Patent ID: 9373242
Filing Date: 2016-06-21
CPC Classification: G08B

Claim Text:
1. A system for sensing hand washing events, comprising: a dispenser for dispensing a hand sanitizing solution; a motion sensor coupled to the dispenser, the motion sensor configured to sense vibrations of the dispenser and to provide data indicative of the sensed vibrations; logic configured to detect an occurrence of a hand washing event based on the data, the logic further configured to transmit a message indicating the occurrence of the hand washing event; a tag; and a monitoring system configured to determine a location of the tag, the monitoring system further configured to determine whether a violation of a hand washing policy has occurred based on the location of the tag and the message indicating the occurrence of the hand washing event, wherein the occurrence of the hand washing event is characterized by a first excursion, a second excursion, and a quiet period, wherein the first excursion corresponds to an event where a user is displacing a component of the dispenser from an original position for activating dispensing of the hand sanitizing solution from the dispenser, wherein the second excursion corresponds to an event that causes the component to return to the original position after displacement of the component by the user, wherein the quiet period corresponds to a time period between the first and second excursions after vibrations from displacement of the component for the first excursion have begun to settle such that a rate of change of the vibrations is below a threshold, wherein the logic is configured to detect the quiet period based on samples from the motion sensor and to identify at least one sample measured by the motion sensor during the quiet period, and wherein the logic is configured to detect the occurrence of the hand washing event based on the identified sample.