Method and system for controlled access from a first or unsecured area to a second or secured area.

© Patent holder (s):

Royal Boon Edam International BV in Edam.

© Inventor (s):

Stephan Ronald Schoen in Edam.

© Patent issued:

22.07.2015 © Authorized representative:

ir. J. van Breda et al. in Amsterdam.

© Method and system for controlled access from a first or unsecured area to a second or secured area.

© System and method for controlled access from a first or unsecured area to a second or secured area, using a controllable barrier selected from the group comprising a revolving door, a turnstile, a sliding door, and first detecting means for establishing whether any person or good present in the first or unsecured area is authorized to move to the second or secured area, wherein control means connected to the first detecting means and to the controllable barrier are applied for activating and / or deactivating the controllable barrier depending on the detection result provided by said detection means, and wherein the first detecting means are operable in a first Widefield of the first or unsecured area in front of the controllable barrier.

LC 2012076

This patent is granted regardless of the enclosed result of the prior art research and written opinion. The patent corresponds to the documents originally filed.

Method and system for controlled access from a first or unsecured area to a second or secured area

The invention relates to a system and method for controlled access from a first or unsecured area to a second or secured area, using a controllable barrier selected from the group comprising a guarded passage, a revolving door, a turnstile, a sliding door, and first detecting means for establishing whether any person or good present in the first or unsecured area is authorized to move to the second or secured area. In this system and method control means -are applied that are connected to the first detecting means and to the controllable barrier for activating and / or deactivating the controllable barrier depending on the detection result provided by said detection means. In case the barrier is a guarded passage the control of this passage can be implemented by transmitting a signal 'authorization confirmed' or a signal 'denial of authorization' by audio and / or video and / or text messages to the guard of this passage.

Prior art methods to control access from an unsecured to a secured area usually employ one person at a time systems, in which the person wishing to move to the secured area is authenticated by checking for authorization and validation, and when the finding is positive the concerning person may proceed. If however the person is not authorized to move further for whatever reason, such as a missing authorization or a faulty action at the checkpoint, this results in congestion at the controllable barrier since all other people wishing to move to the secured area have to wait until the actual person being processed is allowed to move further. If on the other hand this person is temporarily or permanently not allowed to move further, this results in an awkward situation at least for the person prevented to move on.

A notable problem existing in prior art methods and systems is the undesirable tailgating by an authorized persons slipping through the controllable barrier in the slipstream of an authorized person.

One of the objects of the invention is to promote the capacity and the number of people that in a given timeframe may be authenticated and pass from the first unsecured area to the second secured area.

Another object of the invention is to reduce and preferably entirely obviate the occurrence of congestions at the point where the controllable barrier between the unsecured area and the secured area is located.

Still another object of the invention is to smoothly guide any unauthorized persons away from the controllable barrier so as to prevent that they will block the flow of authorized people going through the barrier to the secured area.

Still a further object of the invention is to prevent the occurrence of tailgating by unauthorized persons moving to the secured area.

Still again a further object of the invention is to prevent theft of goods that are not authorized to move or be moved from a first area (normally in a shop) to a second area (outside the shop).

In general it is an object of the invention to provide a system and method that does not require any action from the persons moving or intending to move from the first unsecured area to the second secured area, except walking.

It is particularly an object of the invention to prevent that any physical barrier or guard will unnecessarily restrict the unhindered passage of a person or good that moves or intends to move from a first area to a second area.

These and other objects and advantages of the invention are provided or at 'least promoted by a system and method as defined in the appended claims. The invention is also embodied in a personally wearable information tag as disclosed hereafter.

In a first aspect of the invention the first detecting means are operable in a first widefield of the first or unsecured area in front of the controllable barrier. The term widefield. expresses that it concerns a rather large field or area in front of the barrier that is not confined to the immediate vicinity of the barrier, whereas in the prior art the first detecting means would only be operable in a narrow field close to the barrier (as opposed to a widefield). Accordingly in the invention it can already be established in the entire first widefield of the first or unsecured area in front of the controlla ble barrier whether any person or good present in said first or unsecured area is authorized to move to the second or secured area.

Accordingly the invention enables that the controllable barrier has its open position as default position as opposed to prior art solutions in which the controllable barrier has its closed position as default position. An imperative improvement and advantage of the invention over the prior art is therefore that it enables a continuous and uninterrupted flow of people and / or goods moving from the first area to the second area, unless the authorization to do so is missing. Opposed thereto in the prior art checking of each and every person and / or good wishing to move from the first area to the second area is delayed until the person and / or good has arrived at the controllable barrier, which barrier in the prior art is placed in the closed position as default. Only after checking the authorization and confirming same the controllable barrier moves to the open position to enable the person and / or good to pass. Evidently this consumes a lot of time and leads to congestions that the invention avoids.

To promote secure authentication it is desirable that the first detecting means are arranged to cooperate with information devices responsive to said first detecting means, which information devices are held by persons or placed on goods that may access or are present in the first or unsecured area. The invention covers a preferred embodiment in which the information devices autonomously provide an authorization signal enabling a person or good to move from the first unsecured area to the second secured area. The invention however also covers an embodiment in which particular information concerning a person or good can be obtained from these information devices that are held by said persons or placed on goods that have accessed the first or unsecured area, wherein the authorization signal is thereafter established in another part of the system.

A reliable verification can be carried out by arranging that the first detecting means are configured to cooperate with the information devices that are responsive to said first detecting means, wherein each information device monitors data concerning the good or the personal data of the person holding the information carrier, such as said persons walking pattern and / or heart rhythm. This can be implemented in practice in several ways.

In one embodiment of the invention the control means are provided with a memory or database having information unique to authorized persons or goods allowed to move from the first or unsecured area to the second or secured area. In this way establishing whether any person or good present in the first or unsecured area is authorized to move to the second or secured area can be carried out by checking information derived from the information devices carried by said person or good, and compare it with stored information unique to authorized persons or goods that are allowed to move from the first or unsecured area to the second or secured area.

In another and preferred embodiment of the invention each information device is provided with a memory having information unique to at least one authorized person or good allowed to move from the first or unsecured area to the second or secured area, and each such i nformation device has one or more sensors to monitor data concerning the good or personal data of the person actually holding the information device, such as said persons walking pattern and / or heart rhythm, and processing means to determine whether the good or person holding the information device is authorized to move from the first or unsecured area to the second or secured area. Accordingly establishing whether any person or good present in the first or unsecured area is authorized to move to the second or secured area can be executed autonomously by the processing means provided on such information device held by a person or good, wherein said information device is provided with stored information unique to authorized persons or goods that are allowed to move from the first or unsecured area to the second or secured area, and wherein said information device monitors the person or good holding the information device to collect data concerning said good or person, such as said persons walking pattern and / or heart rhythm. In this embodiment the information device thus merely has to respond to the first detecting means with a signal identifying that the person or goods are authorized or are not authorized to move to the secured area.

Correspondingly the invention is also embodied in an information device embodied as a personally wearable tag that is provided with a memory having information unique to at least one authorized person or good allowed to move from a first or unsecured area to a second or secured area, where the tag has one or more sensors to monitor data concerning the good or personal data of the person holding the tag, such as said persons walking pattern and / or heart rhythm, and processing means to determine whether the good or person holding the tag is authorized to move from the first or unsecured area to the second or secured area. Such personal tags can then be provided in a controlled distribution to identify persons or goods that may pass from an unsecured area to a secured area.

In another aspect of the invention the system comprises second detection means that are operable in a second widefield of the first or unsecured area in front of the controllable barrier to detect the presence of any good or person in said second widefield, which second detection means are linked to a tracing system for following the said goods or persons movements. This enables that the presence of any good or person in the second widefield of the first or unsecured area in front of the controllable barrier is detected, whereafter said good or person can be further traced and tracked for monitoring the said goods or persons movements in at least said second widefield, and in particular towards the controllable barrier. It is accordingly possible to timely monitor whether the person and / or good has the intent or actually moves towards the controllable barrier in order to pass from the first area to the second area. If all persons and / or goods moving towards the controllable barrier are indeed authorized to move to the second area, the controllable barrier can remain in its default open position. Otherwise and only when this is necessitated when a person and / or good unauthorized to move to the second area approaches the controllable barrier, this barrier is closed. Any undue congestion that might otherwise occur with a controllable barrier that has a default closed position is therewith avoided.

According to an embodiment of the system of the invention the tracing system is combined with the first detecting means for establishing whether any person present in the first or unsecured area is authorized to move to the second or secured area, and to establish whether any good or person moni tored by the tracing system to approach the controllable barrier is allowed to enter the second or secured area or not.

One other embodiment of the system of the invention comprises an information system for the persons in the unsecured area which is responsive to the first detection means and provides said persons in the unsecured area guidance as to whether they are required to collect authorization to enter the secured area. This helps in restricting the number of unauthorized persons moving towards the controllable barrier and therefore avoids congestion. After receiving authorization such persons can of course be detected in the first unsecured area as a person with authorization to move to the second secured area and go with the flow of other people moving from the first unsecured area to the second secured area.

It is found preferable that the second widefield occupies a smaller region in front of the controllable barrier separating the first or unsecured area from the second or secured area than does the first widefield so as to restrict the number of goods or people tracked by the tracing system .

The invention will hereinafter be further elucidated with reference to the appended drawing of schematic figures showing aspects of the system and method of the invention.

In the drawing:

-figure 1 shows a top view of adjacent unsecured and secured areas delimited by a controllable barrier;

-figure 2 shows a diagram of a first embodiment of detecting and control means applied to control the barrier of figure 1;

-figure 3 shows a diagram of a second embodiment of detecting and control means applied to control the barrier of figure 1, and;

-figure 4 shows a schematic drawing of a personally wearable information tag which can be used in the system of the invention.

Whenever in the figures the same numerals are applied these numerals refer to the same parts.

Figure 1 shows in top view parts of a system for controlled access from a first or unsecured area 1 to a second or secured area 2, comprising a controllable barrier 3. The controllable barrier 3 can be selected from the group comprising a guarded passage, a revolving door, a turnstile, a sliding door, or any other known means. In the shown embodiment the controllable barrier 3 are sliding doors that are movable in the direction indicated with arrows A.

In figure 2 it is shown 'that the system is provided with first detecting means 4 which is used for establishing whether any person or good present in the first or unsecured area 1 is authorized to move to the second or secured area 2. Further control means 5 are connected to the first detecting means 4 and -eventually- to the controllable barrier (the sliding doors) 3 for activating and / or deactivating the controllable barrier 3 depending on the detection result provided by said detection means 4. This means that when an unauthorized person tries to move to the second secured area 2, the sliding doors 3 are moved from their default open position to the closed position to prevent this from happening.

The first detecting means 4 are operable in a first widefield 8 of the first or unsecured area 1 in front of the controllable barrier 3, which means that these first detecting means 4 are able to detect in a large part or even the entire space of the unsecured area 1 the (absence of) authorization of the persons or goods that are present in this unsecured area 1 to move to the second secured area 2.

Figure 2 further shows a possible embodiment according to the invention in which the control means 5 are provided with a memory or database 6 having information unique to the authorized persons or goods that are allowed to move from the first or unsecured area 1 to the second or secured area 2. The memory or database 6 is to this end provided with information, for instance by requiring that the persons that are seeking authorization priorly enroll and leave personal information that makes it possible to validate and -at a later stage when they move in the unsecure area 1 - to authenticate these persons seeking leave to move from the first unsecured area 1 to the second secured area 2.

Figure 3 shows another and preferred embodiment in which the first detecting means 4 are arranged to cooperate with information devices 7 responsive to said first detecting means 4, which information devices 7 are held by persons or placed on goods that have access to the first or unsecured area

1. The or each information device 7 is again preferably configured to monitor data concerning the good or personal data of the person holding the information carrier 7, such as said persons walking pattern and / or heart rhythm. In this preferred em5 bodiment the control means 5 are not provided with a memory or database having information unique to authorized persons or goods allowed to move from the first or unsecured area 1 to the second or secured area 2. Figure 4 shows that instead thereof each information device 7 is provided with a memory 17 having information unique to at least one authorized person or good allowed to move from the first or unsecured area 1 to the second or secured area 2. Further each information device 7 has one or more sensors 14, 15 to monitor data concerning the good or personal data of the person holding the information device

7, such as said persons walking pattern and / or heart rhythm, and processing means 16 to determine from this information whether the good or person holding the information device 7 is authorized to move from the first or unsecured area 1 to the second or secured area 2.

In both the two embodiments mentioned above the first detecting means 4 are thus arranged to cooperate with information devices 7 responsive to said first detecting means 4, which information devices 7 are held by persons moving or placed on goods that have access to or are present in the first or unsecured area 1. It is possible that the information devices 7 comprise stationary data regarding the said persons or goods. Preferably however each information device 7 monitors variable data concerning the good to which it is applied or personal data of the person holding the information carrier 7.

An example of such variable data is the said person's walking pattern and / or heart rhythm. This makes it possible to provide a reliable check on the authorization and the identity of the concerning persons so as to provide a trustworthy authentication.

In an embodiment of the system of the invention there are second detection means 10 that are operable in a second widefield 9 of the first or unsecured area 1 in front of the controllable barrier 3 to detect the presence of any good or person in said second widefield 9. These second detection means 40 10 are linked to a tracing system 11 for following the said goods or persons movements, in particular with a view to their movements towards the controllable barrier 3.

Through the operation of the control means 5, the tracing system 11 is combined with the first detecting means 4 that aims at establishing whether any person present in the first or unsecured area 1 is authorized to move to the second or secured area 2. In this way it is timely established whether any good or person monitored by the tracing system 11 as present in the second widefield 9 moves to approach the controllable barrier 3, and whether this person or good is allowed or not allowed to enter the second or secured area 2. Accordingly in a timely fashion the control means 5 can then take appropriate action by activating and closing the sliding doors 3 if an unauthorized person 12 'threatens to move into the secure area

2. Otherwise the sliding doors 3 can remain in their default open position to remove as much as possible any hindrance for passing persons and / or goods.

In figure 1 a number of people is shown in light shades 11 that are authorized to move from the unsecured area 1 to the secured area 2. Accordingly the sliding doors 3 are open. If however an unauthorized person 12 '(shown in black) is present in the second widefield 9 and approaches the sliding doors 3, the tracing system 11 in combination with the detection by detection means 4 that this person 12' is unauthorized, will cause the control means 5 to close the sliding doors 3. Thus it is prevented that the unauthorized person 12 'moves to the secured area 2. Likewise if in an antitheft system reference 12' relates to a good, the good is prevented to move from the first area 1 to the second area 2.

One of the beneficial embodiments of the system of the invention is that it it comprises an information system (for instance audio, text or video) for the persons in the unsecured area 1 which is responsive to the first detection means 4 and provides said persons in the unsecured area 1 guidance as to whether they are required to collect authorization to enter the secured area 2. Such an unauthorized person 12 '' can then for instance be guided early to one of the reception areas 13 in the first unsecured area 1, before coming close to the second widefield 9 were tracking and tracing occurs of the persons that are apparently moving towards the second secured area 2.

This is an effective way of avoiding congestion close to the sliding doors 3 which would otherwise occur due to the approaching unauthorized person and / or good inducing the doors⁷closing.

Although it is not required it is in certain embodiments of the invention beneficial that the second widefield 9 in front of the controllable barrier 3 separating the first or unsecured area 1 from the second or secured area 2 occupies a smaller region than does the first widefield 8 so as to restrict the number of goods or people tracked by the tracing system 11.

Although the invention has been discussed in the foregoing with reference to an exemplary embodiment of the apparatus of the invention, the invention is not restricted to this particular embodiment which can be varied in many ways without departing from the gist of the invention and the scope of the appended claims. The discussed exemplary embodiment shall therefore not be used to construe the appended claims strictly in accordance therewith. On the contrary the embodiment is merely intended to explain the wording of the appended claims without intent to limit the claims to this exemplary embodiment. The scope of protection of the invention shall therefore be construed in accordance with the appended claims only, wherein a possible ambiguity in the wording of the claims shall be resolved using this exemplary embodiment.