Patent Application
20070262848
The present invention relates to a device and system for remotely determining the lock status of a door and in particular to a key fob and system that indicates the current lock status of a door lock by detecting the opened/closed state of a door and broadcasting the state of the door along with the a time stamp to the key fob each time the conditions of the door change.
When one leaves the house, the car or other location, which may have a lock on the door, we often, but not every time, want to leave that door locked. When humans perform a task repeatedly often enough, the task becomes so automatic that they may not even be consciously aware of doing it. As a result, when a person leaves the house, they often try to think back and wonder if we really locked the door or not. Often, we return to check the status of the lock, wasting considerable time. If we do not go back and check, we worry about the lock and become less productive.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,568,120 discloses a remote controlled anti-theft system for transportation vehicles allows the user to easily determine at will if a faulty door position sensor or an open door will inhibit proper operation of the anti-theft system by pressing the lock button on the remote transmitter in a predetermined sequence. A first lock code from the remote transmitter initiates a locking and arming sequence of the anti-theft system. A second lock code received within a predetermined time of the first lock code causes an audible verification to be produced identifying whether the anti-theft system is successfully arming or whether a door ajar or faulty door sensor is preventing the anti-theft system from arming.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,703,919 discloses a method of confirming a lock button pressed condition for a remote device associated with a vehicle remote keyless entry system. The method includes setting a counter to zero then, continuously monitoring the remote device for a remote device button activation. If a lock button activation is detected, the counter is increment by one. Otherwise, if an unlock button activation is detected, the counter is reset to zero. When the counter is greater than one an indicator on the remote device is activated in response to the detection of either a lock button or unlock button activation. In one embodiment, the indicator is an LED which is activated only when, upon detecting a lock button activation, a lock button activation was immediately previously detected. If at any time after initial lock button activation, the unlock button is activated, the LED indicator will not illuminate.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,259,362 discloses a system (10) for a vehicle (12), wherein the system includes transmitter components (26, 28), located at the vehicle, that are operable to send communication that conveys a vehicle system status. A portable receiver unit (14) is operable to receive the communication that conveys the vehicle system status. An operator (76) of the vehicle (12) carries the portable receiver unit (14) upon leaving the vehicle. A controller (22) senses a condition indicative of the vehicle operator (76) leaving the vehicle (12) and enables the communication from the transmitter components (26, 28) to the portable receiver unit (14) in response to the sensed condition indicative of the vehicle operator (76) leaving the vehicle (12). Preferably, a device (44) enables operation of the portable receiver unit (14) in response to the sensed condition indicative of the vehicle operator (76) leaving the vehicle (12).
U.S. Pat. No. 6,097,282 discloses a memory device having the function of detecting the locking or unlocking condition of a remote controller comprises a battery, a key circuit a memory unit, a light emitting element, a testing key, an encoding unit, an infrared ray or a high frequency emitting driving circuit, etc. The positive end of the battery is connected with the power source (V+) of the memory unit. The lock key and unlock key of the key circuit are connected with the respective input end of the memory unit and the encoding unit. The output end of the memory unit is connected with one end of the light emitting element. Another end of the light emitting element is connected with one connection of the testing key and another end of the testing key is grounded. By the action of the testing key, the condition of the remote controller may inform the user. That is, if it is in a lock condition, then the light emitting element will light, while if it is in a “unlock” condition, then the light emitting element will extinguish. Therefore, by the special circuit design, the user may be informed about the message of the remote controller without returning to the original location to know the lock (or unlock) condition of the controller, such as the anti-theft device of a car or a motorcycle, an iron scrolling door, or a host without any setting function.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,429,773 discloses a system for remotely communicating with a vehicle including a wireless device, a security gateway, an on-board computer coupled to one or more sensors or controls, and a web interface that provides for graphical interface between the vehicle and a remote individual. More particularly, a vehicle owner uses the Internet to directly communicate with the vehicle and, using this linkage, can monitor vehicle status (e.g., oil level and quality), read vehicle statistics such as odometer reading and interrogate other sensors as sampled by the on-board computer. Preferably, the owner can also change security functions such as door lock, alarm on, ignition kill “on,” and similar functions using this web interface. To assist any vehicle owner with communication with a vehicle, the on-board components or owner's remote browser preferably permit selective downloading of skins, such that a wide variety of customized interfaces may be used to interact with the vehicle, no matter the owner's level of knowledge and sophistication with the vehicle.
The current art describes inventions related to indicating statuses for motor vehicle conditions. There remains a need to for a status indicator system for any type condition in any environment in addition to motor vehicles.
It is an objective of the present invention to provide a device and system that can indicate the lock status of a door from a remote location.
It is a second objective of the present invention to provide a device that records the current lock status of a door and displays that status when prompted by a user.
It is third objective of the present invention to provide a system that detects the current lock status of a door and transmits that current status to a receiver for storage and later display.
The present invention provides a system that records the current status of a door lock. This invention provides a key fob device, which indicates the current lock status of the given door(s) in question. The key fob is a small key chain attached device, which records the state of the door locks, or other devices or appliances, as one departs from the door. The system of the present invention comprises a sensor at the door that detects the current lock status of a door whenever the condition (open or close) of the door changes and transmits this lock status information to the key fob. Also incorporated into the key fob is circuitry that receives and records this received lock status. A display component in the key fob displays this current lock status when prompted by the user.
The actions of the invention are as follows: When the door is opened, closed or if someone passes through the doorway, this triggers the door device to broadcast the state of the door along with time stamp to nearby receiving devices. The key chain device receives the signal, which momentarily wakes it up, long enough to record the most recent state and time stamp. The state is broadcast repeatedly until the door stops moving or there is no more motion (of people) passing through the doorway. Later, when the user wants to know the sate of the door, the user can press a button on the key chain device and it will show the most recent status of the door along with a time stamp.
Referring to
An alternate embodiment to the above-described sets of buttons is to have one button used simply to display the status. Another feature is to have more LED's representing more than one door or device for which status is displayed. Thus with this one button push option, one could see if any of the doors are in the wrong status.
Since the broadcast range of the device is similar to that of a blue tooth or other local signal, the correct state of the door is captured even if the user puts the door into motion and is not touching it as it slams shut. The device built into the door lock can indicate whether the door is: 1) Closed and locked, 2) Closed and unlocked or 3) Open. An internal sensor in the door lock device can trigger the door device to broadcast its door lock status upon motion. A motion detector device can also trigger the broadcast when someone passes through the doorway. A positively locked sensor detects if the door is completely closed and the bolt is fully in the locked position. Other sensor devices can also detect whether the door is open or closed and unlocked, whether a window is unlocked or not, whether the kitchen stove is on or not etc. . . . ).
The battery life in the keychain fob device is extended by making use of the broadcast signal to temporarily power a “trigger receive circuit” which turns on the “main receiver circuit” which receives and saves the status in nonvolatile memory. After storing the status, the device goes back to the off state. The “trigger receiver circuit” can be constructed like the transponding version of the Exxon-Mobil Speedpass device. Instead of transponding, it turns on the main receiver. Power for the door broadcast device is not as critical since there are available power sources (house AC wiring, or car battery . . . ) usually available. Furthermore, the status-transmitting device need not consume any power except for the motion sensor (not motion of the door), if one is used. The motion sensor for the door itself can be constructed to automatically turn on the power. This can be done with a sloshing mercury switch arrangement, or a sensitive cantilevered accelerometer, which closes a connection upon sensing motion of the door.
Circuit 40 can comprise a pair of AND gates 41 and 42 that transmit this signal to the memory location 33. The signal that indicates the lock status of the door could comprise a two digit binary signal. This signal would have two conditions, locked and unlocked. In this example, a binary signal of ‘1 0’ would indicate an unlocked door. A binary signal of ‘0 1’ would indicate a locked door. Each AND gate 41 and 42 has two inputs. One input in each gate has a fixed input of ‘1’. The other input 43 and 44 in each gate receives one of the digits of the binary signal. Because one input of a gate is tied to ‘1’, the output of that AND gate will be the same as the input signal received at that gate. The output from each gate is stored in the memory location 32. If the binary signal is a ‘1 0’, the memory location will have a ‘1’ in field 45 and a ‘0’ in field 46.
In an example of the function of the display in
Alternate embodiments can include additional information. For example, status of all of the doors in the house, car, etc can be transmitted in addition to the door actually used. Thus one would know if all of the doors were locked. Also, this device could use the information provided by a conventional home security system to collect the status information for broadcast. When more status is shown, repeated pushes of the key chain device button would roll through the different statuses. Or, a collective status message such as “all doors locked” would suffice in specific situations.
The device could be used for other “did I remember to” situations such as:
It is important to note that while the present invention has been described in the context of a fully functioning data processing system, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the processes of the present invention are capable of being distributed in the form of instructions in a computer readable medium and a variety of other forms, regardless of the particular type of medium used to carry out the distribution. Examples of computer readable media include media such as EPROM, ROM, tape, paper, floppy disc, hard disk drive, RAM, and CD-ROMs and transmission-type of media, such as digital and analog communications links.
