer and the second timer each are NE555 silicone monolithic timing circuits, where the AND gate is a 74HC08 quad 2-input AND gate, and where the infrared emitter is an infrared emitting diode IE-0530HP.

7. The proximity alarm system of claim 4, where the receiver circuit includes an infrared receiver, an input transistor, a decoder, a third DIP switch, a biasing transistor, an AND gate, a third timer, a decade counter, NOR gates, and the alarm, where a receiver output pin of the infrared receiver is connected to the input transistor, where the third DIP switch is a nine-position (18-pin) DIP switch connected between a ground and address input pins and a ground pin of the decoder in the receiver circuit, where an output of the input transistor is connected to a serial data input pin of the decoder, where the output pin of the decoder is fed to a base of the biasing transistor and a collector of the biasing transistor is connected to a first input of the AND gate of the receiver circuit, where a second input of the AND gate is connected to an output pin of the third timer, where an output of the AND gate of the receiver circuit is connected to a RESET pin of a decade counter, where a CLOCK input pin of the decade counter is tied to a high voltage output pin of the NOR gates, where an output pin of the decade counter is directly connected to alarm.

8. The proximity alarm system of claim 7, where the infrared receiver is infrared receiver module PIC-612S, where the decoder is a HT-12D212 radio frequency remote control decoder integrated circuit chip, where the AND gate of the receiver circuit is a 74HC08quad 2-input AND gate, where the third timer is a NE555 silicone monolithic timing circuit, where the decade counter is a CMOS 4017 decade counter, where the NOR gates is a CMOS 4001 quad 2-input NOR gate.

9. The proximity alarm system of claim 8, where the infrared receiver is configured to have a sensing distance of one of ten feet, three feet, and two feet.

10. The proximity alarm system of claim 9, where the power to the infrared emitter is adjusted to prevent infrared radiation of the infrared emitter from penetrate clothing such that the signal between the transmitter and the receiver is configured to be broken if the cell phone is put into a clothing pocket even if the distance between the transmitter and the receiver is less than two feet.

11. The proximity alarm system of claim 7, where the protected area is that area within which an emitter lobe and a receiver lobe overlap so long as emitter lobe overlaps the infrared receiver, where the protected area is configured to have a maximum distance, where maximum distance is one of two feet, three feet, and ten feet.

12. The proximity alarm system of claim 7, where as long as the decoder is receiving a valid signal from the input transistor, the output of the decoder remains high to bias on the biasing transistor, resulting in a low voltage at the first input to AND gate and when the first input to AND gate is a high voltage, a count in decade counter advances with each pulse of the third timer and causes the alarm to sound/vibrate/shine continuously until the transmitter comes back into range.

13. The proximity alarm system of claim 1, where the transmitter is configured to be in wireless communication with the receiver and the receiver is configured to receive incoming radio frequency signals from the transmitter.

14. The proximity alarm system of claim 13, where the transmitter circuit includes a dual-tone multi frequency (DTMF) signal generator circuit and a frequency modulated (FM) transmitter circuit, where the DTMF signal generator circuit includes a dialer and jumpers, where the dialer is configured to be utilized in cell phone and the jumpers are four jumper blocks connected between column pins and row pins of the dialer and configured to close and generate at least one of digits 1, 2, 4, and 8, where an output from a TONE pin of the dialer is provided as an input to the FM transmitter circuit, and where the FM transmitter circuit includes an inductor-capacitor circuit and the transmitter antenna, where the transmitter antenna is two to eight centimeters in length.

15. The proximity alarm system of claim 14, where the dialer is a dedicated UM91215B Tone/Pulse Dialer.

16. The proximity alarm system of claim 13, where the receiver circuit includes a receiving antenna, a receiver chip, the alarm as four alarms, and four amplifier transistors, where the receiver chip is a DTMF-to-binary coded decimal (BCD) converter, where each data output pin of the receiver chip is connected to one of the four alarms through an amplifier transistor.

17. The proximity alarm system of claim 16, where the DTMF-to-BCD converter is a dedicated KT3170 low power DTMF receiver chip, where the amplifier transistor is a BC548 NPN silicon transistor.

18. A proximity alarm system for an article, the proximity alarm system comprising:

a transmitter configured to be attached to the article and having a transmitter circuit having an antenna; and

a receiver having a receiver circuit having an alarm,

where the transmitter circuit includes a dual-tone multi frequency (DTMF) signal generator circuit and a frequency modulated (FM) transmitter circuit, where the DTMF signal generator circuit includes a dialer and jumpers, where the dialer is configured to be utilized in cell phone and the jumpers are four jumper blocks connected between column pins and row pins of the dialer and configured to close and generate at least one of digits 1, 2, 4, and 8, where an output from a TONE pin of the dialer is provided as an input to the FM transmitter circuit, and where the FM transmitter circuit includes an inductor-capacitor circuit and the transmitter antenna, where the transmitter antenna is two to eight centimeters in length, and

where the receiver circuit includes a receiving antenna, a receiver chip, the alarm as four alarms, and four amplifier transistors, where the receiver chip is a DTMF-to-binary coded decimal (BCD) converter, where each data output pin of the receiver chip is connected to one of the four alarms through an amplifier transistor.