Gateway Array Geolocationing for Hospitality Safety
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Employees in hospitality environments face increased personal security risks due to limited existing security measures in multi-room settings, necessitating improved systems for awareness and safety.
Innovation Solution
A geolocationing system comprising a vertical and horizontal array of gateway devices that receive beacon signals from wireless-enabled personal locator devices, processing them to determine the location and send gateway signals to a server for enhanced awareness and safety, including alert notifications and location mapping.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a geolocationing system with gateway devices is deployed throughout the hospitality environment, then employee safety and awareness is improved, but device complexity and installation cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system divides the hospitality environment into multiple zones with distributed gateway devices, each independently tracking beacons in its local area. This segmentation allows the safety function to be distributed across multiple simple units rather than requiring one complex centralized system, improving reliability through redundancy while keeping individual device complexity low.
Solution Approach 2:
Gateway devices are designed to perform multiple functions: tracking employee locations, providing safety alerts, and potentially serving as network access points or information kiosks. This multi-functionality justifies the deployment of gateway devices by making them valuable assets beyond just safety tracking, helping to offset the added system complexity.
2Measurement precision
If gateway devices are placed in every room and common area, then location accuracy is improved, but manufacturing cost and deployment complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements location tracking with varying precision based on local needs: high-precision tracking in critical areas like employee-only zones and common areas where multiple gateways provide triangulation, and lower-precision tracking in less critical areas. This local quality approach optimizes location accuracy where needed while reducing deployment costs in areas where extreme precision is not necessary.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a centralized server as an intermediary that receives data from multiple gateway devices and performs sophisticated location calculation algorithms. This mediator allows individual gateway devices to remain simple while achieving high overall location accuracy through centralized processing, reducing the complexity burden on individual manufacturing units.
3Speed
If continuous beacon signaling is used, then real-time location tracking is achieved, but energy consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of continuous beacon transmission, the system uses periodic signaling where beacons transmit location information at predetermined intervals. This periodic action maintains adequate location tracking capability for safety purposes while dramatically reducing energy consumption compared to continuous transmission, as the beacon only activates periodically rather than constantly.
Solution Approach 2:
The system allows beacons to operate autonomously with extended battery life through periodic transmission, eliminating the need for frequent recharging or battery replacement. The low-power periodic mode enables the beacon to service itself for longer periods, reducing maintenance overhead while still providing timely location updates for safety monitoring.
Data Source
AI summary
A geolocationing system and method for providing awareness in a multi-space environment, such as a hospitality environment or educational environment, are presented. In one embodiment of the geolocationing system, a vertical and horizontal array of gateway devices is provided. Each gateway device includes a gateway device identification providing an accurately-known fixed location within the multi-space environment. Each gateway device includes a wireless transceiver that receives a beacon signal from a proximate wireless-enabled personal locator device. The gateway devices, in turn, send gateway signals to a server, which determines estimated location of the wireless-enabled personal locator device.