Smoke detection methods, devices, and systems

• US 20050190055A1
• Filed: 04/29/2005
• Published: 09/01/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 06/22/1998
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hunt Techonologies Incorporated (Landis+Gyr Group AG)
• Original Assignee: Statsignal IPC LLC (Statsignal)
• Inventors: Petite, Thomas D.
• Granted Patent: US 7,295,128 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/531
• CPC Class Codes: G01V 1/364 Seismic filtering G01V1/37 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01V 1/37 specially adapted for seismic systems using continuous agitation of the ground , e.g. using pulse compression of frequency swept signals for enhancement of received signals
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 17/10 Actuation by presence of smoke or gases , e.g. automatic alarm devices for analysing flowing fluid materials by the use of optical means
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 17/113 Constructional details
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/009 Signalling of the alarm condition to a substation whose identity is signalled to a central station, e.g. relaying alarm signals in order to extend communication range
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 11/04 with alarm systems, e.g. fire, police or burglar alarm systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/00 Supervisory, monitoring or testing arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/26 Network addressing or numbering for mobility support
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/16 Gateway arrangements

Abstract

The present invention is directed to a system and method for accessing home monitoring devices remotely via a distributed wide-area network (WAN). More specifically, the present invention is directed towards a smoke detector system, which monitors for the presence of smoke and communicates the smoke condition to a remote location. The smoke detection system comprises a smoke detection device connected to a communication device. The smoke detection device outputs a signal or a change in a signal upon detection of smoke. This signal or change in signal is monitored by the communication device. The smoke condition is then communicated to the remote central location. Other embodiments are also claimed and described.

Claims

1. A condition detector comprising:

a sensor to provide an alarm signal upon detecting a condition;

a communication device having a unique address, to wirelessly transmit the alarm signal by formatting the alarm into a packet;

a gateway geographically remote from the communication device to receive the wireless alarm signal packet and transmit the alarm signal via a WAN to a monitoring device, the monitoring device being adapted to receive the alarm signal.

2. The detector of claim 1, the packet including:

a receiver address comprising a scalable address of the remote monitoring device;

a sender address comprising the unique address of the communication device;

a command indicator comprising a command code;

at least one data value comprising a scalable message; and

an error detector that is a redundancy check error detector.

3. The detector of claim 1, wherein the sensor is at least one of a photodetection smoke sensor and an ionizing smoke detector.

4. The detector of claim 3, further comprising an alarm to emit at least one of an audible alarm and a visual alarm upon receiving the alarm signal.

5. The detector of claim 4, wherein the packet further comprises:

a packet length indicator indicating the number of bytes in a packet;

a total packet indicator indicating the number of packets in a message; and

a current packet indicator to distinguish one packet from another packet.

7. The detector of claim 1, wherein the packet further comprises:

a preface having a predetermined sequence including a first logic level and a subsequent sequence including at least two bytes of a second logic level; and

a postscript comprising a low voltage output.

8. The detector of claim 1, wherein the communication device is a radio frequency transceiver.

9. The detector of claim 1, wherein the communication device transmits the alarm signal using digital modulation.

10. A smoke detection system comprising:

a monitoring station; and

a plurality of smoke detectors each having a unique identifier and each adapted to wirelessly transmit an alarm signal to the monitoring station by formatting the alarm signal into a packet,

the packet including;

a receiver address comprising a scalable address of the monitoring station;

a sender address comprising the unique identifier of the smoke detector;

a command indicator comprising a command code;

at least one data value comprising a scalable message; and

an error detector that is a redundancy check error detector.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein each of the smoke detectors comprise a smoke sensor and a communication device, the smoke sensor providing the alarm signal upon detecting smoke and the communication device formatting the alarm signal into the packet and transmitting the packet.

12. The system of claim 10, further comprising a gateway to receive the alarm signal and to provide the alarm signal to the monitoring station, wherein the gateway receives the packet, configures the packet into a data format for the monitoring station, and transmits the configured packet to the monitoring station via a wide area network.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein each of the smoke detectors comprise a radio frequency transceiver to wirelessly transmit the alarm signal.

14. The system of claim 10, further comprising a gateway having a memory, the gateway to receive the alarm signal and to determine which smoke detector transmitted the alarm signal based at least partially on the unique identifiers for the smoke detectors.

15. The system of claim 10, the smoke detectors each comprising a transceiver, wherein each transceiver communicates with at least one of the other transceivers.

16. The system of claim 10, wherein the smoke detectors transmit the alarm signal using digital modulation.

17. The system of claim 10, wherein the monitoring station transmits control signals to at least one of the smoke detectors to control the operations of the at least one smoke detector.

18. A smoke detection system comprising:

a plurality of smoke detectors each having a unique address;

a gateway;

a monitoring station;

wherein at least one of the plurality of smoke detectors wirelessly transmits an alarm signal over a radio frequency network to the gateway as a packet, the packet including;

a receiver address comprising a scalable address of the monitoring station;

a sender address comprising the unique address of the smoke detector transmitting the alarm signal;

a command indicator comprising a command code;

at least one data value comprising a scalable message; and

an error detector that is a redundancy check error detector; and

wherein the gateway receives the alarm signal from the smoke detector transmitting the alarm signal, configures the alarm signal for transmission over a wide area network, and transmits the alarm signal over the wide area network to the monitoring station.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the packet further comprises:

a packet length indicator indicating the number of bytes in the packet;

a total packet indicator indicating the number of packets in a message; and

a current packet indicator to distinguish one packet from another packet.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the radio frequency transmission is a low powered radio frequency transmission and is transmitted using digital modulation.