GB2429562A

GB2429562A - Theft deterrent arrangement

Info

Publication number: GB2429562A
Application number: GB0517547A
Authority: GB
Inventors: George Louca
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2005-08-26
Filing date: 2005-08-26
Publication date: 2007-02-28
Also published as: GB0517547D0

Abstract

This system comprises of two co-operating components, one a signal receiver 1, which is incorporated into a protected item. And the second, a transmitter 2 which is separate from the first component. It can be made into a key-ring, which when separated by a certain distance the theft deterrent device becomes operational. For example, a man using an electric drill puts it down and walks away from it a certain distance, the receiver 1 stops receiving a signal from the transmitter 2. The alarm is automatically activated so when a thief picks up the drill, the alarm goes off and will keep going off. Even if he manages to steal the drill he can never use it again, as it will cut out the system and can only be used if the transmitter 2 comes back into contact with the receiver 1 within a set distance and then everything becomes operational again.

Description

Thefl Deterrent Arrangement This invention relates to an arrangement to

deter theft, the arrangement being suitable to deter the theft of many different items, such as computers (either home computers or portable "laptop" computers), camcorders, mobile phones, televisions, video recorders, hand held tools and other appliances, particularly electrically operated devices.

An example of a hand held tool which is subject to theft is a drill, for example an electric drill. It is well known to secure hand tools (such as drills) against theft by mechanical means, for example by locking them in a secure frame. It is also well known to use electronic means to deter the theft of hand tools. For example, at shops or retail stores, it is common to fit items with electronic tags. If an attempt is made to steal a tagged item, the electronically coded tag, in Co-operation with a detector device provided at the exit to the establishment, will sound an alarm at the store.

However, neither of the known methods described above are suitable to deter the theft of hand tools on a work site, for example in the building or demolition industry, because of the manner in which the tools are used there. On works ites, drills are not usually in use continuously for the whole day, and while they are not in use, they are usually left lying around unattended until they are needed to be used again.

This makes drills the obvious target for a thief. It would be very time consuming and inconvenient to repeatedly lock a drill in a secure frame when it is not being used, and to unlock it again when it is needed. Although electronic tagging is a very useful theft deterrent in shops or the like, it is not suitable for use on worksites, such as building sites or demolition sites, because such sites do not usually have only a single exit at which a tag detector Could be positioned, and instead a thief can usually walk off in any direction from the site without passing a detector to sound an alarm.

For the reason that known theft deterrent devices are not suitable for use to prevent the theft of items left lying around unattended, the theft of tools from work sites continues to be a major problem.

This invention results from an entirely new and versatile approach to deterring theft, the theft deterrent system comprising two co-operating components, a first of the two Co-operating components including a signal receiver, and being intended in use to be incorporated into a protected item, and the second co-operating component including a signal transmitter, and being separate from the first component, the arrangement being such that if the first and second co-operating components are separated from one another by more than a certain distance so that the receiver is out of range of the transmitter, the theft deterrent operates.

The theft deterrent can include an audible alarm to be mounted in use on the protected item, the alarm being controlled so that it tends to becomes aimed automatically when the receiver is out of range of the transmitter. Although as just mentioned above, the alarm tends to become armed when the receiver and transmitter are out of range, there may be the additional requirement that the protected device has been switched off and is not in operation before the alarm is automatically armed.

Instead of or as well as the audible alarm, the theft deterrent may include a disabling device that tends to disable operation of the protected device when the receiver and transmitter are out of range. Although as just mentioned above, the alarm tends to become armed when the receiver and transmitter are out of range, there may be the additional requirement that the protected device has been switched off and is not in operation before the disabling device operates.

In order that the invention will be readily understood, various theft deterrent systems according to the invention will now be explained in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:- FIGURE 1 shows two co-operating components used in a theft deterrent system according to the invention, and FIGURE 2 shows a sequence of steps which occur in operation of the theft deterrent.

Figure 1 shows two co-operating components, 1 and 2. Component 1, which may be called a "device-mounted component", is to be incorporated into a device to be protected against theft. Component 2, which may be called a "device-remote component" may either be carried about the person of an authorised user of the protected item, or instead it may be installed at a location called herein a "base station". The device-remote component 2 comprises a battery 21 which is used as a power source for a transmitter 22 which serves to transmit signals, for example infra- red or radio signals.

Device-mounted component 1 comprises a receiver 10 adapted to receive a signal transmitted from the component 2. It also comprises an audible or other alarm; a movement detector 12 which serves to activate the alarm 11; an arm-and-disarm unit 13 which serves to control the alarm system 11, and an enabling-and disabling device 14 which serves to enable and disable use of the protected item. There is also a rechargeable battery 15 which is used to power the parts of component 1.

A full description of the construction and operation the theft deterrent system will be given below, but it is useful to first give a very brief description of one way in which the system could operate. Let us suppose that the protected item is an electric drill (not shown), that the devicemounted component 1 has been built into (i.e. incorporated) the drill, and that a tag incorporating component 2 is carried by an authorised user of the drill. If the drill has been left unused for some time with the user some way away from the drill, then the receiver 10 incorporated into the drill will not have received any signal from the transmitter 22 because it will have been out of communication range. In the absence of a signal being received by the receiver 10 from the transmitter 22, the armand-disarm unit 13 will have automatically armed the alarm system 11, and the unit 14 will have automatically disabled operation of the drill. As the authorised user of the drill, carrying the component 2, approaches the drill, the transmitter 22 will come within communication range of the receiver 10.

When the receiver 10 picks up the signal from the transmitter 22, the armand-disarm unit will disarm the alarm automatically, and the device 14 will automatically enable the drill, that is to say the drill can be used as a normal drill. If, on the other hand, a thief approaches the drill and picks it up, then the theft deterrent will operate as follows. The thief will not have a tag on his person, and as he approaches and picks up the drill, the alarm system 11 will remain armed, and the drill will be disabled by the device 14. As the thief picks up the drill, the alarm 11 on the drill will sound, attracting the attention of people nearby, and the drill will remain disabled so that the thief even if he succeeds in stealing the drill, will not be able to use it. If a thief cannot use or sell stolen items, there will no longer be any point in stealing any protected item, which is an obvious deterrent to a thief.

Although it is preferred to include the alarm system components (11, 12, and 13) and also the enable-and-disable device 14 in a theft deterrent system according to the invention it will he understood that either the alarm system components or the enable-aiiddisable device 14 could be used alone The alarm of the alarm system is preferably an audible alarm, and it is activated if the drill is picked up by a thief. The alarm is "movement sensitive" that is to say that when the alarm is armed, it will not sound unless the drill is moved or picked up. Such an alarm is sometimes called a "trembler alarm", and it operates in response to movement or vibration.

As regards the signals transmitted by the transmitter, these will preferably comprise or include some kind of code, and the receiver 10 will not enable operation of the drill and disarm the alarn-i unless the code received is the correct code. There is no need to describe in this Specification the construction and operation the co- operating code transmitting, code receiving, and code verification devices, as any suitable known arrangement can be used. The reader will find examples of such devices in Patents classified in class mark E05B49/00J6 of the classification system.

Figure 2 merely shows, as one would expect, that the device-mounted component may have, associated with the receiver 10, a device which checks that the received code is the correct code before enabling the device and disarming the alarm.

As described above, the device-remote component 2 can be carried about the person of an authorised user of the protected item. In this case the device-remote component 2 will be formed as a "tag", "key-ring", badge or the like incorporating the battery 21 and the signal transmitter 22. In this case, the protected drill or other item could only be used with the authorised user located close to the protected item. A disadvantage of this arrangement would be that the authorised user could steal the protected device for his own personal use. To prevent this, the deviceremote component could be securely mounted at a "base station". In this case even an authorised user of the protected item could only use it when close to the base station, and so there would not be any point in him stealing the drill.

The expression "base station" used above means that the transmitter can be mounted at some location generally central in relation the area in which drills or other protected items are to be used. The "base station" will be securely held in place, so that it cannot be stolen.

Whereas it has been mentioned above that an alarm is mounted on the drill, an additional alarm could be located, for example, in a site foreman's office. In this case, the component 1 could include a transmitter (not shown) activated by the movement detector, to transmit a "being stolen" signal to a receiver where it could sound the alarm in the foreman's office.

The alarm 11 is preferably, like the enabling-and disabling device 14, incorporated into the drill in a location which is very difficult to access from outside the drill.

The enabling/disabling of the protected item can be achieved in many ways. In the case of an electric drill, the drill could have a relay (electromechanical switch) in its electric power supply system, and the two cooperating parts would need to be within communicating distance of each other to enable the relay switch to be closed.

However, instead of using a mechanical device such as a physically moveable switch, it may he preferable to use a solid state switch.

A purely electronic device enabling-arid disabling device would could operate in a similar way to which some computers are protected by a password. However, instead the password being entered by typing the password in from a key board, the password (or code) would be supplied by the said device-remote component.

The two co-operating components preferably communicate with each other by means of radiation in the electro magnet spectrum, for example by infra red radiation or by radio as mentioned above. The exact distance over which the receiver 10 will receive the signal from the transmitter 22 will be chosen as desired. If the device- remote component 2 is carried by an authorised user, this distance could be set to a distance of two metres or less. If the device were to be mounted at a remote base station, the communication distance would obviously need to be much greater, for example 30 metres. As to the nature of the signal transmitted by the transmitter 22, these signals will be transmitted automatically, without the need for the activation of a push button or the like as is used to unlock vehicle doors. The signal could be a continuous signal, but this might cause rapid depletion of the transmitter battery 21. To avoid this, the signal could be transmitted intermittently in spaced apart bursts, transmitted -say- every 3 seconds, every 5 seconds, or the like.

In one arrangement the device mounted component might shut down, i.e. cease to enable the drill (and also arm the alarm) as soon as the signal from the device- remote component ceased to be received. However, this could cause a problem in the case of an electric drill, because the drill when in operation might generate electromagnetic "noise" which could prevent reliable reception of the transmitted code. This problem can be avoided by designing the system so that, once enabled, the protected device will remain enabled until a switch or similar device is released by the operator of the drill to stop it. Once thus stopped, the drill would then need to receive the enabling signal before it could be restarted. It will be understood that whereas the present invention is of particular use as a theft deterrent for electrically operated devices, for exn1pic a mains or battery operated electric it could aio be applied to a pneumatic drill or a drill powered by an internal combustion engine, in the latter case, the device-mounted component might prevent -say- the ignition system of the engine from being activated unless a coded signal was received from the device - remote component.

As to the battery 15 used as a power source for the theft deterrent of the device- mounted component 1, this could be a battery provided solely for the purpose described. Alternatively, the battery could be a battery already used in the device, such as a battery for providing electricity to the motor of the drill.

In one arrangement co-operating receiver-mounted components and receiverremote components could be manufactured only in unique pairs, so that each receiver- remote component could only enable a single protected device. This would provide the greatest security. However, in the case of numerous tools being used close to a single base station, it might be convenient for a base station to transmit only a single coded signal. In this case, there would be a set or group of device mounted components all responding to a single common transmitted signal. If an alarm system is used, as mentioned earlier, the alarm would sound either at each drill, and br at the foreman's office if the base station were to be stolen and removed a certain distance from the drills.

So far the invention has been described mainly as it applies to tools used at work sites. However, as already mentioned, a theft deterrent arrangement according to the invention is also particularly suitable for use in protecting items normally kept permanently in a private house. Such items include televisions, home computers, video recorders etc. In this case, the device-remote component 2 would be best constructed as a base station which would be hidden somewhere in a house close to the television, computer, or other protected item.

The invention can also be used to protect portable items, such as mobile phones, camcorders, laptop computers or other items often carried about by users. In this case, the device-remote component 2 would best be constructed as a tag, key ring, badge or the like. It will be understood there may be no actual distinction between a "base station" on the one hand, and a tag, key ring, badge or the like on the other hand, because if one leaves a tag or the like hidden in a house, it becomes a base station.

However, a base station will usually have a transmitter which communicates its signal for a distance more than two metres, may be robust, too big to fit conveniently in a pocket, and may be adapted to be securely mounted in place by a screw, bolt, padlock or the like. In contrast a tag, key ring, or badge can be smaller, lighter, transmit its signal for a distance of less than two meters, and may be designed with smooth edges so as not to damage clothing..

Claims

1. A theft deterrent system comprising two co-operating components, a first of the two co-operating components including a signal receiver, and being intended in use to be incorporated into a protected item, and the second co-operating component including a signal transmitter, and being separate from the first component, the arrangement being such that if the first and second co-operating components are separated from one another by more than a certain distance so that the receiver is out of range of the transmitter, the theft deterrent operates.

2. A theft deterrent system according to claim 1, and including an audible alarm to be mounted in use on the protected item, the alarm being controlled so that it tends to become armed automatically when the receiver is out of range of the transmitter.

3. A theft deterrent system according to claim 2, in which the alarm, when armed, is arranged to be activated in response to movement or vibration of the protected item such would occur if the device were to be picked up.

4. A theft deterrent system according to claim 2 or claim 3, in which, as a condition of the automatic arming of the alarm, the protected device must first be switched off and not in operation.

5. A theft deterrent system according to any preceding claim, and including a disabling device that tends to disable operation of the protected device when the receiver is out of range of the transmitter.

6. A theft deterrent system according to claim 5, in which, as a condition of the automatic disabling of the protected device, the device must first be switched off and not in operation.

7. A theft deterrent system according to claim 5 or claim 6, in which the means to enable and disable the protected device comprises a relay switch disposed in an electricity supply line of the device.

. A thef.i deterrent system according to claim 5 or claim 6, in which the means to enable and disable the protected device comprises a solid state switch disposed in an electricity supply line of the device.

9. A theft deterrent system according to any preceding claim, in which the transmitter of the device-remote component sends its signal in the form of spaced apart bursts of transmission.

10. A theft deterrent system according device according to any preceding claim, in which the transmitter and receiver devices of the two cooperating components are designed so that the theft deterrent will be activated if the components are separated by a distance of 2 metres or less.

11. A theft deterrent system according to any preceding claim, in which the first of the two co-operating components which includes the signal receiver, also includes as part of the theft deterrent, a signal transmitter, which transmitter is arranged, automatically to transmit a signal to a remote receiver to activate an alarm upon operation of the theft deterrent.

12. A theft deterrent system according to any preceding claim, and including a protected item into which the receiver has been incorporated.

13. A theft deterrent system according to claim 12, in which the protected item is a hand tool, such as a drill.

14. A theft deterrent system according to claim 12, in which the protected item is an item of generally not portable household equipment such as a television or home computer.

15. A theft deterrent system according to claim 12, in which the protected item is a portable personally item, such as a laptop computer, a camcorder, or a mobile phone.