FIELD OF INVENTION

This invention relates to alarm device, and in particular to a device for providing a user with notification of the presence of an alarm through the use of tactile stimulation.

BACKGROUND ART

The use of alarms to warn and/or inform a user of a need to perform a specific task has been well established. Typically, alarms take the form of auditory stimulators that provide a sound of sufficient frequency and loudness to warn or inform users of the presence of a particular situation. One example of such a situation may include the presence of a fire or similar emergency where fire or smoke detection devices emit a specific noise to warn individuals of the need to evacuate an area where a fire or the like may be present. In many situations a warning device may also employ some form of a visual stimulation, such as through a strobe or flashing light to further alert individuals of the need to take heed of the warning.

Whilst public emergency alarms such as fire alarms and the like provide a universal warning for a large number of individuals, most individuals have personal alarm devices that they may use on a regular basis. Such personal alarm devices may include such devices as alarm clocks and the like, which are often used by individuals to alert the individual of the need to perform a task specific to their individual needs. Such a task may include the need to wake-up from sleep at a specific time or to attend a meeting or the like at a specific time. In this regard, the individual may program a personal device such as an alarm clock or mobile phone to emit an alarm to notify them of the need to perform such a function. Typically, this is achieved by the device emitting a sound or series of sounds to alert the individual of the need to either wake from slumber or attend to a matter.

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As public and personal alarm systems that emit an auditory stimulation and/or a visual stimulation are well established^ such alarm systems rely upon the individual having a certain degree of sound and/or visual acuity. However, for individuals with impaired hearing and/or vision may not detect such stimulation, or at detect the presence of such stimulation at a desired level, and may fail to be alerted or warned of certain situations. Such a failure may be particularly catastrophic in the event of a fire alarm or other such alarm, but may also be significantly inconvenient in relation to alarm clocks for waking the individual from slumber, as well as reminders to attend a meeting or the like.

For individuals with a hearing problem conventional private alarm systems are often deficient in performing their function. In a sleep situation, whilst a visual stimulation in the form of a flashing light may assist in waking an individual with hearing problems in some instances, it may also awaken other individuals sleeping in the same or an adjourning room. Further, it has been known that individuals may sleep through their conventional alarm clocks and as such conventional auditory stimulation may be insufficient in achieving this function.

For more public alarm systems, such as smoke detectors or the like, such alarms are typically located in a room remote from the individual. As such, the ability of the individual to hear the alarm is fundamental in enabling the alarm to perform its function and to warn the individual of impending danger.

In order to overcome the above shortfalls in conventional alarm devices, tghere is required an alarm device that can function as both a public and private alarm system and which detects conventional alarms and provides tactile stimulation to the individual to warn/alert an individual of a situation.

The above references to and descriptions of prior proposals or products are not intended to be, and are not to be construed as, statements or admissions of common general knowledge in the art. In particular, the above prior art discussion does not relate to what is commonly or well known by the person skilled in the art, but assists in the understanding of the inventive step of the present invention of which the identification of pertinent prior art proposals is but one part.

STATEMENT OF INVENTION

The invention according to one or more aspects is as defined in the independent claims. Some optional and/or preferred features of the invention are defined in the dependent claims.

Accordingly, in one aspect of the invention there is provided: a tactile alarm application device comprising: a control unit for receiving one or more alarm signals from an external alarm device; control circuitry for processing the one or more alarm signals and generating a stimulation signal in accordance with the receives alarm signal; and a tactile stimulator in communication with a user of the device and configured to receive the stimulation signal and to convert the

stimulation signal to a tactile stimulation applied to the body of the user to alert said user of the presence of the one or more alarm signals; wherein the control unit comprises a microphone for detecting external alarm signals and a plurality of inputs for electrically communicating with one or more personal alarm devices.

In one embodiment, the external alarm signals are in the form of sound signals emitted by one or more external alarm devices. The one or more external alarm devices may comprise any one of a smoke detector device, a fire detector device and/or an intruder detector device.

In another embodiment, the one or more personal alarm devices comprises any one of a conventional alarm clock, mobile phone or PDA unit.

The tactile stimulator may be embedded in a pillow upon which a head of the user is received. The tactile stimulator may receive the stimulation signal from the control circuitry and apply the stimulation signal as vibratory motion to the head of the user. The tactile stimulator may comprise a motor configured to be activated upon receiving the stimulation signal to generate said vibratory motion.

In one form, the tactile stimulator may be in wired communication with the control circuitry of the control unit to receive the stimulation signal. In another form the tactile stimulator may be in wireless communication with the control circuitry of the control unit to receive the stimulation signal.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention may be better understood from the following non-limiting description of preferred embodiments, in which:

Figure 1 is diagrammatical representation of an alarm system in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention;

Figure 2 is a depiction of the representation of the system of Figure 1 showing the various components of the system in use; and Figure 3 is a depiction of one embodiment of the tactile stimulator of the present invention suitable for use with the alarm system of Figures 1 and 2.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

5 Preferred features of the present invention will now be described with particular reference to the accompanying drawings. However, it is to be understood that the features illustrated in and described with reference to the drawings are not to be construed as limiting on the scope of the invention.

Referring to the arrangement of Figure 1, there is shown the alarm system 10 in io accordance with one embodiment of the present invention.

The alarm system 10 comprises a control unit 16 that is configured to

communicate with one or more public/external alarms 14 and one or more personal alarms 12. In this regard the control unit 16 is in the form of a device that houses appropriate internal electrical circuitry that receives and processes 15 one or more alarm signals from alarms 12, 14 into a stimulation signal that is transmitted to a tactile stimulator 18 that applies tactile stimulation to the individual in accordance therewith.

Referring to Figure 2, an embodiment of the control unit 16 is shown. The control unit 16 includes an external microphone 20 that is able to detect external 20 sounds that may be emitted by a public/external alarm 14, such as a smoke

detector, intruder detector or similar alarm.

The microphone 20 is in the form of a unidirectional microphone that can detect sound signals and converts the sound signal into an electrical signal

representative of the sound detected by the microphone. The control unit 16

25 houses control circuitry that is able to compare the electrical signal from the microphone 20 and analyse the signal by passing the signal through various filters to determine whether there is an alarm signal contained within the electrical signal generated by the microphone 20. The control unit 16 may also determine the intensity of the electrical signal representative of ambient sound

30 to determine whether there is a need to alert the individual of the presence of an alarm or excessively large ambient noise which may represent a danger situation. In the event that the control unit 16 detects that the user should be alerted of the presence of the alarm or noise, the control unit generates a stimulation signal and transmits the stimulation signal to the tactile stimulator

35 18 where it is applied to the individual in a manner to be described in more detail below.

As is shown in Figure 2, the control unit 16 is connected to a power source 26 by way of a lead 25 to ensure that the control unit 1 has a constant sup-ply of power to operate. The power source is typically mains power supplied to a building, home or the like and one or more transformers may be employed to adapt the control unit 10 for use with a variety of power sources as required.

The control unit 16 also comprises one or more input jacks 24 that enable one or more personal alarm units 12 to be used with the system 10. As is shown in Figure 2, a personal alarm unit may be in the form of a conventional alarm clock. However, it will be appreciated that the personal alarm 12 may take a variety of different forms, such as a mobile phone, PDA unit and other forms of personal devices and still fall within the spirit of the present invention.

The personal alarm unit 12 is able to be set by the user in a conventional manner to emit an alarm, for instance, to alert the user that they must wake up. The personal alarm unit 12 is able to be plugged directly into the control unit 16 such that an electrical signal is able to be directly transmitted to the control unit 16 to indicate that an alarm has been triggered. The electrical circuitry of the control unit 16 is able to detect the presence of a signal being received from the personal alarm unit and generate a stimulation signal which is transmitted to the tactile stimulator in the manner described above.

It will be appreciated that the personal alarm unit 12, when connected to the control unit 16 through the input jack 24 will emit an alarm signal that is not audible thus overcoming the need to wake any other parties present in the room, as the alarm signal will be applied in a tactile manner directly top the individual in a manner as will be described in more detail below.

To assist in confirming the presence of an alarm the control unit 16 comprises a light emitting indicator 22, in the form of a light emitting diode or the like. The light emitting indicator may flash or merely emit light upon the detection by the internal circuitry of the control unit 16 of the presence of an alarm signal. In such a situation, upon the individual waking from slumber, the individual can view the control unit directly to determine whether an alarm is present and further investigation is required. This is important if an individual wakes without receiving a stimulation signal or is unsure whether a stimulation signal has caused them to wake, as the individual can have piece of mind that if the light emitting indicator is not activated then no alarm has been registered and they can return to sleep. Referring to Figure 3, the tactile stimulator unit 18 according to one

embodiment of the present invention is shown. The unit 18 receives the stimulation signal generated by the control unit 16 in the manner as described above, and transmits the stimulation signal to the tactile stimulator 18 by way of electrical lead 34.

The tactile stimulator 18 is in the form of a conventional pillow 31 that receives the head of the individual whilst sleeping. The pillow 31 is made from conventional material such as down, cotton or other soft filling material such that the user's head is comfortable supported on the pillow 31.

Embedded within the pillow is a hollow tube 30 that houses an offset motor 32 that is in electrical communication with the control unit 16 by way of lead 34. the motor 32 is configured such that upon receiving the stimulation signal the motor turns on thus rotating in an offset manner and in turn, applying a vibrational motion to the hollow tube 30. As the motor 32 rotates it makes contact with the internal walls of the tube 30 thus causing the vibrations to be transferred directly to the user's head, causing them to waken from their slumber.

It will be appreciated that whilst the lead 34 is shown as a wired lead, the tactile stimulator may be in wireless communication with the control unit 16 to transmit and receive the signals. In such a wireless arrangement the control unit 16 may include a transmitter to transmit the stimulation signal and the tactile stimulator may include a receiver to receive and decode the stimulation signal.

It will also be appreciated that whilst the vibration generator system of the tactile stimulator employs an offset motor 32 within a tube 30, other vibration generating devices are also envisaged within the scope of the present invention.

Throughout the specification and claims the word "comprise" and its derivatives are intended to have an inclusive rather than exclusive meaning unless the contrary is expressly stated or the context requires otherwise. That is, the word "comprise" and its derivatives will be taken to indicate the inclusion of not only the listed components, steps or features that it directly references, but also other components, steps or features not specifically listed, unless the contrary is expressly stated or the context requires otherwise.

Orientational terms used in the specification and claims such as vertical, horizontal, top, bottom, upper and lower are to be interpreted as relational and are based on the premise that the component, item, article, apparatus, device or instrument will usually be considered in a particular orientation, typically with the alarm system uppermost.

It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that many modifications and variations may be made to the methods of the invention described herein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

The invention can be described in terms of provisional claims that can assist the skilled reader in understanding the various aspects and preferments of the invention. However, these provisional claims are not to be construed as defining statements of the invention. It will be appreciated that other forms, aspects and preferred features of the invention and its embodiments described herein may ultimately be included in the claims defining the invention in the specifications of complete, international or national applications (or their subsequent corresponding patent grants) that may claim priority from the provisional application accompanying this specification. In this context, the following non-limiting claims assist to better describe the invention: