DE9005923U1 - Door locking device - Google Patents

Description

PATENT ATTORNEYS

3"

JESSENSTRASSE 4 · D-2000 HAMBURG 50 · TEL (040) 3893501 · FAX 3893502 · TELEX 2166426 pah &pgr; d

DlPL-PHYS. OLE NIEDMERS
DIPL-ING. HANS W. SCHÖNING EUROPEAN PATENT ATTORNEYS

DipT.-*ng. ^r" ¹ fgang Prieseauth, Postkamp 13, 2210
Breitenburg-Nirdoe

Door locking device
Description

The invention relates to a door locking device, in particular for motor vehicle doors, comprising a device for unlocking and locking against each other

moving door parts.
U

The doors of motor vehicles, their trunks, their fuel tank caps, etc. are generally opened and locked with a common key or with different keys. Despite all the improvements made in recent years to increase security against misuse, these keys and the locks that work together with them are still keys and locks of a conventional type. This circumstance has led to the fact that in the

COMMERZBANK AC, BLZ 2OO4OOOO,:SIR.:2b/16OO1 'DtUTeCHE ₁ BANK AC, BLZ 20070000, NK 6565675 POSTCIRO HAMBURG-,-BLZ 2OO-T0020; NR. 13040-205

In recent years, despite undeniable improvements, the number of people who have been able to copy a key with the aim of stealing items stored in the vehicle or even the entire vehicle has increased.

Thefts have increased significantly. Especially in

&pgr; high quality power tools.x. ie a key for

the doors, for the starter, for the trunk and

for the tank cap lock, thieves go like this

&iacgr; that when refueling the vehicle, they must comply with the

_; : Rule with the key provided tank cap closure

quickly and later with this key

steal the entire vehicle.

Attempts have also been made, and in some vehicles it is already common practice, to open the door lock using a radio receiver in the vehicle that is controlled by a transmitter located on the authorized person's premises. A vehicle- or person-specific coding of the transmission signal and the receiver in the vehicle is intended to ensure that no person equipped with a transmitter can open or close the relevant lock in the vehicle without authorization.

This method of securing the doors of motor vehicles also does not meet the objective of securely locking the doors against unauthorized opening, since the basic principle of such anti-theft coding is known and in the context of professional theft, all possible combinations of the coding are played through using a suitably constructed transmitter, so that the vehicle door can be opened within a very short time if the appropriate coding is found.

It is the object of the present invention to create a door locking device which, in comparison with conventional door locking devices, provides a much higher degree of locking security and makes non-destructive opening or locking of the door by unauthorized persons practically impossible, whereby the device should be relatively simple in construction and inexpensive to manufacture, so that it can also be used in motor vehicle interiors.

The object is achieved according to the invention by a sensor for detecting at least one personality-specific fingerprint and a memory connected to the sensor, in which information corresponding to at least one preselected personality-specific fingerprint is stored, wherein the information detected by the sensor corresponding to the personality-specific fingerprint is compared with the information stored in the memory and, if a match is detected, the device is unlocked or locked.

With a door locking device designed in this way, all of the highly complex, personality-specific information contained in a person's fingerprint is used to identify the authorization to open or close a door locking device of a motor vehicle or similar. It is known that a fingerprint is so highly specific to a person that there are practically no identical fingerprints of different people. This resulting high level of security practically completely prevents an unauthorized person from using such a fingerprint.

The door locking device opens and closes, meaning there is practically no duplicate key for unauthorized persons.

The information-providing sensor that records the specific fingerprint can in principle be any suitable sensor that has to have such a high resolution when ^recording that it is able to recognize the complex fingerprint of a person. In principle, such a sensor can be constructed according to the principle of conventional recording tubes, as used in video technology. Due to the extremely small space requirement, their relatively inexpensive availability, their low energy consumption and their high resolution, coupled with the already existing matrix-like arrangement of the individual sensor points, it is very advantageous to form the sensor using a CCD semiconductor element.

Since a relatively large amount of information is required in order to be able to record a person's fingerprint with sufficient accuracy and reproducibility, the memory required for this must have a high storage capacity on the one hand and a fast access capability on the other in order to be able to compare the permanently stored information corresponding to the preselected fingerprint with the information corresponding to the current fingerprint. It has been shown that it is advantageous to form the memory using a semiconductor memory, for example in the form of an EPROM (erasable read-only memory). In principle, however, the memory can also preferably be a magnetic memory.

It is conceivable to compare the information provided by the memory with the information provided by the sensor

Information can be carried out or controlled by a hard-wired digital network or a digital circuit. However, since such hard-wired networks do not allow for later changes, which could be due to the fact that at a later point in time several people should have authorized access to the motor vehicle or similar, or the motor vehicle is sold and the previous person or

a hard-wired control network, at least the essential components of this can be exchanged and replaced with another one. In order to be able to react to such changes without difficulty in any case, it is advantageous to have the comparison of the information supplied by the memory with the information supplied by the sensor carried out by a computer, for example in the form of a microprocessor. Microprocessors, if they are not already present in the vehicle for other purposes and no longer have to be provided separately for these purposes, can nowadays be provided relatively inexpensively and can also be programmed in such a way that they can be adapted to the changed conditions as described _above without difficulty by making minor program changes. In addition, the microprocessor can also take over the entire control sequence of the door locking device without restriction, so that a control or comparison circuit designed in this way can itself be produced and provided relatively simply and therefore inexpensively.

It is in principle possible to obtain the information corresponding to the preselected personality-specific fingerprint via a separate sensor device, which

for the initial reading of this information into the memory, it is however advantageous to have the information corresponding to the preselected personality-specific fingerprint also read into the memory via the sensor already present. An initial coding corresponding to the personality-specific fingerprint can thus be carried out automatically by the controller itself ^{, either} during the handover of a motor vehicle when selling ^it or similar.

It is basically conceivable to provide a sensor for opening the door locking device on a motor vehicle or the like, i.e. a central sensor for all locks. However, since a central sensor would be disadvantageous in some applications, for example in the event of malfunctions caused by mechanical damage, contamination or other influences, it can be advantageous to provide a plurality of sensors that either all have parallel access to the control or storage device of the door locking device, but the sensors can also be connected to the control device or the storage devices in such a way that certain pairs of sensors, which are independent of one another, act together on different or the same control and storage devices. For example, it can be advantageous to group door locking devices on one side of the vehicle and group door locking devices on the other side of the vehicle so that they can be opened or closed independently of one another in the event of malfunctions or the like on one or the other side.

· ·■-- ·> firi Ii it

• · · « &igr; ■!■·

• ·- ■» · «111 I (( I
* ··· « _t » ir«L 4

The invention will now be described with reference to the only schematic drawing using an embodiment. This shows:

The block diagram of a door locking device.

The door locking device 10 essentially consists of a sensor 12, for example in the form of a CCD semiconductor element (CCD = Charged Coupled Device), a device 11 for locking and unlocking, a read-only memory 17 and a read-write memory 17, which are suitably controlled by a computer 15, which can be designed, for example, in the form of a microprocessor.

The sensor 12 is connected to the memory 14 and the buffer 17 to pass on the information in the form of electrical signals that correspond to the personality-specific fingerprint of a preselected, authorized person and the information corresponding to the fingerprint 13 of the person who wants to operate the door locking device 10. The computer 15 is connected via control lines to both the memory 14 and the buffer 17 and via an output information line to the switch 16, which, based on an enable or lock signal supplied by the computer 15, operates the device 11 for unlocking and locking a door device (not shown separately). The device 11 is designed as an electromagnetic device that can be moved back and forth according to the arrow and symbolically represents the function of the device. It is of course also possible to use the device 10, for example, in the form of a

f Il &bgr;»

f I · i

i t t t a

C| III I Λ

Electric motor or an electrically operated stepper motor, so that the design shown here is to be regarded as merely an example. The device II is operated in a suitable manner by means of a power stage connected upstream, consisting of an amplifier and a power transistor, via a relay controlled by the amplifier.

The computer 15 is connected to a program memory 19, into which a program, suitably prepared according to the arrow 20, for controlling the computer 17 or the overall sequence control of the door locking device 10 can be read.

By means of suitable known measures, which are not described separately here, the read memory 14, which is designed, for example, in the form of an EPROM (Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory), is set to zero, as is the buffer memory 17, which is designed in the form of a RAM (Random Access Memory). The computer is controlled by the software program read at its input 20 in such a way that the fingerprint 13 of an authorized person is first written into the read memory 14. For this purpose, the authorized person touches the light-sensitive active side of the sensor 12 with their finger 18 to recognize the fingerprint 13. It should be noted at this point that it is also possible to make the coding of the authorized person or persons dependent on the comparison of several fingers in order to cause the door locking device 10 to lock and unlock in the desired manner. For the sake of simplicity, however, only the functional sequence 1m related to the enrollment of a fingerprint

corresponding information as well as the recognition of the fingerprint after registration.

After the information corresponding to the authorized first fingerprint 13 has been written into the read-write memory 14, the computer 5 controls the device 11 for locking and locking according to the arrow in such a way that a corresponding signal for actuating our device 11 on the switch 1 is only delivered if the finger 1B, which is subsequently tapped on the sensor 12 or brought close to it, recognizes the finger 1 as authorized to actuate the transceiver device 1. In this process, the sensor 12 of the person's fingerprint 13 sends information corresponding to it to the read-write buffer 17. After the information has been written, the information from the buffer 17 and the memory 14 is read and compared according to the program control by the computer 15. If the computer 15 determines, after the comparison process has been completed, that the fingerprint 13 corresponds to the one that was originally written into the memory 14 (see above), a signal is sent to the switch 16 so that the device 11 is actuated, whereby this actuation can be a locking and an unlocking step. If the computer 15 does not recognize that the information in the memory 14 corresponds to the information subsequently read in from the buffer 17, no signal is sent to the switch 16.

It should also be mentioned at this point that the program loaded in the program memory 19 for controlling the computer 15 or the comparison process is designed in such a way that the position of the finger relative to the in principle fixed location in the vehicle or the like

Sensor 12 is independent. The program memory 19

loaded program is so flexible that rotations of the

Fingers 18 are recognized and taken into account in the evaluation > The program also largely takes into account

Tolerances that inevitably vary with different

j solid Aßdruetf. of F*53&ogr;rs ^&Lgr; 8 to the sensitive

|i sensor surface, which naturally results in an expansion of the

Finger lines, albeit minor, result

'; The program also detects via sensor 12 whether

':■ the finger 18 is sufficiently close or completely

the sensitive surface of the sensor 12. Finally, the program is designed in such a way that if a predetermined distance of the finger 18 relative to the sensitive surface of the sensor 12 is not maintained, no evaluation takes place, so that as a result the door locking device 10 cannot be operated. The user must then touch the sensor 12 again with his finger 18 or approach it in a predetermined manner.

· * II 9 1

Reference number1

10 Door locking device

11 Device for unlocking and locking

12 Sensor

13 Fingerprint

14 Storage

15 computers

16 switches

17 Cache

18 fingers

19 Program memory

Claims (7)

a\TEN !LAWYERS Dipl.-Ing. Wolfgang Priesemuth, Postkamp 13, 2210 Breitenburg-Nordoe Door locking device COMMERZBANK AG, BLZ 200400*&bgr;&bgr;| fJR^2^/3600/1 --OfcHfSOHE;BANK AG, BLZ 20070000, NO. 6565675 POSTGIROO KAMBÜRG\*BLZ ^# 20tf10020; NO. 13048-205 lESSENSTRASjf 4 · D-2000 HAMBURG ^r .O TEl (040)38935 01 ■ FAX 389 3502 TELEX 2166 426 pahn d DIPL-PHYS. OLE NIEDMERS | DIPL-ING. HANS W. SCHÖNINC j FUROPfANPArENTATH)KNEYS 1. Door locking device, in particular for motor vehicle doors, a device ^{for unlocking} and locking door parts ^that can move relative to one another, characterized by a sensor for detecting at least one personality-specific fingerprint (13) and a memory (14) connected to the sensor (12) in which information corresponding to at least one preselected personality-specific fingerprint is stored, the information detected by the sensor (12) corresponding to the personality-specific fingerprint being compared with the information stored in the memory (14) and, if a match is detected, the device (11) being unlocked or locked. 2. Door locking device according to claim 1, characterized in that the sensor (12) is formed by a CCD half-element. 3. Door locking device according to one or both of claims 1 or 2, characterized in that the memory (14) is formed by a magnetic memory. 4. Door locking device according to one or more of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the memory (14) is formed by a semiconductor memory. 5. Door locking device according to one or more of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that the comparison of the information supplied by the memory (14) with the information supplied by the sensor (12) is controlled by a computer (15). 6. Door locking device according to one or more of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that the information corresponding to the preselected personality-specific fingerprint can be read into the memory (14) via the sensor (12). 7. Door locking device according to one or more of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that it comprises a plurality of sensors (12).