Claims
- 1. A personnel entry means comprising two arcuate shields, a first shield defining an arc of about 180.degree. and a second shield defining an arc of 90.degree. or slightly in excess thereof mounted for rotation concentrically about a common axis to provide sequentially for movement between first, second and third primary positions relative to each other and about an object passing through the perimeter defined by the path of rotation of said shields; said shields being adapted to provide a concentric arc in said first position, in which, in combination, the arc defined thereby does not exceed about 180.degree. while occluding the passage spanned by and behind said shields, barring access thereto to the occupant within said perimeter; said first shield being adapted to rotate to said second position, where in said latter position, one lateral border of each of said shields is in registry with the other of said shields defining a closed area about said perimeter that is equal to the sum of the arcs defined by both of said shields; said shields in this latter position continuing to occlude the passage spanned thereby in said first position; said shields being adapted further to rotate to said third position in which said shields are arrayed concentrically on the side of said perimeter opposite to that of said first position and in which said shields define an arc not in excess of about 180.degree. while providing by movement of both of said shields in opposing arcuate paths about said perimeter unimpeded passage into the space occluded by said shields in said first and second positions; and completely occluding the previously unoccluded space about said perimeter in said third position.
- 2. A personnel entry means as claimed in claim 1 wherein said shields are vertically disposed.
- 3. A personnel entry means as claimed in claim 1 wherein the rotation of said shields from said first position to said third position is continuous.
- 4. A personnel entry means as claimed in claim 1 wherein said shields, having attained said third position, return sequentially to said first position.
- 5. A personnel entry means as claimed in claim 4 wherein said return sequentially to said first position is effected by reversal of the rotational movement of said shields from said second position to said first position.
- 6. A personnel entry means as claimed in claim 5 wherein said reversal comprises a continuous movement.
- 7. A personnel entry means as claimed in claim 1 wherein said second shield rotates in an arcuate path exterior to and concentric with said first shield.
- 8. Personnel entry means as claimed in claim 1 wherein the movement of said shields is activated by electrical control means.
- 9. Personnel entry means as claimed in claim 8 wherein said electrical control means include means adapted to detect an object present in said perimeter and means for stopping said movement contemporaneously with said detection.
- 10. Personnel entry means as claimed in claim 9 wherein said electrical control means include means for reversing the movement of said shields to said first or second position upon detection of said object present in said perimeter.
- 11. A personnel entry means as claimed in claim 1, adapted for security purposes, wherein said shields in each of said primary positions and in movement therebetween and about an occupant within said perimeter avoid entrapment of said occupant therein and substantially or completely eliminate direct communication between the area outside of said perimeter from which entry thereinto is initially defined in the first position and the area into which entry through said perimeter is secured in said third position; and wherein said movement of said shields is activated by electrical control means and is adapted for selective discrimination as to the identity of said occupant within said perimeter and response thereto including activation or non-activation of said shields.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This appliction is a divisional application of my copending application Ser. No. 827,593 filed Aug. 25, 1977 (now U.S. Pat. 4,121,523); which is, in turn, a continution-in-part application of my then copending application Ser. No. 602,404 filed Aug. 6, 1975 (now abandoned); and my then copending application Ser. No. 825,174 filed Aug. 16, 1977 (now abandoned).
Development of devices providing security for the dealer or teller as well as security for the transaction itself, where items of value are being transferred or held by the dealer or teller and the agency he represents, has been a continuing concern that has assumed increasing significance with the passing years. Attempted means for providing an adequate degree of protection have assumed a variety of forms. Most such security devices are conceived for use in banks and similar institutions which are seen generally to yield the richest and most readily convertible rewards to those intent on appropriation of items of value by physical force or threat of physical force. Accordingly, and for convenience, most of the discussion appearing herein will be in terms of such institutions and facilities. It will, of course, be obvious that the present invention has application, however, to payroll offices, tax collection agencies, ticket offices and other institutions and businessess apparent to those skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains.
Among the most commonly employed security apparatus heretofore has been closed circuit television systems wherein television cameras are placed strategically about the area in which transactions involving the transfer to custody of articles of value occur. The cameras are designed to record pictorially on tape any illegal acts occuring in the transaction area. These systems have often been rendered inoperative by covering the lenses of the television cameras which are normally placed at a height sufficient to oversee an area while permitting a sharply defined image of the robber or other miscreant. At greater heights, the cameras have been known to give an insufficiently distinct image to assure later identification. In any event, masks or other disguise may readily defeat the objective of identification. Similar devices using movie cameras have also been utilized, but have been known to fail for the same reasons and, on occasion, for lack of adequate film. Further these systems provide only surveillance and do not serve physically to restrain a felon or protect the teller, dealer or clerk from harm or intimidation.
More recently, and increasingly, resort has been had to automated equipment mounted in unprotected stations on building exteriors, for example, in the belief that they were invulnerable to harm or exploitation. This assessment has proven to be in error, however, and these devices have been frequently pummeled and damaged with expensive equipment replacement costs.
In addition, insofar as devices of this sort are automatic paying or receiving machines coming under the authority of the Federal Reserve Board, they are required to meet the severe regulatory construction requirements of Regulation P(12 CFR 216); and, once installed, have not previously been capable of ready removal or relocation.
Further, single or multiple electronic data processing apparatus or other specialty equipment used separately or in support or cooperation with a manual transaction system or automatic transaction equipment also requires, normally, a closely controlled environment in which to function. This environment has been provided usually, heretofore, by placing all of an organization's data processing apparatus except, for example, remotely disposed terminals and the like, in a single large room where overall conditions are maintained substantially uniform. To accomplish this is expensive, the location of the equipment is often inconvenient and an accommodation to necessity rather than efficient utilization; and a power failure or the like will necessitate, in the absence of an auxiliary power supply, a shut-down of an organization's entire electronic data processing system; and in modern terms where banks are concerned, for example, will cause a closing of the entire business enterprise, as well as other enterprises dependent upon it. This vulnerability exists as well with sensitive government installations and will ordinarily disconnect and disarm the protective systems and apparatus used to secure the electronic data processing system itself against injury.
Turning to consideration of the transaction security aspect of the present invention, however, means have, of course, been developed heretofore, having as their objective the protection of bank tellers or persons similarly engaged in dealing in other items of value with members of the public.
Thus, U.S. Pat. No. 2,460, 917 is directed to a cashier or teller safety booth, incorporating a pivoted bin adapted to be swung out through the bullet-resistant wall protecting the cashier from potential harm by the customer or other member of the public; the bin providing a conveyance for any articles of value to be transmitted between customer and teller. Devices such as this, designed to limit physical exposure of the teller while providing facility of communication between teller and customer, have often proved unsatisfactory to prevent robbery, escape of the robber, or injury to a guard or other bank personnel since the transaction area is open to the public and the robber has freedom to attempt escape, at least in terms of the security apparatus described, at any time.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,700,994 describes, in turn, a protective apparatus comprising a hinged screen which may be activated to spring up and block the transaction interface between the teller and any threatening customer or other member of the public. The use of this device demands timing and a readiness by the teller or cashier to chance injury and otherwise incorporates the difficulties inherent in U.S. Pat. No. 2,460,917 described briefly hereinabove.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,537,409 provides additional protection in bank security systems wherein the teller station is capable of being locked and removed from control of those within the bank so that even in the event of threat, the teller, for example, cannot unlock the teller enclosures, drawers, vault or the like. A significant difficulty with this system, is that it must be activated, which will normally occur only upon performance of an overt act of hostility, which, if sufficiently rapid, or reacted to with insufficient speed, may bar activation of the system completely.
In the event, therefore, that a transaction enclosure or booth could be devised wherein the dealer, teller, cashier or other similarly engaged person were protected from injury or threat, or a banking machine or other transaction device employed to replace the foregoing person, is rendered invulnerable to attack by a customer or other person on the opposing side of a bullet-resistant transaction interface defined in one side of said booth or enclosure, and the customer enabled to engage in transactions across said interface only so long as he was detained from leaving said enclosure, a significant advance in the state of the art would be attained.
A further advance of similar importance would be had if means could be provided for access between a transaction enclosure, such as the foregoing, and an automated transaction processing device or apparatus contained in a protective module disposed within said booth, wherein the module would meet the requirements, for example, of the Federal Reserve System as described in 12 CFR 216, and would be adapted for ready removal and relocation; and accessible through a single site, but selectively, for both servicing and customer transactions.
If, additionally, the apparatus could be so constructed as to provide for containment of one or more units of electronic data processing equipment under the precise environmental conditions required for their maintenance and could be employed for these latter purposes independently of its integral cooperation in a transaction security apparatus, a further and material step forward in the relevant art would be secured.
It is, accordingly, an object of this invention to provide a transaction security system that includes a bullet or projectile-resistant booth wherein transactions with a teller, banking or other automated transaction machine or custodial entity normally occur only when the customer is prevented from leaving the booth.
An object of this invention, too, is to provide control means associated with said enclosure or booth and integrated therewith so that when the door to said booth is open the transaction interface of said booth is closed and when said door is closed said interface may be open.
Another object of this invention is the provision of means adapted to preempt and over-ride said integrated control means.
A further object of this invention is to provide in cooperation with said booth a housing for said automated transaction equipment wherein all aspects of the equipment can be made selectively accessible at a single site.
A still further object of this invention is to provide protection for, an environmental control of, such conditions as temperature and humidity about said equipment, and to do so in a manner that necessitates minimal spatial requirements and combines this feature with ready housing and equipment assembly, disassembly and mobility.
These and other objects are achieved in accordance with the practice of the present invention by provision of a booth of a material and construction capable of selective voluntary entry and involuntary detention of personnel present within the booth and preferably one where at least one wall or a portion thereof, and preferably the entire interior wall, of said booth is substantially impact-resistant, whether to bullets of other projectiles; an entrance and transaction interface defined in the wall of said booth; a door or closure means to at least said entrance, and control means for securing and unsecuring of said closure means and means to over-ride said door securing and unsecuring means. Cooperating with the foregoing booth, and disposed therein, or indeed independent thereof, in a preferred embodiment of the invention, is at least one secondary enclosure or module adapted to contain apparatus, such, for example, as electronic data processing apparatus, transaction processing equipment or other devices; said enclosure comprising one or more turntables upon which said equipment is positioned; a stationary wall; access means to the interior of said enclosure; and one or more second closure means rotatable about said one or more turntables, and registrable with said access means. The foregoing housing and one or more turntables defining said module can be such as to enable maintenance of an environment controlled not only as to temperature and humidity for as little as a single unit of data processing apparatus, but with fire detection and control means inbuilt as well. The housing and turntables can also be disassociated from said first or outer booth and employed independently thereof in an alternative embodiment of the invention for the purpose, illustratively, of containment of data processing apparatus or specialty equipment, and valuable items including currency, documents, securities and the like. Also provided, according to the invention, for use as a means for access to said module or said booth, or independently thereof as a means for controlling physical communication and movement through a passage are entry means composed of at least two vertically disposed shields, arcuately shaped in horizontal section and movable about a common axis to effect entry and egress therethrough in a manner so that at least one of said shields occludes communication or movement with that portion of the passage from which entry is sought before communication is permitted into that portion of the passage into which entry is sought.
US Referenced Citations (2)
| Number |
Name |
Date |
Kind |
| 3055319 |
Asprion |
Sep 1962 |
|
| 4060039 |
Lagarrigue |
Nov 1977 |
|
Foreign Referenced Citations (2)
| Number |
Date |
Country |
| 1030550 |
May 1958 |
DEX |
| 1053170 |
Mar 1959 |
DEX |
Divisions (1)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
| Parent |
827593 |
Aug 1977 |
|
Continuation in Parts (1)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
| Parent |
602404 |
Aug 1975 |
|
Patent Grant
4348966
