DEVICE FOR THE AUTOMATIC IDENTIFICATION OF PERSONS AND OBJECTS THROUGH INFRARED RAY OR SIMILAR BARRIERS

Abstract: This invention concerns a device for the automatic identification of persons and objects crossing infrared ray barriers consisting of a two-way radio slaved to the infrared ray barrier which dialogues with the two-way radios held by persons or fitted on objects authorised to cross the barrier freely. In particular the two-way radio slaved to the barrier transmits a coded impulse whenever the infrared ray beam is interrupted while the two-way radios held by the persons or fitted on the objects crossing the same decode and respond to said impulse for purposes of identification; it being provided that after identification, the two-way radio slaved to the infrared barrier transmits a deactivation signal to the alarm control unit in order to prevent the same from activating an acoustic and/or luminous alarm.

Description: Description Device for the automatic identification of persons and objects through infrared ray or similar barriers. This patent application concerns a device which automatically identifies persons and objects crossing infrared ray or similar safety barriers, such as microwave, fiber optics barriers etc. For easier reference the following description always refers to infrared ray barriers. It is however understood that the device according to the invention can be used with the same degree of efficacy in combination with any virtual barrier, such as the ones indicated above by way of example. Virtual infrared ray barriers to prevent unauthorised access to certain areas have been used for years; these barriers emit an acoustic and / or luminous alarm signal when a person or object interrupts the infrared ray beam. Infrared ray barriers of this kind in fact consist of two stages: a transmitting (DTX) stage which produces the infrared beam and a receiving stage (DRX) which is activated by the interruption of the beam in order to automatically and instantaneously activate a circuit slaved to a light or siren which produces an alarm signal. There is no doubt of the efficacy of these traditional infrared barriers; the only practical problem encountered is substantially due to the fact that to date the same can not identify and distinguish the staff who are authorised to enter the protected area from those are not authorised to do so. This means that staff who are authorised to enter the protected can not do so unless the infrared barrier is deactivated so that after entering the protected area it is necessary to reactivate the infrared barrier. Considering therefore that the infrared barrier must be activated and reactivated each time a person authorised to do so crosses the same, it is evident that said safety devices involve a considerable loss of time and inconvenience. - 2 - Accordingly, the infrared barrier according to the invention has been designed to resolve this problem; the same is in fact an "intelligent" barrier which instantly identifies the person authorised to enter and exit the protected area. This identification is obviously designed to prevent activation of the alarm systems connected to the barrier from being activated indiscriminately; more precisely, the barrier according to the invention can activate the acoustic and luminous alarm signals slaved to the same only if the person or object interrupting the beam are not identified as being authorised to enter the protected area. To achieve this, an additional infrared (IR) or radio frequency (RF) two- way radio is fitted at the exit of the receiving (DRX) stage of the infrared barrier; this two-way radio transmits a coded impulse which is received by a two-way radio device that dialogues with the two-way radio held by the person or fitted by the object crossing the infrared barrier. Substantially a coded impulse transmitted by the two-way radio held by the person or fitted on the object crossing the barrier responds in a preset time to the coded impulse transmitted by the two-way radio fitted on the barrier (which is an actual request of identification). If this response impulse is recognised by the two-way radio provided on the barrier in question, the alarm will not go off. Vice versa, the alarm is activated normally whenever the identification request transmitted by the two-way radio provided on the barrier does not receive a response, as occurs when an unauthorised person or object without the two-way radio which is capable of transmitting the identification message, cross the barrier. It is evident that anyone having a two-way radio dialoguing with the infrared barrier can cross the same whenever they require without having to deactivate the same each and every time. For major clarity the description according to the invention continues with reference to the enclosed drawings which are intended for purposes of illustration and not in a limiting sense whereby: - 3 - - figure 1 is a block diagram of the "intelligent" barrier according to the invention; - figure 2 is a block diagram of an alternative version of the same barrier. With reference to figure 1 the device in question consists of a two-way radio (T1 ) which produces an infrared ray beam and also transmits a coded impulse every time the infrared beam is crossed by a person or object. One or more two-way radios (B1 , B2... Bn) held by the persons or fitted on the objects authorised to cross the infrared barrier freely are an integral part of the device. As mentioned previously each of the two-way radios (B1 , B2... Bn) decode the impulse transmitted by the two-way radio (T1) and respond in a very brief preset time to the same with a coded impulse for identification purposes. When the person or object crossing the barrier is identified the two- way radio (T1) transmits a deactivation signal to the control unit (AL) which activates the luminous and acoustic alarm signals; if, on the other hand there is no response to the impulse transmitted by the two-way radio (T1) of the infrared barrier - and consequently the person or object crossing the same is not identified - the alarm control unit (AL) is activated normally. Figure 2 shows an alternative embodiment of the device in which the two-way radio (R) provided on the infrared ray barrier which transmits the above coded impulse (or identification request) is physically separated from the two-way radio (T1) which produces the infrared beam. In this version, when the infrared beam is interrupted, the two-way radio (R) is activated and transmits the coded impulse to the two-way radios (B1 , B2...Bn) held by the persons or fitted on the objects to identify; if the same two-way radio (R) identifies the coded response transmitted to the same by two-way radios (B1 , B2 ... Bn), the same transmits a signal not to activate the alarm to the control unit (AL).

Claims: Claims 1) A device to automatically identify persons or objects crossing infrared ray or similar barriers characterised by a two-way radio slaved to the infrared ray barrier and by a series of two-way radios (B1 , B2 .... Bn) held by the persons or fitted on the objects authorised to cross the barrier; it being provided that the two-way radio slaved to the infrared ray barrier transmits a coded impulse whenever it detect a barrier trespass and each of the two-way radios (B1 , B2 .... Bn) held by the persons or objects to identify decode the impulse received from the two-way radio on the barrier and respond to the same in a very brief preset time, with a coded identification impulse; it being provided that in the case of identification, the two-way radio on the barrier transmits a deactivation signal to the control unit (AL) generally slaved to the barrier which activates the acoustic and alarm signals. 2) A device to automatically identify persons or objects crossing infrared ray or similar barriers according to claim 1 characterised in that, in case of an infrared ray barrier, the above coded impulse transmitted to the two-way radios held by the persons or fitted on the objects to identify, is produced by the same two-way radio (T1) which produces the infrared ray beam. 3) A device for automatically identifying the persons or objects crossing infrared ray or similar barriers according to claim 1 characterised in that, in case of an infrared ray barrier, the above coded impulse to transmit to the two-way radios held by the persons or fitted on the objects to identify is produced by a specific two-way radio (R) slaved to the infrared barrier but physically separated from the two-way radio (T1 ) which produces the infrared ray beam.

Inventors: RIMINUCCI GIANCARLO, RIMINUCCI, GIANCARLO
Applicants: B F ELETTROMECCANICA S R L, RIMINUCCI GIANCARLO, B.F. ELETTROMECCANICA S.R.L., RIMINUCCI, GIANCARLO
Application year: 1999
Main classification: G01V8
IPC codes: G07C9