Patent Issued for Portable Home And Hotel Security System (USPTO 10,506,411)

2019 DEC 24 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- From Alexandria, Virginia, NewsRx journalists report that a patent by the inventor Jacob, Michael Shawn (Le Roy, IL), filed on December 12, 2017, was published online on December 23, 2019.

The patent’s assignee for patent number 10,506,411 is State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (Bloomington, Illinois, United States).

News editors obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “In any physical environment, a variety of threats to persons or property may arise. Such threats may include theft, violence, fire, or flooding, among others. To reduce the risk of injury, damage, or loss as a result of such threats, alarm systems are frequently installed within residential or commercial buildings. Such alarm systems typically operate to generate an alert upon the occurrence of a specific event, such as the opening of a window or door. Some alarm systems simply sound a siren or cause lights to flash. Other alarm systems transmit an alert to an alarm monitoring service, where a representative may attempt to verify the alarm or provide an opportunity to terminate a false alarm. Such alarm systems can be complex, requiring significant investment in hardware components and installation costs to install the components within a building. The components typically include a hub or base station that is connected to sensors installed at strategically important locations within the building environment, such as doors, windows, or stairwells. Each sensor is configured to address one particular type of threat. For example, a smoke detector detects an indication of fire within the building, while a door sensor detects whether a door has been opened. Some systems also include back-up batteries to continue monitoring if the building’s electric power supply is intentionally or otherwise disconnected.”

As a supplement to the background information on this patent, NewsRx correspondents also obtained the inventor’s summary information for this patent: “The present application discloses a method, system, and computer-readable medium storing instructions for monitoring a local physical environment for threats or other abnormal environmental conditions and for responding to abnormal environmental conditions. The method, system, or instructions may particularly use one or more environmental sensors disposed within a mobile computing device that are configured to provide information regarding the local physical environment in which the mobile computing device is located. In some embodiments, the mobile computing device may be a smartphone or a tablet computer. In further embodiments, the mobile computing device may be communicatively connected to a security system installed within a building, which security system may perform part of the monitoring or response.

“The method, system, or instructions may include receiving sensor data regarding the local physical environment from the one or more environmental sensors, determining the occurrence of an abnormal environmental condition based upon the received sensor data, determining a response to the abnormal environmental condition, and causing the determined response to be implemented. The abnormal environmental condition may include one or more of the following: a burglary, an unlawful entry, a home invasion, an intrusion, a fire, a flood, a leak, or a structural failure.

“In some embodiments, the response may include one or more alerts. The alerts may include alarms or notifications to the user of the mobile computing device, a monitoring service center, an emergency dispatcher, or others. In further embodiments, the one or more alerts include an emergency alert indicating an emergency situation, in which case the response may include an alarm monitoring service, an emergency response system, an emergency response dispatch center, a public safety answering point, a police department, a fire department, an ambulance service, or a hospital. In yet further embodiments, the one or more alerts may include a notification alert to a user, which may include information regarding the abnormal environmental condition. The notification alert may include an option to allow the user to confirm the occurrence of the abnormal environmental condition, disaffirm the occurrence of the abnormal environmental condition, contact an emergency response center, initiate an alarm, cancel an alarm, or take other actions.

“The environmental sensors may include one or more of the following: a microphone, a camera, an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a barometer, or a geolocation unit. In some embodiments, one or more additional sensors may be communicatively connected to the mobile computing device. In such embodiments, the received sensor data may further include data from the one or more additional sensors.

“In further embodiments, determining the occurrence of the abnormal environmental condition may further include determining a threshold level based upon the one or more environmental sensors, determining a condition level based upon the received sensor data, and determining that the determined condition level has exceeded the threshold level. The threshold level may further be determined based upon training sensor data previously received from the one or more environmental sensors during a training period, which training period may extending over a past period of multiple days or parts of multiple days. In some embodiments, the threshold level may be adjusted based upon information regarding the local physical environment received by the mobile computing device or additional information received from external sources.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“What is claimed is:

“1. A mobile computing device for monitoring a local physical environment of the mobile computing device as a stand-alone personal security system, comprising: one or more processors; one or more output components; one or more environmental sensors disposed within the mobile computing device and configured to provide information regarding the local physical environment in which the mobile computing device is located; and a program memory storing executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors of the mobile computing device, cause the mobile computing device to operate as the stand-alone personal security system, without communicating with another security system within the local physical environment, by: generating sensor data regarding the local physical environment using the one or more environmental sensors; determining a probability with which a portion of the sensor data matches a high-risk abnormal condition pattern in a generic library of sensor data patterns associated with a plurality of levels of risks of abnormal environmental conditions, wherein the high-risk abnormal condition pattern comprises a pattern of sensor data from at least one of the one or more environmental sensors that is indicative of a high risk of an abnormal condition in a plurality of environments; identifying an occurrence of an abnormal environmental condition based upon the determined probability exceeding a threshold level based upon the sensor data matching the high-risk abnormal condition pattern; and in response to identifying the occurrence of the abnormal environmental condition, presenting an alert associated with the abnormal environmental condition via the one or more output components.

“2. The mobile computing device of claim 1, wherein the executable instructions that cause the mobile computing device to present the alert cause the mobile computing device to sound an alarm via a speaker of the mobile computing device.

“3. The mobile computing device of claim 1, wherein the executable instructions further cause the mobile computing device to: determine a location of the mobile computing device based upon location data from a Global Positioning System (GPS) unit; and select the generic library of sensor data patterns based upon the location of the mobile computing device.

“4. The mobile computing device of claim 1, wherein the sensor data patterns in the generic library include a plurality of combination patterns, each combination pattern combining a plurality of types of sensor data from a plurality of types of environmental sensors.

“5. A computer-implemented method for monitoring a local physical environment using a mobile computing device within the local physical environment as a stand-alone personal security system, comprising: generating, by one or more environmental sensors of the mobile computing device, sensor data regarding the local physical environment; determining, by one or more processors of the mobile computing device, a probability with which a portion of the sensor data matches a high-risk abnormal condition pattern in a generic library of sensor data patterns associated with a plurality of levels of risks of abnormal environmental conditions, wherein the high-risk abnormal condition pattern comprises a pattern of sensor data from at least one of the one or more environmental sensors that is indicative of a high risk of an abnormal condition in a plurality of environments; identifying, by one or more processors of the mobile computing device, an occurrence of an abnormal environmental condition based upon the determined probability exceeding a threshold level based upon the sensor data matching the high-risk abnormal condition pattern; and in response to identifying the occurrence of the abnormal environmental condition, presenting, via one or more output components of the mobile computing device, an alert associated with the abnormal environmental condition, wherein the mobile computing device is configured to operate as the stand-alone personal security system without communicating with another security system within the local physical environment.

“6. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein: the one or more output components include a speaker of the mobile computing device; and presenting the alert includes sounding an alarm via the speaker of the mobile computing device.

“7. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein: the alert includes a notification to a user of the mobile computing device; the notification includes at least one option to: confirm the occurrence of the abnormal environmental condition, disaffirm the occurrence of the abnormal environmental condition, contact an emergency response center, initiate an alarm, or cancel an alarm.

“8. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, further comprising: determining, by a Global Positioning System (GPS) unit of the mobile computing device, a location of the mobile computing device; and selecting, by one or more processors of the mobile computing device, the generic library of sensor data patterns based upon the location of the mobile computing device.

“9. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein the sensor data patterns in the generic library include a plurality of sound patterns associated with abnormal environmental conditions.

“10. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein the sensor data patterns in the generic library include a plurality of combination patterns, each combination pattern combining a plurality of types of sensor data from a plurality of types of environmental sensors.

“11. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein the one or more environmental sensors include one or more of the following: a microphone, a camera, an accelerometer, a gyroscope, or a barometer.

“12. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein the abnormal environmental condition includes one or more of the following: a burglary, an unlawful entry, a home invasion, an intrusion, a fire, a flood, a leak, or a structural failure.

“13. A tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium storing executable instructions for monitoring a local physical environment that, when executed by one or more processors of a mobile computing device, cause the mobile computing device to operate as a stand-alone personal security system, without communicating with another security system within the local physical environment, by: generating sensor data regarding the local physical environment using one or more environmental sensors of the mobile computing device; determining a probability with which a portion of the sensor data matches a high-risk abnormal condition pattern in a generic library of sensor data patterns associated with a plurality of levels of risks of abnormal environmental conditions, wherein the high-risk abnormal condition pattern comprises a pattern of sensor data from at least one of the one or more environmental sensors that is indicative of a high risk of an abnormal condition in a plurality of environments; identifying an occurrence of an abnormal environmental condition based upon the determined probability exceeding a threshold level based upon the sensor data matching the high-risk abnormal condition pattern; and in response to identifying the occurrence of the abnormal environmental condition, presenting an alert associated with the abnormal environmental condition via one or more output components of the mobile computing device.

“14. The tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein the executable instructions that cause the mobile computing device to present the alert cause the mobile computing device to sound an alarm via a speaker of the mobile computing device.

“15. The tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein the executable instructions that cause the mobile computing device to present the alert cause the mobile computing device to: present a notification to a user via a display of the mobile computing device; and receive a user selection of at least one option to: confirm the occurrence of the abnormal environmental condition, disaffirm the occurrence of the abnormal environmental condition, contact an emergency response center, initiate an alarm, or cancel an alarm.

“16. The tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein the executable instructions further cause the mobile computing device to: determine a location of the mobile computing device based upon location data from a Global Positioning System (GPS) unit; and select the generic library of sensor data patterns based upon the location of the mobile computing device.

“17. The tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein the sensor data patterns in the generic library include a plurality of sound patterns associated with abnormal environmental conditions.

“18. The tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein the sensor data patterns in the generic library include a plurality of combination patterns, each combination pattern combining a plurality of types of sensor data from a plurality of types of environmental sensors.

“19. The tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein the one or more environmental sensors include one or more of the following: a microphone, a camera, an accelerometer, a gyroscope, or a barometer.

“20. The tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein the abnormal environmental condition includes one or more of the following: a burglary, an unlawful entry, a home invasion, an intrusion, a fire, a flood, a leak, or a structural failure.”

For additional information on this patent, see: Jacob, Michael Shawn. Portable Home And Hotel Security System. U.S. Patent Number 10,506,411, filed December 12, 2017, and published online on December 23, 2019. Patent URL: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=10,506,411.PN.&OS=PN/10,506,411RS=PN/10,506,411

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