Fire alarm inspection application and user interface

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10216164-B2
Application number	US-201715600509-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 19, 2017
Priority date	Jul 7, 2016
Publication date	Feb 26, 2019
Grant date	Feb 26, 2019

Abstract

A system and method for facilitating inspection of fire alarm systems includes a graphical user interface rendered on a touchscreen display of a mobile computing device receiving selections of inspection results. The graphical user interface includes a testing pane, which indicates devices that are currently being tested, and a selection pane, which indicates devices yet to be tested. The devices indicated by the selection pane are filtered according to the inferred location of the inspector or the inferred order of test. Selection of devices indicated by the selection pane results in those devices being indicated by the testing pane. Results of inspections of the devices indicated by the testing pane are then selected by the touchscreen display detecting gestures (e.g. swipes toward the left or right) corresponding to different results. The results are sent to a connected services system and stored in a connected services database.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system for inspection of fire alarm devices of a fire alarm system, comprising:
a mobile computing device executing an inspection application and displaying a graphical user interface of the inspection application rendered on a touchscreen display of the mobile computing device, the graphical user interface comprising a testing pane for indicating the fire alarm devices currently under inspection and for receiving input from an inspector indicating results of the inspections; and
a connected services system for receiving and storing results of the inspections of the fire alarm devices;

wherein devices are indicated by the testing pane in response to the inspector scanning barcodes of the devices or to the inspector reading radio-frequency identifications of the devices.

2. The system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the graphical user interface further comprises displayed information about the fire alarm devices sent from the connected services system to the mobile computing device.

3. The system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the graphical user interface further comprises a selection pane for indicating fire alarm devices to be inspected and for receiving input from the inspector indicating which fire alarm devices are currently under inspection.

4. A system for inspection of fire alarm devices of a fire alarm system, comprising:
a mobile computing device executing an inspection application and displaying a graphical user interface of the inspection application rendered on a touchscreen display of the mobile computing device, the graphical user interface comprising selection pane and a testing pane, the testing pane indicating the fire alarm devices currently under inspection and for receiving input from an inspector indicating results of the inspections; and
a connected services system for receiving and storing results of the inspections of the fire alarm devices;

wherein the fire alarm devices indicated by the selection pane are based on an inferred location of the inspector or on an inferred order of inspection of the fire alarm devices.

5. The system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein different results are indicated by the input of the inspector based on whether contact with the touchscreen display detected by the mobile computing device corresponds with a predetermined gesture.

6. The system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein devices are removed from being indicated by the testing pane in response to receiving input indicating the results of the inspections of those devices.

7. A system for inspection of fire alarm devices of a fire alarm system, comprising:
a mobile computing device executing an inspection application and displaying a graphical user interface of the inspection application rendered on a touchscreen display of the mobile computing device, the graphical user interface comprising a testing pane for indicating the fire alarm devices currently under inspection and for receiving input from an inspector indicating results of the inspections; and
a connected services system for receiving and storing results of the inspections of the fire alarm devices;

wherein devices are removed from being indicated by the testing pane in response to receiving input indicating the results of the inspections of those devices; and
wherein the removal of the devices from being indicated by the testing pane is delayed for a predetermined period of time, and, in response to further input from the inspector, the devices are not removed from being indicated by the testing pane, and the results of the inspections are not sent to the connected services system.

8. The system as claimed in claim 4 , wherein devices are indicated by the testing pane in response to the inspector scanning barcodes of the devices.

9. The system as claimed in claim 4 , wherein devices are indicated by the testing pane in response to the inspector reading radio-frequency identifications of the devices.

10. A method for facilitating inspection of fire alarm systems, the method comprising:
a mobile application executing on a mobile computing device, the mobile application displaying a graphical user interface on a touchscreen display of the mobile computing device;
the graphical user interface displaying a selection pane, which indicates fire alarm devices to be inspected and receives input from the inspector indicating which fire alarm devices are currently under inspection, the selection pane indicating the fire alarm devices based on an inferred location of the inspector or on the inferred order of inspection of the fire alarm devices;
the mobile computing device sending the results to a connected services system; and
the connected services system storing the results.

11. The method as claimed in claim 10 , further comprising the graphical user interface displaying information about the fire alarm devices sent from the connected services system to the mobile computing device.

12. The method as claimed in claim 10 , further comprising the input of the inspector indicating different results based on whether contact with the touchscreen display detected by the mobile computing device corresponds with a predetermined gesture.

13. The method as claimed in claim 10 , further comprising removing fire alarm devices from being indicated by the testing pane in response to receiving input from the inspector indicating the results of the inspections of those fire alarm devices.

14. The method as claimed in claim 13 , further comprising delaying the removal of the fire alarm devices from being indicated by the testing pane for a predetermined period of time, wherein, in response to further input from the inspector, the fire alarm devices are not removed from being indicated by the testing pane, and the results are not sent to the connected services system.

15. A method for facilitating inspection of fire alarm systems, the method comprising:
a mobile application executing on a mobile computing device, the mobile application displaying a graphical user interface on a touchscreen display of the mobile computing device;
the graphical user interface indicating fire alarm devices currently under inspection and receiving input from an inspector indicating results of inspections of the fire alarm devices in a testing pane that indicates fire alarm devices in response to the inspector scanning barcodes of the fire alarm devices or to the inspector reading radio-frequency identifications of the fire alarm devices;
the mobile computing device sending the results to a connected services system; and
the connected services system storing the results.

16. The method as claimed in claim 15 , further comprising the graphical user interface displaying a selection pane, which indicates fire alarm devices to be inspected and receives input from the inspector indicating which fire alarm devices are currently under inspection.

17. The method as claimed in claim 16 , further comprising the selection pane indicating the fire alarm devices based on an inferred location of the inspector.

18. The method as claimed in claim 16 , further comprising the selection pane indicating the fire alarm devices based on the inferred order of inspection of the fire alarm devices.

19. The method as claimed in claim 10 , further comprising the testing pane indicating fire alarm devices in response to the inspector reading radio-frequency identifications of the fire alarm devices.

Assignees

• Tyco Fire & Security Gmbh

Inventors

• Brown Tyler
• Secara Oana

Classifications

• G06K19/06028

  using bar codes · CPC title

• G05B15/02

  electric · CPC title

• G06F3/04817

  using icons (graphical or visual programming using iconic symbols G06F8/34) · CPC title

• G08B25/14

  Central alarm receiver or annunciator arrangements · CPC title

• G08B29/145

  of fire detection circuits · CPC title