CA2276174A1 - Method and system for remote monitoring and controlling of an object, preferably vehicle to be protected - Google Patents
Method and system for remote monitoring and controlling of an object, preferably vehicle to be protected Download PDFInfo
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- CA2276174A1 CA2276174A1 CA002276174A CA2276174A CA2276174A1 CA 2276174 A1 CA2276174 A1 CA 2276174A1 CA 002276174 A CA002276174 A CA 002276174A CA 2276174 A CA2276174 A CA 2276174A CA 2276174 A1 CA2276174 A1 CA 2276174A1
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- B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
- B60—VEHICLES IN GENERAL
- B60R—VEHICLES, VEHICLE FITTINGS, OR VEHICLE PARTS, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
- B60R25/00—Fittings or systems for preventing or indicating unauthorised use or theft of vehicles
- B60R25/10—Fittings or systems for preventing or indicating unauthorised use or theft of vehicles actuating a signalling device
- B60R25/102—Fittings or systems for preventing or indicating unauthorised use or theft of vehicles actuating a signalling device a signal being sent to a remote location, e.g. a radio signal being transmitted to a police station, a security company or the owner
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- B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
- B60—VEHICLES IN GENERAL
- B60R—VEHICLES, VEHICLE FITTINGS, OR VEHICLE PARTS, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
- B60R25/00—Fittings or systems for preventing or indicating unauthorised use or theft of vehicles
- B60R25/01—Fittings or systems for preventing or indicating unauthorised use or theft of vehicles operating on vehicle systems or fittings, e.g. on doors, seats or windscreens
- B60R25/04—Fittings or systems for preventing or indicating unauthorised use or theft of vehicles operating on vehicle systems or fittings, e.g. on doors, seats or windscreens operating on the propulsion system, e.g. engine or drive motor
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- B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
- B60—VEHICLES IN GENERAL
- B60R—VEHICLES, VEHICLE FITTINGS, OR VEHICLE PARTS, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
- B60R2325/00—Indexing scheme relating to vehicle anti-theft devices
- B60R2325/20—Communication devices for vehicle anti-theft devices
- B60R2325/205—Mobile phones
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- Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
- Mechanical Engineering (AREA)
- Alarm Systems (AREA)
- Burglar Alarm Systems (AREA)
Abstract
A method for remote controlling an object to be protected comprising steps of leaving the object to be protected, introducing at least one malfunction of the object by disconnecting operational connections between several parts of the electrical, electronic or electromechanical network of the object via means inserted in a hidden manner into said network, and preferably remote activating said means; on returning to said object, canceling said introduced state; inserting a control means into the canceling path of said means introducing at least one malfunction of the object to be protected, said control means being activable and de-activable by a unique secret owner code; activating said control means before leaving said object to be protected and after introducing at least one malfunction of the object; de-activating said control means on returning to and before the access to the protected object, well before canceling said introduced state of said means for introducing at least one malfunction of the object; locally and/or remotely signaling to the owner any unauthorized attempt for de-activating said control means. Anti-theft apparatus comprising user activated and deactivated means for causing malfunction of a protected object, said means are inserted preferred in the electrical system of said object and comprising enabling/disabling means, being in communication with remote means for activating and de-activating said means for causing, transmitting a unique secret user code upon activation to the enabling/disabling means, wherein said apparatus further comprising means for enabling or interrupting the connection between said means for causing and the enabling/disabling means; said means for enabling or interrupting is arranged in a hidden manner in or at the protected object and in communication with a further remote control held by the user and operable with at least one changeable secret user code, said means for enabling or interrupting transmits a signal to the user each time when the means for causing receives a deactivating signal. The invention pertains generally to the field of security services, more particularly for protecting buildings, country houses, and for tracking of stolen vehicles, with or without installed alarm system.
Description
Method and system for remote monitoring and controlling of an object, preferably vehicle to be protected Field of the Invention The invention pertains generally to a method and a system for remote monitoring and controlling of an object to be protected, more particularly to a method and system for the protection of buildings, country houses, and for tracking of stolen vehicles.
Background of the Invention Remote monitoring and controlling means monitoring an event and acts of intervention of a defined extent. The object to be protected may be movable or immovable objects, equally characterized by constituting pieces of property of some value that can become subjects of wrongful behavior of un-authocized persons, i.e. vehicles may be unlawfully appropriated, unwarrantably used, burglars may break into buildings, etc.
Several different protective systems have been developed in practice to prevent, but at least to en-cumber such unlawful actions, by adopting most up-to-date engineering achievements to spoil the expeditiousness of the different, ever newer and more and more sophisticated wrongful acts.
Beyond the measures commonly termed burglar protection, monitoring of different other events of catastrophic character has gained ground due to its great importance, together with providing the possibility of making effective counteractions against such events, these being done in the majority of cases by expanding, partly understandably, the systems performing primarily the task of "simple"
burglar protection.
Due to growing intensity of violent actions, one can hardly rely upon active effective intervention of outsiders present as eye witnesses at such wrongful acts, further, due to the working methods of pro-fessional protective organizations having come into being with such aim, the remote surveillance of protected objects utilizing for this purpose primarily the existing communication systems corre-sponding to the objectives considered as being of primary importance have become predominant.
EP 0 366 378 A2 and US 5 276 728 show a long-distance connection provided by cellular telephone or other telecommunication means between the vehicle' sensor and an alarm device. On intrusion into the vehicle, protection is provided not only by the emission of usual acoustic and optical signals and by ignition blocking but further informative-operative protection is ensured also by the cellular tele-phone set located in the vehicle by dialing pre-determined telepbone numbers.
The owner or operator _2-or other monitoring or protective dispatch center may get information of the intrusion, listen to the intruder, and send deterrent massages, or may even decide to stop the stolen and moving vehicle by interrupting its ignition circuit or other electronic control unit. Deficiency of all these actions is that such relatively simple defects can just as easily and quickly be eliminated with more or less skill, the vehicle thieves of our days usually being -unfortunately - in the possession of rather broad technical professional knowledge.
With all solutions linked up with a public telecommunication system serious dii~culty is imposed on the functioning or operating such a system that in peak-time periods undisturbed and immediate communication is not always possible. Such possible and momentary blackouts cause serious diffi-culties both in remote monitoring and controlling, i.e. disabling the vehicle and, depending on the protective system applied, it may temporarily obstruct the owner as well in getting into his vehicle.
EP 0 242 099 A2 describes a theft-prevention and site-identification system, in which the current lo-ration of the protected object, in particular, of a vehicle or person is defined by the coordinates pro-vided by a microprocessor system, named Navsiar Global Positioning System, GPS. On its activa-I S tion caused e.g. by unauthorized opcning or starting or change of location of a vehicle, the micro-processor identifies itself at a central dispatch office, alarming the latter and indicating the reason of alarm. Information of momentary site of the protected object is periodically actualized by sending from time to time a train of digital signals to the central dispatch office by means of cellular tele-phone. The central dispatch office is also capable of calling the microprocessor by addressing its in-dividual identification number, and the central dispatch office is able to determine the site of the ve-hicle if the latter has been displaced without activating the microprocessor protective system. The system is, of course, provided with several logic inputs and outputs to which input signal transmit-ters and sensors and acoustic and optical alarm output devices known from the field of alarm tech-piques can be connected, and contains such actuating devices that can be activated by being ad-dressed by the protected vehicle also through the use of the cellular telephone system, causing thereby obstruction of operation of the protected object or rendering it inoperative, simply by pro ducing defects in the functioning of the vehicle or bringing it to be halt while observing the require ments of traffic safety. This arrangement neither excludes the possibility of using) instead of a so catled normal telephone available on the market, a so-called purpose-oriented device suitable only for performing the required functions.
In EP 0 449 471 A2) the integration of cellular telephone sets into the vehicle safety system is pro-posed whereby interfacing means are used by means of which a plurality of different commercially WO 99/21742 PCT/HU9_7/00070 available cellular telephone sets and different vehicle alarm systems may be interconnected. The in-terfacing means comprise a control means and a coupling means to connect the cellular telephone sets to the coatrol means. This coupling means contains a data library stored in a memory for storing the individual protocols required by the communication carried on with the different cellular tele-phones, and the system operator performs the adopting of the cellular telephone and the alarm system to each other in the course of activating the system. Primary aim of that system is to utilize the cel-lular telephone set of the vehicle for remote surveillance of the vehicle) indicating the unauthorized events or those causing damage, and providing for the owner or for the person performing the task of surveillance the possibility of getting into contact via the telephone connection with the intruder or, in case of failure of such an attempt, with the help of the various actuating means, of drawing the at-tention of near- by outsiders to the prevailing abnormal state of the vehicle, as well as of rendering the unauthorized use of the vehicle impossible.
In both cited documents the methods proposed for remote surveillance of an object or objects consist of keeping specific domains of a protected object - movable property or real estate - under observa-1 S lion, either continuously or periodically, and on detecting a change of predetermined character or extent - i.e. in the case of unauthorized intrusion - a local alarm is initiated and a remote alarm signal or an informative massage is transmitted through telecommunication means, to a predetermined ad-dress, or the location of the object given its by coordinates obtained from a reference system, and after transmission of local alarm, malfunction or inoperability of the protected object expediently by means of built-in and concealed actuators, further, by way of remote control issued by the alarmed address, the protected object is set, or can be set, into the state of partial or total inoperability.
Although neither of said documents emphasizes, said operating steps initiated by unauthorized intru-sion give not even one percent of total operation of protective systems. In overwhelining majority of cases, the alert state is deliberately disarmed also by remote control) e.g.
when the owner returns to the vehicle. This feature constitutes, at the same time, the Achilles heel of the system, namely, the techniques available today permit persons - without causing considerable expenditure for them, having once specialized themselves in that kind of money-making having got hold of the code of re-mote control or generating in series the known remote control code sequences, -to disarming the armed system and to render it thereby ineffective.
Though not representing a substantial item of expenditure compared to the value of the protected object) the use of commercial cellular telephone system will anyhow impose an additional financial burden on the owner and) if the alarm is not received in an anti-theft dispatch center specially serving for that purpose, a further cellular telephone is required at the owner. It may be regarded as a further practical drawback that a cellular telephone can not always be used any time and anywhere, partly for technical partly for safety and partly for courtesy reasons) so neither the commands sent by the owner to the object through telecommunication means affecting operation of the object can always and under all circumstances be issued.
Summary of the Invention Also, an object of the invention is to propose a method and system which does not necessitates any installed alarm system, which can be disarmed almost exclusively only by the owner or a person authorized by him, and which is capable of ensuring tracking, without requiring necessarily a further cellular telephone for forwarding signals and control commands through telecommunication links, having at the same time a long transmission range) and even if getting out of the area covered by the telecommunication system, it remains capable of maintaining automatically the inoperative and dis-abled state brought about by the issued alarm signal.
One further object is to make the invention suitable for ensuring effective use of modern site-detection means applicable to tracing the vehicle also in the course of its transportation while mov-ing, without its engine being kept running, e.g. when being transported by another vehicle, and for connecting said means to the system complying with the invention.
A further object is to permit repairing an artificially produced defect (including blocking of restart-ing) of a vehicle even for a highly skilled technician only if being in the possession of information linked up with some identification data of the vehicle knowv only by the owner (or rightful user) or his representative.
The invention is based on the recognition that a conventional alarm system can though be disarmed with the use of its own means at any time, but this blocking can automatically be re-activated as long as it is not prevented by means of a separate individual and specific code issued by a person author-ized to do so, and this code may be issued either through telecommunication means (e.g. by making use of the cellular telephone system), or at the site of the object. It has been recognized further that the multi-level arming/disarming operations of the system serving for guarding the protected object can be integrated with the control performed through telecommunication, considering the aspects of convenience as well. A much safer and quicker communication link can be achieved in the data transmission by utilizing SMS (Short Message Service). The GSM 900 system renders possible to localize (identify the site of) a given cellular telephone and tracing its movements, when keeping it concealed in the vehicle and coupled with a site-identification unit.
It has also been recognized that in order to improve the level of safety -e.g. to eliminate code crack-ing - two remote control sets may be used, one of which is concealed in the object and re-activates the alarm system immediately after the latter has been disarmed. Thereby an effective disarming is only possible through a message transmitted to the cellular telephone arranged hidden in the vehicle.
Further, it has been realized that in the vehicle such an artificial defect may be produced which is "life-like", not causing sudden stopping, and which can be repaired even by a skilled technician only if being in possession of information stored in the data base of the computer concerning actual loca-tion of a specific fuse or some other disconnecting device (e.g. relay) hidden elsewhere in every case.
It has also been realized that arming/disarming may take place directly from the cellular telephone and, in the peak periods of telephone trallic) disarming, i.e. opening of the vehicle, may be emitted by an acoustic transmitter generating DTMF sounds or by the cellular telephone acoustically, i.e. with-out resorting to the GSM central dispatch oi~ce.
It has been recognized as well that the task of forwarding information concerning property protection can be provided also by a single-purpose communication apparatus of some design simpler than a cellular telephone of general purpose, also operating at the frequency range of the cellular telephone, but owing to its simple setup, it can be produced cheaper and installed simpler) and the number of external auxiliary elements required for its application is also lower.
In order to accomplish the set aim, on the one hand, a method suitable for remote surveillance of protected objects without built-in alarm system is proposed comprising the steps of on leaving the object to be protected introducing at least one malfunction of the object by disconnecting operational connections between several parts of the electrical, electronic or electromechanical network of the object via means inserted in a hidden manner into said network, and preferably remote activating said means; on returning to said object, canceling said introduced state;
inserting a control means into the canceling path of said means introducing at least one malfunction of the object to be pro-tected, said control means being activable and de activable by an unique secret owner code; activat-ing said control means before leaving said object to be protected and after introducing at least one malfunction of the object; de-activating said control means on returning to and before the access to the protected object, well before canceling said introduced state of said means for introducing at least one malfunction of the object; locally and/or remotely signaling to the owner any unauthorized at-tempt for de-activating said control means.
In cases where the object to be protected is associated with an alarm system, the proposed method comprising the steps of activating the monitoring continuously or periodically of selected regions of the object to be protected; at the same time introducing at least one malfunction of the object; on own demand deactivating the monitoring and malfunctioning; in other cases) initializing a local alarm in cases of changes in levels of one or more predetermined monitored values;
simultaneously transmit-ting an alarm signal to at least one predetermined remote address) with declaring the current position of the object in certain cases; controlling further malfunction of the object from said remote address;
maintaining the state of local and remote alarm in an unchangeable and uncancelable manner, and;
under proper conditions canceling said state through local and/or remote entering and validating a personal canceling code.
In the course of achieving the aim an anti-theft apparatus has been developed comprising user acti-vated and deactivated means for causing malfunction of a protected object without any installed alarm systan, said means are inserted preferred in the electrical system of said object and comprising enabling/ disabling means, being in communication with remote means for activating and deactivat-ing said means for causing, transmitting a unique secret user code upon activation to the enabling/
disabling means, wherein said apparatus further comprising means for enabling or interrupting the connection between said means for causing and the enabling/disabling means;
said means for ena-bung or interrupting is arranged in a hidden manner in or at the protected object and in communica-tion with a further remote control held by the user and operable with at least one changeable secret user code, said means for enabling or interrupting transmits a signal to the user each time when the means for causing receives a deactivating signal.
In cases where the object to be protected is associated with an alarm system, the system for remote controlling an object to be protected, comprising a hidden alarm center with remote control; one or more sensor means connected to input means of said alarm center; one or more optical and/or acous-tical signaling means connected to output means of said alarm center; one or more operating means causing at least malfunction in the normal operation of said object;
communicating means for bi-directional communication with a cellular telephone means; interface means connected to the alarm canter and the communicating means; uninterruptible power supply means, wherein the interface means having a remote control which transmits a secret personal code upon activation, is in opera--7_ tional connection W th said alarm center, continuously maintaining the activated monitoring state of said alarm center.
Further substantial and advantageous features of the invention are detailed in the subclaims.
Brief Desc ~tion of the Drawings The invention is described more detailed with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is the block diagram of a first embodiment of the system according to the inven-hon, Figure 2 shows a possible arrangement of the interface unit of the embodiment shown in Fig. I and its system connections, Figures 3 to 5 illustrate in simplified form further possible arrangements of functional connec-Lions between interface unit and alarm center unit.
Detailed Description of the Preferred Embodiment The invention is described with reference to its application accomplishing remote monitoring and controlling of a vehicle and an apartment, but 'rt can be adopted and applied without restriction within the claimed scope of protection.
The embodiment of Figure 1 presenting only an advantageous example for accomplishing remote surveillance of a vehicle constituting the object to be protected, contains an uninterrupted power supply 1 linked up with an alarm center unit 2 of an alarm system built into the vehicle in known manner. Said alarm center unit 2 (e.g. of type Enforcer 100 B-4 manufactured by SECO-ALARM
Inc., USA) incorporates a radio-frequency receiver stage 3 which is in functional connection with a part of the alarm system, i.e. with remote control 4 serving, in a known way, for arming and dis-arming of the alarm center unit 2. To inputs of the alarm center unit 2 sensor means 5 shown only by symbols, and to outputs of the alarm center unit 2 acoustic and/or optical signaling means 6 and ac-tuating means 7 are connected. Sensor means 5 may be sensors responsive to the opening of vehicle doors, trunk and hood, impact sensors, wheel lifting sensors, ultrasonic or radar type space sensors, while as acoustic and/or optical signaling means 6 several lamps, the horn of the vehicle, or a sepa-rate siren may be used. Actuating means 7 are usually relays or magnet valves inserted into the elec-tric or electronic system, fuel supply etc. of the vehicle. The design, circuitry and operation of the listed means are well disclosed in the related literature, e.g. Odon Ferenczi:
"Rudiments of Protection Against Car Thieves" (Technical Publishing Co., Budapest, 1994) or on page 14 of the booklet _g-"Safety and Comfort Electronics of Vehicles" published by Bosch A.G., Germany, in "Series of Technical Information Booklets" (OMIKK, Budapest) 1994), hereby incorporated by reference. To one of the outputs of the alarm center unit 2 linked up with the acoustic and/or optical signaling means 6 or with one of the actuating means 7 a starting input 81 of a logical interface unit 8 is con-s nected. Alternative connections are is indicated in Figure 1 by a broken lines.
The logical interface unit 8 - though not specifically shown in the figure for the sake of better intelli-gibility - is also linked up with power supply 1. Structural details of the logical interface 8 are shown also by an example of Figure 2, in the block diagram of Figure I only the connection of bus 82 of logical interface 8 to bus 91 of a telephone interface 9 is indicated. Since with the presented em-bodiment a cellular telephone 10 available on the market is used as telecommunication means per-forming two-way communication, as a preferred solution, the telephone interface 9 is constituted by a kit serving for installing cellular telephone 10 into the vehicle.
Accordingly, the telephone interface 9 is linked up through its high-frequency output to an external aerial 11, through its first audio-frequency input 93 to a microphone 12 accommodated in the vehicle, through its second audio-frequency output 94 to a speaker 13 also located in the vehicle, and through its connector 95 to the cellular telephone 10. This embodiment can be realized e.g. by any of the cellular telephones and car-speakerphone sets of the Nokia Oy. (Finland) commercially available, the relevant detailed technical information being accessible e.g. via Internet on address http:fwww. club.
nokia. com, but of course any assembly capable of performing the outlined task and made by any other manufacturer can also be used. First output 83 of logical interface 8 is led to a group of further actuating means 14, its sec-ond output 84 is suitable for arming and disarming the alarm center unit 2, said second output being connected parallel W th the arming push-button of a further remote control I S
identical with the re-mote control 4. The remote control 15 is installed hidden at different places of the various vehicles, of which records, kept together with the identification number of each vehicle are stored in computer memory by the special workshop performing installation of the system.
The actuating means 14 consists of relays 141 to 145 in the present case. The first relay 141 is con-nected to the starting circuit of the engine, to which also the heating circuit of the passenger space is attached. To the second relay 142 the engine disabling setup is connected, causing - through releas-ing a hidden relay - e.g. in the circuit of the electric fuel pump - a "life-like" defect , which can be repaired in a vehicle repair workshop only, the defect showing itself by skipping of the vehicle, then by its coming to a halt, and since the relay is hidden to different places in each vehicle as stored in the computer memory, the "defect" cannot be repaired at the site. The third relay 143 is in functional connection with the air-conditioning system. The fourth relay 144 is a switching device, while the fifth relay 145 is functionally linked up with a servomotor driving an atomizer-type tracer.
In another embodiment instead of cellular telephone 10 a purpose~riented transceiver unit, e.g. the type marking GSM Modul M 1 manufactured by Siemens GmbH. operating in the GSM
1850 system is installed.
In Figure 2 the logical interface 8 is shown more detailed. Main constituent of said logical interface unit 8 is a logic circuitry capable of controlling the reception and emission of acoustic signals, and controlling, as required, the cellular telephone 10, the alarm center unit 2 and the actuating means 14, respectively and ensure co-operation with external supplementary units. In the preferred case the logical interface 8 comprises a microcontroller 85, e.g. the microcontroUer type PIG 16C 65 manu-factured by Microchip inc., USA. This eight-bit microcontroller 85 being in digital data-transmitting coupling with a DTMF decoder 86, with a driver 87 and a voice recorder 88. The logical interface 8, in addition to those listed, contains an audio amplifier 89 performing amplification of analog signals in a way to be detailed later. The DTMF decoder 86 can be realized with the MT8870D of MTTEL
Inc., and is coupled to the microcontroller 85 as a four-bit decoder. The driver 86 amplifies the con-trol signals issued by the microcontroller 85 to make them suitable for operating the actuating means 14, i.e. the relays 14I to 145 in the present example, and is realized by the integrated circuit type ULN 2003. The voice recorder 88 is realized by the chip ISD 1016 of the firm Information Storage Devices, operating as a dictaphone, performing analog recording and playback of audio-fi-equency signals fed to its input, in a duration of 16 seconds per chip. The audio amplifier 89 fulfils the role of a voltage amplifier and can be realized with any discrete component or integrated circuit available on the market. Hints on concrete dimensioning and connection of said circuits can be found in the data sheets of components or in application papers issued by the manufacturers or in the following items of informative technical literature: H. Lohninger: "Angewandte Mikroelektronik" Vo. 2, 1V~1" Ver-lag, DE; Klasche: "Professionelle Schaltungstechnik" Vol.3, Franzis Verlag, DE. To realize the mi-crocontroller 85 further assistance may be acquired from the development system of type marking PIC-Start 16 B 1 issued by the firm Conrad Elektronic, Nirschau, DE. The standard protocol RS
232 series communication port of the microcontroller 85 forms also the communication connection 851 of the logical interface 8 so that it is suitable for connecting a site-locating unit known per se, such as e.g. a GPS signal transmitter.
To a first input 891 of the audio amplifier 89 a microphone 12 installed in the vehicle is connected, said microphone 12 being preferably a condenser-type either fomung part of a speakerphone set as described in connection with Figure 1 or constitutes a separate demand installed specifically for that purpose. To a second input 892 of the audio amplifier 89 a signal output of a DTMF transmitter 17 is galvanic connected. The DTMF transmitter 17 is a commercially available device, but it may be substituted by the DTMF coder circuit type MT8880 of the firm MITEL and by a keypad linked up with it. To the output 893 of the audio amplifier 89 also an analog input 861 of the DTMF decoder 86 is connected.
Also the input/output terminal of the voice recorder 88 is connected to an output 893 of the audio amplifier 89 and respectively to the analog audio-frequency signal input of cellular telephone 10.
This latter is not shown in detail in the drawing since the allocation of terminals of cellular tele-phones 10 are product-dependent. The input/output terminal of the voice recorder 88 serves for for-warding analog signals, whereas its input 882 is linked up with output 852 of the microcontroller 85 and receives the digital signals selecting between recording and playback modes and serving for startlstop of the operation. In Figure 2 a further cellular telephone 18 is shown at the notified remote address but, according to the reasons explained, this control means need not necessarily be suitable for wireless operation. Thus) as shown by the figure) the controller cellular telephone 18 is in con-nection with the logical interface 8 either through the GSM center 18 or through the microphone 12.
By this arrangement the possible difficulty of disarming the alarm center unit 2 in peak periods by means of the cellular telephone 18 is prevented. In such cases by simply holding the speaker of the cellular telephone l8 near to the microphone 12) the latter will receive acoustically the emitted DTMF sounds and the proper code, disarming thereby the alarm center unit 2.
In Figures 3, 4 and 5 three further embodiments of anti-sabotage protection are shown which belongs to the fundamental objectives of the invention, namely the prevention of disarming the alarm center unit 2. In a possible arrangement shown in Figure 3 the enabling output 853 of the microcontroller 85 of the logical interface 8 is galvanic connected to the enabling input of a microcontroller 21 of the alarm center unit 2. Though not shown in the Figure, also the output of the radio-frequency receiver stage 3 of the alarm center unit 2 is linked up in the factory W th said enabling input 211 of the mic-rocontroller 21.
In Figure 4 a variant is shown wherein through driver 87 of the microcontroller 85 one of the actu-ating means 14, e.g. the relay 141 is used for switching the power of the alarm center unit 2, said relay 141 being inserted into the supply line of the alarm center unit 2.
Different from the previous vanant) wherein instead of issuing the enablingldisabling signal by the radio-fi-equency receiver stage 3 for the microcontroller 21 said enabling/disabling signal is issued by the microcontroller 85, here the unchangeable basic setting of alarm center unit 2 is utilized emitting an alarm signal immediately when powered on, independently of any other settings.
The arrangement mentioned in conjunction with Figure 1 is shown more detailed in Figure 5 wherein a further remote control I S hidden in the vehicle is operated expediently from the enabling output 853 of the microcontroller 85.
In a further possible embodiment at least one of the sensors 5 is directly connected to the logical in-terface 8.
In operation, on leaving the vehicle, the alarm center unit 2 is armed by means of the remote control 4 forming part of the alarm system installed concealed in the vehicle, at the same time the actuating means 14 become activated ensuring thereby inoperability or at least malfunction of the protected object (vehicle) by means of performing the measures listed in the introduction.
In the case of normal, usual course of events, when the owner returns to the vehicle, tvvo possibilities are available him to disarm the protected status:
According to one possibility the alarm center unit 2 is disarmed by its own remote control 4 in the usual way, then entering the vehicle within a preset period of time monitored by the microcontroller 85 of the logical interface 8, and inputting the individual and unique code, deactivating thereby the actuating means 14, and restoring the vehicle into operative and functioning state. Said code may be fed into the microphone 12 through the keypad linked up with the audio amplifier 89 of the logical interface 8 with said DT'MF transmitter or, in lack of said keypad, with a DTMF acoustic device being available, through the latter, or in the possession of a suitable controller-type cellular telephone 18 (e.g. NOKIA 2110), in the course of entering the code without radio-frequency connection, the cellular telephone 18 is used for feeding the code into microphone 12.
According to the another more elegant and convenient but more expensive possibility, instead of us-ing the remote control 4 for disarming the alarm center unit 2 and entering the disarnting code sepa-rately, the cellular telephone 10 hidden in the vehicle and forming part of the proposed system is called up by means of the controller cellular telephone 18 and, having established the connection, the DT'IVff code is entered. Both in this case and in the case outlined before the DT'MF code entered into DTMF decoder 86 is translated into a four-bit signal and transferred to the input 854 of the micro-controller circuit 85. By means of a program stored in the microcontroller 85 the identity with the pre-set code is checked and, in case of identity, the relays 141 to 145 of the actuating means 14 are powered off'by micro~ontroUer circuit 8~ through its output 855 with the intervention of driver 87.
WO 99/Z1?42 PCT/HU97/00070 In abnormal i.e. alarm case, the acoustic and/or optical signaling means 6 of the alarm center unit 2 are activated, simultaneously triggering the logicai interface 8 coupled to it, by which a calling in-struction is issued to the associated cellular telephone 10. At least one time before leaving the vehi-cle) an actual call number is dialed into the memory of cellular telephone 10, e.g. in the following way: the acoustic and/or optical means 6 is forced to operate by the user after which - in accordance with the foregoing - the cellular telephone 10 gets into service state. Now, the alarm message (e.g.
"IIVT'RUSION TOOK PLACE") to be stored is entered and the actual call number is dialed, after which, by switching off said acoustic and/or optical means 6 the cellular telephone 10 will be dis-connected automatically, but retains said call number for unrestricted period.
On an alarm event the cellular telephone 10 switches on as before, then it automatically dials the entered call number and transmits the message. Should the called number be busy, or in the case of ineffective call due to some other reason, for the sake of sure transfer of the message, this call is automatically repeated by the cellular telephone 10 at preset intervals (say after every minute) as preset on the scale of the mi-crocontroller 85, as long as the owner of the telephone 10 does not stop these calls manually.
Further, by means of the locating adapter (e.g. by a GPS signal transmitter) coupled to the commu-nication coupler 851 the location of the vehicle can be quickly and accurately determined, even if it was taken without starting of its engine, by lifting it with a winch onto a transport vehicle used by the thieves.
However, further alternative uses of the system according to the invention are also possible. If a fixed telephone set (connected to a digital telephone exchange) with DTMF
capability is available, or the owner of the protected object has a second cellular telephone 18 of type GSM 900 (or perhaps DCS 1800), further DTMF codes may be added to the call number of the concealed cellular tele-phone 10. If an alarm message is sent by the concealed cellular telephone I O
the owner of the second cellular telephone may temporarily shut off the alarm call. Then, after a preset period of time, e.g.
after 5 minutes, by sending another DTMF codes also stored in the cellular telephone set i 8, the telecommunication link may be restored. So, he can decide (if the alarm signal of the cellular tele-phone 10 have ceased in the meantime) whether the alarm call was caused by an incidental interfer-ence (issued by one of the signal transmitters of the building), or the alarm continues to prevail on the cellular telephone 18, confirming thereby the unauthorized access.
So, a needless hurry to get to the protected remote object can be avoided.
Alternatively, the system can be operated by means of said DTMF codes so that the issued decoded signals carry control in-fom~ation to the starting circuit of the engine. Or, the over may switch on by means of such infor-oration e.g. the air-conditioning system or sprinkler system of his country house situated many miles away, saving thereby considerable sum of money and time.
But, by means of a series of DTMF information, the owner can disable the alarm center unit 2 of his vehicle, since the second remote control 15 hidden in the vehicle re-arms the alarm system if it was previously disabled by the first remote control 4. Namely, the opening pulse is led also to the actu-ating push-button of the remote control 15 arranged hidden in the vehicle, preventing thereby the in-trusion into the vehicle by the immediate re-arming of the alarm system. By this method, code catching can also be prevented, to which many alarm systems are exposed at present. The effective de-activating signal can be issued by the owner himself only via his second controlling cellular tele-phone 18 to the cellular telephone 10 concealed in the vehicle. The decoded signal disconnects the closed protective circuit of the alarm center unit 2 and disconnects the cellular telephone 10.
The benefits of the invention are outstanding - including also its practicality - when comparing it with the present state of the art. Even in comparison with the protective systems of buildings making use of utilizing the most up-to-date wired telephone networks, any transmission system of informa-tion relating to unauthorized intrusion can easily be made ineffective by severing the telephone lines or by incidental line faults, all these being of utmost importance especially in the case of property protecting surveillance systems or banking institutions.
In the case of vehicles, safety is improved by the invention by preventing the possibility of putting the vehicle in operation, so it can only be taken away by winching it onto another vehicle. In this case, however, by connecting to the controller an adapter available on the market, the route of the thieves can be followed. The special arrangement of aerial of the cellular telephone proposed may reveal the kind of protection as the proposed system will more and more become known. Therefore, it will be expedient to use concealed sheet aerials or hybrid aerials having an appearance similar to that of conventional antenna suitable for operating both a radio and a cellular telephone. By the use of a microphone 12 mentioned for conveyance of information, the immediate disarming of the alarm center unit 2 is rendered possible even during busy hours.
In case of coupling sensors 5 of the alarm system to parts of the vehicle unavoidable generating some kind of signal upon direct or indirect movement of the vehicle, e.g. to the chassis, crank, said sensors 5 will sensing the rotation of wheels or a mechanical fuel pump, then in the case of any displacement or shifting of the vehicle or priming of the engine by any means, information will be sent to the alarm center unit 2 and, in a way already described, to the owner or to the security organization performing the duty of remote surveillance.
_14-In the foregoing the invention has been described in connection with the remote surveillance of vehi-cles. Our proposal, however) can be applied not only to the protection and remote surveillance of mobile objects but also to that of real assets as well. So, hereinafter, with reference to the statements made in conjunction with remote surveillance of vehicles, the functional discrepancies and those as-s sociated with the arrangement of circuits and components presenting themselves in the case of re-mote surveillance of buildings will be briefly described.
Among the sensors 5 of the alarm system obviously developed for building protecting, a sensor 5 can also be found by which the undisturbed connection with the alarm center unit is continuously moni-tored through a built-in permanent link and, in the case of line interruption, overload, intentional line breakage) etc., the logical interface 8 is set into operation and a telephone is activated. In buildings said actuating means 14 are installed to initiate interventions affecting the use of the building, so in-terrupting the supply of electric power, water, gas and heating of the building, or of blocking the op-eration of automatic electric locking devices of doors and windows) etc.
Miniature TV-cameras can also be expediently included in the list of actuating means, informing through wired or wireless communication links the security dispatch center also by means of moving pictures of current events at the site, following the activation of the alarm center unit 2.
Of course, the same cellular telephone system located in the protected area can be utilized for in-forming the owner by incoming written or verbal messages by a terminal connected to the wired tele-communication nehvork, and connection can be established through a door-speakerphone system between a visitor calling from the door and the owner of the protected object, without letting the visitor know that the called person is momentarily not at home. The system proposed can easily be completed through addition of a few items of system installed by a person skilled in the art, rendering the system capable of informing the security dispatch center of damages caused by the forces of na-ture immediately after their occurrence.
Anti-sabotage protection of the system according to the invention and used in remote surveillance of buildings can be provided by coupling a self sealing relay stage to the switching means (not shown in the drawings) for awning the remote alarm center unit 2. The self sealing of the relay stage can be deactivated by means of the logical interface 8, by transmitting an individual and unique code via the cellular telephone 18. The alarm center unit 2 will be armed in conventional way by means of a switch.
Utilizing the intrinsically intelligence of the proposed system, automatic indication of sabotage acts e.g. disconnection of supply voltage, destruction of electronic components by high-voltage pulses, intentional damaging of system and causing short-circuits can be accomplished.
In such cases a short sabotage-signaling message is sent by the microcontroller 85 through the cellular telephone set 10 to the owner without enabling for the intruder to disabling the telephone connection, while the route of the intruder can be displayed on a display means of the supervisory system.
The frequency coupling of the cellular telephone prevents the possibility of severing any connections.
Through microphone 12 the owner may receive e.g. acknowledgement of execution of his command signals issued in DTMF mode. Such command signals may be issued e.g. to reconnect the boilers in stalled in the building after several days of absence before starting home, switching on and off air conditioning) electric heating and numerous other applications) such as e.g.
constituting part of the admission system of department stores.
Both in the case of mobile and immobile assets an aerial not show in the drawings may be installed to starts operation when the normal aerial of the system is damaged, broken off, etc.
Of course) it is also possible to install in the presented embodiment two alarm center units 2 and two logical interfaces 8 constituting different units combined with a single purpose-oriented circuit and with a single common microcontroller 85. In the areas lying outside the region covered by the cellu lar telecommunication servicx, calls received by the controlling cellular telephone 18 may be diverted to a paging system, providing information of hazardous lack of power supply of the system, e.g. due to excessive exhaustion of storage batteries - yet while the system is still capable of operating - by forwarding brief messages or telegrams, or through sensors 5 of the alarm center unit 2 adjustments can be made to distinguish between minor impacts (indicating authorized or unauthorized taking of the vehicle) and stronger impacts occurring at bumps or major collisions.
Instead of DTMF codes verbal messages or other known standard protocols may also be used, e.g. the G3 standard used for facsimile messages, ensuring quicker data transmission.
While the invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to preferred embodi meats thereof originally equipped with an alarm system, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in detail and operation may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.
List of reference numerals 1 power supply 2 alarm center unit 21 micro~ontroller circuit 211 input 214 input 3 receiver stage 4 remote control 5 signal transmitter 6 acoustic and/or optical signaling means 7 actuator means 8 logical interface 81 starting input 82 bus IS 83 output 84 output 85 microcontroller 851 communication connection 852 output 853 output 854 input 855 output 86 DTN1F decoder 861 input 862 output 87 driver 88 voice recorder 881 input 882 input 883 output 89 audio amplifier 891 input 892 input 893 output 9 telephone interface 91 bus 92 output 93 input 94 output 95 connector 10 cellular telephone 11 aerial 12 microphone 13 loudspeaker 14 actuating means 15 remote control 16 GSM center 17 D'T11~ transmitter 18 cellular telephone
Background of the Invention Remote monitoring and controlling means monitoring an event and acts of intervention of a defined extent. The object to be protected may be movable or immovable objects, equally characterized by constituting pieces of property of some value that can become subjects of wrongful behavior of un-authocized persons, i.e. vehicles may be unlawfully appropriated, unwarrantably used, burglars may break into buildings, etc.
Several different protective systems have been developed in practice to prevent, but at least to en-cumber such unlawful actions, by adopting most up-to-date engineering achievements to spoil the expeditiousness of the different, ever newer and more and more sophisticated wrongful acts.
Beyond the measures commonly termed burglar protection, monitoring of different other events of catastrophic character has gained ground due to its great importance, together with providing the possibility of making effective counteractions against such events, these being done in the majority of cases by expanding, partly understandably, the systems performing primarily the task of "simple"
burglar protection.
Due to growing intensity of violent actions, one can hardly rely upon active effective intervention of outsiders present as eye witnesses at such wrongful acts, further, due to the working methods of pro-fessional protective organizations having come into being with such aim, the remote surveillance of protected objects utilizing for this purpose primarily the existing communication systems corre-sponding to the objectives considered as being of primary importance have become predominant.
EP 0 366 378 A2 and US 5 276 728 show a long-distance connection provided by cellular telephone or other telecommunication means between the vehicle' sensor and an alarm device. On intrusion into the vehicle, protection is provided not only by the emission of usual acoustic and optical signals and by ignition blocking but further informative-operative protection is ensured also by the cellular tele-phone set located in the vehicle by dialing pre-determined telepbone numbers.
The owner or operator _2-or other monitoring or protective dispatch center may get information of the intrusion, listen to the intruder, and send deterrent massages, or may even decide to stop the stolen and moving vehicle by interrupting its ignition circuit or other electronic control unit. Deficiency of all these actions is that such relatively simple defects can just as easily and quickly be eliminated with more or less skill, the vehicle thieves of our days usually being -unfortunately - in the possession of rather broad technical professional knowledge.
With all solutions linked up with a public telecommunication system serious dii~culty is imposed on the functioning or operating such a system that in peak-time periods undisturbed and immediate communication is not always possible. Such possible and momentary blackouts cause serious diffi-culties both in remote monitoring and controlling, i.e. disabling the vehicle and, depending on the protective system applied, it may temporarily obstruct the owner as well in getting into his vehicle.
EP 0 242 099 A2 describes a theft-prevention and site-identification system, in which the current lo-ration of the protected object, in particular, of a vehicle or person is defined by the coordinates pro-vided by a microprocessor system, named Navsiar Global Positioning System, GPS. On its activa-I S tion caused e.g. by unauthorized opcning or starting or change of location of a vehicle, the micro-processor identifies itself at a central dispatch office, alarming the latter and indicating the reason of alarm. Information of momentary site of the protected object is periodically actualized by sending from time to time a train of digital signals to the central dispatch office by means of cellular tele-phone. The central dispatch office is also capable of calling the microprocessor by addressing its in-dividual identification number, and the central dispatch office is able to determine the site of the ve-hicle if the latter has been displaced without activating the microprocessor protective system. The system is, of course, provided with several logic inputs and outputs to which input signal transmit-ters and sensors and acoustic and optical alarm output devices known from the field of alarm tech-piques can be connected, and contains such actuating devices that can be activated by being ad-dressed by the protected vehicle also through the use of the cellular telephone system, causing thereby obstruction of operation of the protected object or rendering it inoperative, simply by pro ducing defects in the functioning of the vehicle or bringing it to be halt while observing the require ments of traffic safety. This arrangement neither excludes the possibility of using) instead of a so catled normal telephone available on the market, a so-called purpose-oriented device suitable only for performing the required functions.
In EP 0 449 471 A2) the integration of cellular telephone sets into the vehicle safety system is pro-posed whereby interfacing means are used by means of which a plurality of different commercially WO 99/21742 PCT/HU9_7/00070 available cellular telephone sets and different vehicle alarm systems may be interconnected. The in-terfacing means comprise a control means and a coupling means to connect the cellular telephone sets to the coatrol means. This coupling means contains a data library stored in a memory for storing the individual protocols required by the communication carried on with the different cellular tele-phones, and the system operator performs the adopting of the cellular telephone and the alarm system to each other in the course of activating the system. Primary aim of that system is to utilize the cel-lular telephone set of the vehicle for remote surveillance of the vehicle) indicating the unauthorized events or those causing damage, and providing for the owner or for the person performing the task of surveillance the possibility of getting into contact via the telephone connection with the intruder or, in case of failure of such an attempt, with the help of the various actuating means, of drawing the at-tention of near- by outsiders to the prevailing abnormal state of the vehicle, as well as of rendering the unauthorized use of the vehicle impossible.
In both cited documents the methods proposed for remote surveillance of an object or objects consist of keeping specific domains of a protected object - movable property or real estate - under observa-1 S lion, either continuously or periodically, and on detecting a change of predetermined character or extent - i.e. in the case of unauthorized intrusion - a local alarm is initiated and a remote alarm signal or an informative massage is transmitted through telecommunication means, to a predetermined ad-dress, or the location of the object given its by coordinates obtained from a reference system, and after transmission of local alarm, malfunction or inoperability of the protected object expediently by means of built-in and concealed actuators, further, by way of remote control issued by the alarmed address, the protected object is set, or can be set, into the state of partial or total inoperability.
Although neither of said documents emphasizes, said operating steps initiated by unauthorized intru-sion give not even one percent of total operation of protective systems. In overwhelining majority of cases, the alert state is deliberately disarmed also by remote control) e.g.
when the owner returns to the vehicle. This feature constitutes, at the same time, the Achilles heel of the system, namely, the techniques available today permit persons - without causing considerable expenditure for them, having once specialized themselves in that kind of money-making having got hold of the code of re-mote control or generating in series the known remote control code sequences, -to disarming the armed system and to render it thereby ineffective.
Though not representing a substantial item of expenditure compared to the value of the protected object) the use of commercial cellular telephone system will anyhow impose an additional financial burden on the owner and) if the alarm is not received in an anti-theft dispatch center specially serving for that purpose, a further cellular telephone is required at the owner. It may be regarded as a further practical drawback that a cellular telephone can not always be used any time and anywhere, partly for technical partly for safety and partly for courtesy reasons) so neither the commands sent by the owner to the object through telecommunication means affecting operation of the object can always and under all circumstances be issued.
Summary of the Invention Also, an object of the invention is to propose a method and system which does not necessitates any installed alarm system, which can be disarmed almost exclusively only by the owner or a person authorized by him, and which is capable of ensuring tracking, without requiring necessarily a further cellular telephone for forwarding signals and control commands through telecommunication links, having at the same time a long transmission range) and even if getting out of the area covered by the telecommunication system, it remains capable of maintaining automatically the inoperative and dis-abled state brought about by the issued alarm signal.
One further object is to make the invention suitable for ensuring effective use of modern site-detection means applicable to tracing the vehicle also in the course of its transportation while mov-ing, without its engine being kept running, e.g. when being transported by another vehicle, and for connecting said means to the system complying with the invention.
A further object is to permit repairing an artificially produced defect (including blocking of restart-ing) of a vehicle even for a highly skilled technician only if being in the possession of information linked up with some identification data of the vehicle knowv only by the owner (or rightful user) or his representative.
The invention is based on the recognition that a conventional alarm system can though be disarmed with the use of its own means at any time, but this blocking can automatically be re-activated as long as it is not prevented by means of a separate individual and specific code issued by a person author-ized to do so, and this code may be issued either through telecommunication means (e.g. by making use of the cellular telephone system), or at the site of the object. It has been recognized further that the multi-level arming/disarming operations of the system serving for guarding the protected object can be integrated with the control performed through telecommunication, considering the aspects of convenience as well. A much safer and quicker communication link can be achieved in the data transmission by utilizing SMS (Short Message Service). The GSM 900 system renders possible to localize (identify the site of) a given cellular telephone and tracing its movements, when keeping it concealed in the vehicle and coupled with a site-identification unit.
It has also been recognized that in order to improve the level of safety -e.g. to eliminate code crack-ing - two remote control sets may be used, one of which is concealed in the object and re-activates the alarm system immediately after the latter has been disarmed. Thereby an effective disarming is only possible through a message transmitted to the cellular telephone arranged hidden in the vehicle.
Further, it has been realized that in the vehicle such an artificial defect may be produced which is "life-like", not causing sudden stopping, and which can be repaired even by a skilled technician only if being in possession of information stored in the data base of the computer concerning actual loca-tion of a specific fuse or some other disconnecting device (e.g. relay) hidden elsewhere in every case.
It has also been realized that arming/disarming may take place directly from the cellular telephone and, in the peak periods of telephone trallic) disarming, i.e. opening of the vehicle, may be emitted by an acoustic transmitter generating DTMF sounds or by the cellular telephone acoustically, i.e. with-out resorting to the GSM central dispatch oi~ce.
It has been recognized as well that the task of forwarding information concerning property protection can be provided also by a single-purpose communication apparatus of some design simpler than a cellular telephone of general purpose, also operating at the frequency range of the cellular telephone, but owing to its simple setup, it can be produced cheaper and installed simpler) and the number of external auxiliary elements required for its application is also lower.
In order to accomplish the set aim, on the one hand, a method suitable for remote surveillance of protected objects without built-in alarm system is proposed comprising the steps of on leaving the object to be protected introducing at least one malfunction of the object by disconnecting operational connections between several parts of the electrical, electronic or electromechanical network of the object via means inserted in a hidden manner into said network, and preferably remote activating said means; on returning to said object, canceling said introduced state;
inserting a control means into the canceling path of said means introducing at least one malfunction of the object to be pro-tected, said control means being activable and de activable by an unique secret owner code; activat-ing said control means before leaving said object to be protected and after introducing at least one malfunction of the object; de-activating said control means on returning to and before the access to the protected object, well before canceling said introduced state of said means for introducing at least one malfunction of the object; locally and/or remotely signaling to the owner any unauthorized at-tempt for de-activating said control means.
In cases where the object to be protected is associated with an alarm system, the proposed method comprising the steps of activating the monitoring continuously or periodically of selected regions of the object to be protected; at the same time introducing at least one malfunction of the object; on own demand deactivating the monitoring and malfunctioning; in other cases) initializing a local alarm in cases of changes in levels of one or more predetermined monitored values;
simultaneously transmit-ting an alarm signal to at least one predetermined remote address) with declaring the current position of the object in certain cases; controlling further malfunction of the object from said remote address;
maintaining the state of local and remote alarm in an unchangeable and uncancelable manner, and;
under proper conditions canceling said state through local and/or remote entering and validating a personal canceling code.
In the course of achieving the aim an anti-theft apparatus has been developed comprising user acti-vated and deactivated means for causing malfunction of a protected object without any installed alarm systan, said means are inserted preferred in the electrical system of said object and comprising enabling/ disabling means, being in communication with remote means for activating and deactivat-ing said means for causing, transmitting a unique secret user code upon activation to the enabling/
disabling means, wherein said apparatus further comprising means for enabling or interrupting the connection between said means for causing and the enabling/disabling means;
said means for ena-bung or interrupting is arranged in a hidden manner in or at the protected object and in communica-tion with a further remote control held by the user and operable with at least one changeable secret user code, said means for enabling or interrupting transmits a signal to the user each time when the means for causing receives a deactivating signal.
In cases where the object to be protected is associated with an alarm system, the system for remote controlling an object to be protected, comprising a hidden alarm center with remote control; one or more sensor means connected to input means of said alarm center; one or more optical and/or acous-tical signaling means connected to output means of said alarm center; one or more operating means causing at least malfunction in the normal operation of said object;
communicating means for bi-directional communication with a cellular telephone means; interface means connected to the alarm canter and the communicating means; uninterruptible power supply means, wherein the interface means having a remote control which transmits a secret personal code upon activation, is in opera--7_ tional connection W th said alarm center, continuously maintaining the activated monitoring state of said alarm center.
Further substantial and advantageous features of the invention are detailed in the subclaims.
Brief Desc ~tion of the Drawings The invention is described more detailed with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is the block diagram of a first embodiment of the system according to the inven-hon, Figure 2 shows a possible arrangement of the interface unit of the embodiment shown in Fig. I and its system connections, Figures 3 to 5 illustrate in simplified form further possible arrangements of functional connec-Lions between interface unit and alarm center unit.
Detailed Description of the Preferred Embodiment The invention is described with reference to its application accomplishing remote monitoring and controlling of a vehicle and an apartment, but 'rt can be adopted and applied without restriction within the claimed scope of protection.
The embodiment of Figure 1 presenting only an advantageous example for accomplishing remote surveillance of a vehicle constituting the object to be protected, contains an uninterrupted power supply 1 linked up with an alarm center unit 2 of an alarm system built into the vehicle in known manner. Said alarm center unit 2 (e.g. of type Enforcer 100 B-4 manufactured by SECO-ALARM
Inc., USA) incorporates a radio-frequency receiver stage 3 which is in functional connection with a part of the alarm system, i.e. with remote control 4 serving, in a known way, for arming and dis-arming of the alarm center unit 2. To inputs of the alarm center unit 2 sensor means 5 shown only by symbols, and to outputs of the alarm center unit 2 acoustic and/or optical signaling means 6 and ac-tuating means 7 are connected. Sensor means 5 may be sensors responsive to the opening of vehicle doors, trunk and hood, impact sensors, wheel lifting sensors, ultrasonic or radar type space sensors, while as acoustic and/or optical signaling means 6 several lamps, the horn of the vehicle, or a sepa-rate siren may be used. Actuating means 7 are usually relays or magnet valves inserted into the elec-tric or electronic system, fuel supply etc. of the vehicle. The design, circuitry and operation of the listed means are well disclosed in the related literature, e.g. Odon Ferenczi:
"Rudiments of Protection Against Car Thieves" (Technical Publishing Co., Budapest, 1994) or on page 14 of the booklet _g-"Safety and Comfort Electronics of Vehicles" published by Bosch A.G., Germany, in "Series of Technical Information Booklets" (OMIKK, Budapest) 1994), hereby incorporated by reference. To one of the outputs of the alarm center unit 2 linked up with the acoustic and/or optical signaling means 6 or with one of the actuating means 7 a starting input 81 of a logical interface unit 8 is con-s nected. Alternative connections are is indicated in Figure 1 by a broken lines.
The logical interface unit 8 - though not specifically shown in the figure for the sake of better intelli-gibility - is also linked up with power supply 1. Structural details of the logical interface 8 are shown also by an example of Figure 2, in the block diagram of Figure I only the connection of bus 82 of logical interface 8 to bus 91 of a telephone interface 9 is indicated. Since with the presented em-bodiment a cellular telephone 10 available on the market is used as telecommunication means per-forming two-way communication, as a preferred solution, the telephone interface 9 is constituted by a kit serving for installing cellular telephone 10 into the vehicle.
Accordingly, the telephone interface 9 is linked up through its high-frequency output to an external aerial 11, through its first audio-frequency input 93 to a microphone 12 accommodated in the vehicle, through its second audio-frequency output 94 to a speaker 13 also located in the vehicle, and through its connector 95 to the cellular telephone 10. This embodiment can be realized e.g. by any of the cellular telephones and car-speakerphone sets of the Nokia Oy. (Finland) commercially available, the relevant detailed technical information being accessible e.g. via Internet on address http:fwww. club.
nokia. com, but of course any assembly capable of performing the outlined task and made by any other manufacturer can also be used. First output 83 of logical interface 8 is led to a group of further actuating means 14, its sec-ond output 84 is suitable for arming and disarming the alarm center unit 2, said second output being connected parallel W th the arming push-button of a further remote control I S
identical with the re-mote control 4. The remote control 15 is installed hidden at different places of the various vehicles, of which records, kept together with the identification number of each vehicle are stored in computer memory by the special workshop performing installation of the system.
The actuating means 14 consists of relays 141 to 145 in the present case. The first relay 141 is con-nected to the starting circuit of the engine, to which also the heating circuit of the passenger space is attached. To the second relay 142 the engine disabling setup is connected, causing - through releas-ing a hidden relay - e.g. in the circuit of the electric fuel pump - a "life-like" defect , which can be repaired in a vehicle repair workshop only, the defect showing itself by skipping of the vehicle, then by its coming to a halt, and since the relay is hidden to different places in each vehicle as stored in the computer memory, the "defect" cannot be repaired at the site. The third relay 143 is in functional connection with the air-conditioning system. The fourth relay 144 is a switching device, while the fifth relay 145 is functionally linked up with a servomotor driving an atomizer-type tracer.
In another embodiment instead of cellular telephone 10 a purpose~riented transceiver unit, e.g. the type marking GSM Modul M 1 manufactured by Siemens GmbH. operating in the GSM
1850 system is installed.
In Figure 2 the logical interface 8 is shown more detailed. Main constituent of said logical interface unit 8 is a logic circuitry capable of controlling the reception and emission of acoustic signals, and controlling, as required, the cellular telephone 10, the alarm center unit 2 and the actuating means 14, respectively and ensure co-operation with external supplementary units. In the preferred case the logical interface 8 comprises a microcontroller 85, e.g. the microcontroUer type PIG 16C 65 manu-factured by Microchip inc., USA. This eight-bit microcontroller 85 being in digital data-transmitting coupling with a DTMF decoder 86, with a driver 87 and a voice recorder 88. The logical interface 8, in addition to those listed, contains an audio amplifier 89 performing amplification of analog signals in a way to be detailed later. The DTMF decoder 86 can be realized with the MT8870D of MTTEL
Inc., and is coupled to the microcontroller 85 as a four-bit decoder. The driver 86 amplifies the con-trol signals issued by the microcontroller 85 to make them suitable for operating the actuating means 14, i.e. the relays 14I to 145 in the present example, and is realized by the integrated circuit type ULN 2003. The voice recorder 88 is realized by the chip ISD 1016 of the firm Information Storage Devices, operating as a dictaphone, performing analog recording and playback of audio-fi-equency signals fed to its input, in a duration of 16 seconds per chip. The audio amplifier 89 fulfils the role of a voltage amplifier and can be realized with any discrete component or integrated circuit available on the market. Hints on concrete dimensioning and connection of said circuits can be found in the data sheets of components or in application papers issued by the manufacturers or in the following items of informative technical literature: H. Lohninger: "Angewandte Mikroelektronik" Vo. 2, 1V~1" Ver-lag, DE; Klasche: "Professionelle Schaltungstechnik" Vol.3, Franzis Verlag, DE. To realize the mi-crocontroller 85 further assistance may be acquired from the development system of type marking PIC-Start 16 B 1 issued by the firm Conrad Elektronic, Nirschau, DE. The standard protocol RS
232 series communication port of the microcontroller 85 forms also the communication connection 851 of the logical interface 8 so that it is suitable for connecting a site-locating unit known per se, such as e.g. a GPS signal transmitter.
To a first input 891 of the audio amplifier 89 a microphone 12 installed in the vehicle is connected, said microphone 12 being preferably a condenser-type either fomung part of a speakerphone set as described in connection with Figure 1 or constitutes a separate demand installed specifically for that purpose. To a second input 892 of the audio amplifier 89 a signal output of a DTMF transmitter 17 is galvanic connected. The DTMF transmitter 17 is a commercially available device, but it may be substituted by the DTMF coder circuit type MT8880 of the firm MITEL and by a keypad linked up with it. To the output 893 of the audio amplifier 89 also an analog input 861 of the DTMF decoder 86 is connected.
Also the input/output terminal of the voice recorder 88 is connected to an output 893 of the audio amplifier 89 and respectively to the analog audio-frequency signal input of cellular telephone 10.
This latter is not shown in detail in the drawing since the allocation of terminals of cellular tele-phones 10 are product-dependent. The input/output terminal of the voice recorder 88 serves for for-warding analog signals, whereas its input 882 is linked up with output 852 of the microcontroller 85 and receives the digital signals selecting between recording and playback modes and serving for startlstop of the operation. In Figure 2 a further cellular telephone 18 is shown at the notified remote address but, according to the reasons explained, this control means need not necessarily be suitable for wireless operation. Thus) as shown by the figure) the controller cellular telephone 18 is in con-nection with the logical interface 8 either through the GSM center 18 or through the microphone 12.
By this arrangement the possible difficulty of disarming the alarm center unit 2 in peak periods by means of the cellular telephone 18 is prevented. In such cases by simply holding the speaker of the cellular telephone l8 near to the microphone 12) the latter will receive acoustically the emitted DTMF sounds and the proper code, disarming thereby the alarm center unit 2.
In Figures 3, 4 and 5 three further embodiments of anti-sabotage protection are shown which belongs to the fundamental objectives of the invention, namely the prevention of disarming the alarm center unit 2. In a possible arrangement shown in Figure 3 the enabling output 853 of the microcontroller 85 of the logical interface 8 is galvanic connected to the enabling input of a microcontroller 21 of the alarm center unit 2. Though not shown in the Figure, also the output of the radio-frequency receiver stage 3 of the alarm center unit 2 is linked up in the factory W th said enabling input 211 of the mic-rocontroller 21.
In Figure 4 a variant is shown wherein through driver 87 of the microcontroller 85 one of the actu-ating means 14, e.g. the relay 141 is used for switching the power of the alarm center unit 2, said relay 141 being inserted into the supply line of the alarm center unit 2.
Different from the previous vanant) wherein instead of issuing the enablingldisabling signal by the radio-fi-equency receiver stage 3 for the microcontroller 21 said enabling/disabling signal is issued by the microcontroller 85, here the unchangeable basic setting of alarm center unit 2 is utilized emitting an alarm signal immediately when powered on, independently of any other settings.
The arrangement mentioned in conjunction with Figure 1 is shown more detailed in Figure 5 wherein a further remote control I S hidden in the vehicle is operated expediently from the enabling output 853 of the microcontroller 85.
In a further possible embodiment at least one of the sensors 5 is directly connected to the logical in-terface 8.
In operation, on leaving the vehicle, the alarm center unit 2 is armed by means of the remote control 4 forming part of the alarm system installed concealed in the vehicle, at the same time the actuating means 14 become activated ensuring thereby inoperability or at least malfunction of the protected object (vehicle) by means of performing the measures listed in the introduction.
In the case of normal, usual course of events, when the owner returns to the vehicle, tvvo possibilities are available him to disarm the protected status:
According to one possibility the alarm center unit 2 is disarmed by its own remote control 4 in the usual way, then entering the vehicle within a preset period of time monitored by the microcontroller 85 of the logical interface 8, and inputting the individual and unique code, deactivating thereby the actuating means 14, and restoring the vehicle into operative and functioning state. Said code may be fed into the microphone 12 through the keypad linked up with the audio amplifier 89 of the logical interface 8 with said DT'MF transmitter or, in lack of said keypad, with a DTMF acoustic device being available, through the latter, or in the possession of a suitable controller-type cellular telephone 18 (e.g. NOKIA 2110), in the course of entering the code without radio-frequency connection, the cellular telephone 18 is used for feeding the code into microphone 12.
According to the another more elegant and convenient but more expensive possibility, instead of us-ing the remote control 4 for disarming the alarm center unit 2 and entering the disarnting code sepa-rately, the cellular telephone 10 hidden in the vehicle and forming part of the proposed system is called up by means of the controller cellular telephone 18 and, having established the connection, the DT'IVff code is entered. Both in this case and in the case outlined before the DT'MF code entered into DTMF decoder 86 is translated into a four-bit signal and transferred to the input 854 of the micro-controller circuit 85. By means of a program stored in the microcontroller 85 the identity with the pre-set code is checked and, in case of identity, the relays 141 to 145 of the actuating means 14 are powered off'by micro~ontroUer circuit 8~ through its output 855 with the intervention of driver 87.
WO 99/Z1?42 PCT/HU97/00070 In abnormal i.e. alarm case, the acoustic and/or optical signaling means 6 of the alarm center unit 2 are activated, simultaneously triggering the logicai interface 8 coupled to it, by which a calling in-struction is issued to the associated cellular telephone 10. At least one time before leaving the vehi-cle) an actual call number is dialed into the memory of cellular telephone 10, e.g. in the following way: the acoustic and/or optical means 6 is forced to operate by the user after which - in accordance with the foregoing - the cellular telephone 10 gets into service state. Now, the alarm message (e.g.
"IIVT'RUSION TOOK PLACE") to be stored is entered and the actual call number is dialed, after which, by switching off said acoustic and/or optical means 6 the cellular telephone 10 will be dis-connected automatically, but retains said call number for unrestricted period.
On an alarm event the cellular telephone 10 switches on as before, then it automatically dials the entered call number and transmits the message. Should the called number be busy, or in the case of ineffective call due to some other reason, for the sake of sure transfer of the message, this call is automatically repeated by the cellular telephone 10 at preset intervals (say after every minute) as preset on the scale of the mi-crocontroller 85, as long as the owner of the telephone 10 does not stop these calls manually.
Further, by means of the locating adapter (e.g. by a GPS signal transmitter) coupled to the commu-nication coupler 851 the location of the vehicle can be quickly and accurately determined, even if it was taken without starting of its engine, by lifting it with a winch onto a transport vehicle used by the thieves.
However, further alternative uses of the system according to the invention are also possible. If a fixed telephone set (connected to a digital telephone exchange) with DTMF
capability is available, or the owner of the protected object has a second cellular telephone 18 of type GSM 900 (or perhaps DCS 1800), further DTMF codes may be added to the call number of the concealed cellular tele-phone 10. If an alarm message is sent by the concealed cellular telephone I O
the owner of the second cellular telephone may temporarily shut off the alarm call. Then, after a preset period of time, e.g.
after 5 minutes, by sending another DTMF codes also stored in the cellular telephone set i 8, the telecommunication link may be restored. So, he can decide (if the alarm signal of the cellular tele-phone 10 have ceased in the meantime) whether the alarm call was caused by an incidental interfer-ence (issued by one of the signal transmitters of the building), or the alarm continues to prevail on the cellular telephone 18, confirming thereby the unauthorized access.
So, a needless hurry to get to the protected remote object can be avoided.
Alternatively, the system can be operated by means of said DTMF codes so that the issued decoded signals carry control in-fom~ation to the starting circuit of the engine. Or, the over may switch on by means of such infor-oration e.g. the air-conditioning system or sprinkler system of his country house situated many miles away, saving thereby considerable sum of money and time.
But, by means of a series of DTMF information, the owner can disable the alarm center unit 2 of his vehicle, since the second remote control 15 hidden in the vehicle re-arms the alarm system if it was previously disabled by the first remote control 4. Namely, the opening pulse is led also to the actu-ating push-button of the remote control 15 arranged hidden in the vehicle, preventing thereby the in-trusion into the vehicle by the immediate re-arming of the alarm system. By this method, code catching can also be prevented, to which many alarm systems are exposed at present. The effective de-activating signal can be issued by the owner himself only via his second controlling cellular tele-phone 18 to the cellular telephone 10 concealed in the vehicle. The decoded signal disconnects the closed protective circuit of the alarm center unit 2 and disconnects the cellular telephone 10.
The benefits of the invention are outstanding - including also its practicality - when comparing it with the present state of the art. Even in comparison with the protective systems of buildings making use of utilizing the most up-to-date wired telephone networks, any transmission system of informa-tion relating to unauthorized intrusion can easily be made ineffective by severing the telephone lines or by incidental line faults, all these being of utmost importance especially in the case of property protecting surveillance systems or banking institutions.
In the case of vehicles, safety is improved by the invention by preventing the possibility of putting the vehicle in operation, so it can only be taken away by winching it onto another vehicle. In this case, however, by connecting to the controller an adapter available on the market, the route of the thieves can be followed. The special arrangement of aerial of the cellular telephone proposed may reveal the kind of protection as the proposed system will more and more become known. Therefore, it will be expedient to use concealed sheet aerials or hybrid aerials having an appearance similar to that of conventional antenna suitable for operating both a radio and a cellular telephone. By the use of a microphone 12 mentioned for conveyance of information, the immediate disarming of the alarm center unit 2 is rendered possible even during busy hours.
In case of coupling sensors 5 of the alarm system to parts of the vehicle unavoidable generating some kind of signal upon direct or indirect movement of the vehicle, e.g. to the chassis, crank, said sensors 5 will sensing the rotation of wheels or a mechanical fuel pump, then in the case of any displacement or shifting of the vehicle or priming of the engine by any means, information will be sent to the alarm center unit 2 and, in a way already described, to the owner or to the security organization performing the duty of remote surveillance.
_14-In the foregoing the invention has been described in connection with the remote surveillance of vehi-cles. Our proposal, however) can be applied not only to the protection and remote surveillance of mobile objects but also to that of real assets as well. So, hereinafter, with reference to the statements made in conjunction with remote surveillance of vehicles, the functional discrepancies and those as-s sociated with the arrangement of circuits and components presenting themselves in the case of re-mote surveillance of buildings will be briefly described.
Among the sensors 5 of the alarm system obviously developed for building protecting, a sensor 5 can also be found by which the undisturbed connection with the alarm center unit is continuously moni-tored through a built-in permanent link and, in the case of line interruption, overload, intentional line breakage) etc., the logical interface 8 is set into operation and a telephone is activated. In buildings said actuating means 14 are installed to initiate interventions affecting the use of the building, so in-terrupting the supply of electric power, water, gas and heating of the building, or of blocking the op-eration of automatic electric locking devices of doors and windows) etc.
Miniature TV-cameras can also be expediently included in the list of actuating means, informing through wired or wireless communication links the security dispatch center also by means of moving pictures of current events at the site, following the activation of the alarm center unit 2.
Of course, the same cellular telephone system located in the protected area can be utilized for in-forming the owner by incoming written or verbal messages by a terminal connected to the wired tele-communication nehvork, and connection can be established through a door-speakerphone system between a visitor calling from the door and the owner of the protected object, without letting the visitor know that the called person is momentarily not at home. The system proposed can easily be completed through addition of a few items of system installed by a person skilled in the art, rendering the system capable of informing the security dispatch center of damages caused by the forces of na-ture immediately after their occurrence.
Anti-sabotage protection of the system according to the invention and used in remote surveillance of buildings can be provided by coupling a self sealing relay stage to the switching means (not shown in the drawings) for awning the remote alarm center unit 2. The self sealing of the relay stage can be deactivated by means of the logical interface 8, by transmitting an individual and unique code via the cellular telephone 18. The alarm center unit 2 will be armed in conventional way by means of a switch.
Utilizing the intrinsically intelligence of the proposed system, automatic indication of sabotage acts e.g. disconnection of supply voltage, destruction of electronic components by high-voltage pulses, intentional damaging of system and causing short-circuits can be accomplished.
In such cases a short sabotage-signaling message is sent by the microcontroller 85 through the cellular telephone set 10 to the owner without enabling for the intruder to disabling the telephone connection, while the route of the intruder can be displayed on a display means of the supervisory system.
The frequency coupling of the cellular telephone prevents the possibility of severing any connections.
Through microphone 12 the owner may receive e.g. acknowledgement of execution of his command signals issued in DTMF mode. Such command signals may be issued e.g. to reconnect the boilers in stalled in the building after several days of absence before starting home, switching on and off air conditioning) electric heating and numerous other applications) such as e.g.
constituting part of the admission system of department stores.
Both in the case of mobile and immobile assets an aerial not show in the drawings may be installed to starts operation when the normal aerial of the system is damaged, broken off, etc.
Of course) it is also possible to install in the presented embodiment two alarm center units 2 and two logical interfaces 8 constituting different units combined with a single purpose-oriented circuit and with a single common microcontroller 85. In the areas lying outside the region covered by the cellu lar telecommunication servicx, calls received by the controlling cellular telephone 18 may be diverted to a paging system, providing information of hazardous lack of power supply of the system, e.g. due to excessive exhaustion of storage batteries - yet while the system is still capable of operating - by forwarding brief messages or telegrams, or through sensors 5 of the alarm center unit 2 adjustments can be made to distinguish between minor impacts (indicating authorized or unauthorized taking of the vehicle) and stronger impacts occurring at bumps or major collisions.
Instead of DTMF codes verbal messages or other known standard protocols may also be used, e.g. the G3 standard used for facsimile messages, ensuring quicker data transmission.
While the invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to preferred embodi meats thereof originally equipped with an alarm system, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in detail and operation may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.
List of reference numerals 1 power supply 2 alarm center unit 21 micro~ontroller circuit 211 input 214 input 3 receiver stage 4 remote control 5 signal transmitter 6 acoustic and/or optical signaling means 7 actuator means 8 logical interface 81 starting input 82 bus IS 83 output 84 output 85 microcontroller 851 communication connection 852 output 853 output 854 input 855 output 86 DTN1F decoder 861 input 862 output 87 driver 88 voice recorder 881 input 882 input 883 output 89 audio amplifier 891 input 892 input 893 output 9 telephone interface 91 bus 92 output 93 input 94 output 95 connector 10 cellular telephone 11 aerial 12 microphone 13 loudspeaker 14 actuating means 15 remote control 16 GSM center 17 D'T11~ transmitter 18 cellular telephone
Claims (15)
1. A method for remote controlling an object to be protected comprising steps of:
on leaving the object to be protected, introducing at least one malfunction of the object by disconnecting operational connections between several parts of the electrical, electronic or electromechanical network of the object via means inserted in a hidden manner into said network, and preferably remote activating said means; on returning to said object, canceling said introduced state;
comprising further the steps of:
inserting a control means into the canceling path of said means introducing at least one malfunction of the object to be protected, said control means being activable and de-activable by an unique secret owner code; activating said control means before leaving said object to be protected and after introducing at least one malfunction of the object; de-activating said control means on returning to and before the access to the protected object, well before canceling said introduced state of said means for introducing at least one malfunction of the object; locally and/or remotely signaling to the owner any unauthorized attempt for de-activating said control means.
on leaving the object to be protected, introducing at least one malfunction of the object by disconnecting operational connections between several parts of the electrical, electronic or electromechanical network of the object via means inserted in a hidden manner into said network, and preferably remote activating said means; on returning to said object, canceling said introduced state;
comprising further the steps of:
inserting a control means into the canceling path of said means introducing at least one malfunction of the object to be protected, said control means being activable and de-activable by an unique secret owner code; activating said control means before leaving said object to be protected and after introducing at least one malfunction of the object; de-activating said control means on returning to and before the access to the protected object, well before canceling said introduced state of said means for introducing at least one malfunction of the object; locally and/or remotely signaling to the owner any unauthorized attempt for de-activating said control means.
2. A method for remote controlling an object to be protected comprising steps of:
activating the monitoring continuously or periodically of selected regions of the object to be protested; at the same time introducing at least one malfunction of the object; on own demand deactivating the monitoring and malfunctioning; in other cases, initializing a local alarm in cases of changes in levels of one or more predetermined monitored values;
simultaneously transmitting an alarm signal to at least one predetermined remote address, with declaring the current position of the object in certain cases; controlling further malfunction of the object from said remote address;
comprising further the steps of:
maintaining the state of local and remote alarm in an unchangeable and uncancelable manner, and;
under proper conditions canceling said state through local and/or remote entering and validating a personal canceling code.
activating the monitoring continuously or periodically of selected regions of the object to be protested; at the same time introducing at least one malfunction of the object; on own demand deactivating the monitoring and malfunctioning; in other cases, initializing a local alarm in cases of changes in levels of one or more predetermined monitored values;
simultaneously transmitting an alarm signal to at least one predetermined remote address, with declaring the current position of the object in certain cases; controlling further malfunction of the object from said remote address;
comprising further the steps of:
maintaining the state of local and remote alarm in an unchangeable and uncancelable manner, and;
under proper conditions canceling said state through local and/or remote entering and validating a personal canceling code.
3. A method set forth in claim 2 further comprising steps of using the canceling said state for re-arming said monitoring state.
4. A method set forth in any of claims 1 to 3 further comprising steps of transmitting the canceling code during canceling said state via cellular telephone means.
5. A method set forth in any of claims 1 to 3 further comprising steps of transmitting the canceling code during canceling said state via customed radio frequency means.
6. A method set forth in any of claims 1 to 3 further comprising steps of transmitting the canceling code during canceling said state via DTMF signaling means.
7. Anti-then apparatus comprising user activated and deactivated means for causing malfunction of a protected abject, said means are inserted preferred in the electrical system of said object and comprising enabling/disabling means, being in communication with remote means for activating and deactivating said means for causing, transmitting a unique secret user code upon activation to the enabling/disabling means, wherein said apparatus further comprising means for enabling or interrupting the connection between said means for causing and the enabling/disabling means; said means for enabling or interrupting is arranged in a hidden manner in or at the protected object and in communication with a further remote control held by the user and operable with at least one changeable secret user code, said means for enabling or interrupting transmits a signal to the user each time when the means for causing receives a deactivating signal.
8. A system for remote controlling an object to be protected, comprising a hidden alarm center with remote control; one or more sensor means connected to input means of said alarm center; one or more optical and/or acoustical signaling means connected to output means of said alarm center; one or more operating means causing at least malfunction in the normal operation of said object;
communicating means for bi-directional communication with a cellular telephone means; interface means connected to the alarm center and the communicating means; uninterruptible power supply means, wherein the interface means having a remote control which transmits a secret personal code upon activation, is in operational connection with said alarm center, continuously maintaining the activated monitoring state of said alarm center.
communicating means for bi-directional communication with a cellular telephone means; interface means connected to the alarm center and the communicating means; uninterruptible power supply means, wherein the interface means having a remote control which transmits a secret personal code upon activation, is in operational connection with said alarm center, continuously maintaining the activated monitoring state of said alarm center.
9. A system set forth in claim 8 wherein customed telecommunication means without keypad and display is used as communicating means.
10. A system set forth in claim 8 or 9 comprising further a cellular telephone located outside the protected object for the purpose of emitting the individual code.
11. A system set forth in any of claims 8 to 10 wherein the interface means has a code input for entering the individual code, connected to an output of a code entering means arranged within the protected object.
12. A system set forth in claim 11 wherein the code entering means is a DTMF
transmitter.
transmitter.
13. A system set forth in any of claims 8 to 12 wherein an output of the microcontroller incorporated in the interface means is hardwired with an actuating push-button of a further remote control hidden in the protected object for maintaining the armed state of the alarm center unit.
14. A system set forth in any of claims 8 to 12 wherein an output of the microcontroller incorporated in the interface means is hardwired with an enabling input of a further microcontroller incorporated in the alarm center unit for maintaining the armed state of the alarm center unit.
15. A system set forth in any of claims 8 to 12 wherein an actuating means connected to the interface means is inserted between the alarm center unit and the power supply.
Applications Claiming Priority (1)
| Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/HU1997/000070 WO1999021742A1 (en) | 1997-10-28 | 1997-10-28 | Method and system for remote monitoring and controlling of an object, preferably vehicle to be protected |
Publications (1)
| Publication Number | Publication Date |
|---|---|
| CA2276174A1 true CA2276174A1 (en) | 1999-05-06 |
Family
ID=10988956
Family Applications (1)
| Application Number | Title | Priority Date | Filing Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| CA002276174A Abandoned CA2276174A1 (en) | 1997-10-28 | 1997-10-28 | Method and system for remote monitoring and controlling of an object, preferably vehicle to be protected |
Country Status (7)
| Country | Link |
|---|---|
| EP (1) | EP0954462A1 (en) |
| AU (1) | AU4962197A (en) |
| BG (1) | BG103613A (en) |
| CA (1) | CA2276174A1 (en) |
| IL (1) | IL130676A0 (en) |
| SK (1) | SK98599A3 (en) |
| WO (1) | WO1999021742A1 (en) |
Families Citing this family (4)
| Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DE20006680U1 (en) * | 1999-12-28 | 2001-05-10 | GAP AG GSM Applikationen und Produkte, 82041 Oberhaching | Telemetry module, arrangement for radio remote control of an electrical device |
| WO2001091435A1 (en) * | 2000-05-23 | 2001-11-29 | Sähköliike E. Heikkilä Oy | Arrangement with a mobile phone |
| GB2395335A (en) * | 2002-11-08 | 2004-05-19 | E Lead Electronic Co Ltd | Anti-theft and two-way communication apparatus for vehicles |
| FI115931B (en) * | 2003-10-10 | 2005-08-15 | Tamtron Oy | Monitoring device and system |
Family Cites Families (11)
| Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CA1277400C (en) | 1986-04-09 | 1990-12-04 | Uri Rapoport | Anti-theft and locating system |
| JPH02116231A (en) | 1988-10-26 | 1990-04-27 | Harada Ind Co Ltd | Robbery preventing device for automobile |
| US5081667A (en) | 1989-05-01 | 1992-01-14 | Clifford Electronics, Inc. | System for integrating a cellular telephone with a vehicle security system |
| US5432495A (en) * | 1990-01-29 | 1995-07-11 | Tompkins; Eugene | Beeper controlled auto security system |
| US5285186A (en) * | 1991-03-14 | 1994-02-08 | Magnadyne Corporation | Vehicle security system |
| US5276728A (en) | 1991-11-06 | 1994-01-04 | Kenneth Pagliaroli | Remotely activated automobile disabling system |
| US5223844B1 (en) * | 1992-04-17 | 2000-01-25 | Auto Trac Inc | Vehicle tracking and security system |
| GB2279478A (en) * | 1993-06-26 | 1995-01-04 | Ian Paul Downing Hunter | Vehicle security |
| GB9400595D0 (en) * | 1994-01-14 | 1994-03-09 | Flounders Michael | Improvements in vehicle security systems |
| GB2299695B (en) * | 1995-04-07 | 1998-12-02 | Centrepoint Technology Limited | Vehicle security systems |
| US5811886A (en) * | 1995-12-06 | 1998-09-22 | Alertcall, Inc. | Anti-carjacking apparatus |
-
1997
- 1997-10-28 AU AU49621/97A patent/AU4962197A/en not_active Abandoned
- 1997-10-28 WO PCT/HU1997/000070 patent/WO1999021742A1/en not_active Application Discontinuation
- 1997-10-28 CA CA002276174A patent/CA2276174A1/en not_active Abandoned
- 1997-10-28 EP EP97912394A patent/EP0954462A1/en not_active Withdrawn
- 1997-10-28 SK SK985-99A patent/SK98599A3/en unknown
- 1997-10-28 IL IL13067697A patent/IL130676A0/en unknown
-
1999
- 1999-07-28 BG BG103613A patent/BG103613A/en unknown
Also Published As
| Publication number | Publication date |
|---|---|
| EP0954462A1 (en) | 1999-11-10 |
| BG103613A (en) | 2000-02-29 |
| AU4962197A (en) | 1999-05-17 |
| IL130676A0 (en) | 2000-06-01 |
| WO1999021742A1 (en) | 1999-05-06 |
| SK98599A3 (en) | 2000-05-16 |
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Legal Events
| Date | Code | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| FZDE | Discontinued | ||
| FZDE | Discontinued |
Effective date: 20031028 |