ALERT SYSTEM WITH ZONING USING WIRELESS PORTABLE DETECTORS AND A CENTRAL STATION

• US 20110115623A1
• Filed: 11/19/2009
• Published: 05/19/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/19/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Original Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Inventors: Gnanasekaran, B., K., Arunkumar, Kumar, Nukala Sateesh, Gnanasekaran, Senthilnathan
• Granted Patent: US 9,792,808 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/539.26
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/02 Alarms for ensuring the safety of persons
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/002 Generating a prealarm to the central station
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/016 Personal emergency signalling and security systems emergency non-personal manually actuated alarm activators G08B25/12
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 27/001 Signalling to an emergency team, e.g. firemen
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72418 for supporting emergency services
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72457 according to geographic location
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/10 including a GPS signal receiver
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/12 including a sensor for measuring a physical value, e.g. temperature or motion telephones including GPS signal receivers H04M2250/10

Abstract

A system and method of monitoring zones for alarm conditions and automatically alerting individuals in a plurality of zones about the safety of a particular zone is provided. The method includes providing a site map of a predefined area, configuring a plurality of zones in the predefined area, receiving ambient condition data and location data from a plurality of wireless devices located in the predefined area, computing an alarm level for each zone in the plurality of zones based on the received ambient condition data and location data, and transmitting alert notifications to the plurality of wireless devices. The alert notification sent to each wireless device is based on the computed alarm level of the zone in which that wireless device is located relative to the computed alarm level of the other zones in the plurality of zones.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

providing a site/floor map of a predefined area;

configuring a plurality of zones in the predefined area;

receiving ambient condition data and location data from a plurality of wireless devices located in the predefined area;

computing an alarm level for each zone in the plurality of zones based on the received ambient condition data and location data; and

transmitting alert notifications to the plurality of wireless devices, wherein the alert notification sent to each wireless device is based on the computed alarm level of the zone in which that wireless device is located relative to the computed alarm level of the other zones in the plurality of zones.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein providing a site map of a predefined area includes importing or loading the site map onto a central station.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein configuring a plurality of zones in the predefined area includes assigning a zone criticality to each zone in the plurality of zones.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising reassigning the alarm level of each zone based on the received ambient condition data and location data from the plurality of wireless devices.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising assigning an active zone level to a zone in which ambient condition data indicates the presence of an alarm condition.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein transmitting alert notifications includes transmitting an emergency alert to active zones, transmitting a warning alert to zones within a predetermined distance away from active zones, and transmitting a warning alert to zones outside of the predetermined distance away from active zones.

7. The method of claim 5 further comprising determining whether any wireless device in the plurality of wireless devices is approaching the active zone.

8. The method of claim 7 further comprising sending a pre-alert notification to the wireless device approaching the active zone.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising each of the plurality of wireless devices transmitting a confirmation notification upon receiving an alert notification.

10. The method of claim 9 further comprising transmitting an emergency notification to an emergency response team when no confirmation notification is received from each of the plurality of wireless devices within a predetermined period of time.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein at least some of the wireless devices are one of fixed, portable, or mobile device.

12. A central station comprising:

circuitry that configures a plurality of zones in a predefined area;

circuitry that receives ambient condition data and location data from a plurality of wireless devices located in the predefined area;

circuitry that computes an alarm level to each zone in the plurality of zones based on the received ambient condition data and location data; and

circuitry that transmits alert notifications to the plurality of wireless devices, wherein the alert notification sent to each wireless device is based on the computed alarm level of the zone in which that wireless device is located relative to the computed alarm level of the other zones in the plurality of zones.

13. The central station of claim 12 including a server or a personal computer.

14. The central station of claim 12 including an interactive viewing screen and software stored on a local computer readable medium.

15. The central station of claim 12 further comprising circuitry that communicates with a plurality of access points in communication with the plurality of wireless devices.

16. The central station of claim 12 further comprising circuitry that re-computes the alarm level of each zone based on the received ambient condition data and location data from the plurality of wireless devices.

17. A wireless device comprising:

circuitry that detects location data;

circuitry that detects ambient condition data;

circuitry that transmits the location data and the ambient condition data to a central station; and

circuitry that receives an assigned alarm level and an alert notification from the central station.

18. The wireless device of claim 17 wherein the circuitry that detects location data includes a received signal strength indication or a GPS-based signal receiver.

19. The wireless device of claim 17 wherein the circuitry that detects ambient condition data is coupled to a smoke detector, a heat detector, or a gas detector.

20. The wireless device of claim 17 wherein the device is one of fixed, mobile, or portable device.