WO2000019802A2

WO2000019802A2 - Surveillance and security system

Info

Publication number: WO2000019802A2
Application number: PCT/CH1999/000629
Authority: WO
Inventors: Jean-Pierre Meili
Original assignee: Hpm International Trade Ag
Priority date: 1999-12-27
Filing date: 1999-12-27
Publication date: 2000-04-13
Also published as: WO2000019802A3; AU1646700A

Abstract

The invention relates to a surveillance and security system wherein the distance of an object (3) to be protected from a fixed point (5) is monitored. Said fixed point is preferably worn by the person who initiated the surveillance, for example integrated into a watch. If the distance (d) exceeds a predetermined value, a signal is produced.

Description

Surveillance security system

The present invention relates to a monitoring and security system against unintentional removal.

In everyday life it happens again and again that items that are carried or children are briefly forgotten and that the person responsible or the person carrying the item is distracted by something, such as a laptop or a travel bag etc. or removed from the child being carried. Also known are those cases in which items carried in particular are illegally stolen, for example if the person carrying them is briefly inattentive, as is well known from airports, where appropriate warnings are always communicated.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a simple system which takes into account the two cases mentioned at the same time and offers a solution for this.

For this purpose, the system according to the invention is characterized in accordance with the characterizing part of claim 1.

Accordingly, the system consists of two marking units, one of which is assigned to the item to be secured, such as a suitcase, a laptop case, etc., or to an infant, and the other of which is placed away from the item to be secured. The distance detection unit provided on the system according to the invention determines the actual distance between the marking units and then triggers a display when this actual distance exceeds a predetermined and / or predefinable target value. Whether the monitored distance is exceeded due to carelessness, such as when a toddler moves too far from his mother, such as in a department store, or a traveler leaves his travel bag at the airport ticket counter due to carelessness, or the monitored good, how For example, the travel bag mentioned above, which is removed by malicious acts at the ticket counter, in any case a display signal is triggered on the distance determination unit and immediately shows the person in charge the corresponding situation.

In a preferred embodiment, the distance detection unit is integrated into an individually carried everyday object, such as in a key chain, but preferably in a watch or even in a hearing aid.

In a further preferred embodiment, the second marking unit is combined with the distance detection unit; both are preferably integrated. As a result, the distance detection unit detects the distance between itself and the first marking unit, which further leads directly to the responsible individual carrying the two integrated units on him, as mentioned, preferably integrated into an object of everyday use, such as one Subject of the type mentioned above, especially in a watch. Despite this latter, much preferred embodiment of the system according to the invention, it is entirely possible, for example, to secure an object with the one marking unit with respect to its position relative to a second object with the second marking unit, for example a handbag in an open vehicle, and le - diglich to carry the distance detection unit with him, so that the display is always available when the handbag is removed from the car in the case mentioned.

In a further preferred embodiment, the one of the two marking units comprises a transmitter, preferably with a spherical radiation characteristic, preferably a low-power, high-frequency transmitter in the MW transmission power range or below, while the other marking unit has a corresponding receiver. Because the received signal level decreases with increasing transmitter-to-receiver distance, it is easily possible in this way to set a threshold value which, if the signal falls below the received signal, triggers the display. It should be emphasized that the aforementioned distance detection, used according to the invention, does not have to make any demands on precision or accuracy, since it is completely irrelevant whether the display is triggered when a distance is exceeded by one or even a few meters more or less.

Furthermore, the system according to the invention preferably has a manually operable activation member on at least one of the marking units and / or on the distance detection unit. By manually operated we mean that an action must be taken to activate the activation. This can be done from a simple key operation via a coded input using keys, via bar code, magnetic code etc. The activation is preferably carried out on the distance detection unit, which is in any case carried by the responsible individual. As mentioned, it is in a preferred embodiment in a watch integrated, this can be done simply by pressing a button on the clock as a mode switch.

In principle, activation or decommissioning of the marking units can be omitted if, for reasons of energy saving, such as to protect operating batteries or accumulators, these units are only to be activated when the monitoring or backup mentioned is also used becomes.

In a far preferred embodiment, the first marking unit, that is to say the one arranged on the item to be monitored, is a transmitter, the second a receiver, connected to the distance determination unit, preferably integrated with it, on the object of use mentioned, in particular on a watch.

In order to ensure, for example when the proposed system according to the invention is in widespread use, that a first person receives an advertisement when he moves away from an object which is being monitored or secured by another person with his system, it is proposed that the Distance determination is carried out selectively coordinated. For example, in the preferred embodiment of the transmitter / receiver implementation, the transmitter and receiver are synchronized to a coding signal provided on the transmitted signal. If this coding signal, such as a simple pulse signal superimposed on a high-frequency transmission signal, is easily adjustable by the user, for example, in its time sequence at the transmitter, then there is also the possibility of securing or monitoring several objects by means of a single distance detection unit. by all the transmitters on the objects to be monitored are synchronized with the distance detection unit. The invention is subsequently explained using figures, for example. Show it:

1: using a simple diagram, the basic principle of the system according to the invention;

2: starting from the illustration according to FIG. 1, a preferred exemplary embodiment with integration of the marking unit and distance determination unit on a clock;

3: in a simple form of representation, a preferably used distance determination principle, and

4: on the basis of a simplified signal flow / function block diagram, a transmitter and a receiver unit as marking units used according to the invention, which can be synchronized with one another.

According to FIG. 1, the system according to the invention comprises a first marking unit 1, which is attached to an object to be secured or monitored, such as a suitcase 3, or for example to a child carried along. A second marking unit 5 is provided at the location for which the stay of the mentioned goods to be secured is to be monitored. A distance determination unit 7 determines the distance d between the marking units 1 and 5 and - as shown schematically with S - then emits a display signal when the distance d exceeds a predetermined or enterable distance D.

Of course, time values can and are preferably given during which the mentioned distance d is the SET Distance D must be exceeded until an indication is given, for example, to not indicate interruptions in the distance acquisition or only briefly exceeding the monitored maximum distance D.

2, the second marking unit 5 and the distance detection unit 7 are combined, so that only the distance d between the distance determination unit 7 with the marking unit 5 on the one hand and the marking unit 1 is monitored. Like the distance determination unit 7 in the procedure according to FIG. 1, here too, in a preferred embodiment, but now together with the marking unit 5, the distance determination unit 7 is carried in an everyday object such as, for example, and in particular in a watch 9, or but integrated, for example, in a key ring or even in a hearing aid. The distance determination is activated, for example, by means of a button 11 on the clock 9. The display 13 takes place acoustically and / or visually.

In a far preferred embodiment of the distance determination, the marking unit 1 preferably comprises a transmitter, preferably a low-power high-frequency transmitter with a spherical radiation characteristic K, so that the transmission signal level p prevailing at distance d from the marking unit 1 decreases with increasing distance d. Correspondingly, the second marking unit 5 is designed as a receiver, so that, in particular in the variant shown, in which the second marking unit 5 is integrated with the distance determination unit 7, the latter directly by comparing the currently received signal level with an adjustable or preset threshold value - corresponding to the comparison result - triggers the display signal S according to FIG. 1.

As mentioned, threshold time values τ, preferably adjustable, are preferably provided on the distance determination unit 7 in such a way that the predefined threshold value p _{0 of} the received signal associated with the monitored distance D must remain below during such a time period τ before the display is triggered. In this way, interruptions in the distance determination, such as, for example, when a passer-by walks through the monitored route, are not effective for the display.

In many cases it should be highly desirable to selectively match the distance determination to very specific marking units. In the preferred use of the transmitter / receiver, FIG. 4 shows a simple embodiment of synchronizing the transmitter and receiver to a coding signal contained in the transmission signal, for example modulated thereon. The low-power, high-frequency output signal of the transmitter-side oscillator 15 is pulse-converted in a unit 17 and increments a rotating shift register 19. By optionally connecting its parallel outputs - as with

M represented, for example, by means of buttons, or, as in case locks, a coding wheel arrangement, the resulting pulse sequence on the output side is determined. This is modulated onto the high-frequency oscillator output signal 15 on a unit 21, which produces a high-frequency signal pulsed in accordance with the pulse sequence on the output side of the transmitter unit. For example, with every cycle renewal on the rotating shift register 19, a significant synchronization pulse I is generated at a unit 23 and also superimposed on the transmission signal. On the one hand, on the one hand, the occurrence of the synchronization pulse I is detected by means of an amplitude filter unit 25 and a circuit identical to the shift register 19 - 19 '- is circulated, synchronously with the register 19. In the transmitter / receiver synchronization, the shift register 19' is coded on the output side Connection has been made so that the output side of the shift register, synchronized with pulse I, always has the same pulse sequence as on the transmitter side. The modulation signal contained in the transmitter signal, namely the pulse train from the shift register 19, is recovered, for example, by means of a low-pass filter 25, compared at a comparison unit 27 with that generated at the register 19 ', and if agreement is found, as is shown schematically with the switch Q, the received transmitter signal is fed via a high-pass filter unit 29 to a threshold-sensitive unit 31, on which the display signal S is generated when the received signal level falls below a predetermined level corresponding to a monitored distance D.

With the system according to the invention, it is possible to protect yourself in a very simple manner from your own carelessness and forgetfulness and to protect yourself from theft.

Claims

Claims:

1. Monitoring and security system against unintentional removal, characterized by

A first marking unit to be connected to a good to be secured,

A second marking unit to be placed away from the item to be secured,

• A distance detection unit that generates a display signal when a predeterminable and / or predefined distance between the marking units is exceeded.

2. System according to claim 1, characterized in that the distance detection unit is integrated on a carried object of everyday use, preferably in a watch.

3. System according to one of claims 1 or 2, characterized in that the second marking unit combines with the distance detection unit, preferably that the former is part of the latter.

4. System according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that one of the marking units is a transmitter, preferably with a spherical transmission characteristic, preferably a low-power high-frequency transmitter, the other a corresponding receiver.

5. System according to one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that it has at least one preferably manually actuable activation member on at least one of the marking units and / or on the distance detection unit.

6. System according to claim 4, characterized in that the first marking unit is the transmitter, the second of the receivers with connected distance detection unit, preferably integrated in a watch.

7. System according to any one of claims 4 to 6, characterized in that the transmitter and receiver are selectively tunable to each other.