System for controlling and/or recording and/or indicating of elapsed time and/or of events following one another in the time.

The present invention relates to a system for controlling and/or recording and/or indicating of elapsed time and/or of events following one another in the time.

More particularly, the present invention relates to an admittance control system which is able to reservedly store in a memory the displacements and/or the passages of persons within a given place or a given area.

In some places, e.g. building yards, hotels, supermarkets, joinery workshops etc., it is necessary to have an admittance control system which is able to reservedly record the displacements and/or the passages of persons, in such a way as the situation of presences within said place is continuously available.

A system which is normally used in a plurality of working places is constituted by the so-called "presence booklets", which are manually filled out and which allow the presences of operators to be checked.

However, such system involves disadvantages and drawbacks, since it causes data writing and/or transcription errors, and it causes a large waste of time and work to the presence checking operators (especially in the case where the staff is numerous); futhermore, the data may easily be modified by persons who do not act in a real good faith.

Thus, such system may not be considered as reliable.

Another known presence control system, which is for instance used in building yards, makes use of a magnetic card which is associated to each operator, and of suitable computing means (e.g. a PC) which are installed by the yard and which may elaborate, for instance, the entry and exit data or the working time of a given person who would insert said magnetic card in a suitable reading device.

Such system is certainly more advantageous in respect of the system making use of presence booklets; however, it also involves disadvantages and drawbacks which greatly limit the possibilities of using this system.

In fact it requires the presence, for each individual yard, of a fixed PC suitable for processing the data, of specific PC operators, and of a magnetic card reading device; on these grounds, such system is relatively little uses, since it does not allow any flexibility of use; as a matter of fact, this system may only be individually used for a single yard, and it requires the installation of a specific PC for each individual yard.

This substantial irremovability causes, from an economical point of view, very high costs in order to check, for instance, the presence of a working team acting in different yards during a given lapse of time.

The present invention aims to obviate to the disadvantages and drawbacks which are typical of the background art, and to provide, thus, for an autonomous system for controlling and/or recording and/or indicating of elapsed time and/or of events following one another in the time which is transportable from one place to another, which allows a centralized processing of the available data and which warrants the reservedness of the detected data.

This is achieved by means of a system having the features disclosed in claim 1.

The dependent claims describe advantageous forms of embodiment of the invention.

The system according to the invention provides for the use of a completely autonomous unit, which is fed by a battery and which is easily transportable from one place to another one, said unit comprising a reading device suitable for receiving a reries of data provided in a suitable recorded carrier which is associated to a given person, and a static memory suitable for recording said series of data.

According to a feature of the invention, said static memory is provided with autonomous feeding means and may be removed from said unit in order to be inserted into a centralized data processing device which processes the data coming from said static memory, as well as the data coming from other static memories, and which provides for the presentation of the processed data in a visualized way or on a suitable carrier, e.g. on paper or on a magnetic carrier.

According to an advantageous form of embodiment of the invention, said recorded carrier on which are recorded the data identifying the carrier itself and/or the data associated to a given person, is constituted by a key including a specific memory, e.g. an EPROM-type memory.

Such key is inserted by the operator into a suitable reading device which is incorporated in said autonomous unit, said device transferring such data into the static memory which is removable from the unit.

Once this static memory is removed from the autonmous unit and is inserted into the central unit, the program which is set in said central unit compares the data recorded in said memory to those which are relative, for instance, to the admittance permission of a given key inside of a given place, and it produces, in the most suitable way, the results of such comparison.

In this way it is possible to check whether, for instance, a given key has been used for entering a yard for which the key had previously been entitled to or not.

According to an advantageous form of embodiment of the invention, said autonomous unit is provided with a visual and/or acoustical signalling device, e.g. a pair of light emitting diodes and/or a buzzer, which allow the person who inserts the key into the reading device to immediately get from the autonomous unit a series of informations, e.g. about the carried out recording of the key data, or about the admittance approval into said specific place, or other.

Moreover, according to another advantageous form of embodiment of the invention, the autonomous unit may be provided with a data inputting means (e.g. a keyboard) and with a data visualizing means (e.g. a monitor screen); such configuration allows an operator employed for using the autonomous unit to immediately carry out presence checks, either in a merely numerical form or by checking predetermined persons; therefore, it is possible to obtain in a visual way a general layout of the entries and exits in a given lapse of time.

According to another form of embodiment of the invention, the static memory may also be of a non-removable type, the whole apparatus comprising a microprocessor-controlled hardware which renders the assembly very compact, light and fully transportable.

Other features and advantages of the invention will become apparent by reading the following description, given as a non-limiting example, with the help of the figure illustrated in the annexed sheet, which shows a simplified layout of the apparatus constituting the system according to the invention.

In the figure, reference sign 10 generally indicates an autonomous unit belonging to the system according to the invention.

Unit 10 is fed by means of a suitable battery11, by way of example a rechargeable Ni-Cd buffer battery, and it comprises a pair of reading devices 14, 15 suitable for receiving, each, an information recorded on a suitable record carrier 12 which, in this case, is constituted by a key housing a specific memory, e.g. an EPROM-type memory on which some significant data are recorded, e.g. identification data of the respective key, or codes for ideintifying the person who inserts the key, or accession codes etc..

Accordingo to the invention, each reading device 14, 15 is connected to a memory block 16 which may be removed from said autonomous 10 and which respectively comprises a smart card provided with its own CPU in order to decode the coded signals coming from reading devices 14, 15, a memory for recording said data, which is suitably buffered by its own rechargeable battery (e.g. a Ni-Cd battery), a date clock circuit, which is buffered by the same battery, an electric connector for coupling block 16 to unit 10, and a suitable interface 17, e.g. a serial gate RS 232 for enabling a possible connection of block 16 to a central unit, advantageously to a PC.

Moreover, according to a first form of embodiment, the removable memory block 16 is connected to a data displaying device 19 (e.g. a display or a monitor screen) and to a data inputting device 20 (e.g. a keyboard).

According to a second form of embodiment, unit 10 is not provided with said data displaying and inputting devices; in this case, memory block 16 is connected to an indicating device 18 comprising a pair of light emitting diodes (LED), whose operating way will be hereinafter disclosed in detail.

Furthermore, each reading device 14, 15 houses a signalling buzzer as well as a switch which, as it will be later described, allows the system to be fed only if a key 12 is inserted into one of reading devices 14, 15.

Alternately, the activation of the memory may be carried out by a suitable software.

In the following a particular form of embodiment of the system according to the invention will be described, according to which the system is used for carrying out a presence check inside of a working environment, e.g. a building yard.

A key 12, which respectively serves for entering and exiting the yard, and which is provided with a prerecorded carrier (e.g. a specifica memory) carrying a series of informations for identifying the same key, is given each operator whose presence in the yard is authorized.

By the yard entrance there is an autonomous unit 10 and each operator inserts his accession key into a suitable reading device 14.

In the case where key 12 has been correctly inserted into the reading device 14, the same key operates the switch contained in the reading device, said switch closing then the feeding circuit of battery 11; unit 10 is then immediately ready, and the buzzer of reading device 14 gives out an acoustic signal indicating that a key has been correctly inserted.

Alternately, the insertion of key may run a suitable software program for recognizing the same key, said program recording and processing the data carried by the key.

Now, according to a form of embodiment, a visual signalling device 18 gives an indication about the fact that data have been recorded and/or about the operator accession permission to the yard.

Alternately, according to another form of embodiment, the autonomous unit is provided with a display 19 and with a keyboard 20 by means of which a checking operator may directly and immediately verify the number of presences inside of the yard, as well as, for instance, the entry time and other significant data.

At the end of the working period, the operator inserts key 12 into reading device 14 and a procedure similar to the preceding one is repeated.

Thereafter, memory block 16 may be removed from autonomous unit 10 and it may be inserted into a central unit which, by means of a suitable software, specifically processes the data recorded by that autonomous unit, as well as the data coming from other possible autonomous units which were present by other yards, thereby giving the checking operator a graphical, or magnetical, presentation of the presence situation in a specific yard, or in a plurality of yards, relative to a predetermined lapse of time.

It appears to be evident that, in accordance to the installed software, it will be possible to verify and to ascertain the presence of each operator inside of one or more yards, thereby providing for each operator a personalized card bearing his presence periods.

It may still be noted that, since memory block 16 is provided with a suitable interface 17 allowing the block to be connected to a PC, of a fixed or of a portable type, a checking operator may at any time have available any kind of data processing relative to the presences inside of a given yard.

The invention has been previously described with reference to an advantageous form of embodiment thereof.

However, it appears to be clear that the invention is certainly not limited to that form of embodiment; rather, it comprises several variants falling within its scope.

By way of example, memory block 16 may be replaced by a suitable electronic card controlling a magnetic disk reading/recording apparatus.

In this way, the insertion of key into reading device 14 or 15 causes the data to be recorded on the magnetic disk, which may thereafter be removed by the apparatus and inserted into a suitable central unit.

Furthermore, the apparatus may be directly connected either to an informatics network or to a printer.

Moreover, although the keys which have been described are constituted by elements containing a specific memory, the invention comprises forms of embodiment according to which the keys are of another kind, such as for instance magnetic cards, badges, etc., as well as forms of embodiment according to which a single reading device is provided for each unit.

It should also be clear that the system according to the invention may easily be adapted, according to different requirements, to carry out control operations differing from the disclosed ones.

By way of example, the system may easily be adapted in order to check the time which has effectively been worked by specific operators; furthermore, the system is absolutely not limited to applications as the previously described one, i.e. for checking presences inside of building yards.

In fact, the system may easily be adapted for carrying out controls and verifications inside of the most differents environments, such as for instance supermarkets, hotels, joinery workshops, small workshops, stores, laboratories, fashion-houses, purchasing centers, banks, saw-mills, transportation firms, firms operating in the field of assemblying and internal or external mantainance, wine cooperative stores, cleaning companies, bakeries, confectioner's shops, or for checking labourer's work etc.