Tracking compliance of personal protection articles

• US 9,536,209 B2
• Filed: 07/23/2008
• Issued: 01/03/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 08/31/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: 3M Innovative Properties Company (3M Company)
• Original Assignee: 3M Innovative Properties Company (3M Company)
• Inventors: Holler, Robert E., Peters, Susan E., Ptasienski, Lawrence J., Rakow, Neal A., Thomas, Cristina U.
• Primary Examiner(s): McNally, Kerri
• Assistant Examiner(s): Dorsey, Renee
• Application Number:
  US12/671,923
• Publication Number:
  US 20110115629A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,086 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063114 Status monitoring or status determination for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/26 Government or public services business processes related to the transportation industry G06Q50/40
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34

Abstract

Methods and systems for tracking compliance of personal protection (PP) articles in working environments. Tracking compliance includes providing at least one PP article configured with a smart tag; providing at least one predetermined criterion that governs compliance with respect to the at least one PP article in a particular working environment; tracking the PP article by retrieving smart tag data; and determining whether the smart tag data satisfies at least one predetermined criterion; and storing data relating to results of the determination.

Claims

1. A computer based tracking system for determining if at least one personal protection article satisfies at least one predetermined criterion, the system comprising:

the at least one personal protection article configured with a smart tag;

a data processing system including at least one predetermined criterion that governs use of the at least one personal protection article;

an information retrieval system networked to a computer or system of the tracking system, the information retrieval system including at least one smart tag scanner that acquires data from the smart tag and at least one sensor configured to sense variables related to usage of the personal protection article being tracked, wherein a type of the at least one personal protection article determines the variables for the at least one personal protection article;

the information retrieval system is configured to retrieve smart tag data from the smart tag in the working environment to retrieve the variables;

the data processing system configured to process the retrieved smart tag data and the variables for determining whether the smart tag data satisfies the at least one predetermined criterion; and

,

the data processing system including storage for storing data relating to results of the determination.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the data processing system is configured to generate at least one report of the smart data or the data relating to the results of the determination.

3. The system of claim 2, further including at least one sensing device configured to sense data that is related to the at least one predetermined criterion;

the information retrieval system acquires sensed data from the at least one sensing device in the working environment; and

the data processing system determines whether the sensed data and the smart tag data satisfy the at least one predetermined criterion.

4. The system of claim 3, further including the data processing system for generating at least one report relating to at least one of the sensed data, the smart tag data or the data relating to results of the determination.

5. A method for tracking compliance of at least one personal protection article, the method comprising:

providing at least one sensor for sensing one or more variables related to usage of the personal protection article being tracked and configuring the at least one personal protection article with a smart tag carrying data accessible by wireless technology;

configuring, by a computing device, at least one predetermined criterion that governs compliance with respect to the at least one personal protection article in a particular working environment;

tracking, by the computing device, the at least one personal protection article by retrieving the data of the smart tag from a data acquiring device by wireless communication and retrieving the one or more variables wherein a type of the at least one personal protection article determines the variables; and

determining whether the smart tag data satisfies the at least one predetermined criterion based at least in part on the data of the smart tag and the one or more variables; and

storing data relating to results of the determination.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising generating at least one report relative to at least one of the smart tag data or the data relating to results of the determination.

7. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

providing at least one sensing device configured to sense data that is related to the at least one predetermined criterion;

acquiring sensed data from the at least one sensing device in the working environment; and

determining whether the sensed data and the smart tag data satisfy the at least one predetermined criterion.

8. The method of claim 7, further including generating at least one report relating to at least one of the sensed data, the smart tag data or the data relating to results of the determination.

9. The method of claim 5, wherein the smart tag data includes data relating to at least one of:

usage, processing, location, and condition of the at least one personal protection article.

10. The method of claim 5, further including generating at least one report on the real-time location of the smart tag in the working environment.

11. The method of claim 5, further including processing the personal protection article following a determination that the at least one predetermined criterion is not satisfied.

12. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

acquiring individual data pertaining to a user of the personal protection article; and

determining whether the individual data and the smart tag data satisfy the at least one predetermined criterion.

13. The method of claim 12, further including generating at least one report relating to the individual data.

14. The method of claim 7, further comprising updating the at least one predetermined criterion based on the sensed data.

15. The method of claim 5, further comprising communicating the results of the tracking compliance to a user of the personal protection article.