GB2310521A - Orientation responsive radio communication apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

Radio communication apparatus are often used by personnel exposed to the risk of attack, for example, police officers. A radio communication apparatus (1) includes an event detector (13) which detects when a user has fallen over or has experienced some other indication of an attack. The apparatus also includes a memory (12) where a voice message has been recorded by the user. If the event detector (13) detects an event then the voice message is transmitted. The voice message relates to the location of the user and is updated by the user using a microphone (2).

Description

RADIO COMMUNICATION APPARATUS Fleld Of The Invention This invention relates to radio communication apparatus and is particularly applicable to hand-held transceivers.

Background Of The Invention Hand-held transceivers are widely used by police forces in their patrolling duties. Regrettably, when carrying out those duties a police officer may be attacked and injured. It is obviously important for the police officer to receive assistance in such situations as soon as possible. A problem arises where the officer is unable to use the transceiver because of the injuries that have been sustained.

In an attempt to alleviate this problem as feature often referred to as "Man Down" is provided on the transceiver. This feature is triggered where the transceiver moves from a vertical orientation, in which its major axis is vertical, to an inclined or perhaps nearly horizontal position.

It will be appreciated that such an inclination will occur where a police officer has fallen from an upright position to a prone position or other horizontal or nearly horizontal position as the result of an attack.

When triggered, the transceiver will transmit an alarm signal which will be received by the officer's colleagues. Thus, having been made aware of the officer being injured they will then send assistance.

However, the effectiveness of the "Man Down" feature is dependant upon knowing the location of the injured officer. When injured or under attack, the officer may not be able to use the transceiver to give the location.

With a knowledge of the officer's usual patrolling route or a last position this drawback has been reduced. However, in today's fast moving policing environment this drawback is becoming a very significant problem in sending assistance to an injured officer. The invention has been made in an attempt to alleviate this problem.

Summarv Of The Invention According to the invention there is provided a radio communication apparatus comprising a transmitter, an event detector and a speech storage-memory responsive to an output of the event detector such that when an event is detected a message stored in the speech storage memory is transmitted by the transmitter.

By providing radio communication apparatus with a speech storage memory it is possible for a user to store a speech message giving a current location or some other message. This message could include a description of a suspect about to be challenged or a vehicle registration number of a suspect vehicle. Thus, if upon challenging the suspect driver of the vehicle, the officer is attacked the message will be automatically transmitted if the event detector is triggered. Colleagues of the officer will then be aware that the officer has been attacked, a recent location and possibly useful information concerning the assailant.

The event detector could be triggered by various events alone or in combination. These could be, for example, a rapid acceleration or deceleration caused by a blow or other impact to the officer or the apparatus; a failure of the officer to respond to a timing device of the apparatus which requires positive periodic acknowledgement that all is well with the officer; or perhaps by the operation of a button or other switching mechanism.

Preferably, the event detector will include a sensor for detecting a change in orientation of the apparatus. Usually, the apparatus will be worn on an officer's belt and will be suspended in an upright position.

Should the officer be attacked and, as a result of the attack, fall to the ground the orientation of the apparatus will change to a horizontal orientation. Alternatively, the sensor could sense other orientations for example orientations at an angle to the vertical or horizontal.

The event to be sensed could be alternatively the absence of movement, or absence of movement indicative of motion of the officer.

Brief Descrintion Of The Drawings A specific embodiment of the invention will now be described by way of example only, with reference to the drawings of which: Figure 1 shows in schematic block diagram form apparatus in accordance with an embodiment of the invention; Figure 2 shows in schematic form a sensor used in the apparatus of figure 1;and Figure 3 shows the sensor of figure 2 in operation.

Detailed Description Of A Preferred Embodlment With reference to figure 1, a radio transceiver 1 in accordance with the invention comprises a microphone 2, an amplifier 3, a modulator 4, a transmitter section 5, an antenna 6, a receiving section 7, a demodulator 8, a further amplifier 9, a speaker 10, a processor 11, a memory 12, an event detector 13, a liquid crystal display 14 and a keyboard 15.

The conventional components of the transceiver 1 will now be described, although only briefly for their construction and operation will be well understood by a man skilled in the art of radio transceiver design.

The microphone 2 is used to input speech to be transmitted. Because the input signal voltage level generated by the microphone 2 is low it is amplified by an amplifier 3 before being passed to a modulator 4. The modulator 4 converts the input audio signal into a modulated form suitable for transmitting at radio-frequencies. The modulated signal is input to the transmitter section 5 where it is amplified in power level prior to transmission via antenna 6 at a particular radio frequency or channel. It will be now understood that components 2 to 6 form a transmission path.

A reception path comprises antenna 6 which passes received radio signals to receiver section 7. The receiver section 7 will be "tuned" to a particular radio frequency or channel in a manner well known to a man skilled in the art in order to select the signal of interest to a user. The selected received signal is input to the demodulator 8 where it is demodulated to provide an audio signal. The audio signal is input to the amplifier 9 where it is amplified and the resulting amplified audio signal is used to drive the speaker 10.

It will be well understood that modern transceivers include a processor for controlling various components and functions of a transceiver under software control. In transceiver 1 the processor 11 is used to control a further function as will now be described.

Processor 11 is connected to memory 12 by means of a data bus which allows data to be passed from the processor 11 to the memory 12 where it is stored in a series of memory locations. By means of the bus, the processor 11 is able to access data stored in the memory locations.

The processor 11 is used to drive a user interface comprising the display 14 and the keyboard 15 in a well known manner.

The processor 11 is also connected to an event detector 13.

The event detector 13 is shown in greater detail in figure 2, and it comprises a sensor processor 16 (which is a microprocessor), a clock 17 and a sensor 18.

The sensor 18 comprises a pendulum 19 able to pivot at a pivot point 20 and including a bob 21. The pendulum 19 swings within an annulus 22 and is able to swing from a central position to a position where the bob 21 contacts a radially innermost surface of the annulus 22.

The sensor 18 is of electrically conductive materials and the annulus 22 is connected to a 5 volt electrical supply. The pivot point 20 is electrically connected to the sensor processor 16. The sensor processor 16 has an input by means of which a clock signal from clock 17 is input and an output which is connected to the processor 11.

The sensor 18 works in the following way. The sensor 18 is mounted within the transceiver 1 such that when the transceiver is worn on an officer's belt the pendulum is parallel to a major axis 23 of the transceiver 1 which is then vertical. In this alignment, the bob 21 is spaced apart and not in contact with the annulus 22.

If, however, the officer falls to the ground the major axis 21 will be horizontal and the bob 21 will fall to the position as indicated in figure 3 where it contacts the inner surface of the wall of the annulus 22. In this position the input of the sensor processor 16 goes to a high of 5 volts.

The sensor processor 16 will then, utilising the timing signal 17, time how long the 5 volts is maintained. If this exceeds a pre-set time delay, indicating a significant period during which the bob 21 is in contact with annulus 22, then the sensor detector 16 sends an event detected message to processor 11. As will be appreciated, it is necessary to sense the time the bob 21 is in contact in order to differentiate between true alarms where the officer has fallen and situations, such as where the officer is running, where the bob 21 is only making momentary contact.

The alarm mode of the transceiver 1 is operated in the following manner.

The officer using the transceiver will record a voice message in the memory 12 by pressing a button on keyboard 15 and speaking into the microphone 2.

The processor 11 will then convert the incoming speech signal into a digital form utilising an Analogue to Digital converter (not shown). The digitised voice message is then stored in memory 12. The message could be for example a current location. A pre-recorded header message is also stored in the memory 12 and will be of nature "Man down alert last known position follows". This message is loaded into the memory 12 when the transceiver 1 is configured prior to it being issued to the officer.

Should the officer then be attacked and fall to the ground, the event detector 13 passes the event detected message to the processor 11 as earlier described.

The processor 11 will then place the transceiver 1 in transmit mode and transmit an audio message, formed by sequentially accessing the header message and the recorded speech message from memory 12, over a radio channel allocated for emergency use. These messages are converted by the processor to analogue form by a Digital to Analogue converter (not shown) before being passed to the modulator section 4 and transmitter section 5. The alert message is then transmitted.

In the above described embodiment the transceiver transmits information in an analogue form. However, the invention is equally applicable to transceivers where the information is transmitted in digital form.

Instead of the transceiver transmitting over an emergency channel the processor may be programmed to transmit over a different channel or a number of channels.

When the alert is transmitted if may be periodically re-transmitted until an acknowledgement is received.

In some instances, it may be desirable to suppress all the usual signs, for example, leds, that the apparatus has entered a transmit mode and the processor 11 could be programmed to do this. Then an assailant will not be aware that the alarm has been raised.

Claims (4)

Claims

1. A radio communication apparatus comprising a transmitter, an event detector and a speech storage-memory responsive to an output of the event detector such that when an event is detected a message stored in the speech storage-memory is transmitted by the transmitter.

2. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein the event detector includes a sensor for detecting a change in an orientation of the apparatus.

3. An apparatus as claimed in claim 2 wherein the event detector detects when a user carrying the apparatus is in a prone position.

4. A radio transmitting apparatus substantially as herein before described with reference to and as illustrated by reference to figure 1 or figure 2 or figure 3.