EP1904985A1

EP1904985A1 - Guarding system

Info

Publication number: EP1904985A1
Application number: EP06783833A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Johannes Petrus Marinus Cornelis Van Schijndel
Original assignee: Internova Holding bvba
Current assignee: Internova Holding bvba
Priority date: 2005-07-18
Filing date: 2006-07-11
Publication date: 2008-04-02
Also published as: DE202005018071U1; NL1029546C1; ES1061435Y; ES1061435U; WO2007011205A1; BE1016483A6

Abstract

A guarding module (10) is described, comprising: a housing (9) , suitable for attachment to the outer side of a wall (2) of a building (1) ; at least one detector (11) designed for guarding a curtain- shaped zone (12) corresponding to a wall opening such as a door (3) or a window (4), and adapted for generating a detector signal if a person or the like approaches the guarded zone; a controller (90) , with an input for receiving the detector signal; a loudspeaker (22) ; an audio memory (21) coupled to the loudspeaker (22), with a pre-programmed message; wherein the controller (90), in response to receiving the detector signal, is adapted to reproduce through the loudspeaker (22) the pre-programmed message stored in the audio memory (21).

Description

Title: Guarding system

The invention relates in general to the field of systems for securing and guarding buildings, in particular houses, against unwanted visitors, in particular burglars and raiders.

Guarding a building by the constant presence of a human guard involves high labour costs. Therefore, various kinds of security systems have been developed, functioning on the basis of different principles.

Passive security systems are intended to make entering difficult for an intruder: in this category are fences, doors, windows, locks, etc. Depending on the quality of such passive security systems, it takes more or less time for an intruder to pass through the security system, but once he has succeeded, he can carry on unhindered. Active security systems comprise an alarm installation intended for establishing that an undesired situation occurs, and to give the alarm in such a case. Essential parts of such active security systems are detectors for detecting the undesired situation, and a signal processing system performing a suitable action based on the detection.

In a simple embodiment, an active security system is adapted for generating sound signals and/or light signals. The intention of this is that the attention of bystanders is drawn, who subsequently come closer and disturb the intruder, and/or warn emergency services like the police. In practice, unfortunately, bystanders usually prove not to interfere in the situation.

In a more advanced embodiment, an active security system is adapted to directly warn emergency services, such as the police or a guarding firm. A problem of such systems is that they only give the alarm when the burglar is already inside. Existing active security systems have detectors mounted indoors, which detect the opening of a door or a window, or which detect a movement. Detectors mounted outdoors typically are movement sensors which only switch on a light.

A further problem of active security systems is that they can make errors: not only may they fail in detecting an undesired situation and then erroneously take no action, but the opposite may also occur: that the system gives the alarm while actually nothing is happening. Errors of the type last- mentioned will in general be indicated as "false alarm". False alarms may originate from disturbances in the system, operating errors by the user, and reaction of the system on events such as a door being blown open by the wind, a pet walking around, etc.

In practice, it has proven that by far the largest part of the alarms is false. This is undesired because false alarms erroneously take up much time of the emergency services. It may even happen that emergency services refuse to react to an alarm of an alarm installation of which it has proven that it regularly generates false alarms.

The frequent occurrence of false alarms has led to guarding services coming into existence. A guarding service may be seen as a link between a security installation and an emergency service: the alarm of the security installation is sent to an operator of the guarding service, and, depending on the situation, this person will take action. The action of the operator may for example be:

- contacting the resident of the building concerned by telephone;

- sending guarding personnel to the house concerned;

- calling in the police or other emergency services. The action of the operator is mostly a sequence of the above-mentioned actions. Usually, the guarding services even have as a protocol that they will only call in the police after they have had contact with the resident (or a substituting person) , and/or after guarding personnel has established at the building concerned that indeed something is going on.

All this offers the advantage that the number of false alarms reaching the police will reduce drastically. A great disadvantage, however, is that in the cases that there is actually something going on, such as a burglary, the reaction time of the police has increased considerably. Thus, the resident of the house has to wait for help fairly long. Burglars know that they can carry on undisturbed fairly long (between 15 and 30 minutes) .

An additional problem of active security systems is that obviously they can only perform their function if they are activated, and that usually they are not activated if a resident is at home, or only when all residents go to bed: as long as there are still people or animals walking around in the house, the system can not be switched on. If one of the residents comes home only late, the other residents will go to bed without switching on the alarm. Thus, such a house usually is unguarded during the day and a large part of the evening. Therefore, burglars feel fairly "safe" when they go burgling. In the first place, the chance is high that there is no security system, or that it is not switched on. Even when a security system is switched on, it will last fairly long before the alarm goes off, and as long as the alarm does not go off, nobody knows that they are burgling. And then still, even though the alarm goes off, nobody knows the description of the burglar concerned.

A general object of the present invention is reducing the above-mentioned problems.

In particular, the present invention aims at providing a guarding system which will deter a burglar still before he has actually broken in.

To that end, the present invention provides a guarding system which detects a potential burglar approaching already outside the building concerned, and then directly calls this potential burglar to account about his undesired conduct. A bona fide person does not have to be bothered by this, but a person with bad intentions, like a burglar, now knows that he has been observed, and this even still before he has been able to gain access to the building concerned. At that moment, the burglar may abandon his plan.

Preferably, the system is provided with a camera making image recordings of the burglar if he goes ahead with his plan. In that case, preferably also contact is made with a guard situated at distance, who receives the camera images on a monitor, and can address the burglar through a sound channel. Then, the burglar knows that he is literally "seen". On his monitor, the guard sees that a burglary is actually going on, and may for example alarm the police. The guard may also tell this to the burglar: then, the burglar knows that the police have been alarmed even still before he has been able to gain access to the building concerned. Since the burglar still needs some time to gain access to the building, there is very little time left for him to search the building for valuable things, and the chance is high that he rather shows a clean pair of heels. The great advantage for the resident is that the burglary attempt has been frustrated.

These and other aspects, features and advantages of the present invention will be further explained by the following description with reference to the drawings, in which same reference numerals indicate same or similar parts, and in which: figure IA schematically shows a front view of a house; figure IB schematically shows a side view of a house; figure 2 is a block diagram illustrating components of a guarding module.

Figure IA schematically shows a front view of a house 1 with a front wall 2, having a door 3 and a window 4 therein. Figure IB schematically shows a side view of the house 1. Outside the house 1, a guarding module 10 according to the present invention is arranged to the wall 2. This guarding module 10 guards the door 3 and the window 4, as will be explained hereafter. A guarding module may be installed for guarding 2 or more doors and/or windows, but it also possible that each door and each window is provided with an individual guarding module.

Figure 2 is a block diagram illustrating components of the guarding module 10. De mutual positioning of the components in the figure does not have to correspond to the actual mutual positioning van de components in the housing 9 of the module 10.

An important component of the guarding module 10 is a detector 11 guarding a zone 12 of the wall 2 corresponding to a window or door. In figure IA, this zone 12 is indicated by a dotted line in association with the window 4. The zone 12 comprises at least the wall surface of the window 4, and preferably also an area of one or several metres around the window 4. The same will apply in general for all wall openings such as windows and doors.

As is visible in figure IB, the guarded zone 12 stretches in front of the wall 2, i.e. outside the house 1. In that case, the horizontal dimension of the guarded zone 12, measured in the direction perpendicular to the wall 2, or horizontally in figure IB, can be relatively small, in the order of approximately one meter or less. Therefore, the guarded zone 12 can be compared with a curtain. Obviously, it is possible that the horizontal dimension of the guarded zone 12 is chosen larger, and this may possibly be adapted to the application situation. In any case, with the curtain-shaped guarding zone 12 it is achieved that the detector 11 remains at rest unless somebody approaches the window 4 close enough from the outside. Then, the detector 11 responds, and gives a signal to a controller 90, e.g. a suitably programmed micro- processor.

The detector 11 may for example be based on infrared detection or ultrasound detection. However, it is also possible that the detector 11 comprises a camera with suitable image processing software; this is not illustrated, however. A further important component of the guarding module 10 is an audio memory 21, e.g. a speech chip coupled with a loudspeaker 22. The audio memory 21 contains a pre-programmed message, for example: "You are on forbidden grounds. If you do not leave within 10 seconds, a guard will be warned. Video recordings of you are made as well. 10..9..8..7..6..5..4..3..2..1"

A further important component of the guarding module 10 is a video camera 31, with preferably an accompanying image memory 32. The camera 31 is directed to the zone 12, and is suitable to make video images of a person or persons present in the zone 12 and to store them in the image memory 32. Preferably, the system 10 further comprises at least one camera mounted at another location, in order to observe the potential burglar from another position, but that is not illustrated in the figure.

A further important component of the guarding module 10 is a lamp 33 directed to illuminate the zone 12. Preferably, the guarding module 10 further comprises a siren 41 and a flashing light 42, or similar means for giving acoustical and/or optical signalling.

A further important component of the guarding module 10 is a communication unit 51 which is capable of communicating with a guarding centre 53 through a communication network 52, for instance wireless internet. The communication may possibly also take place through a fast telephone connection, a radio connection, etc.

When the controller 90 receives a detection signal from the detector 11, the controller 90 activates the speech chip 21, the camera 31, and the lamp 33. The camera images are recorded in the memory 32. Subsequently, a delay time starts running, for instance 10 seconds.

When the detector 11 detects that the zone 12 is clear again, as a sign that a possible, unauthorized visitor has left, the system returns into the standby mode. Depending on the settings, the image memory 32 can be erased, be saved, or be sent on to the centre 53. It is also possible that a note of the event is made in a log. If the intrusion of zone 12 continues on expiry of the set delay time, the controller 90 activates the possible siren 41 and/or the possible flashing light 42, and the controller 90 activates the communication unit 51 in order to make contact with the guarding centre 53. The images of the camera 31 are directly sent on to the centre 53, where a guard sees the images on a monitor (not shown) . The guarding module 10 preferably comprises a microphone 24, of which the signals are then also directly sent on to the centre 53. It is also possible that the recorded video and audio is shown on apparatus in the house 2.

The guard (person in the centre 53) looks at the images, and sees what is going on. There may be an innocent situation occurring: in that case, he can switch off the alarming of the module 10. However, if an actually undesired activity is occurring, like for instance a burglary, vandalism, urinating in public, undesired presence, etc., the guard may then take other actions. The guard may address the undesired person through the loudspeaker 22. Now, this person for sure that he has been discovered, and will probably take to his heels: a burglary has been frustrated. The guard may also warn an emergency service such as the police. The police, knowing that the call concerns an alarm verified by the guard, will react at once.

An important advantage of the invention is that the guarding module may be activated while there are still residents walking around in the house, like for instance in the evening; after all, the module keeps an eye on the outside of the house, and is not triggered by movements indoors. An indoor alarm installation does not have to be activated, and does not even have to be present.

Further, it is an advantage of the invention that a potential, undesired activity is noticed even before it has actually taken place, because the approach of a person outside the building is detected. Possibly, the alarm may even be given in a verified way even before the burglar has actually entered the building, which considerably shortens the response time of the police or other emergency services. However, most important is that a burglar is addressed even before he breaks in, whereby the chance is high that he abandons his intention of breaking-in; therewith, a burglary has then been prevented.

It will be clear to a person skilled in the art that the invention is not limited to the exemplary embodiments discussed in the preceding, but that several variations and modifications are possible within the protective scope of the invention as defined in the attached claims. For example, it is possible that the audio memory comprises a sound carrier such as a hard disk or a magnetic tape, but the advantage of a chip is that it does not have any moving parts. Further, it is possible that the guarding module is used for guarding a part of a wall without windows or doors, for example to prevent destruction or urinating in public. In the preceding, the present invention has been explained with reference to block diagrams illustrating functional blocks of the device according to the present invention. It may be clear that one or more of these functional blocks may be implemented in hardware, wherein the function of such functional blocks is performed by individual hardware components, but is also possible that one or more of these functional blocks are implemented in software, so that the function of such a functional block is performed by one or more lines of code of a computer program or by a programmable device such as a microprocessor, microcontroller, digital signal processor, etc.

Claims

1. Guarding module (10), comprising: a housing (9), suitable for attachment to the outer side of a wall (2) of a building (1) ; at least one detector (11) designed for guarding a curtain- shaped zone (12) corresponding to a wall part, for instance a wall opening such as a door (3) or a window (4), and adapted for generating a detector signal if a person or the like approaches the guarded zone; a controller (90), with an input for receiving the detector signal; a loudspeaker (22) ; an audio memory (21) coupled to the loudspeaker (22), with a pre-programmed message; wherein the controller (90), in response to receiving the detector signal, is adapted to reproduce through the loudspeaker (22) the pre-programmed message stored in the audio memory (21) .

2. Guarding module according to claim 1, wherein the detector (11) is based on infrared detection or ultrasound detection.

3. Guarding module according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the detector (11) comprises a camera with suitable image processing software.

4. Guarding module according to any of the preceding claims, further comprising a lamp (33) controlled by the controller (90), suitable to illuminate the guarded zone (12).

5. Guarding module according to claim 4, wherein the controller (90), in response to receiving the detector signal, is adapted to switch on the lamp (33) .

6. Guarding module according to any of the preceding claims, further comprising a video camera (31) controlled by the controller (90), suitable to make video recordings of the guarded zone (12) .

7. Guarding module according to claim 6, wherein the video camera (31) is provided with an accompanying image memory

(32), suitable for recording video recordings made by the video camera (31) .

8. Guarding module according to claim 6 or 7, wherein the controller (90), in response to receiving the detector signal, is adapted to start the video camera (31) .

9. Guarding module according to any of the preceding claims, further comprising means controlled by the controller (90) for giving acoustical and/or optical signalling.

10. Guarding module according to claim 9, wherein the controller (90), if the detector signal continues during a predetermined period of time after the first reception of the detector signal, is adapted to activate said acoustical and/or optical signalling means.

11. Guarding module according to any of the preceding claims, further comprising a communication unit (51) capable of communicating with a guarding centre (53) through a communication network (52), for instance wireless internet.

12. Guarding module according to claim 11, wherein the controller (90), if the detector signal continues during a predetermined period of time after the first reception of the detector signal, is adapted to activate said communication unit (51) .

13. Guarding module according to claim 12, wherein the controller (90) is adapted to couple the video camera (31) to the said communication unit (51) in order to send the images provided by the video camera (31) on to the guarding centre (53) .

14. Guarding module according to claim 13, further comprising a microphone (24), wherein the controller (90) is adapted to couple the microphone (24) to the said communication unit (51) in order to send the sound provided by the microphone (24) on to the guarding centre (53) .

15. Method for guarding a part of a wall (2) of a building (1), said method comprising the steps of mounting to the outer side of the wall (2) at least one guarding module (10) according to any of the preceding claims; signalling whether potentially undesired activity is occurring in the vicinity of said wall part; in response to signalling a potentially undesired activity, playing a pre-programmed message; making video recordings of the situation; and sending the video recording on to a centre situated at distance if the potentially undesired activity continues during a predetermined time.