Classifications

• • G—PHYSICS
  • G08—SIGNALLING
  • G08B—SIGNALLING OR CALLING SYSTEMS; ORDER TELEGRAPHS; ALARM SYSTEMS
  • G08B21/00—Alarms responsive to a single specified undesired or abnormal condition and not otherwise provided for
  • G08B21/02—Alarms for ensuring the safety of persons
  • G08B21/0202—Child monitoring systems using a transmitter-receiver system carried by the parent and the child
  • G08B21/0205—Specific application combined with child monitoring using a transmitter-receiver system
  • G08B21/0211—Combination with medical sensor, e.g. for measuring heart rate, temperature
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G08—SIGNALLING
  • G08B—SIGNALLING OR CALLING SYSTEMS; ORDER TELEGRAPHS; ALARM SYSTEMS
  • G08B13/00—Burglar, theft or intruder alarms
  • G08B13/02—Mechanical actuation
  • G08B13/14—Mechanical actuation by lifting or attempted removal of hand-portable articles
  • G08B13/1427—Mechanical actuation by lifting or attempted removal of hand-portable articles with transmitter-receiver for distance detection
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G08—SIGNALLING
  • G08B—SIGNALLING OR CALLING SYSTEMS; ORDER TELEGRAPHS; ALARM SYSTEMS
  • G08B21/00—Alarms responsive to a single specified undesired or abnormal condition and not otherwise provided for
  • G08B21/02—Alarms for ensuring the safety of persons
  • G08B21/0202—Child monitoring systems using a transmitter-receiver system carried by the parent and the child
  • G08B21/0227—System arrangements with a plurality of child units
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G08—SIGNALLING
  • G08B—SIGNALLING OR CALLING SYSTEMS; ORDER TELEGRAPHS; ALARM SYSTEMS
  • G08B21/00—Alarms responsive to a single specified undesired or abnormal condition and not otherwise provided for
  • G08B21/02—Alarms for ensuring the safety of persons
  • G08B21/0202—Child monitoring systems using a transmitter-receiver system carried by the parent and the child
  • G08B21/0288—Attachment of child unit to child/article
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G08—SIGNALLING
  • G08B—SIGNALLING OR CALLING SYSTEMS; ORDER TELEGRAPHS; ALARM SYSTEMS
  • G08B21/00—Alarms responsive to a single specified undesired or abnormal condition and not otherwise provided for
  • G08B21/02—Alarms for ensuring the safety of persons
  • G08B21/0202—Child monitoring systems using a transmitter-receiver system carried by the parent and the child
  • G08B21/0294—Display details on parent unit

Definitions

• the present invention relates to an electronic detector intended in particular for the detection of theft, loss or displacement of objects.
• the document DE3618416 relates to an electronic device intended for monitoring baggage or other objects, comprising an electronic central unit exchanging coded information with secondary units or transponders capable of being placed in the objects to be monitored or secured to them, which central unit is programmable as a function of the number of secondary units, of the reception level, or other parameters, and transmits call signals to the secondary units which respond to the central unit which trigger, according to the signals received, an alarm.
• these devices oblige the user to activate and 2 to deactivate all the transponders if he wishes to stop or reactivate the system for example when he is at his place of work or his home or other place not requiring protection, which is binding knowing that this intervention must be carried out several times a day.
• these devices do not provide for signaling when a supernumerary unit of the same coding is introduced into the protection field of the device for the purpose of malicious substitution of a protected secondary unit.
• One of the problems to be solved is therefore the production of an object detection device using small transponders capable of effectively covering a defined volume with exchanges of information between the transponders and the central unit in a frequency band. high.
• the object of the present invention is to remedy these drawbacks by proposing a device for detecting objects by means of small transponders offering considerable autonomy of use and allowing easy calibration and operation of the device and ensuring good safety of operation.
• 1 invention is of the type comprising an electronic central unit exchanging information coded by radio frequency with at least one transponder, associated with an object to be monitored in order to verify its presence in a defined volume and emitting an alarm when said transponder is no longer present in the monitoring volume, characterized in that the transponder is automatically put into standby state outside the active phases of the transponder and in that the central unit selectively corresponds with said transponder.
• An active phase corresponds to an active state of reception and processing of a signal sent by the central unit and, possibly, an active state of emission of a message in response to said signal.
• the signal sent by the central unit can be a presence request signal and the response signal sent by the transponder a coded message confirming the presence of the transponder in the volume to be monitored.
• the ratio between the duration of an active phase and the operating cycle time will be very low and, preferably, less than 10%, so as to give the transponders great autonomy of energy.
• the central unit consists of a transmission / reception circuit, an interface comprising a buffer memory allowing the radio frequency connection of the central unit with several transponders, a microcontroller and memories containing the algorithms, in the form computer programs, different modes of operation of the detector.
• the transponders comprise in a first embodiment a microcontroller and memories, a transmission / reception circuit and an interface comprising a buffer memory allowing the connection with several controllers.
• the transponders comprise in a second embodiment a transmission / reception circuit and an intelligent memory capable, during reception of a pulse sent by the central unit, to send via said transmission / reception circuit information coded contained in its memory to the central unit.
• the electronic detector comprises: - a calibration mode in which the central unit detects the transponders which are in its monitoring volume and identifies them in its memory among the transponders which are referenced therein a protection mode in which 1 the central processing unit successively questions the transponders referenced and identified in its memory and issues an alarm if one of said transponders does not respond, and a detection mode in which the central unit successively questions the transponders referenced in a loop and triggers an alarm as soon as one of said transponders responds, for example until user intervention or until 1 ' central unit has detected all of said transponders.
• the detector according to the present invention may also include an initialization mode intended to introduce new transponders and therefore to modify the referencing memory of the transponders.
• This mode uses the time provided at the start of the transponder interrogation frame to initialize the new transponder and reference it in memory for its identification and monitoring, the other referenced and identified transponders being, in this mode, and at this space time in standby.
• the detector according to the invention may also include a mode for erasing the memory of the transponders that the user does not wish to keep.
• the central unit can advantageously include means such as indicator lights or an alpha-digital display screen enabling the user to be informed of each mode of operation of the detector, for example in the case of the introduction of a new transponder, confirming that it has been referenced in the memory of the central unit, then identified to be monitored.
• the transponders are each capable of being integrated into an object to be monitored or are each in the form of an electronic tag which can be joined to said object and each transponder is supplied with energy independently or by the central unit. .
• Figure 1 is a schematic representation of the device according to the invention.
• FIG. 2 shows the block diagram of the central unit and a transponder.
• - Figure 3a shows the state of the registers of the memory of the central unit for a particular case of operation of the device according to the invention.
• FIG. 3b represents the time diagram in protection mode of the device according to the invention.
• an object detection device comprises a central unit 1 exchanging information 10 with transponders 11 each associated with an object, not shown, for the purpose of controlling their presence in a defined volume 12.
• the central unit 1 thus manages the communications for verifying the presence of the transponders 11 in the monitoring volume 12 and, if one of them is absent, triggers an audible alarm 13.
• a central unit 1 comprises a transmission / reception circuit 20, connected to an antenna 21, connected to an interface 20 'allowing the connection with several transponders 11, and a microcontroller 22 connected to on the one hand at the interface 20 and on the other hand at a read only memory 23 containing the computer program integrating the algorithms of the different operating modes (visible in FIGS. 4a to 4e) of the device, and a random access memory 23 ′ intended to contain parameters inherent in the transponders 11, a buzzer 24 for the emission of the audible alarm 13 and one or more LED 25 for the emission of a luminous alarm signal allowing to give the user information on the operation of the device.
• Each transponder 11 consists of a microcontroller 30 connected to the transmit / receive circuit 31, connected to an antenna 32, and to memories 33, containing the characteristics of the transponder 11 and in particular coded information intended to be sent to the central unit on request, and two 34.34 'time counters.
• the transmitter of the transmission / reception circuits 20,31 comprises, not shown, a digital data input and a transmission circuit intended to preferably transmit digital information, in a frequency range greater than about 400 Mghz, at distances of the order of several meters and in particular from 1 to around 120m.
• the receiver it can use a superheterodyne type structure with two mixers allowing the recovery of information coming from the central unit either in analog form or in digital form. It can also be adapted to transmit a carrier detection signal indicating that reception will take place.
• the detector according to the invention operates under three main operating modes which can be selected from the central unit 1: a calibration mode in which the central unit successively questions all the transponders 11 referenced in its memory 23 according to a certain time base, and stores information on each transponder questioned and referenced, for example in the form of an activity bit set to "1", as can be seen in FIG. 3, signifying the presence of the transponder 11 in volume 12 to be monitored. It can also be seen in this figure that only the transponders TR1, TR2, TR4 and TR7 have their activity bit at "1". The user will check the correct operation and the result of the calibration using the LEDs 25.
• a calibration mode in which the central unit successively questions all the transponders 11 referenced in its memory 23 according to a certain time base, and stores information on each transponder questioned and referenced, for example in the form of an activity bit set to "1", as can be seen in FIG. 3, signifying the presence of the transponder 11 in volume 12 to be monitored. It can also be seen in this figure that only
• the selected transponders 11 will remain in memory until another calibration mode has been carried out, a protection mode in which the central unit 1 questions successively, in the order of memorization of the transponders 11 referenced in its memory 23 and according to a certain time base, the transponders 11, where only among the transponders TR1, TR2, TR4, and TR7 referenced, as can be seen in FIG.
• the transponders TR1, TR2, TR4 and TR7 which have an activity bit at "1" are questioned, and triggers alarm 13 if one of the transponders whose activity bit is at "1 "does not respond by the emission of a determined code, signifying its exit from the monitoring volume 12, - a detection mode in which the central unit 1 questions on the same principle as described previously all the transponders referenced and triggers alarm 13 on each response from a transponder and eliminates it from the interrogation loop, this until user intervention or when the detection of all the referenced transponders has been carried out, and two modes parameters, an initialization mode and a memory erase mode.
• the detection mode thus makes it possible to locate a lost object and to avoid any risk of introducing a supernumerary transponder 11 for the purpose of malicious substitution or hacking of a referenced and calibrated transponder of the same coding.
• the unit control unit 11 sends an impulse at 40 which simultaneously triggers the time counters 34 of each transponder TR1, TR2, TR4, TR7, then each time counter, after a determined duration different from one transponder to another, will set active state, at 41, of reception of the presence request signal sent by the central unit 1, the corresponding transponder TR1, TR2, TR4 or TR7 which, if questioned during its waking time by the central unit, responds by sending a coded message 42 signifying its presence in the monitoring volume.
• this transponder is then automatically put to sleep for a certain period 43 by means of the second time unit counter 34 '.
• the transponders reactivate their counter 34 on receipt of a pulse 44 from the central unit 1, then wake up at the end of counting of the counter and, if they receive a pulse 46 during their waking time. from the central unit 1 sends back a coded message 42 indicative of their presence. It can thus be seen in FIG.
• the transponders can be integrated into an object to be protected such as a smart card intended for banking applications while respecting the constraints of surface and thickness, or can for example be in the form of an electronic label. independent, which can be joined together, for example by gluing, to the object to be protected.
• communications between the central unit and the transponders will be encrypted.
• an absence counter can be set up so that the central unit does not trigger its alarm after n absences, thus avoiding nuisance alarms.
• the central unit can be integrated into a device of the mobile phone or other type and therefore be powered by the battery of the latter.

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• Health & Medical Sciences (AREA)
• General Health & Medical Sciences (AREA)
• Child & Adolescent Psychology (AREA)
• Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• Business, Economics & Management (AREA)
• Emergency Management (AREA)
• Cardiology (AREA)
• Heart & Thoracic Surgery (AREA)
• Burglar Alarm Systems (AREA)
• Radar Systems Or Details Thereof (AREA)
• Alarm Systems (AREA)

Priority Applications (6)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Related Child Applications (2)

Publications (1)

Family

ID=9524262

Family Applications (1)

Country Status (8)

Families Citing this family (3)

Citations (7)

Family Cites Families (1)

• 1998
  • 1998-03-12 FR FR9803412A patent/FR2776100B1/fr not_active Expired - Fee Related
• 1999
  • 1999-03-12 JP JP2000536049A patent/JP2002507036A/ja active Pending
  • 1999-03-12 EP EP99909006A patent/EP1064632B1/de not_active Expired - Lifetime
  • 1999-03-12 WO PCT/FR1999/000562 patent/WO1999046743A1/fr active IP Right Grant
  • 1999-03-12 AT AT99909006T patent/ATE245294T1/de not_active IP Right Cessation
  • 1999-03-12 CA CA002322710A patent/CA2322710A1/fr not_active Abandoned
  • 1999-03-12 ES ES99909006T patent/ES2207934T3/es not_active Expired - Lifetime
  • 1999-03-12 DE DE69909602T patent/DE69909602T2/de not_active Expired - Fee Related

Patent Citations (7)

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