Flow control gate and method

• US 20130205666A1
• Filed: 09/11/2012
• Published: 08/15/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 02/10/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Andre Lafleur, Regis Fortin
• Original Assignee: Andre Lafleur, Regis Fortin
• Inventors: FORTIN, Rgis, LAFLEUR, Andr
• Granted Patent: US 8,928,458 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 49/13
• CPC Class Codes: E05F 15/73 responsive to movement or presence of persons or objects
• CPC Class Codes: E05F 15/78 using light beams
• CPC Class Codes: E05F 15/79 using time control
• CPC Class Codes: E06B 11/022 characterised by the manner of movement
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/15 with arrangements to prevent the passage of more than one individual at a time
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 23/00 Alarms responsive to unspecified undesired or abnormal conditions

Abstract

A flow control gate system that comprises a first and second elongated barrier members defining a passageway between a first area and a second area. The gate system also comprises a plurality of narrow beam presence sensors with substantially constant spacing therebetween defining a linear array mounted along the first barrier member and defining a presence detection beam orientation crosswise and substantially perpendicular to the passageway. The gate system further comprises a controller electrically connected to the plurality of narrow beam presence sensors. The controller implements an operating program to process signals from the plurality of narrow beam presence sensors and define valid detection periods to determine that an item is detected when a detection period is equal to or longer than a predetermined value and invalid detection periods interpreted as no detection when a detection period is shorter than the predetermined value. A flow control method is further provided.

Claims

1. A flow control gate system comprising:

a first and second elongated barrier members defining a passageway between a first area and a second area;

a plurality of narrow beam presence sensors with substantially constant spacing therebetween defining a linear array mounted along a barrier member and defining a presence detection beam orientation crosswise and substantially perpendicular to the passageway, and

a controller electrically connected to the plurality of narrow beam presence sensors and implementing an operating program to process signals from the plurality of narrow beam presence sensors and define valid detection periods to determine that an item is detected when a detection period is equal to or longer than a predetermined value and invalid detection periods interpreted as no detection when a detection period is shorter than said predetermined value.

2. The flow control gate system of claim 1 further comprises a barrier arm mounted on one of the elongated barrier members to provide swiveling movement between a first position across the passageway and a second open position parallel to the first elongated barrier member.

3. The flow control gate system of claim 2, wherein the barrier arm comprises a lock actuating mechanism to mechanically lock the flow control gate system in a close and open position, the lock actuating mechanism being under the electrical control of the controller.

4. The flow control gate system of claim 1 further comprises a photoelectric wave absorbing panel for intersecting and absorbing beams emitted by plurality of narrow beam presence sensors when no item is located in the passageway.

5. The flow control gate system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of narrow beam presence sensors comprises emitter and detector pairs, emitters being mounted to form an array along one of the barrier members and facing individually paired detectors mounted to form an array along the other barrier member.

6. The flow control gate system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of narrow beam presence sensors comprises at least four (4) photoelectric detectors.

7. The flow control gate system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of narrow beam presence sensors comprises at least an infrared beam emitter on the first elongated member and a corresponding infrared receptor on the second elongated member.

8. The flow control gate of claim 1, wherein the plurality of narrow beam presence sensors determines when a new item enters the passageway.

9. The flow control gate system of claim 1, wherein the second elongated barrier members comprises a master key switch to disable gate operation and to allow free circulation through the passageway.

10. The flow control gate system of claim 1, wherein the controller is adapted to store detection values representative of an item in a corresponding item variable for a plurality of time intervals, so that a position number representative of the physical position of the item in the passageway at a given time may be calculated by summing the detection values in the item variable for the corresponding time interval and dividing the result by the number of consecutive detection values that are different from zero (0) in the corresponding item variable.

11. The flow control gate system of claim 1, wherein the first elongated barrier member comprises a speaker to produce an alarm sound to indicate an alert condition, the speaker being connected and activated by the controller.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein providing a linear array having a plurality of narrow beam presence sensors comprises allocating a weight value to each presence sensors.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein reading signals from the plurality of narrow beam presence sensors in sequence at predetermined time intervals comprises maintaining an ON status for a predetermined period to avoid triggering inappropriate detection signal.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein allocating a detection value to each sensor comprises allocating a dimensional variable to each sensor, the dimensional variable being a position variable.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein storing detection values representative of an item in the corresponding item variable for a plurality of time intervals comprises incrementing an item counter to track the number of items.

17. The method of claim 11 further comprises producing an alarm sound to indicate an alert condition.

12. A method for monitoring and controlling a flow of detectable items through a passageway, the method comprising:

providing a linear array having a plurality of narrow beam presence sensors along the passageway, from an entry end to an exit end, for generating detection signals indicative of the presence of a detectable item;

reading signals from the plurality of narrow beam presence sensors in sequence at predetermined time intervals;

allocating a detection value to each sensor, the detection value for each sensor is zero (0) if a detection period of the corresponding signal is less than a predetermined value and one (1) if the detection period is equal to or larger than the predetermined value;

generating an item variable when the detection values of a first sensor (S1) and a second sensor (S2) at the entry end pass from zero (0) to one (1) and one (1) to zero (0) respectively from a first reading time interval to a second time interval; and

storing detection values representative of an item in the corresponding item variable for a plurality of time intervals, so that a position number representative of the physical position of the item in the passageway at a given time may be calculated by summing the detection values in the item variable for the corresponding time interval and dividing the result by the number of consecutive detection values that are different from zero (0) in the item variable.