Internet protocol addressable public address devices and systems

• US 9,473,864 B2
• Filed: 12/06/2013
• Issued: 10/18/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/06/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Original Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Inventors: Mahasenan, Arun Vijayakumari, Otis, Jesse J., Mandiganal, Santosh M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Lu, Shirley
• Application Number:
  US14/099,702
• Publication Number:
  US 20150163609A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,047 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 1/00 Systems for signalling characterised solely by the form of transmission of the signal
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/1672 using sonic detecting means, e.g. a microphone operating in the audio frequency range
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 17/00 Fire alarms; Alarms responsive to explosion
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 7/066 guiding along a path, e.g. evacuation path lighting strip
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 1/00 Control arrangements or circuits, of interest only in connection with cathode-ray tube indicators; General aspects or details, e.g. selection emphasis on particular characters, dashed line or dotted line generation; Preprocessing of datacathode-ray oscilloscopes G01R13/20; radar display arrangements G01S7/04; display of digital non-picture data in television systems H04N7/0255
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1895 for short real-time information, e.g. alarms, notifications, alerts, updates
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2227/003 Digital PA systems using, e.g. LAN or internet
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 27/00 Public address systems circuits for preventing acoustic reaction H04R3/02; circuits for distributing signals to loudspeakers H04R3/12; monitoring or testing arrangements for public address systems H04R29/007; amplifiers H03F

Abstract

Devices, methods, and systems are described herein. One device includes a speaker component to broadcast a message, a microphone component to detect a sound, an IP component to receive the message using a communication path, and a computing component to determine a source of the detected sound.

Claims

1. An internet protocol (IP) addressable public assistance (PA) device, comprising:

a microphone component to detect a sound;

a computing component to analyze the detected sound to determine a source of the detected sound, wherein the computing component sends data, including the detected sound and the determined source, to a computing system that is configured to process data from an IP addressable PA device in response to detecting an event;

an IP component to receive a message using a communication path, wherein the message is formulated by the computing system; and

a speaker component to broadcast a message, wherein the message includes a sound and/or voice message.

2. The device of claim 1, wherein the computing component is configured to:

determine the source of the detected sound is fire based on sound characteristics of fire; and

in response to determining the source is fire, instruct the speaker component to broadcast the message.

3. The device of claim 1, wherein the computing component is configured to:

determine the source of the detected sound is a person; and

in response to determining the source is the person, instruct the speaker component to broadcast a second message.

4. The device of claim 1, wherein the computing component is configured to determine the source of the detected sound is a particular person using voice recognition techniques.

5. The device of claim 1, wherein the microphone component detects a confidence measurement from the broadcast of the message using the speaker component of the IP addressable PA device.

6. The device of claim 5, wherein the computing component automatically adjusts a volume of the speaker component based on the confidence measurement.

7. A method for broadcasting a message using an internet protocol (IP) addressable public address (PA) device, including:

determining an event is occurring in an area;

broadcasting a first voice message using an IP addressable PA device in the area;

identifying a presence of a person using a detected sound from the IP addressable PA device in the area; and

broadcasting a second voice message using the IP addressable PA device, the second message directed to the person.

8. The method of claim 7, including adjusting a volume level of a speaker component of the IP addressable PA device based on a volume level of the speaker component detected using a microphone component of the IP addressable PA device.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein adjusting the volume level includes automatically adjusting the volume level to at least 15 decibels above a level of sound in the area.

10. The method of claim 7, including detecting a volume level occurring in the area at a period of time using the IP addressable PA device.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein identifying the presence of the person includes identifying a variety of locations of the person using a plurality of IP addressable PA devices.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein broadcasting the second message includes broadcasting a plurality of second messages, wherein each of the plurality of second messages is broadcasted using one of the plurality of IP PA addressable devices as the person is identified in proximity to the IP addressable PA device.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein broadcasting the second message includes broadcasting a plurality of second messages at predetermined period of times.

14. An internet protocol (IP) addressable public address (PA) system, comprising:

a plurality of IP addressable PA devices, each of the plurality devices comprising;

a speaker component to broadcast voice messages;

an IP component to receive data over a communication path; and

a microphone component to detect sound; and

a computing system configured to;

selectively send a first voice message to an IP addressable PA device among the plurality of IP addressable PA devices using the communication path;

identify a presence of a person using a detected sound from the microphone component of the IP addressable PA device; and

send a second voice message to the IP addressable PA device in response to the identification of the presence of the person using the communication path.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein each IP addressable PA device includes a computing component to identify sources of detected sounds and communicate the sources to the computing system.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the computing system is configured to acoustically adjust a quality of sound of a speaker component of a first IP addressable PA device among the plurality using at least a second IP addressable PA device among the plurality.

17. The system of claim 14, wherein the plurality of IP addressable PA devices further identify the person is within proximity to an IP addressable PA device and guide the person to a location using multiple messages.

18. The system of claim 14, wherein the computing system sends a third message to a different IP addressable PA device in response to an identification of a presence of the person in proximity to the different IP addressable PA device.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the second message and the third message include instructions to guide the person to safety.