Patent Application
20080094203
The above mentioned and other features and objects of this invention, and the manner of attaining them, will become more apparent and the invention itself will be better understood by reference to the following description of embodiments of the invention taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:
Corresponding reference characters indicate corresponding parts throughout the several views. Although the exemplification set out herein illustrates embodiments of the invention, in several forms, the embodiments disclosed below are not intended to be exhaustive or to be construed as limiting the scope of the invention to the precise forms disclosed.
Referring now to the drawings and particularly to
System controller 14 includes a control device in the form of a control panel 20 electrically connected via an option bus 22 to a wireless sensor network (WSN) hub 24, which also may be referred to as a “wLSN hub”. Control panel 20 may include a processor 26, a memory device 28 and a telephone interface 30. Processor 26 may coordinate communication with the various system components including installer interface 18 and WSN hub 24. Memory 28 may include software for interpreting signals from wireless devices 16 and installer interface 18, and deciding based thereon whether to transmit an alarm signal from control panel 20. Memory 28 may also serve as a database for wireless devices 16. The alarm signal may be used to activate an audible alarm (not shown) within building 12, or to notify a central station receiver (CSR) (not shown) such as a security company, fire station, or police station, for example, via public telephone network 32. Memory 28 may also store identification information and configuration data for wireless devices 16, as described in more detail below.
WSN hub 24 may include an antenna element 34 for transmitting and receiving air-borne signals, such as radio frequency signals. The radio frequency signals may be received by and transmitted from, i.e., exchanged with, wireless devices 16. Information from wireless devices 16 may be passed by WSN hub 24 to control panel 20 via option bus 22. Control panel 20 may pass information to WSN hub 24 via option bus 22 for transmission to wireless devices 16 as necessary. WSN hub 24 may include a processor 40 and memory 42 for storing software, identification information associated with wireless devices 16, and configuration data associated with wireless devices 16.
Installer interface 18 may include an outside communication device 44, such as a cell phone, standard phone, or computer equipped with a modem; a house phone 46, which may be hard-wired to telephone interface 30 via a telephone line 48; and a manual interface 50, which may be in the form of a keypad. Manual interface 50 may be in communication with control panel 20 and WSN hub 24 via option bus 22. Thus, installer interface 18 may be in communication with system controller 14 via public telephone network 32, telephone line 48, and/or option bus 22. Installer interfaces including Ethernet or a networked connection are also possible.
Wireless devices 16 may be in the form of any number or combination of window sensors, door sensors, glass break sensors, inertia sensors, motion detectors, smoke detectors, panic devices, gas detectors and keyfobs, for example. Window sensors and door sensors may detect the opening and/or closing of a corresponding window or door, respectively. Panic devices may be in the form of devices that human users keep on their person, and that are to be used to summon help in an emergency situation. Gas detectors may sense the presence of a harmful gas such as carbon monoxide, or carbon dioxide. A keyfob may be used to arm or disarm security system 10, and is another device that a user may possibly keep on his person. Each wireless device 16 includes a respective antenna element 52 for transmitting and receiving air-borne signals, such as radio frequency signals. The radio frequency signals may be received by and transmitted from, i.e., exchanged with, WSN hub 24. Wireless devices 161, 162 and 163 are indicated in FIG. I as being disposed inside building 12, and wireless device 16n is indicated in
During installation, some types of wireless devices 16 may be mounted or hung in a permanent or semi-permanent desired location. Examples of such types of wireless devices 16 may include window sensors, door sensors, glass break sensors, inertia sensors, motion detectors, smoke detectors, and gas detectors. Other types of wireless devices 16 may be disposed in temporary locations during installation, or may even be in motion, such as a panic device or keyfob being carried on a user's person.
To begin the installation, a human installer positioned within building 12 may access installer interface 18 such as by picking up the receiver on house phone 46, or by actuating keys on manual interface 50. As an alternative, or in addition, to house phone 46, there may be a modem-equipped computer (not shown) within building 12 that is attached to telephone line 48 and that may be used as an installer interface. It is also possible for a human installer disposed outside of building 12 to remotely communicate with system 10 by calling a dedicated telephone number associated with security system I 0. The calling of the dedicated telephone number may be performed via public telephone network 32 and an outside telecommunication device 44, which is illustrated as a standard telephone in
Instead of the procedures described in the above paragraph, an installer may press a test button (not shown) on control panel 20 in order to implement an automatic self-test procedure. Generally, by the installer pressing a single test button, the system may be taken directly to a wireless mode in which the installer is bypassed and the security devices are learned and automatically configured. In a specific embodiment, pressing the test button for two seconds and releasing it may cause the panel to run through a test sequence. After some tests are run, the human installer running the test may be asked to press the ‘1’ button on a keypad (not shown) for a point walk test or press ‘5’ to skip it. If the installer presses ‘1’, and the system has a wLSN hub connected that has not been initialized, then the panel may start the discovery/configuration/test process with no further input until the devices are ready to be activated.
Once the wireless maintenance mode has been entered, the installer may make appropriate selections via installer interface 18 in order to transmit an installation initiation signal directing WSN hub 24 to go into a discover mode. If the user is disposed outside of structure 12, he may remotely transmit the installation initiation signal via a cell phone, for example. In the discover mode, hub 24 may be instructed to “discover” wireless devices, such as wireless devices 16, that need to be installed in system 10. Discovering a wireless device may include receiving, assigning, or otherwise ascertaining unique identification information and configuration data for that device, such as an identification number, a type of the device, time periods when the device is on and off, supervision intervals (i.e., how often the device should report its status), operational parameters based upon the regulations in which the system is to operate, and/or a function of the device.
In a learn mode of operation, system controller 14 issues an air-borne signal requesting that each wireless device 16 that receives the request reply with an identification number and the type of the device. System controller 14 may store each identification number and its associated type in memory 28 for further reference. The identification number may be any string of alphanumeric characters and/or bits that uniquely identifies the wireless device with which the identification information is associated. This identification number may be included within any signal transmitted from a wireless device, both during installation and during surveillance operation of system 10, in order to identify which of wireless devices 16 that the signal is being transmitted from.
The device type information may specify whether the wireless device is a window sensor, door sensor, glass break sensor, inertia sensor, motion detector, smoke detector, gas detector, panic device or keyfob, for example. The device type information may further break down these categories by subcategories such as indoor or outdoor motion detector, garage door or front door sensor, carbon monoxide or carbon dioxide, etc.
Certain assumptions about how each wireless device should be configured can be made based upon the type of the wireless device. For example, if a wireless device is a smoke detector type, then it may be assumed that the wireless device should remain ON continually. It may be further assumed that the wireless device should have a supervision interval of about two hundred seconds. That is, the smoke detector should report its status at least every two hundred seconds, as required by United States regulations. As another example, if a wireless device is an interior motion detector type, then it may be assumed that the wireless device should be ON only after a user has entered a valid arming code into manual interface 50 and a door sensor detects the opening and closing of an exterior door within a certain time period thereafter. It also may be assumed that the wireless device should have a supervision interval of about four hours. That is, the interior motion detector should report its status at least every four hours. Of course, if the interior motion detector were to detect motion within that four hour period, then the detector would report its new status immediately, or as soon as the detection of motion could be confirmed.
The function information may include the conditions under which control panel 20 should transmit an alarm signal, or take some other action, in response to the wireless device transmitting a notification signal during surveillance operation. The notification signal from the wireless device may indicate, in the case of a panic device or keyfob, that a button on the panic device or keyfob is being actuated, or may indicate that the wireless device is sensing motion, sound, smoke, gas, the opening of a door/window, etc. For example, if a door sensor is on a door that can be unlocked from outside building 12 with a key, then it may be desirable to transmit an alarm signal only under the condition that an arm/disarm code has not been entered on manual interface 50 within one minute after the door is opened. Thus, a resident of building 12 returning from a trip would have a chance to disarm system 10 after unlocking the door. Conversely, if a door sensor is on a door that cannot be unlocked from outside building 12 with a key, then it may be desirable to transmit an alarm signal under all conditions in which system 10 is armed and the door has been opened. Other examples of the various functions of security devices are known in the art, and thus are not discussed in further detail herein.
When system 10 is in the discover mode, a human installer may visit each wireless security device and perform some type of actuation that serves to activate the device. For example, the installer may press a button on each device to thereby activate the device. The manual activation of the devices causes each device to respond by transmitting an air-borne signal including its unique identifier. The wireless device may also report the state that it is currently in. For example, a motion sensor may report that it is detecting motion, which may be due to either the movements of the human installer or software code within the sensor that directs the sensor to report motion automatically upon activation by the installer. As another example, a smoke detector would likely be designed to report that it detects the presence of smoke upon human activation regardless of whether smoke is actually present at the time of activation.
Upon receiving the unique identifier of a device, system controller 14 may look up the device's type, which may be stored in memory 28 or may be accessed on-line via the internet. Based on the device type, system controller 14 may make some assumptions about how the device should be configured, as discussed above. System controller 14 then may monitor the device dependent upon the type of the device. As used herein, the term “monitoring” may include supervising the security devices, such as by sending instruction signals to the security devices. The term “monitoring” may also include processing reporting signals from the security devices and deciding what action should be taken in response to the reporting signals. For example, system controller 14 may cause an alarm to issue depending upon both a reported change of status of the security device, and how the device has been configured.
Instruction signals transmitted from system controller 14 to devices 16 may generally specify the configuration of the devices. That is, the instruction signals may instruct the devices how often to report status (i.e., the supervision interval), and during what time periods to be in an active state (i.e., the duty cycle).
Following the discovery phase, hub 24 may give control panel 20 the identification and type information from all wireless devices 16 that transmit such information in response to being requested therefor. These discovered wireless devices may be respectively assigned the next available panel zone numbers in addition to the unique identifiers that may be provided by the devices themselves. System controller 14 may assign each wireless device a respective zone number for reporting purposes (e.g., device 6 is in alarm). This number may be used in communication within and between control panel 20 and hub 24, but may not be communicated to the device to which the number has been assigned.
Once the discover phase is complete, and control panel 20 has received its full capacity of identification information, the identification information may be sorted and zone numbers may be assigned by control panel 20. Zone numbers may be assigned based on groups of wireless device types. For example, all the window sensors that respond may be assigned consecutive zone numbers beginning with the first available zone number that is available. Control panel 20 may then assign zone numbers to the motion detectors, picking up where the assignment of zone numbers to the window sensors left off. Next, zone numbers may be assigned to smoke detectors, and so on until all devices that responded are assigned a zone number.
Once a wireless device has transmitted its unique identifier and its type information, once the device has been activated, and once system controller 14 has transmitted instruction signals to the device based upon its type, testing may be completed upon the device transmitting a report indicating that its state has changed since its initially reported state. For example, a motion detector that initially reported the presence of motion (due to movements of the human installer or automatically by design) may time out after the installer has walked out of range. After timing out, the motion detector may report that motion is no longer present. Having received reports of each of two possible statuses (motion and no motion) from the motion detector, the system controller's testing of the motion detector is complete. As another example, a smoke detector that initially reported the presence of smoke (automatically by design) may time out a predetermined time period after the installer has released an activation button. After timing out, the smoke detector may report that smoke is no longer present. Having received reports of each of two possible statuses (smoke and no smoke) from the smoke detector, the system controller's testing of the smoke detector is complete.
Upon the completion of testing, system 10 may enter an operational mode in which system 10 performs its intended function of providing surveillance. In the operational mode, wireless devices 16 continue to report their statuses according to and dependent upon their configurations, and system controller 14 continues to monitor devices 16 according to and dependent upon the configurations of devices 16.
Each wireless device 16 may be provided with an LED 54 that may light up or flash to indicate to the installer that the wireless device is transmitting, or has recently transmitted, some type of signal. If the LED does not light up or flash at the desired device, then the installer may need to perform some troubleshooting. For example, the installer may check the battery (not shown) of the wireless device or replace the wireless device with another one.
There may be an occasion when the default configuration that control system 14 has assigned to a wireless device 16 needs to be changed to suit a particular application. In order to modify the configuration of a wireless device, a user may access manual interface 50 and key in replacement configuration data for the wireless device.
One embodiment of a method 200 of the present invention is illustrated in
It is possible for a wireless device to have more than two possible states. For example, an exemplary wireless device 16 is shown in
During testing, an alarm siren type of device may initially report that it is sounding an alarm before timing out and then reporting its actual state of not sounding an alarm. Thus, the system controller has received reports in each of the two states, and that aspect of testing is complete. If power supply 58 is present and plugged in during testing, then device 16 may initially report as a sub-input that the voltage from power supply 58 is absent. After the short time-out period, device 16 may report that the voltage from power supply 58 is present, and thus that aspect of testing is also complete. However, if power supply 58 is absent during testing, then device 16 may report as a sub-input that the voltage from power supply 58 is absent, and may continue to report the absence after the time-out period. Because system controller 14 does not receive each of two possible states of the sub-input of power supply presence/absence, testing of this sub-input is not completed. If a source of a sub-input such as a power supply is not present in a wireless device, then it may not be possible for an installer to activate that sub-input during testing.
In the case where power supply 58 is present and testing has been completed, any subsequent loss of power from power supply 58 may be reported by device 16 as a trouble condition that should be investigated, and system controller 14 may treat it as a trouble condition. For example, system controller 14 may energize a red warning light on control panel 20, and/or periodically emit an audible beep, to thereby notify the user of the trouble. In the case where power supply 58 is absent and testing has not been completed, device 16 may continue to report the absence of power from a power supply as a trouble condition that should be investigated. This may be a problem if system controller were to respond by notifying the user of trouble when in fact there is no trouble because no power supply was ever installed. However, according to the invention, a mask is applied to this power supply present/absent sub-input because testing of the sub-input was not completed. As a result of the mask, system controller 14 may ignore subsequent reports of a missing power supply and not treat it as a trouble condition.
Other embodiments of wireless devices 16 that have multiple sub-inputs are illustrated in
The open state of the missing contact may be reported by device 16 as an alarm condition that should be responded to by sounding a siren alarm. Because the door/window is not actually open, sounding the alarm would be a nuisance to the user, to neighbors, and to the police who might respond to the alarm. However, according to the invention, a mask is applied to whichever one(s) of the magnetic contact and wired contact sub-inputs is not fully tested. System controller 14 may ignore subsequent reports of an open window/door from any sub-input contact to which a mask has been applied and not treat it as an alarm condition.
Device 16 in
One embodiment of a method 700 of the present invention for reducing false alarms and trouble reports in a security system, particularly learning an alarm mask, is illustrated in
As for the second sub-input of the presence of a power supply, assume for purposes of illustration that no power supply is present. Upon activation, the smoke detector may report the state (step 704) of absence of external voltage, which may be referred to and updated as “off normal” (step 706). Because the smoke detector has not reported the second state (power supply voltage present) for this sub-input, testing is not completed, and any subsequent reports of the lack of power supply voltage from the smoke detector may be ignored by system controller 14. Operation then returns to step 702, where another activation is awaited in the event that an external power supply has been added.
Another embodiment of a method 800 of the present invention for reducing false alarms and trouble reports in a security system, particularly processing a report of an alarm condition, is illustrated in
Method 800 has been described as applying to the processing of the report of an alarm condition. However, method 800 may be equally applicable to the processing of the report of a trouble condition. For example, a trouble condition report may be received from the smoke detector discussed above with reference to method 700, wherein the report indicates that no external voltage is present. In a step analogous to step 808, a trouble condition mask may be used to determine whether the detection of a power supply is a valid trouble condition source. If, as described above with reference to method 700, the power supply detection sub-input of the smoke detector has not been fully tested, and thus a mask is applied to the trouble condition source, then system controller 14 may not cause a trouble condition to be indicated. That is, the trouble condition may be ignored in a step analogous to step 812. Conversely, if the power supply detection sub-input of the smoke detector has been fully tested, then the trouble condition is processed in a step analogous to step 810. That is, system controller 14 may cause a trouble light to be energized, and/or may cause an audible tone to be emitted periodically.
Yet another embodiment of a method 900 of the present invention for reducing false alarms and trouble reports in a security system, is illustrated in
In order to simplify the description, method 900 has been described as applying to one input of a security device. However, it is to be understood that the methods of the present invention may be separately and independently applied to each of a plurality of inputs of a security device.
Manual interface 50 may be used by the user to alter the masks such that sub-inputs may be added or removed dynamically. Particularly, interface 50 may be used to add a mask when a sub-input has been removed, and delete a mask when a sub-input is added.
The present invention has been described herein in connection with wireless security devices. However, it is to be understood that many aspects of the present invention are equally applicable to conventional, hard-wired security devices.
While this invention has been described as having an exemplary design, the present invention may be further modified within the spirit and scope of this disclosure. This application is therefore intended to cover any variations, uses, or adaptations of the invention using its general principles.
