Static structures (e.g. – buildings) – Including component designed to receive a disparate article... – Task-area type repositionable component
Reexamination Certificate
2000-01-07
2001-03-27
Canfield, Robert (Department: 3635)
Static structures (e.g., buildings)
Including component designed to receive a disparate article...
Task-area type repositionable component
C052S027500, C052S079100, C345S215000, C345S905000, C348S014160, C348S383000, C379S453000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06205716
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to remote telecollaborative conferencing and in particular to modular and secure enclosures equipped therefore.
2. Background Description
This invention relates to the fields of booths, kiosks, or shelters, and conducting two-way interactive videoconferencing from inside enclosed shelters. While open communication kiosk solutions are in wide-use for public informational use, most, if not all of these kiosks are of an open design, with at least one wall missing allowing for limited privacy for users conducting personal or confidential business matters.
Today two-way video conferencing is commercially readily available. Yet, the public at large has little accessibility to a video conferencing system. When public accessibility is available, it is generally from an open kiosk with little or no privacy from the people standing near you while you transact your business. If kiosks offer video conferencing opportunities, most of these open informational kiosks have only one-way reception of video from a remote site toward the user in the open kiosk. This is limiting as the user can be heard, but generally not seen on the remote end.
Most often, users of two-way video conferencing are limited to conducting point-to-point meetings, or multipoint meetings, from a desktop computer, or from a roll-about room unit, or from an open three sided kiosks, or from a dedicated boardroom or conferencing room. Video conferencing rooms, while closed and allowing for privacy, are not transportable. Once a video conferencing system is in a room and wired, if the users move, the infrastructure to the video conferencing integration stays behind, as does sometimes the built-in room cabinetry.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a fully enclosed, secure, moveable, interactive two-way video conferencing shelter which will open up a new channel of distribution for two-way video conferencing.
A further object of the invention is to provide a secure, modular and movable interactive two-way telecollaborative video conferencing and imaging enclosure for conducting business or privileged medical, legal, or other confidential matters in private, being particularly equipped for remote monitoring of physiological attributes of one or more users by medical specialists and remote interaction between users and medical specialists.
The basic purpose of this invention is to provide an enclosed, transportable, secure interactive two-way telecollaborative video conferencing and imaging enclosure for people to sit in or lay in, and conduct their business or privileged medical, legal, or other confidential personal matters in private.
This invention provides an interactive electronic means to bring healthcare professionals to the patients, a means to train and educate students of the healing arts at a distance, and allows the collection of statistical data through the use of video conferencing equipment, cameras, sound, light, and other measurement and data warehousing equipment and devices.
The preferred embodiment of this invention is equipped with electronic equipment, such as a video conferencing system, a computer monitor and computer processing unit, a video cassette recorder (VCR), a control pad that is advantageously located on the user console and preferably embedded in the console. This control panel is situated for easy access and readability by the user, and allows for push-button access to various features enabling the user to seamlessly connect to other video conferencing units. A telephone set may be hung on the firewall in some embodiments, or placed next to the touchpad on the console.
Various other possible equipment is used in these units depending on the applications, or business, conducted from these shelter units. While other embodiments for the invention are possible, it is the two-way video conferencing applications with specific uses, such as telemedicine and distance learning that will required application-specific peripherals to be added. This invention will provide the electronic means and the medical peripherals, and anatomy measuring devices to measure sound, light, and electrical movement of the energy of the human body, as well as the energy fields surrounding the human body to assess the over-all health of the population using these assessment and diagnostic enclosures. The generic embodiments will have locked equipment cabinets, and a security entrance system, such as a magnetic cardreader to insure greater security access. All embodiments of the enclosed, two-way interactive video conferencing shelters will have appropriate equipment and lighting to conduct effective video conferencing meetings. The preferred embodiment of the smaller enclosed booth/kiosk shelters are portable and modular in design; to set up, break down and easily move with rest of furniture. A larger enclosed video conferencing shelter preferred embodiment is movable on tractor-trailer wheels, or on a flatbed and moved on railroad tracks, or even in the hole of a ship. These shelters, once they reach their destination, can be placed on the ground as a temporary permanent structure and then moved again as needed. All embodiments of this invention are wheelchair accessible.
Determining what applications are to be conducted over the video conferencing system will include selecting and installing in the various embodiments of this invention specialized equipment ranging from graphics and document cameras, video cassette recorder, slide projectors, fax machines, personal computers, and a host of software to conduct electronic billing, scheduling software, imaging and administrative document imaging and record keeping, and carriers necessary for delivering voice transcription and to effectively conduct a two-way video conferencing session or meeting.
In the preferred embodiment of the invention, all sides of the invention are connected together providing an enclosed shelter for the users of video conferencing. The shelter has a door, a roof, and a floor. The user, upon shutting the door behind upon entry into the two-way video conferencing booth/kiosk shelter, sits in front of the video camera and monitor, picks up the telephone unit and conducts a two-way videoconference call. The electronic equipment of this invention is placed behind a firewall in the one-person enclosures. In the larger enclosures, the equipment is stacked securely behind various structures. All the equipment, due to the enclosed features of this invention, is locked behind doors; this deters theft of the electronics. Theft and vandalism deterrence is also accomplished by the use of a smart card or creditcard swipe at the entrance of the preferred embodiment; the use of such a smart card or creditcard provides an electronic record of any users, enables easy access to billing, and acts as a further deterrent to vandalism and theft.
A possible alternative to the embodiment of the invention is to enhance the security level of shelter and install metal sensors attached to the frame or outside the frame for high security areas (such as prisons) in order to prevent pens (or sharp instruments) leaving the shelter. The shelters can embody electronic security embedded in the frame or in outside materials of the shelters; and, can be equipped as a shielded shelter.
To measure electromagnetic fields, or the energetic system of the body with noninvasive technical instruments, this invention houses medical peripherals, sensors, or devices such as, but not limited to a generator of a complex energy wave, having audio, radio and light components, including an audio frequency oscillator, a radio frequency transmitter, a radio frequency amplifier, an antenna tuner, an antenna, tuned coaxial cables and an optional reverberation unit.
These and other peripherals allow clinicians “to see” or “perceive” sound. This invention utilizes sonification (defined as the use of nonspeech audio to convey information. More specifically, sonifica
Canfield Robert
Christofferson Clyde N
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