FR2880720A1 - Missing person e.g. child, tracking and assisting method, involves searching search identifier in recorded identifiers, and providing information concerning search identifier to search server, in case of positive search - Google Patents

Abstract

The method involves recording identifiers chosen among an identifier associated with a radio frequency identification (RFID) chip and with a person, in memories of RFID readers (2) during predefined period. A search identifier is transmitted from a search server. The search identifier is searched in the recorded identifiers. Information concerning the search identifier is provided to the search server, in case of positive search. An independent claim is also included for a computer program embarked in a module associated to a radio frequency identification reader intended to be used in a method of assisting and tracking person.

Description

METHOD FOR ASSISTING PEOPLE WITH RFID RECOGNITION

  The present invention relates to the field of personal assistance.

  The present invention relates more particularly to a method of assisting people using identifiers chips and RFID readers.

  One of the objectives of the present invention is to provide a method and a device particularly allowing the location of people. It will be understood that this method is particularly advantageous in the case of missing persons.

  The prior art already knows many methods of protection and traceability of goods, such as the Tracker system for cars, but few systems for the protection of people.

  A known method for such traceability is for example geo-location from a mobile phone, either by satellite through the GPS system, or by the terrestrial network by GSM triangulation.

  These methods have the disadvantage of not being accessible to all because of the high cost of these systems, and because young children do not necessarily have the right equipment.

  In addition, the prior art knows the PCT application WO 02/44865, filed by DIGITAL ANGEL CORPORATION, also related to the system known under the trade name of VeriChip (trademark). In this application, an RFID-type chip is attached to the user (directly under the skin in the VeriChip system), and transmits identifiers to a terminal, for example a mobile phone type having RFID reader functionality. According to one embodiment (for example in the chapter concerning the monitoring of the elderly), this document discloses that people carry an identification device and a GPS or GSM tracking device. At the request of the interested persons (or directly), for example the parents or the family, the geo-location and identification data are sent to a server which transmits them to the interested persons. According to a second embodiment (for example in the chapter concerning students going to school by bus), students are equipped with RFID chips, and the bus is equipped with an RFID reader and means of communication. Again, at the request of a third party or directly, the geo-location and identification data of the child are transmitted to a server for those interested.

  These methods disclosed in the various embodiments have the disadvantage of requiring a transfer of the identification data to a remote server (whether from a personal device as in the case of the elderly or a separate device as in the case of children and the bus). They also have the disadvantage of storing personal data at a server or set of servers, even for a predefined time.

  The present invention therefore intends to overcome these drawbacks by proposing an alternative to known traceability methods, especially in emergency situations.

  The present invention thus intends to solve these disadvantages of the prior art by using a method based on RFID transmitters and receivers (Radio Frequency Identification).

  The prior art already knows systems based on the use of RFID chips for product recognition. In particular, the application US 2003/0120745 (Katagishi et al.) Relates to a communication system in which a mobile phone is provided with an RFID reader that can read the information of a product comprising an RFID chip.

  This chip includes in memory a product identifier and the address of an access server. The mobile phone reading the information of this chip by its RFID reader can then transmit to the specified server the product identifier and receive back a set of information.

  The present invention intends in a first variant to exploit the possibilities of insertion of RFID readers in mobile terminals in order to solve the problem of assistance to persons.

  To do this, the present invention is of the type described above and is remarkable, in its broadest sense, as it relates to a method for the traceability and assistance of a person, said person being provided with an RFID chip (5) comprising at least one unique identifier selected from an identifier of said chip and an identifier of said person, in a set of RFID readers (2) associated with memories, characterized in that it comprises the steps consisting of (i) each radio contact between said RFID chip and one of said RFID readers, recording in a memory of said reader for a predefined period, at least one identifier selected from an identifier associated with said chip and an identifier associated with said person ; (ii) transmitting from a server said search server, an identifier said search identifier, comprising at least one identifier selected from an identifier of a desired person, and an identifier of a specific target chip, via a telecommunication means.

  (iii) searching at the level of the memories associated with said readers, in the set of identifiers recorded in step (i), said search identifier and, in the case of a positive search, providing the search server with at least one information concerning the search identifier.

  According to one embodiment, said RFID readers are associated with fixed communication modules in the space.

  According to another embodiment, said RFID readers are associated with mobile communication modules in the space.

  Preferably, said RFID readers are associated with mobile communication terminals.

  Advantageously, the identifier contained in said chip is an identifier associated with the chip only.

  The invention also relates to a computer program embedded in a module associated with an RFID reader for use in the method according to claim 1, characterized in that it allows the realization of steps (i) and (iii) of process according to the invention.

  The invention will be better understood by means of the description, given below for purely explanatory purposes, of one embodiment of the invention, with reference to the appended figure.

  Figure 1 illustrates an embodiment of the invention wherein the persons are provided with a mobile phone including an RFID reader.

  According to the invention, it is assumed that the entire population is provided with a mobile telephone device, which may be of the PDA, Blackberry or mobile phone type, these devices comprising an RFID reader. It will be understood that if this is not the case, the invention will be restricted to the carriers of such devices.

  The population therefore comprises two types of individuals, those comprising RFID readers, called to simplify readers, and those carrying RFID chips, transmitters.

  The transmitters are equipped with an RFID chip. When purchasing such a chip, according to one embodiment, the buyer can provide upon purchase his name and contact details, which are transmitted to a server of the emergency services, such as the police or the police. firefighters. This server therefore comprises a database of identifier of a chip associated with a person.

  According to one variant, it is possible to personalize the chip by adding to its memory an identifier of the person, for example his name.

  According to another variant, the name of the person associated with the chip will be provided to the search services later, for example only at the time of the disappearance of the person.

  In general, the chip according to the invention therefore comprises, according to the various embodiments, either an identifier of the chip alone, or an identifier of the user alone, or a combination of an identifier of the chip and the user.

  It will also be understood that for reasons of anonymity, it may be preferable not to store a person's identifier in the chips. In this case, the correspondence between a chip identifier and a person identifier will then be transmitted to the search services.

  The chip according to the present invention is of known type. It preferably has a size between 4 and 10 cm2 and emission capacities between 10 and 200 meters. Those skilled in the art will however understand that such dimensions are not limiting and that any type of chip can be used.

  For practical reasons, however, they must remain as discreet as possible. They can be associated with a common object such as a watch, a bracelet or a mobile phone, and can be active or passive.

  Those skilled in the art are capable of producing such chips according to the different identifiers they contain according to the invention.

  Illustrated in Figure 1, the readers are provided with RFID readers 2, preferably installed at the level of their mobile phone 1. This RFID reader is associated with a memory called memory drive which can be either the ROM memory of the mobile phone or a clean memory. It is also associated with a clock that can be the same way the clock of the phone, or a clock clean. In the case where the memory of the reader is that of the mobile phone, the data is transferred by the interface 3.

  It also comprises an application in the form of an embedded software at the interface 3 to perform different functions.

  On the one hand, at each radio contact between a reader and a transmitter, the characteristics of the transmitter chip 5 are stored in the reader's memory and associated with a time stamp for determining the time and the day of the contact. Depending on the accuracy required, it will be understood that the timestamp can also record the minutes and / or seconds of the contact.

  In a first variant, the transmitter chip continuously transmits and the readers simply have to record the identifier data in the chip. According to another variant, it is the reader itself that performs a radio contact search, and the identifiers of the chip are recorded in response.

  According to the information stored in the chip, the reader will store in memory either an identifier of the chip, an identifier of the chip associated with an identifier of the wearer, or an identifier of the wearer only.

  Depending on the proximity of the readers, different recordings are thus made as in FIG.

  It is understood that the different radio contacts between the chips and the readers that would be stored as a variant in a mobile phone device, are transparent to the user of the phone. In the same way, once the data stored in memory, they are not accessible to the user. They can be either encrypted according to a key known only to competent search services, or stored in a memory area inaccessible by the user. For example, the interface 3 makes it possible to prevent access to the data from the telephone menu.

  The method according to the invention is therefore completely transparent to the mobile phone holder comprising an RFID reader.

  According to one embodiment, the RFID readers are equipped with a geolocation system, or preferably associated with the GPS or GSM geolocation system of the mobile phone in which they are inserted.

  In this case, at each radio contact, the position of the contact is also preferably recorded in addition to the identifier (s) of the chip.

  In this way, we can fully trace the path of a person with a chip according to the readers she has crossed.

  During a search, a search server associated with a specialized organization such as the police, gendarmerie or fire brigade, broadly transmits information about a missing person. This information may include the name and / or the first name of the person, and / or an identifier of the chip that it bore if it was transmitted either at the time of purchase of the chip, or later. The message sent by the server includes an identifier called search identifier.

  According to the embodiments of the invention, the search identifier therefore comprises either an identifier of the searched chip alone, or an identifier of the person sought alone, or a combination of an identifier of the chip sought and the person sought.

  This generalized message can be sent as SMS Broadcast via the different operators. This SMS preferably includes all the identifiers accessible on the missing person. This message is then read by the embedded software according to the present invention, which extracts the identifiers and compares them with those stored in the memory of the reader or the mobile phone. The sending of SMS has the advantage of being transparent to the holder of the mobile.

  If the comparison is positive for at least one of the identifiers, according to a first embodiment, the embedded software causes the display of a warning message meaning mobile holder to urgently contact a specific emergency number. This message optionally also includes the characteristics of the person sought and the timestamp and / or geolocation recorded for the identifier found.

  It is therefore understandable that the holder of the mobile phone is concerned by the present method only when a search is positive, that is to say when it can constitute an aid for the search services. If this is not the case, the comparison will be negatively transparent to the user of the device according to the invention.

  According to a second embodiment, the software can cause the server to send a response SMS that is transparent to the user. In this case, the positive comparison is sent to the search service and it is he who contacts the holder of the mobile phone who made the positive comparison. According to this embodiment, the response sent to the server may also contain all the information stored in the reader. In this case, the intervention of the research services can be direct and still transparent to the holder of the mobile.

  It will be understood that the combination of several search results makes possible a real follow-up of a possibly missing child that is particularly advantageous in the context of a search.

  According to one variant, it is also possible to refine the position information of the holder of the RFID chip if the readers comprise a means of evaluating the power of the radio signal received from the chip. In this case, the distance to the reader is a function of the received signal (if, of course, the chips have standardized transmission capacities), so that the calculation of the received power makes it possible to calculate the distance at the moment of the radio contact, as well as the evolution of such a distance.

  This embodiment associated with the geolocation systems at the reader level allows a high precision in the search and therefore an increased efficiency in the assistance.

  Furthermore, according to a second embodiment, the RFID readers are not associated with mobile terminals, but with fixed terminals, such as for example base stations of the GSM network, or antennas. In this case, a memory is positioned in this reader to perform the functions of storing the identifiers of the chips and the persons with each radio contact.

  In this embodiment, the reader also comprises a remote communication module of the GSM, UMTS or any other communication protocol type, enabling it to receive search requests from the search server and to answer this request in the event of a request. positive comparison between the issued identifier and at least one of the stored identifiers.

  In this embodiment, therefore, a network of communicating RFID readers is positioned, which will of course be all the more effective if this network will be dense. Finally, in this embodiment, where the reader is placed in a fixed manner, it is possible to directly program the location of the reader, which saves the step of locating the mobile phone in the first embodiment. The response of the fixed reader will then necessarily include this location information.

  Finally, it will be understood that it is possible to combine the two previous embodiments by having both fixed REID readers whose location is known and mobile readers, for example associated with mobile terminals, preferably mobile phones.

  The invention is described in the foregoing by way of example. It is understood that the skilled person is able to realize different variants of the invention without departing from the scope of the patent.

Claims (1)

13 Claims   1. A method for traceability and assistance of a person, said person being provided with an RFID chip (5) comprising at least one unique identifier selected from an identifier of said chip and an identifier of said person, in a set RFID readers (2) associated with memories, characterized in that it comprises the steps of: (i) at each radio contact between said RFID chip and one of said RFID readers, recording in a memory of said reader for a predefined period at least one identifier selected from an identifier associated with said chip and an identifier associated with said person; (ii) transmitting from a server said search server, an identifier said search identifier, comprising at least one identifier selected from an identifier of a desired person, and an identifier of a specific target chip, via a telecommunication means; (iii) searching at the level of the memories associated with said readers, in the set of identifiers recorded in step (i), said search identifier and, in the case of a positive search, providing the search server with at least one piece of information concerning said search ID.   2. Method according to claim 1, characterized in that said RFID readers are associated with fixed communication modules in space.   3. Method according to claim 1, characterized in that said RFID readers are associated with mobile communication modules in space.   4. Method according to claim 3, characterized in that said RFID readers are associated with mobile communication terminals.   5. Method according to claim 1, characterized in that the identifier contained in said chip is an identifier associated with the chip only.   6. Computer program embedded in a module associated with an RFID reader for use in the method according to claim 1, characterized in that it allows the realization of steps (i) and (iii) of said method.