Vibration sensor and electronic control including such a sensor

Abstract

A vibration sensor for a door or window is provided and configured to detect an intrusion, the vibration sensor including a processor configured to apply a machine learning model to the processing of sensor data so as to determine the presence of anomalies in the data and, in the event that an anomaly is determined, to generate an output.An electronically controlled lock including such a vibration sensor is also provided, the sensor comprising at least one accelerometer or magnetometer, wherein the processor is configured to execute a first classifier to detect anomalies in the event-related signals received from the accelerometer or magnetometer, and upon detection of an anomaly, to execute a second classifier to attempt to classify the event into one of multiple event classes, at least one of the classes indicating an alarm event and at least one of the classes corresponding to a non-alarm event, the processor being configured to signal an alarm event in the case where the classifier determines that an event is an alarm event, and optionally also in the case where an event cannot be classified as a non-alarm event. Figure 4A.

Description

Title of the invention: Vibration sensor and electronic control comprising such a sensor technical field

[0001] The present invention relates to a vibration sensor, an electronically controlled lock for a premises door, the lock comprising such a sensor, premises security monitoring installations comprising one or more such sensors, and / or locks, as well as associated systems, subsystems and methods.

[0002] The electronically controlled lock may be in the form of, or include, an electronic lock driver equipped with an electric motor or solenoid to drive the mechanism of a mechanical lock, rather than being a fully integrated smart lock. Context

[0003] Locks designed to protect the doors of premises to prevent their unauthorized opening and access to the interior of the premises (access control) have been known for hundreds, even thousands of years, the general idea being to prevent anyone without a proper key from accessing the protected premises secured by the door. But ever since locks have existed, there have always been criminals who try to open them without the proper key, for example by using lock picks or a "bump key." Over the last decade, electromechanical locks, called smart locks, have been introduced with the aim of improving security and potentially user convenience.Such smart locks typically take the form of an electronic token or an electromagnetically signaled control, replacing the traditional key-and-lock mechanism, which controls the locking or unlocking of a locking mechanism. These locks can operate with access cards or other tokens, or with active devices such as phones that can generate or be read by RF signals (e.g., Bluetooth, NFC, RFID, or others), or magnetically, and / or a biometric interface (e.g., iris scanning, fingerprint scanning, or facial recognition). Many smart lock designs lack a keyhole, so activation can only be achieved using electromagnetic means.Many home users seem reassured by the presence of a permanent keyhole that cooperates with a tangible key that can be carried by the user.

[0004] Smart locks can be used as standalone security measures, and such a lock may include an audible alarm that is activated if the lock detects an attempt at tampering. However, smart locks can also be used in or in conjunction with premises security monitoring systems, as well as in conjunction with home automation systems, often with the ability to report any detected attempt at tampering or interference. Such a smart lock, which may also be called an electronically controlled lock, is described in the applicant's earlier patent application first published under reference WO2023 / 227258.This smart lock is designed to meet the requirements of EN50131 grade 2, so that the smart lock can be integrated into a security monitoring system that also meets the requirements of EN50131 grade 2 or higher.

[0005] Some smart locks are designed to work with conventional lock cylinders, offering either a convenient upgrade to an existing lock installation or a way to enjoy both the convenience of electronic lock control and the ability to continue using mechanical keys. However, these smart locks can be just as susceptible to "knock" attacks as the mechanical lock cylinders on which they are based.

[0006] In this patent application, the terms "smart lock" and "electronically controlled lock" are to be interpreted as encompassing conventional (mechanical) locks to which an electronic lock driver has been added. Such electronic lock drivers may include an electric motor or solenoid that is mechanically coupled to a mechanical lock so that the electronics of the lock driver can be used to control the operation of the lock (or "operate" it). The terms "smart lock" and "electronically controlled lock" also encompass an electronic lock driver intended to be mounted on a mechanical lock assembly.

[0007] Although there are many smart lock designs, there is a need for an improved smart lock, particularly one suitable for installation in domestic premises. It is also desirable that such a smart lock meet the requirements of EN50131 Grade 2, so that the smart lock can be integrated into a security monitoring system that otherwise meets the requirements of EN50131 Grade 2 or higher. Preview

[0008] Various aspects of the invention are described here. These aspects can be used independently, or two or more aspects can be used in combination.

[0009] A first aspect relates to an electronically controlled lock for a premises door, the lock comprising a processor and an accelerometer or a magnetometer coupled to the processor, in which: the accelerometer or magnetometer is configured to function as a vibration sensor, the processor and the accelerometer / magnetometer jointly functioning as a vibration detector to generate an alert signal in the event of an attempt to pick or interfere with the lock;and the processor is configured to first execute a first classifier to detect anomalies in the signals received from the accelerometer / magnetometer, during or following an event, and in the case of an anomaly detection, to execute a second classifier to classify the anomaly as belonging to an identified event class from among a plurality of event classes, and optionally in which the processor is configured to transmit an alert signal using a lock transceiver, in the event of an attempted lock picking or interference with the lock.

[0010] A second aspect relates to a smart lock comprising: an accelerometer or magnetometer configured as a shock detector, a processor configured to detect an anomaly in a signal received from the accelerometer or magnetometer, the processor being configured to implement an autoencoder, the autoencoder being configured to classify the received signal according to pre-trained non-anomalous signal data and to re-estimate the corresponding signal, and the processor being configured to detect an anomaly based on a difference between the received signal and the re-estimated signal. Optionally, the processor can be configured (e.g., programmed) to detect an anomaly based on an energy difference between the received signal and the re-estimated signal.

[0011] A third aspect relates to an electronically controlled intelligent lock for a premises door, the lock comprising an accelerometer or a magnetometer, a processor coupled to the accelerometer / magnetometer and configured to run a first classifier to detect anomalies in the signals received from the accelerometer / magnetometer with respect to an event, and upon detection of an anomaly, to run a second classifier to attempt to classify the event into a class among multiple event classes, at least one of the classes signifying an alarm event and at least one of the classes corresponding to a non-alarm event, the processor being configured to signal an alarm event in the case where the classifier determines that an event is an alarm event, and optionally in the case where an event cannot be classified as a non-alarm event.

[0012] A fourth aspect of the invention relates to a vibration sensor (e.g., for a door or window and configured to detect an intrusion), the sensor of vibration sensor including a processor configured to apply a machine learning model to process sensor data to determine the presence of anomalies in the data, and if an anomaly is detected / determined, to generate an output. The vibration sensor may include an accelerometer and / or a magnetometer, and optionally a microphone. The microphone may be placed inside the lock and arranged to detect sounds of attacks on the lock, such as lock picking. Another microphone may be provided in the lock or in a second sensing arrangement to detect ambient sounds, and in particular ambient sounds on the exposed or vulnerable side of the door. These sounds can be used to help distinguish false alarms from real alarm events (e.g.thanks to the signals representing such sounds, which are made available to an entity monitoring the installation of which the lock and / or the second detection arrangement is a part and which are processed by that entity).

[0013] Any microphone forming part of the lock or the second detection arrangement is preferably placed in the housing of the lock or the second detection arrangement in such a way that the microphone is protected against direct attack through any opening, orifice or grille through which ambient sound reaches the microphone - for example by offsetting the microphone from such an opening, orifice or grille, for example by being mounted transversely to it, so that the microphone is not exposed to damage in the event that a foreign object (such as a screwdriver or drill) is inserted through the opening, orifice or grille.A microphone intended to detect the noise of lock picking may be coupled through an open passage to a keyhole in the lock, but is preferably offset again, for example mounted transversely to the axis of the keyhole bore, so that the microphone cannot be easily attacked through the keyhole.

[0014] In some embodiments, the processor is programmed to function as an auto-encoder in order to process the sensor data.

[0015] In certain embodiments, for example, the autoencoder is configured to adjust and / or classify a received signal based on pre-trained non-anomalous signal data and to re-estimate the corresponding signal, and the processor is configured to detect an anomaly based on a difference between the received signal and the re-estimated signal. The processor can be configured to detect an anomaly based on an energy difference between the received signal and the re-estimated signal.

[0016] In certain embodiments, if the processor determines the existence of an anomaly, the processor is programmed to analyze the sensor data, or the processed sensor data, in order to attribute a detected event to one of the Multiple event types, each including at least one threat class and at least one non-threat class. The threat class can include at least one threat from among lock picking, lock striking, and lock pulling.

[0017] A fifth aspect of the invention relates to an electronically controlled lock comprising a vibration sensor as described above, and optionally in which the smart lock includes an intelligent electronic lock driver functionally coupled to a mechanical lock.

[0018] The lock may include a keyhole and the machine learning model may be trained to recognize at least one event among lock picking, lock striking and lock pulling as abnormal events. A lock having a keyhole may include a microphone, for example arranged to preferably capture sound from a keyhole in the lock and / or from the vicinity of a lock cylinder, and the digital processor circuit may be arranged to receive signals or data from the microphone in addition to signals received from the accelerometer or magnetometer;Optionally, the lock may further or alternatively include a pressure sensor and / or an insertion detector (possibly based on the mechanical displacement of a sensing element) to detect the insertion of an element (such as a key, a bump key, or a pick) into an external keyhole of the lock, and the digital processor circuit (or a remote processor) may be arranged to receive signals or data from one or more of these sensors, in addition to signals received from the accelerometer or magnetometer, or simply as additional sensors whose signals may contribute to the determination of an abnormal event and possibly its classification.

[0019] The lock may further include one or more electronic sensing arrangements to implement hand-on-handle or hand-on-lock detection, for example capacitive sensing, and / or key-in-lock detection (e.g. using impedance sensing), and the digital processor circuit is configured to use the data from said one or more electronic sensing arrangements to classify events into particular attack modes, such as lock picking, lock pulling, and lock striking.

[0020] A sixth aspect of the invention relates to an electronically controlled lock comprising a vibration sensor as described above, wherein the processor is configured to implement an autoencoder, the autoencoder being configured to classify a signal received from the accelerometer or magnetometer according to pre-trained non-abnormal signal data and to re-estimate the signal The processor is further configured to detect an anomaly based on a difference between the received signal and the re-estimated signal. The processor can be configured to detect an anomaly based on an energy difference between the received signal and the re-estimated signal.

[0021] A seventh aspect relates to an electronically controlled lock for a premises door, the lock comprising a processor and, coupled to the processor, an accelerometer or a magnetometer, in which: the accelerometer or magnetometer is configured to function as a vibration sensor, the processor and the accelerometer or magnetometer functioning together as a vibration detector to generate an alert signal in the event of an attempt to pick or interfere with the lock;The processor is first configured to detect anomalies in the signals received from the accelerometer or magnetometer, during or following an event, and if an anomaly is detected, the processor is configured to run a classifier to classify the anomaly as belonging to an identified class from among a plurality of event classes, and optionally in which the processor is configured to transmit an alert signal using a lock transceiver, in case of an attempted lock picking or interference with the lock.

[0022] Locks according to the seventh aspect may include a keyhole and may further include one or more additional sensors in the form of:

[0023] (i) of a microphone, for example arranged to preferentially capture sound originating from a keyhole of the lock and / or the vicinity of a lock cylinder, the digital processor circuit can be arranged to receive signals or data from the microphone in addition to signals received from the accelerometer or magnetometer;

[0024] (ii) a pressure sensor; and / or

[0025] (ii) an insertion detector (optionally based on the mechanical displacement of a detection element) for detecting the insertion of an element (such as a key, a bump key or a pick) into an external keyhole of the lock:

[0026] and the processor (or a remote processor) can be arranged to receive signals or data from any such additional sensor in addition to the signals received from the accelerometer or magnetometer, the digital processor circuit (or a remote processor) being programmed or configured to use signals or data from any such additional sensor for the determination and / or classification of an abnormal event.

[0027] An eighth aspect of the invention relates to a premises security monitoring system comprising a control unit for controlling the operation of the security monitoring system, the system comprising: a window or door vibration sensor incorporating a first detector, the first detector comprising an accelerometer or magnetometer; an electronically controlled lock according to any variant of the seventh aspect incorporating a second detector, the second detector comprising an accelerometer or magnetometer; the window or door vibration sensor and the smart lock being configured to transmit signal data from the first and second detectors to the control unit; and the control unit being configured / programmed to classify an event on the basis of the signal data received from the first and second detectors, and optionally on the basis of the signal data from one or more of the aforementioned additional sensors of the lock.

[0028] A ninth aspect of the invention relates to a premises security monitoring system comprising a control unit for controlling the operation of the security monitoring system, the system comprising: an electronically controlled lock according to any variant of the seventh aspect coupled to a door of the premises, the electronically controlled lock incorporating a first detector, the first detector comprising an accelerometer or a magnetometer; a door vibration sensor in which a second detector is incorporated, the second detector comprising an accelerometer or a magnetometer, coupled to the same door at a distance from the lock; the door vibration sensor and the smart lock being configured to transmit signal data from the first and second detectors to the control unit; and

[0029] the control unit being configured / programmed to classify an event on the basis of signal data received from the first and second detectors, and optionally on the basis of signal data from one or more of the aforementioned additional sensors of the lock.

[0030] A tenth aspect of the invention relates to an installation comprising an electronically controlled lock mounted on a door, the electronically controlled lock conforming to any variant of the seventh aspect and comprising a first sensing arrangement in the form of a first accelerometer and / or magnetometer, the installation comprising a unit, separate from the lock, mounted on the door or on a door frame that receives the door, the unit comprising a second sensing arrangement separate from the first sensing arrangement, the second sensing arrangement comprising one or more detectors among an accelerometer and a magnetometer, the installation comprising a digital processor circuit configured to receive signals from the first and second sensing arrangements, and optionally from one or more of the aforementioned additional sensors of the lock,and to process the signals in order to detect a potential intrusion attempt based on data detected simultaneously from different detection positions relative to the door and / or door frame.

[0031] An eleventh aspect of the invention relates to an electronically controlled lock comprising a vibration sensor as described above, wherein the processor is configured to run a first classifier to detect anomalies in the signals received from the accelerometer or magnetometer with respect to an event, and upon detection of an anomaly, to run a second classifier to attempt to classify the event into one of multiple event classes, at least one of the classes signifying an alarm event, and at least one of the classes corresponding to a non-alarm event, the processor being configured to signal an alarm event in the case where the classifier determines that an event is an alarm event, and optionally also in the case where an event is not classifiable as a non-alarm event.

[0032] A twelfth aspect of the invention relates to a premises security monitoring installation comprising at least one vibration sensor having any of the above characteristics, and / or an electronically controlled lock as described above.

[0033] A thirteenth aspect of the invention relates to a premises security monitoring installation, optionally as above, comprising a control unit for controlling the operation of the security monitoring installation, the installation comprising: a window or door vibration sensor incorporating a first detector, the first detector comprising an accelerometer or a magnetometer; an electronically controlled lock, optionally as described above, incorporating a second detector, the second detector comprising an accelerometer or a magnetometer; the window or door vibration sensor and the smart lock being configured to transmit signal data from the first and second detectors to the control unit; and the control unit being configured / programmed to generate a score based on the signal data received from the first and second detectors.

[0034] A fourteenth aspect of the invention relates to a premises security monitoring system optionally as defined above, comprising a control unit for controlling the operation of the security monitoring system, the system comprising: an electronically controlled lock, optionally as defined above, coupled to a door of the premises, the electronically controlled lock incorporating a first detector in the form of an accelerometer or a magnetometer; a door vibration sensor, incorporating a second detector in the form of an accelerometer or a magnetometer, coupled to the same door at a distance from the lock; the door vibration sensor and the smart lock being configured to transmit signal data from the first and second detectors to the control unit; and the control unit being configured / programmed to classify an event based on signal data received from the first and second detectors.

[0035] A fifteenth aspect of the invention relates to a premises security monitoring installation, optionally as described above, in which the control unit includes a processor configured to apply a machine learning model, such as an auto-encoder, to process received signal data in order to determine the presence of anomalies in the received signal data.

[0036] A sixteenth aspect of the invention relates to an installation comprising an electronically controlled lock mounted on a door, the electronically controlled lock comprising a first sensing arrangement in the form of an accelerometer and / or a magnetometer, the installation comprising a unit, separate from the lock, mounted on the door or on a door frame that receives the door, the unit comprising a second sensing arrangement which includes an accelerometer and / or a magnetometer (such that the first and second sensing arrangements can each include the same type of detector or different types of detectors in either order),The installation includes a digital processor circuit configured to receive signals from the first and second detection arrangements and to process the signals in order to detect a potential intrusion attempt based on data detected simultaneously from different detection positions relative to the door and / or door frame.

[0037] The processor circuit may include a processor programmed to operate as an auto-encoder in order to process the data from the first and second detection arrangements.

[0038] In certain embodiments, if the processor determines the existence of an anomaly, the processor circuit is programmed to analyze the sensor data, or the processed sensor data, in order to associate a detected event with one of several event types, the event types comprising at least one threat class and at least one non-threat class. The threat class may optionally include at least one threat from among lock picking, lock striking, and lock pulling.

[0039] In some embodiments, the processor circuit includes a processor which is a component of the electronically controlled lock.

[0040] The installation may further include a security monitoring system for the premises of which the door is a part, and optionally at least a portion of the processor circuit may include a processor for a security monitoring system controller. The security monitoring system controller may optionally be equipped with a video doorbell arrangement.

[0041] The security monitoring system may have at least one operating mode in which it is configured to notify alarm events to a remote monitoring entity. For example, the security monitoring system may have at least one operating mode in which it is configured to notify the remote monitoring entity of abnormal events detected in the sensor data.

[0042] A seventeenth aspect of the invention relates to a premises security monitoring installation comprising a control unit for controlling the operation of the security monitoring installation, the security monitoring installation further comprising: a door vibration sensor incorporating an accelerometer and / or a magnetometer, the vibration sensor being coupled to a door of the premises; an electronically controlled lock incorporating an accelerometer or a magnetometer, the electronically controlled lock being coupled to the door of the premises; the vibration sensor and the electronically controlled lock being configured to transmit signal data derived from their accelerometer(s) and / or magnetometer(s) to the control unit; and the control unit being configured / programmed to classify an event on the basis of the signal data derived from the first and second vibration sensors.

[0043] The control unit may include a processor that is configured to apply a machine learning model, such as an auto-encoder, in order to process the received signal data to determine the presence of anomalies in the received signal data.

[0044] The control unit can be configured / programmed to provide a quantized output whose value is selected from at least three levels (i.e. non-binary).

[0045] An eighteenth further aspect of the invention relates to a method of operating an installation comprising an electronically controlled lock mounted on a door, the electronically controlled lock comprising a first detection arrangement in the form of an accelerometer and / or a magnetometer, the installation further comprising a unit, separate from and spaced from the lock, mounted on the door or on a door frame that receives the door, the unit comprising a second detection arrangement (separate from the first detection arrangement) which includes an accelerometer and / or a magnetometer, the installation further comprising a digital processor circuit, the method comprising: the processing by the digital processing circuit of signals derived from the first detection arrangement (e.g., a first accelerometer) and from the second detection arrangement (e.g., a second accelerometer) in order to detect events detectable simultaneously from different detection positions relative to the door and / or door frame.

[0046] The method may further include combining output data from the first and second sensing arrangements and processing the combined output data, optionally wherein the output data from each sensing arrangement includes accelerometer output data.

[0047] In addition or alternatively, the method may further include processing the output data from the first detection arrangement by the first detection arrangement, processing the output data from the second detection arrangement by the second detection arrangement, and combining the processing results on a central unit of the installation.

[0048] Non-limiting features and advantages of the invention include the ability to detect abnormal vibrations, for example, compared to vibrations detectable under normal operating conditions of the smart lock and door. When a machine learning algorithm is used and trained solely on training data under "normal" conditions or by prioritizing such data, it is possible to detect any suspicious vibration as an anomaly, even if it corresponds to an attempted break-in or an attack on the lock that the system has not been specifically trained to recognize (e.g., a new type of attempted break-in or lock attack).When multiple detection arrangements are used, one on the lock and another at a different position away from the lock, it is possible to infer additional context by detecting the same vibration event substantially simultaneously from or at multiple detection positions. This can facilitate automated discrimination between an intrusion attempt targeting the lock and a different intrusion attempt targeting another part of the door.

[0049] This can also help to reduce the occurrence of false alarms compared to using a single detection arrangement on the door.

[0050] Additional aspects of the invention are defined in the claims. Independent protection is also claimed for any new features and / or ideas disclosed in this document and / or in the drawings, whether or not they have been underlined. Brief description of the figures

[0051] Embodiments of the invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying figures, in which:

[0052] Fig. 1 schematically shows premises equipped with a smart lock installation that may include video surveillance of the area around the smart lock.

[0053] Figure 2 schematically illustrates the main components of a smart lock according to one aspect of the invention;

[0054] Fig. 3A shows a mortise lock of a type with which aspects of the invention can be used, installed in a door;

[0055] Fig. 3B shows an assembly which includes the mechanism and electronics of an electronic lock according to aspects of the invention;

[0056] Fig. 3C schematically shows a longitudinal section through the whole of Fig. 3B;

[0057] Figure 4 schematically illustrates methods according to aspects of the invention;

[0058] Fig. 5 schematically illustrates the elements that constitute an auto-encoder as it can be used in certain aspects of the invention;

[0059] Fig. 6 schematically illustrates how an auto-encoder trained according to aspects of the invention can distinguish between "routine" events and aberrant events;

[0060] Figure 7 schematically illustrates how an auto-encoder can be integrated into a smart lock according to one aspect of the invention;

[0061] Figure 8 schematically illustrates the main components of a video doorbell according to one aspect of the invention;

[0062] Figure 9 schematically illustrates a home security monitoring system built around a video doorbell; and

[0063] Figure 10 generally corresponds to [Fig.9], but also includes the advantages of professional monitoring by means of a remote alarm receiving center. Specific description

[0064] Figure 1 schematically shows a home (or "premises") equipped with a smart lock installation that may include video surveillance of the area surrounding the smart lock. In this case, a video doorbell 100 may be provided adjacent to the main door 102, which is here the front door of the house 104. The front door 102 is equipped with a "smart" lock 106 that can be locked and unlocked by electrical control signals, received, for example, from a personal communication device 108 belonging to the homeowner. The video doorbell 100 may, for example, cooperate with a backend service 110 that sends push notifications to a user's personal communication device 108 when the doorbell button is pressed (or optionally when someone approaches the doorbell 100 or another video surveillance device).To support such communications, the video doorbell can use Wi-Fi to connect to a Wi-Fi 112 router (or a controller in a premises security monitoring system) that has a connection. Broadband 114 to Internet 115, the backend service 110 sends push notifications to a public land mobile network (PLMN) 116, through which notifications can be delivered to the user's personal communication device 108. The same communication path can be used to stream live video (and audio) from the video doorbell 100 to the user. A reverse communication path can also be supported to allow the user to speak to someone at the doorbell 100, and also to allow the user to activate (i.e., unlock) the lock 106 to allow the person at the door to open the door 102.The signals to activate (unlock) the lock can be transmitted directly to the lock 106 from the router 112 (or the security monitoring system controller), or they can be transmitted via the video doorbell 100 which in turn communicates with the smart lock 106. The smart lock 106 has been designed to comply with grade 2 of the EN50131 standard by integrating a shock sensor (or more generally a vibration sensor) with a tamper detection function.

[0065] In addition or alternatively, the smart lock, video doorbell and security monitoring system controller may further or alternatively be provided with at least one transceiver supporting NB-IoT (narrowband Internet of Things, supported by 3GPP), LTE-M (Long-Term Evolution Machine Type Communication, the LTE standard for machine-to-machine communication) or other similar protocols, which are LPWAN (Low Power Wide Area Network) technologies that provide secure connections using licensed spectrum in networks managed by an operator.

[0066] Figure 2 schematically illustrates the main components of an intelligent lock 106, such as that shown in Figure 1, according to embodiments of the invention. The lock 106 is shown installed in a door 102, with a door frame 240 receiving a cooperating strike plate 242 in which at least one bolt 244 is received. The lock 106 can be configured as a mortise lock, in which case the lock will typically include a mortise lock assembly or a latch (not shown) in addition to the bolt 244.

[0067] Supplying the lock 106 as a mortise lock is particularly advantageous if the lock is to be pre-installed in a door (or if the door is to be manufactured with mortises provided for easy on-site installation of the lock) rather than being subsequently fitted to a pre-hung door to replace an existing lock. However, there is generally a desire, especially when replacing a surface-mounted lock, to mount the lock 106 on the surface (on the protected side of the door 102, typically its inner side), because Installation is typically much easier and faster if a mortise (recess) does not need to be created in the door to accommodate the new lock. In both cases, the bolt 224 can be received in a recess inside the door, but with a surface-mounted lock, the bolt can also be outside the door. The lock 106 is provided with an actuator 246, which may be a solenoid or a motor, driving the bolt into the locked or unlocked position, or engaging / disengaging a clutch that couples / discouples a knob or handle 248 on the exposed face of the door, by means of which the bolt can be pulled into the unlocked position, allowing the door to be opened from the exposed (unprotected) side. Typically, if the lock 106 is provided with a clutch handle, the actuator will be a solenoid rather than a motor.The lock 106 can of course be fitted with another handle or another button (not shown), on the protected side of the door 102, to operate the bolt 244 in order to allow the opening and locking of the door 102 from the protected (generally internal) side of the door 102.

[0068] Although, for ease of illustration and explanation, [Fig.2] illustrates a lock installation with a single bolt 244 and a corresponding single strike plate 242, locks according to embodiments of the invention may comprise, or be incorporated into, or used with, multipoint locking installations / doors where more than one bolt is effectively used to secure a door.

[0069] The lock 106 includes a power supply 250 which preferably includes a rechargeable battery 252, and preferably also a charging arrangement 254 to facilitate on-site charging of the rechargeable battery 252. The charging arrangement can be coupled to a mains power supply, but for ease and simplicity, it may be preferable to include an interface 256 (such as a micro-USB port, a USB-C port, a "Lightning" connector or similar) to accept a low-voltage power supply (e.g. 5 V or 20 V, from a battery or an external charger) which, in the absence of a mains power supply (or in the event of a mains power supply failure), can be used to recharge the rechargeable battery 252 on-site, rather than requiring the battery to be removed for recharging, so that the lock 106 can always be powered.In another embodiment, the lock may include a coil or other arrangement enabling an inductive load from a suitably placed emitter connected to an external power source (such as a battery or mains power).

[0070] The actuator 246 is functionally coupled to and controlled by a processor 258, the processor having an associated memory 260 in which program instructions ("software") are stored which, when executed on the processor 258, control the operation of the lock 106. The processor 258 can, for example, be a microcontroller or a microprocessor. At least one transceiver 262, which is configured to receive control signals from, for example, a security monitoring system controller (e.g., the video doorbell 100 or the security monitoring system controller in the embodiment illustrated in [Fig. 1]) and to transmit event information to the latter, is also coupled to and controlled by the processor 258. These transmissions may have relatively low bandwidth (e.g., compared to video transmissions from the video doorbell 100), so a low-bandwidth channel is appropriate—meaning that a low-power transceiver can be used, thus providing a sufficiently long battery life.The 262 transceiver can, for example, be configured to operate using an appropriate allocated frequency in the industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM) bands – such as the 868 MHz frequency (in Europe). Communications to and from the lock are preferably encrypted. As mentioned previously, the 262 transceiver can also, or alternatively, support a low-power wide area network (LPWAN) technology, such as NB-IoT or LTE-M, allowing communication with one or more user devices (WTRU) and / or with a remote backend system, a remote monitoring station, or an alarm receiving center (ARC).

[0071] The lock 106 may also include a chime or a loudspeaker 263 (more generally, a sound output device, for example an electromechanical chime or buzzer), which is functionally coupled to the processor 258. This loudspeaker may be used instead of or in addition to a separate chime (e.g. located in an entrance hall or elsewhere in the premises) which sounds whenever a chime triggering device of the video doorbell is activated - a video doorbell processor 100 being optionally configured to use a transceiver to transmit a chime activation signal labeled with a marking to which the lock processor 258 and / or the processor of a separate chime ringing device (not shown) responds by using an internal sound output device to sound a chime in response to the activation of the chime triggering device.

[0072] The lock 106 can be provided with a housing 259 through which the bolt 244 and any mortise lock assembly can protrude, the knob or handle 248 being of course located outside the housing 259. The housing is preferably made of a technical plastic material or a non-ferromagnetic material so as not to interfere with the operation of one or more magnetometers which are optionally part of the lock 106.

[0073] The lock 106 may further include a magnetometer 264 which can be configured to detect and monitor a first magnetic field produced by an optional first magnet 266 which can be fixedly mounted relative to the frame 240 or to another stop against which the door 102 closes. The same magnetometer 264, or an additional magnetometer (not shown), can also be configured to detect and monitor a second magnetic field produced by a second magnet 270 which can be attached to the door, and preferably mounted inside the door - i.e. between the protected face and the unprotected face of the door, although it is also possible to attach (e.g. with adhesive and / or a mechanical fastener such as a screw) a magnet 270 to the face of the door (on the inner side of the door, for example on the inner side of the building).This second magnet 270, if present, is external to the lock 106 and is provided in such a way that a magnetometer configured to detect the magnetic field of the second magnet 270 can generate a manipulation signal to indicate an attempt to remove the lock 106 from the door 102. On the other hand, a magnetometer 264 can be configured to detect and monitor the first magnetic field produced by a first magnet 266 and can send a signal to indicate the state of the door, which indicates for example whether the door 102 is open or closed.The processor 258 can be configured to generate an alert signal, which is transmitted to a controller of the security monitoring system, for example a video doorbell enhanced according to certain aspects of the invention, for further reporting to a monitoring service and / or the owner / occupant of the house, in the event that the opening of the door is detected without the lock having been unlocked and / or the alarm having been disarmed - since such a combination of circumstances may indicate that the door 102 has been forced.It should be noted that a magnetometer can function as a shock or vibration sensor insofar as it is capable of responding to short-term disturbances, or to disturbances in the magnetic field originating from an associated magnet, for example, due to the magnetometer's displacement relative to the magnetic field source. A magnetometer mounted on or in a door can, for instance, register a shock caused by an object striking the door (e.g., a burglar trying to break in, or a football being forcefully struck against the door) due to small variations in the spacing between the magnetometer and the magnetic field source. It is therefore conceivable to use a magnetometer instead of an accelerometer when designing a vibration sensor. In general, embodiments of the present invention can be implemented using an accelerometer or a magnetometer, or both types of sensors.Depending on the application and the precise details of any installation, an accelerometer may be more sensitive to small disturbances, and it may therefore be preferable to use an accelerometer rather than a . magnetometer. But in other situations, a magnetometer may be preferred because of its relative insensitivity to minor disturbances.

[0074] The lock 106 may further include an accelerometer 275, which is also coupled to the processor 258 and which is configured to function as a shock sensor (or more generally a vibration sensor) in order to provide the processor with signals enabling the processor to detect attempts to "pick" or "strike" the lock, drill the lock cylinder and other mechanical attacks on the lock, as well as to provide signals in the event of attempts to break down the door (or force the lock), with a sledgehammer or a battering ram for example.The 258 processor preferably uses machine learning, for example deep learning, and / or other artificial intelligence approaches to distinguish accelerometer signals generated by "everyday events," such as a normal knock on the door of the "I'm here!" type, unlocking the lock with the correct key, the slamming of an unlocked door, an accidental impact from a football, etc., from anomalous signals generated by malicious activity, such as an attempt to pick or pry the lock, or attempts to force or ram the door. The application of artificial intelligence techniques to this problem of discriminating between signals representing anomalous events and "everyday," "non-abnormal," or "ordinary" events is described and discussed later in this patent application.The 275 accelerometer (also referred to here as the "alarm device") also provides a potential basis for certifying the lock as a shock detector (for an alarm system of at least grade 2 or 3) according to EN 50131-2-8. The accelerometer can be a triaxial device, although a simpler device can also be used to achieve satisfactory results. As mentioned previously, in some situations the sensor in question may be a magnetometer rather than an accelerometer.

[0075] A suitable accelerometer is available from STMicroelectronics under the reference LIS2DTW12, although of course there are many similar alternative devices available from other manufacturers.

[0076] The accelerometer can conveniently be configured to remain in standby mode when it is not subjected to a certain level of activity for more than a predetermined period (in order to reduce power consumption and thus extend battery life in battery-powered devices), in which case the accelerometer can further be configured to wake up quickly when it is subjected to a certain amount of stimulation—such as an RMS signal value reaching or exceeding a threshold (e.g., along any one of the detection axes)—indicating a possible increase in the activity level. The STMicro device mentioned is a The device is "always on" but has a 12.5 Hz sampling rate in standby mode, meaning one sample every 80 ms. Wake-up is fast, and the device can switch to a sampling rate of up to 1600 Hz upon waking (although the optional 800 Hz sampling rate is likely quite fast enough for this application). Therefore, one can generally expect an accelerometer, after waking, to continue detecting ongoing stimulation from the wake-up event. This stimulation will result in an analyzable output signal. The STMicro device mentioned (as probably can its counterparts from other manufacturers) can also generate an interrupt signal upon waking, so the processor can also be notified of the activity.

[0077] The processor 258 can thus be configured to process initial sensor data from at least one sensor, for example, from a sensor such as the accelerometer 275 or a magnetometer, in order to determine the presence of anomalies represented by the data, and, if an anomaly is detected / determined, to generate an output. When a sensing device has a sleep mode, such as the STMicro accelerometer just mentioned, it may be preferable not to consider the device waking from sleep as an abnormal event in itself—although activity subsequent to the device waking from sleep may very well constitute an abnormal event and should be treated as such by the processor.Thus, an attack event that wakes up a detection device can constitute an abnormal event, even if the mere fact that the detection device is coming out of standby would not in itself be considered an abnormal event.

[0078] The processor 258 can also be arranged to process second sensor data provided by at least one second sensor (e.g., a magnetometer 264 or another accelerometer or magnetometer optionally located elsewhere (i.e., outside the lock and optionally at a distance from the lock) on the door 102 and / or on the door frame 240) and to consider both the first and second sensor data in order to determine whether the data indicate the existence of an anomaly, and if so, to provide an output. In both cases, the output provided by the processor 258 can be transmitted to a remote receiver (such as a user device, e.g., WTRU, a backend system, a remote monitoring station or ARC, a control unit of a security monitoring system for premises, or a "smart doorbell" as described elsewhere in this application).In addition or alternatively, the output provided by the 258 processor can be subjected to a classification process (e.g. using a classifier (or autoencoder) running on the 258 processor or on a . other processing device in the lock or elsewhere) in order to classify events into particular threat types (e.g. lock strike, lock pick, lock pull, lock impact attack, door impact attack, etc.) and optionally to classify events into particular daily categories, and optionally again to classify an event as being situated between a threat and a daily event.

[0079] Based on such a classification, the processor can, for example, be configured to indicate in alerts and "tampering detected" signals the nature of the attack that triggered the signal transmission. For instance, it is desirable to distinguish between signals resulting from mechanical impact from a forced attack on the door or door frame, impacts caused by attempts to pick the lock, and impacts caused by attempts to remove the lock from the door (removing the lock from its mounting surface). This information can be useful for distinguishing between actual attacks (real intrusions), tampering, and false alarms, i.e., for verifying that a security alert can be transmitted to the police so they can take action.

[0080] Optionally, the lock may include a microphone 276, for example arranged to preferentially capture sound from the keyhole and / or the vicinity of the lock cylinder, and the processor 258 may be arranged to receive signals or data from the microphone as a second sensor or as one of the second sensors. As described previously, the microphone is preferably protected from direct attack through the keyhole, for example by being offset from the keyhole or by being arranged orthogonally to the axis of the keyhole.Optionally, the lock may further or alternatively include a pressure sensor 278 and / or an insertion detector 279 (possibly based on the mechanical displacement of a sensing element) to detect the insertion of an element (such as a key, a bump key, or a pick) into an external keyhole of the lock, and the processor 258 (or a remote processor) may be arranged to receive signals or data from any of these sensors as a second sensor or as one of the second sensors, or simply as an additional sensor whose signals may contribute to the determination of an abnormal event and possibly its classification. Optionally, the lock may also include a microphone to detect ambient sounds, particularly those coming from the vulnerable side of the door.An opening or orifice may be provided in the body of the lock to allow the microphone to detect such ambient sounds, and the orifice or opening may be provided with a grille or similar element to protect the microphone from interference. attacks. As described previously, the microphone is preferably further protected against attack through the opening or orifice (e.g. against attack by the insertion of an object through the opening or orifice) by being offset from the opening / orifice, or by being mounted orthogonally to an axis of the opening / orifice.

[0081] Optionally, the processor is configured to indicate, in the signal reporting an event, the identity of the sensor(s) that gave rise to the transmission of the signal, i.e., whether it was the accelerometer 275 or the magnetometer 264 (specifying which magnetometer if the lock contains several), the external accelerometer, the external magnetometer, the microphone, the pressure sensor, the displacement detector, or a combination thereof - and, at least in the case where only one magnetometer is provided, the nature of the change in the observed magnetic environment, for example, whether the magnetometer detects a change in the magnetic field from a door magnet 270 or a frame magnet, and whether the change is a reduction in the intensity of the magnetic field,An increase in the intensity of the magnetic field or a change in polarity – both suggesting a possible attempt to deceive the system by adding a malicious magnet to fool the magnetometer ("masking"). This information can also be useful in distinguishing between genuine intrusion attacks, manipulations, and false alarms, for example, by differentiating between vibrations caused by an intrusion and vibrations caused by road or rail traffic, or even the impacts of a football.

[0082] Although the preceding description referred to the context of the electronics of a lock provided in a lock case together with the main mechanical elements of the lock, the invention also envisages alternative arrangements in which the electronics of the smart lock are provided in a unit other than the lock case. For example, with a mortise lock in which the main mechanical parts of the lock are provided inside a mortise in a door (preferably contained in a lock case inside the door), a separate unit may be provided (preferably) on the protected face (e.g., the inner face) of the door to house the electronics of a smart lock, the separate unit being mechanically coupled to the mechanical parts of the lock inside the door.Such an arrangement can be used to allow the smart lock's functionality to be "upgraded" to a previously installed lock, for example, by removing the existing lock cylinder and replacing it with a new one that provides a mechanical connection to the new separate unit, enabling the lock to be locked or unlocked remotely. If the lock assembly provides a latch arrangement, this can also be coupled to the new separate unit to allow for motorized operation. An actuator (e.g., a solenoid) can actuate both the bolt and the latch of the lock, potentially allowing for contactless opening of the door. This approach may be easier to understand with reference to Figure 3.

[0083] Figure 3A shows a mortise lock 300 installed in a mortise (cavity) formed inside a door 302, viewed from the protected side of the door, for example, its inner side. The lock comprises a lock case 304, shown in shadow, inside which are received the bolt 306 and a latch 308. The bolt 306 is shown here retracted, such that only the free end of the bolt is visible in the faceplate 310 of the lock, in a state where the door 302 can be opened from the closed position. The lock 300 is fixed inside the mortise by screws 312, 312' which pass through the faceplate 310 into the door material. In the illustrated example, the lock can be locked and unlocked using the key cylinder 314, shown here outside its bore 315 in the lock towards the inner side (protected side) of the door.The cylinder illustrated here is a Europrofil cylinder in which a key operates a round bolt and lever mechanism (other types of cylinders are of course used, and the invention is also applicable to locks using these other types of cylinders, as well as to other locks and lock mechanisms such as multipoint and single-point lock mechanisms). A keyhole 316 is provided at each end of the conventional cylinder, and by inserting a correctly coded key into a keyhole 316 at either end of the cylinder, it is possible to rotate a rotary cam 318 having an integrated tab 320 which, when installed in the lock, allows the bolt 306 to be moved in and out of the lock case 304, and thus to unlock and lock the door 302 on an associated door frame 240 (not shown).The free end of the bolt enters an opening, or "strike plate", in the door frame 240 to lock the door in the closed position.

[0084] The cylinder 314 is fixed in position within the lock by means of a retaining screw, not shown, which, when in use, passes through an opening 322 in the lock faceplate. It should be noted that the lock is shown without the usual cover plate that would normally cover the lock faceplate 310 and the screws 322, as well as the screw for the opening 322. The latch 308 can be opened and closed by a latch drive that engages with a typically square-section opening 324 in the latch (or with a latch drive inside the lock). The latch can be coupled to a handle or a knob (one on each side of the door) for retracting the latch. The latches are often spring-loaded, so that they return to the indicated position, with the latch tab popping out of the lock when pressure on the handle or button is released.The latch is sometimes coupled to be driven by the cylinder, so that an additional rotation is achieved. Turning the cylinder in one direction retracts the latch, and turning it in the opposite direction reverses it—in which case no latch handle may be provided, or a latch handle may be provided only on the protected side of the door.

[0085] Figure 3A shows two Europrofil cylinders: on the left, a conventional cylinder 314 with a keyhole 316 at each end; on the right, a new cylinder 314' in which, instead of the keyhole on the protected side of the door, an elongated tab 326 protrudes. The tab 326 will engage with the mechanism of an assembly comprising the mechanism and electronics of an electronic lock. This assembly, which will be described with reference to Figures 3B and 3C, will be mounted in place of the escutcheon 328 surrounding the bore 315 of the cylinder 314'.

[0086] The modified cylinder 314' is also schematically shown as comprising a pressure sensor 278 coupled to a bore that communicates with the keyhole on the exposed outer end of the cylinder. The pressure sensor is arranged to detect pressure changes resulting from the insertion of a key (or similar) into the keyhole. Also schematically shown is a displacement sensor 279, which may be provided in addition to or instead of the pressure sensor 278 coupled to a movable element that will be displaced by the insertion of an elongated object (such as a key or a pick) into the keyhole. A microphone 276 may further or alternatively be provided at a suitable location on the cylinder 314' to detect sounds of interaction with the lock, for example, the sounds of the insertion of a key, a pick, a bump key, etc.

[0087] In [Fig. 3B], an assembly comprising the mechanism and electronics of an electronic lock is housed in a knob, or more generally in a handle 330, which is mounted on the door 302 by means of a mounting plate 332 that has itself been mounted on the door in place of the escutcheon 328. The mounting plate 332 is attached to the inner face of the door by means of a pair of fixing screws 334. The mounting plate includes engagement portions, represented here as projections 336, which may be in the form of flanges, that mate and lock into engagement with corresponding formations inside the knob 330. The mounting plate 332 and the knob can be held locked together by one or more concealed headless screws, each hidden in respective bores 338 through the (here) curved surface of a first portion 340 from button 330.In the example shown, most of the length of the button forms a body 339 which extends over and receives the first (internal) part 340, although other arrangements are of course possible within the scope of the invention.

[0088] A set of one or more visual indicators 341 is also shown in [Fig.3B], for example in the form of RGB LED lights by means of which a state and / or mode or condition of the electronic lock can be indicated. Finally, [Fig. 3B] shows one or more openings 342 formed in the main surface of the mounting plate 332. Each opening 342 provides a window through which the magnetic field of a magnet 270 can pass unimpeded. The magnet(s) 270, if used, can be surface-mounted on the door inside the window formed by an opening 342, or the mounting plate can be used as a template to allow the formation of a recess or bore (e.g., drilled, machined, or cut out) in the door structure, so that a magnet can be inserted into the door body. If the recess or bore is sufficiently deep, a magnet can be embedded in the door and concealed under a wooden or plastic cap, possibly before mounting the mounting plate on the door.As indicated, one or more magnets 270 can be mounted on the door in this manner, in order to cooperate with the magnetometer(s) 264 of the electronic lock as described with reference to [Fig. 2]. It is understood that the position of the opening(s) 342 relative to the engagement portions 336 and the position of the complementary features of the assembly relative to the accelerometer used to detect the magnetic field of the magnet 270 are chosen such that when the assembly is mounted on the door, the magnetometer 264 and the magnet 270 (positioned using the mounting plate as a template) are aligned for optimal sensitivity.

[0089] Figure 3C schematically shows a longitudinal section through the assembly 330, the mounting plate 332, the lock housing 304, the door 302, and the door frame 240. The assembly includes the button 330, which is mounted on an internal part 340. The internal part 340 includes the engagement portions 350, which mate and lock into engagement with the engagement portions 336 of the mounting plate 332. As illustrated, approximately half the length of the button overlaps the internal part 340, the internal part effectively providing an enclosure or housing for the smart lock electronics, although it should be noted that many other configurations are possible within the scope of the invention.The tab 326 of the cylinder 314' extends through an opening in a printed circuit board 251 (or between a pair of printed circuit boards) which carries most of the electronic components of the smart lock, including the processor 258, the memory 260, the RF transceiver 262, the magnetometers 264 and the accelerometer 275. As illustrated here, two magnetometers can be used, one for tamper detection using a magnetic field from a magnet mounted on the door 270, and the other 264' to detect the open state of the door (and thus potentially an intrusion) using a magnetic field from a magnet mounted on the frame 266, although the same functionality can be achieved using a single magnetometer. Connected to the processor, but optionally mounted outside the printed circuit board 251, are the speaker / horn 263 and the indicators 341.

[0090] The assembly includes a battery power supply comprising batteries 252, a charging arrangement 254, optionally with a charging socket 256 (preferably on what, in use, will be the underside of the button, so as to be concealed from view under normal circumstances).

[0091] In the example illustrated in [Fig. 3C], the locking mechanism comprises an electrically operated actuator 246 (e.g., a motor or a solenoid) and optionally an associated mechanism 352, which are configured to jointly apply torque between the internal part 340 of the knob and the tongue 326, so as to rotate the cylinder 314' in the lock—in order to retract the bolt 244 into the lock case 304 or to extend the bolt 244 out of the lock case 304. A force transfer arrangement 354 may be provided between the cam tongue 320 and the bolt. Similarly, the lock may be configured such that the rotation (e.g., overrotation) of the cam 318 also actuates the latch 308.

[0092] Although Figure 3 shows suitable arrangements for a conventional door, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the same assembly and modified cylinder could equally well be used in conjunction with a door (or French window, patio door, etc.) having a multipoint locking system (typically comprising at least three locking points that all lock simultaneously when the mechanism is engaged). This system typically operates in conjunction with a cylinder lock (e.g., a Europrofil cylinder lock), although locking typically involves manually operating a door handle to engage the various locking points with their counterparts before the lock engages.Although this engagement phase may require the application of too much torque for a sensible application of the described electronic lock addition (if only because of the short battery life), the locking and unlocking step, separate from the engagement / disengagement operations, could potentially be handled using the system just described.

[0093] In an alternative arrangement, the smart lock is provided with a clutch handle or button on each side of the door, the smart lock mechanism being configured to control the clutch arrangement so as to permit, in the unlocked state, the retraction of the bolt, and to disengage, in the locked position, the handles / buttons from the bolt such that they are unable to retract the bolt to unlock the door. It is also evident that rather than providing the additional assembly in the form of a button, a larger body not in the form of a button or handle (although it includes potentially a button or handle to facilitate opening the door) can be used to house the added mechanism - and such an arrangement can be configured to include a motorized latch actuator.

[0094] The smart lock of Figure 3 and its developments as described with reference to Figures 4 to 7 can be designed and configured as an EN certifiable shock sensor intended for use with EN certified premises security systems (intrusion alarm systems) classified grade 2 or higher (EN50131), including the necessary tamper detection function which will trigger a tamper alert in the event of an attempt to open the device, remove its battery or remove the lock from the door on which it is mounted.

[0095] Figure 4 schematically illustrates methods according to aspects of the invention. In particular, the figure illustrates methods for detecting the presence of anomalies in signals generated using one or more shock or vibration sensors such as those included in a smart lock as described above. An event is considered abnormal if the corresponding sensor data falls outside the normal range for "normal" use.

[0096] In the process 400, an input is received at 402 from a shock or vibration sensor, which may be a shock or vibration sensor integrated into a smart lock, for example, based on an accelerometer or a magnetometer. The received input is then subjected to an anomaly detection process 404. The anomaly detection process 404 may involve both anomaly detection 406 and classification 410 (optionally according to a two-step process), or may involve anomaly detection 406 but no classification 410 (one-step process). In the latter case (one-step), if an anomaly is detected in the input 402, an output may be provided at 408. If the process includes classification 410, this may be an additional step in a multi-step process (e.g.as a second step after a first anomaly detection step in a two-step process), or it can be implemented in a processing step that involves both anomaly detection and classification. A classification result can be provided as output 412.

[0097] The use of a two-step process in which a separate 406 anomaly detection step is implemented before an (optional) classification step, rather than attempting to classify the 402 entry directly, offers the advantage that a 402 entry representing an outlier from "usual" behavior can be detected as a potentially suspicious event, even if it is of a type that has not been encountered or modeled before. New types of attacks can thus be detected even if they are not specifically modeled. It may be difficult to classify them subsequently, but at least the The system can detect the appearance of something unusual. This could strengthen the system's sustainability, making it more robust than a single-step classification.

[0098] The anomaly detection process 404 can be based solely on the output provided by a shock or vibration detection arrangement of the smart lock, such that the output 412 is derived solely from the output provided by the shock or vibration detection arrangement of the smart lock. Alternatively, the output 412 can be the result of processing the input 402 provided by the shock or vibration detection arrangement of the smart lock together with one or more optional additional inputs 414.

[0099] Such optional additional inputs 414 may be provided by one or more sensors optionally located outside the smart lock but coupled to the door or door frame, optionally at one or more locations remote from the smart lock. For example, a sensor such as a magnetic open / close detector, designed to detect the open / closed state of the door on which the smart lock is mounted, or a sensor capable of detecting the open / closed state of the door by detecting a rotation of the door about an axis (for example, capable of encoding the closed, open, and open states as -1 / 0 / 1), or capable of detecting the rotational speed (normalized or not) or the angular change in orientation (e.g., using an accelerometer, magnetometer, or similar sensor).

[0100] An additional input 414 may also be provided by another sensor located in or associated with the smart lock, for example a microphone located in or coupled to the lock, for example coupled to a lock cylinder, an inductive or capacitive sensor coupled to the lock or cylinder to detect human interaction with the lock (e.g. by contact or proximity), or an insertion detector (such as a microswitch) to detect the insertion of a key or a pick into the keyhole of the smart lock.

[0101] Anomaly detection 404 or 406 can be implemented using a machine learning algorithm.

[0102] The machine learning algorithm can be trained with training data that includes many examples (such as at least 1,000, at least 5,000, at least 10,000 or more) of sensor output data for "normal" events (such as inserting a key, opening the door, closing the door, unlocking the door, knocking on the door, slamming the door, etc.) and optionally for each class of "abusive" or "attack" behavior (e.g., attempts at lock picking, lock striking, etc.). (lock drilling, lock picking, lock / cylinder removal / extraction, or break-ins). Training data is labeled according to its "crime" class. Training data for "normal" events may be labeled to indicate "normality," or may remain unlabeled and thus be distinguished from data representing "criminal" events.

[0103] It is preferable for the training data to include data collected in the field rather than simply "lab" data, although it may be necessary to obtain a large amount of "criminal" data from attacks carried out on test platforms installed in laboratories or other environments that simulate the real world. The training data need not constitute a balanced dataset; that is, there does not need to be the same number of data examples for normal events as for "criminal" events.

[0104] Optionally, for two-step anomaly detection, the autoencoder can be trained solely on normal data or by prioritizing it (omitting and / or penalizing "attack" type data). When the signal is regenerated by the autoencoder, anomaly detection depends on the autoencoder's ability to associate the original input signal with a "normal" state and regenerate it. A significant error (measured in terms of energy) means that the autoencoder was unable to correctly associate it with any of the normal states, resulting in an anomaly compared to the "normal" training data. Detection is thus generated. But the "criminal" (or "attack") data can be used to train a classifier that is then able to "label" or categorize a criminal event - for example, by labeling an event as a lockpicking or lock-hitting attack.

[0105] The anomaly detection process can be implemented using unsupervised learning with Gaussian Mixture Models (GMMs) or, alternatively, using an autoencoder. Autoencoders are models based on neural networks that are trained by unsupervised learning to efficiently compress input data to form a coded representation, and then to reconstruct the compressed representation to produce an output as close as possible to the original input. An autoencoder can be considered a multi-layer perceptron (MLP).

[0106] The classification can be implemented using any suitable classifier, such as a convolutional recurrent neural network (CRNN) architecture which can be based on the combination of an architecture convolutional neural network (CNN) and a gated recurrent unit (GRU) architecture.

[0107] Figure 4B schematically illustrates the principle of a processor 450 performing a determination based on data received from a sensor 452, for example a shock or vibration sensor such as an accelerometer or magnetometer, from a smart lock 106, and from an additional sensor 454 that is not part of the smart lock. The processor may also be part of the smart lock.

[0108] The additional sensor 454 may, for example, be a door contact sensor that detects the state (open, closed, opening or closing, degree of rotation, etc.) of the door to which the smart lock 106 is attached, for example, a door contact sensor based on magnetic detection, such as a magnetometer, a Hall effect sensor, or another magnetically switching device. Alternatively, the additional sensor may be an accelerometer (one-, two-, or three-axis) that is not contained in or part of the smart lock, the additional sensor being coupled to the door or the door frame in which the door is mounted (e.g., mounted on or in the door or door frame).Alternatively, the additional sensor can be an inductive or capacitive sensor, a pressure sensor, a motion or presence sensor, a microphone, a pressure pad, a radar array, an RF presence detection system, or a video camera (e.g., the camera of a video doorbell). The 450 processor can implement a classifier and / or anomaly detection algorithm, optionally based on an artificial intelligence approach. The 450 processor can be configured to process data from sensors 452 and 454 to identify the presence of anomalies (e.g., outliers) that may indicate an abnormal event—in response to which the processor can provide an output (signaling, for example, to an associated security or monitoring system to flag the existence of an abnormal event).

[0109] A smart lock comprising an accelerometer and / or a magnetometer is therefore provided, as well as a separate unit from the lock, mounted on the door or door frame, which itself comprises an additional sensor, such as an accelerometer and / or a magnetometer, and optionally a microphone. Such an arrangement can make it possible to better distinguish the source / position of a shock or vibration (e.g., on the lock, on the door near or far from the lock, etc.). The provision of differential information could be useful in facilitating the localization of the source of a disturbance, vibration, or shock.

[0110] The smart lock (or door sensor) could include a processor to perform calculations based on data from both sources, but the data could also be sent, for example, to a control unit of a security monitoring system so that the control unit can implement the necessary calculations.

[0111] A shock or vibration sensor may be equipped with a processor configured to process sensor data to determine the presence of anomalies in the data, and if an anomaly is detected / determined, the processor may be configured to generate an output. In a second optional aspect, the processor may be arranged to analyze the sensor data (or the processed sensor data) to implement a classification that assigns a detected event to one of multiple event types, the event types including at least one threat class and at least one non-threat class.

[0112] Figure 5A schematically illustrates the elements that constitute an auto-encoder 500.

[0113] Essentially, the auto-encoder comprises a 502 encoder portion whose role The encoder compresses the input data to form a 504-coded representation, and a decoder transforms this 504-coded representation to reproduce the original input data as faithfully as possible. The input data arrives at input 508 of the encoder, and the reconstructed output is provided at output 510 of the decoder.

[0114] Figure 5B illustrates the layered structure of the autoencoder 500. In this example, the autoencoder comprises 6 fully connected layers. The encoder side applies dimensionality reduction by using fewer nodes for each layer between the input and the encoded part, for example, going from 32 nodes in layer X0 to 16 nodes in XI and to 8 nodes in X2. The layers of the decoder part 506 similarly use an increasing number of nodes as one moves away from the encoded representation 504 (or Z), the number of nodes per layer going from 8 to 16 and then to 32. It should be noted that this structure is given only by way of example and that embodiments of the invention may use encoders in which the number of layers and the number of nodes in each layer of the encoder and decoder parts differ from those given in this example.

[0115] Figure 6 schematically illustrates how a trained autoencoder can distinguish between "routine" events—which are labeled here as "in-distribution"—and outlier events (which may represent attacks on the smart lock or the door on which it is mounted), which are labeled here as "out-of-distribution". An appropriate threshold t can be selected, for example based on calibration tests, to mark the distinction between "in-distribution" and "out-of-distribution" events. Crossing the threshold can be used to trigger event reporting (more simply, the providing an output signal) or to trigger an alarm or other similar response.

[0116] Figure 7 schematically illustrates how an autoencoder can be integrated into a smart lock 700 according to one aspect of the invention. The autoencoder 702, which can correspond to the autoencoder 500, can run on a processor 704, which can correspond to the processor 258. The processor can be a microprocessor but can also be a microcontroller (MCU - Microcontroller Unit) such as a Silicon Labs EFR32xG4 Cortex-M4, which integrates an ARM Cortex-M4 core. A memory 706, which can correspond to the memory 260, stores program instructions to control the processor 704, and can in particular store code to implement the autoencoder 702 and the classifier 708.The 700 smart lock also includes an RF transceiver 710 which can match the transceiver 262, a power supply 712 which matches the power supply 250, and a lock actuator 714 which can match the actuator 246, all of which are functionally connected to the processor 704.

[0117] The first sensor 716 is also coupled to the processor, and may be the accelerometer previously designated by element 275. Optionally, as described above, the smart lock 700 may include at least a second sensor 718, which may take the form of a pressure sensor 278, an insertion detection device 279 or a microphone 276.

[0118] Outside the lock 700, one or more second sensors 720, 722 can be provided and configured to communicate (wirelessly or by wired connection) with the processor 704. The second sensor can, as described previously, be a door contact sensor (optionally based on the use of magnetism) which detects the state (open, closed, opening) of the door to which the lock 700 is coupled, or it can be another accelerometer coupled to the door or the door frame in which the door is suspended, or another sensor capable of providing data relevant to determining the state of the door and / or the occurrence of an attack or other event, or a combination of these sensors.

[0119] The external sensor(s) 720 / 722 may typically include an RF transceiver for communication with the RF transceiver 710 of the lock, although the external sensor may be coupled to the processor 704 in another way (e.g. via a wired connection).

[0120] In one embodiment, the 702 encoder can be run as a model using, for example, TensorFlow Lite. The models (autoencoder and classifier, if present) can be quantized to int8 from the float32 representation of the weights used during training. The data can be received from each sensor (e.g. 716, 718, 720, 722 or any combination thereof) in packets of 128 samples which are then provided to the input of the encoder program.

[0121] Each packet of 128 samples is then divided into 4 sub-blocks, each consisting of 32 samples, and the batch of 4 sub-blocks is then fed into the encoder model. A sampling size of 128 was selected during preliminary studies, which revealed that it corresponds to the most appropriate duration for a sampling frequency of 200 Hz used by the 714 / 275 accelerometer in the lock. 128 samples yield a duration of 640 ms, while 32 samples yield a duration of 160 ms. In some embodiments of the invention, these samples and their batches do not overlap, and no sliding window is

[0122] applied.

[0123] Tanh activation can be used for the autoencoder neural network, but in other implementations, Relu or leakyRelu can be used instead of Tanh activation.

[0124] In some embodiments, it is possible to create a satisfactory neural network with a total number of weights (sum of the weights for all layers of the network) of 7624 parameters. This can correspond to a file size, including the weights and state, of approximately 17 KB. Such a small model can easily be executed by an MCU, despite the memory constraints typical of MCU implementations. When the sensor is a triaxial accelerometer, the input supplied to the 702 autoencoder can be a vector of samples, each of dimension 3, representing the x, y, z coordinates. The sample format can be int8, with a length selected from 16, 32, 64, or 128, for example, 32.The autoencoder output can be a single number resulting from detection, with a length of 1 and an int8 format (having values ​​from 0 to 127) mapped to values ​​from 0 to 100 (i.e., normalized to values ​​within this range). The model's primary mechanism can be to calculate expected values ​​(for normal behavior). Expected inputs should correspond to low values, for example, close to zero, with a maximum in practice between 10 and 30 (to allow for some margin of error). Out-of-distribution events should yield significantly higher values. An alarm threshold can therefore be set between approximately 60 and 90 (within a total range of 0 to 100). The threshold value can be set based on the analysis of the model's output values, once the network has been trained on training data that includes everyday and out-of-distribution events.

[0125] In the case where a 708 classifier is used to identify out-of-distribution events, for example to label an abnormal event such as lock picking, lock striking, etc., a suitable model such as a A CRNN architecture model can be chosen to run on the 704 processor. The classifier can, in the case where the sensor is a triaxial accelerometer, receive an input vector of 3-dimensional samples, each representing x, y, z coordinates. As with the autoencoder, the sample format can be int8, with a length chosen from 16, 32, 64, and 128, for example, 32. The classifier output can be a vector of the classification result for the labels / classes, optionally in uint8 format (values ​​0-100) with a length of 12.

[0126] The classification model can be based on supervised learning using deep learning, provided that a well-prepared dataset is available to train the model.With a smaller dataset, it can be useful to employ cross-validation, stratified k times (k=5), to avoid overfitting to specific data and steering the model towards poor decisions. Such an approach can also be useful with larger datasets (e.g., 10,000 events or more). It can also be helpful to pre-train the classification model on all the data for coupled iteration and then iterate on a properly balanced dataset. Alternatively, a support vector machine (SVM) could be used for certain features extracted from the signal. This would be a more conventional approach. It has some limitations, notably the need to find and select the best features.

[0127] However, using unsupervised learning with the autoencoder is likely to give better results than supervised learning if there is a lack of labeled real-world data—as will generally be the case for at least some attack modes. Unsupervised learning is geared toward selecting outliers, which means it should still be able to provide appropriate output when previously unseen data is input at the anomaly detection stage—such that even new types of attacks can be expected to trigger an alarm (or alert) notification.

[0128] In the case where signals from a second sensor (e.g., an external sensor 720 or 722) are used in addition to those from the first sensor of the lock, the signals from the two (or more) sensors can be combined to provide a long vector (with a wider input). If the second sensor is, for example, a door status sensor, the elongated vector could be in the form: I door lock accelerometer I status I rotation I.

[0129] Alternatively, the state / rotation data could be represented as a position encoding (the number is modulated in sin / cos and added after the first layers), as described in the article available at the following URL:

[0130] https: / / medium.eom / @hunter-j-phillips / positional-encoding-7a93db4109e6

[0131] These signals can then be used as input into the anomaly detection model and / or the classification model, as appropriate.

[0132] Alternatively, it is possible to implement in the firmware a decision-maker for the detection model, which will only trigger an alarm event when the door on which the smart lock is mounted is closed and there is no rotation of the lock.

[0133] It is possible to generally improve the classification results by using another type of sensor in addition to the data from the smart lock's accelerometer (or magnetometer), because normally the more data points there are, the better the overall classification.

[0134] In practice, there is always a way to normalize and align data from different sensors. Adding additional information can generally improve classification accuracy, for example, by 3 to 30% relative. In certain specific use cases, however, classification accuracy can be significantly improved, for example, for detecting a hand on the handle or lock (using, for example, capacitive detection), and a key detector in the lock (using, for example, impedance detection) can help classify specific attack methods such as lock picking, lock forcing, and lock striking.

[0135] As mentioned previously, when using multiple sensors, all sensor data can be combined into a single input and concatenated to form a vector in the form of a long line. However, it is also possible to consider some sensor outputs separately.

[0136] When a microphone is used as a second sensor (either in the lock or as an external sensor), it would make sense to implement either feature extraction, optionally pre-filtering, and possibly a Fast Fourier transform (FFT), optionally using Mel-Frequency Cepstral Coefficients (MFCC) or Constant Q Cepstral Coefficients (CQCC) to lower the data rank and emphasize certain frequencies only (very low < 50 Hz, probably in the range of 2 to 10 Hz).

[0137] The smart lock 106 can be used as part of a security monitoring system, for example a Grade 2 or higher system according to EN50131, although it can also be used as a standalone component capable of communicating with one or more user devices and / or a network-based (e.g., cloud-based) backend – optionally via a local RF connection to a broadband router and from there via a wired and / or wireless connection, or via LPWAN (e.g., via NB-IoT or LTE-M). In one example, such a security monitoring system can be controlled by a video doorbell controller such as the one identified as number 100 in [Fig. 1], as will now be described.

[0138] Figure 8 schematically illustrates the main components of an example of such a video doorbell 100, suitable for use in embodiments of the invention in conjunction with a smart lock as described with reference to Figures 3 to 7. A video doorbell 100 comprises a processor 800, which may be a microcontroller (MCU), with associated memory 802 that stores program instructions (“software”) which, when executed on the processor 400, control the operation of the video doorbell 100. A pair of transceivers 804, 806 may be provided. A first transceiver 804 may support Wi-Fi communication with a Wi-Fi access point (AP), such as the Wi-Fi router 112 of Figure 1, for the communication of video signals from the video camera 808 and audio signals from the microphone 810.The second 806 transceiver can support a lower-bandwidth channel for transmitting control signals to, and event notifications from, alarm devices such as the 106 smart lock, external video cameras, door / window contacts (which detect the open or closed status of windows or doors), etc. Typically, the lower-bandwidth channel(s) can be provided using one or more appropriate allocated frequencies in the industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM) bands—such as the 868 MHz frequency (in Europe). Communications on the lower-bandwidth channels are preferably encrypted.The primary reason for using a low-bandwidth transmission channel is to enable the use of transceivers (in alarm devices) with low power consumption (and specifically, lower power consumption than notoriously power-hungry Wi-Fi transceivers), so that battery-powered alarm devices can achieve the minimum required battery life of 3 to 5 years. The 804 and 806 transceivers are coupled to an 812 antenna arrangement that typically includes separate (multiple) antenna elements for both the 804 and 806 transceivers.

[0139] One or both of the 804, 806 transceivers may support other transmission bands / protocols, such as Bluetooth (RTM) or Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE). The 100 video doorbell may also support communication over an LPWAN network (e.g., via NB-IoT or LTE-M), optionally including device-to-device (D2D) communication.

[0140] The video doorbell 100 also includes a chime triggering device 814, which may include a mechanical switch or "doorbell push button," and preferably a switch that provides tactile feedback when activated. In a known manner, the chime triggering device 814 may be located in the same place as a lens of the video camera 808, but it may also be provided separately so that the lens of the video camera does not have to move when the chime triggering device 814 is activated.

[0141] The video doorbell 100 preferably also includes (or can be connected to) a keypad 816 for entering numbers (such as access codes or PIN codes). The keypad 816 is preferably a mechanical device that provides tactile feedback when activated.

[0142] The video doorbell 100 also includes a motion detection arrangement 817 that can be used to trigger the video camera for motion-triggered video capture recording and motion tagging (notification) – although the video camera can be designed to be always active to ensure continuous monitoring. The motion detection arrangement may include one or more passive infrared sensors (e.g., PIR passive infrared sensors or T-MOS thermal sensors). In addition, or alternatively, the motion detection arrangement may use radar and / or ultrasound to determine the distance between an object (e.g., a person) and the video doorbell, and this may be combined with passive infrared presence detection and / or other types of presence detection.The video doorbell may have an associated application or online tool to allow a user to define ranges or activity zones, configure sensitivities, etc., so that notifications concerning motion or presence detection are not transmitted, for example, for motion detected in public spaces (e.g., movement of people walking on a sidewalk outside the premises, or of vehicles passing on a road outside the protected premises).

[0143] The video doorbell 100 may also include lighting 818 (in the form of one or more light sources), in particular infrared lighting, but optionally also lighting to provide visible light illumination.

[0144] The video doorbell 100 may also include an optical display 819 for displaying user messages and comments. Although it is possible to include the keypad function 816 on the display 819 using a touchscreen, it is preferable to separate these functions and use a separate mechanical keypad 816, both for reasons of durability and power consumption.

[0145] The video doorbell 100 may also include a sound output device such as a speaker 819 for reproducing a user's speech on the user device 108, for announcements from the processor 800, and optionally for functioning as a buzzer or siren during an alarm event – ​​as will be explained later. The presence of at least one sound output device (two or more devices may be provided) and at least one microphone (two or more microphones may be provided) enables two-way audio communication between a person standing in front of the video doorbell and another person, for example, a designated user via a user device (e.g., a smartphone with a video doorbell application or a security monitoring system application).The presence of one or more 810 microphones also allows for the use of voiceprint identification as a form of access control. For example, a resident or trusted visitor (nurse, caregiver, housekeeper, etc.) who has registered a voiceprint in the system can enter the house by speaking to the video doorbell. The doorbell then compares the voice sample to known recorded voice samples to identify the speaker. If the identified speaker is on a list of approved individuals, the video doorbell can send a command to a smart lock on the relevant access door, allowing the identified speaker to open the door and gain access to the protected premises.

[0146] Optionally, the video doorbell 100 also includes a Near Field Communication (NFC) antenna 820 to enable near field communication with an NFC device such as a hardware key (dongle), smartwatch, NFC tag or appropriately equipped mobile phone - for example to authenticate a user and possibly unlock an associated smart lock 106 to gain access to protected premises.

[0147] The video doorbell 100 is equipped with an external housing or enclosure 821 to protect the doorbell components. The housing 821 is preferably provided with one or more tamper detection arrangements 813 that generate a tamper alert if the housing is removed from the video doorbell 100. Such a tamper alert is preferably handled by the monitoring system controller. security (the controller being optionally provided either by the video doorbell itself or by a separate entity), regardless of the armed state of the security surveillance system.

[0148] Users (or the owner(s)) of the security monitoring system may have an application that notifies the security monitoring system controller of a planned event that would otherwise be treated as an alarm event, so that the security monitoring system controller can be configured to effectively ignore the planned event when it occurs. For example, it may be necessary to remove the video doorbell unit 821 to replace a faulty battery 826. By using the application, a user or service technician can prevent the security monitoring system controller from considering the removal of the unit as a tamper event to be reported as an alarm event. The same principle also applies to the lock 106 and its tamper detection.

[0149] The video doorbell 100 is preferably equipped with a mains power supply 822 coupled to a power supply 824 which includes a rechargeable battery 826 (as an auxiliary power supply to be used in the event of a mains failure) and a charging arrangement 828 to manage the charging of the rechargeable battery 826. As illustrated, the video doorbell 100 preferably also includes an interface 830 (such as a micro USB port, a USB-C port or a "Lightning" connector or similar) to accept a low-voltage power supply (e.g.(5V or 20V, from a battery or external charger) which, in the absence of mains power (or in the event of mains power failure), can be used to recharge the 826 rechargeable battery on-site, rather than requiring the battery to be removed for charging, so that the video doorbell can always be powered – an important consideration when the video doorbell also functions as a controller for a security monitoring system. Alternatively, the video doorbell can be configured to accept wireless charging (e.g., induction) from an external power source.

[0150] The function of the video doorbell as a controller of a security monitoring system will now be considered in the context of [Fig.9].

[0151] Figure 9 schematically illustrates an embodiment of a home security monitoring system (home alarm) 900 designed around a video doorbell 100 that functions as the controller of the system 900. In the illustrated example, the system 900 includes a smart lock 106 as described with reference to Figures 2 to 7, such that the system user (e.g., the homeowner) can remotely unlock the door 102 on which the lock 106 is ascending to admit a visitor after optionally first approving the visitor using the video camera of the video doorbell 100.

[0152] The system 900 includes alarm devices such as a door contact 902, for example on the back door 904 of the house (and optionally also on the front door on which the lock 106 is mounted), which may be a magnetic sensing switch (such as a Reed relay) or a magnetometer or a Hall effect sensor that detects whether the door 904 is open or closed, or a shock or vibration sensor based on an accelerometer, and which transmit an alert which is received by the second transceiver 806 (e.g. an 868 MHz transceiver) of the video doorbell 100 and processed by the processor 800 to generate, if the system is armed, an alarm event signal addressed to a remote alarm reporting service 110 (e.g. cloud) and transmitted by the first transceiver 804 (e.g.Wi-Fi); the video doorbell speaker can also be immediately activated as a siren or to provide another means of audible deterrence. The transmitted alarm event signal can be received by the premises' Wi-Fi access point (AP) 112 and thus transmitted via a broadband internet connection 115 to the cloud alarm reporting service 110 (or can be transmitted via LTE-M, NBIoT, or other). If a door sensor 902 is provided for the door on which the lock 106 is mounted, the sensor 902, which can be based on an accelerometer or be sensitive to a magnetic field, can function as a second or one of the second sensors 454 and / or be the source of the optional additional input 414. An alarm event signal can be transmitted if the smart lock 106 determines the existence of an abnormal event (as described with reference to any of Figures 4 to 7).The smart lock can optionally determine the existence of an abnormal event, even in the case where the door sensor 902 does not itself detect a stimulus corresponding to its own alarm threshold: the alarm event can be reported by the smart lock to the video doorbell for further transmission (although transmission from the smart lock 106 directly to the alarm reporting service 110 rather than via the video doorbell is also envisaged).

[0153] In the cloud alarm reporting service 110, the identity of the security monitoring system (which may be that of the video doorbell 100 or the smart lock 106) included in the alarm event signal can be checked against a database of registered system identities to retrieve an address (e.g., a SIP - Session Initiation Protocol address, a mobile phone number, an email address) corresponding to the registered alarm system identity. The alarm reporting service 110 can then send a notification to the registered address so that a user, for example, receives a notification (e.g. a native notification) on their smartphone 108 or other personal electronic device, and / or an automated phone call providing details about the alarm event - e.g. the identity / type / location of the sensor that was triggered (e.g. the rear door contact sensor or the smart lock 106). A user receiving such a notification may be able to request video streaming or image transmission from cameras 906, 906' installed in or on the premises (e.g.a house) of the installation of the security monitoring system: for example a push notification may include one or more "action buttons" which, when activated by the user, cause the user's device 108 to transmit an instruction to the alarm reporting service 110 so that the alarm reporting service 110 sends an instruction to the security monitoring system controller 900 (i.e. the video doorbell processor) to transmit activation signals intended to wake the cameras 906, 906”, causing them to capture and send images and / or video.The 900 security monitoring system controller (i.e., the video doorbell processor) can receive these video transmissions using the first transceiver (Wi-Fi) 804, and the same transceiver can then be used to transmit the images / videos to the alarm reporting service 110 via the access point 112 and the internet 115. The alarm reporting service 110 can, in turn, transmit the images / videos to the user's device 108. The alarm reporting service 110 can be configured to store (if the user has paid the necessary subscription fees) images / videos captured in this way.

[0154] Each of the 906, 906' video cameras may in fact be a "commercially available" video camera (in order to reduce costs) which includes only one transceiver, and this transceiver may support Wi-Fi but not a low-bandwidth secondary channel. In such cases, the video doorbell, as the system controller of the security monitoring station, must communicate with and receive communications from the cameras only via Wi-Fi, i.e., using the first 804 transceiver. However, it is preferable for the 906, 906' video cameras to support both Wi-Fi and a suitable second communication channel with the second 806 transceiver of the video doorbell—and this functionality should preferably be ensured by including a second transceiver in each of the 906, 906' cameras.Optionally, each video camera supports an LPWAN technology such as LTE-M and / or NB-IoT.

[0155] The user device can also be programmed with a complementary application that allows the user to send instructions to the video doorbell (which, in this embodiment, functions as the system controller). security monitoring) to control the activation of selected video cameras so that the user can "keep an eye" on the house when away, and also to arm / disarm the alarm system. Images and videos from cameras 906, 906' can be transmitted via Wi-Fi between camera 906, 906' and video doorbell 100 - and these images and videos will therefore be received by the first transceiver 804, which is also used for subsequent transmission to access point 112. In some embodiments, however, the system can optionally also be configured to send lower resolution images and / or lower frame rate videos using the low-bandwidth channel (e.g., 868 MHz) received by the second transceiver, to serve as a backup solution in case of interference with the high-bandwidth channel (e.g.(Wi-Fi), the video doorbell processor is configured to transmit the first incoming image / video, and then to transmit the corresponding image / video at a higher resolution / frame rate if and when it arrives. Similarly, cameras can be arranged to use an LPWAN such as LTE-M and / or NB-IoT for transmitting video images and optionally duplicated images at different resolutions and / or frame rates as described above.

[0156] Similarly, notifications are also preferably sent to the alarm reporting service 110 (and subsequently to the user device 108) concerning alerts received from the smart lock 106 (e.g., when determining the existence of an abnormal event) or other alarm devices such as motion-detection cameras 906, 906' and a window contact sensor (which can also or alternatively function as a window shock or vibration sensor) 908 that is associated with a window 810.

[0157] Similarly, an anomaly report or a tamper alert received from the lock 106, following, for example, an attempt to strike the lock, to pull the lock 106 from the door 102, or following a detection of the door opening by a magnetometer of the lock when the lock has not been unlocked, or following the detection of an abnormal event (such as an attempt to pick the lock or another attack - such as the detection of a drilling attack - on the lock), can be detected and reported by the processor of the lock on the basis of the signals from the accelerometer 275 of the smart lock (e.g. as described with reference to any one of Figures 4 to 7), and can be processed by the processor 800 of the video doorbell (in this embodiment) and thus be notified to the user via the alarm reporting service 110.Event notifications from alarm devices can usually be provided on a low-bandwidth channel for reception by the second 806 transceiver of the video doorbell, as most simpler devices (e.g., door contacts and . motion, shock or vibration sensors do not require a high bandwidth channel (they do not require Wi-Fi for example) but must be inexpensive and have a very long battery life - so that they will usually each contain only one transceiver, configured to communicate with the second 806 transceiver (LTEM and NB-IoT also both allow low power consumption, especially for low data rates, and support long-distance communication, making them also attractive for this application).As already mentioned, alarm devices in the form of video cameras can benefit from a high-bandwidth channel, such as Wi-Fi, because the fast transmission of good quality video images (in color, with high resolution and a sufficiently high frame rate) generally requires fairly high bandwidth, and consequently video camera devices almost always include a Wi-Fi transceiver and are therefore almost always powered primarily by mains electricity (preferably with a backup battery).While the Wi-Fi transceiver could be used for transmitting event notification signals—to be received by the video doorbell using the first 804 transceiver—it is preferable (if the budget allows) to provide video cameras that can report events using a low-bandwidth channel (for reception by the second 806 transceiver) and that preferably include an additional transceiver to enable this (although, of course, a single multi-function transceiver can be used). By equipping the video camera devices with both narrowband and broadband communication capabilities, we make it easier and more convenient to upgrade a system such as the one in [Fig. 9] to the improved system in Figure 10, as described below.

[0158] The video doorbell's ability to detect presence (e.g., using one or more PIR sensors, a TMOS sensor, Wi-Fi detection, radar, or the camera) allows the video doorbell to function as an alarm device within the system. In this way, when the system is armed, the video doorbell can communicate an alert just as it does when another alarm device is triggered. While this may only be appropriate in certain circumstances (particularly those dictated by the likelihood of false alarms caused by "trusted" actors), it is potentially an attractive option.

[0159] The 800 processor of the 100 video doorbell in its form as a security monitoring system controller can also be configured to check the status of devices, including the quality of the communication channel, the battery status of the device, etc.

[0160] It is envisaged that a video doorbell having the functionality of the security monitoring system controller can not only be installed as an upgrade in existing houses, but also in new houses, optionally with the smart lock 106 as described with reference to any one of Figures 2 to 7, together with at least one alarm device, optionally in the form of a motion detection video camera, 906, 906', and preferably another alarm device in the form of a door contact to detect the state (open or closed) of the front door (equipped with the smart lock 106) or the back door (or another secondary access door of the premises).Such a system could be installed at a relatively low cost, and the smart lock 106 and its door magnet(s) 270 (and optionally its frame magnet(s) 266) could, for example, be factory-installed – or at least the door could be factory-prepared for on-site installation of the smart lock 106 and the door (and frame) magnet(s) 266 and 270. The first occupant of the house would then benefit from the enhanced security provided by a professionally installed alarm, although they would only have a subset of all the possible features of such a system – and in particular, they would not have a professional monitoring service.

[0161] The design and configuration of the video doorbell and alarm devices—including the smart lock 106—are such that once a security monitoring system based on their use, such as the one schematically illustrated in [Fig. 9], has been installed, upgrading the system to include professional monitoring via a remote alarm receiving center (ARC) can be carried out quite easily. Such an upgrade can, of course, also be of interest to an occupant who has already installed a system such as the one illustrated in [Fig. 9]. This upgrade will now be described with reference to Figure 10.

[0162] Figure 10 generally corresponds to [Fig. 9], as it is based on the assumption that a system such as the one illustrated in [Fig. 9] has been upgraded to include the benefits of professional monitoring by means of a remote alarm receiving center 1002 – although it is also envisaged that security monitoring systems such as the one illustrated in Figure 10 may be installed from the outset. The security monitoring system 1000 differs from the system 900 of [Fig. 9] in that it includes a standalone alarm control unit 1004 which is configured to control the security monitoring system 1000, rather than relying on the controller functionality offered by the video doorbell. The video doorbell 1006 of the system 1000 can be, and preferably is, the video doorbell 100 that controlled the system 900, but with its processor reconfigured (e.g.through appropriate reprogramming or system updates) to function (at least partially). as a device reporting to the alarm control unit 1004 rather than continuing to act as the controller of system 900.

[0163] The present invention thus relates, alternatively, to an initial installation which includes a video doorbell as described above, functioning as a controller of a security monitoring system which preferably includes a lock, such as the lock described above with reference to any one of Figures 2 to 7, and at least one other installed alarm device comprising either a door / window contact for detecting the state of a door or window, or a door and / or window shock or vibration sensor for detecting physical attacks against the door or window concerned, or a separate motion-detecting video camera, the alarm device comprising a transceiver for communicating with the first transceiver of the video doorbell.The present invention further relates to a method comprising upgrading such an initial installation by introducing a standalone alarm control unit 1004 which is configured to control the security monitoring system 1000, and reconfiguring the video doorbell so that its processor is reconfigured to operate (at least in part) as a device reporting to the alarm control unit 1004 rather than continuing to act as the controller of the system 900. Once the system is upgraded, the video doorbell can serve as a system control interface, such that a user (e.g., an occupant) can send arming / disarming and locking / unlocking commands from it, which are received and processed by the standalone alarm control unit 1004, which acts as the system controller.

[0164] The alarm control unit 1004 includes, like the video doorbell described with reference to [Fig.8], a processor 1010, which may be a microcontroller having an associated memory 1012 that stores program instructions (“software”) which, when executed on the processor 1010, control the operation of the alarm control unit 1004 and the security monitoring system 1000. At least one pair of transceivers 1014, 1016 may be provided. One of the 1014 transceivers can support Wi-Fi communication, with the alarm control unit configured to operate as an access point of a Wi-Fi network (having a first SSID which is dedicated to the security monitoring system) which can operate in parallel with another Wi-Fi network (having a second SSID) which can support home Wi-Fi needs such as supporting video streaming services (e.g.Netflix, Amazon Prime, RTM), working from home, etc. The 1004 alarm control unit is configured to receive video signals from video cameras 906, 906' using the first of the 1014 transceivers. The second 916 transceiver can. support a lower bandwidth channel for transmitting control signals to, and event notifications from, alarm devices such as the 1006 video doorbell, the 106 smart lock, 906, 906' video cameras (if they have the appropriate functionality, otherwise event notifications, etc. are received via Wi-Fi), door / window contacts such as 902 and 908, etc.

[0165] The low bandwidth channel(s) can typically be provided using an appropriate allocated frequency in the industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) bands - such as the 868 MHz frequency (in Europe).

[0166] Communications on low bandwidth channels are preferably encrypted. The main reason for using a low bandwidth transmission channel is to allow the use of transceivers (in alarm devices) with low power consumption (and in particular lower power consumption than notoriously power-hungry Wi-Fi transceivers) so that battery-powered alarm devices can achieve the minimum battery life required of 3 to 5 years. Transceivers 1014 and 1016 are coupled to a suitable antenna arrangement (not shown) which typically includes (multiple) separate antenna elements for both transceivers 1014 and 1016. One or both of the transceivers 1014, 1016 may support other transmission bands / protocols, such as Bluetooth (RTM) or BLE, etc.At least one transceiver is provided, which is preferably configured or configurable to communicate using 4G or 5G (or using any other suitable PLMN data protocol) to communicate with PARC 1002, for example in the event of a power outage on the premises or loss of wired connection to the Internet 115 - for example following malicious action by a perpetrator.

[0167] The alarm control unit 1004 is preferably configured to operate at least in "remotely armed" mode, in which perimeter security is monitored by means of door and window sensors such as the door sensor 902, the smart lock 106, and window sensors 908, and in which at least one presence sensor monitors the interior of the premises. The internal presence sensor may, for example, be a passive infrared sensor (or T-MOS sensor), which may or may not be associated with a video camera. In addition, or alternatively, internal presence may be detected using so-called Wi-Fi detection, with the alarm control unit running a Wi-Fi detection algorithm and the video doorbell and / or another static Wi-Fi node (or access point) acting as an illuminator for Wi-Fi detection.The 1004 alarm control unit is preferably also configured to operate in disarmed mode, in which an internal presence is not monitored and . in which the alert signals received from the door and window sensors are largely ignored by the alarm control unit 604. But the alarm control unit 1004 is preferably configured to respond to tamper signals from, for example, the lock 106 (and also to reports of determination of an abnormal event), or other alarm devices, even in disarmed mode - because wrongdoers and other bad actors may take advantage of the disarmed state to attempt to sabotage or disable devices and other components of system 1000.The 1004 alarm control unit is preferably also configured to operate in at least one 'armed at home' mode, in which internal presence is generally not monitored (or at least alerts received concerning a detected presence are ignored by the 1004 alarm control unit), but in which perimeter security or part of the perimeter is monitored, such that event signals relating to detected door and window openings are alerted and possibly reported as alarm events (optionally after allowing time for an on-site user to mark the detected event as a false alarm, for example by entering a security code on a user interface, or by presenting a dongle, token or mobile phone, for example on an NFC interface).

[0168] The alarm control unit 1004 is functionally coupled to a remote alarm receiving center (ARC) 1002, preferably both by a wired connection (e.g. broadband) and by one or more wireless connections (e.g. SigFox (RTM), PLMN using for example a GPRS, LTE, 4G or 5G protocol) - for example using either of the NB-IoT (narrowband IoT supported by 3GPP) and LTE-M (LTE machine-type communication) protocols. Notifications received by alarm control unit 1004 that correspond to the profile of potential "alarm events" (based on one or more elements among the identity of the sensor providing the notification, the nature of the notification, the arming status of alarm system 1000, the time of day, the day of the week, etc.) can be reported to PARC 1002 together with the identity of alarm installation 1000.Such a notification can be generated or triggered by the detection or determination by the smart lock 106 of the existence of an abnormal event. If the notification is associated with images or video, for example because the triggered sensor was a camera or was associated with a camera, then the images / videos can also be sent to PARC. PARC human operators typically review the notified event and attempt to verify that it is indeed an alarm activation event, based, for example, on the content of the images / videos, on sounds received from microphones located on the premises, on interactions with a user on site (e.g., via a user interface in the system). (the monitored premises). If a notified event is verified as an activation event (e.g., a break-in, burglary, fire, etc., or a medical emergency), an alert is sent to the local police and / or other emergency response personnel / services (e.g., fire department, ambulance service, etc.). The ARC may also contact a registered user or other human contact (relative, support person, caregiver, etc.) by sending a push notification (or other method) to a user device, for example, using a technique as described previously.

[0169] In a system as illustrated in Figure 10, the video doorbell 1006 can communicate events to the alarm control unit 1004 and receive control signals from it, preferably using a low bandwidth channel via the second transceiver 1016. The wider bandwidth of a Wi-Fi channel, provided by the first transceiver, is preferably used for transmitting images / videos from the video doorbell to the control unit 1004, the control unit then transmitting the images / videos to PARC 1002 and optionally to a user device 108 via a backend service 110 which sends push notifications to a personal communication device 108 of the user when the doorbell is activated (or optionally when someone approaches the doorbell 100).To support such communications, the control unit 1004 can use its broadband connection 114 to the Internet 115, with the backend service 110 sending push notifications to a public land mobile network (PLMN) 116, through which the notifications are delivered to the user's personal communication device 108. The same communication path can be used to stream live video (and audio) from the video doorbell 100 to the user. A reverse communication path can also be supported to allow the user to speak to someone at the doorbell 100, and also to allow the user to activate (i.e., unlock) the lock 106 so that the person at the door can open the door 102. The lock activation (unlock) signals are transmitted to the lock 106 via the control unit 1004, which communicates with the lock 106.

[0170] The video camera, processor and software of the video doorbell are preferably configured together to capture and stream (on demand or as required) high-definition video (e.g. 1080p).

[0171] The system controller, whether provided by the video doorbell 100 or by the alarm control unit 1004, is preferably configured to respond to the entry of a "constraint code" on the keypad of the video doorbell by alerting either PARC 1002, in the case where the controller is the control unit 904, or by alerting designated persons by calls (e.g., SIP calls) or notifications, preferably providing in each case images or video captured at the The time of entry of the restriction code (and possibly 30 seconds or more before the restriction code is entered). A restriction code is a code (e.g., a PIN) that can be used to disarm the security monitoring system, or to access the premises, or both, but which is in addition to a "normal" access code.

[0172] The idea is that under normal circumstances, a standard code will be used, and the use of such a code will not trigger any special notification. However, if a user is threatened (e.g., by an abusive partner or ex-partner, a thief, or any other type of criminal) and forced into the protected premises, the user enters the coercive code instead of the standard code, thus signaling the existence of a coercive condition. Upon receiving a coercive notification, PARC agents can contact the police or other security personnel to facilitate intervention. Similarly, if the coercive notification is received by a friend, neighbor, or relative (e.g., if the video doorbell acts as the controller for the security monitoring system), that person can intervene or involve the police to request intervention.

[0173] The system controller, whether equipped with the video doorbell 100 or the alarm control unit 604, can be configured to permit access to the protected premises (e.g. by unlocking the lock 106 and either disarming the system or at least temporarily ignoring a door opening signal relating to the access door concerned) on the basis of a facial identifier - i.e. by recognizing the face of a visitor as corresponding to the face of a stored identity (the controller storing, or having access to a memory where facial recognition data is stored for one or more known identities to which access must be granted).

[0174] The system controller, whether provided by the video doorbell 100 or by the alarm control unit 1004, can be configured to allow access to the protected premises (e.g., by unlocking the lock 106 and either disarming the system or at least temporarily ignoring a door opening signal for the relevant access door) based on the recognition of a QR code, for example, a dynamic QR code, which is presented to the video doorbell camera—for example, by a visitor (or occupant) displaying a QR code on the screen of a phone or other portable device (such as a smartwatch). Any QR code generated by, or in association with, the system (e.g.(via a suitable backend system or via the user's video doorbell or system application) preferably has a limited lifetime of 24 hours or less (shorter lifetimes, for example 12 hours, 6 hours or 4 hours, may also be used to advantage) in order to enhance system security.

[0175] It should be noted that the preceding description merely illustrates examples of the invention without however limiting its scope.

Claims

Demands

1. Vibration sensor for a door or window, configured to detect an intrusion, the vibration sensor comprising a processor configured to apply a machine learning model to the sensor data processing in order to determine the presence of anomalies in the data and, in the event that an anomaly is determined, to generate an output.

2. Vibration sensor according to claim 1, wherein the sensor comprises an accelerometer or a magnetometer.

3. Vibration sensor according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the processor is programmed to function as an auto-encoder in order to process the sensor data.

4. Vibration sensor according to claim 3, wherein the auto-encoder is configured to adjust and / or classify a received signal based on pre-trained non-abnormal signal data and to re-estimate the resulting signal, and the processor is configured to detect an anomaly based on a difference between the received signal and the re-estimated signal.

5. Vibration sensor according to claim 4, wherein the processor is configured to detect an anomaly based on an energy difference between the received signal and the re-estimated signal.

6. Vibration sensor according to any one of the preceding claims, further comprising a microphone coupled to the processor.

7. Vibration sensor according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein, in the event that the processor determines the existence of an anomaly, the processor is programmed to analyze the sensor data, or processed sensor data, in order to associate a detected event with one of multiple event types, the event types comprising at least one threat class and at least one non-threat class.

8. Vibration sensor according to claim 7, wherein the threat class includes at least one threat among lock picking, lock striking and lock pulling.

9. An electronically controlled lock comprising a vibration sensor according to any one of the preceding claims, and optionally wherein the lock comprises a driver of Intelligent electronic lock functionally coupled to a mechanical lock.

10. Electronically controlled lock according to claim 9, wherein the lock includes a keyhole and the machine learning model is trained to recognize as abnormal events at least one event among lock picking, lock striking and lock pulling.

11. Electronically controlled lock according to claim 10, wherein the lock includes a microphone coupled to the keyhole, and the processor is arranged to process signal data from the microphone to facilitate the recognition of abnormal events.

12. An electronically controlled lock comprising a vibration sensor according to claim 2, wherein the processor is configured to implement an auto-encoder, the auto-encoder is configured to classify a signal received from the accelerometer according to pre-trained non-abnormal signal data and to re-estimate the signal accordingly, and the processor is further configured to detect an anomaly based on a difference between the received signal and the re-estimated signal.

13. Electronically controlled lock according to claim 12, wherein the processor is configured to detect an anomaly based on an energy difference between the received signal and the re-estimated signal.

14. An electronically controlled lock comprising a vibration sensor according to claim 2, wherein the processor is configured to run a first classifier to detect anomalies in the signals received from the accelerometer or magnetometer concerning an event and, if an anomaly is detected, to run a second classifier to attempt to classify the event into a class among multiple event classes, at least one of the classes corresponding to an alarm event, and at least one of the classes corresponding to a non-alarm event, the processor being configured to signal an alarm event in the case where the classifier determines that an event is an alarm event, and optionally also in the case where an event cannot be classified as a non-alarm event.

15. Premises security monitoring installation comprising at least one vibration sensor according to any one of claims 1 to 8, and / or an electronically controlled lock according to any one of claims 9 to 14.

16. Premises security monitoring installation, optionally according to claim 15, comprising a control unit for controlling the operation of the security monitoring installation, the installation comprising: a window or door vibration sensor incorporating an accelerometer or magnetometer; an electronically controlled lock, optionally according to any one of claims 9 to 14, incorporating an accelerometer or magnetometer; the window or door vibration sensor and the smart lock being configured to transmit sensor signal data from the accelerometer(s) / magnetometer(s) to the control unit;and the control unit being configured / programmed to generate a score based on signal data received from the accelerometer(s) / magnetometer(s), optionally wherein the control unit includes a processor that is configured to apply a machine learning model, such as an autoencoder, to process the received signal data in such a way as to determine the presence of anomalies in the received signal data.

17. A premises security monitoring system, optionally according to claim 15 or 16, comprising a control unit for controlling the operation of the security monitoring system, the system comprising: an electronically controlled lock, optionally according to any one of claims 9 to 14, coupled to a door of the premises, an accelerometer or magnetometer being incorporated in the electronically controlled lock; a door vibration sensor in which an accelerometer or magnetometer is incorporated, coupled to the same door at a distance from the lock; the door vibration sensor and the smart lock being configured to transmit sensor signal data from the accelerometer(s) / magnetometer(s) to the control unit; and the control unit being configured / programmed to generate a score based on signal data received from the accelerometer(s) / magnetometer(s), optionally wherein the control unit includes a processor configured to apply a machine learning model, such as an autoencoder, to process the received signal data in such a way as to determine the presence of anomalies in the received signal data.

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