Gateway Array Geolocation for Hospitality Safety
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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 with a vertical and horizontal array of gateway devices that use wireless transceivers to determine the location of personal locator devices, sending signals to a server for enhanced awareness and safety features, including alert notifications and video/audio feeds.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a geolocationing system with multiple gateway devices is deployed throughout the hospitality environment, then employee safety and awareness are improved through real-time location tracking, but device complexity and system cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system divides the hospitality environment into multiple zones with distributed gateway devices, each handling local beacon tracking independently. This segmentation allows the complex geolocation function to be distributed across multiple simple units rather than requiring one complex centralized system, improving reliability through redundancy while managing complexity through modularity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces beacon devices as intermediaries that employees carry, which simplify the interaction between employees and the gateway infrastructure. These beacons emit signals that gateways can easily detect and process, creating a simple communication protocol that reduces system complexity while enabling reliable location tracking for safety monitoring.
2Measurement precision
If gateway devices are placed in vertical and horizontal arrays throughout the environment, then location accuracy is improved, but device complexity and installation difficulty increase
Solution Approach 1:
The array of gateway devices is segmented into vertical and horizontal subsets, with each gateway independently determining positions in its local area. This segmentation allows accurate location tracking to be achieved through multiple simple distributed units rather than one complex centralized array, improving precision while reducing installation complexity through standardized modular deployment.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses both vertical and horizontal arrays of gateways to create three-dimensional spatial coverage. By adding the vertical dimension to the traditional horizontal array, the system improves location accuracy in multi-story environments without requiring proportionally more devices, optimizing the precision-to-complexity ratio through dimensional expansion.
3Reliability
If the system processes signals from multiple gateways to determine employee location, then awareness and safety monitoring are improved, but loss of time for signal processing increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by having gateway devices continuously monitor and pre-process beacon signals in the background, maintaining ready-to-use location data. When safety monitoring is needed, the system can immediately query pre-processed location information rather than starting signal processing from scratch, reducing response time while maintaining continuous safety monitoring capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements feedback mechanisms where location data from multiple gateways is continuously updated and cross-referenced. This feedback loop allows the system to quickly detect anomalies or safety issues by comparing current position data with expected patterns, enabling rapid response to safety concerns without requiring extensive new signal processing.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The system provides enhanced awareness and safety by accurately locating individuals in real-time, enabling timely alerts and responses, even in areas with limited internet connectivity, thereby improving employee security in hospitality environments.
Implementation Method 1
Each gateway device includes a wireless transceiver that receives a beacon signal from a proximate wireless-enabled personal locator device
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.