"CHILD-LINK"ENHANCED CHILD SUPERVISION TRANSMITTERAND RECEIVERThis invention relates to a means of enhanced child supervision by means of radio signalling to indicate if the child or children are out of range, in distress or in a dangerous situation, it will give parents peace of mind even if the child is out of view.
Means of controlling and monitoring children can come in several forms ranging from harnesses to automatic stop cords, but all rely on the means of rest-; cting a child's movement via a mechanical link and are at the best of times impractical and difficult to use in areas were other people will be present such as shopping centres or outside events where cords can tangle and catch. According to the present invention there is two way communications radio wireless link between the parent and child or children, the systems main features are: 1 The monitoring of a child or children in relation to the proximity to the parents unit.
2 The facility for the child or children to indicate to the parent a situation of distress.
3 The indication by the use of audio and visual means between the child and parents unitwhich can be defined by the parent and child.
4 The child's unit has a built in sounder, which the child can not trigger directly but canonly be activated via the parents unit, this serves to reduce false calls and to serve as anaudible locator.
5 The system is fully portable and does not restrict the child or children's movements butacts as a distance limiter.
6 Enhanced features include a water sensor, low battery indication, selectable range andfunction options.
7 Expandable to accept up to four child units.
The specific embodiment of the invention will now be described in detail.
The child's unit is supplied in two forms, one unit being a designed for wrist attachment and the other a pendant design, both units will have the same functionality, the design of these units will consist of a changeable front face plate, one being a teddy bear design an the other a clear cover for putting pictures underneath, this will make it appeal to different age groups.
The parents unit is designed for clipping to the parent or wall mounted via a wall bracket.
On the child's unit exists a coding and control circuit which allows the parent to select a unique code via micro switches, up to four child units can be linked to the parents unit with each having its own unique code, a maximum of 256 codes are possible.
The control circuit generates the relevant function codes, which the parents unit will interpret to perform a specific function.
The system operates on 418mhz low power transmitters and receivers, the child's unit will have an increased range capability above the parents unit with the child's unit having a maximum range of 1 00m and the parents unit have a maximum range of 70 metres this will ensure that if the child leaves the protection area the parent can still activate the child's built in sounder, the parent has the facility to reduce the sensitivity of the parents unit down to give a maximum range of 10 metres.
The child's unit transmits a signal at predefined intervals which is selectable from 30 seconds to 10 minutes, the timing of these transmissions is controlled by a micro powerFree running clock which on every pulse activates the control circuit to select the appropriate code and activates the transmitter, this signal is received by the parents unit which contains a clock matched to the child's unit and on every pulse received resets the parents clock. If the child were to go out of range then the parents unit clock will not receive the relevant pulse and as such the parents unit will time out and trigger the audio and visual indication on the parents unit, the parent can then activate the child's built in sounder which will aid in locating the child, if the child moves back in to range the parents unit will reset and continue monitoring.
On the child's unit will be a low battery monitoring circuit, panic button, water sensor circuit and two user definable buttons.
The low battery monitor will in the event of a low battery level being reached will transmit via the control circuit the relevant low battery code to the parents unit which will indicate this via its built in audible and visual indication.
If the child presses the panic button a panic code will be selected by the control circuit and transmitted to the parents unit which will trigger an alarm via its in built sounder and visual indication, the parent can then transmit a alarm code back to the child's unit to activate its inbuilt sounder.
The water sensor will consist of two exposed conductive surfaces which when shorted together by water will activate the control circuit and transmit a water alert code to the parents unit which will activate its sounder and a water alert visual indication.
The child and parents units both have two user definable buttons each button will transmit a different function code so that the parent can indicate to the child or vice verse the child to the parent via a beep tone and visual indication on the child's and parents unit, as such the parent and child can define the meaning of each indication EG: come home.
All of the above functions can be enabled or disabled by the parent as and when required. The parents unit will operate via a PP3 rechargeable battery and will incorporate a charging circuit to charge this battery. The child's unit will also contain a charging circuit to charge its own 12v AAA battery, each charge will give 100hrs continues operation.