Object finder

Details Object finder Object finder

2001-09-28

2004-01-06

Crosland, Donnie L. (Department: 2636)

Communications: electrical

Condition responsive indicating system

Specific condition

C340S539320, C340S870030, C340S870030, C341S176000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06674364

ABSTRACT:

This invention relates in general to systems and devices for enabling persons to easily locate and find lost or misplaced objects or items common to a household or office environment, and more particularly to a system utilizing a wireless transmitter and a plurality of wireless receivers attachable to objects or items needing to be located at various times. Some examples of such objects or items are keys, remote-control devices for controllable electronic equipment, like television sets, VCR's, calculators, miniature hand-held dictating machines, and other small objects.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
There have been several devices heretofore known that have attempted to solve the problem of locating lost or misplaced items. The following prior art devices relate to systems and devices for object finding: A product marketed as the Magnavox remote locater; a product marketed as the Brookstone SmartFind remote control key finder; U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,638,050 and 5,686,891 relating specifically to a locating system for a remote control having a “home base”; and U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,204,657; 5,648,757 and 5,790,021. These prior known devices have suffered from one or more of several deficiencies.
With one recent exception, previous devices are single-use devices where only one object could be located with the system. The one recent exception is the Brookstone product which allows users to locate up to two objects. This system will not allow the user to keep track of more than two items. Also, this product only provides for key chain attachment, and does not allow for a more permanent and secure attachment to a variety of other commonly misplaced items, such as remote-control devices, cell phones, PDA's, pagers, electronic devices, etc. This,product also suffers from the multiple system interference problem described below, and also does not provide any means to prevent the misplacement of the transmitter itself.
For systems with more than one receiver (for example, the Brookstone product), no provision is made to easily and conveniently identify which button on the transmitter corresponds to which lost object. This results in the user occasionally pressing the wrong button and locating the wrong object. This is nuisance and results in lost time and effort in retrieving an object. Further, each receiver required different circuitry to specifically respond to a selected transmitter signal.
The receiver portion of the Magnavox Remote Finder system is prohibitively large to be conveniently attached to a variety of objects. This is certainly true when attempting to attach the receiver to small objects such as key chains, but is also true for larger objects such as remote-control devices. The Magnavox receiver is approximately 3″×2.5″×0.75″ thick.
No provision is made to preclude multiple system interference in any heretofore system. That is, when two systems are operating near each other, activation of one transmitter will cause all respective receivers within range to respond with their beep tones. For example, with the SmartFind product, pressing the button for receiver number one on one transmitter will cause all receiver number one's within range to start beeping. The claimed range of the Brookstone product is eighty feet, so this problem could often occur among apartment dwellers or people living in houses in close proximity. This, of course, is a major annoyance to the consumer owning the unintended receiver.
There is no provision made to avoid misplacing the transmitter unit. It is unreasonable to assume the transmitter will not occasionally get misplaced itself, and if no provision is made to allow the transmitter to be easily located, that, of course, defeats the whole purpose of an object finder.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Users of the present invention may conveniently keep track of a high number of commonly misplaced objects or items having receivers attached thereto. The invention as disclosed includes a transmitter that can accommodate twelve receivers all coded with different addresses, but the circuitry can be designed to accommodate any number of receivers.
The receivers are minimally sized so they can be attached in an unobtrusive manner to a variety of objects. In the present invention, the receiver is approximately 2.5″×1.35″×0.2″ thick. This is approximately half the volume of the smallest receivers on competitive products.
The receivers of the present invention are designed such that they may be attached in a semi-permanent manner (by double-sided adhesive tape or similar attachment means) to objects such as remote-control devices, PDA's, cell phones, pagers, and other electronic devices, etc., or by using a simple plastic casing extension, the receivers are capable of being easily connected in a hanging fashion to objects such as key chains, backpacks, etc.
The system of the present invention is designed to substantially reduce the potential for multiple system interference. This is accomplished by having each transmitter button or key when pressed correspond to a relatively unique transmission data packet and constructing transmitters having different addresses or ID's (identification). The data packet is preferably comprised of 20 bits as follows:
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
0
(header—always same 8 bits)
. . . (4 bit receiver address—up to 16 unique addresses possible)
0
. . .
0
(8 bit transmitter ID—up to 63 unique IDs)
The first 8 bits (bits 0-7) will be an identification or header to indicate the start of a valid data transmission. Each receiver will not begin to compare the data packet to its memory until it sees the valid header. Every header will be the same regardless of transmitter or receiver. The header should be seven 1's followed by a zero. Each programmed receiver's uniqueness is defined by the remaining 12 bits (bits 8-19) which is composed of a 4 bit word to indicate which of the 12 receivers the transmitter can look for and a 6 bit word framed by 0's to indicate which of 63 different transmitters the receiver is coded for receiving a signal. There would be 64 possible combinations, but the design requires one bit, the null vector, to use as the receive option to the microcontroller, thereby providing 63 unique ID's. Of the last 8 bits, the first and last bits shall always be a zero, to preclude mistaking this portion of the data packet for the header portion. Thus, the transmitter ID is 6 bits framed by two zeros, and the transmitter ID is encoded by the 6 bits in the final 8 bits of the digital data packet.
When a user buys the product, a “starter kit” would be purchased that would include a transmitter and a plurality of identical receivers. Usually, three receivers are provided, although a user may use any number and even purchase more receivers, as the transmitter is capable of handling 12 receivers. The receivers are not coded for a transmitter or a selected signal from a transmitter at the time of purchase and before the battery is installed. When the user installs the battery in the receiver, it will start to beep (for example, once per second for a predetermined time), to notify the user that the receiver is waiting to be “coded.” Coding to a transmitter is accomplished by the user pressing a selected receiver button switch on the transmitter. At that time the receiver will respond with a brief confirmation tone, then go silent to notify the user that the receiver has been “coded” to that transmitter and a selected receiver button on that particular transmitter to be responsive to a unique address.
In the unlikely event that two systems are in close proximity that have the same transmitter address, the user may correct this problem. When button receiver switches S
6
and S
7
are simultaneously pressed for one second or greater, the microcontroller will use ports PB
0
and PB
1
to drive the audio means in the form of a piezo transducer (BZ
1
). It is driven in an H-bridge configuration at 4096 kHz 50% duty cycle with PB
0
and PB
1
alternating between V

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