Personal emergency notification device with usage monitoring

• US 8,031,074 B2
• Filed: 12/21/2007
• Issued: 10/04/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/21/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ademco Inc. (Resideo Technologies, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Inventors: Lizza, Alfred M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Wu; Daniel
• Assistant Examiner(s): Mahase; Pameshanand
• Application Number:
  US11/963,132
• Publication Number:
  US 20090160643A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,383 Days
• Field of Search: 340/573.1, 340/539.15, 340/442
• US Class Current: 340/573.1
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/0415 detecting absence of activity per se
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/0446 worn on the body to detect changes of posture, e.g. a fall, inclination, acceleration, gait
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/016 Personal emergency signalling and security systems emergency non-personal manually actuated alarm activators G08B25/12

Abstract

A personal security apparatus includes a transmitting device having an event detector initiating different signals which indicate different event types. A transceiver receives the signals from the transmitting device and interprets each signal as corresponding to a particular event type. The transceiver sends respective event type alert signals to a remote monitoring device. The remote monitoring device provides a plurality of respective event type indicators for each of the event type alert signals received.

Claims

1. A personal security apparatus, comprising:

a transmitting device including a transmitter and an event detector initiating different signals wherein each of the different signals indicates a different event type, said event detector further comprising an acceleration detector, a computer and program code stored in a non-transitory computer readable medium, the event detector further including a motion detector, said motion detector comprising the computer processing at least a portion of the program code, the processed program code interprets signals from the acceleration detector and detects that the transmitting device is not being worn by a user based upon a specified threshold frequency of motion and detects that the user has fallen based upon a specified threshold and direction of acceleration and wherein a first one of the different signals initiated by the event detector based upon frequency of motion sensed by the motion detector and sent by the transmitter when the frequency of motion exceeds the specified threshold is a notification that the transmitting device is not being worn by the user and a second one of the different signals initiated by the event detector based upon direction and acceleration of motion sensed by the motion detector and sent by the transmitter when the direction and acceleration of motion exceed the specified thresholds is a notification that the user has fallen; and

a remote monitoring device for receiving the signals.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the remote monitoring device provides a plurality of respective event indicators for each of the different signals received.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 further including:

a transceiver for receiving the signals from the transmitting device and interpreting each signal as corresponding to a particular event type, and the transceiver sending respective event type alert signals to the remote monitoring device.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the event detector is a motion detector.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the event detector includes:

a motion detector for sensing different motion events which includes sensing a specified threshold frequency of motion and sending a particular signal indicating when the frequency of motion equals or exceeds the specified threshold frequency of motion and sending another particular signal indicating when the frequency of motion is less than the specified frequency of motion; and

an acceleration detector for sensing a specified threshold acceleration and sending another particular signal indicating when the acceleration equals or exceeds the specified threshold acceleration.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the acceleration detector includes a directional detector for determining a direction of the acceleration and sending the particular signal when both the acceleration meets the specified threshold and the direction of the acceleration is a specified direction.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the event detector is a motion detector and the plurality of event types include the motion detector sensing motion, sensing no motion for a specified time period, and sensing a predefined acceleration of the transmitting device.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the transmitting device includes an actuator for manually initiating a first signal, and the event detector is a motion detector which transmits:

a second signal indicating when the motion detector senses motion; and

a third signal indicating when the motion detector senses no motion for a specified time period, and a fourth signal indicating when the motion detector senses a predefined acceleration indicating a person falling.

9. A personal security system, comprising:

a transmitting device including an event detector for initiating different signals from the transmitting device wherein each of the different signals indicates a different event type, said event detector further comprising an acceleration device, a computer and program code stored on a non-transitory computer readable medium, said event detector including a motion detector, said motion detector comprising the computer processing at least a portion of the program code, the processed program code interprets signals from the acceleration detector and detects that the transmitting device is not being worn by a user based upon a specified threshold frequency of motion and detects that the user has fallen based upon a specified threshold and direction of acceleration and wherein a first one of the different signals based upon frequency of motion sensed by the motion detector is a notification that the transmitting device is not being worn by a user and wherein a second one of the different signals based upon direction and acceleration of motion sensed by the motion detector is a notification that the user has fallen;

a transceiver for receiving the signals from the transmitting device and interpreting each signal as corresponding to a particular event type, and the transceiver sending respective event type alert signals, wherein the first respective event type alert signal sent by the transceiver when the frequency of motion exceed the specified threshold is a notification that the transmitting device is not being worn by the user and the second respective event type alert signal sent by the transceiver when the direction and acceleration of motion exceed the specified thresholds is a notification that the user has fallen; and

a remote monitoring device for receiving the event type alert signals from the transceiver and providing a plurality of respective event type indicators for each of the event type alert signals received.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the event detector is a motion detector.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the event detector is a motion detector for sensing different motion events which includes sensing a specified threshold frequency of motion and sending a particular signal indicating when the frequency of motion equals or exceeds the specified threshold frequency of motion and sending another particular signal indicating when the frequency of motion is less than the specified frequency of motion;

and the acceleration detector includes a directional detector for determining a direction of the acceleration and sending the particular signal when both the acceleration meets the specified threshold and the direction of the acceleration is a specified direction.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the event detector is a motion detector and the plurality of event types include the motion detector sensing motion, sensing no motion for a specified time period, and sensing a predefined acceleration.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein the transmitting device includes an actuator for manually initiating a first signal, and the event detector is a motion detector which transmits:

a second signal indicating when the motion detector senses motion; and

a third signal indicating when the motion detector senses no motion for a specified time period, and a fourth signal indicating when the motion detector senses a predefined acceleration indicating a person falling.

14. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the transmitting device further includes a computer and program code embodied in non-transitory computer readable medium read by the computer for programming criteria for at least one of the event types.

15. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the transceiver includes a computer having program code embodied in non-transitory computer readable medium read by the computer for interpreting the signals and corresponding the signals to the particular event type.

16. A method for providing personal security, comprising:

a wearable personal security device transmitting a plurality of different signals each corresponding to a different event, the wearable personal security device including a transmitter and a motion detector, said motion detector further comprising an acceleration device, a computer and program code stored on a non-transitory computer readable medium, the computer processing at least a portion of the program code, the processed program code interprets signals from the acceleration detector and detects that the transmitting device is not being worn by a user based upon a specified threshold frequency of motion and detects that the user has fallen based upon a specified threshold and direction of acceleration and wherein a first one of the plurality of different signals based upon frequency of motion sensed by the motion detector and transmitted by the transmitter when the frequency of motion exceeds the specified threshold is a notification that the personal security device is not being worn by a user and wherein a second one of the different signals based upon direction and acceleration of motion sensed by the motion detector and transmitted by the transmitter when the direction and acceleration of motion exceed the specified thresholds is a notification that the user has fallen; and

a remote monitoring device receiving the signals and providing a plurality of respective event indicators for each of the different signals received.

17. The method of claim 16, further including:

sensing motion;

defining the motion as at least one event; and

transmitting a motion signal indicating the event relating to the motion.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the different events include:

sensing a specified threshold frequency of motion and sending a particular signal indicating when the frequency of motion equals or exceeds the specified threshold frequency of motion; and

sending another particular signal indicating when the frequency of motion is less than the specified frequency of motion.

19. The method of claim 18, further including:

sensing a specified threshold acceleration of motion and sending another particular signal indicating when the threshold acceleration equals or exceeds the specified threshold acceleration of motion;

detecting direction of the acceleration; and

sending the particular signal when both the acceleration meets the specified threshold and the direction of the acceleration is a specified direction.

20. The method of claim 16, wherein the event detector is a motion detector, and the method further includes:

activating manually a first signal from the transmitter;

transmitting a second signal indicating when the motion detector senses motion;

transmitting a third signal indicating when the motion detector senses no motion for a specified time period, and transmitting a fourth signal indicating when the motion detector senses a predefined acceleration indicating a person falling.