Patent Publication Number: US-6987456-B2

Title: Portal announcing method and system

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     This is a continuation-in-part application of U.S. application Ser. No. 10/172,554 filed Jun. 13, 2002. 
    
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     a) Field of the Invention 
     The invention relates to a method and apparatus for automatically announcing an exit or entrance to an individual who seeks that exit or entrance and, more particularly, a method and apparatus for automatically announcing (aurally or visually) an entrance of a particular room to a patient in a hospital or nursing home. 
     b) Discussion of Need for the Invention 
     In nursing homes, hospitals and the like, patients often have difficulty finding their own rooms. Their rooms may or may not have room numbers or other identification for this. If they do have visual identification, the patients may not remember it or recognize it. There is no known system which provides an automated announcement or indication to the patient that a particular room is their room. 
     OBJECTS AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The primary object of the invention is to provide a method and system which automatically identifies a particular room in a nursing home, hospital facility or the like to a patient seeking that room. 
     A further object of the invention is to provide a method and system which automatically identifies a particular exit or entrance in a facility to a person seeking that exit or entrance. 
     In accordance with the invention, a method for providing an automatic indication to a person seeking a particular portal in a facility that any particular portal is the one sought comprises the steps of providing the person with a wireless, electronic transmitting and/or receiving device bearing a particular code, providing the portal with a corresponding wireless transmitting and/or receiving device bearing that particular code, identifying when the code of the device of the person has been received by the portal device and is the same as the code of the portal device and announcing when the personal code and portal code has been identified as being the same to the person that this portal is the one sought. The announcing may be aural and/or visual. 
     Also in accordance with the invention, a system for providing an automatic announcement to a person seeking a particular portal in a facility that any particular portal is the one sought comprises a wireless, electronic transmitting and/or receiving device to be worn by the person having a unique particular code for identifying that person, a wireless, electronic transmitting and/or receiving device attached to the portal having the same unique particular code, means at the portal responsive to the portal receiving device for identifying when the code of the device of the person has been received by the person has been received by the portal device and means at the portal and responsive to the identifying means for announcing to the person that this portal is the one sought. In one form of the invention, the means for announcing may be aural and/or visual. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       In the drawings: 
         FIG. 1  is a representational drawing of an individual seeking a particular portal for entry; 
         FIG. 2  is an embodiment of the invention where a carried or worn device acts as a beacon and a portal device acts as a receiver/annunciator; and 
         FIG. 3  is an embodiment of the invention where both a carried or worn device and a portal device uses transceivers for exchanging signal information. 
     
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
     Referring to  FIG. 1 , an individual is shown with a carried or worn device  20  in accordance with the invention. Such device may be worn around the neck, on the wrist or somehow attached or pinned to the clothing. The entry point or portal  10  which is sought by such individual has a portal device  10 A attached to it. As will be described below, the portal device  10 A interacts with the carried or worn device  20  to reveal the identity of the portal to the individual. 
     As discussed herein, the carried or worn device may be in the form of a pin or broach, a necklace or amulet, a bracelet or the like. 
     There are two primary preferred forms of interaction between the worn device  20  and the portal device  10 A. These two forms are controlled by infrared or RF (radio frequency) interaction. Infrared interaction is necessarily a line-of-sight technique while RF interaction is not limited to line-of-sight interaction. 
     Two embodiments of the invention will now be described. In the first embodiment shown in  FIG. 2 , the worn device  20  acts as a beacon to send a coded, pulsed signal which is received by the portal device  10 A. 
     The worn device  20  contains as its primary elements a microprocessor  21  with an embedded (stored) code, a modulator/driver element  22  and a transmitting antenna  23 . The coded signal from microprocessor  21  is modulated with appropriate carrier signal (RF or infrared) by the modulator/driver  22  and is then transmitted by the antenna  23 . 
     The portal device  10 A includes a receiving antenna  11 , a demodulator  12 , a microprocessor  13  with embedded or stored code, a comparator  14  which provides an identifying signal  15  and an indicator  16  responsive to the identifying signal  15 . 
     In operation, the portal device  10 A receives the transmitted signal from the worn device  20  through antenna  11 , demodulates it by demodulator  12  to strip out the coded signal; this coded signal is compared by comparator  14  with the coded signal stored in microprocessor  13 . The output of the comparator is identifying signal  15 . When the compared codes are the same, the comparator will provide a signal level which identifies identicality. If they are not the same, a signal level will be provided which identifies lack of identicality. 
     When the level of identifying signal  15  indicates identicality, it will trigger a response by indicator  16  that this portal  10  is the one sought by the individual. Such indicator response may be a sound or series of sounds, a light or a combination of both. In terms of a sound, a prerecorded voice may be released stating something intelligible such as “this is your room, Fannie.” A combination of visual and aural indicator responses may be used. 
     In  FIG. 3 , both the worn device and the portal device are in the form of transceiver elements. In  FIG. 3 , the worn device is identified as  40  and the portal device by  50 A. 
     The portal device  50 A includes a microprocessor  51  with an embedded or stored code, a modulator/driver  52 , a transceiver switch  55 , a transmitting/receiving antenna  53 , demodulator  54  and an indicator  54 A. 
     The worn device  40  includes a transmitting/receiving antenna  41 , a demodulator  42 , microprocessor  43  a comparator  44 , an identifying signal  45 , a modulator/driver  46  and a transceiver switch  47 . 
     In this embodiment, the portal device  50 A operates so that microprocessor  51  provides a coded signal which is modulated by modulator driver  52  which is directed through transceiver switch  55  to be transmitted over antenna  53 . 
     The signal transmitted through antenna  53  is received by antenna  41  and is directed through transceiver switch  47  to demodulator  42 . There, the coded signal is stripped out and compared with the stored signal in microprocessor  43  by comparator  44 . The output of comparator  44  is identifying signal  45 . When the compared codes are identical, identifying signal  45  will be at a level so indicating; when they are not identical, identifying signal  45  will be at a different level so indicating. When the identifying signal  45  indicates identicality, it is modulated in modulator/driver  46 , is directed through transceiver switch  47  and is transmitted through antenna  41 . This transmitted signal is received by antenna  53 , is passed through transceiver switch  55  which is then directed to demodulator  54 . Demodulator  54  provides a signal to indicator  54 A. The indicator will provide an aural and/or visual indication as was described with respect to  FIG. 2 . 
     Various specific techniques for transmitting and receiving tracking signals are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,211,781, 6,297,737 and 6,154,139, which teachings are incorporated herein by reference. None of these patents are directed to finding a specific portal by an individual such as would take place in a hospital, nursing home, blind person&#39;s home or smoke-filled environment. 
     The inventive method and system are particularly applicable to patients at hospitals or nursing homes who seek their own room. 
     The invention also has application to veterinary uses. For example, an animal (e.g. a dog) may wear the first wireless, electronic transmitting and/or receiving device having a unique preset code for identification purposes. The second wireless, electronic transmitting and/or receiving device is attached to a portal having the same unique code. The first and second devices directly communicate with each other. Means are provided at the portal responsive to the unique code of the second device for automatically identifying when the unique code of the first device has been received by the second device. Means are also provided at the portal responsive to the identifying means for automatically announcing that this portal is the one sought. 
     The same elements described in  FIGS. 2 and 3  above for persons may be used in this application for animals. The related description is incorporated herein by reference. 
     In the case of an animal, the automatic announcement may be in the form of a sound command or a visual command. In addition, the automatic identifying means may provide an electronic signal to a known electronic or electromechanical or electromagnetic device for unlatching or opening a door or the like so that the animal may pass through the portal. 
     While the foregoing description represents the present invention, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that various changes may be made therein without departing from the true spirit and scope of the present invention.