Anti-Tampering Security Material

• US 20090140857A1
• Filed: 04/01/2008
• Published: 06/04/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/28/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Johns Hopkins University
• Original Assignee: Johns Hopkins University
• Inventors: Krill, Jerry A.
• Granted Patent: US 7,646,299 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/545.100
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/1436 with motion detection
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/1445 with detection of interference with a cable tethering an article, e.g. alarm activated by detecting detachment of article, breaking or stretching of cable furniture, e.g. shelves for displaying merchandise, incorporating tethers to prevent theft A47F7/024, A47F5/0861

Abstract

Security material such as cloth, either normal strength or armored, or fragile webbing into which electronic micro-devices are woven to detect and react to tampering of the monitored article at the scene or via a network. Also disclosed are the use of fuses connected in the cloth or webbing to further monitoring tampering and multi-layered cloth for use as circuit boards and sensors. Facilitates the monitoring of high value articles and facilities and automatically records or responds to tampering attempts to increase the level of security for personal and organizational uses.

Claims

1. A security material for protecting an article from tampering comprising:

a web comprising a plurality of interconnected ultra fine, coated conducting threads;

a plurality of accelerometers embedded in the web; and

an integrated circuit electrically connected to the plurality of ultra fine, coated conducting threads and the plurality of accelerometers for monitoring the conducting threads and the accelerometers, the integrated circuit containing logic for determining whether tampering is occurring and activating one of a plurality of pre-programmed alerts;

wherein tampering with the article causes a break in one or more of the conducting threads resulting in loss of current and/or voltage therein and motion in the accelerometers and thereby causes the integrated circuit logic to activate at least one of the plurality of pre-programmed alerts.

2. The security material as recited in claim 1, further comprising circuit monitoring nodes embedded in the web and electrically connected to the integrated circuit, the circuit monitoring nodes monitoring the conducting threads for loss of current and/or voltage.

3. The security material as recited in claim 2, wherein the circuit monitoring nodes communicate with the integrated circuit using one of a coded network protocol over the interconnected conducting threads and a wireless transmitter.

4. A security material for protecting an article from tampering comprising:

a cloth woven of a plurality of threads, one or more of the plurality of threads comprising a conducting wire, the conducting wire carrying an electrical current and/or voltage;

a plurality of fuses, each fuse comprising a breakable shell and a wire filament inside the breakable shell, the wire filament connected to the conducting wire; and

an integrated circuit electrically connected to each of the two or more conducting wires for monitoring the conducting wires, the integrated circuit containing logic for determining whether tampering is occurring and activating one of a plurality of pre-programmed alerts;

wherein tampering with the article causes a break in one or more of the conducting wires and/or one or more of the plurality of fuses resulting in a loss of current and/or voltage therein and thereby causing the integrated circuit logic to activate at least one of the plurality of pre-programmed alerts.

5. The security material as recited in claim 4, wherein each of the plurality of fuses has a center portion of its breakable shell having a narrower diameter than the end portions of its breakable shell thereby permitting the narrower portion to break from a sharp orthogonal (chopping) tampering motion.

6. The security material as recited in claim 5, wherein the centers of the breakable shells of at least two of the plurality of fuses are connected orthogonally to form one fuse, the orthogonally connected fuses being susceptible to breaking from a multi-directional tampering motion.

7. The security material as recited in claim 4, wherein each of the plurality of fuses has its breakable shell bent at an angle thereby permitting the breakable shell to be susceptible to breaking from a cutting or sawing tampering motion.

8. The security material as recited in claim 4, wherein the breakable shell is selected from one of a ceramic, glass and plastic.

9. A security material for protecting an article from tampering comprising:

a cloth having a plurality of conducting gridlines placed thereon, the plurality of conducting gridlines carrying an electrical current and/or voltage; and

an integrated circuit electrically connected to the plurality of conducting gridlines for monitoring the conducting gridlines, the integrated circuit containing logic for determining whether tampering is occurring and activating one of a plurality of pre-programmed alerts;

wherein tampering with the article causes a break in one or more of the conducting gridlines resulting in a loss of current and/or voltage therein and thereby causing the integrated circuit logic to activate at least one of the plurality of pre-programmed alerts.

10. The security material as recited in claim 9, wherein the plurality of conducting gridlines are placed on the cloth using one of inkjet, silk screen, etch, embroider, and paint.

11. The security material as recited in claim 9, further comprising a plurality of accelerometers embedded in the conducting guidelines;

wherein the integrated circuit monitors the plurality of accelerometers for motion indicting tampering with the article and thereby causes the integrated circuit logic to activate at least one of the plurality of pre-programmed alerts.

12. The security material as recited in claim 9, further comprising a plurality of fuses embedded in the conducting gridlines;

wherein the integrated circuit monitors the plurality of fuses for breaks, resulting in loss of current and/or voltage indicating tampering with the article and thereby causes the integrated circuit logic to activate at least one of the plurality of pre-programmed alerts.

13. The security material as recited in claim 9, further comprising one or more additional cloth, each additional cloth having a plurality of conducting gridlines placed thereon, and each additional cloth being electrically connected to the cloth and to the other additional cloths.

14. The security material as recited in claim 9, further comprising a first outer cloth layer and a second outer cloth layer, the first and second outer cloth layers being attached on either side of the cloth having the plurality of conducting gridlines placed thereon.

15. The security material as recited in claim 9, wherein the cloth is used as a flexible circuit board.

16. The security material as recited in claim 15, further comprising a cloth backplane attached to the cloth circuit board.

17. The security material as recited in claim 15, further comprising a plurality of cloth circuit boards, the plurality of cloth circuit boards having holes therein for bleed-through of the conducting gridlines thereby permitting connection of conducting gridlines and/or components on different cloth circuit boards.

18. The security material as recited in claim 13, wherein at least one of the additional cloths has a plurality of sensors mounted thereon and being electrically connected to an integrated circuit for controlling the plurality of sensors.

19. The security material as recited in claim 18, wherein the plurality of sensors comprise one or more of heat, pressure, chemical, biological, nuclear, audio and video.

20. The security material as recited in claim 13, further comprising an inter-layer cushion material comprising cooling tubes for heat dissipation.