Patent · US Expired

Method of, and circuit arrangement for, function control of ultrasonic alarm installations

US4729120A · kind A · utility

17Cited by
3References
10Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateSep 23, 1985
Grant dateMar 1, 1988
Priority date
Expiry dateSep 23, 2005

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG08B29/14
  • WIPO fieldMeasurement
  • WIPO sectorInstruments

Abstract

In an ultrasonic alarm installation, ultrasonic waves are continuously emitted into a monitored region and a frequency shift caused by a moving object, e.g. an intruder, is received by an ultrasonic receiver and evaluated by virtue of the Doppler effect for generating an alarm signal. For testing the ultrasonic alarm installation the emitted ultrasonic waves are modulated by a plurality of modulation frequencies in the range of the frequency shifts effective for triggering the alarm signal. Thus, the function test can be carried out using the same electrical evaluation circuit as for generating the alarm signal. The plurality of modulation frequencies conjointly with the switch-off of the transmitter signal has the effect that the reflected signals, which arrive at the ultrasonic receiver with different phase relationships, are not vectorially added to the ultrasonic transmitter signal to yield zero, so that a reliable function control is always ensured. Furthermore and for determining changes in the monitored region, the time decay of the modulation-caused signal is compared with a reference signal in the electrical evaluation circuit after switch-off of the modulation signal.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.