TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a hygiene zone protection system which allows passage of personnel, who has permission of entry to a hygiene protection zone, to said hygiene protection zone depending on hand hygiene condition of said personnel.

PRIOR ART

In health centers like hospitals, mouth and dental health centers, elderly care centers, etc.; in food centers where foodstuff is produced, stored, filled, packaged, distributed, presented to the consumer, etc.; in drug, medical, etc. sectors; providing of hygiene is directly affecting human health. Therefore, said places have to be kept hygienic and regular controls have to be made. One of the most efficient methods in providing hygiene is to provide hand hygiene. In our daily lives, our hands are our organs which are in any kind of contact with the environment and therefore which bear most amount of bacteria. Hand hygiene is a method which is simple and cheap in respect of protection of individual and society health and is applicable by any section of public and is very effective. Studies provide that badly washed hands are effective in spread of communicable diseases. Therefore, providing of hand hygiene is effective in controlling communicable diseases and also helps increase of life quality in public.

Some mediums must stay in a hygienic condition. Said mediums are defined as hygiene protection zone. In the present art, only authorized persons enter the hygiene protection zone. Thus, a hygienic medium can be provided. However, a system, which provides the authorized persons to check the hygiene condition and which provides receiving of authorized persons to the protection zone, is not known in the present art. If authorized persons are taken to a protection zone in case hand hygiene of said authorized persons is not provided, the medium is prevented from staying clean in terms of hygiene.

As a result, because of the abovementioned problems, an improvement is required in the related technical field. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a hygiene zone protection system, for eliminating the abovementioned disadvantages and for bringing new advantages to the related technical field.

An object of the present invention is to provide a hygiene zone protection system which provides checking of hand hygiene of personnel who has permission of entry to a hygiene protection zone and which provides the hygiene protection zone to stay in hygienic condition.

In order to realize the abovementioned objects and the objects which are to be deducted from the detailed description below, the present invention is a hygiene zone protection system which comprises a door which is opened for allowing passage of personnel, who has permission of entry to a hygiene protection zone, to the hygiene protection zone or which is closed for preventing passage of said personnel; a drive mechanism triggered for opening and closing of said door; a personnel card carried by said personnel thereon and which keeps the hand hygiene condition information of the personnel; said hygiene zone protection system allows passage of personnel to said hygiene protection zone depending on the hand hygiene condition of said personnel. Accordingly, the subject matter hygiene zone protection system comprises a sensor unit for receiving the hand hygiene condition information from said personnel card; and a processor unit for receiving the hand hygiene condition information of the personnel from said sensor unit; the processor unit is configured to provide triggering of the drive mechanism and to provide opening of the door in case a first condition information, which includes the information which indicates that the hand hygiene of the personnel is provided, is received from the sensor unit. Thus, the door is opened depending on hand hygiene, and a person with dirty hands is prevented from entering the hygiene zone.

In a possible embodiment of the present invention, the sensor unit is positioned in the vicinity of the door in a manner providing sensing of a person who approached to the front of the door at a predetermined distance. Thus, only the personnel who shall pass through the door is sensed among the other persons who exist in the medium.

In another possible embodiment of the present invention, a warning unit is provided which is placed to the personnel card. Thus, personnel is informed about that the hand hygiene is not provided, and the persons who exist around are also informed that the hand hygiene of said personnel is not provided. In this case, personnel is provided to abstain from the other persons who exist in the medium and provides hand hygiene rapidly. In another possible embodiment of the present invention, the processor unit is configured to provide operation of said warning unit in case the processor unit receives second condition information, which includes the information which indicates that the hand hygiene of the personnel is not provided, from the sensor.

In another possible embodiment of the present invention, the warning unit comprises an audible warning unit.

In another possible embodiment of the present invention, the warning unit comprises a visual warning unit.

In another possible embodiment of the present invention, a communication unit is provided for providing data exchange between the sensor unit and the personnel card.

In another possible embodiment of the present invention, said communication unit is configured to provide data exchange between the sensor unit and the processor unit.

In another possible embodiment of the present invention, the communication unit has multilayered communication infrastructure for providing data exchange. Thus, data exchange is realized by communication of pluralities of devices with each other simultaneously.

In another possible embodiment of the present invention, the communication unit is embodied to provide data exchange by means of Ultra-Wide Band (UWB) communication technology.

In another possible embodiment of the present invention, the communication unit includes two-way ranging (TWR/two-way ranging) protocol.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

In Figure 1 , a representative view of a hygiene zone protection system is given.

In Figure 2, a representative view of the operation scenario of a hygiene zone protection system is given. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

In this detailed description, the subject matter is explained with references to examples without forming any restrictive effect only in order to make the subject more understandable.

The present invention relates to a hygiene zone protection system (10) which allows passage of personnel (20), who has permission of entry to a hygiene protection zone, to said hygiene protection zone depending on the hand hygiene condition of said personnel (20). Said hygiene zone protection system (10) prevents the personnel (20), who has not provided hand hygiene, from passing to the hygiene protection zone. This helps the hygiene protection zone (10) to stay in a hygienic condition.

As shown in Figure 1 , there is a door (30) which is opened for allowing passage of personnel (20) to the hygiene protection zone or which is closed for preventing passage of personnel

(20). There is a drive mechanism (31) embodied to provide opening or closing of said door (30). In a possible embodiment of the present invention, as said drive mechanism (31 ), a structure like a hinge, etc. is used which has a rotary mechanism in a manner providing opening closing of the door (30). There is a personnel card (21 ) which must be carried by personnel (20) who has permission of entry to the hygiene protection zone. Said personnel card (21) provides storage of the personal information of the personnel and the hand hygiene condition information. The hand hygiene condition information is kept in an updated manner. The hygiene zone protection system (10) comprises a sensor unit (101) configured to provide detection of the presence of the personnel in case the personnel approaches to the front of the door (30) at a predetermined distance and to provide reading of the personnel card (21 ) carried by the personnel. In a possible embodiment of the invention, said sensor unit (101) can comprise sensors like a presence sensor which provides detection of the presence of the personnel, a distance sensor which provides detection of the distance of the personnel with respect to the door (30), a magnetic sensor which provides detection of the personnel card

(21) and receiving of the hand hygiene condition. The hygiene zone protection system (10) comprises a processor unit (201) for receiving the data collected by means of the sensor unit (101 ). In a possible embodiment of the invention, an electronic unit like a microprocessor, a computer, etc., operated for providing execution of predetermined commands, is used as said processor unit (201).

There is a communication unit (401) configured to provide realization of data exchange between the sensor unit (101) and the personnel card (21 ). Said communication unit (401) is at the same time configured to provide data exchange between the sensor unit (101) and the processor unit (201). At least one of RFID technology, Bluetooth technology, Wi-Fi technology, ultra wide band (UWB) communication technology, which is method for communication by means of radio frequency, etc. systems is used as the communication unit (401 ). In a possible embodiment of the invention, an ultra wide band (UWB) communication technology is preferred to be used as the communication unit (401 ). In a possible embodiment of the invention, in the communication unit (401), usage of bidirectional distance determination protocol of UWB technology is preferred. Thus, the distances between the personnel cards (21 ) and the distances of the personnel cards (21 ) with respect to the door (30) can be detected in an exact manner and can be transferred to the processor.

There is a warning unit (301 ) operated by means of the processor unit (201 ) for providing warning of the personnel in case it is detected that the personnel does not provide hand hygiene. Said warning unit (301) comprises audible warning unit (301 ) placed to the personnel card (21). In a possible embodiment of the invention, a buzzer, a loudspeaker, etc. is used as said audible warning unit (301). The warning unit (301) comprises a visual warning unit (301) placed to the personnel card (21). In a preferred embodiment of the invention, a led illumination, etc. is used as said visual warning unit (301).

The processor unit (201) provides taking of the information, which indicates that in front of the door (30) there is personnel who desires to enter the hygiene protection zone, from the sensor unit (101). The processor unit (201 ) provides triggering of the drive mechanism (31 ) in case the processor unit (201 ) takes first condition information, which includes the information indicating that the hand hygiene of the personnel is provided, from the sensor. The door (30) is opened by triggering the drive mechanism (31 ). The processor unit (201) provides operation of the warning unit (301) in case the processor unit (201 ) takes second condition information, which includes the information indicating that the hand hygiene of the personnel is not provided, from the sensor unit (101 ), and the personnel is warned.

An exemplary operation scenario of the present invention is described below;

A hygiene protection zone is monitored by means of hygiene zone protection system (10). The hygiene zone protection system (10) comprises sensor units (101) placed to a door (30) which provides entry to the hygiene protection zone. By means of the sensor unit (101 ), the personnel who approaches to the front of the door (30) at a predetermined distance is detected. By means of the sensor unit (101), the personnel hand hygiene condition information, provided to the personnel card (21) of the personnel, is received. The processor unit (201) provides receiving of condition information, which includes the personal information of the personnel and the hand hygiene condition information of the personnel, from the sensor unit (101 ). In case the processor unit (201) receives first condition information, which includes the information indicating that the personnel provides hand hygiene, from the sensor unit (101), the processor unit (201) provides production of a first signal which shall provide triggering of the drive mechanism (31) for opening the door (30). As the door (30) is opened, the passage of the personnel to the hygiene protection zone is allowed. In case the processor unit (201 ) receives second condition information, which includes the information indicating that the personnel does not provide hand hygiene, from the sensor unit (101), the processor unit (201) provides production of a second signal for operation of the warning unit (301 ). As the warning unit (301 ) is operated, the audible warning unit (301) and the visual warning unit (301 ) provided to the personnel card (21) are operated. Thus, passage of the personnel to the hygiene protection zone without providing hand hygiene is prevented. The data exchange between the processor unit (201 ) and the personnel card (21) is provided in a bidirectional manner by means of the communication unit (401).

In an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, first personnel, who has hand hygiene, is provided to approach to the vicinity of the door (30) provided at the hygiene protection zone. The processor unit (201) provides detecting that the hand hygiene of the personnel is provided in accordance with the first condition information received from the sensors. The processor unit (201) provides triggering of the hinge of the door (30) for providing opening of the door (30) for the first personnel. Afterwards, second personnel, who does not have hand hygiene, is provided to approach to the vicinity of the door (30). In accordance with the second condition information received from the sensors, the processor unit (201 ) provides detecting that the hand hygiene of the personnel is not provided. The processor unit (201) provides operation of the warning unit (301) provided at the personnel card (21) for providing warning of the second personnel. As the warning unit (301) is operated, an audible warning in the form of “Please provide your hand hygiene” is given by means of a loudspeaker provided to the personnel card (21). At the same time, LEDs, provided on the personnel card (21 ), are illuminated in a manner turning on/off at predetermined frequency range. In an embodiment of the invention, the LEDs are illuminated with different colors. Thus, the user is warned about providing hand hygiene. As audible and visual warning is given from the personnel card (21), the personnel abstains from the people who exist in the vicinity and rapidly provides hand hygiene. This helps the hygiene protection zone to stay in a hygienic condition. In an alternative embodiment of the present invention, the processor unit (201) provides recording of the information of the personnel, who desire to pass to the hygiene protection zone and who pass to the hygiene protection zone, to a memory unit instantaneously. The processor unit (201) provides transfer of said information to a server by means of the communication unit (401). A user, who exists at a far location, can access by means of a user terminal to the data stored temporarily at the server. In a possible embodiment of the present invention, there can be a mobile application, provided to a mobile device, as said user terminal. Thus, the persons, who are authorized in relation to the hygiene protection zone, are informed about the personnel who provides hand hygiene with which frequency. In this case, the personnel can be instantaneously checked and monitored.

The protection scope of the present invention is set forth in the annexed claims and cannot be restricted to the illustrative disclosures given above, under the detailed description. It is because a person skilled in the relevant art can obviously produce similar embodiments under the light of the foregoing disclosures, without departing from the main principles of the present invention.

REFERENCE NUMBERS

10 Hygiene zone protection system

101 Sensor unit 201 Processor unit

301 Warning unit

401 Communication unit

20 Personnel

21 Personnel card 30 Door

31 Drive mechanism