It is arguably one goal of technology to reconcile conflicting needs. One example of conflicting needs, which have been recognized as requiring reconciling are the needs of persons to have available to them emergency assistance and care while at the same time to, maintain freedom and privacy. The need for emergency assistance and the need for freedom and privacy may not always appear to conflict; however, as the need for emergency assistance or care becomes more imminent or probable, the conflict becomes more real. Examples of this real conflict are lived out daily in the lives of millions of elderly persons who, as they increase in age, become more and more dependent upon the availability of quick-responding assistance or regular care while at the same time retaining the desire and need for the freedom to move about and the privacy to lead their own lives in dignity. Other examples of these real conflicts may be witnessed in the lives of persons with medical problems which require either rapid, emergency assistance, or regular observation and care. Numerous other examples of this real conflict do exist but need not be specifically outlined here.
In its worst case scenario, the Affected Person (i.e. the elderly or medical patients) had to choose between (1) constant care and ever present assistance at the loss of freedom of movement and privacy, or (2) freedom of movement and privacy at the risk of damaging health, frightening injury and even death. The broadly defined industry of monitoring and surveilence has, over the years, provided various technological advances to lessen the harsh dichotomy of the worst case scenario. One such advance was the "nurse call" system which exists in most hospitals and nursing homes today. A problem with these nurse call systems is that they are direct-access systems which require the patient or elderly resident to move to a call button to activate the nurse call. Thus, if the person is injured and unable to move to the button, the injury goes undetected. Thus, in facilities equipped with nurse call buttons only, the Affected Person is confined to a space (i.e. bed) within reach of the call button or to an apartment or room in close proximity to the call button. There are numerous types of emergency alert systems in existence which use small radio transmitters, pendants or wristwatches to communicate with a receiver in order to help the Affected Person free himself/herself from the restricted confines of the direct-access nurse call system. The transmitter of these existing radio linked alert systems are typically coded to a particular receiver located in the room of the Affected Person, and only that receiver matches the particular transmitter. Furthermore, the transmitters typically are restricted to a 100 to 200 foot range and, thus, subject the Affected Person to the confines of a defined, limited area surrounding his/her room. It is also noted that these radio linked emergency alert systems are typically constructed such that the receiver is hard-wired back to a central phone system which dials out to another phone number using the normal phone switch system and phone lines. Thus, among other problems: if the Affected Person leaves the confines of the limited transmission area, he/she cannot communicate an emergency need using the transmitter; or if a phone in the apartment were knocked off the hook or was otherwise out-of-order the transmitter would also not work.
From the point of view of the potential care giver, such as a nursing facility, the existing, radio linked alert systems are, perhaps, less valuable than the direct-access nurse call systems since many facilities might prefer that their alert system be hard-wired to a central point which can be monitored 24 hours a day, rather than depending upon the operation and ability of telephone lines. For the benefit of such facilities, numerous hard-wired communication systems do exist. They generally take the form of a modem at each end utilizing a carrier signal with, generally, frequency shift keying type communications transferring data over a 2-wire line system similar to a telephone line. Such systems have been found to become less acceptable as the number of apartments (or rooms) within a facility increases, since the system becomes more complex and much more expensive as additional locations are added.
User activated devices such as those mentioned above, do not address circumstances where the Affected Person requires possible care due to fainting, extreme weakness, or a fall out of reach of their transmitter. In an effort to address this concern, the industry has provided "activity monitors" which indicate, for example, when a person has opened the door. In this way, a facility can know to check up on an Affected Person if there has been no indication of the monitored activity over a certain period of time. Presently, the number and type of activities which can be monitored are limited by the time and expense of wiring each and every "activity monitor" to some central point where they can all be observed on a 24-hour basis. The expense and complexity of installing all of these individual activity monitors and their related wiring render effective use of such activity monitors difficult to afford for new facilities and practically prohibitive to install as retrofit devices in existing facilities.
Matters become even more complicated, in both new and retrofit applications, if the facility desires to have both user activated monitoring devices (such as a transmitter system) and various other monitoring devices such as activity monitors. The complexity becomes, under the prior art, a seemingly overwelming task both in physical complexities and in expense.