Abstract:
A method and device for generating alerting sounds and broadcasting the same into the interior of a building so that an occupant can be made aware of the presence of a visitor at a door to the building. The sounds are generated by an exciter feature of a transducer held in a case, able to be gripped in one hand of a user, the exciter feature being able to be pressed against an exterior surface of the door by the user moving the case to a position adjacent to the door. The transducer vibrates its exciter feature in correspondence with audio signals transmitted to the transducer to broadcast corresponding sounds into the interior of the building by resonance induced in the door by the vibrating exciter feature. The sounds can resemble conventional alerting sounds such as a knocking or ringing sounds, and/or can be a spoken message either prerecorded in an audio source or created contemporaneously by being spoken by the user into a microphone. The device may be hand carried door to door as by delivery personnel and emergency workers and used to effectively alert occupants and eliminate the need for hand knocking or yelling a message through the door.

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     This application claims the benefit of U.S. provisional application Ser. No. 62/119,372 filed on Feb. 23, 2015; U.S. provisional application Ser. No. 62/143,272 filed on Apr. 6, 2015; and U.S. provisional application Ser. No. 62/198,202 filed on Jul. 29, 2015. 
    
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     This invention concerns devices for generating an alerting sound which make an occupant of a residence or other building aware of the presence of someone at the door who wishes to contact the occupant. 
     A door bell is often provided to more easily alert an occupant of the presence of someone at the door. When a button is pressed by the visitor, a sound is produced within the building such as the ringing of a bell or a buzzer. 
     The visitor may also simply knock on the door with a clenched fist in the age old manner to make his or her presence known to an occupant of the building. However, delivery personnel may make many calls in the course of the day and may over time experience discomfort or chronic injury from repetitively knocking on the door with his or her fist. Potentially injurious pounding of a hand on the hard surface of a door may discourage the delivery personnel from making a determined knocking effort, thus lowering the chances that a person will hear the knock and respond. 
     Another very common device to assist the visitor is the door knocker comprised of a pivoted knocker piece which strikes a fixed metal piece mounted on the door to enable a knocking sound to be made without requiring the visitor to knock on the door with his or her bare fist. 
     When a visitor attempts to announce his or her presence at the door by any one of these traditional practices it is usually not certain whether the occupant has heard the knocking or the door bell. 
     This is because the door bell often is not working or is not loud enough to alert an occupant in places within the building far from the door or the door bell sounder. 
     Similarly, a knocker may also not produce a loud enough sound to be heard in remote areas within the building, which also can happen with a visitor directly knocking on the door, especially if the visitor is reluctant to knock loudly due to a tenderness of his or her knuckles. 
     Furthermore, door bells, pivoted knockers, or other means are often not provided for a caller to use. 
     In some instances, when there is no response, a delivery driver will need to attempt a re-delivery, sometimes more than once, which wastes both time and resources of the delivery company. 
     Sophisticated electronic door bell systems have been developed which can provide voice messaging and other desired communications between an occupant and a visitor, but these have generally been too complex and expensive to make and install to come into general use. See for example devices described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,774,039; 6,721,408; 6,759,955; and U.S. patent publications 2006/0078102 and 2004/0057567. 
     The problems with conventional practices are especially acute for delivery personnel, door-to-door salespeople, census takers, mail carriers, etc. and for emergency personnel engaged in warning building occupants of the need to evacuate the premises. 
     Also, hotel and apartment staff may want to alert occupants of rented rooms or suites that they are about to enter the room for cleaning or other housekeeping purposes since ideally an entry should be announced by the staff personnel if the room is occupied to avoid unnecessarily startling the occupant. 
     It is an object of the present invention to provide a simple, low cost reliable device for generating a loud penetrating alerting sound able to be reliably heard within the interior of a building so that occupants will more certainly be made aware of a visitor being present at the door when compared with traditional methods described. 
     It is a further object of the invention to provide such a device which while being simple allows voice messages and/or other audio sounds to be broadcast into a building interior from a location adjacent the exterior of the building. 
     It is yet another object of the invention to provide such a device which is compact, lightweight and self-contained so as to allow portability by delivery and other personnel to be able to be hand carried and handled as necessary at any location at which they call without requiring any electrical connections or physical changes to be made to the building where the person is attempting to make contact with an occupant. 
     Another object of this invention is to provide a device for broadcasting verbal messages to occupants of a building that are in their language which may be of a different language than that of the user of the device or that of the language of pre-recorded messages stored in a source of audio signals included in the device of this invention. 
     It is another object of the invention to eliminate any need for people to forcefully knock at doors with their fists or to yell in order to gain the attention of an occupant of a building, thus eliminating potential hand injury or straining of the voice. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The above objects and other objects which will be understood by those skilled in the art are achieved by a portable, hand held alert sound generating device including an exciter feature of a transducer which exciter feature is caused to be vibrated in correspondence with electronic audio signals transmitted to the transducer. Commercially available “surface” transducers are suitable for this application, but other transducers able to drive an exciter feature with sufficient power may also be used. 
     The hand held device includes a case adapted to be gripped by one hand of a user and positioned against a door or other surface of the building exterior so that an exciter feature is thereby pressed against the exterior surface of a door or other building member. 
     Upon the device being switched on, either manually or automatically as when the device is pressed against a door surface by the user, alerting sounds are generated by the exciter feature being vibrated while being held in contact with the door or other member on the exterior of the building such as a window, which in turn causes resonance of the door or other exterior building member itself which thereby broadcasts corresponding loud alerting sounds into the building interior. 
     Specific broadcasted sounds can include a knocking sound, or that of chimes, a ringing bell, a buzzer, an identifying logo jingle or other sound which identifies a specific individual, a product or service, or a company such as a particular package delivery company, and/or playback of a recording of a spoken message and/or impromptu “live” spoken words or other sounds. Well known actor, personality, and spokespeople voices, cartoon character voices, unique or everyday sounds, etc. may advantageously be used. 
     As the above illustrates, virtually any combination and variety of sounds whether pre-recorded or “live” may be conveyed to the interior of a building using the device of this invention. The device easily accommodates different sounds, such as variations in door alerts used in various regions and countries, that, for example, may use alerting sounds other than “knock, knock”. 
     The audio signals may be prerecorded and loaded into a rewritable solid state memory housed in the device case which are then amplified with a suitable audio amplifier prior to being transmitted to the transducer to create sufficiently loud sounds to be generated so as to be more reliably heard by occupants of the building than the alerting sounds created by conventional practices. These electronic components are powered by one or more batteries also held in the case. 
     Selective control over the operation of the device is provided, as by operation of one or more switches or other means so as to set the loudness of the sounds produced, or to enable selection of one of a plurality of different sounds for broadcasting into the building interior. 
     A microphone can also be included in the case or separately carried by the user which is connected to the amplifier with either hard wiring or by a Bluetooth™ or other wireless connection to enable broadcasting of a user&#39;s contemporaneously spoken message into the building interior. 
     Translation software can also be included to enable a foreign language version of a message to be broadcast by the user. 
     The case is preferably of a triangular shape to enable a secure grip of the device while operating the device with the same gripping hand, and also to provide convenient operation of one or more switches on the case by the thumb and/or fingers of the gripping hand of a user. 
     The device is sufficiently compact to be easily carried by the user in his or her pocket or on a keychain, and held with one hand when being used. 
     The device can also be coupled either physically in the same unit or electronically connected either directly by being hard wired or by indirectly by wireless means to a hand held package delivery data terminal to be able to broadcast into a building spoken unique information about a specific delivery to be made at the building, which is available from the terminal. Such data terminals are commonly carried by package and document delivery personnel as they contain necessary delivery information such as contents description, the recipient&#39;s name and address, the sender name, the time of delivery, etc. 
    
    
     
       DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a pictorial view of a person standing outside of a building door holding in one hand an alerting sound generating device according to the invention. 
         FIG. 2  is an enlarged pictorial view of the alerting sound generating device shown in  FIG. 1  held against a flat surface of a door with the gripping hand of a user shown in broken lines. 
         FIG. 3  is a rear elevational view of the device shown in  FIG. 2  from the side which is positioned against the door surface. 
         FIG. 4  is a side elevational view of the device shown in  FIGS. 2 and 3 . 
         FIG. 4A  is an enlarged fragmentary view in partial section of the transducer included in the device according to the invention. 
         FIG. 5  is rear elevational view of the device as shown in  FIG. 3  but with added features shown. 
         FIG. 6  is a block diagram of the functional components of one embodiment of a device according to the invention. 
         FIG. 7  is a block diagram of the functional components of a simplified embodiment of the device. 
         FIG. 8  is a block diagram of the functional components of another embodiment of a device according to the invention incorporating additional features. 
         FIG. 9  is a front view of a package or document delivery data terminal with an integrated wireless communications module. 
         FIG. 10  is a front view of a device according to the invention combined with a hand held package delivery data terminal shown in  FIG. 9 . 
         FIG. 11  is a pictorial view of a person at a door who is equipped with a modified version of a device according to the invention. 
         FIG. 12  is a block diagram of additional components added to the device according to the invention. 
         FIG. 13  is an enlarged side view of a cylindrically shaped device according to the invention equipped with an array of LED lights for illuminating a door or other surface. 
         FIG. 14  is a front view of the device shown in  FIG. 13  equipped with an array of LED lights for illuminating a door or other surface. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     In the following detailed description, certain specific terminology will be employed for the sake of clarity and a particular embodiment described in accordance with the requirements of 35 USC 112, but it is to be understood that the same is not intended to be limiting and should not be so construed inasmuch as the invention is capable of taking many forms and variations within the scope of the appended claims. 
     Referring to the drawings and particularly  FIGS. 1-5 , an alert sound generating device  10  according to the invention is shown gripped by one hand of a user and held pressed against the exterior surface of a building member such as a door  12 . The device  10  also may be used on surfaces such as a wall or a building window. 
     The device  10  preferably includes a triangular case  14  of a sufficient depth to house a transducer  16  ( FIG. 4A ) which has an exciter feature  18  which is vibrated during operation of the transducer  16  either directly or by a rod  20  connected to the exciter feature  18  and the transducer  16 . The exciter feature  18  may be a metallic disc of a stiffness able to push on the door  12  (or other building member) with sufficient force to make the door  12  resonate when audio signals are transmitted to the transducer  16  and the exciter feature  18  is vibrated in accordance therewith. 
     Suitable so called surface transducers are commercially available and may advantageously be used for this purpose. 
     A suitable surface transducer which has been used in an alerting sound generator device  10  according to the invention is a Dayton Audio BCT-2 45×25 mm of a 10 watt power (RMS) and frequency response 300-20,000 Hz. This type of transducer enables the door itself to act as part of a speaker mechanism much like the vibrating cone of a traditional audio speaker. Such transducers may be used on materials including (but not limited to) metal, wood, glass, and combinations thereof, all of which commonly are used to construct doors and windows. 
     The exciter feature  18  may comprise a disc which protrudes out and is spaced slightly out from one side of the case  14  so as to be able to easily held in contact with the exterior surface of a door  12  or other building member when the one side of the case  14  is held so as to be urged towards the surface of the door  12 . 
     Alternatively one side of the case  14  could itself be employed as an exciter feature (not shown) and would then have the one side pressed against the surface of the door  12  when the device  10  is in use. A thin cushion layer  29  which may be comprised of various materials such as hard rubber is bonded to the outer surface of the exciter feature  18  in the well known manner in order to insure good contact and act as an efficient conducting interface between the exciter feature  18  and the door  12  surface. 
     A main on-off switch button  26  is provided on one side of the case  14 , conveniently able to be pushed by the thumb as seen in broken lines in  FIG. 2 , but could be located on another side to be able to be conveniently be pushed by a finger of a user. The associated switch  27  ( FIG. 3 ) may be of a two stage operation in which in a first stage it turns on the device  10  and causes a low volume sound output, and in a further second stage depression thereof it causes a higher volume output of sound to be broadcast by resonance of the door  12  into the building. Release of switch button  26  causes shut off of the device  10 . 
     A smaller selector switch button  28  may also be provided to enable audio track selection to select a desired prerecorded sound and/or to select either a male/female voice for spoken alerts or messages. This selector switch button  28  may also select when “live” impromptu messages from the user as spoken into a microphone  40 A or  40 B are wished to be merged or alternatively to be broadcast into the building via transducer  16 . The microphone  40 A may be worn on the user as seen in  FIG. 11 , while microphone  40 B may be attached to case  14  as seen in  FIGS. 2, 6 and 7 . 
     An audio port  30  ( FIGS. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 12 ) is also provided for uploading prerecorded audio files as from a computer hard drive (not shown) to audio input signal source  36  ( FIG. 6, 8 ) which may be the Adafruit Mini FX Sound Board #2342 used for both accepting and storing uploaded sound files in re-writable semiconductor memory as well as transmitting the audio sound files to an audio amplifier  34 . Each user can thus easily customize the device of this invention by using recorded sound files that meets their specific and possibly changing requirements. 
     Audio files may be created using a wide variety of readily available free audio creation software programs. An infinite variety of audio sounds and/or spoken messages may be used such as “knock, knock, knock” or “knock, knock, It&#39;s the nurse, I&#39;m coming in”, or ‘Apartment maintenance at the door”, or “It&#39;s Mary at the door”, or “Emergency evacuation, gas leak, leave the building! Now”, or proprietary well known audio sounds such as “Ding, dong, Avon calling!”, or “knock, knock, this is ABC Delivery Company with a package”. The audible messages may run in a continuous loop if selected to do so by operation of switch  28 . 
     The audio sound produced by the device of this invention may be an amplified conventional door bell, buzzer, or chime sounds instead of a knocking sound to avoid the possibly startling effect of a knocking sound heard within the building which is louder than the noise made by a person knocking on the door. 
     A battery charging port  32  ( FIG. 4, 5 ) is also provided for charging batteries (not shown) contained in the case  14 . 
     The case  14  also holds other electronic components required, including the audio amplifier  34 , an audio input signal source  36 , and a power source and controller  38  ( FIG. 6 ). The power source  38  may include one or more preferably rechargeable batteries. 
     For broadcasting amplified speech of the user into the building interior by the device  10 , a microphone  40 A or  40 B may be wirelessly or hard-wired connected to the audio amplifier  34  ( FIGS. 6-7 ). 
     Referring to  FIG. 1 , a user holds device  10  in one hand and moves device  10  towards the outside door surface  12  until the contact layer  29  of the exciter feature  18  ( FIG. 4A ) rests substantially flat against the door  12  surface. A previously selected audio track stored in audio input signal source  36  may be changed or selected by operation of selector switch button  28  with an available thumb or finger of the hand that is holding device  10 . On-off switch button  26  is depressed causing switch  27  to activate (power up) the circuitry of the device  10 , whereby signals corresponding to stored prerecorded audio sounds are passed to audio amplifier  34  whereby such signals are amplified and fed into transducer  16  whereby transducer portion  22  vibrates causing connecting rod  20  to vibrate exciter feature  18  which is in solid contact with door  12  via interface layer  29  ( FIG. 4A ) which causes door  12  to vibrate and act as a speaker and broadcast sound by resonance of the door  12  into the interior of the building. By further depressing on/off switch button  26 , the sound level generated by the transducer  16  is increased. 
     Selective movement of selector switch button  28  during this broadcast of sound enables “live” impromptu spoken sound to be generated by the user speaking into a microphone  40 B (shown in  FIG. 6 ) to also be generated instead of or in addition to the prerecorded sounds generated by audio input signal source  36 . Releasing all pressure from on-off switch button  26  causes the device  10  to turn off and power down. 
     A separate flash memory  42  ( FIG. 6 ) or equivalent may be connected to upload a variety of messages or sounds into the signal source  36 . 
     A simpler embodiment of the device  10 A is shown in  FIG. 7  where only a microphone  40 A is shown wirelessly connected to the audio amplifier  34  or a microphone  40 B as shown hard-wired thereto, such that impromptu live verbal messages may be broadcast into the building interior by the resonance of the door  12 . 
     This is quite useful for example if a building occupant yells through a closed door a question to a delivery person, as then the delivery person can answer by calmly speaking in a normal voice into microphone  40 A or  40 B and an audio amplifier  34  amplifies the voice audio signals and the transducer  16  converts the same to corresponding vibrations of the exciter feature  18  so that the person&#39;s voice is made much louder such that an occupant will clearly hear the answer. The delivery person thus maintains a professional manner and the there is no need to strain his or her voice by yelling through a closed door and disturbing nearby unrelated occupants. 
     The device  10 A is particularly useful for emergency workers that need to provide loud penetrating customized announcements the content of which is unanticipated, i.e., the audio message is not able to be pre-recorded, to occupants located behind closed doors within a building during an emergency situation such as an evacuation. 
       FIG. 9  depicts a hand-held package delivery terminal  52  which is normally carried by delivery personnel where such device holds an electronic record of data regarding particular shipped items, i.e., the name of a shipper, the customer name, the order number, etc. Delivery terminal  52  is shown in combination with a communication module  54  which wirelessly transmits such data record to the communication module  44  in  FIG. 8 . 
     Referring to  FIG. 8 , in another embodiment of the device  10 B, that electronic record is converted into an electronic audio file of the data in spoken form by a custom audio assembly module  46 , and merged with stock audio file(s) accessed from audio input signal source  36  whereby a customized audio file message is loaded into the audio input signal source  36  to be broadcast into the building using door  12  (or a window) as a speaker as described above. 
     The above described customized audio integration processes are well known to those skilled in the art. Such technology is commonplace in interactive audio voice applications such as telephone banking as well as used in the everyday production of audio tracks for internet YouTube.Com videos. 
     For example, a mixed collection of stock audio message audio files which may consist of knocking sounds and spoken words such as “Knock, knock, this is ABC Delivery Company with a package for” has previously been uploaded via audio input port  30  and stored in audio input signal source  36  ( FIG. 8 ). Communication module  44  of device  10 B receives specific delivery data from communications module  54  of the Package Delivery Terminal  52  indicating that a package is to be delivered to “Mr. Ted Smith”. 
     Custom audio assembly module  46  ( FIG. 8 ) uses this data to create a corresponding verbally spoken audio file of the spoken data “Mr. Ted Smith” and merges this file with the audio file “Knock, knock, this is ABC Delivery Company with a package for” received from audio input signal source  36  to create a customized audio file containing “Knock, knock this is ABC Delivery Company with a package for Mr. Ted Smith”. This customized file is transferred to audio input signal source  36  whereby corresponding audio signals are then provided to audio amplifier  34  with the output transmitted to transducer  16  for a broadcasting corresponding sound into the building interior by the resonance of the door  12 . 
     Such a customized message would provide a higher percentage of successful contacts, i.e., door openings with an occupant as the recipient may be waiting for an important package addressed to “Mr. Ted Smith” and would be motivated to open the door. They may not open the door if they don&#39;t know who is on the other side of the door and may simply ignore a generic “knock, knock” sound, thinking that perhaps a neighbor, door-to-door salesperson, or unknown stranger is on the other side of the door. Such a customized audible message results in greater productivity for delivery companies as they do not have to repeatedly return back to the same address to attempt a re-delivery. 
     Greater productivity results in lower costs and greater customer satisfaction. The above detailed customized audible message provided to the occupant also saves the delivery person time and his or her voice as they traditionally would need to take time to look up package details and then yell the result through the door to the occupant. 
     A volume control switch  50  ( FIG. 8 ) associated with the audio amplifier  34  may be included in each embodiment to enable selective varying of the loudness of the broadcasted sounds. 
     As noted above,  FIG. 9  shows a hand-held package delivery data terminal  52  combined with a wireless communication module  54  for transmitting data to a separate alerting sound generating device  10  according to the invention to enable data in the terminal to thereby be able to be announced to an occupant in the building such as in a response to a query from the occupant. 
       FIG. 10  shows a package delivery terminal  52 A combined with an alerting sound generator device  10 C according to the invention. This combination embodiment has the advantage that only one item needs to be carried to operate the functions of both devices. In this embodiment, transducer  16 C may be integrated into the top end of the package delivery terminal  52 A and simply held firmly and flush against the outside of a door  12  in order to broadcast audio into the building. 
       FIG. 11  shows a delivery person holding an alerting sound generator device  10 D according to the invention against a door surface  12 . A separate package delivery terminal  52  which is wirelessly coupled via the included communications module  54  to communications module  44  included in the device  10 D as with a Bluetooth™ or other wireless connection such as FM or physical wired connection thereto, worn on the belt of the person. 
     Microphone  40 A may also be worn on the front of the upper chest of the user, or could be worn on a hat or with ear phones or located elsewhere able to detect the voice of the delivery person. 
       FIG. 12  shows an alternate embodiment of the device  10 E of this invention whereby the sounds for the audible door alerting sound generator may originate from the user such as by a wirelessly connected microphone  40 A worn by the user. The microphone audio signals are received by a wireless communication receiver module  44  shown in ( FIG. 8 ). Such audio signals may also originate from a sound input device such as a microphone  40 B ( FIGS. 2, 7 ) which may be physically a part of the device of this invention. 
     Such signals are transmitted to an audio translation module  56  which converts in real time the original spoken language of a user to a different selected language specified by the user as by operation of a switch  57 , which is detected by the audio translation module  56 , or other means. Technology for real-time language translation is in current use as for example on the Google searching website which provides such electronic language translation abilities. 
     The resultant language converted audio signal produced by the audio translation module  56  is then amplified by audio amplifier  34  and then used to excite the door  12  by the transducer  16  to broadcast a message to the occupants of a building. Stock pre-recorded audio messages stored in audio signal input source  36  may also be processed and converted in different languages through the audio translation module  56  and reproduced by operation of the transducer  16 . 
     The ability of the device of this invention to convert a source input language to various other languages enhances the versatility and use of this device for many applications such as when a package delivery driver is assigned to work in an area in which the driver&#39;s native language is not used, the driver is able to effectively communicate with customers without needing to have a different driver return to the location which wastes time and resources, and delays the delivery of a package or documents to the customer. 
     Another example is when an emergency worker needs to provide “live” impromptu instructions to the occupants of a building through closed doors. The ability of the device to provide emergency instructions in a variety of languages extends the abilities of the emergency worker to effectively communicate through closed doors with occupants who may not understand the language spoken by the emergency worker or the language used in stored pre-recorded messages in audio input signal source  36  both of which may be translated by audio translation module  56 . Such occupants may otherwise ignore emergency instructions if heard in a language that they do not understand. 
       FIG. 13  is a side view of a cylindrically shaped device  10 F according to the invention having a series of lights  58  which are directed towards the area of the door or other building surface where the exciter feature  18  may be placed against that surface. At night or in darkened areas these lights  58  will provide illumination of a surface where the device  10 F of this invention is to be employed. A substantially flat surface area may then be easily located to optimize contact of the exciter feature  18  with the surface. 
       FIG. 14  is a front view of the device  10 F looking at the transducer exciter feature  18  where lights  58  illuminate in the same direction that the device of this invention is pointing. Light sources such as LED&#39;s (Light Emitting Diodes) may be used for each light source  58 , although other light sources and lighting arrangements may be employed. The illumination level as well as an on/off state may be controlled by a user controlled switch  60  ( FIG. 13 ) or automatically by a light sensor (not shown) which may detect low levels of light whereby the lights  58  automatically turn on. 
     The device  10  according to the invention thus makes it effortless and harmless to the user&#39;s hands or voice to produce loud, sustained, and unmistakable alerting sounds audible to persons located deep within the interior of a house or building.