Radio frequency personnel alerting security system and method

Details Radio frequency personnel alerting security system and method Radio frequency personnel alerting security system and method

2002-09-23

2004-08-10

Pope, Daryl (Department: 2632)

Communications: electrical

Condition responsive indicating system

With particular system function

C340S539100, C340S539110, C340S539130, C340S571000, C340S573100

Reexamination Certificate

active

06774782

ABSTRACT:

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a system and method for maintaining security and safety of various items, and also for maintaining security in a security sensitive area, and particularly in an area where there are a fairly large number of security sensitive items which are stored in a secured location or locations, such as in a safe, vault, individual secured roms, locked file cabinet, locked drawers, etc.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
A significant challenge in both government and in industry is maintaining security for information and also other items of value where these are handled in, for example, an area such as an office building or section thereof where a wide variety of security sensitive documents, communications, computer discs, etc. are present. Such items are often taken out of a locked cabinet or other secure place to be used for a period of time, and then are to be returned to the secured location (e.g. the locked file cabinet). Also, computer related information on floppies or hard drives, or possibly other media should be kept in a secure location when these are not being used.
In order to maintain such security it is quite common in government and industrial facilities for security people to go through the security sensitive areas during non-working hours to see if secured documents or the like have been left on people's desk, whether locked file cabinets have been locked, the safe properly closed, etc. In addition to the efforts of such security personnel to inspect the secured area work place regularly, security professionals have for years embarked on educational programs to sensitize the work force to these sort of problems (and to heighten and sustain employee awareness in protecting classified information and sensitive proprietary information). Security professionals have traditionally focused their efforts at least in part on such things as security posters, warning signs, videos, security briefings, etc. to help remind employees of their day to day responsibilities for protecting information.
However, various scientific studies have indicated that the typical work environment can sometimes be overcome by “visual pollution”. What this means is that there can be so much visual information being pushed at us so that it is all just becoming “part of the woodwork”. For example, there could be an outstanding poster at an office exit to remind employees to ensure they have locked their safes. Within a short period of time, however, the poster fails to capture the employees attention.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,376,921 (Trikilis) discloses a security system where there is a magnet at an exit location that creates a magnetic field so that hard or soft ferrous materials on the individual who is passing to the exit would be magnetized sufficiently to generate a signal to a magnetometer. Detection of this ferrous substance causes the locking of the turn style, forcing the individual to a secondary area. A magnetic card, unique to the individual can also be utilized to facilitate identification of an individual prior to entry to the system.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,862,160 (Ekchian et al.) discloses a tag system for taking inventory. There are groups of items in the stocking area and items of each group are tagged with a printed circuit transponder, and by the interrogator the transponders, taking of the inventory is achieved.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,195,006 B1 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,963,134 (Bowers et al) disclose an identification system in a library. Each book in the library has an RFID tag attached thereto, with an antenna for detecting the presence of the article. Further, each patron of the library has an RFID identification tag. There is an interrogator (a mobile interrogator) which can go to different parts of the library or storage areas to take an inventory of the articles that are there. Also, a video camera is provided for capturing images at the check out area, and also a video recorder for storing the video signals. Further, there is an exit interrogator monitoring the exit from the library, which identifies the article that is being taken out of the library. Also, there is a zone interrogator located at an exit of a predefined area in the library which detects the removal of the tagged article from the predefined area. All of this is integrated into a system for checking in, checking out, taking inventory, checking the articles back in, etc. Thus, in addition to monitoring all of these items, this can be utilized as a self service check in/out system. The claims of this patent relate to the self service check out system (claim
1
and following), and other claims relate to inventory control method and system.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,176,425 B1 (Harrison et al) discloses a system for identifying multiple radio frequency based electronic tags. In the background of the invention it is stated that in modern office management where an electronic tag is attached to a physical document, many of these may be placed close together. There is also disclosed a situation where a physical object for some reason may have multiple RFID tags thereon. Various techniques are disclosed for distinguishing these various articles, and one of these is to provide electromagnetic shielding. For example, in
FIG. 8
there is shown a moveable disc shaped shield which is rotatably relative to a disc having several attached electronic tags.
FIG. 9
shows a slideable shield. The patent shows other techniques related to solving this particular problem.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,121,878 (Brady et al.) discloses an identification tag which is difficult to defeat. The problem that is addressed is that radio frequency identification (RFID which is capable of having a large number of bits of information) may be shielded from the radio link, and thus this is the Achilles heel. However, magnetic electronic article surveillance (EAS) tags are much less easily shielded from low frequency magnetic detection fields. The drawback is that these tags are only capable of storing fewer bits. Accordingly, the identification tag is a combination of both of these where there is a radio frequency transponder comprising tag electronics for storing information and a non-linear magnetic material associated with the RF tag generating a varying electronic article surveillance magnetic field with a nonlinear magnetic material in a magnetic field. These EAS tags employ the Barkheusen jump effect, which is characterized by a tendency for magnetization induced in a magnetic material to change in discrete steps as an external magnetic field is increased or decreased.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,111,502 (Lenlart et al.) discloses a surveillance system for a building, the operation of which adapts itself to various time periods such as when people are expected within the building structure or the off hours where the premises of the building would have no people therein. First, there is a personal identification system where the authorized people would have identification tags which would be read as they enter or exit from the secured premises. Then there is also a system for detecting the intrusion of unauthorized people in the premises. Also there is a “volumetric” detection means for detecting the presence of a person in the secure premises. There is further a programming time table defining working periods and surveillance periods corresponding to the intrusion detecting means being put into service. The activation of the volumetric detection means can be postponed during periods when the surveillance system is in force where there are authorized people in the secured area.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,104,295 (Gaisser et al.) discloses an electronic hand tag that responds to both radio frequency and infrared waves. This is in the form of a wristband and it has two or more wires, which are electrically insulated from one another. When a wire is broken, this forms a different coded pattern. The intended use of this wristband is in a hospital environment where the health care facility “has hundreds or even thousands of halls, examination rooms, patient ro

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