# US 12,112,610 B2 · Audible alarm signal detectors

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- Number: US 12,112,610 B2
- Document ID: US12112610B2
- Status: Granted
- Kind: B2
- Application number: 18/091,104
- Filed: 2022-12-29
- Published: 2024-07-04
- Granted: 2024-10-08
- Earliest claimed: 2022-12-29
- Assignees: The ADT Security Corporation
- Applicants: The ADT Security Corporation
- Inventors: Michael A. Arnao
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US12112610B2

## CPC

- G08B 25/00: Alarm systems in which the location of the alarm condition is signalled to a central station, e.g. fire or police telegraphic systems
- G01H 3/08: Analysing frequencies present in complex vibrations, e.g. comparing harmonics present {(acoustic presence detection G01V1/001)}
- G06F 3/16: Sound input; Sound output (speech processing G10L)
- G06F 18/26: Discovering frequent patterns
- G08B 1/08: using electric transmission {; transformation of alarm signals to electrical signals from a different medium, e.g. transmission of an electric alarm signal upon detection of an audible alarm signal}
- G08B: SIGNALLING SYSTEMS, e.g. PERSONAL CALLING SYSTEMS; ORDER TELEGRAPHS; ALARM SYSTEMS
- G01H: MEASUREMENT OF MECHANICAL VIBRATIONS OR ULTRASONIC, SONIC OR INFRASONIC WAVES
- G06F: ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING (computer systems based on specific computational models G06N)

## Abstract

A device is provided. The device includes processing circuitry configured to detect an audio signal associated with an alarm event, generate a spectrogram using a plurality of input samples of the audio signal where the spectrogram includes a plurality of spectral bins, select one of the plurality of spectral bins associated with a predefined frequency range, perform edge detection on the selected one of the plurality of spectral bins, perform pattern detection based on the edge detection, determine the audio signal corresponds to an audio alarm signal based on the pattern detection, and trigger an action in response to determining that the audio signal corresponds to an audio alarm signal.

## Claims

### Claim 1

A device, comprising:
processing circuitry configured to:
detect an audio signal associated with an alarm event;
generate a spectrogram using a plurality of input samples of the audio signal;
generate a plurality of spectral bins based on the spectrogram, each spectral bin being a time-magnitude bin corresponding to a respective frequency range over a predefined time period in the spectrogram;
select one of the plurality of spectral bins associated with a predefined frequency range;
determine a plurality of pulse-edge characteristics of the selected one of the plurality of spectral bins by at least performing edge detection on the selected one of the plurality of spectral bins;
perform pattern detection based on the plurality of pulse-edge characteristics of the selected one of the plurality of spectral bins;
determine the audio signal corresponds to an audio alarm signal based on the pattern detection; and
trigger an action in response to determining that the audio signal corresponds to an audio alarm signal.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The device of claim 1, wherein the plurality of pulse-edge characteristics comprises a plurality of pulse-edge times and directions, and wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to perform the pattern detection based on the plurality of pulse-edge characteristics.

### Claim 3 (depends on 1)

The device of claim 1, wherein the plurality of pulse-edge characteristics comprises a sample index and a value of each signal peak that exceeds a threshold.

### Claim 4 (depends on 1)

The device of claim 1, wherein the spectrogram is configured to contain at least one time period of a predefined temporal pattern associated with the audio alarm signal.

### Claim 5 (depends on 1)

The device of claim 1, wherein the action comprises causing transmission of a notification that indicates an alarm sensor has triggered an alarm.

### Claim 6 (depends on 5)

The device of claim 5, wherein the device is not configured to be in data communication with the alarm sensor.

### Claim 7 (depends on 1)

The device of claim 1, wherein the pattern detection is performed based on a pattern detection criterion associated with one of a plurality of audio alarm signal types, each audio alarm signal type being associated with a respective pattern detection criterion.

### Claim 8 (depends on 7)

The device of claim 7, wherein the one of the plurality of audio alarm signal types comprises:
a fire alarm;
a smoke alarm; or
a carbon monoxide alarm.

### Claim 9

A method implemented by a device, the method comprising:
detecting an audio signal associated with an alarm event;
generating a spectrogram using a plurality of input samples of the audio signal;
generating a plurality of spectral bins based on the spectrogram, each spectral bin being a time-magnitude bin corresponding to a respective frequency range over a predefined time period in the spectrogram;
selecting one of the plurality of spectral bins associated with a predefined frequency range;
determining a plurality of pulse-edge characteristics of the selected one of the plurality of spectral bins by at least performing edge detection on the selected one of the plurality of spectral bins;
performing pattern detection based on the plurality of pulse-edge characteristics of the selected one of the plurality of spectral bins;
determining the audio signal corresponds to an audio alarm signal based on the pattern detection; and
triggering an action in response to determining that the audio signal corresponds to an audio alarm signal.

### Claim 10 (depends on 9)

The method of claim 9, wherein the plurality of pulse-edge characteristics comprises a plurality of pulse-edge times and directions, and wherein the method further comprises performing the pattern detection based on the plurality of pulse-edge characteristics.

### Claim 11 (depends on 9)

The method of claim 9, wherein the plurality of pulse-edge characteristics comprises a sample index and a value of each signal peak that exceeds a threshold.

### Claim 12 (depends on 9)

The method of claim 9, wherein the spectrogram is configured to contain at least one time period of a predefined temporal pattern associated with the audio alarm signal.

### Claim 13 (depends on 9)

The method of claim 9, wherein the action comprises causing transmission of a notification that indicates an alarm sensor has triggered an alarm.

### Claim 14 (depends on 13)

The method of claim 13, wherein the device is not configured to be in data communication with the alarm sensor.

### Claim 15 (depends on 9)

The method of claim 9, wherein the pattern detection is performed based on a pattern detection criterion associated with one of a plurality of audio alarm signal types, each audio alarm signal type being associated with a respective pattern detection criterion.

### Claim 16 (depends on 15)

The method of claim 15, wherein the one of the plurality of audio alarm signal types comprises:
a fire alarm;
a smoke alarm; or
a carbon monoxide alarm.