Intelligent safety monitoring and analytics system for personal protective equipment

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11263568-B2
Application number	US-201716077541-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 7, 2017
Priority date	Mar 7, 2016
Publication date	Mar 1, 2022
Grant date	Mar 1, 2022

Abstract

In some examples, a system includes an article of hearing protection assigned to a worker, and a portable computing device assigned to the worker; a remote computing device communicatively coupled to the portable computing device, the remote computing device configured to receive sound level data that indicate different sound levels at different, respective locations of a work environment; determine, based on location data received from the portable computing device, an amount of sound received by the worker over a period of time; identify an updated location in the work environment having a sound level that is different from a current location, based at least in part on the article of hearing protection, the amount of sound, and the sound level data that indicates different sound levels at different, respective locations; and generate a notification that instructs the worker to move from the current location to the updated location.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system comprising:
a first article of hearing protection assigned to a worker, and a portable computing device assigned to the worker; and
a remote computing device communicatively coupled to the portable computing device, the remote computing device comprising one or more computer processors and a memory comprising instructions that when executed by the one or more computer processors cause the one or more computer processors to:
receive first work site sound exposure data that indicates a first amount of work site sound that the worker was exposed to over a first period of time for a particular day in a first area of a work environment;
after the worker has moved to a second area of a work environment in the particular day, receive second work site sound exposure data that indicates a second amount of work site sound that the worker has been exposed to over a second period of time for the particular day in the second area of the work environment;
in response to determining that the worker has moved to the second area of the work environment in the particular day, determine that a work site sound level in the second area is greater than a work site sound level in the first area;
identify, based at least in part on the determination that the work site sound level in the second area is greater than the work site sound level in the first area, a second article of hearing protection that attenuates sound more than the first article of hearing protection; and
generate for output an indication of the second article of hearing protection;
determine, based on the first and second work site sound exposure data in the first area of the work environment and in the second area of a work environment and based at least in part on an amount of sound attenuation provided by the article of hearing protection assigned to the worker, that a cumulative amount of work site sound that the worker has been exposed to over the first and second periods of time in the first area of the work environment and in the second area of a work environment exceeds a threshold for the particular day; and
generate a notification for the portable computing device based on the cumulative amount of work site sound that the worker has been exposed to over the first and second periods of time in the first area of the work environment and in the second area of a work environment exceeding a threshold for the particular day.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the threshold for the particular day is less than a maximum amount of allowable sound exposure for the particular day.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the remote computing device receives at least the first or second sound exposure data from one or more portable sound level monitors worn by one or more workers in the work environment.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein a first work site sound level in the first area is different than a second work site sound level in the second area.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the particular day is a defined time duration stored in the computing device, and wherein a cumulative amount of time based on the first and second periods of time is greater than the defined time duration.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the remote computing device further stores data that defines associations between different respective workers and different types of personal protective equipment (PPE) assigned to the respective workers, and wherein the different types of PPE include one or more of fall protection PPE, respiratory PPE, head-eye-face PPE, welding PPE, or hearing protection PPE.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein to generate the notification for the portable computing device based on the cumulative amount of sound that the worker has been exposed to over the first and second periods of time the memory comprises instructions that when executed by the one or more computer processors cause the one or more computer processors to:
generate a risk score based at least in part on the worker's usage of at least one article of PPE in the work environment.

8. A computing device comprising:
one or more computer processors; and
a memory comprising instructions that when executed by the one or more computer processors cause the one or more computer processors to:
receive, by a remote computing device, first work site sound exposure data that indicates a first amount of work site sound that a worker was exposed to over a first period of time for a particular day in a first area of a work environment, wherein a first article of hearing protection is assigned to the worker, and a portable computing device is assigned to the worker;
after the worker has moved to a second area of a work environment in the particular day, receive second work site sound exposure data that indicates a second amount of work site sound that the worker has been exposed to over a second period of time for the particular day in the second area of the work environment;
in response to determining that the worker has moved to the second area of the work environment in the particular day, determine that a work site sound level in the second area is greater than a work site sound level in the first area;
identify, based at least in part on the determination that the work site sound level in the second area is greater than the work site sound level in the first area, a second article of hearing protection that attenuates sound more than the first article of hearing protection; and
generate for output an indication of the second article of hearing protection;
determine, based on the first and second work site sound exposure data in the first area of the work environment and in the second area of a work environment and based at least in part on an amount of sound attenuation provided by the article of hearing protection assigned to the worker, that a cumulative amount of work site sound that the worker has been exposed to over the first and second periods of time in the first area of the work environment and in the second area of a work environment exceeds a threshold for the particular day; and
generate, a notification for the portable computing device based on the cumulative amount of work site sound that the worker has been exposed to over the first and second periods of time in the first area of the work environment and in the second area of a work environment exceeding a threshold for the particular day.

9. The computing device of claim 8 , wherein the threshold for the particular day is less than a maximum amount of allowable sound exposure for the particular day.

10. The computing device of claim 8 , wherein to receive the first or second work site sound exposure data the memory comprises instructions that when executed cause the one or more processors to receive at least the first or second sound exposure data from one or more portable sound level monitors worn by one or more workers in the work environment.

11. The computing device of claim 8 , wherein a first sound level in the first area is different than a second sound level in the second area.

12. The computing device of claim 8 , wherein the particular day is a defined time duration stored in the computing device, and wherein a cumulative amount of time based on the first and second periods of time is greater than the defined time duration.

13. The computing device of claim 8 , wherein the remote computing device further stores data that defines associations between different respective workers and different types of personal protective equipment (PPE) assigned to the respective workers, and wherein the different types of PPE include one or more of fall protect

Assignees

• 3M Innovative Properties Co

Inventors

• Kanukurthy Kiran S
• Digre Steven R
• Holloway Darcey L
• Lobner Eric C
• Madison Ted K
• Savoie Philip J
• Smith Pageen S
• Wells Lauraine L
• Wurm Michael G
• Fackler Cameron J
• Brown James D
• Blackford Matthew J
• Awiszus Steven T
• Berger Elliott H

Classifications

• G06F9/542

  Event management; Broadcasting; Multicasting; Notifications · CPC title

• G06F17/18

  for evaluating statistical data {, e.g. average values, frequency distributions, probability functions, regression analysis (forecasting specially adapted for a specific administrative, business or logistic context G06Q10/04)} · CPC title

• G06Q10/06

  Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling · CPC title

• G08B21/182 Primary

  Level alarms, e.g. alarms responsive to variables exceeding a threshold · CPC title

• G06Q10/0635

  Risk analysis of enterprise or organisation activities · CPC title