Safety system and method

• US 9,564,035 B2
• Filed: 12/22/2014
• Issued: 02/07/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 12/22/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hand Held Products Incorporated (Honeywell International Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hand Held Products Incorporated (Honeywell International Inc.)
• Inventors: Courtemanche, Jean-Luc, Ackley, H. Sprague
• Primary Examiner(s): Bocure, Tesfaldet
• Application Number:
  US14/578,627
• Publication Number:
  US 20160180678A1
• Time in Patent Office: 778 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/02 Alarms for ensuring the safety of persons
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/00 Alarm systems in which the location of the alarm condition is signalled to a central station, e.g. fire or police telegraphic systems
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/12 Manually actuated calamity alarm transmitting arrangements emergency non-personal manually actuated alarm, activators, e.g. details of alarm push buttons mounted on an infrastructure
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/14 Central alarm receiver or annunciator arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/2755 by optical scanning
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72424 with manual activation of emergency-service functions

Abstract

A system and method are described. The system utilizes data entry devices commonly found in some workplaces, such as warehouses, to generate an emergency signal. The emergency signal is used to generate an emergency response. In one embodiment, an emergency sign with a printed emergency symbol may be scanned using a network-connected barcode scanner to generate the emergency signal. In another embodiment, a user may utter an emergency speech input into a network-connected speech recognition device to generate the emergency signal. The system and method may expand and improve safety in a workplace by offering a more convenient way to summon help.

Claims

1. A safety system, comprising:

an emergency sign comprising a readable text or graphical message and a machine-readable emergency symbol;

an indicia reader to decode the emergency symbol and generate an emergency signal including instructions for an emergency response, the indicia reader communicatively coupled to a computer network; and

a host computer communicatively coupled to the computer network configured to receive the emergency signal and generate the emergency response.

2. The safety system according to claim 1, wherein the emergency signal comprises an emergency location indicator (ELI) that provides information regarding the location of the emergency sign.

3. The safety system according to claim 2, wherein the emergency location indicator (ELI) is an entry in a lookup table.

4. The safety system according to claim 2, wherein the emergency location indicator (ELI) is a pole-location number.

5. The safety system according to claim 2, wherein the emergency location indicator (ELI) is a grid location address.

6. The safety system according to claim 1, wherein the emergency response is an email.

7. The safety system according to claim 1, wherein the emergency response is a text message.

8. The safety system according to claim 1, wherein the emergency response is an audible alarm.

9. The safety system according to claim 1, wherein the emergency response is a voice message sent via an auto-dialed phone connection.

10. The safety system according to claim 1, wherein the emergency response is an alarm signal transmitted to a facility security system and is one of a plurality of possible alarm inputs to the facility security system.

11. The safety system according to claim 1, wherein the readable message comprises the word emergency.

12. The safety system according to claim 1, wherein the network is an IEEE 802.11 wireless network.

13. A method for generating an emergency response using an emergency symbol, the method comprising:

locating an emergency sign comprising a machine-readable emergency symbol that includes instructions for generating an emergency response;

scanning the emergency symbol with an indicia reader communicatively coupled to a computer network;

decoding the emergency symbol;

generating an emergency signal using the decoded information; and

transmitting the emergency signal from the indicia reader to a host computer communicatively coupled to the network and running emergency software, wherein the host computer is configured by the emergency software to (i) interpret the emergency signal and (ii) generate the emergency response.

14. The method according to claim 13, wherein the emergency sign comprises a readable text or graphical message.

15. The method according to claim 13, wherein the emergency signal comprises information regarding the emergency sign'"'"'s location.

16. The method according to claim 13, wherein the emergency response comprises a text message or email.

17. The method according to claim 13, wherein the emergency response comprises a telephone call.

18. The method according to claim 13, wherein the indicia reader is a handheld wireless reader.

19. A method for generating a response using a response symbol printed on a response sign, the method comprising:

locating a response sign comprising a machine-readable response symbol including instructions for a response;

reading and decoding the response symbol with an indicia reader communicatively coupled to a computer network;

generating, with the indicia reader, a response signal including instructions for an emergency response using the decoded information from the response symbol;

transmitting the response signal from the indicia reader to a host computer communicatively connected to the network; and

receiving the response signal using the host computer, wherein the host computer is configured by response software to (i) interpret the response signal and (ii) generate the response.