Tracking safety conditions of an area

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11514207-B2
Application number	US-202117196146-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 9, 2021
Priority date	Feb 22, 2017
Publication date	Nov 29, 2022
Grant date	Nov 29, 2022

Abstract

Apparatus for electronically quantifying conditions of a person and an environment containing the person, as well as a sequence of positions occupied by the person and a direction the person faced at those positions. Wireless communications track a series of positions over time and provide user interfaces indicating where a person has been and who the person has come within a minimum distance of. Sensors may be operative to provide ongoing evaluation of a condition of the person, such as a body temperature and heartrate which may trigger an alarm state if the body temperature rises above a specified value. Electronic sensors may also be quantify environmental conditions over time and present the conditions in the user interface.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus, supportable by a first person, for tracking safety conditions in an area, the apparatus comprising:
a controller comprising a processor and a digital storage, said controller in logical communication with a user interface display;
a first agent-supported transceiver movably supportable by an agent located at a first geospatial position, which first agent-supported transceiver is in logical communication with the controller and operative to transmit or receive data from a reference point transceiver;
a wireless communication device in logical communication with the controller;
executable code stored on the digital storage and executable by the processor to cause the controller to:
a. receive from a first sensor movably supported by the first person a quantification of a condition present in the area with the first sensor, wherein the quantification is digital content, and associate a first time indicator with the condition;
b. transmit a wireless communication via the wireless communication device to a receiver the digital content quantifying the condition present in the area with the agent-supported transceiver;
c. wirelessly communicate between the first agent-supported transceiver and a reference point transceiver a digital value to calculate a distance between the first agent-supported transceiver and the reference point transceiver;
d. generate a positional coordinate of the first person based upon the wireless communication;
e. associate a second time indicator with the positional coordinate and the time at which the wireless communication occurred;
f. generate a display on the user interface comprising a physical position of the first person and the quantified condition present in the area;
g. update the user interface to indicate conditions present in the area and respective positions of persons at specified times;
h. designate one or more conditions conducive to a safety risk; and
i. based upon a condition conducive to a safety risk, trigger an alarm state.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the executable code is further operative to cause the controller to:
m. receive from a second agent-supported transceiver supported by a second person a positional coordinate corresponding to a location of the second person;
n. calculate a distance between the first person and the second person at one or more time instances;
o. determine a minimum distance between the first person and the second person; and
p. update the user interface to indicate respective positions of the first person and the second person.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the executable code is further operative to cause the controller to:
q. associate one or more threshold minimum distances with the one or more conditions conducive to a safety risk; and
r. based upon a condition conducive to a safety risk or a minimum distance between the first and second person being lower than a threshold minimum distance associated with a condition conducive to a safety risk, trigger an alarm state.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the first agent-supported transceiver is capable of transmitting and receiving via a burst transmission protocol.

5. The apparatus of claim 4 , wherein the burst transmission protocol comprises ultra-wideband.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the first agent-supported transceiver is capable of transmitting and receiving via Bluetooth.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the first agent-supported transceiver is in logical communication with a smart device.

8. The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the first agent-supported transceiver is capable of transmitting and receiving via a low-power wireless communication protocol.

9. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the low-power wireless communication protocol comprises Bluetooth Low Energy.

10. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the low-power wireless communication protocol comprises near field communications.

11. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the first agent-supported transceiver is capable of transmitting and receiving via ultra-wideband.

12. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the positional coordinate comprises a Cartesian coordinate.

13. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the positional coordinate comprises a cylindrical polar coordinate.

14. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the positional coordinate comprises a spherical polar coordinate.

15. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the alarm state comprises activating a signaling device.

16. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the executable code is further operative to, based upon the triggering of the alarm state, cause the first agent-supported transceiver to transmit a signal to a smart device.

17. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the executable code is further operative to, based upon the triggering of the alarm state, cause the user interface to display an indicator.

18. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the executable code is further operative to, based upon the triggering of the alarm state, cause the first agent-supported transceiver to transmit a notification to one or both of: the first and a second person.

19. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the executable code is further operative to cause the controller to generate an augmented reality interface of a subset of the area based on the position and direction of orientation of an agent-supported smart device.

20. The apparatus of claim 19 , wherein the augmented reality interface further comprises an identifier associated with one or both of the first and a second person.

21. The apparatus of claim 20 , wherein the augmented reality interface further comprises an indication of a condition associated with one or both of the first and second person.

22. The apparatus of claim 21 , wherein the condition comprises the condition conducive to a safety risk.

23. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the sensor comprises a thermoelectric device, and the condition comprises a body temperature exceeding a specified value.

24. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the sensor comprises a heartrate monitor, and the condition comprises an elevated heartbeat.

25. The apparatus claim 2 , wherein the minimum distance is six feet.

Assignees

• Middle Chart Llc

Inventors

• Santarone Michael S
• Wodrich Michael
• Pugh Randall
• Duff Jason E

Classifications

• G08B21/0272

  System arrangements wherein the object is to detect exact location of child or item using triangulation other than GPS · CPC title

• G06Q99/00 Primary

  Subject matter not provided for in other groups of this subclass · CPC title

• G01S2205/01

  specially adapted for specific applications · CPC title

• G01S5/02

  using radio waves (using satellite radio beacon systems for determining position G01S19/00) · CPC title

• G16H40/67

  for remote operation · CPC title