Patent Document

FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
       [0001]    The present invention is generally directed to sensing systems and, more particularly, to a system for sensing the seat occupancy in large seating arenas such as in public theaters, airplanes, large conference halls and the like, which system is also suitable for allowing attendees to order refreshments from their seats. 
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0002]    Quite frequently movie goers arrive at a movie theater to find that the movie has already begun with the lights having already been turned off or dimmed close to utter darkness. They are left with the unpleasant experience of groping their way in the dark peering intently to find unoccupied seats. All the while, their lingering activities pose a disruption and inconvenience to the other, already seated moviegoers. 
         [0003]    In the same vein, people arrive late to large conference halls where a lecture may already be ongoing and, standing from afar, try to locate empty seats. Their activities are sometimes personally embarrassing to them and certainly inconvenient and disruptive to others. A similar situation occurs quite often in airplanes where the flight attendants need to ascertain that the full complement of passengers is actually seated with the seatbelts fastened. 
         [0004]    U.S. Patent Application No. 2010/0253504 discloses a personal monitoring system that can work wirelessly to monitor people. Each person is initially positioned near a person support device coupled with a respective presence determining device that determines the presence of the person. Thereby, the presence or absence of one or more persons associated with the system can be known. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0005]    One general object of the invention is to provide a system that avoids the aforementioned drawbacks of the prior art. 
         [0006]    Another object of the present invention is to provide a system that easily and inexpensively senses the seat occupancy in large seating areas, such as in theaters, airplanes, and large conference halls. 
         [0007]    It is yet another object of the invention to provide a system that produces a seating display map which can immediately inform a late arriving person where the empty seats are located and thereby allow that latecomer to quickly proceed to the unoccupied seat of her/his choice. 
         [0008]    It is yet another object of the invention to provide a system that can provide a reporting function to apprise a manager or a manager&#39;s assistant, how many people have attended a particular gathering, and how long they have remained in their seats, etc. 
         [0009]    In accordance with the invention, each seat of a movie theater, concert hall, auditorium, bus, ship, airplane or the like is equipped with an occupancy sensor to detect whether the seat is being occupied and to transmit the signal accordingly to a central processor or computer system, which can be a CPU, a controller or the like. 
         [0010]    Seat occupancy can be accomplished in two main embodiments. According to one embodiment, the seat contains only a passive switch contact which is activated by the weight of a person on the seat. The switch signals/outputs from each sensor are routed through individual wires to an array of parallel and stacked multiplexers, reach to the central processor CPU, and thus sensed for determining seat occupancy. Another approach is that each seat is outfitted with an intelligent IC chip circuit that detects the state of the local sensor to determine that the seat is occupied and is able to communicate the seat number and the occupied/non-occupied status through a serial bus or even wirelessly to the central processor. 
         [0011]    If the intelligent IC chip embodiment is provided at each seat, the location of the seat may be stored in the IC chip in hard or writable memory. Alternatively, the seat identification can be stored, with the local IC chip determining whether the seat is occupied and reporting by wireless or wired connections to the central computer both the occupancy state and the seat I.D. In an airplane embodiment, the status of the seatbelt can also be reported. The occupancy sensor may be a contact strip or ribbon, or a piezoelectric device or a similar device which outputs an electrical output indicative that the weight of the person is bearing on the sensor. 
         [0012]    To avoid spurious responses, a seat may be declared occupied only after the occupancy condition has been verified at least 10 times over a 3 or 4-minute interval. The processor can also provide a count and optionally a duration of occupancy, for historical or reporting purposes. 
         [0013]    The central processor can provide a reporting function about seat occupancy and vacancy for each seat and statistical information, such as percentage of seats occupied, for any given show or performance. The central processor also provides real time occupancy information to a display, which is typically positioned outside of the auditorium so that latecomers can consult it and know, based on the display, where empty seats are located. The display can be a special display board containing a matrix of LEDs, and located outside the hall and showing the locations of unoccupied seats, either by lighting up LEDs corresponding to unoccupied seats or by using a color scheme, e.g. red representing occupied, and green representing an unoccupied seat etc. Alternatively, the display can be an ordinary flat monitor display or a flat television screen showing a map of the seats layout and the occupancy status thereof using either symbols, or a color scheme or text, in steady or blinking characters and the like. 
         [0014]    Also contemplated is an amenities or services or refreshments ordering system that allows seated persons or audience members to order food or beverages, merchandise or the like from the seat using an input apparatus, such as a keypad, trackpad or touch screen, and a payment apparatus, such as a credit or a debit card swiper or smartcard sensor or the like, located at the armrest or at a back of the seat immediately in front of the seat of the ordering person. Employees of the movie theater or sports arena, for example agents or attendants at the concession stand, would be notified immediately of the order placed at the seat and would be able to locate the seat immediately using the display system so that the food is conveniently and quickly delivered without undue disturbance of nearby members of the audience. 
         [0015]    The display can also be provided at a concession stand so that attendants know that amenities ordering has been made so that refreshments or other items or services can be delivered in a convenient manner without burdening nearby attendees. The central computer can also provide real time occupancy information via, for example, an internet connection, to an off-site location, for example to verify the number of seats occupied during any given show or performance. In this way, management can check the number of tickets sold against the number of seats occupied so as to detect abuse or fraud on the part of the ticket agent at the box office or on the part of attendees who sneak in to a show or performance without purchasing a ticket. 
         [0016]    Other features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of the invention which refers to the accompanying drawings. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0017]      FIG. 1  is a system block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention. 
           [0018]      FIG. 2  is a schematic illustration of a seat layout, and a seat occupancy sensor distribution chart according to the present invention. 
           [0019]      FIG. 3  is a seat occupancy display, according to an embodiment of the present invention. 
           [0020]      FIG. 4  shows a strip or ribbon shaped seat occupancy sensor, according to an embodiment of the present invention. 
           [0021]      FIG. 4   a  shows internal details of the sensor of  FIG. 4 . 
           [0022]      FIG. 4   b  shows a seatbelt engagement sensor. 
           [0023]      FIG. 5  is a schematic illustration of an intelligent seat occupancy sensor device, according to an embodiment of the present invention. 
           [0024]      FIG. 6  is a circuit block diagram for an MUX based sensor connection scheme, according to an embodiment of the present invention. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       [0025]    As noted above, the present disclosure is directed to a system for sensing the seat occupancy in large seating arenas, such as in public theaters, airplanes, large conference halls and the like. 
         [0026]      FIG. 2  shows typical arena such as a theater  32  having a surrounding wall  34 , with a central seating section  38   a , a left side seating section  38   b  and a right side seating section  38   c . Between these seating sections are walking halls which face respective doors  36   a  and  36   b . Each seating area has a plurality of seats  40  which are arranged in rows and columns. For example, in the central seating section  38   a , the rows are identified with the letters A, B, . . . Z and the seats in each row by numerics 1 through 30. 
         [0027]    The overall objective is to provide a display  20 , which would typically be hung on the wall  34 , outside of the movie theater and on which there would be displayed a map showing the seats that are unoccupied (and/or occupied). An example of such a display  20  is shown in  FIG. 3 , which shows the display  20  having three sections corresponding to the seating sections in  FIG. 2 , with indicator lights, typically LEDs  23 , which would either be colored red or green or just blink to indicate the unoccupied seats. Thus, the display section  20   a  corresponds to the seating area  38   a , the section  20   b  to the seating area  38   b  and the section  20   c  to the seating area  38   c . The LEDs  23  are lit by receiving signals from a map interface  21  which, as shall be described, is connected to a central processing system that provides the appropriate drive signals for the LEDs  23 . 
         [0028]    Referring now to  FIG. 1 , in a typical layout, a CPU or a central controller  12 , including the typical complement of RAM, ROM, hard disc and other memory runs a software program that controls the overall operation, including the interfacing to a seat sensor array  14  which provides occupancy signals to the CPU  12 , via a sensor interface  16 . 
         [0029]    The CPU  12  also interfaces with the aforementioned map display  20  and displays thereon the seat occupancy information. As noted previously, the display  20  can be provided as a simple flat, television style monitor and the signals provided to the map display  26  via the map interface  21  can be in the form of NTSC or similar television signals or monitor signals, effective to display any information on said display. The seat occupancy information can be in the form of written alphanumeric characters. For example, if the seat B12 in the central seating section  38   a  is vacant, at that location would appear the indication B12, informing the user to proceed to row B, seat 12, which is unoccupied. 
         [0030]    The CPU  12  is also coupled to an operator interface  18  which provides a keyboard or the like for controlling the CPU  12  and also for initial programming of the map display  20 , including the location of the sensors associated with the seat sensor array as shall be described. Internet Interface  22  similarly interfaces with the CPU  12  and can provide information about seat occupancy, including historic information and other similar information, to a remote location. The blocks Map Setup  24  and Report Generator  26  indicate or represent software modules responsible for the initial map set up information and organization. The Report Generator can be tailored to produce specific and/or periodic reports requested by different operators of the system. In an airplane setting, the CPU can reconcile seat occupancy information against the passenger flight data, informing flight attendants who is not at their seat and/or seat belted. This can speed up plane (or train) embarking and disembarking. 
         [0031]    In  FIG. 1 , the seat sensor array  14  represents physical seat occupancy sensors which are connected by a physical wiring network to the sensor interface  16 , which, as will be described, is hardwired to the CPU  12 . 
         [0032]    The alternative to the hardwire arrangement is to provide individual sensors at each seat which operate wirelessly and thus provide a wireless sensor array  28 , which communicates wirelessly to the CPU  12  as indicated by the dashed lines in  FIG. 1 . 
         [0033]    An individual seat occupancy sensor can be implemented in the form of a strip shaped flexible ribbon  40  which is illustrated in  FIGS. 4 and 4   a . The strip body  41  is generally rectangular and is made of several layers with electrical contacts therebetween and with first and second electrical leads  44   a  and  44   b . Within the strips are several electrical contacts  42   a ,  42   b  and  42   c , whereby when the ribbon body  41  is inserted under the seat upholstery and a person sits on it, an electrical circuit is completed between the leads  44   a  and  44   b . In  FIG. 4   a , each electrical contact is made of upper electrical contacts connected to the lead  44   b  and lower electrical contacts, which are separated by a very small gap from the upper electrical contacts, which are all connected to the second lead  44   a . In use, all of the upper electrical contacts are connected to ground. The ribbon has an upper layer and a lower layer which are separated by resilient bodies  46 , which are interspersed throughout and keep the electrical contacts apart. However, under a weight of, say, more than 25 or 40 pounds, representing a human being, the resilient bodies  46  compress, allowing contact being made at any one of the electrodes  42   a ,  42   b  or  42   c , completing the circuit and indicating a seat occupancy at lead  44   a  which become connected to ground. 
         [0034]    Referring now to  FIG. 6 , the sensor array  14 , comprising the individual sensor ribbons  40 ,  40   a ,  40   b , and so on, distributed throughout a theater, an airplane, or any seating arena, can be interfaced such that the respective occupancy signal wire  44   a  and so on, from each of sensors  40  is interfaced to the CPU  12  via the aforementioned sensor interface  16 . Sensor interface  16  can have, in accordance with one embodiment thereof, a plurality of multiplexer devices, including a main MUX  80  which selects from among groups of different seat sensors one particular sensor group, which is supplied to the CPU  12  through its output line  80   a . The main MUX  80  selects from among 10 output lines  82   a ,  82   b  . . .  82   n , associated respectively with a respective one of frontline multiplexers  83   a ,  83   b  . . .  83   n . Each of the frontline MUXes  83   a ,  83   b  . . .  83   n  is connected to a group of about 30 sensors. Thus, when the CPU  12  outputs to its output MUX line  84 , an address field  86  consisting of a predetermined number of bits which are provided to each of the aforementioned MUXes, the sensor output for a particular seat is read by the CPU  12 . For example, for an address line consisting of all zeros, the first input  44   a  into the first MUX  83   a  is selected, which is then also selected by the main MUX  80  and presented to the CPU  12 . Increasing the address by 1 enables testing the state of the next seat, and so on through the many different groups of seats of 30, in well known manner. At the operating speed of CPUs, in less than a millisecond, the occupancy state of all of the seats can be easily looked at. In typical operation, the occupancy state would be checked, for example, repetitively over a half minute, to ensure that no signal noise, etc. might provide a false occupancy indication. This information is then collated and correlated by the computer to output its seat occupancy state for the map display  20  or for providing a report via the Internet or to a display at an operator&#39;s screen. 
         [0035]    The power distribution block  30  shown in  FIG. 1 , is utilized to convert A/C power so as to provide low voltage power for all of the electrical circuits described herein. 
         [0036]    In accordance with an alternate embodiment, each seat is provided with its own smart sensor  50 , which is a small electronic subsystem as illustrated in  FIG. 5 . That smart sensor  50  includes the physical sensor  40  described above, or possibly a wireless sensor connected thereto, with a local CPU  52  that is programmed with the seat address  54  at which it is located and also includes a power interface  60  and a communication port  56 . Through the communication port  56 , the occupancy state of the particular seat can be communicated via a two line (or only a few lines) wiring system, for example, over the power and signal bus  62 , to thus reach the central CPU  12 , by time division multiplexing. Alternatively, the state of the signal can be communicate wirelessly from the wireless interface  58  and received by a receiving central wireless interface  64  associated with a central CPU  12 . This embodiment, shown in  FIG. 5 , adds cost to the sensing system at each seat, but avoids the need for extensive wiring of an arena, such as a theater. 
         [0037]    The device  70  is associated with and comprises an amenities ordering system. In  FIG. 5  it is shown attached to the unit  50  and of being in communication with its CPU  52 . In typical application, the device  70  may be positioned in the armrest or in a support attached in front of each seat or in any location accessible to the occupant of the particular seat. It typically provides either a keyboard or a touchpad (not shown) on which one can enter an order for various products, which may be typically food, and being provided with a status on an associated display as to when the order would be ready. It is inherent that the amenities ordering system  70  automatically identifies to the central CPU  12  the location of the person submitting the order. The system  70  can include a reader (not shown) for reading a credit or debit card or the like. The display can provide a menu of products that are available. Upon ordering any product, the product would be delivered to the seat by an attendant who would know the exact seat and so very rapidly, and unobtrusively, deliver the order. 
         [0038]    As noted above, the contact sensor  40  may be provided as a ribbon or strip positioned in the upholstery, attached to the seat cushion, or the like. 
         [0039]    Alternatively, a radio frequency ID tag (RF ID tag) with a unique code can be provided at each strip sensor such that the RF ID tag is enabled when sufficient weight is applied to the seat and a local reader, for example a reader integrated with the armrest or positioned on top of the armrest of the seat or may be provided at various other locations throughout the auditorium. The reader may also be integrated with the amenities ordering system  70 . The local reader may periodically pole wirelessly the tag and the determination that the seat is occupied may be made when the RF ID tag is activated, enabled by contact of the opposing electrical contacts. Polling can take place several times per second, for example three times, to avoid spurious signals. Polling may be initiated at set periods, for example every few minutes. The seat occupancy detection can be done wirelessly or by a polling scheme with each device having a unique address, which is set via switches or via E-RAM. The individual switches or contacts can be programmed wirelessly or pre-programmed. The communication about seat occupancy can be over a bus line or the power line. Power can be provided individually or the devices battery operated. 
         [0040]    Other types of seat sensors instead of or in addition to the sensor strip  50  are also contemplated. Such other sensors may include a sensor that senses when a seat is in a folded up position and/or senses when the seat is in the folded down position, and a light sensor, for example provided as a light sensing diode, that detects whether light from an opposingly positioned light, such as an LED, is blocked by a presence of an attendee on the seat or detects that light is able to reach it. 
         [0041]    The ordering device  70 , as noted, includes buttons that may include a keypad for ordering various types of amenities, refreshments, food, beverages or merchandise. The local display can then show to the attendee at the seat various types of merchandise selected using number codes provided at ordering unit  70  and confirm the order made or the purchase made or the purchase amount or the like to the seated user. It will be understood that such an amenities ordering system  70  can be shared by more than one seat, for example, each pair of seats can share one amenities ordering system. The ordering device  70  may include a trackpad, in addition to or instead of the keypad to enable interaction between the user and the unit, and a trackpad or other types of user interfaces may be provided as well. In addition, the ordering device  70  may include a local LCD display or other monitor that shows the options of merchandise or amenities or services available for ordering, allows the user at the seat to make the merchandise selection and payment method selection by pressing directly on the screen or monitor, i.e. on the touch-sensitive display, and to confirm to the user what items have been ordered, credit card or debit card status, cost and other payment information or the like. 
         [0042]    A credit card reader may be also included in the ordering system  70  to allow the user to make payment for the items purchased or services purchased immediately at the time of ordering. A credit card reader may also be configured to read debit cards or special created cards unique to the auditorium or theater with a pre-set value. Although shown as a credit/debit card reader, reader  70  may also be used to read smartcards or the like. 
         [0043]    The seat occupancy and display system described above has particular useful application with regard to school buses. The various sensors would be installed in the seats of the school bus and the display would be located near the driver. Thus, when a driver completes his run, depositing the children, the display would be consulted to ensure that no child has been left sitting or sleeping on any seat. Note that as described before, the CPU  12  in the school bus application, is also configured to transmit the school bus seat occupancy information wirelessly to another location, for example, school authorities. As another option in the context of a school bus application, an alarm would sound whenever any children are left sitting or sleeping on any seat as the engine is turned off. This also requires an engine on signal being coupled to the CPU  12 . 
         [0044]    In another application, the seat occupancy detection display system of the present invention would be adapted for use in restaurants. In this context, the CPU  12  would also include a module that gauges the length of time that certain seats are occupied, so as to alert management whether a particular party may be lingering too long at their seat, beyond an allowed maximum to optimize usage of the restaurant. 
         [0045]    Lastly, in embodiments where seat belt engagement is sensed, the invention also includes the concept of including electrodes in the buckles and that, preferably, the electrodes contact each other electrically when the seat belts are tightened on a person&#39;s body, pulling the electrodes into contact. 
         [0046]    The inventions described herein are also applicable to trains. Every once in a while it has been heard of a person who is left on a train for several days, having been deceased, and this invention would enable immediate detection of such a circumstance. The same is true of a person who oversleeps on a train or is homeless or inebriated. Another application of the invention is to note the arrival times of patients in doctors&#39; office or in retail businesses, etc. The display would indicate the order in which people have arrived. 
         [0047]    Yet another application would be for use by long-haul truckers. The invention can log the number of hours a trucker has been driving. By law, they are required to a break every so often, and the invention can log the driving times and either record it locally, or report it wirelessly to a remote supervisory agency. 
         [0048]    Although the present invention has been described in relation to particular embodiments thereof, many other variations and modifications and other uses will become apparent to those skilled in the art. It is preferred, therefore, that the present invention be limited not by the specific disclosure herein, but only by the appended claims.

Technology Category: 3