Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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SITE-SPECIFIC ACCESS MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
FIELD OF INVENTION
The present invention relates to the field of access management for enabling,
tracking
and controlling authenticated access of people or things to a protected area.
Specifically, this
invention relates to a method of providing access management for a given site
consistent with a
predetermined set of rules as well as the system for implementing such method.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
It is well known in the art that security is a primary consideration
prerequisite for the
peaceful enjoyment of the fruits of freedom and the survival of individuals
and organized bodies
alike. For example, to promote security, it is imperative to keep doors and
windows locked at
home, to keep automobiles locked and secured by alarms, and, generally, to be
aware of one's
surroundings while walking on streets, driving in automobiles or the like, and
shopping in malls
or in stores. Also, to promote security for commercial establishments, and
public places such as
libraries, courthouses and government buildings, it is imperative to provide
full-time guards,
limited access via X-ray machines or biometrics screening devices, etc.
Devices and methods for the promotion of safety and security of persons and
property
are well known in the art. The most common of these devices may be those used
to protect
homes and automobiles. The more basic of these monitor the opening of doors
and sound an
alarm if the device has not been disabled. While there has been little advance
in home security
devices, automotive security devices have undergone significant improvements
from the
conventional automobile alarm in recent years to match the rise in the value
of these vehicles.
A recent development related to automobile security is the incorporation of
vehicle
tracking systems like the LOJACK which utilizes a transmitter installed in
the vehicle to emit
radio waves to a receiver tuned to a given frequency receivable by the police
for tracking. An
improvement on this takes advantage of the Global Positioning System (GPS) to
provide
location information of the automobile and furthermore enables the appropriate
security
personnel to provide personal security in the form of a panic button in case
of an emergency.
Yet another improvement on vehicle tracking systems is the On-Guard tracking
system or its
equivalent. This device utilizes GPS and cellular technology to provide
vehicle location, speed
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and direction to a central monitoring station. On-Guard also offers several
non-emergency
related services including navigational and roadside assistance services.
Further advances in automotive related security systems are such that are
disclosed by
U.S. Patent No. 5,430,432 teaching of a device that monitors a vehicle for
unsafe driver
conditions and provides real-time warning, and if uncorrected, makes a record
of the occurrence.
Devices used to monitor people, as opposed to vehicles, are also well known.
Perhaps
the most familiar application of such a device pertains to the concept of
house arrest. Typical
house arrest devices operate by detecting when the subject, who is wearing a
transmitter, moves
too far from a receiver located in his or her home or other place of
detainment. If the receiver
does not receive the transmitted signal or receives a signal significantly
attenuated due to the
distance between the receiver and the transmitter, an auto-dialer is triggered
to alert the proper
authorities. Such a device used to track people offers many practical and
useful applications
beyond the monitoring of criminals. Children, Alzheimer patients, the mentally
retarded, the
disabled, infirm individuals, and other similarly situated persons may be
monitored and located
should they become lost.
Personal security devices are also well known. The most common personal
security
device is the small container with a panic button, implemented via pull cord,
grenade-type ring,
or other means easily actuated but difficult to reset. When the panic button
is actuated, a loud
sound is emitted to scare off attackers and or alert nearby people to a
potential emergency.
Another personal security device, well known for its advertising with an
elderly person who has
fallen and can't get up, uses a necklace worn panic button and auto-dialer.
These devices
operate by requiring the user to actuate the panic button in the event of an
emergency, thereby
initiating the auto-dialer which contacts the appropriate authorities and
delivers a prerecorded
message.
Medical monitoring devices are also well known. They are used in clinics,
hospitals, and
doctors' offices around the world. They often are able to give early warning
to medical
professionals of impending adverse health conditions, where the individual
does not even sense
the decline until significantly later, after the situation has significantly
progressed, the individual
suddenly feeling terrible, debilitated, or worse. Many times, the relaxed and
controlled hospital
environment can reduce or eliminate the sources of adverse health conditions,
such as exertion,
stress, noise, toxins, diet, etc. Accordingly, more sophisticated medical
monitoring devices have
been developed which are miniaturized, battery-operated versions of hospital
equipment for
home or ambulatory use, such as electroencephalogram (EEG) machines,
electrocardiogram
(EKG) machines, blood pressure, sugar, or oxygen saturation monitors, and the
like. While
these portable machines monitor vital body functions in a real world
situation, they merely
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record this information. The most sophisticated known variants of these
devices can take the
recorded information, digitize it, and then modulate the information back onto
an analog carrier
signal, which can then be transmitted to a central station via simple acoustic
coupler modem.
Prior art teaches of security systems to enable access of an individual to a
protected area
like a car. The Aslanidis et al. patent, U.S. Patent No. 6,690,259, teaches a
security system to
enable authenticated access of an individual to a protected area, using a
remote control unit with
a transponder, carried by the individual, which transmits identification code
group on reception
of an interrogation signal. Access to a protected area is granted only on
positive verification of
the right to access.
Prior art also teaches a system for security and auditing of persons or
property. U.S.
Patent No. 5,825,283 discloses a device that tracks the location of a subject,
be it person or
object, and compares the actual location with predefined or stored
geographical boundaries
representing locations that are less than safe or secure, and alerts the
device user or other
designated personnel that the tracked subject has gone outside its
geographical boundaries.
U.S. Patent No. 6,690,259 discloses a security system to enable authenticated
access of
an individual to a protected area, including a remote control unit with a
transponder, carried by
the individual, which transmits an identification code group on reception of
an interrogation
signal. Access to a protected area will only be permitted on positive
verification of the right to
access.
In U.S. Patent No. 5,745,036, prior art also teaches an electronic article
security system
and anti-theft device for stores that uses intelligent tags, surveillance
cameras and transaction
data to protect products within a security area or detection zone.
U.S. Patent No. 6,735,695 discloses a biometrics security method and apparatus
that
restricts the ability of a user to access a device or facility using a portion
of biometric data to
validate the user's identity.
Needless to say, the safety and security of people and things continues to be
of
paramount importance in society, especially in light of new dangers posed by
terrorist threats.
As the foregoing clearly shows, the safety and security industry has responded
with increasingly
innovative ideas for dealing with new and old challenges. Prior art has taken
advantage of
various technological advances in the GPS field, cellular technology, computer
technology,
radio-wave technology and a host of others to improve our ability to provide
more effective
security devices, methods and processes. Collectively, prior art includes
strong solutions for
securing people and things, tracking locations, as well as recording and
transmitting information
of a given subject or location. But there are limitations.
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Today, the typical security access process validates the rights of a person or
thing at the
door, gate or point of entry. This validation occurs in many ways including
visual
acknowledgement of a subject's access rights against, say, an access card.
This access
card/badge may or may not have the photograph of the individual on it.
Oftentimes, validation
is simply against pre-encoded information that is electronically read from the
user's access
card/badge or security tag. In either case, the user's rights are
predetermined and are based on
very basic information collected and stored at some earlier point in time.
More sophisticated
security access processes incorporate biometric data or other unique
characteristics of the
subject into the validation process. Although they can be very robust, these
types of processes
offer limited security because the information, like a drug test result or
safety clearance, about
the bearer of the access card/badge or security tag may become stale rather
quickly.
Additionally, the card/badge or tag and related data may become compromised,
resulting in
access to the wrong person or thing. Besides, the existing solutions do not
adequately deal with
the situation where the subject has compromised or found a way to bypass the
security at the
entry point. In addition to the typical lack of currency in the validation
data, the data and related
process are typically isolated within the defined location. The existing
solutions offer
incomplete data exchange and fixed security entry points incapable of
responding to the ever-
changing real life situation and stimulus. Therefore, redundancy and limited
integration abound
within the safety and security establishment, and there is great difficulty in
assessing and
understanding the level of security risk a person or thing poses to the
collective.
What is needed in the art is a more robust safety and security system that is
integrated
and flexible, that not only allows for authentication of people or things at a
point of entry, but is
also mobile and capable of providing real-time information about the subject
to safety and
security officials. Accordingly, these limitations and disadvantages of the
prior art are
overcome with the present invention.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
This invention teaches an improved system and method for site-specific safety
and
security. The present invention provides an integrated security platform for
protecting different
sites by enabling access to people, livestock or things based on a customized
set of rules. It also
provides security officials the opportunity for real-time, continuous, mobile
or random
authentication or revalidation of access rights of people or things.
In one embodiment of the present invention a site-specific safety and security
system is
provided. A "site" is defined herein as any closed geographical area where
entry of people or
things is governed by a set of rules. Some examples of a site are a
governmental authority
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controlled area, such as a country, a military base, or a building; a
workplace; an airport
departure area; and any entertainment venue.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING
FIG. 1 is a schematic site-specific access management system; and
FIG. 2 is the site compliance flowchart, depicting the process for
authenticating a person
or thing to a given site and simultaneously refreshing the collected
information about the person
or thing.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has utility as a system and process for providing site-
specific
safety, security, or inventory consistent with a given set of rules. The
invention takes advantage
of technological advances in various fields of endeavor to enable robust site
management in an
integrated manner.
An inventive system provides verification that people, livestock or objects
present at a
site are compliant with whatever rules the site administrator establishes for
legitimate presence
at the site including permission to be in the area. For instance, if a person,
livestock, or object
requires a certification to be present within the area, a scan of an
identifier datum associated
with the person, livestock, or object is checked against a remote database by
wireless
communication via a network. Based on the time of a scan event, a remote
database is
optionally updated to serve as a tracking system or work reporting time clock
across disparate
areas and large organizations, or similarly to track inventory movement into,
out of, or within an
area. As a system administrator receives scan events in essentially real time,
a scanner user can
be provided with real-time instructions as to how to deal with an individual
person, livestock, or
object within moments of the initial scanning event. The result is more
efficient management of
people, livestock, and objects.
An inventive system is well suited for environments such as job site control
and tracking
livestock through the food handling chain. The inventive system includes a
scanning device
coupled to a wireless communicator in communication with a base station by way
of a network
such as the Internet, an intranet, or a local area network. The scanning
device reads at least one
tag or optionally provides manually keyed information that is compared against
and/or updates a
remote database coupled to the base station. An application server is
optionally placed
intermediate between a remote database and a network, the server functioning
as an interface
therebetween and as a platform on which to run with greater efficiency
operational software.
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Advantageously, the present invention would attempt to authenticate a request
for access
into a closed geographical area on behalf of a person or thing. In
establishing the security
environment in an area, a number of resources have to be in place. These
include an integrated
application system environment to support the peripheral communication and
data manipulation
devices. Additionally, a site operator is provided with an appropriate mobile
wireless
communication and scanning device that is identified to the database. A
person, livestock, or
object identifier datum is uploaded by the wireless communication and scanning
device for
ultimate comparison against a database. It is appreciated that an identifier
datum according to
the present invention is a personal identification number (PIN) such as a
social security number
keyed by a person directly into an inventive mobile wireless communication and
scanning
device; a manifest or invoice number keyed or scanned into an inventive mobile
wireless
communication and scanning device; and a physical characteristic of the
person, livestock or
object such as an output from a device such as an iris scanner, a fingerprint
scanner, a digital
camera, a temperature gauge, a gas chromatograph, a mass spectrometer.
Preferably, a person,
livestock or object to be scanned is previously defined to the database and
carries an identifier
datum in a form directly readable by the scanning device, the form of the
datum illustratively
including a barcode, radiofrequency tag, or the like. Alternatively, the
scanning device is
manually keyed to communicate with the database and/or base station.
Additionally, the "site"
is defined to the database by some geographical characteristics, coordinates
like longitude and
latitude obtained from a GPS-type reading, or a geographic location associated
with a scan event
by a particular scanning device.
Once these resources have been allocated, the system is ready to support site-
specific
safety and security requirements. For example, a person obtains a badge from a
system
administrator and goes to a site. Site security personnel attempt to
authenticate the person to the
site using a wireless communication device to scan pre-encoded information on
the badge. The
device signal requests the application to query the database. Preferably, the
application is run on
an application server. More preferably, the remote database resides on a
database server. In an
exemplary mode, the request from the scanning device first authenticates the
device, saves the
scan information in the administration database for future use, authenticates
the site using
transmitted GPS coordinates, then extracts the applicable site rules. These
site rules are used to
determine what information is to be extracted from the compliance database.
Based on the
person/object-specific information delivered by the device, the application
determines the
person/object's compliance status with the specific site rules. The result of
the compliance
check is sent back to the wireless communication and sampling device,
including name and
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compliance status which is rendered on the device's display with an
appropriate audible tone
consistent with the status indicator.
The advantages of the present invention include elimination of redundancy in
data kept
of individuals accessing registered sites, provision of interactive validation
or authentication
capability to a site's safety and security personnel, robust databases with
more robust and
current administrative and compliance data on site and subject, an integrated
environment for all
registered sites and subjects, and the ability to revalidate an access right
to a given site even
after initial authorization. Because of the robust databases and extensive
data collected, the
present invention offers additional significant advantages due to reporting
capability.
While the present invention is detailed hereafter with respect to site access
management,
it is appreciated that the present invention is readily adapted to address
other applications
illustratively including tracking foodstuffs through the chain of production
and retail, package
delivery systems, drug dispensation in a medical facility setting, just-in-
time manufacturing
inventory management, and pre-cleared customs service operation.
The present invention teaches of a system for securing sites against access by
unwanted
people and/or things. Such a system is depicted in FIG. I generally at 100. A
wireless
communications and scanning device 130 is used at a site 101 to gather input
about a person,
livestock or an object 110, and compare the input to reference information
present in a database
180. The database 180 is appreciated to include application-specific
information that
illustratively includes compliance information, administration information,
inventory
information, or combinations thereof. Based on the results, safety and
security officials may
allow a person or thing under consideration into the site, or they may bar a
person or thing from
the site either permanently or until some discrepancy with the site's rules
has been corrected.
The combined wireless communications and scanning device 130 within the
present
invention 100 is a custom fabricated unit or alternatively is built using
commercial off-the-shelf
components. One example of a wireless communications and scanning device that
uses off-the-
shelf components is a programmable, Internet-ready, cellular telephone. An
identifier datum
about a person, livestock or object 110 at a site 101 is input via the phone
keypad 131, or it
might be input via some attached sensor, such as a barcode scanner 133. Other
types of sensors
operative herein illustratively include biometric measuring devices such as an
iris scanner, a
fingerprint scanner, a digital camera, a temperature gauge, a gas
chromatograph, a mass
spectrometer and the like. An alternative device 130 is also operative with
infrared (IR), radio
frequency (RF), BLUETOOTHR, or WiFi communication transponders.
In the case of a digital camera or measuring tools, a scanning device 130
samples
information identifier data directly from the person, livestock, or object
110. In the case of a
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barcode scanner, IR, RF, BLUETOOTH , and WiFi transponders, the person,
livestock or
object 110 at a site 101 has attached a "tag" or badge 120 that was issued by
an administrator.
The badge 120 is inert in that it is printed or embossed with certain
associated identifier
information such as a name, employee serial number, a barcoded representation
of an employee
or part number, a photo, or the like. This information is optionally sampled
directly by a
scanning device 130 or it may be read by a person and then manually input
using an input
device including a keypad, stylus, touchpad, or the like. A badge 120
optionally also
encapsulates associated identifying information electronically that is read by
a scanner 130, or
the badge 120 optionally actively broadcasts this information itself to a
receiver located in the
scanning device 130.
The examples given above for a wireless communications and scanning device 130
within an inventive system 100 are mobile devices that might be carried by
site compliance and
security officials. For instance, a foreman at a construction site might scan
a barcoded badge
120 of members of his work crew at the start of each work day using his
cellular telephone
having an attached barcode reader. Alternatively, the wireless communications
and sampling
device has a stationary component that interacts with a mobile component
residing with the
people, livestock, or object 110 being screened for site compliance. For
instance, a person at a
site 100 might be issued badge 120 that is a transmitter device such as a
cellular telephone, IR,
RF, BLUETOOTH , or WiFi transmitter. An "active" badge 120 also contains
personal
information stored electronically that is sent to receivers positioned at
specific points around the
site 101, such as the entrances. These stationary receivers would then be
connected to the
Internet or other network either in a wired or wireless fashion. Feedback
about compliance
would then be sent back to monitoring stations associated with the stationary
receivers that
would be viewed by site compliance and security officials.
Associated or inherent identifier data that is collected by an inventive
access
management system wireless communications and scanning device 130 is
transmitted to the
application server 170 along with an indication of where and when the
identifier data was
collected. The application server 170 compares the identifying information
with a set of
reference data for the same person, livestock, or object that was collected by
an inventive system
administrator at some prior point in time. If there is a match, then the
compliance information
for the person or thing in question is retrieved from appropriate databases by
the application
server. In addition, the collected information transmitted to the application
server by the
wireless communications and scanning device 130 is stored in another database
for future use in
preparing site or compliance reports for an inventive system.
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The location information that is optionally provided by the wireless
communications and
scanning device 130 may be input by an operator manually using a keypad to
punch in a
location code, a selector to choose an item from a menu, a reader to scan
location barcodes from
some type of atlas, or the like. The location information is preferably
provided automatically by
the communications and scanning device 130 through some form of measurement.
For instance,
the communications and scanning device 130 incorporates a GPS unit, or the
device 130 is able
to determine position using some combination of triangulation, direction
determination, and
range finding while in communication with some collection of beacons whose
positions have
been predetermined, or each device 130 is assigned to a predetermined site
101.
Once the application server 170 has made a determination regarding a person,
livestock
or object 110 in question, the server packages the result into a form that can
be easily rendered
by whatever client device 130 initiated the query and transmits results back
thereto. The result
information might include an indication of whether or not a person, livestock
or object was
known to the system 100, and if known, associated identifying information such
as custom
details including name, photo, serial number, or the like is optionally
transmitted back to the
device 130. In addition, the result information includes some indication of
whether a person,
livestock or object 110 is or is not compliant with the presence rules
established for a site, and if
not compliant, the reason therefor.
The kind of information and its form that is transmitted back to a wireless
communications and scanning device 130, or any other network client device in
communication
with the application server 170, is different depending on who is using the
devices. For
instance, a construction foreman with a cellular telephone/barcode scanner
combination might
only see the name, photo, and a yes/no indication of compliance for a person
that he just
scanned. On the other hand, a system administrator sitting at a desktop
computer 160 optionally
sees the complete work histories, the results of all tests, and all personal
information for any
individual registered within the system 100. Yet again, a safety engineer
working for an
organization might be able to see the same information as the administrator
but only for
employees who work for the same organization, or contractors thereto, as the
engineer.
The databases 180 within the system 100 contain information about the people,
livestock, or objects that may be present at a site 101. Some of the
information is collected by a
system administrator during some registration process prior to allowing
people, livestock or
objects 110 into a site 101 so as to serve as reference information for use
during compliance
checking. The rest of the information is collected at a site each time a
person, livestock or
object 110 seeks entry to the site 101. Database information might be
information that is
associated with people, livestock or objects including names, descriptive
words or phrases,
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identification numbers, addresses, phone numbers, e-mail addresses, company
affiliations,
contact information for guardians or overseers, or combinations thereof.
Database information
might also consist of data representing measurements of inherent qualities of
people, livestock
or objects illustratively including weights, dimensions, electromagnetic
reflectance or emission
properties, photographs, chemical or material composition, or temperature; and
specific to
people, measured data illustratively includes fingerprint encodings, iris
scans, and facial photos.
Finally, the databases 180 would also contain site rule compliance information
such as the
results of any tests performed by or on people or things. For people, this
compliance
information might include results of drug, safety, and job certification tests
as well as other more
general personal information such as police records, presence on sexual
offender lists, credit
histories, etc. For objects, compliance information might include the results
of product
certification tests, the presence on banned substance lists, histories of
usage, etc.
The wireless communications and scanning device 130 is connected to the
network 150
by way of the base station 140. Using the network, the wireless communications
and sampling
device connects to the application server 170, which acts as the coordinator
for all tasks
performed within the system 100. Programs running on the application server
170 receive input
from the wireless communications and scanning device 130 and then place
measured or sampled
information into the database 180 and pose queries to the database 180 on
behalf of the device.
The programs running on the application server 170 also package query results
into data formats
that can be rendered easily on the wireless communications and scanning device
130.
A system administrator configures the system 100 and sees reports about
specific people,
livestock, or objects 110 and sites 101 using administrator consoles 160 that
connect to the
application server 170 over the network using some network facility like the
World Wide Web.
A network client, such as a Web browser running on a desktop computer, is one
example of an
administrator console 160 when the Web browser is pointed at an administrator
Web site. An
administrator console 160 communicates with the application server 170 much in
the same
manner as does the wireless communications and scanning device 130. In other
words, database
updates and query results are performed by programs running on the application
server 170 on
behalf of administrators using the network clients on a console 160.
FIG. 2 depicts a typical site compliance process for authenticating a person,
livestock or
object's access to a given site. It assumes that certain data has been
previously collected about
the site including sampled data about person or thing, location data,
timestamp and unique
device identifier 210.
The authentication process starts with the wireless device sending a signal
and request to
the base station. An application program determines whether or not the signal
is from a
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registered device 220. If it is not a registered device, a signal is returned
to signify unauthorized
use. Otherwise, the device is recognized to the site and certain data
including location data is
collected about the site and stored into appropriate databases. Additional
information about the
person or thing is also stored as reference data for subsequent use 230.
Based on the location data just collected, information about the site from
which the
request was made is determined 240. Using site-specific information thus
retrieved, site-
specific rules are extracted from appropriate databases 250. The application
program compares
the sampled data 210 with the reference data 230 to determine if the subject
is compliant with
site rules 260, and the signal is thus returned to the device indicating
compliance or non-
compliance of the subject with site rules 270.
One example of an inventive system uses a programmable, Internet-ready
cellular
telephone that also contains a GPS chipset as the basis for the wireless
communications and
sampling device. One such phone that meets these criteria today is the
MotorolaTM i88sTM
handset. Attached to the handset would be a barcode scanner, such as Symbol
Technologies'Tm
PSM20iTm barcode scanner that is made specifically for the i88s handset. A
program running
on the handset would handle all communication between the handset user and the
rest of the
system. This program would make use of vendor supplied application programmers
interfaces
(API) that interact with the handset GPS chipset and the attached barcode
scanner.
This inventive system realization is then used to check compliance with a set
of work
rules established for a given workplace. Each person that enters a workplace
would carry an
identification badge issued previously by a system administrator. This badge
would have
imprinted on it a barcode encoding of the badge owner's system identification
number, and the
person's name and affiliation. Workplace compliance and safety officials would
scan the
barcode on the identification badge using their phone/scanner device.
After a successful scan, indicated by an audible beep on the handset, the
program
running on the handset would then contact the application server using the
Internet and the
HTTP communications protocol. The information passed by the handset to the
application
server consists of the identification number scanned from the badge, the
current latitude and
longitude of the handset gathered from the handset GPS chip set, the time and
date at which the
scan took place, and some unique alphanumeric identifier for the handset.
The system application server is a standard World Wide Web server augmented
with an
engine for running computer programs to service requests, for example, the
Tomcatm application
server developed by the Apache Software FoundationTM. Upon receiving scan
information from
a handset, the application server starts an application program to service the
request. This
program first checks an administration database for a registered handset
having the same unique
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identifier as the handset that made the request. This unique identifier could
be the fixed IP
address of the handset, its IMEI number, the handset telephone number or some
number
generated by the system, or some combination of these numbers. All handsets
used with the
inventive application are assumed to be registered with the system in that
their unique identifier
has been previously recorded in the system administration database by a system
administrator.
Once a handset has been authenticated, the application program saves the scan
information in the administration database for possible use in summary reports
for system
administrators. Next, the application program determines at what workplace the
scan took place
by comparing the latitude and longitude of the handset with the latitudes and
longitudes of the
registered workplaces in the administration database.
Once a workplace has been identified by the application program, the program
then looks up
what work rules apply for that workplace in the administration database. These
rules determine
the information that must be sought in the compliance databases for the person
that was
scanned. For instance, a particular workplace may require that all personnel
on site must have
passed a drug test within some period of time from the current date, and all
personnel might
have had to pass a battery of safety tests as well. The test results are
gathered out of the
compliance databases using the identification number of the person that was
scanned, and any
time-related information from the databases is compared with the timestamp of
the scan. The
compliance information was stored previously by an administrator who
administers the various
tests that may be required of personnel who might visit a registered area
workplace.
The results of the compliance check by the application program are sent back
to the
handset as a reply to the HTTP request. The results consist of an indication
of whether or not a
person with the scanned identification number exists in the compliance
database, and if they do,
the person's name and an indication of whether or not they are compliant with
the workplace's
work rules is included as well. These results are then rendered on the
handset's display screen
and an audible tone is sounded that is different depending on the type of
result.
To help verify that a person who was scanned is who they say they are, the
workplace
compliance and security official with the handset may optionally request a
photo of the person
to be displayed on the handset. These photos are digital images of personnel
that would have
been taken previously by a system administrator and stored in the
administration database when
the personnel were registered with the system.
A system administrator may at any time view summary reports of the information
contained in the administration and compliance databases. These reports are
put together by
applications running on the application server, and administrators gain access
to these reports by
contacting the server using a Web browser. Administrators must first
authenticate themselves to
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CA 02617153 2015-02-11
the server by entering a username and password on the administrator's home
page. Once
authenticated, an administrator may request any one of a number of reports of
a set type. The
list of report types is different depending on what role an administrator has.
For instance, super
users have access to all report types while compliance officers working for
specific companies
only have access to report types that pertain to personnel who work at the
same companies as
the compliance officers. Examples of such reports include the list of names
and personal
information of all personnel working at a given workplace on a given date, and
the list of names
of personnel working at any workplace on a given date who are not compliant
with the
workplace's work rules.
Patents and publications mentioned in the specification are indicative of the
levels of
those skilled in the art to which the invention pertains.
The foregoing description is illustrative of particular embodiments of the
invention, but
is not meant to be a limitation upon the practice thereof. The following
claims, including all
equivalents thereof, are intended to define the scope of the invention.
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