Health-Based Room Access Control Using Environmental Sensors
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Solution Overview
Problem
In closed spaces like cruise ships, where large numbers of people occupy the same area for extended periods, maintaining healthy environments is challenging due to the prevalence of viruses and other pathogens, as well as adverse conditions such as high humidity, temperature, and noise levels, which existing access control systems fail to address effectively.
Innovation Solution
A system comprising multi-sensors deployed throughout a building to monitor characteristics like humidity, temperature, and noise, communicating with a building management system that determines unhealthy conditions and prevents authorized access to affected areas, while also notifying users and controlling door access, fire/water doors, and directing users to safety.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If traditional key card access control systems are used, then user access convenience is maintained, but user health and safety cannot be ensured in unhealthy environments
Solution Approach 1:
The system continuously monitors environmental parameters (temperature, humidity, air quality) and uses this feedback to dynamically control access. When unhealthy conditions are detected, the system automatically prevents access to affected areas, creating a closed-loop control system that prioritizes health while maintaining convenience through automated decision-making
Solution Approach 2:
The building management system acts as an intermediary between the environmental monitoring sensors and the access control system. It receives environmental data, processes it to determine health status, and then communicates access decisions to the key card system, enabling health-based access control without requiring direct integration between monitoring and access systems
2Reliability
If environmental monitoring is added to access control systems, then user health can be protected, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The building management system is designed to perform multiple functions: environmental monitoring, health status determination, access control management, and user notification. By consolidating these functions into a single integrated platform, the system avoids the complexity of separate independent systems while providing comprehensive health-based access control
Solution Approach 2:
The system merges environmental sensing capabilities with existing access control infrastructure. Rather than adding completely separate monitoring and control systems, the patent integrates environmental sensors into the building management system and combines their output with access control logic, reducing overall system complexity through functional consolidation
Data Source
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AI summary
A system for environmental monitoring and user health is provided. The system includes a multi-sensor (210) deployed in a local space (230) of a building to sense multiple characteristics of the local space (230) and a building management system (220) receptive of signals from the multi-sensor (210), the signals being indicative of the multiple characteristics sensed by the multi-sensor (210). The building management system (220) is configured to determine whether the local space (230) is exhibiting an unhealthy condition based on the signals and to prevent user access, which would be otherwise authorized, to the local space (230) exhibiting the unhealthy condition while the unhealthy condition persists.