TELEPHONE SET PROVIDED WITH A HANDSET PROTECTION AND DISINFECTING DEVICE

Abstract: A telephone set is provided with a germicidal device capable of disinfection and/or disinfestation of the handset and with a handset confinement device, said devices being able to either operate separately from or in combination with each other. In a preferred embodiment the handset confinement device is formed of a rotatable roundabout provided with one or more handsets which are disinfected at different times and made available one at a time in a space accessible to the user. In a public telephone such an access is permitted to users only after they put a valid payment means into the telephone.

Description: Telephone set provided with a handset protection and disinfecting device The present invention relates to the field of the telephone systems and, more particularly, the telephone sets for public use such as coin-box, phone card or credit card phones installed in bars, on the road etc. The invention relates particularly to the field of the telephone systems installed in places where the risk of infection is very high such as hospitals, nursing-homes, hotels, schools, railway stations, ports and airports. As known, such telephone sets have two main problems. The first problem involves the hygienic, sanitary regulations. Actually the use of a public telephone by people having a non-controllable state of health and the way of using a telephone (handset seized by hand, brought to one's ear and near the mouth) cause it to become one of the most relevant grounds of disease transmission, particularly during epidemics such as flu epidemics or viral diseases. In order to find a solution for such a problem, legislative regulations for disinfecting above all the public telephone handsets have been under study for some time. There have also been proposed hygienic protection devices including, like those of the application WO 8904096, protecting means of paper or non-woven fabric to be used only once, or protecting membranes which may be applied by pressure on the handset, as in the patent WO 9306697. Patent EP 0 687 127 discloses a pair of members which may be impregnated with a disinfectant and applied to the microphone and the earphone of the handset, said members being connected to each other by a grip which may be secured to the handset. However, such solutions are wholly unsuited to the use in public telephones where it is desirable that the disinfection is carried out automatically without any direct assistance by the user. The second problem relates to the safeguard of the handset itself. Unfortunately one can see that all of the public service systems installed in not controlled places undergo acts of vandalism. Public telephones do not constitute an exception as the vandalism is precisely directed to their most mechanically delicate and exposed component, namely the handset. As generally known, such a component of the telephone system is connected to the casing of the telephone set by a cable usually protected by a flexible steel sheath. In spite of the strength of such a sheath, the handset being outside the telephone set undergoes in any case acts of vandalism by people that most times are not the users of the telephone system. The present invention seeks to solve the above-mentioned problems by providing means capable both jointly and severally of a disinfection and safeguard of the handset. Another object of the disclosed invention is to provide the automatic disinfection of the handset whenever the handset is hung up at the end of a phone call. Still another object of the invention is to make the assembly formed of the handset and the hanging-up system movable in order to confine it within a closed, protected housing when not in use and to make it accessible only when the user puts the phone card or other payment means into the slot of the telephone set. A further object of the invention is to provide the disinfection and/or disinfestation of the handset whenever the latter enters into the above-mentioned closed, protected housing again. All of the above objects are achieved according to the present invention by providing the common public telephone (of course, also a private phone) with a device having a germicidal action and capable of disinfection and/or disinfestation of the handset and with a handset protection device, said devices being able to operate both jointly and severally. It is self-evident that the disinfection and/or the disinfestation should take place in times compatible with the use of the telephone set. According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, an UV-device is resorted to for the disinfection and/or the disinfestation of the handset. The germicidal action of the ultraviolet radiations is known, particularly at the wavelength of 240-290 nm, because of the deep change caused in the structure and the function of the biological molecules. It is demonstrated that ultraviolet radiations, particularly at the wavelength equal to or near 255 nm, make strongly inactive bacteria such as Salmonella typhimunium, Propionibacterium acnes, Haemophilus influenzae, Legionella pneumoniae, Escherichia coli, and colibacilli, spores of Bacillus subtilis, Pseudo onas aeruginosa, Salmonella enteritidis, Enterococcus cloacae, Clostridium freundii, Serratia marcescens, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Streptococcus faecium, Stafilococcus epidermidis, Aspergillus niger. Moreover, ultraviolet radiations are extremely effective in making inactive fungi, such as C. albicans, and parasites, such as the oocysts of Cryptosporidium parvum. Such results brought to the application of ultraviolet radiations to bring down the amount of bacteria in the drinking water (Martuny H., Sidel K. , and Ruden H. , 1989. Use of UV rays for the disinfection of water. III. UV sensitivity of Legionella pneumophila of different ages in cold and warm drinking water. Zentralbl. Hyg. Umweltmed. 188:35-46), in the contact lenses (Harris M.G. , Fluss L. , Le A., and Leong H. , 1993. Ultraviolet disinfection of contact lenses. Optom. Vis. Sci. 70: 839-842), in the toothbrushes (Fratto G., Nazzicone M. , and Ortolani E. , 1990. Disinfection of toothbrushes. Experimental research. Prev. Assist. Dent. 16:7-10) . Also virus are extremely susceptible to the inactivating action of the ultraviolet radiations. Actually, it is demonstrated that the ultraviolet radiations make inactive virus of the immunodeficiency type 1 (HIV-1) , rotavirus, virus of the vesicular stomatitis, Herpes virus types 1 and 20, Adenovirus type 2, virus of hepatitis and assa, Marburg and Ebola virus. Such an inactivating action is progressively exerted by exposing the contaminated objects to the UV-radiations. The exposure times needed to attain the desired result depend on the intensity of the radiation and the type of contaminating bacillus/virus/spore. Trials have shown that the time for disinfecting a handset is some tens of seconds if the distance between the radiation source and the handset is not longer than 5 cm. If distance and exposure time are kept constant, it is particularly proved that the amount of inactivated microorganisms rises exponentially as the dose of the emitted radiation increases. There is then the need of technical solutions to provide UV-sources emitting such an amount of radiation as high as about 255 nm, thus allowing the exposure time for a strong bringing down of the number of microorganisms to be reduced. Ultraviolet radiations may be generated by a number of methods. The highest emission of UVC rays (wavelength between 100 and 280 nm) is achieved by a low-pressure mercury discharge lamp which generates emission levels of UVC five times higher than any other source. Furthermore, unlike other generators, such a type of lamp generates a UVC ray beam with a wavelength of 255 nm and very narrow side bands of radiation with respect to the dominant. Under such conditions the energy for the operation of the lamp is almost all converted into UVC having the highest germicidal effect. The thus generated radiation beam can be strengthened by providing a parabolic reflector of the UV rays with wavelength of 255 nm. In the construction of the device with germicidal action of the present invention it should be appreciated that the ultraviolet radiations are harmful, particularly for the eyesight. The following conditions must then be guaranteed: 1) A whole shielding of the radiation source must be assured. To this end it is provided that the handset is closed along with the radiation source in a shielded receptacle or case. 2) A security device must be provided for assuring that the radiation source does not emit radiations when the receptacle is opened. The receptacle can be opened either manually by the user or automatically by a signal supplied by the telephone set when a valid phone card or other payment means is put therein. The opening of the protection receptacle can be made conditional on having reached the desired germicidal level, or a signal can warn the user of an opening in advance. As far as the anti-vandalism device is concerned, the principle of the present invention is to allow the user to have free access to the handset of an unattended public telephone only after having put a valid phone card or other payment means into the proper reader. In both cases, therefore, the free access to the handset may be made depend on putting a valid payment means into the telephone by the user. Even if it is possible to provide a device only for protecting the handset from acts of vandalism, the present invention discloses a device also for disinfecting it. The device only for anti-vandalism purpose may be made by omitting some parts. However, it should be pointed out that the disclosed invention may be used also in private telephone sets whenever it is the case. Further features and advantages of this invention will be more readily apparent from the following detailed description with reference to the accompanying drawings which show only by way of example a preferred not limiting embodiment of the present invention. In the drawings: Fig. 1 is a front elevation view of the telephone set under operation conditions; Fig. 2 is a top plan view of the partially sectioned telephone set; Fig. 3 is a section view of the telephone set according to the plane b-b of Fig. 2; Fig. 4 is a section view of the telephone set according to the plane c-c of Fig. 2; Fig. 5 shows schematically the rest position of the handsets; Figs. 6, 8 and 10 are flow diagrams showing the succession of the telephone set operation steps under different installation and operation conditions; Figs. 7, 9 and 11 are diagram showing the times of the different steps and the phone signals; The telephone set according to the invention generally includes: - a handset receptacle made of a material non-transparent to the ultraviolet rays and provided with automatic closure system; - a UV-ray source; - a timer for setting the radiation length of time; and means performing the operation steps in succession, particularly the switching off of the UV-source if the handset receptacle is not closed. In order to reduce the disinfection waiting time, two handsets are provided in each receptacle so that they may be disinfected in different times and made accessible to the user one at a time by a suitable rotation mechanism provided that the user puts a valid payment means into the phone. For security purposes there are further provided means for switching off the UV-source if the rotation mechanism is moving and means for stopping the movement of such a mechanism if any object is detected at the opening of handset receptacle. In the preferred embodiment shown in Figs 1-5 the telephone set of this invention is formed of a box-like casing 1 of essentially polygonal shape and of rigid, opaque material, for example metal or plastic, including in addition to the handsets the mechanism and the electronics necessary to the operation of the telephone set. The outer upper portion is formed of a wide surface for receiving a label carrying a logotype, instructions and any other notice. Such a receptacle has at the front side a wide longitudinal opening 2 having a short length of its outer edges bent to the centre of the casing so as to form a hollow or a recess of generally trapezoidal shape with the greater base along the imaginary line joining the outer edges of opening 2. The handsets are made alternately accessible to the user within such a recess by a roundabout device which is located in the casing 1 at a central position relative to opening 2. The roundabot device is generally formed of four vertical walls integral with one another and capable of rotation relative to casing 1. Such walls secured at the upper side to a sleeve 8 rotatable about a vertical axis are located according to radial planes at 90° from one another so as to form four circular compartments or sectors A, B, C and D surrounding a coaxial, cylindrical inner space 13 where a lamp 15 capable of generation of UV rays of suitable intensity and wavelength is located. Walls 3 and 5 are connected to each other by an inner cylindrical sector 17, while a fixed cylindrical sector 19 closes the front opening of the telephone so as to keep the UV lamp shielded. Two handsets 21 and 23 with the relative hanging-up systems are located in the circular sectors A and C and are rigidly connected to the rotatable sleeve 8. Two microswitches 27, 28 supply a signal when the handsets are hung up. The rotation movement is controlled as follows: Sleeve 8 is coaxial and integral with a gear wheel 10 and is journalled on a pair of bearings 14, 16 so as to rotate about a pin 18 rigidly secured to casing 1. In the illustrated example, such a pin is bolted at the upper side to a fixed cross member 20. Secured to the same pin is the cylindrical sector 19 forming a fixed shield for UV-lamp 15. Motor 12 directly drives by a worm screw 25 gear wheel 10 and through it sleeve 8 so that they reciprocally rotate about the respective vertical axes and avoid any interlacement of the telephone wires of the handsets . Received in the stationary portion 11 of the casing are the control electronics, the timers for setting the length of the disinfection of both handsets, a loudspeaker for hearing the telephone tones when the handsets are located inside the protected space, and the volumetric protecting detector. Located at the front side are two push buttons, one 26 of which, for example of green colour, has the same function of starting the calling cycle as that of taking up the handset in a conventional telephone system and lights up to give notice of the positive line connection to the user who may now digit the pin numbers in case he puts a credit card into the slot of the telephone and/or dials a phone number in other cases. The second push button 24, for example of red colour, blinks if both handsets are being disinfected, an exceptional case which may occur. Such a blinking gives the user a warning signal either to wait or to press the button for stopping the disinfection and making the handset available without waiting any longer in case of emergency. In such a case the user makes use of the most disinfected handset. The operation of the apparatus is schematically shown in the diagrams of Figs. 6, 7, 8 and 10 according to the timing of Figs. 7, 9 and 11. In the non-operative condition the apparatus looks like depicted in Fig. 5. No handset appears in the outside opening. The operation of a telephone set installed in unattended areas is first described. The diagram of Fig. 6 shows the cycle relative to a call from a public telephone installed in an unattended area and provided with handset protection means in addition to the disinfection means. Users who want to call press (block 1) the start push button (block 2) which has the same function as that of taking up the handset. Such a function is stored (block 3) and the relative signal is fed to the public telephone terminal (block 22) , thereafter briefly called PTT, and then back to the telephone set. The telephone system generates several signals coming from PTT such as the tone of free or engaged line (block 5) which may be heard through the loudspeaker by the user who does not have got the handset yet. In case of problems of connection to the telephone system it is necessary to "hang up" the handset and to begin the calling cycle again. This is carried out by pressing the proper push button located on the front side of the casing. When the tone of free line is received and if at least one handset is disinfected, the green lamp of the front push button lights up inviting the user to put the payment means into the telephone and to dial the number (block 6) . If the warning signal "not disinfected" is present and the user wants to call without awaiting the end of the disinfection, he should press the blinking red lamp push button. Thus the red lamp is switched off and the green lamp on. Once put the payment means into the telephone, PTT and telephone system (block 22) carry out the usual tests and supply a positive or negative signal. If the result of the payment means test is negative, the system gives back the payment means; if it is positive, the system continues with the next step (block 7) at the end of which the handset is made available to the user. Now the user takes the handset from its seat (block 8) and calls. The user has 20 seconds time for such an operation. If he does not take up the handset within such a time, the cycle continues with the handset confinement step (block 16) and the wait step. In this case, no disinfection is carried out. If the handset is taken up within such a time (block 9) , the user may call (blocks 10 and 11) . If the line of the called number is engaged or if the user wants to call again after the end of the first call, he may do it without hanging up and then without a new disinfection by pressing the line engaging push button located on PTT. After the end of the phone conversation the user should hang up the handset (block 12) . If he does not perform such an action (block 13) , the system starts the procedures of handset confinement. If the handset is hung up (block 13) , the automatic mechanisms : a) store what handset will be next disinfected (block 14) ; b) start the timer of the handset to be disinfected (block 15) and switch on the UV-lamp (block 17) . Timer and UV- lamp are inhibited (block 20) when the motor is running or if the volumetric detector is in operation (block 21) . It should be appreciated that the disinfection time does not depend on such interruptions but is based on the time between the starting of the first operated timer and the stopping of the second operated timer. c) start the motor for bringing the handset back to the confinement space. Once the handset is back to such space, the automatic hanging up is carried out by resetting the memory (block 3) . The line of PTT is engaged for the whole interval between the times of taking and hanging the handset up. The time diagram of Fig. 7 shows the succession of the steps described above. The operation of a telephone set in attended areas is now described. If PTT is installed in attended areas, the cycle of Fig. 6 can be simplified as shown in Fig. 8. the user who wants to call presses (block 1) the start push button (block 2) . The handset is made available (block 3) and the user takes it up (block 4) . If he does not take up the handset within .20 seconds, the cycle continues with the handset confinement ' step (block 14). If the handset is taken up within such a time (block 5) , the user is invited (block 6) to put the payment means into the telephone and to dial the number (block 7) . If the dialled number is free the user may have his phone conversation (blocks 8 and 9) . After the end of the latter, the user hangs up the handset (block 10) in its position and the system carries out the confinement step (block 14) whereupon the "hanging up" signal is automatically generated and fed to PTT. The steps from block 12 to block 19 are the same as those from block 14 to block 21 of the cycle of Fig. 6. If the signal of not disinfected handsets is present (blinking red lamp) the procedure is the same as that of PTT installed in unattended areas. Fig. 9 shows the time diagram of the steps described above. The diagram of Fig. 10 shows the cycle when the call is directed to PTT. The user hears (block 1) the calling signal and presses (block 2) the start push button. The handset is made available (block 3) to the user who takes it up (blocks 4 and 5) . If he does not take up the handset within 20 seconds, the cycle continues with the handset confinement step (block 12) . If the handset is taken up within such a time (block 6) , the user may call (block 7) . After the end of the phone conversation the user (block 8) should hang up the handset (block 9) . If he does not perform such an action, the system and PTT start the automatic procedures of handset confinement. Steps from block 10 to block 17 are the same as those from block 14 to block 21 of Fig. 6 and then it is referred to the corresponding description. If the signal of not disinfected handsets is present (blinking red lamp) the procedure is the same as that of PTT installed in unattended areas. Fig. 11 shows the time diagram of the steps in case PTT is called. In order to guarantee the highest security for the user there are provided a number of protections which are pointed out herebelow: 1) A first protection is given by the presence of a volumetric detector Rvl which stops the motor whenever an object is put into the confinement space of the handset. This avoids that the user puts unintentionally his hand into the handset confinement space while the system is being rotated. 2) The UV-la p is always switched off when the motor is running. 3) The times for each step of the cycle are kept constant irrespective of the interruptions of the volumetric detector. 4) A memory stores what handset has been formerly disinfected so that the latter may be used upon the next call. As far as the arrangement of the system of the present invention is concerned, they may be located beside the traditional telephone set and connected only electrically thereto or installed laterally or on the front side of the existing telephone. The manufacturer of the telephone set can embody the system of the invention in the telephone itself by partially designing the latter again with suitable mechanical modifications. The UV-source may be a gas lamp as in the described embodiment but may also be a semiconductor source. The invention is described above according to a preferred embodiment thereof, however, it is evident that a number of modification may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the present industrial invention as defined in the appended claims.

Claims: Claims 1. A telephone set for public or private use, wherein it is provided with a germicidal device capable of disinfection and/or disinfestation of the handset. 2. A telephone set for public or private use, wherein it is provided with a confinement device to make the handset not accessible from the outside when not in use. 3. A telephone set for public or private use, wherein it is provided with a germicidal device capable of disinfection and/or disinfestation of the handset and with a handset confinement device to make the handset not accessible from the outside when not in use, said devices being able to operate both jointly and severally. 4. The telephone set of claim 1 or 3 , characterized in that the germicidal device is capable of an automatic disinfection of the handset after the end of a phone conversation upon hanging up the handset. 5. The telephone set of claim 2 or 3 , characterized in that the confinement device includes means for moving the assembly comprising at least a handset and the hanging up device in order to move it to the closed, protected position when not in use and to make it accessible only when the user has the intention of calling and puts a phone card or other valid payment means into the telephone. 6. The telephone set of claims 1, 3, 4, characterized in that the germicidal device is an ultraviolet ray source. 7. The telephone set of claim 3 , characterized in that said germicidal device is located in the telephone set so as to disinfect or disinfest the handset whenever the handset is brought by the confinement device to said closed, protected position. 8. The telephone set of claims 2 and 5, characterized in that the confinement device is formed of a roundabout provided with compartments , at v least two of which accommodate a handset with the relative hanging up device, said roundabout being rotatable within the telephone set so that during the rotation the position of such compartments corresponds to an opening formed in the telephone and allowing the user to take up either only one handset at a time or none. 9. The telephone set of the preceding claims, characterized in that means such as partition walls capable of shielding the UV-ray lamp are provided at said opening so as to avoid any radiation towards the users. 10. The telephone set of the preceding claims, characterized in that there is provided a volumetric detector Rvl which stops the motor whenever an object is put into the confinement space of the handset in order to avoid that the user puts unintentionally his hand into the handset confinement space while the system is being rotated. Page missing at the time of publication. when a compartment with the handset is corresponding to the opening accessible from the outside; - means for warning to the outside if a handset has been disinfected and may be used or if it is being disinfected; - means for making available the handset to the outside even if the disinfection is not ended; - means for making the confinement of the handset after the end of a call conditional to the hanging up of the same; - a volumetric detector for detecting any object inside the handset confinement receptacle and for stopping the rotation of the roundabout. 14. The telephone set of claims 12 and 13, characterized in that the roundabout is capable of reciprocal rotation about its axis in order to avoid any interlacement of the telephone wires. 15. The telephone set of claims 12 to 14, characterized in that the roundabot is formed of four vertical walls integral with one another (3, 5, 7 and 9) secured at the upper side to a sleeve (8) rotatable about a vertical axis and located according to radial planes at 90° from one another so as to form four circular sectors surrounding a coaxial, cylindrical inner space, where a lamp (15) capable of generation of UV rays of suitable intensity and wavelength is located. 16. The telephone set of claims 12 to 15, characterized in that the handset receptacle is formed of a box-like casing (1) of essentially polygonal shape and of rigid, opaque material, for example metal or plastic, including in addition to the handsets, the mechanism and the electronics necessary to the operation of the telephone set also a front wide longitudinal opening (2) having a short length of its outer edges bent to the centre of the casing so as to form a hollow or a recess of generally trapezoidal shape with the greater base along the imaginary line joining the outer edges of said opening, the handsets being made alternately accessible to the user within such a recess by said roundabout device which is located in the casing (1) at a central position relative to said opening. 17. The telephone set of claims 12 to 16, characterized in that sleeve (8) is coaxial and integral with a gear wheel (10) driven by a motor (12) through a worm screw (21) and is journalled on a pair of bearings (14, 16) so as to rotate about a pin (18) rigidly secured to casing (1) . 18. The telephone set of claims 12 to 17, characterized in that said pin (18) is rigidly connected to a cylindrical sector (19) forming a fixed shield of the UV-lamp (15) . 19. The telephone set of claims 12 to 18, characterized in that the walls (3 and 5) are connected to each other by an inner cylindrical sector (17) .

Inventors: GALLOTTA GIOVANNI, PATRIZI GIULIO, PITTIGLIANI WALTER, GALLOTTA, GIOVANNI, PATRIZI, GIULIO, PITTIGLIANI, WALTER
Applicants: GALLOTTA GIOVANNI, PATRIZI GIULIO, PITTIGLIANI WALTER, S IN PAR S P A, GALLOTTA, GIOVANNI, PATRIZI, GIULIO, PITTIGLIANI, WALTER, S.IN.PAR. S.P.A.
Application year: 1996
Main classification: H04M1
IPC codes: A61L2, H04M1