1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to conveying information regarding an emergency. More specifically, the present invention relates to conveying, to an alarm system, information such as the location of occupants within a building during an emergency. The present invention also relates to notifying building occupants where to proceed safely in a building during an emergency. The present invention further relates to integrating a command work station.
2. Related Art
Current national and local safety codes require public buildings to provide fire alarm systems to help ensure the safety of building occupants. Emergency communications systems are also required for many buildings in order to enable voice communications between a fire ground commander and various emergency responders within such buildings. Additionally, recent changes in safety codes recommend that “areas of refuge” be constructed in public buildings. These areas of refuge are constructed with slow bum materials to provide safe harbor for occupants who are trapped or who cannot safely exit the buildings without assistance.
Although these measures have affected building safety positively, time delays continue to be a challenge for first responders to emergencies. Once a group of trapped occupants is located, first responders often lack multiple portable oxygen canisters and other life-saving devices and must enter a building repeatedly to complete evacuation of the building. Delays created by lack of information, such as the number of trapped occupants, often allows emergencies, such as fires, to spread too rapidly to save all lives.
Thus, a need exists for a life safety station that would provide (1) real-time information about occupants remaining in a building, (2) the number of occupants who are trapped or in need of assistance, and (3) the location of occupants who are trapped or in need of assistance. It would also be desirable for the life safety station to provide for audio and video communication that would allow first responders to validate the status of occupants remaining in rooms of relative safety, known in the art as areas of refuge. Such capabilities would enable first responders both to direct rescue personnel to exact locations of occupants requiring assistance and to prepare sufficient supporting devices.
A method and apparatus for remotely monitoring a site is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,281,790, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein. Generally speaking, the '790 patent discloses systems and methods for remotely monitoring sites to provide real-time information that can readily permit false alarms to be distinguished, and which can identify and track the precise location of an alarm. However, a need still exists for a method and apparatus that serves to educate first responders about the number, location, and condition of occupants in a building in an emergency situation.
National and local safety codes also require the posting of “exit signs” in public buildings, directing the occupants to a safe path of egress during an emergency, such as a fire. These exit signs are static display devices that are continuously illuminated even during power outage. Such exit signs have demonstrated an ability to save lives of building occupants by providing the occupants with better knowledge of how to seek safety.
Although exit signs can positively contribute to safety, their effectiveness is limited by at least two factors: lack of awareness of sign failure on the part of persons having an interest in knowing of such failure, and inability to discourage use of exit paths that have become blocked or that pose a threat to exiting occupants.
A need exists for enhanced exit signs (“smart” exit signs) that enable an authorized official, such as a fire ground commander, to notify building occupants of the blockage of a marked exit path as well as where to find the least dangerous path to safety. These enhanced exit signs would significantly save both time and lives. A need also exists for an additional feature that reports the operational status of a smart exit sign. This feature would provide real-time knowledge of equipment failure and would contribute to proper maintenance, helping to ensure that the smart exit signs are in operation at critical moments.
Recently enacted national and local safety codes also require public buildings that have more than a certain number of floors to provide to a first responder to a building emergency the capability of intra-building voice evacuation so that the first responder can help effect an orderly evacuation of the occupants of the building.
Although current voice evacuation systems have been instrumental in safe and orderly evacuations, many first responders still operate without a comprehensive understanding of emergency events in progress. Additional lives could be saved if the first responder were to know of changing developments, such as a fire, and could deliver voice directions relative to the developments. Currently, these two functions are enabled through separate platforms, but a more comprehensive command workstation is necessary to improve life safety systems in residence and office buildings.
Embodiments of the present invention generally provide a method and apparatus for alerting first responders to, among other things, (1) the fact that building occupants are trapped or in need of assistance, (2) the location of the occupants who are trapped or in need of assistance, and (3) the number of the occupants who are trapped or in need of assistance.
Other embodiments of the present invention generally provide a method and apparatus for notifying building occupants where to proceed safely in a building during an emergency, and a method for alerting building occupants of safe paths and blocked paths in a building. Embodiments may also generally provide a method for determining operational status of the invention.
Still other embodiments of the present invention relate generally to a method and apparatus for integrating a command work station and provide a method for integrating several different types of detection devices, such as smoke detectors, manual fire alarm stations, and sprinkler waterflow switches, into a single system that includes a means to automatically display the status of these devices. Such integration provides a ground commander, for example, access to changing status of a relevant facility as well as control tools to manage the situation effectively.
Further embodiments of the present invention generally provide a method and apparatus for integrating a command work station to add visual display and command and control functions that allow a first responder to manage a response to an alarm event and any resulting evacuation process.
Yet other embodiments of the present invention provide a method and apparatus for integrating a command work station to incorporate visual alarm notification graphics, an interactive touchscreen display, and an emergency communications system, including voice communications, into a single response station.
Reference will now be made in detail to embodiments of the present invention, examples of which are illustrated in the drawings. The figures and examples that follow are illustrative of the invention, and are not meant to limit the scope of the invention.
In one embodiment of the present invention of a method and apparatus for conveying information to an alarm system, a principal user interface of the invention is provided. This user interface, shown in
In the embodiment shown in
Activating the reset switch 104 allows the panel to be locally reset, clearing any previous alarms. Depressing the duress button 105 signals an alert to the alarm system.
The embodiment shown in
Also, as shown in
Also, as shown in
A block diagram of the microcontroller circuit board 108 is shown in
In another embodiment of the present invention, a method and apparatus for notifying building occupants where to proceed safely in a building during an emergency is provided. Such an embodiment is illustrated using
Another embodiment of the present invention is shown in
A schematic block diagram of one embodiment of the present invention is shown in
The fixed pattern displays 801 and 807 can be subdivided into a number of sections. In the embodiment shown in
As shown in
The dynamic LED arrays 813 and 814 allow authorized personnel, such as emergency responders, to cause the display of specific messages such as “WARNING—SMOKE,” for example by sending a signal that the message should be displayed. Modification of these dynamic arrays can be instigated by an authorized emergency responder who is remote from the location where the sign is placed, using a detection and notification system, such as a command workstation as previously described, which is in communication with the sign.
The desired modification of dynamic arrays may be communicated to an embodiment of the invention in a variety of ways. For instance, one way that the desired modification may be communicated is by use of communications interface circuit 815. When an authorized emergency responder activates a message to be displayed, which may be either a previously stored message or a custom message, information regarding the activated message is communicated to the communications interface circuit 815. Microcontroller 816 manages such communications and updates the dynamic LED arrays 813 and 814 through multiple control line inputs that are used to illuminate the LED arrays and to signal to observers that the sign is operating normally. Clock circuit 812 is provided for producing timing signals that may be required by the microcontroller 816.
The desired modification of dynamic LED arrays 813 and 814 may also be controlled by contact closure inputs 817. Such contact closure inputs may also be provided by an authorized emergency responder who is remote from the location where the sign is placed. These inputs select an internally stored display, each contact representing a bit of the binary address of the stored display. As an example, the emergency responder could select address 0000, which could represent a blank display. Alternatively, the emergency responder could select address 0001, which could represent a “WARNING—SMOKE” display. The contact closure inputs 817 may be used in embodiments in which the communications interface circuit 815 is not employed.
Other techniques for modifying the dynamic LED arrays 813 and 814 are possible, as should be apparent in view of this specification to those of skill in the art.
In the embodiment shown in
In alternative embodiments of the present invention, communications from a detection and notification system can be transmitted via radio or other wireless means to a sign so that the sign can still operate even if regular power and communications lines have failed.
Moreover, an embodiment of the present invention can contain an illuminated dynamic pattern display without an illuminated fixed pattern display, or, alternatively, an embodiment of the invention can contain an illuminated fixed pattern display without an illuminated dynamic pattern display.
Still another embodiment of the present invention provides a method and apparatus for integrating a command work station. In such an embodiment, a command workstation is provided so that first responders to a building emergency can be aware of ongoing alarm events and can be able to access command control functions necessary to manage the safe evacuation of occupants in the building.
An example of an embodiment integrating a command work station is illustrated in
The fire command workstation 900 communicates with the building alarm panel 901 over a digital communications network 913 (which may include a communications hub 914) through a hardwire connection.
Alternatively, the fire command workstation 900 communicates with the building alarm panel 901 over the digital communications network 913 (which may include a communications hub 914) through wireless communications.
In general, the building alarm panel 901, comprises processors and other electronics that receive and transmit information and commands to various components of a building safety system (for example, life safety station 906, voice evacuation panel 904, sensors such as fire alarms, and so on). The building alarm panel 901 may also update the fire command workstation 900 based on information received from these components, such as changing alarm status throughout the building. Updating may occur on a periodic basis depending on circumstances. Alternatively, “updating” may essentially be continuous. As an example of updating, the building alarm panel 901 may be configured to receive signals from smoke detectors located throughout the building. If one of the smoke detectors is triggered by smoke in a particular room, the building alarm panel 901 receives signals indicating a change of status representing the triggering of the smoke detector. The building alarm panel 901 then updates the fire command workstation 900 accordingly.
A user of the fire command workstation 900 may instruct the alarm panel 901 to enable selected, or all, voice evacuation panels 904 to begin broadcasting a prerecorded message, which may be digital or analog, directing occupants of a building in an evacuation process. The fire command workstation 900 may be programmed to display a variety of messages, for example on a graphical touchscreen interface on the fire command workstation 900. The user selects a message from the displayed messages, and in response to the selecting, the fire command workstation 900 may then signal the alarm panel 900, which in turn provides an appropriate instruction to the voice evaluation panels 904, at which prerecorded messages may be stored. Thus, for example, on instruction, the alarm panel 901 may direct the device interface units 902 to activate the voice evacuation panels 904 and/or the notification appliance circuits 905. As should be apparent to those of skill in the art in view of this specification, the device interface unit 902 may be a device that allows an alarm panel to communicate with a number of different devices such as sensors, a life safety station, a voice evacuation panel, and the like. The voice evacuation panels 904 may then direct a message to be broadcast by the attached evacuation speakers 907. In addition, the notification appliance circuits 905 may optionally activate the attached visible strobes 908.
Alternatively, a user of the fire command workstation 900 may activate voice communications circuits between the fire command workstation 900 and the life safety stations 906. A life safety station 906 is a device located within a room of a building that contains a duress alarm and is provided with a voice communication capability and a capability for tracking the number of occupants in the room. The voice communication circuits allow the user of the fire command workstation 900 to engage in voice communication with a person located at the life safety station 906. The voice communication circuits may be any of a number of systems allowing for transmission of voice signals, such as systems having hardwire, wireless, or other connections that should be apparent to one skilled in the art in light of this specification. Among other reasons, the voice communications circuits between the fire command workstation 900 and the life safety station 906 might be activated to validate a duress alarm sent by the life safety station 906 and/or to provide instruction to occupants trapped in a building.
As another alternative, a user of the fire command workstation 900 may activate voice communications circuits between the fire command workstation 900 and the voice evacuation panels 904. The voice communication circuits in this alternative may also be any of a number of systems allowing for transmission of voice signals, such as systems having hardwire, wireless, or other connections that should be apparent to one skilled in the art in view of this specification. This alternative allows the user of the fire command workstation 900 to broadcast a live message over the voice evacuation panels 904 rather than the prerecorded messages described above, or to temporarily mute prerecorded messages while a live message is being broadcast.
In a further alternative, a user may activate voice communications circuits between the fire command workstation 900 and the fireman's telephones 903. Once again, the voice communication circuits may be any of a number of systems allowing for transmission of voice signals, such as systems having hardwire, wireless, or other connections that should be apparent to one skilled in the art in view of this specification. One reason to activate the voice communications circuits between the fire command workstation 900 and single or multiple fireman's telephones 903 might be to coordinate response activity with other responders.
Subsystems of the fire command workstation 900 of
The voice communications system 911 conveys voice communications between the user of the fire command workstation 900 and the various components that are connected to the fire command workstation 900 via voice communications circuits. The various components may include, for example, the life safety station 906, the voice evacuation panel 904, and the fireman's telephone 903. The handset 912 enables voice input from the user of the fire command workstation 900 to the emergency voice communications subsystem 911.
The emergency voice communication system 911 may utilize analog technology to provide voice communications to the life safety station 906, the voice evacuation panel 904, and the fireman's telephones 903.
Alternatively, the emergency voice communication system 911 may utilize digital technology to provide voice communications to the life safety station 906, the voice evacuation panel 904, and the fireman's telephones 903.
It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the present invention can be embodied in various ways within the spirit of the invention. The scope of the invention is not to be limited by the illustrative examples given above, but rather is to be defined by the appended claims.
This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119(e) to U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/543,923, filed Feb. 13, 2004, the entirety of which is hereby incorporated by reference herein.
Number | Date | Country | |
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60543923 | Feb 2004 | US |