The present disclosure relates to the field of security devices. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to an alarm system contained in an enclosure.
Conventional alarm systems installed in cars, boats, trailers, and like vehicles, are vulnerable and easy to defeat. They usually comprise at least one vulnerable component, for example a sensor, a power supply, or even a simple wire, which can be bypassed or inactivated.
Some alarm systems include a time delay so that the actual alarm is triggered several seconds after entry into the vehicle, allowing some time for the legitimate user to access a panel to disable the system.
Experienced criminals have developed techniques to use these delays and other vulnerabilities to disable most alarm systems.
Therefore, there is a need for improvements in alarm systems that compensate for problems related to known vulnerabilities.
According to the present disclosure, there is provided an alarm system comprises an enclosure, a power source, an alerting module, a sensor and a controller. The power source, the alerting module, the sensor and the controller are contained in the enclosure. The alerting module is adapted to generate an alarm when receiving power from the power source. The sensor is adapted to detect a position information of the sensor. A sensitivity of the sensor is sufficient to detect an opening of the enclosure. The controller is operatively connected to the power source, the alerting module and the sensor. The controller is configured to receive the position information from the sensor, detect a change of the position information received from the sensor and, in response to detecting the change of the position information, cause the power source to deliver power to the alerting module.
In some implementations of the present technology, the alerting module comprises a sound output device and the generated alarm is an audible sound.
In some implementations of the present technology, the sound output device is a siren.
In some implementations of the present technology, the alerting module comprises a wireless transmitter adapted to transmit an alert signal toward a remote alerting module.
In some implementations of the present technology, the alarm system further comprises a relay contained in the enclosure, the controller being further configured to cause the relay to connect the alerting module to the power source in response to detecting the change of the position information.
In some implementations of the present technology, the controller is further configured to cause the relay to disconnect the alerting module from the power source a predetermined period of time after the connection of the alerting module to the power source.
In some implementations of the present technology, the alarm system further comprises a power converter contained in the enclosure, electrically connected to the power source and adapted to energize the sensor and the controller.
In some implementations of the present technology, the alarm system further comprises a wireless receiver contained in the enclosure, energized by the power converter and adapted to: receive, from a remote terminal, commands to turn on and turn off the alarm system; electrically connect the sensor, the relay and the controller to the power converter when receiving the command to turn on the alarm system; and disconnect the sensor, the relay and the controller from the power converter when receiving the command to turn off the alarm system.
In some implementations of the present technology, the power source is a battery of a vehicle.
In some implementations of the present technology, the sensor is a gyroscope.
In some implementations of the present technology, the sensor is further adapted to calculate the position information of the alarm system at regular intervals; and the controller is further adapted to: receive the position information at each regular interval, and cause the power source to deliver power to the alerting module when a difference between a newly received position information and position information stored in the controller is greater than a predetermined threshold.
In some implementations of the present technology, the sensor is further adapted to calculate the position information of the alarm system as a three-dimensional (3D) data set; and the controller is further adapted to: compare a newly received 3D data set with a stored 3D data set, and cause the power source to deliver power to the alerting module when a difference between at least one dimension of the newly received 3D data set and a corresponding at least one dimension of the stored 3D data set is greater than the predetermined threshold.
In some implementations of the present technology, the enclosure is a lockable enclosure.
The foregoing and other features will become more apparent upon reading of the following non-restrictive description of illustrative embodiments thereof, given by way of example only with reference to the accompanying drawings.
Embodiments of the disclosure will be described by way of example only with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
Like numerals represent like features on the various drawings. The various drawings are not to scale.
Various aspects of the present disclosure generally address one or more of the problems related to known vulnerabilities of conventional alarm systems.
Generally speaking, an alarm system constructed according to the present technology includes a sensor, a controller capable of detecting a motion of the alarm system based on readings from the sensor, a relay that may be activated by the controller for delivery of power from a power source to a sound output device. The sensor, the controller, the relay, the sound output device and the power source are all contained in an enclosure. The sensor has a sufficient sensitivity to detect an opening of the enclosure. The alarm system can be installed on a boat, on a trailer, on a car, on a motorcycle, on an all-terrain vehicle (ATV), and the like. The sensor can detect a movement of the vehicle. None of the components of the alarm system is exposed outside of the enclosure. Any attempt to defeat the alarm system or one of its components would first require opening of the enclosure, which would trigger the alarm system and emission of a loud alarm signal from the sound output device.
The present disclosure describes embodiments of the alarm system in the context of its use in a vehicle. However, the present technology is not limited to vehicular applications. Variants of the alarm system as shown and described may be used in other contexts where theft deterrence is desired.
Referring now to the drawings,
The battery 110 has a positive terminal 112 and a negative terminal 114. The alerting module 120 has a negative terminal 122, which is directly connected to the negative terminal 114 of the battery 110, and a positive terminal 124, which may receive power from the relay 130 when the relay 130 is closed. The alerting module 120 may comprise a sound output device, for example a siren 126 (
In an embodiment, the relay 130, the gyroscope 140, the controller 150, the power converter 160, the wireless receiver 170 and the alerting module 120 may be fixedly mounted on an internal face (not shown) of the battery box 180, attached to the battery 110, or mounted on a board (not shown) inserted in the battery box 180, in order to maintain a fixed relative position between these components of the alarm system 100. Although optional, this configuration allows specifying a finer sensitivity of a detection by the alarm system 100.
Other connections marked XDA, XCL and AD0 on
The controller 150 of
The relay 170 as shown further comprise a NC connector as well as red and green light emitting diodes (LED) that are not used in the alarm system 100.
Optionally, mounting at least the gyroscope 140 of the alarm system 100 on an internal face 186 of the top lid 184 ensures that lifting of the top lid 184 will cause a change of position of the gyroscope 140 that will be detected by the controller 150. In the embodiment as shown on
Although not shown on
Returning now to
The wireless receiver 170 connects the switched output 177 to the common input 176 when it receives a command to turn on the alarm system 100, resulting in the application of the 5-volt power to energize the relay 130, the gyroscope 140 and the controller 150. The controller 150 starts sending the clock signal to the gyroscope at regular intervals. At each interval, the gyroscope 140 sends its own position information, for example 3D position information, to the controller 150. The controller 150 compares the received position information with previously received position information to detect a change of the position information.
In an embodiment, the controller 150 may compare the present position information with a last received position information. In another embodiment, the controller 150 may evaluate a trend of change of the position information. In these or other embodiments, the controller 150 may react to a change of at least one of three (3) dimensions of the position information. In these or in still further embodiments, the controller 150 may react to a change of position information that exceeds a predetermined threshold so that minor vibrations, for example resulting from wind or other vehicles passing near a vehicle equipped with the alarm system 100, will not trigger an alarm.
Provided that the controller 150 detects a change of position information, it applies the enabling signal to the relay 130. In turn, the relay 130 establishes a connection of the positive terminal 124 of the alerting module 120 with the positive terminal 112 of the battery 110, resulting in the generation of an alarm by the alerting module 120. If the alerting module 120 comprises the siren 126, the siren 126 starts emitting a loud sound. If the alerting module 120 comprises a wireless transmitter, the wireless transmitter starts emitting an alert signal that should be received at a remote alerting module that, in turn, may provide an visual and/or audible alarm indication.
The controller 150 may initiate a timer when it first applies the enabling signal to the relay 130. The enabling signal may be maintained by the controller 150 for a programmable, predetermined period of time, for example five (5) minutes, following which it stops applying the enabling signal to the relay 130 in order to stop the alarm.
If the controller 150 determines at operation 235 that the data indicative of the 3D position has changed by more than a predetermined threshold, an alarm needs to be triggered. The controller 150 initiates the alarm by sending the enabling signal to the relay 130 at operation 240. The controller also starts a timer for eventually stopping the alarm at operation 245, the timer having a predetermined duration, for example a 5-minute duration. The sequence 200 continues at operation 220 for another instance of the loop. If the 3D position keeps on changing in a next instance of the loop, the timer is initiated again at the next pass of operation 245. In this manner, the alarm duration is effectively determined according to a time when an intrusion attempt is stopped.
If the controller 150 determines at operation 250 that the data indicative of the 3D position has not changed by more than the predetermined threshold, no new alarm needs to be triggered. However, an alarm may have been previously triggered. The controller 150 verifies at operation 255 whether the timer has expired. The timer may be expired either because there is no current alarm or because a current alarm has just reached the end of its predetermined duration. In either case, the controller 150 maintains the enabling signal sent to the relay 130 if the timer is not expired, or otherwise removes the enabling signal to stop the alarm at operation 260. In any case, the sequence 200 continues at operation 220 for another instance of the loop.
Receiving a command to turn off the alarm system 100 at the wireless receiver 170 results in the removal of the 5-volt power on the relay 130, the gyroscope 140 and the controller 150. The sequence 200 is immediately stopped. The internal connection between the power input terminal 134 and the switched terminal 138 of the relay 130 is released and the 12-volt power is no longer applied to the alerting module 120, which terminates the alarm.
Those of ordinary skill in the art will realize that the description of the alarm system are illustrative only and are not intended to be in any way limiting. Other embodiments will readily suggest themselves to such persons with ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of the present disclosure. Furthermore, the disclosed alarm system may be customized to offer valuable solutions to existing needs and problems vulnerabilities of conventional alarm systems. In the interest of clarity, not all of the routine features of the implementations of the alarm system are shown and described. In particular, combinations of features are not limited to those presented in the foregoing description as combinations of elements listed in the appended claims form an integral part of the present disclosure. It will, of course, be appreciated that in the development of any such actual implementation of the alarm system, numerous implementation-specific decisions may need to be made in order to achieve the developer's specific goals, such as compliance with application-related, system-related, and business-related constraints, and that these specific goals will vary from one implementation to another and from one developer to another. Moreover, it will be appreciated that a development effort might be complex and time-consuming, but would nevertheless be a routine undertaking of engineering for those of ordinary skill in the field of security devices having the benefit of the present disclosure.
The present disclosure has been described in the foregoing specification by means of non-restrictive illustrative embodiments provided as examples. These illustrative embodiments may be modified at will. The scope of the claims should not be limited by the embodiments set forth in the examples, but should be given the broadest interpretation consistent with the description as a whole.
The present application claims priority from U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 62/856,839, filed on Jun. 4, 2019, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein.
Number | Date | Country | |
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62856839 | Jun 2019 | US |