Real-time room occupancy monitoring system

• US 7,554,437 B2
• Filed: 09/29/2006
• Issued: 06/30/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 09/29/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Palm, Inc. (TCL Technology Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Axelsen, Edward George
• Primary Examiner(s): Mullen; Thomas J
• Application Number:
  US11/536,845
• Publication Number:
  US 20080079569A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,005 Days
• Field of Search: 340/825.28, 340565-567, 340552-554, 340/531, 340524-525, 340/506, 705/5, 705/8
• US Class Current: 340/531
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/02 Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

A room occupancy monitoring system monitors the occupancy status of a plurality of rooms and collects and displays the room occupancy information in real time. The room occupancy monitoring system includes a plurality of room occupancy sensor devices and a server. Each of the room occupancy sensor devices is located in a corresponding one of a plurality of rooms, detects whether the corresponding one of the plurality of rooms is occupied, and generates a first signal indicating whether the corresponding one of the plurality of the rooms is occupied and a second signal indicative of the identity of the corresponding one of the rooms. The server receives the first signal and the second signal from the room occupancy sensor devices through a data communication network and displays room occupancy information of the plurality of the rooms based on the first signal and the second signal on a display device.

Claims

1. A room occupancy monitoring system, comprising:

a plurality of room occupancy sensor devices, each of the room occupancy sensor devices located in a corresponding one of a plurality of rooms and detecting whether the corresponding one of the plurality of rooms is occupied and generating a first signal indicating whether the corresponding one of the plurality of the rooms is occupied and a second signal indicative of the identity of the corresponding one of the rooms; and

a server communicatively coupled to the plurality of room occupancy sensor devices via a data communication network, the server receiving the first signal and the second signal through the data communication network and displaying room occupancy information of the plurality of rooms based on the first signal and the second signal on a display device.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the room occupancy sensor device comprises:

a motion sensor module detecting whether the corresponding one of the plurality of rooms is occupied and generating the first signal indicative of whether the corresponding one of the plurality of rooms is occupied; and

a network interface module coupled to the data communication network, the network interface module receiving the first signal from the motion sensor module and transmitting the first signal to the server via the communication network together with the second signal.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the room occupancy sensor further comprises:

a data conversion module coupled to the motion sensor module and the network interface module, the data conversion module receiving the first signal from the motion sensor module in analog form and converting the first signal to digital form for transmission by the network interface module via the data communication network.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein the motion sensor module is an infrared motion sensor or an ultrasonic motion sensor.

5. The system of claim 2, wherein the second signal is an IP (Internet Protocol) address assigned to the network interface module and corresponding to one of the plurality of rooms.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the IP address is dynamically assigned to the network interface module by the server.

7. The system of claim 5, wherein the IP address is hard coded to the network interface module and is fixed.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein each of the room occupancy sensor devices transmits the first signal and the second signal to the server in real time after a change is detected in an occupancy status of the corresponding one of the plurality of rooms.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein each of the room occupancy sensor devices transmits the first signal and the second signal to the server in response to receiving a ping signal or a query signal from the server.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the first signal is in a first state if the room is occupied and in a second state if the room is not occupied.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the display device is on a remote computing device communicatively coupled to the server.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the data communication network is a wireless data communication network.

13. A method of monitoring room occupancy, the method comprising:

detecting whether each of a plurality of rooms is occupied, using a plurality of room occupancy sensor devices each located in a corresponding one of the plurality of rooms and detecting whether the corresponding one of the plurality of rooms is occupied and generating a first signal indicating whether the corresponding one of the plurality of the rooms is occupied and a second signal indicative of the identity of the corresponding one of the rooms; and

transmitting the first signal and the second signal to a server via a data communication network; and

displaying room occupancy information of the plurality of the rooms based on the first signal and the second signal on a display device.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the second signal is an IP (Internet Protocol) address assigned to a corresponding one of the room occupancy sensor devices and corresponding to one of the plurality of rooms.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the IP address is dynamically assigned to the corresponding one of the room occupancy sensor devices by the server.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the IP address is hard coded to the corresponding one of the room occupancy sensor devices and is fixed.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein the first signal and the second signal are transmitted to the server in real time after a change is detected in an occupancy status of the corresponding one of the plurality of rooms.

18. The method of claim 13, wherein the first signal and the second signal are transmitted to the server in response to a ping signal or a query signal received at the corresponding one of the room occupancy sensor devices from the server.

19. The method of claim 13, wherein the first signal is in a first state if the room is occupied and in a second state if the room is not occupied.

20. The method of claim 13, wherein the display device is on a remote computing device communicatively coupled to the server.