GB2138616A - Warning system for the deaf - Google Patents

Abstract

The system includes several sensors each for detecting the occurrence of a unique physical condition such as a fire alarm, burglar alarm, the ringing of a telephone or doorbell etc., each sensor being connected to an individual transmitter which transmits a radio frequency signal of unique character indicating the occurrence of that physical condition. The system further includes a receiving circuit for the transmitted signals which is connected to a decoding circuit (79) that determines which of the individual transmitted signals was received and is in turn connected to a notification circuit (80) that provides a unique notification signal to the deaf person consisting of a vellicating or tickling of the skin. Each individual physical condition will generate a unique tickling sensation which is produced by a transducer (75) against the underside of the deaf person's wrist. The receiver, decoder and notification circuits may be self-contained in a watch apparatus that attaches to the wrist. The warning system may also include visual means (74) on the watch face to individually indicate the occurrence of each physical condition. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Event notification system for the deaf This invention relates to personal notification systems and more specifically to personal multievent notification systems for the hearing impaired or deaf.

In recent years personal alarm systems and personal event notification systems have become quite popular. Many of these personal alarm systems include a transmitter and receiver for a single channel transmission to alert a person of the occurrence of a specific event or to indicate that the person is to do something such as call an answering service.

One characteristic that is common to these alert systems is that the alert itself is provided by a sound indication such as a buzzer or some audible alarm. For those that are hearing impaired or deaf this type of personal notification apparatus or alarm apparatus is of little use since the deaf person or the person with their hearing impaired cannot hear the alarm.

An object of the present invention is to provide an alarm system for the hearing impaired or deaf.

In accordance with the present invention, an event notification system for a deaf person includes a sensor circuit for detecting the occurrence of an external physical condition, and a transmitter circuit connected to the sensor circuit for transmitting a radio frequency signal indicating the occurrence of this physical condition. The deaf person carries a receiving circuit for detecting a radio frequency signal indicating the occurrence of this physical condition. A notification circuit is connected to the receiving circuit for notifying the deaf person of the occurrence of this external physical condition by providing a vellicating sensation or a tickling sensation to that person's skin thus alerting him to the occurrence of this external physical condition.

In a further embodiment of this invention, a multiple event notification system for a deaf person is provided that includes a first sensor circuit for detecting the occurrence of a first physical condition connected to a first transmitter to provide a first radio signal at a specific frequency to indicate the occurrence of this first physical condition. A separate second sensor is provided for detecting the occurrence of a second physical condition and is connected to a second transmitter for transmitting a second signal at a second specific frequency indicating the occurrence of this second physical condition. The deaf person carries a receiver for receiving the first and second radio frequency signals. The receiver is connected to a decoding circuit that determines whether the first signal or the second signal was received and does so independently of the reception of the other.A notification circuit is connected to the decoding circuit and provides notification to the deaf person of the occurrence of either the first or the second conditions independently by providing a vellicating or tickling sensation to the deaf person's skin.

A still further embodiment of the present invention includes a multiple event notification system for a deaf person that includes several sensor circuits where each sensor circuit is for detecting the occurrence of a specific and unique physical condition and each sensor circuit is connected to its own respective transmitting circuit that transmits a signal of a unique character indicating the occurrence of the unique physical condition. The deaf person carries a receiving circuit for receiving these unique signals. The receiving circuit is connected to a decoding circuit for designating the reception of each of the several unique signals from the transmitters.A notification circuit is connected to the receiving and decoding circuits to provide notification to the deaf person of the occurrence of each of the unique physical conditions by providing a vellicating or tickling sensation to the deaf person's skin.

In a still further embodiment of this invention, a multi-event notification system is provided that includes a notification circuit that provides an individual vellicating or tickling sensation corresponding to the occurrence of each unique physical condition. Furthermore, the receiver decoder and notification circuits are self-contained within a wrist watch apparatus and worn on the wrist of the deaf person. The vellicating or tickling sensation is provided by a piezo-electric vibrator contained in the watch band of this wrist watch and positioned underneath the wrist of the deaf person. In a still further embodiment the display of the wrist watch includes a visual display to provide the deaf person with visual notification of the occurrence of each of the separate unique physical conditions.

The physical conditions in this multiple event notification system may include a fire condition, an intrusion alert or burglar alarm condition, the ringing of an alarm clock, a voice actuated alarm such as an alarm for a baby crib, a smoke detector alarm, or an alarm activated by the ringing of a telephone.

A preferred embodiment of the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein: FIGURE 1 is a block diagram detailing the operation of the multiple event notification system; FIGURE 2 is a further block diagram, illustrating the contents of the portion of the personal notification system worn by a deaf person; and, FIGURE 3 is an exploded view of the wrist watch portion of the notification system illustrating the alarm indicator, the batteries and the circuit boards.

FIGURE 1 iilustrates in block diagram for the operation of the invention. Individual sensors and transmitters are connected to a door bell, a telephone and an alarm clock in the present example. When either the alarm clock rings, the telephone rings or the door bell rings, a signal is transmitted to the receiver. The receiver then produces a signal that causes the vibrator to produce a vibration that is felt by the deaf person.

Therefore the deaf person who cannot hear the alarm clock ringing, the telephone ringing or the door bell sounding is alerted to the occurrence of either or all of these physical conditions.

FIGURE 2 is another block diagram illustrating the relationship between the sensors and transmitters to the mechanism worn by the deaf person for alerting the deaf person of the occurrence of these physical conditions. The deaf person wears a digital watch 56 which includes a notification receiver 57. The notification receiver 57 includes an antenna that receives signals from either a door bell actuated transmitter 20, a burglar alarm actuated transmitter 51, a telephone activated transmitter 52, an alarm clock activated transmitter 53, a smoke detector activated transmitter 54, or a voice actuated transmitter 53 suitable for installation in a baby's crib.The receiver 59 is connected to a vibrator interface 58 which provides the signal to the vibrator 59 to provide the vellicating or tickling sensation to the deaf person wearing the digital watch 56.

In FIGURE 2 the transmitters 50, 51, 52, 53, 54 and 56 each include a sensor that generates a signal when the specific unique physical condition occurs. That is, the door bell sensor produces a signal when the door bell is activated or rings.

Likewise a burglar alarm, telephone, alarm clock, smoke detector and voice actuated sensors produce signals when either these respective events occur. Each of these sensors are connected to a transmitter. In the preferred embodiment the transmitter included is an Lem 1871 radio controlled encoder/transmitter produced and sold by National Semiconductor Corporation. The description of this encoder/transmitter is contained in the 1982 Linear Databook which is herein incorporated by reference. Specifically pages 9-101 through 9-11 5 provide the technical description of this encoder/transmitter.

The Lem 1871 is a six channel encoder and radio frequency transmitter intended for use as a low power, nonvoice, unlicensed communication device at frequencies of 27 megahertz or 49 megahertz. Each of the sensor transmitter combinations 50, 51,52, 53, 54 and 55 may each include their own separate LM 1871 transmitter. In such a configuration each individual sensor would be dedicated to a separate channel on the LM 1 871 chip by connecting each of the separate sensors to the unique channel of the same LM 1871 chip.

The receiver 57 contained in a digital watch 56 includes an Lem 1871 radio controlled receiver/decoder chip produced and sold by National Semiconductor Corporation and described in the 1982 Linear Databook by National Semiconductor Corporation previously incorporated by reference. The LM 1871 radio controlled receiver/decodertchip is described on pages 9-116 through 9-134. The Lem 1871 is a complete radio frequency receiver/decoder. The device is suited for either 27 megahertz, 47 megahertz or 72 megahertz applications. The receiver incudes a crystal controlled superheterodyne design to enhance sensitivity and selectivity.This self-contained device also includes a local oscillator, mixer, intermediate frequency detector, automatic gain control, synchronized output drivers and decoder logic all integrated on a single semi-conductor substrate.

In the normal configuration the Lem 1871 chip provides four channels of communications.

Therefore, in its bare configuration, the receiver chip can only provide indications of four separate events and not the six events illustrated in FIGURE 2. However, by using the configuration illustrated in FIGURE 12 of the technical description of the LM 1872, the LM 1872 receiver/decoder can be converted to a six channel device. This configuration has the LM 1 872 connected to an eight bit parallel-out serial shift register such as a 74C164 available from Texas Instruments Inc.

This configuration can provide a six analog channel receiver/decoder apparatus. A single transistor comparator reconstructs the detector output of the LM 1872 together with the synchronized timer waveform which is input into the clock input of the shift register. Channel 1 output of the LM 1872 then loads a logic "1" into the register of the 74C 1 64 and shifts the "1 " down the locations of the register in accordance with the time information from the detector output of the Lem 1872. The analog channel outputs can be converted into digital channels by inputting the channel output through an inverter circuit such as a hex inverter chip 74C04 available from National Semiconductor Corporation.

The vibrator interface 58 may consist of a driving circuit such as the hex inverter of the 74C04 to provide a direct current voltage level or an alternating current voltage. The vibrator 59 can be either a L-1 0 flat pack piezo audio indicator as sold by Allied Electronics requiring a three volt direct current input or a piezo ceramic transducer such as the PCB series also sold by Allied Electronics. The PCB transducer series requires an alternating current input. The vibrator interface 58 produces either a single signal or series of unique signals to produce vibrations from the vibrator 59.

The unique signals provided by the vibrator interface 58 will produce several unique vibrations by the vibrator 59 against the skin of the deaf person. In this way the deaf person would be alerted to each of the unique individual occurrences by the unique tactile, vellicating or tickling sensation that that person feels. For example, one event may be a rapid series of short vibrations. Another may be long and short vibrations interspaced. A third may be a continous vibration.

FIGURE 3 illustrates the receiver vibrator and vibrator interface implemented as a wrist watch.

The wrist watch case 78 includes four separate control buttons 70, 71,72 and 73. These controls are used to set the functions of the watch and the event nobtfication system. The wrist watch display includes the digital liquid crystal display of a typical electronic wrist watch together with a series of six light emitting diode indicators 74.

These light emitting diode indicators 74 each individually indicate the occurrence of a separate physical event in addition to the vellicating or tickling sensation received by the deaf person.

These light emitting diodes 74 can be a different color to indicate the different events. The watch band includes two 4 cell batteries 76 and 77. Each of the four cells are connected in series to form a cell bank and the two 4 cell banks are connected in parallel. The four batteries 76 are connected in series by lines 85 and the four cells 77 are connected by lines 84. The vibrator 75 is located at the end of the watch band is connected by wire 83. The placement of the vibrator 75 in this location places the vibrator in a position to be exposed against the underside of the deaf person's wrist, a sensitive skin location. By providing the vibrator against this sensitive area the deaf person can more readily detect the occurrence of an alarm physical condition furthermore, can more readily discriminate between different vibration patterns.

The four cell batteries 76 and 77 each provide three volts to the clock and alarm circuits. By providing cells 76 in parallel with 77 the longevity of the batteries in the system may be increased. In the preferred embodiment, the watch and receiver are constantly on and the battery lifetime becomes an important feature.

The circuitry for the digital watch and alarm system is contained on printed circuit boards 79 and 80 that are contained within the digital watch case 78.

The power supplies for the separate transmitters and sensors 50, 51,52, 53, 54 and 55 canoe provided by either a power supply connected to a standard house wall outlet or by battery packs.

Each sensor transmitter combination in the preferred embodiment includes a control to stop transmission and to reset the sensor. In this manner, the deaf person is alerted to the sensor to reset the system.

Claims (1)

1. An event notification system for use by a deaf person comprising: a sensor for detecting an occurrence of an external physical condition; a transmitter connected to said sensor for transmitting a radio frequency signal indicating the physical condition; a receiver for receiving said signal indicating the occurrence of the physical condition; and notification means connected to said receiver for providing notification to the deaf person of the occurrence of the external physical condition providing a vellicating sensation to the person's skin.

2. An event notification system according to Claim 1 wherein said receiver and said notification means are self-contained and portable for attachment to said deaf person.

3. An event notification system according to Claim 2 wherein said receiver and said notification means are contained within a watch device to be worn on the wrist of a deaf person.

4. An event notification system according to Claim 3 wherein said notification means further includes means for providing a visual indication of the occurrence of the physical condition.

6. An event notification system according to claim 1 including: a first sensor means for detecting an occurrence of a first physical condition; a first transmitting means connected to said first sensor means for transmitting a first signal of a first frequency indicating the occurrence of said first physical condition.

a second sensor means for detecting an occurrence of a second physical condition; a second transmitting means connected to said second sensor means for transmitting a second signal of a second frequency indicating the occurrence of said second physical condition; a receiving means for receiving said first and second signal; a decoding circuit means connected to said receiver means for designating the reception of the first signal independently from the reception of the second signal; and, a notification means connected to said decoding circuit means for providing notification to the person of the occurrence of the first and second physical conditions independently by providing a vellicating sensation to the person's skin.

7. An event notification system according to Claim 6 wherein said notification means further includes means for producing a first vellicating sensation indicating the occurrence of the first physical condition and a second vellicating sensation indicating the occurrence of the second physical condition.

8. A multi-event notification system according to Claim 6 wherein said notification means further includes diplay means for producing a visual indication of the occurrence of each physical condition independently.