Patent Publication Number: US-11043049-B2

Title: Access control system bypass for audit and electronic safe locks

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     This application is a continuation of pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/809,887 titled “ACCESS CONTROL SYSTEM BYPASS FOR AUDIT AND ELECTRONIC SAFE LOCKS” and filed on Nov. 10, 2017, which is a continuation of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/420,556 titled “ACCESS CONTROL SYSTEM BYPASS FOR AUDIT AND ELECTRONIC SAFE LOCKS”, filed on Nov. 10, 2016, the contents of which are incorporated herein in their entirety. 
    
    
     FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention relates to an access control system bypass for audit and electronic safe locks. More specifically, the present invention relates to systems and methods that allow opening of a safe by either the safe&#39;s electronic lock, or by any on-site or remote access control systems, and provides data audit of all safe opening, closing, with user, time and date. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     Protecting currency in a commercial setting continues to be a crucial and often daunting task, notwithstanding the great strides made in developing security systems over the last 100 years. Electronic cash management systems have largely taken the place of the traditional steel vault or safe, and point-of-sale cash registers have become much more sophisticated as they have become microprocessor controlled. Yet, all great advances in security equipment have been followed by more elaborate thievery schemes such that the commercial world has needed to continually update and improve. 
     Many standard business practices and policies have been developed to address the problem of retail theft. For instance, businesses typically do not allow large amounts of cash to accrue at any point-of-sale location. Thus, in a given retail store, there is typically a central safe where excess cash from cash registers is deposited for safe-keeping. Some protection is obtained by restricting the employees&#39; access to such safes. Similarly, armored cars are used to transport the cash from stores to the bank. However, since the accounting itself is done manually, there are glaring gaps in the security system. Another problem with safes is that they may be physically removed and there would be little or no evidence of how much cash was stolen. 
     In a larger business setting, it may be necessary to have a number of different portals where cash is accepted from customers. Safes have also been developed for cash control that include basic cash management features such as the ability to make change or to scan for counterfeit currency. In addition, it is commonly the case that numerous employees have access to cash depositories throughout the day. Accordingly, it is important that a business be able to manage cash access and control such as to reduce thievery and enable accountability to be enhanced among cash-handling employees. This has led to the development of safes that identify the cash deposits and withdrawals and track them according to an individual employee. The capability to identify and verify the identity of employees is essential to accountability. 
     In business settings involving multiple cash depository stations, the management and oversight of the total collection of data and cash from the stations can be quite a challenge. Prior art systems have been developed to enable multiple cash depository safes to be integrated together, but such systems are often costly and complicated. In addition, the integration of multiple safes can lead to a compromise of security in that should the code or access to part of the system be compromised by, for example, the resignation of a key employee with access information, the entire system may be vulnerable. In this respect, the process whereby one safe serves as a controlling master safe for the group of networked safes could actually undermine the system when access rights are shared or compromised, or software is hacked. Likewise, when one or more of a collection of networked safes utilizes software that is “resident” on the safe or cash access terminal itself, a risk exists that the entire system could be compromised by a physical break-in to a particular safe to access and de-code the resident software. 
     However, using the above techniques, and others like them, the safes are still physically and electronically vulnerable. The system and method of the present invention solves these and other problems in the prior art. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     According to one preferred embodiment, the system and method allows opening of a safe by either the safe&#39;s electronic lock, and/or by any on-site or remote access control systems. The system and method provides a data audit of all safe opening and closing, with user, time and date recordings, allows for exceptions reporting of any safe openings with a keyed bypass, and utilizes a variety of electronic high security safe locks and audit locks. An access control relay powers the safe lock&#39;s internal actuator, bypassing the safe lock&#39;s logic decoding, allowing the safe to be opened. A diode may prevent feedback to lock&#39;s logic circuits. 
     The safe&#39;s lock may work as normally programmed, with all the safe lock&#39;s features, including but not limited to, event audit, single or multi users, biometric readers, keypad, semi-conductor or other smart keys, or mechanical keys. Also, the system and method can control multiple safe doors with all available lock system features. 
     The safe may be opened with an access control system (ACS), which may be local or remote. The ACS may define user access rights, and reports authorized openings, and attempted access by unauthorized access control system users. An alarm contact reports all safe door open and close times and dates. Comparing the alarm input data of safe door openings to the Access Control system&#39;s authorized openings reveals any bypass openings. Integration with a closed circuit television (CCTV) system allows for auditors to identify the keyholder that bypassed the access control system. Furthermore, for safes equipped with an electronic audit lock, there is no need for a bypass key system, instead, the safe door can be opened by either the access control system or by a uniquely issued user code, when opened by the user code, a third audit record is created and stored in the audit lock (in addition to the records in the access control system, and opening record in the alarm system. Redundant audit records are now relied on for successful prosecution and recovery of lost assets, along with improved prevention of internal theft. 
     Parts of the system may operate on power supplied by the safe&#39;s lock system or the access control system, on demand. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES 
         FIG. 1  is a diagramatic overview of a network on which the system and method may operate; 
         FIG. 2  is a diagrammatic representation of components and data flow of the embodiment of  FIG. 1 ; 
         FIG. 3  is a more detailed diagrammatic representation of the storage device with a database containing electronic data that is transformed according to the embodiment of  FIGS. 1-2 ; and 
         FIG. 4  is an alternative embodiment to  FIG. 2  illustrating components and data flow of the system. 
     
    
    
     DETAIL DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION 
     The following detailed description is of the best currently contemplated modes of carrying out exemplary embodiments of the invention. The description is not to be taken in a limiting sense, but is made merely for the purpose of illustrating the general principles of the invention, since the scope of the invention is best defined by the appended claims. 
     Various inventive features are described below that can each be used independently of one another or in combination with other features. 
     With reference to  FIG. 1 , a diagramatic overview of a network on which the system and method may operate according to one embodiment is shown. As is typical on today&#39;s internet  100 , users  10  may connect to and use the internet  100  over several platforms. Those platforms may include personal computers  60 , mobile devices such as mobile phones, tablets, or the like. Through any such platforms including but not limited to personal computers  60 , mobile devices, tablets, or the link, users may access a server app or software run by the server  40  to control access to safes  24  and doors  28  to rooms  22  containing the safes  24 . These safes  24 , doors  28 , and rooms  22  may be contained within, for example, retail establishments  20  such as stores, banks, restaurants, or the like. 
     One or more servers  40  may include one or more storage devices  48  containing one or more databases  250 . All of these components may be used to control access locks  20  and  30  for the safes  24  and doors  30 . Further, a video or still surveillance camera  32  may capture video or images of any access to the room  22  and safe  24  for storage in the database  250  along with access control data. 
     With reference to  FIG. 2 , a diagrammatic representation of components and data flow of the embodiment of  FIG. 1  is shown. One or more servers  40  and storage at least one device  48  with a database  250  is shown. As those skilled in the art would recognize, one or more computer programs may be loaded by an operating system  44  running on the server processor  42 . One of the computer programs may comprise access control software  202  allowing users  10  to control access to the rooms  22  and the safes  24 . The server  40  may have a random access memory (RAM)  44  that may be used for loading programs, and storing program variable data. 
     In one embodiment, the room lock  30  may comprise an access reader  25 , which may comprise a keypad or an employee card reader for example, and an access relay  27 . A valid read event provided by the access reader  25  to the access relay  27  provides an activation event to the safe lock  26  to activate the safe lock  26 . Valid codes or employee card access is provided by the user ( 10  in  FIG. 1 ) using the access control software  202 . If a valid read event is not provided by the access reader to the access relay  27 , the access relay  27  does not provide an activation event to the safe lock  26 . This prevents activation of the safe lock  26 , even in the event of a break-in to the room  22 . 
     In the case of a valid activation event, a lock actuator  34  of the safe lock may be activated upon receiving of a valid open code received from a logic decoder  36  of the lock  26 . The logic decoder  36  will send a valid activation event only upon a valid encrypted code received from a safe lock keypad  38 . The safe lock keypad  38  must receive a valid code typed in by the employee or worker who has already gained bona fide access to the room  22  so that the logic decoder  36  may then provide an activation event to the lock actuator  34 , which will then only actuate the lock  26  to open the safe  24  upon receiving the valid activation events from both the logic decoder  36  and the access relay  27 . 
     One or more of the components of the safe  26  and room access lock  30  may be powered by a battery  60  according to one embodiment. 
     With reference to  FIG. 3 , a more detailed diagrammatic representation of the storage device with a database containing electronic data that is transformed according to the embodiment of  FIGS. 1-2  is shown. The access control software  202  may contain sets of instructions executing on the server  40  for transforming the data in the database  250  on storage device  48  for controlling access to the safe  24  as described above. In one embodiment, the database  250  may comprise one or more access control tables with records  252 . and containing data for control of access. By way of example, and not by way of limitation, each record  252  may contain fields for storing data such as, a lock identifier for designating the identifier for a lock, whether it is a room lock  30  or a safe lock  26 . The type of lock (room or safe) may be identified in another field of record  252 . Further, the location of the lock for the record  252  may be stored in a location field. Finally, the security codes for each user may be stored in an encrypted field of the table  250 . 
     Yet another table  260  may store relational records  262  containing audit data received from the room lock  30  and safe lock  26 . Each time an entry or attempted entry is made to the room  22 , or an opening or attempting opening is made for a safe  24 , the relevant locks  26  or  30  may upload data to the server  40 , to be received by the access control software  202 , which may store such data in table  260 . For example, each record may store the user identifier, the identifier for the lock accessed, whether it was an open or close event, the date, and the time. Further, each time a lock  26  or  30  is accessed or attempted to be accessed, the camera  32  may send video or pictures to the server  40 , which is also stored in the record  262  by the access control software  202 . 
     With reference to  FIG. 4 , an alternative embodiment to  FIG. 2  is shown, illustrating components and data flow of the system. In one embodiment, dual access may be used, requiring two authorized users onsite to present their radio frequency identification proximity (RFID Prox) cards to one or two readers  25  simultaneously to gain access to the safe  24 . The relay  27  power may be set for an interval of 1,500-2,000 milliseconds, but can be set to any interval. Furthermore, the safe may be inside a room  22  with a door that is also access controlled as shown in  FIG. 1 . In some embodiments, immediate changes can be made at remote locations that have the appropriate rights to add/change/delete authorized safe access users. An alarm contact  80  may report all safe door open and close times and dates to the server  40  through a monitored alarm system  82 . Comparing the alarm input data of safe door openings to the Access Control system&#39;s authorized openings reveals any bypass openings. In one embodiment, a momentary key switch  90  may be used for unlocking the lock  26 . 
     The above disclosed descriptions are only the most preferred embodiment of the present invention. However, it is not intended to be limiting to the most preferred embodiment of the present invention. Numerous variations and/or modifications are possible within the scope of the present invention.