WO2021256987A1

WO2021256987A1 - Method and apparatus for automated area disinfection

Info

Publication number: WO2021256987A1
Application number: PCT/SG2020/050338
Authority: WO
Inventors: Ho Meng CHIA; Albert Martin KLAASEN
Original assignee: Technolite (Singapore) Pte Ltd
Priority date: 2020-06-16
Filing date: 2020-06-16
Publication date: 2021-12-23

Abstract

A method of automated area disinfection, the method comprising the steps of: (a) automatically determining human absence in a designated area; and (b) automatically activating a disinfection system to perform disinfection of the designated area when human absence in the designated area has been determined. An apparatus for automated area disinfection, the apparatus comprising: a human sensing system provided to determine human absence in a designated area; and a disinfection system provided to disinfect the designated area, wherein the disinfection system is in electronic communication with the human sensing system and configured to be automatically activated to perform disinfection of the designated area when human absence in the designated area has been determined by the human sensing system.

Description

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR AUTOMATED AREA DISINFECTION

FIEUD

This invention relates to a method and apparatus for automated area disinfection.

BACKGROUND

In order to prevent and minimize transmission of infectious diseases in human populations, the amount of pathogenic microorganisms in the environment should be kept sufficiently low. Although not equal to sterilization that completely eliminates the presence of viable microorganism, area disinfection treats surfaces and equipment in a designated area 30 using physical and/or chemical means to reduce the number of disease-causing bacteria, viruses and/or fungi in that area to an acceptable level. As disinfection of surfaces and equipment in any area (hereinafter referred to as “area disinfection”) should be performed sufficiently often in order to keep infection at bay, it is desirable that area disinfection is automated in order to ensure its regular and effective performance while minimizing human labour and cost. However, because some disinfection methods are harmful to human beings, there is thus a need to provide a method and apparatus for automated area disinfection that can be safely performed on a designated area 30 without causing any harm to human beings.

SUMMARY

According to a first aspect, there is provided a method of automated area disinfection, the method comprising the steps of:

(a) automatically determining human absence in a designated area; and

(b) automatically activating a disinfection system to perform disinfection of the designated area when human absence in the designated area has been determined.

Step (b) may be performed only after a predetermined period of time has elapsed after human absence in the designated area has been determined.

The method may further comprise automatically and immediately deactivating the disinfection system when presence of a human being in the designated area is determined after step (b) has begun. Step (b) may be performable only during specified times.

Step (a) may be performable only during specified times.

According to a second aspect, there is provided an apparatus for automated area disinfection, the apparatus comprising: a human sensing system provided to determine human absence in a designated area; and a disinfection system provided to disinfect the designated area, wherein the disinfection system is in electronic communication with the human sensing system and configured to be automatically activated to perform disinfection of the designated area when human absence in the designated area has been determined by the human sensing system.

The disinfection system may be configured to be automatically activated only after a predetermined period of time has elapsed after human absence in the designated area has been determined.

The human sensing system may be further provided to determine human presence in the designated area and the disinfection system may be configured to be automatically and immediately deactivated when presence of a human being in the designated area is determined by the human sensing system.

The human sensing system may comprise at least one of: a passive infrared sensor, a carbon dioxide sensor, a radar sensor, an ultrasonic sensor, a microwave sensor, a directional sensor network, and a computer vision system.

The disinfection system may utilize at least one of: ultraviolet light and a chemical disinfectant to disinfect the designated area.

The apparatus may further comprise at least one time switch configured to allow the disinfection system to be activatable only during specified times.

The at least one time switch may be configured to turn on the human sensing system only during the specified times. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF FIGURES

In order that the invention may be fully understood and readily put into practical effect, there shall now be described by way of non-limitative example only exemplary embodiments of the present invention, the description being with reference to the accompanying illustrative drawings.

FIG. 1 is a flow chart of an exemplary method of automated area disinfection.

FIG. 2 is a schematic illustration of an exemplary embodiment of an apparatus for automated area disinfection.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Exemplary embodiments of a method 100 and apparatus 200 for automated area disinfection will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2.

In order to safely perform area disinfection on a designated area 30 without causing any harm to human beings, referring to FIG. 1, in general, the presently disclosed method 100 of automated area disinfection comprises automatically determining human absence in a designated area (102), and automatically activating a disinfection system to perform disinfection of the designated area when human absence in the designated area for a period of time has been determined (104). By activating the disinfection system, this may refer to the disinfection system being switched on (from a normally ‘off’ state) to perform the disinfection, or this may refer to the disinfection being switched to an operating mode (from a standby mode) to perform the disinfection, depending on the disinfection system used. The designated area may comprise at least part of a healthcare facility, a restroom, a workplace, a school, a dormitory, a hotel, a care centre, an eatery, a shopping mall, a transportation centre such as a train station, bus station, or airport, or any other conceivable area where human beings may be present, particularly in significant numbers, that would benefit from area disinfection. Preferably, as a safety precaution, the step of automatically activating the disinfection system is performed only after a predetermined period of time has elapsed after human absence in the designated area has been determined. The predetermined period of time thus serves as a safety buffer to ensure that the designated area is well clear of any human beings before disinfection is begun. The predetermined period may be any appropriate duration of time, and may range from 5 to 30 minutes, for example, depending on the type of human absence sensing. To perform the method 100, the apparatus 200 as shown in FIG. 2 in general comprises a human sensing system 202 provided to determine human absence in the designated area 30 as well as a disinfection system 204 provided to disinfect the designated area 30. The disinfection system 204 is in electronic communication with the human sensing system 202 and is configured to be automatically activated to perform disinfection of the designated area 30 when human absence in the designated area 30 has been determined by the human sensing system 202. By electronic communication, it is meant that the disinfection system 204 may, in some embodiments, be directly connected to the human sensing system 202, or, in other embodiments, the disinfection system 204 and the human sensing system 202 may each be in electronic communication with a control system (not shown) provided in the apparatus 200 to manage communication with both the human sensing system 202 and the disinfection system 204, depending on the types of human sensing system 202 and disinfection system 204 selected for use in the apparatus 200 according to the type of disinfection and human absence sensing required for the designated area 30. Preferably, for safety reasons, the disinfection system 204 is configured to be automatically activated only after a predetermined period of time has elapsed after human absence in the designated area has been determined. The predetermined period may be any appropriate duration of time, and may range from 5 to 30 minutes, for example, depending on the type of human sensing system 202 used in the specific embodiment of the apparatus 200 provided at the designated area 30.

Appreciably, the human sensing system 202 used to determine human absence in the designated area 30 may comprise different embodiments that use different types of sensors and human absence/presence sensing technologies. For example, the human sensing system 202 may comprise one or more active sensors, one or more passive sensors, or a combination of both. Active sensors include radar sensors, ultrasonic sensors, microwave sensors, a directional sensor network, a computer vision system and so on. Passive sensors include passive infrared sensors, carbon dioxide sensors, humidity sensors, temperature sensors and so on. Determining human absence in the designated area 30 comprises the sensor or sensors in the human sensing system 202 meeting certain pre-established criteria that are considered indicative of human absence in the designated area 30. For example, where the human sensing system 202 comprises a microwave sensor to detect movement in the designated area 30 and also a passive infrared sensor to detect heat radiated from human bodies, the absence criteria may comprise the microwave sensor detecting no movement within the designated area 30 for a specific period of time and the passive infrared sensor detecting no heat radiated from a human body within the designated area 30 for the same specific period of time in order to indicate human absence in the designated area 30. Another example of the human sensing system 202 may comprise a microwave sensor to detect movement in the designated area 30 and a directional sensor network to determine arrival and departure of human beings to and from the designated area 30. In this example, the absence criteria may comprise the microwave sensor detecting no movement within the designated area 30 for a specific period of time after the directional sensor network has determined an equal number of human departures as human arrivals.

It is important that the criteria considered indicative of human absence is established correctly because incorrect or insufficient criteria could lead to false absence being determined. Determining false absence may undesirably result in activation of disinfection that is harmful to human beings while someone is still present in the designated area 30, thereby endangering and potentially harming the person still present. For example, if the human sensing system 202 comprised only microwave motion sensors where the only criteria established to indicate human absence is that no movement is detected in the designated area 30 for a specific period of time, this may result in a human being who remains motionless throughout that specific period of time (e.g. the person has fallen asleep) not being detected by the motion sensor, resulting in a false absence being determined. Thus, for safety reasons, the human sensing system 202 should be carefully configured to ensure establishment of sufficiently safe absence criteria to avoid determination of false absence by the human sensing system 202 that will trigger activation of the disinfection system 204 while someone is still in the designated area 30.

The disinfection system 204 may comprise different embodiments that use different disinfectants appropriate to the designated area 30 to be disinfected. For example, where the designated area 30 is an administrative office having a high volume of paper documents lying about on open surfaces, spraying of chemical disinfectants would not be appropriate as this may damage the paper, and in this instance, use of ultraviolet (UV) light as the disinfectant would be ideal. In other settings where the designated area 30 comprises public restrooms or operating theatres, use of chemical disinfectants to disinfect the designated area 30 may be desirable and therefore appropriate. Thus, the choice of disinfectant utilised by the disinfection system 204 may be selected according to the nature of the designated area 30 to be disinfected. Where a chemical disinfectant is used, this may be aerosol, gas or fluid- based as may be appropriate for the specific designated area 30 to be disinfected.

For safety reasons, the method 100 preferably further includes a step of automatically and immediately deactivating the disinfection system when presence of a human being in the designated area 30 is determined after the disinfection system 204 has been automatically activated and disinfection has begun. This step serves as a safety check to minimize a person entering the designated area 30 while disinfection is being performed from being exposed to any potentially harmful disinfectant being used at the time. Accordingly, the disinfection system 202 may be configured to be automatically and immediately deactivated when presence of a human being in the designated area 30 is determined by the human sensing system 202, even when the disinfection cycle has not yet been completed. Thereafter, when the human sensing system 202 has once again determined human absence in the designated area 30, the disinfection system 204 may be automatically activated once again to recommence disinfection. To achieve this, the human sensing system 202 is preferably also provided to determine human presence, in addition to human absence, in the designated area 30.

Further to the features described above, the method 100 and apparatus 200 may optionally be configured to allow disinfection of the designated area 30 to be performed only during specified times. The specified times would likely be periods when the designated area 30 is expected not to be accessed by any human beings for a duration that is sufficient to allow a disinfection cycle to be completed and for any harmful components of the disinfectant to have sufficiently dissipated after disinfection such that the designated area 30 is safe for human beings to enter again. For example, where the designated area 30 is a place that has opening and closing hours, the specified times when disinfection is allowed to be performed may be only within the hours when the place is closed. This feature greatly reduces the likelihood of anyone entering the designated area 30 after the disinfection system 204 has been activated, thereby reducing risk of harm to any human beings and minimizing interruption of the disinfection cycle once begun. Accordingly, the method 100 and apparatus 200 may be configured such that the disinfection system 204 is activatable only during the specified times so that disinfection is performable only during the specified times. The human sensing system 202 may be always turned on, or preferably be turned on only during the specified times in order to reduce consumption of electricity, so that determining of human absence (and presence if desired) is performed only during the specified times. Allowing disinfection to be performed only during specified times may be achieved by the appropriate use of one or more time switches (not shown) provided in the apparatus 200 to allow the disinfection system 204 to be activatable only during the specified times and/or to turn on the human sensing system 202 only during the specified times. The time switch or switches may be mechanical and/or electronically controlled, for example.

Unlike other existing energy-saving systems that determine human absence in order to automatically turn off electricity-consuming devices (such as lights and air-conditioning), the presently disclosed method 100 and apparatus 200 instead determine human absence in order to automatically activate a disinfection system to disinfect the designated area. The above described method 100 and apparatus 200 for automated area disinfection thus allow designated areas 30 to be safely and automatically disinfected, thus minimizing human labour and cost.

Whilst there has been described in the foregoing description exemplary embodiments of the present invention, it will be understood by those skilled in the technology concerned that many variations and combination in details of design, construction and/or operation may be made without departing from the present invention. For example, while FIG. 2 depicts the disinfection system as a ceiling mounted UV irradiation system, as mentioned above, the disinfection system may be of any appropriate type and configuration suitable for disinfection of the designated area according to the nature of the designated area.

Claims

1. A method of automated area disinfection, the method comprising the steps of:

(a) automatically determining human absence in a designated area; and

2. The method of claim 1, wherein step (b) is performed only after a predetermined period of time has elapsed after human absence in the designated area has been determined.

3. The method of claim 1 or claim 2, further comprising:

(c) automatically and immediately deactivating the disinfection system when presence of a human being in the designated area is determined after step (b) has begun.

4. The method of any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein step (b) is performable only during specified times.

5. The method of any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein step (a) is performable only during specified times.

6. An apparatus for automated area disinfection, the apparatus comprising: a human sensing system provided to determine human absence in a designated area; and a disinfection system provided to disinfect the designated area, wherein the disinfection system is in electronic communication with the human sensing system and configured to be automatically activated to perform disinfection of the designated area when human absence in the designated area has been determined by the human sensing system.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the disinfection system is configured to be automatically activated only after a predetermined period of time has elapsed after human absence in the designated area has been determined.

8. The apparatus of claim 6 or claim 7, wherein the human sensing system is further provided to determine human presence in the designated area and the disinfection system is configured to be automatically and immediately deactivated when presence of a human being in the designated area is determined by the human sensing system.

9. The apparatus of any one of claims 6 to 8, wherein the human sensing system comprises at least one of: a passive infrared sensor, a carbon dioxide sensor, a radar sensor, an ultrasonic sensor, a microwave sensor, a directional sensor network, and a computer vision system.

10. The apparatus of any one of claims 6 to 9, wherein the disinfection system utilizes at least one of: ultraviolet light and a chemical disinfectant to disinfect the designated area.

11. The apparatus of any one of claims 6 to 10, further comprising at least one time switch configured to allow the disinfection system to be activatable only during specified times.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the at least one time switch is configured to turn on the human sensing system only during the specified times.