Patent Publication Number: US-7714711-B1

Title: Emergency reporting initiated by covert alarm locator apparatus

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     The present application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/979,894 entitled FOOTWEAR COVERT ALARM AND LOCATOR APPARATUS filed by Sayo Isaac Daniel on Nov. 1, 2004, to be issued as U.S. Pat. No. 7,265,666 on Sep. 4, 2007; Ser. No. 11/560,762, entitled HAND WORN ATTIRE WITH BUILT-IN GPS RECEIVER, filed Nov. 16, 2006; Ser. No. 11/619,189 entitled FOOTWEAR WITH INTEGRATED VIDEO GAMING APPARATUS, filed Jan. 2, 2007; and Ser. No. 11/626,356 entitled BACKPACK HAVING A COVERT ALARM AND LOCATOR APPARATUS, filed Jan. 23, 2007, all by the present inventor, the priority of all of which are claimed, and the contents of all of which are hereby incorporated by reference. 
    
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention relates to an article of footwear, such as an athletic shoe. In particular, the present invention relates to a piece of footwear which includes a location determining means, such as a global positioning system (“GPS”) receiver along with a covert alarm activation button which can be selectively activated by the wearer of the footwear to send out an alarm signal which is encoded with the location (e.g., latitude and longitude) of the wearer of the footwear. More particularly, the present invention relates to an automatic emergency override system which allows the circuitry contained in the footwear to initiate the transmission of an encoded alarm signal. 
     As described in the parent application of the present application, footwear containing a GPS receiver, a transmission means (such as a cellular phone module), and a covert alarm activation button can be used to provide the wearer of the footwear with the ability to selectively transmit a “find me” alarm signal which has been encoded with the identification of the wearer of the footwear, along with the location of the footwear at the time that the alarm signal is transmitted. 
     While the foregoing technology has a number of advantages over the prior art tracking devices which are “always on”, whereby the privacy of the wearer is impeded while the battery life of the tracking and transmission circuitry is limited, a possible problem which the present invention is intended to solve relates to the fact that if the wearer of the footwear described in the parent application was to be abducted, and the abductor realized that the wearer was wearing the footwear, the abductor might try to remove the footwear from the wearer and dispose of it before the wearer could activate the button which sends out the location encoded alarm signal in an attempt to prevent the wearer from thereby seeking assistance. 
     In view of the foregoing potential issue with the footwear described in the parent application a system for preventing an abductor from taking advantage of the fact that the alarm apparatus requires affirmative activation in order to maintain both battery life and the privacy of the wearer would be desirable. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     In accordance with the present invention, an article of footwear includes a sole portion and an upper portion. The article of footwear is designed to house, in its sole portion, an electronics package including a location determining module, such as a GPS receiver capable of receiving location data from the constellation of GPS satellites. In addition, the article of footwear includes an automated activation means capable of sensing, and reacting to, one or more conditions indicative of the removal of the shoe from the wearer, such that the automated activation means could activate the transmission of a location encoded alarm signal, without additional user intervention. 
     In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the automated activation means is comprised of an accelerometer which senses the acceleration to which the footwear is subjected. While footwear worn in normal use is subject to acceleration forces, such forces are typically limited to values associated with running and walking, or even to such acceleration as the wearer might subject to when driving. 
     In the case of abduction of the wearer, the acceleration forces to which the footwear is subject are likely to exceed those normally encountered by the footwear when it is worn. In particular, if the inventive footwear was to be removed from the wearer and thrown away by the abductor, it would be subject to both horizontal and vertical acceleration forces which would exceed those typically measured when the footwear was in “normal” use. Even though the removal of the footwear from the wearer would prevent further tracking of the footwear, by allowing the footwear circuitry to sense and respond to the horizontal (“XY”) and vertical (“Z”) forces (collectively, the “XYZ forces”), and to self-activate, at least the footwear will be able to provide a “last known” location of the wearer at the time of his abduction. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING 
       In the Drawing: 
         FIG. 1  is a perspective view of an athletic shoe including the present invention; and 
         FIG. 2  is a block diagram of the invention of  FIG. 1  illustrating the various internal modules which comprise the invention as well as the manner in which they are interconnected. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
     Referring to  FIG. 1 , the present invention relates to an article of footwear, preferably in the form of athletic footwear, such as the running shoe  10 , as shown. The shoe  10  comprises a sole  12  and an upper portion or boot  14 . A heel  16  is formed as a portion of the sole  12 . In the preferred embodiment of the invention a cavity formed at the rear portion of the heel  16  houses electronic circuitry  18  (shown in shadow) and a battery  20  (shown in shadow) to power the electronics contained in the shoe  10 , as will be more fully explained hereinafter. 
     The upper  14  may include, as an apparent design feature, a GPS antenna  22  which is connected to the electronic circuitry  18 , and the shoe  10  may also include a covert alarm actuating button  24  which can be used to send out a “find me” signal, as described in the parent application. The shoe  10  also includes a connection means, such as a mini-USB port  26 , which can be used to connect the shoe  10  to an external computer or a battery charger (neither of which are shown). The mini-USB port  26  is connected to the electronic circuitry  18 , and it is used to for programming, uploading and downloading data, and to charge the battery  20 . 
     Referring now to  FIG. 2 , a block diagram of the electronic circuitry  18  is shown. As illustrated, in the preferred embodiment of the invention the electronic circuitry  18  includes a microprocessor or microcontroller  28 , which is connected to the mini-USB port  26  and to a GPS receiver module  30 . As shown, the GPS receiver module  30  is also connected to the GPS antenna  22 , while the microcontroller  28  is also connected to the covert alarm activation button  24 , to the battery  20 , and to a automatic alarm activation module  32 . As explained in the parent application referenced above, the electronic circuitry  18  can further include a cell phone module  34 , which can be used, together with the covert alarm activator switch  24  and the microcontroller  28 , to send out an alarm signal encoded with the GPS location data upon the selective activation of the covert alarm activator switch  24  by the wearer of the footwear  10 . 
     In the preferred embodiment of the invention, the automatic alarm activation module (“AAAM”)  32  is comprised of at least one accelerometer which is capable of measuring and acting on acceleration forces to which the shoe  10  is subjected. Depending on the type of accelerometer used in the AAAM  32 , it will be able to measure and respond to acceleration forces in the horizontal (“XY”) and vertical (“Z”) directions. The accelerometer used in the preferred embodiment of the invention is able to measure and respond to XYZ forces. 
     As will be understood by those skilled in the art, any time that the footwear  10  is worn by a user, the AAAM  32  will be subject to acceleration forces. Accordingly, in order to avoid false alarm activations, while preserving the privacy of the wearer of the footwear, e.g. to prevent the AAAM  32  from randomly sending out an alarm signal causing the wearer&#39;s location to be tracked, particularly when the wearer does not wish to be tracked, the microcontroller  28  is programmed to ignore signals from the AAAM  32  which are indicative of acceleration forces which are lower than a preset limit. Thus, while the AAAM  32  will always be capable of sending automatic alarm activation signals, the signals which are below the programmed threshold will not result in the microcontroller actually sending out a “find me” alarm signal to the central monitoring station. 
     In an alternative embodiment of the present invention the microcontroller  28  can be programmed to prevent the AAAM  32  the transmission of the covert location encoded alarm unless the user first enters a sequence of button pushes using the covert activator button  24 , to place the electronics  18  into an “armed” position which enables the footwear  10  to automatically respond to an activation signal from the AAAM  32 . Alternatively (through another sequence of button pushes) the electronics can be placed back into the “manual activation only” mode. Through the use of such additional programming, the user is left in total control of whether or not the footwear will be able to automatically send out an alarm signal based on acceleration forces measured by the AAAM  32 . 
     While the invention has been described in connection with specific embodiments and applications, the inventor does not intend to restrict the description to the examples shown. Persons skilled in the art will recognize that the above apparatus and methods may be modified or changed without departing from the general scope of the present description, the intention of the inventor being to include all such modifications and alterations in so far as they come within the scope of the appended claims or the equivalents thereof.