FI84213B - FJAERROEVERVAKNINGSSYSTEM. - Google Patents

Description

1 84213

Remote control system

The invention relates to a remote monitoring system for the automatic monitoring of tasks performed in a wide range of locations.

For example, cleaning companies have numerous work sites where employees of the company visit to perform their work tasks at predetermined times and on predetermined days. Due to the large number of work sites and employees 10 and the wide variety of work sites and working hours on different days, it is extremely difficult to monitor that all work sites have been visited at the right time and that the task has been completed. However, it would be necessary to know immediately if an employee has missed the job due to an error, illness 15 or other reason, so that another employee could be referred to the job. However, such supervision would require the full-time input of the supervisor, in large companies the input of several individuals, and would still not be reliable and complete.

A similar control procedure is used and is also needed, for example, in security companies.

It is an object of the invention to provide a remote monitoring system which performs monitoring automatically and reliably, freeing up monitoring personnel for other tasks.

This is achieved by a remote monitoring system according to the invention, characterized in that the system comprises an interface unit 30 connected to the telephone line, comprising means for activating the telephone line in response to a signal from the telephone line and means for converting audio frequency signal pairs received from the telephone line 2 84213 a memory containing the acknowledgment time set for the acknowledgment of each task to be monitored, and comparison means for comparing the time produced by the real-time clock with the acknowledgment times in the memory and performing an alarm; the interface unit acknowledges the task in question with a predetermined digital acknowledgment code in 10 format.

The basic idea of the invention is that the tasks and their predetermined acknowledgment times are stored in the memory of the monitoring system. The monitoring system continuously and automatically compares the stored acknowledgment times with the actual 15 time. If an employee at the work site contacts the monitoring system via the public telephone network and sends it an acknowledgment code corresponding to a specific task, the monitoring system acknowledges that an acknowledgment has been received and does not cause an alarm when the stored acknowledgment moment is reached. If, on the other hand, the acknowledgment code has not been received by the stored acknowledgment time, the monitoring system automatically executes an alarm, which may be a print to a monitor, a print to a printer, an audible signal, a combination of these, or some other suitable alarm. In this case, the supervisory staff performing the other 25 tasks can take the necessary tasks to check and correct the situation.

The system is fully automatic and no errors or omissions caused by human error can occur. The monitoring data 30 can be stored for long periods of time and the changing work sites, monitoring times, employees, etc. do not complicate the monitoring.

The control system according to the invention can be connected to the company's accounting and invoicing systems, use the customer information contained therein and, accordingly, transmit to them information on the performance of tasks.

The invention will now be described in more detail by means of an exemplary embodiment with reference to the accompanying drawing, in which a monitoring system according to the invention is illustrated in block diagram form.

In the example shown, the monitoring system comprises an interface unit 2 for connection to a public telephone network telephone line. The interface unit 2 comprises means for activating the telephone line (forming a route to the loop current of the telephone line-10) and means for receiving and converting the audio frequency pair coming from the telephone line into a digital code. The latter is generally a two-tone multi-frequency receiver well known in the art, which converts a received audio frequency pair into a BCD number. An example of a suitable receiver is Mitel Inc.'s model MT8870. The digital code formed from the audio frequency pair is transmitted along the signal bus 6 to the control unit 1. The interface unit 2 may further include a pulse dial or dual tone multi-frequency transmitter for transmitting the number dial 20 to the public telephone network. A suitable two-tone multi-hair transmitter is, for example, MK5089, supplied by Mitel, Inc. In this case, the transmitter is controlled by the control unit 1 via bus 6. Bus 6 generally describes all control and data transmission buses and lines between the control unit 1 and the interface unit 2.

The control unit 1 controls all the operation of the monitoring system. It contains a memory 4 in which the necessary information about the tasks to be monitored is stored, preferably at least the task codes and acknowledgment times. The controller unit 1 further comprises a real-time clock which produces a real-time output. The time produced by the real-time clock comprises at least the time of day, preferably also the date, and possibly also the day of the week. The control unit 1 further comprises comparison means 5 which compare the output of the real-time clock with the acknowledgment times in the memory 4424213 and generate an alarm if no predetermined acknowledgment code has been received via the interface unit 2 and the output of the real-time clock 3 substantially corresponds to the stored acknowledgment. The alarm may be arranged, for example, by printing the appropriate information on a monitor screen or printer, generally described in block 7. The printing may include, for example, a job destination, an employee's name, and a stored acknowledgment time. The alarm may also be accompanied by an audible signal or an alarm generated by the pu-10 synthesizer to notify the monitor or printer of printing.

The control unit 1 can process the acknowledgment code entered by the interface unit 6 in several ways. One way is that the file in the memory 4, which comprises the work item and the acknowledgment time, also has a special data field, i.e. a flag, which indicates whether an acknowledgment has arrived or not. This flag can have two states, one indicating that the acknowledgment is missing and the other indicating that the acknowledgment is received in red. When the control unit 1 receives the acknowledgment code from the interface unit 2, it changes the state of the flag in the memory 4. The comparison means 5, in turn, always also examine the state of the acknowledgment flag when comparing the actual time and the acknowledgment time in the memory. If the acknowledgment flag has been set and the acknowledgment code has been received, the comparison means 5 do not issue an alarm under any circumstances.

In practice, the control unit 1 can be implemented in a microcomputer, in which case the printing unit 7 can be a monitor or a printer connected to the microcomputer. The interface unit 2 of the interface-30 can in turn be an interface card placed in the same housing as the microcomputer.

For example, the comparison means 5 may be a processor unit of the microcomputer and the memory 4 may be the central or mass memory of the microcomputer, and the real-time clock 3 may be a timer counter associated with the microcomputer.

II

5 84213 ka reading is programmatically developed in real time and date.

When leaving the workplace, the employee can similarly send an acknowledgment to the control system, which can determine the working time used, which in turn can be used to determine the employee's salary, job pricing, etc. The control system can also connect to the company's accounting and billing systems. le information on working hours and tasks performed. The accounting and billing system may be an accounting and billing program running on the same microcomputer.

The figures and the related description are only intended to illustrate the present invention. The details of the remote monitoring system of the present invention may vary within the scope of the appended claims.

Claims (3)

6 84213 A remote monitoring system for monitoring tasks performed over a wide range of locations, characterized in that the system comprises an interface unit (2) connected to the telephone line (LI), comprising means for activating the telephone line in response to a signal from the telephone line. for converting the pairs into digital codes, and a control unit (1) comprising a real-time clock (3), a memory (4) containing an acknowledgment time set for acknowledging each monitored task, and comparison means (5) for comparing the time produced by the real-time clock (3) in memory (4) and to perform an alarm if the real time generated by the real-time clock (3) is substantially the same or a predetermined amount greater than or less than the stored acknowledgment time of a task and the control unit (1) has not received from the interface unit ( 2) acknowledgment of the task in question in the form of a predetermined digital acknowledgment code. Remote monitoring system according to claim 1, characterized in that for each task the memory (4) contains, in addition to the acknowledgment time, an acknowledgment flag in the first state when the control unit (1) has not received the acknowledgment code from the interface unit and in the second state when the acknowledgment code is received. Remote monitoring system according to Claim 1, characterized in that the control unit (1) outputs an alarm and an acknowledgment to the printer and / or the display monitor (7). 7 842 I 3