System for automatically monitoring persons in a domestic environment

ABSTRACT

A system for automatically monitoring persons in a domestic environment by using sensors for detecting characteristic parameters which are supplied to a surveillance center which, if necessary, alerts an alarm center, particularly a service provider, the sensors detecting a plurality of domestic devices (including measuring devices) used or operated regularly and the sensor data being supplied personalized and automatically to the center which evaluates the incoming data by using an expert system with predetermined rules.

INFORMATION

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

to designate different actuation sensors which, for example, indicate the actuation or the use of a particular device in the household of the person monitored, such as, for example, a mattress sensor, a sensor which monitors the opening of the refrigerator door or the switching-on of the stove, of the toilet flush or of the television set. These sensor signals are preferably not forwarded directly to a center but to a domestic forwarding station which, if necessary, can be coupled to an evaluating unit so that it initiates not only a collective forwarding but also preliminary screening and pre-assessment of the sensor data before they are forwarded to the center. In the exemplary embodiment shown, the center is distributed to two different service providers and comprises a user database , resident at the first service provider, with person-related data of the person monitored, contact addresses, care services, pseudonyms or the like. From there, the data provided with the corresponding pseudonym are forwarded to the sensor database at the second service provider, this sensor database being coupled to an expert system in order to evaluate the incoming sensor data. The result of the evaluation is reported by the sensor database back to the user database which, in turn, because it is the only one that knows which patient is hidden behind the data evaluated anonymously, can trigger different alarms, for example it can start an inquiry from the person monitored (call back station ) or call relatives (forwarding station ), it can also deliver an alarm message at a care service or, if necessary, inform the emergency medical center directly. Naturally, a whole series of other different alarm stages are also possible and, instead of the four device sensors shown, a multiplicity of other sensors can be included in the system. These can also include sensors about the consumption data in the respective household such as water consumption, electricity consumption or gas consumption.

In principle, there are a number of different possibilities with regard to the design of the sensors and their further interconnection. Assuming a typical case, namely a sensor which signals the switching-on of the stove, the simplest possibility is that the sensor signals to the center every time when it is switched on. The center then decides what is to be done.

Instead of this direct signalling, the stove sensor can deliver a message to the local forwarding station every time when it is switched on. This local forwarding station handles the signal transmission for all sensors in the household. It is only the forwarding station which needs to be able to handle remote communication and all other devices can be connected to the forwarding station via a local radio link (e.g. DECT). In this case, in principle, the sensor data can be forwarded from the local forwarding station, as has already been described above, or the data can first be checked and evaluated in the forwarding station so that forwarding occurs only when the local forwarding station, with its limited possibilities of testing, believes that it has detected an emergency.

Finally, it would also be possible that the sensor knows, for example through the stove electronics themselves, how often it needs to be or should be switched on. It then reports to the center when it has not been switched on often enough. Although this lowers the communication costs, it is, on the other hand, expensive because of the correspondingly more expensive sensor electronics.

CLAIMS

1. A system for automatically monitoring consumption activity of a person in a domestic environment, the system comprising: plural sensors for detecting consumption activity of plural domestic devices that are in a domestic environment of a person being monitored and for automatically sending signals that identify consumption activity of the person being monitored and the detected activity, said plural sensors sensing activity of a plurality of water, gas, and electric devices through the use of water meters, gas meters, and ammeters; a surveillance center that receives said signals from said plural sensors; an expert system at said surveillance center for automatically evaluating the detected consumption activity based on predetermined rules, the expert system initiating alarm output based on the automatic evaluation; and an alarm center for generating an alarm signal in response to the alarm output from said surveillance center.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein, the detected consumption activity relates to a frequency of use of a monitored device, and said expert system compares a detected frequency of use of at least one of the domestic devices to a predetermined frequency and generates an output when the detected frequency deviates from the predetermined frequency.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein said expert system learns a normal consumption activity of the plural domestic devices and generates an output when the detected activity deviates from the learned normal activity.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein said expert system evaluates the detected use activity of a plurality of the domestic devices and generates an output only when more than one of the detected activities deviates from the predetermined rules concerning frequency of use.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein said expert system analyzes utilization of the domestic devices and revises the predetermined rules based on the analysis.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein said plural sensors include a telephone usage sensor.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein said surveillance center further comprises a first service provider that receives the output from said sensors, appends personal data identifying the person whose activity is being monitored to form encrypted data, and sends the encrypted data to a second service provider that receives the encrypted data, the second service provider hosting the surveillance center and the expert system.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the first service provider comprises a first database that includes the personal data and contact information for entities, including contact addresses and nursing services, that are to receive the alarm output from said surveillance center and a second sensor database for storing incoming sensor data derived from the sensor signals, the alarm output being routed from the second service provider via the first service provider to the entities, one of which entities hosts the alarm center.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein said alarm center generates alarms with different levels of urgency, depending on the output from said surveillance center.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein said surveillance center is at least one municipal utility that accepts the sensor signals from the plural sensors and stores the received sensor signals as consumption data within a database located at the municipal utility.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein one municipal utility accepting sensor signals is a telephone company, the telephone company storing telephone usage data indicating an historic telephone use frequency for the person, and a current telephone use frequency for the person sufficient to determine if the current telephone frequency use deviates beyond a predetermined rule within the expert system so as to trigger a non-standard use frequency alarm.

12. The system of claim 1, further comprising: a first service provider that accepts the sensor signals from the plural sensors and attaches, to the sensor signals, encrypted personal data identifying the person whose activity is being monitored, the sensor signals together with the attached encrypted personal data being sent by the first service provider to the surveillance center hosting the expert system, the signal generated by the surveillance center being routed via the first service provided to trigger an alarm at the alarm center.

13. A method for automatically monitoring consumption activity of a person in a domestic environment, the method comprising the steps of: detecting consumption, including both quantity and frequency of use, activity of plural domestic devices that are in a domestic environment of a person being monitored using plural sensors; automatically sending signals from the sensors that identify the person being monitored and the detected activity; receiving the signals from the sensors at a surveillance center; automatically evaluating the detected consumption activity based on predetermined rules using an expert system at the surveillance center; and generating a signal in response to an output from the surveillance center when usage of any of water meters, gas meters, and ammeters deviates from a normal usage.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the expert system performs the steps of comparing a detected consumption frequency of operation of at least one of the domestic devices to a predetermined frequency and generates an output when the detected frequency deviates from the predetermined frequency.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the expert system performs the steps of learning a normal usage of the plural domestic devices and generating an output when the detected activity deviates from the learned normal usage.

16. The method of claim 13, the expert system performs the steps of evaluating the detected activity of a plurality of the domestic devices and generating an output only when more than one of the detected activities deviates from the predetermined rules.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein the expert system performs the steps of analyzing frequency and quantity utilization of the domestic devices and revises the predetermined rules based on the analysis.

18. The method of claim 10, wherein said plural sensors include a sensor for sensing activity indicating use frequency of a telephone.

19. The method of claim 13, wherein the surveillance center performs the steps of encrypting the output from the sensors and sending the encrypted data to a separate service provider.

20. A system for automatically monitoring activity of a person in a domestic environment as measured by domestic device usage, the system comprising: plural sensors for detecting utility consumption activity of plural gas, electric, and water devices that are in a domestic environment of a person being monitored and for automatically sending signals that identify the detected utility consumption activity of the plural gas, electric, and water devices as to consumed quantities of corresponding gas, electric, and water utilities; a surveillance center that receives said signals from said plural sensors and encrypts consumption data in said signals; an expert system that receives the encrypted data and automatically learns a normal consumption activity of the plural gas, electric, and water devices and, after having learned the normal consumption activity monitors a current level of consumption activity while comparing the current level of consumption activity against the learned normal consumption activity; and said surveillance center generating a signal in response to an output from said expert system when the comparison of the current level of consumption activity against the learned normal consumption activity triggers a monitoring rule within the expert system.

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