The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Mar. 21, 2006
Filed:
Oct. 02, 2003
Richard J. Roby, Columbia, MD (US);
Michael S. Klassen, Columbia, MD (US);
Christopher F. Schemel, Laurel, MD (US);
Diwakar Vashishat, Germantown, MD (US);
Maclain M. Holton, Columbia, MD (US);
Kelly R. Flint, Greenbelt, MD (US);
Richard J. Roby, Columbia, MD (US);
Michael S. Klassen, Columbia, MD (US);
Christopher F. Schemel, Laurel, MD (US);
Diwakar Vashishat, Germantown, MD (US);
Maclain M. Holton, Columbia, MD (US);
Kelly R. Flint, Greenbelt, MD (US);
Combustion Science & Engineering, Inc., Columbia, MD (US);
Abstract
A method for detecting smoke detector alarms comprises analyzing at least two parameters of ambient sound over a period of time to detect a temporal pattern of the alarm. In one embodiment, a series of samples are taken over a period of time sufficiently long to include at least one full period of a repeating sound pattern, and the two parameters are frequency and amplitude of the loudest sound in each sample. The algorithmic analysis may be triggered by a detection algorithm that utilizes a lower amount of power than the algorithmic analysis. In other embodiments, the detection apparatus is incorporated into a conventional smoke detector that will detect both smoke and an alarm from another detector. In another embodiment, a smoke detector includes a transceiver to transmit an activation signal to neighboring smoke detectors when a fire is detected and to receive an activation signal from neighboring detectors.