Digital situation indicator

• US 20040131498A1
• Filed: 01/03/2003
• Published: 07/08/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 01/03/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Tommi Lennart Kuutti
• Original Assignee: Tommi Lennart Kuutti
• Inventors: Kuutti, Tommi Lennart
• Granted Patent: US 7,298,535 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 422/58
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/02 Alarms for ensuring the safety of persons
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/182 Level alarms, e.g. alarms responsive to variables exceeding a threshold

Abstract

The present invention relates to a digital situation indicator, especially a personal monitoring and alarm system. The digital situation indicator according to the invention consist of three parts: sensor module (SM) for monitoring desired data, heads-up display module (HUD) mounted in a facemask (F) or helmet of the operating person, and incident commander module (ICM) at a distance from the operating person. The digital situation indicator can be used to monitor for example firefighter'"'"'s heat stress, amperage in a welding machine or warfighter'"'"'s dosage of chemical warfare agents.

Claims

1. A digital situation indicator, especially a personal monitoring and/or alarm system, characterized in that the situation indicator (SI) has three separate units:

a sensor module (SM) for an operating person having a plurality of sensors (1, 4, 6, 9;

32) for monitoring conditions in connection with the operating person and a control unit (3) for analysing the data collected;

a heads-up display (HUD) module mounted in a facemask (F) or helmet of the operating person for displaying collected and analysed data;

an incident commander module (ICM) at a distance from the operating person for providing an incident commander with real-time sensors data on all operating persons in the operating area; and

communication means (8, 12, 27) in said modules (SM, HUD, ICM) for sending and receiving data between the sensor module (SM) and the heads-up display (HUD) module of the operating person and further between the sensor module and the incident commander module (ICM).

2. A digital situation indicator, especially a personal monitoring and alarm system for firefighters, characterized in that the situation indicator has three separate units:

a sensor module (SM) including plurality of sensors (1, 4) for monitoring conditions in connection with a firefighter such as an ambient temperature sensor, and a sensor for the pressure of the air tank; and

control unit such as a microcomputer (3) for analysing the data collected;

which sensor module (SM) has further;

flashover warning alarm for analysing sensor data and detecting, when ambient conditions are appropriate for impending flashover;

means for computing cumulative heat stress level and heat stress warning alarm;

personal alert safety system (PASS) having motion sensor (6) and alarm (5;

7);

SOS button (20); and

radio frequency transceiver (8, 12) for transmitting sensor data, computed data and alarms to a heads-up display (HUD) module and/or an incident commander module (ICM) and receiving messages from the incident commander module (ICM);

a heads-up display (HUD) module, which is positioned in a facemask or a helmet of the firefighter for displaying collected and analysed data, and

an incident commander module (ICM) at a distance from the firefighter for providing an incident commander with real-time sensors data on all firefighters in the area, which incident commander module (ICM) has;

control unit such as a microprocessor (26);

radio frequency transceiver (27) for receiving sensor data transmissions and SOS transmissions from a plurality of firefighters, especially from their sensor modules (SM), and for transmitting messages to any selected firefighter or to all firefighters; and

display (28) for indicating information from the firefighters;

3. A digital situation indicator, especially a personal monitoring and alarm system for firefighters, according to claim 2, characterized in that the sensor module includes an infrared temperature sensor (9) for detecting fire and/or high temperature behind closed doors and inside walls and a visible light laser ( 11) to show with its beam where the sensor (9) is pointed.

4. A digital situation indicator, especially a personal monitoring and alarm system for firefighters, according to claim 3, characterized in that the infrared temperature sensor (9) has a switch (10) such as a button for activating the sensor.

5. A digital situation indicator, especially a personal monitoring and alarm system for firefighters, according to any of claims 2-4, characterized in that the sensor module (SM) has an emergency locator transmitter (ELT) activated by personal alert safety system (PASS) or SOS button (20).

6. A digital situation indicator, especially a personal monitoring and alarm system for firefighters, according to any of claims 2-5, characterized in that the sensor module (SM) is attached to the pressure gage hose (15) of the air tank (2).

7. A digital situation indicator, especially a personal monitoring and alarm system for firefighters, according to any of claims 3-6, characterized in that the sensor module has two housings (17, 19) connected to each other, where the first housing (17) for the electronic circuitry and the second housing (19) for the coaxially arranged infrared temperature sensor (9) and laser (11) and further for the IR sensor activating switch (10) and SOS-button (20).

8. A digital situation indicator, especially a personal monitoring and alarm system for firefighters, according to any of claims 2-7, characterized in that the heads-up display (HUD) module has a control unit such as a microprocessor (24), a display, preferably electro-luminescent backlit (22) miniature, digital liquid crystal display (21), and optical enhancement means, specifically an achromatic doublet lens (22), optimised to correct for on-axis spherical and chromatic aberrations, which display (21) is positioned in a facemask or a helmet.

9. A digital situation indicator, especially a personal monitoring and alarm system for firefighters, according to claim 8, characterized in that the display (21) is arranged to function as following indicators:

pressure indicator for indicating pressure remaining in the air tank;

time remaining indicator for indicating air remaining in minutes at current consumption rate;

ambient temperature indicator for displaying ambient temperatures;

heat stress indicator for displaying firefighter'"'"'s cumulative heat stress level;

flashover warning indicator for alerting the firefighter of impending flashover danger;

personal alert safety system (PASS) device condition indicator for alerting the firefighter of pre-alert condition; and

infrared temperature indicator for displaying infrared temperature of the object that the infrared temperature sensor (9) is pointed towards.

10. A digital situation indicator, especially a personal monitoring and alarm system for firefighters, according to any of preceding claims 2-9, characterized in that the heads-up display (HUD) module has a two-way radio frequency voice communication between any of the firefighters and an incident commander by means of the incident commander module (ICM).

11. A digital situation indicator, especially a personal monitoring and alarm system for firefighters, according to any of preceding claims 2-10, characterized in that the incident commander module (ICM) is arranged to transmit text messages by means of the transceiver (27) to any selected firefighter or to all the firefighters.

12. A digital situation indicator, especially a personal monitoring and alarm system for firefighters, according to any of preceding claims 2-11, characterized in that the display (28) of incident commander module (ICM) is arranged to indicate the following information for each firefighter:

elapsed time inside the fire;

pressure in the air tank and air remaining in minute;

ambient temperature reading;

heat stress level;

flashover warning;

status of the personal alert safety system (PASS) device; and

reading of the infrared temperature sensor (9).

13. A digital situation indicator, especially a personal monitoring and alarm system for firefighters, according to any of preceding claims 2-12, characterized in that the incident commander module (ICM) has a datalogger which is arranged to record the following information

each firefighter'"'"'s situation in real-time, as it occurs;

any firefighter'"'"'s SOS transmission on real-time, as it occurs;

all service and maintenance records on each device; and

automatically to add time/date stamp to all records.

14. A digital situation indicator, especially a personal monitoring and alarm system for firefighters, according to any of preceding claims 2-13, characterized in that the incident commander module (ICM) has a field programming capacity, which enables to dawn load identification codes and other information from the incident commander module (ICM) to the sensor module (SM) and the heads-up display (HUD) module of the firefighter.

15. A digital situation indicator, especially a personal monitoring and alarm system for war fighters, characterized in that the situation indicator has three separate units:

a sensor module (SM) including a plurality of sensors (1, 4) for monitoring conditions in connection with a war fighter, and a control unit such as a microcomputer (3) for analysing the data collected;

which sensor module has further;

chemical warfare agent sensor (32) for sensing the amount of the agent in the surroundings;

means for tracking war fighter'"'"'s chemical warfare agent dosage;

means for computing remaining operating time with current chemical warfare agent concentration;

SOS button (20); and

radio frequency transceiver (8, 12) for transmitting sensor data, computed data and alarms to the heads-up display (HUD) module and/or an incident commander module (ICM) and receiving messages from the incident commander module (ICM).

a heads-up display (HUD) module, which is positioned in a facemask or a helmet of the war fighter for displaying collected and analysed data, and

an incident commander module (ICM) at a distance from the war fighter for providing an a commanding officer with real-time sensors data on all war fighters in the area, which incident commander module (ICM) has;

control unit such as a microprocessor (26);

radio frequency transceiver (27) for receiving sensor data transmissions and SOS transmissions from a plurality of war fighters, especially from their sensor modules (SM), and for transmitting messages to any selected war fighter or to all war fighters; and

display (28) for indicating information from the war fighters.

16. A digital situation indicator, especially a personal monitoring and alarm system for war fighters, according to claim 15, characterized in that the sensor module (SM) has an emergency locator transmitter (ELT) activated by SOS button.

17. A digital situation indicator, especially a personal monitoring and alarm system for war fighters, according to claim 15 or 16, characterized in that heads-up display (HUD) module has a display (21), which is arranged to function as following indicators:

chemical warfare agent indicator for indicating concentration of chemical warfare agent in the surroundings and changing the colour of the display depending on the situation; and

time remaining indicator for indicating operating time in minutes at current chemical warfare agent concentration.

18. A digital situation indicator, especially a personal monitoring and alarm system for war fighters, according to any of claims 15-17, characterized in that the display (28) of incident commander module (ICM) is arranged to indicate the following information for each war fighter:

elapsed time under chemical warfare agent;

chemical warfare agent concentration in the surroundings;

current dosage of chemical warfare agent; and

remaining operating time in minutes.

19. A digital situation indicator, especially a personal monitoring and alarm system for war fighters, according to any of claims 15-18, characterized in that the incident commander module (ICM) is arranged to transmit text messages by means of the radio frequency transceiver (27) to any selected war fighter or to all war fighters.

20. A digital situation indicator, especially a personal monitoring and alarm system for war fighters, according to any of claims 15-19, characterized in that the incident commander module (ICM) has a datalogger, whish is arranged to record

each war fighter'"'"'s situation in real-time;

any war fighter'"'"'s SOS transmission in real-time, as it occurs;

all service and maintenance records on each sensor module; and

automatically to add time/date stamp to all records.

21. A digital situation indicator for welders, characterized in that the indicator has a sensor module (SM) and a heads-up display (HUD) module, where the sensor module (SM) is attached to a welding machine including

an amperage sensor (31) for monitoring amperage of the welding machine,

control unit such as a microcomputer (3) for analysing the data collected;

and

radio frequency transceiver (8, 12 FIG.

     2) for transmitting updated sensor data to the heads-up display (HUD) module; and

the heads-up display (HUD) module is positioned in a facemask or a helmet of the welder for displaying in its display (21) collected and analysed data.

22. A digital situation indicator for welders according to claim 21, characterized in that the sensor module (SM) has a datalogger, whish is arranged to record:

all sensor data during welding;

sensor module service and maintenance information in a memory (13); and

automatically to add time/date stamp to all records.

23. A digital situation indicator for welders according to claim 21 or 22, characterized in that the display (21) is arranged to function as an amperage indicator for indicating the amperage of the welding machine.