Interactive notification system for remote control of a gun safe or the like

An interactive notification system allows the owner of a safe (or any type of vault for protecting personal property) to be contacted when an alarm condition is triggered. The system is configured to respond to a return message signal from the owner to either allow or deny any continued action with the safe. Thus, the owner remains in control of all actions involving the safe, regardless of his physical location. The notification is typically sent electronically to one or more of the owner's communication devices (phone, tablet, computer, etc.), where the owner responds via the same method.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to an interactive notification system that allows the owner of a safe (or any type of vault for protecting personal property) to be contacted when any alarm condition is triggered, and requiring a response signal from the owner to either allow or deny any continued action with the safe.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

In light of the on-going tragedies surrounding gun violence, it is of paramount importance that licensed gun owners have peace of mind that their registered firearms are safely and securely locked within a gun safe (vault, case, etc.) at a secure location at all times. This is necessary to reduce a gun owner's worries when away from home (e.g., concerns such as someone breaking into the home and cracking open a gun safe to remove firearms), as well as to prevent unauthorized individuals from accessing the firearms even when the owner is home (e.g., children, contractors working at the home, etc.).

Beyond the concerns of gun owners, anyone that stores valuables in an on-premises safe has worries about untoward individuals breaking into and stealing items when the owner is out of town.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is directed to a system that helps to alleviate the concerns mentioned above and, more particularly, relates to an interactive notification system that allows the owner of a safe (or any type of vault for protecting personal property) to be contacted when any alarm condition is triggered, and requiring a response signal from the owner to either allow or deny any continued action with the safe.

In particular, the present invention relates to a system for notifying an owner of a safe when any action associated with the safe transpires (e.g., attempting to move the safe, open the safe, perhaps even just touching the safe). The system is configured to wait for a response from the owner before allowing any further actions involving the safe to progress. Thus, the owner remains in control of all actions involving the safe, regardless of his physical location. The notification is typically sent electronically to one or more of the owner's communication devices (phone, tablet, computer, etc.), where the owner responds via the same method. For example, a telephone call-based notification and control system may be employed. As described below, the system is configured to be located within the confines of the safe itself, thus preventing any possibility of tampering with the control system. In one configuration, the system itself may include a “disable” switch that is also located within the safe—allowing the owner to deactivate the control system when desired.

One particular embodiment of the present invention comprises an interactive notification and alarm system to prevent the possibility of tampering with a safe, removing a safe from the premises, or even removing selected items from a safe. The interactive notification and alarm system comprises at least one sensor module for recognizing the occurrence of all activities, including a predetermined undesirable activity, which generates an alarm signal as soon as the predetermined activity occurs. A control module within the alarm system is coupled to the sensor module(s) and in response to the generation of an alarm signal by the sensor module, the control module initiates a transmission of an alarm message to at least one communication device associated with an owner of the safe. Thus, the owner is provided with an alert of the occurrence of the undesirable activity. The control module is also responsive to a return message from the owner, and uses the content of the return message to initiate a predetermined response action (e.g., “call authorities”, or “permit access”, etc.).

Other and further embodiments and arrangements of the present invention will become apparent during the course of the following discussion and by reference to the accompanying drawings.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1illustrates an exemplary interactive notification and control system10, formed in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, notification and control system10includes a number of separate subsystem modules, including a control module12for processing various signals (as well as providing bi-directional communication with the owner of the safe), a touch sensor module14, a motion sensor module16and a “door open” sensor module18. Modules14,16and18are all coupled to control module12and are configured to send alarm signals to control module12upon the recognition of an unusual condition involving the safe. All of these components are located within a safe, shown as a vault20inFIG. 1. While capable of being powered by a conventional electric outlet, a preferred embodiment of control and notification system10utilizes a battery module22that is co-located with system10within the safe.

In one possible configuration, it is possible to also include some type of ON/OFF switch30with system10, where switch30would also be located within the safe. This switch would be used by the owner to deactivate control and notification system10. It is to be understood that this deactivation is completely under the control of the owner, and is located within the safe such that others cannot tamper with the switch.

As will be described in detail below, various other embodiments of the present invention may include more or less modules, as desired by the owner. For example, it is possible that an owner only cares if the safe is opened, and does not care if the safe is moved from one location to another. In this arrangement, perhaps only control module12and “door open” sensor module18would be required.

In explaining the operation of the system as shown inFIG. 1, suppose that someone has touched the safe (this includes, in most cases, the owner him or herself touching the safe). This “touch” activity will be recognized by touch sensor module14, which then transmits an alarm signal to control module12. At this point, a communication element24within control module12will transmit a specific alarm message to a communication device30associated with the owner (such as, for example, the owner's smartphone). The specific alarm message will be something like “SAFE 123 HAS BEEN TOUCHED” and will preferably include a timestamp (in response to signals from other modules, another alarm message may be “SAFE 123 HAS BEEN OPENED”. As will be discussed in detail below, it is possible that communication element24may send multiple messages to a variety of devices associated with the owner, to insure that the message is indeed received. For example, an email may be sent to the owner's laptop computer, a text message to his smartphone, and a SMS message to another electronic account. In most cases, communication element24will also retain a record of the alarm incident, allowing the owner to later download and retrieve all alarms received during a selected time interval.

Returning to a description of the operation of interactive notification and control system10, upon receipt of an alarm message by owner's communication device30, the owner can respond with a variety of commands, such as “OK” (if the owner himself has touched the safe, for example), “UNLOCK” (if the owner gives permission for someone to access the safe), “DENY, but no ALARM” (if the owner knows that the situation does not warrant further action), or “DENY, NOTIFY AUTHORITIES” (if the owner is not on premises and no one else has been given permission to access the safe).

While this scenario is based upon module14recognizing a “touch” anywhere on the outer surface of vault20, system10of the present invention may be specifically configured to restrict the region where a “touch” activity will trigger the sending of a notification to the owner (such as a lock region26). Indeed, the “touch” may be limited to someone attempting to entering the combination of the safe on a keypad (or dial)28. In another scenario, an impermissible movement of the entire safe itself will result in triggering a motion alarm by module16. If the safe is somehow opened, the “door open” sensor module18will likewise send an alarm signal to control module12, causing communication element24to send a message such as “DOOR OPEN—SAFE 123” to one or more of the owner's communication devices.

In accordance with the present invention, the interactive notification and control system allows for the owner to maintain control of all actions involving his/her safe and its contents. Preferably, the system also includes a “time out” feature such that if the owner does not respond to a notification within a predefined period of time (i.e., a few minutes), the system will send an alarm signal to the authorities. An exemplary flow chart describing the use of the inventive system is shown inFIG. 2and includes this “time out” feature.

In particular,FIG. 2contains a flowchart100showing an exemplary set of process steps that may be followed in the operation of the interactive notification and control system of the present invention. For this example, it is presumed that someone has opened a safe that is secured by the system of the present invention (shown as step110inFIG. 2). The act of opening the safe will activate “door open” sensor module18(step112), which then responds by sending a “door open” alarm signal to control module12(step114).

At this point, control module12may search through a local memory23to determine if a “door open” alarm signal has been defined by the owner as one of the signals for which he/she would like to receive an alarm. This action is shown as step116, and should be considered as “optional”. In the default case, it can be presumed that any alarm signal received by control module12will be directly transmitted to a communication device30.

Continuing with the description ofFIG. 2and presuming that a check is made as shown in step116, control module12makes a decision (step118) based on the retrieved information from local memory23. If the retrieved information indicates that an alarm message does not need to be sent (step120), control module12may just record the event and return to its “waiting” mode.

Presuming that the retrieved information from local memory23indicates that an alarm message should be sent, control module12then selects the proper message for communication element24to send (in this case, including the phrase “door open”), shown as step122. Control module12also retrieves (from local memory23, for example) an identification of each of the owner's communication device(s) that is to receive the alarm message, as well as the proper communication format for each device (step124). For example, if an alarm message is to be sent to a smartphone, a “text message” may be the selected format. Alternatively, a “voice call” may be the selected format for communicating with a smartphone (or, perhaps, both formats may be selected). An SMS message is another possibility, sent to devices such as smartphone or tablet. An email message may be the proper format for sending an alarm message to a personal computer. Indeed, any possible communication channel and message format may be used that is capable of providing bi-directional communication in accordance with the present invention.

At this point, control module12functions to send, via communication element24, one or more “door open” alarm messages to the owner's designated communication devices (step126). Once transmitted to the owner, the process then waits for a reply (shown as decision step128). Upon receipt of a response, shown as step130in the flowchart ofFIG. 2, control module12will then take the appropriate action as requested by the owner (exemplary responses may include “access approved, unlock safe”, “access denied, take no action”, “access denied, call 911”, etc.).

In accordance with the “time out” feature mentioned above, the process may include a ‘wait’ interval (shown as element132inFIG. 2) for which the system will wait for a response from the owner. If no response is received during this response interval (monitored at step134), control module12proceeds at step136to send an “alarm” notification to proper personnel (which may be the local 911, an alarm company associated with the owner's property, or another other designated emergency authority). The time period associated with “wait” step132may be pre-programmed into the system or, alternatively, selectable by the owner. For example, a time period of 3 minutes may be selected as a response period.

It is contemplated that the various process steps involved in implementing the features of the present invention may be embodied as an “application” that could be downloaded onto an owner's mobile device.FIG. 3is a simplified network architecture diagram illustrating one possible configuration of the present invention that may include the utilization of a mobile phone app. In this example, a vault20A is shown as including an interactive notification and alarm system10A, including control module12A and sensor modules14A,16A and18A, the sensor modules being similar to the arrangement described above in association withFIG. 1. Also shown inFIG. 3is a GPS unit32A, which may be disposed within vault20A and thereafter used by the owner (or law enforcement authorities) to track the location of the vault if it is stolen.

In this case, however, control module12A does not perform any local processing of the received alarm signals from the modules. Instead, control module12A directly communicates the received messages to an alarm system platform50which is located in a communication network52. The transmitted messages can be relatively short, including an identification of the vault experiencing the alarm condition and the type of alarm message (e.g., Owner XYZ's vault is experiencing a “motion” alarm condition).

Using well-known signal processing techniques, alarm system platform50utilizes the identification “XYZ” to retrieve the proper information regarding that owner from, for example, a database54. Shown inFIG. 3are different records that may be stored in database54and associated with owner XYZ. Record56includes a set of possible received alarm signals (including “motion”), with the desired alarm message to be sent upon receipt of each different alarm signal. In this particular embodiment, the identification of each communication device association with owner XYZ is also listed in database record56, allowing for the proper signal format to be used. In this case, only XYZ's smartphone is registered, with the request to send a text message.

Also shown inFIG. 3is a second record58associated with owner XYZ, in this case including a set of the various response messages received from XYZ, and a listing of the proper response message to be forwarded to control module12A.

It is to be understood that this network-based application is only exemplary of one implementation of the principles of the present invention; various other configurations may be contemplated and used to perform the interactive notification and control actions associated with the alarm system of the present invention.

In a further embodiment of the present invention, a separate sensor element may also be associated with each item contained in a safe, in a one-to-one configuration, such that an owner may also be notified when one or more specific items have been moved or removed from the safe.FIG. 4illustrates one exemplary embodiment of this additional feature as used with a gun vault40. As shown, each firearm42-irests upon an associated sensor element44-i, where the plurality of sensors44is coupled to control module12. For example, pressure sensors may be employed, such that if a firearm is lifted off of its associated pressure sensor, an alarm signal will be transmitted to control module12. Other types of sensors (e.g., optic, acoustic, etc. may be used). For example, if firearm42-3is removed from its location, sensor element44-3will transmit an alarm signal to control module12(specifically identifying the removal of firearm42-2). Control module12is specifically configured in this case to a processor and memory module48that maintains a correspondence between each sensor44-iand the identification of the specific firearm42-istored at that location. When the alarm signal is received, a look-up is performed and control module12sends a message to the owner that “Firearm X” has been removed (where “X” is a definition of the specific firearm).

In association with this ability to maintain control of specific items within the safe, it is also possible to include individual locking mechanisms, associated with particular items, where the owner would also need to send a specific control signal to allow a selected item to be removed. As shown inFIG. 4, a separate owner-activated locking mechanism46-iis associated with each firearm42-i. Therefore, if the owner has previously “approved” for firearm44-2to be removed by an authorized individual, only that particular firearm will be “unlocked” and mechanism46-2opened. This additional layer of security prevents an “authorized” person from removing an “unauthorized” item from the safe.

While contemplated that this feature would be used in conjunction with the motion/touch/open sensors as discussed above, it is possible to configure a notification and control system that only includes these specific firearm alerts,

Indeed, further modifications will also occur to those skilled in the art, where such are considered to fall within the spirit and scope of the present invention as defined by the claims appended hereto.