WO2018178953A1

WO2018178953A1 - An accessory for providing a dynamically changeable alarm signal in an alarm installation

Info

Publication number: WO2018178953A1
Application number: PCT/IB2018/052243
Authority: WO
Inventors: Marius de Wet DE VILLIERS
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2017-03-31
Filing date: 2018-03-31
Publication date: 2018-10-04
Anticipated expiration: 2019-09-30
Also published as: GB2560992A; GB201705244D0; ZA201906436B

Abstract

An accessory (100) for an alarm installation (102) is provided. The alarm installation (102) comprises at least one automatic sensor (107) and an alarm control unit adapted to detect when an automatic sensor has been triggered and provide a first output (109) for activating a first warning signal generated by a first signal emitting device (106). The alarm control unit may be adapted to monitor the trigger event. The accessory (100) receives either a second output from the alarm installation or an output from a manually operable trigger (108) based on personal observation as a second input to the accessory (100) which activates a second warning signal generated by the first (106) or a second signal emitting device (127). The second warning signal is distinguishable from the first signal and is configured to have at least one characteristic that conveys that a situation or location is requiring urgent attention.

Description

AN ACCESSORY FOR PROVIDING A DYNAMICALLY CHANGEABLE ALARM SIGNAL IN

AN ALARM INSTALLATION

CROSS-REFERENCE(S) TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority from United Kingdom patent application number 1705244.0 filed on 31 March 2017, which is incorporated by reference herein. FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to an alarm installation and components thereof that can enable a change in the output characteristics and behavior of the alarm according to the types of warning inputs and especially plural inputs which may be of different types.

In particular, the invention relates to an accessory for an alarm installation that can be retrofitted to existing alarms. The device can typically provide warnings in audible, visual or electronic signal format although it is not limited to such formats. The invention is therefore concerned with alarms that include audible alarms including synthesized and real voice recordings; visible alarms including flashing lights and light pattern pulses; as well as electronic signaling to remote fixed installations or to mobile devices carried by individuals.

BACKGROUND TO THE INVENTION Alarms are typically audible and follow a general standard in the form of a single "warble" type of sound commonly in use world-wide with only a few exceptions.

Commercially available sirens or other sound based warning devices are normally only available in a single tone or repeating series of tones according to the application such as intruder alarms or ambulance alarms. If a siren is linked to an alarm at a fixed installation then it will only sound that same single or repeated series of tones for a duration dictated by a preprogrammed timer. Existing warning technologies include the common functions of delayed local alarm siren warning after a trigger event, variable sound duration, continuous or pulsed local flashing or strobe lights and electronic signals transmitted to a remote monitoring center or mobile receiver. None of the methods mentioned above of which applicant is aware offer an intelligent device that can vary the warning signal or combination of output signals to indicate to users or others in the coverage area or in communication with a scenario that exists that it is different from that ordinarily indicated by the standard alarm. Electronic signaling to a monitoring center in existing systems only provides additional information as regards the site of the alarm such as information as to a specific circuit that was triggered.

The standard practice is to link one standard type of outdoor alarm siren to any alarm system, with the option of adding a "sound bomb", which is just another high-pitched siren for indoor use and in a commercial installation it may be a motorized siren. Current systems and individual components available do not present the option to the user or installer for customizing the alarm to change the output dynamically during any security or safety event.

The preceding discussion of the background to the invention is intended only to facilitate an understanding of the present invention. It should be appreciated that the discussion is not an acknowledgment or admission that any of the material referred to was part of the common general knowledge in the art as at the priority date of the application.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In accordance with a first aspect of the invention there is provided an accessory for an alarm installation comprising an electronic circuit having: at least one input for receiving a first output from an alarm installation in which at least one automatic sensor is connected to an alarm control unit adapted to detect when an automatic sensor experiences a trigger event, and for receiving a second output from one or more of the alarm installation, a manually operable trigger based on personal observation and a peripheral monitoring device; and at least one output for driving one or more signal emitting devices for generating a first warning signal when it receives the first output, and for driving the one or more signal emitting devices for generating a second warning signal when it receives a second output from one or more of the alarm installation, the manually operable trigger and the peripheral monitoring device, wherein the second warning signal is distinguishable from the first warning signal and has at least one characteristic that conveys that a situation requiring urgent attention exists. A further feature of this aspect of the invention provides for the accessory to be configured to provide any number of consecutive, dynamically changeable driving signals to one or more signal emitting devices. Further features of this aspect of the invention provides for the signal emitting devices to be sound emitting devices and the signals emitted to be audible signals; for the second audible signal to be configured to be emitted in sequential bursts interposed between sequential bursts of the first audible signal; for the second audible signal to include information as to the change in the trigger event or a characteristic associated with the cause for activating the manually operable trigger; for the second audible signal to include synthesized or recorded words that draw attention to any one of the change in the trigger event, the location of the alarm installation or a person activating the manually operable trigger, the cause of the manually operable trigger having been activated, and any combination thereof; for the signal emitting device to be a loudspeaker; and for the first signal emitting device to be a siren.

Yet further features of the first aspect of the invention provides for communication from the manually operable trigger to be either hard wired or wireless; and for the accessory to include additional communications facilities including a mobile telephone communications facility for communicating information regarding triggering of the alarm installation to a remote mobile telephone or other communications device.

Still further features of the first aspect of the invention provides for the accessory to be configured for installation into an existing alarm control unit in which instance the accessory does not necessarily have its own housing; or for the accessory to be configured as a plug-in separate unit.

In a preferred embodiment, the accessory is for an intruder alarm installation that is configured to detect the presence of an intruder and the automatic sensor is adapted to be triggered by an intruder.

In accordance with a second aspect of the invention there is provided an intruder alarm installation comprising at least one automatic intruder sensor, an intruder alarm control unit adapted to detect when an automatic intruder sensor of the at least one automatic intruder sensor has been triggered and provide a first output for activating a first audible signal generated by a first sound emitting device, and a manually operable trigger for providing a second input to the intruder alarm control unit based on personal observation that is configured to cause the alarm control unit to provide a second output for activating the first or a second sound emitting device to emit a second audible signal that is distinguishable from the first audible signal and is configured to have at least one characteristic that conveys that a situation or location is requiring urgent attention. Further features of the second aspect of the invention provide for the second audible signal to be configured to be emitted in sequential bursts interposed between sequential bursts of the first audible signal; for the second audible signal to include information as to a characteristic associated with the cause for activating the manually operable trigger with the audible signal optionally including synthesized or recorded words that either draw attention to the location of the intruder alarm installation or person activating the manually operable trigger or as to the cause of the manually operable trigger having been activated, or both; for a second sound emitting device to be a loudspeaker; for the first sound emitting device to be a conventional siren; for the second input and second output to be either built into the intruder alarm control unit or to be associated with a separate accessory unit retrofitted to an existing intruder alarm control unit either internally of that unit or externally thereof in which instance it will typically have its own housing; for communication between the automatic intruder sensors and the intruder alarm control unit to be either hard wired or wireless; and for communication between the manually operable trigger and the intruder alarm control unit or accessory, as the case may be, to be either hard wired or wireless.

Still further features of the second aspect of the invention provide for the intruder alarm control unit or accessory, as the case may be, to include additional communications facilities including a mobile telephone communications facility for communicating information regarding triggering of the intruder alarm installation as defined above to a remote mobile telephone or other communications device that may be either landline based or wireless; and for the invention to be integrated into any appropriate more extensive security or control system or installation.

Embodiments of the invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of an accessory for an alarm installation; Figure 2 is a block diagram of an intruder alarm installation that is integrated into a single unit; and

Figure 3 is a block diagram of an embodiment in which an accessory is added to an existing intruder alarm installation.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION WITH REFERENCE TO THE DRAWINGS

An accessory for an alarm installation is provided as shown in Figure 1 . The accessory (100) may be installed or retrofitted to an alarm installation (102) such as an intruder alarm installation, a fire alarm installation, a warning alarm installation used in respect of machinery and the like. The accessory (100) for an alarm installation (102) includes an electronic processing circuit (104) having an input signals interface (103) providing a first input (107) for receiving an output from an alarm installation (102) in which at least one automatic sensor is connected to an alarm control unit adapted to detect when an automatic sensor has been triggered. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that reference here to a "first input" is not limited to a single, physical first input, but rather simply refers to a first input signal which could be received by the accessory from any number of signal outputs from the alarm installation (102). The accessory includes a first output (109) for controlling a first signal emitting device (106) from the alarm installation (102) for generating a first warning signal when it receives a signal from the alarm installation (102) corresponding to a first output from the alarm installation generated in response to an automatic sensor having been triggered. The first signal emitting device (106) may previously have been connected to and driven directly from the alarm installation device (102) as is indicated by broken line (101 ). It will be appreciated that the first signal emitting device may also form part of the accessory rather than the alarm installation in other embodiments.

The input signals interface (103) of the accessory (100) is configured to receive a second input, triggered as a second output from the alarm installation (102), or from a manually or automatically operable additional trigger (108) based on personal observation or other automated detection. It will likewise be clear to those skilled in the art that the second input may be received by the input signals interface (103) of the accessory (100) over the same or a different signal output from the alarm installation (102), or from a manually operable trigger (108), or even from a completely separate alarm signal triggering device.

The second output from the alarm installation (102) may be generated in response to a different trigger event detected by the same or a different automatic sensor or in response to a change in a characteristic of the trigger event detected by the same or a different automatic sensor that monitors the trigger event. In the latter case, the automatic sensor may be adapted to monitor the trigger event so that the alarm control unit of the alarm installation (102) is able to detect a change in the trigger event and provide a second, updated output when there is a change in the status or severity of the trigger event. In the event that a different trigger event is detected by the alarm installation, a second automatic sensor of the same or a different type forming part of the alarm installation (102) may detect a different type of trigger event.

The second input to the accessory (100) may result from an output from at least one manually operable trigger (108) enabling a user to verify or provide further information about the trigger event to the electronic processing circuit (104) of the accessory (100).

The accessory (100) includes an output device driver (105) configured to provide a second output signal for driving either the first signal emitting device (106) or a second signal emitting device (127) for generating a second warning signal corresponding to receipt of the second input when it receives either a second output from the alarm installation (102) generated in response to a change in the trigger event, or in response to the manually operable trigger (108) having been activated, or in response to an output from one or more further peripheral monitoring devices. This second warning signal is distinguishable from the first warning signal and has at least one characteristic that conveys that a situation requiring urgent attention exists.

The signal emitting devices (106, 127) may be sound emitting devices, light emitting devices or electronic signal emitting devices or combinations thereof. In a preferable embodiment the signal emitting device may be a sound emitting device that emits audible signals. In the event that a sound emitting device is used, the second audible signal may be emitted in sequential bursts interposed between sequential bursts of the first audible signal. Alternatively, the second audible signal may be completely different from the first audible signal, as dictated by the processing unit and transmitted via the output device driver. The second audible signal may include information about a characteristic associated with the cause for activating the manually operable trigger (108) in other words it may be used to identify the type of trigger event. It may also be used to convey information regarding a change in the trigger event such as the movement of the intruder as monitored by the automatic sensors of the alarm installation (102) or the spreading or growth of a fire by monitoring temperature with automatic sensors for example. In another embodiment the second audible signal may convey information about an entirely separate event that took place as detected by a separate, peripheral sensor. This information may be conveyed by the second audible signal itself which is configured to be recognised by a user so as to be associated with a particular type, status or severity of a trigger event. Alternatively, the second audible signal may include synthesized or recorded words that draw attention to any one of the change in the trigger event, the location of the alarm installation or a person activating the manually operable trigger, the cause of the manually operable trigger having been activated, and any combination thereof. The second signal emitting device (127) may be a loudspeaker for example, whilst the first signal emitting device (106) may be a siren. In a preferred embodiment all audible output signals may be output over a single speaker, the choice of which output signal is being output being determined by the processing unit and output to the speaker via the output device driver. It will be appreciated that different output signals may be selected and configured in software running on the processing unit (104), according to a user's preferences.

The accessory (100) may be configured for installation into an existing alarm control unit in which instance the accessory may not necessarily have its own housing or the accessory may be configured as a plug-in separate unit.

The accessory (100) may be used for an intruder alarm installation that is configured to detect the presence of an intruder and the at least one automatic sensor is selected to be of the type that gets triggered by an intruder. It will also be appreciated that the inputs to the input signals interface (103) may originate from any appropriate devices, but that in a preferred embodiment of the invention the input signals will most likely originate from one or more outputs of an existing alarm installation configured with one or more outputs for driving conventional signal emitting devices. In addition to, or instead of, outputs from existing alarm installations, the input signals to the accessory (100) may also originate from one or more peripheral monitoring devices.

It is also foreseen that the time for which a given output signal will be emitted to a signal emitting device, and hence the time for which the signal will be emitted, may be pre-configured, but may also be manually interruptible by a user.

The functionality of the accessory (100) may also be fully integrated into an intruder alarm installation.

An intruder alarm installation (201 ) is illustrated in Figure 2 and comprises a series of automatic intruder sensors (202) that may be of any type connected to an input signals interface (203) and thence to an intruder alarm control unit central processing unit (204) adapted to detect when an automatic intruder sensor of the at least one automatic intruder sensor has been triggered. The central processing unit is adapted to provide a first output for activating, by way of output device drivers (205), a first audible signal generated by a first sound emitting device (206).

There are only three sensors (202) indicated in Figure 1 , but there could obviously be very many of different types and functions as is the case with existing intruder alarm installations. The nature of the sensors is irrelevant to the invention but could be of any sort such as hermetically sealed reed switches; passive infrared detectors; ultrasonic detectors; microwave detectors; motion sensors; compact surveillance radar; photo-electric beams; glass break detectors; smoke, heat, and carbon monoxide detectors; driveway alarms; vibration or inertia sensors; passive magnetic field detectors; microwave barriers; microphone based systems; taut wire fence systems; and security electric fences.

As provided by this invention, there are, in addition, in this instance two different manually operable triggers one of which is in the form of a mobile remote panic switch (208) and the other of which is a fixed panic switch (209) for providing second inputs to the intruder alarm control unit based on personal observation of a person actually present in the environment that is being protected. Of course, any number of such manually operable triggers could be used and could form part of the intruder alarm installation of the invention. In particular, it should be noted that the mobile remote panic switch could be replaced by, or used in addition to, a mobile telephone (210) having a suitable software application that renders it usable as a manually operable trigger in exactly the same way as the stand alone remote panic switch.

The alarm installation is configured to cause the alarm control unit to provide a second output for activating the first (206) or a second sound emitting device (21 1 ) that preferably has the characteristics of a loudspeaker, to emit a second audible signal that is distinguishable from the first audible signal and is configured to have at least one characteristic that conveys information to the effect that a situation is requiring urgent attention, or that an existing situation has changed, been augmented and/or confirmed by a user. In a scenario where a second sound emitting device (21 1 ) is utilized, it may preferably be configured to emit sound in sequential bursts interposed between sequential bursts of the first audible signal. More likely, however, a second output may be provided to the same sound emitting device (206) which causes the device (206) to emit an altered or augmented audible signal.

Whilst the first audible signal can conveniently be a conventional alarm siren, the second audible signal preferably, at least for residential areas, may be audibly distinct from the first signal or may even include audible information as to a characteristic associated with the location or cause for activating the manually operable trigger to activate the second audible signal. Such a second audible signal may include synthesized or recorded words that either draw attention to the location of the intruder alarm installation or at least the location of a person activating the manually operable trigger. Thus, the second audible signal could include an address identifying the locality of the alarm and thus, for example, it could include the words "No 10 Barrymore" or similar information. Alternatively, or in addition, words could be used to indicate the cause of the manually operable trigger having been activated. Preferably, a composite message could be emitted by the second sound emitting device such as "Intruder in No 10".

It will be appreciated that the automatic intruder sensors and the intruder alarm control unit may be either hard wired or wireless and the communication between the manually operable trigger and the intruder alarm control unit be either hard wired or wireless. As indicated above, the installation may include additional communications facilities including a transmitter (212) for communicating with a mobile telephone (213) so as to be capable of communicating information regarding triggering of the intruder alarm installation as described above. Such a communication would be wireless in the case of a mobile telephone such as a cellphone.

Communications could be by way of a telephone line (PSTN), ADSL line, Long-Range Alarm Radio, GPRS Alarm Radio, Wi-Fi or any suitable Internet connection interface. The connection format may be of direct level activated logical triggers, serial communication including contact- ID format or any other suitable format required by the transmission equipment.

Implementation of this invention enables inputs as received from existing alarm and emergency equipment to be processed according to a pre-determined, and possibly user defined, pattern and logic whereby the output drivers will then activate the warning devices appropriately. The input connections to the existing alarm or other safety or security monitoring equipment are thus monitored and would typically be digital with the logical on/off or high/low status only. However, these inputs may also operate in an analogue fashion to accept variable status inputs from the likes of temperature, position indication or other equipment with an analogue output representing true status values instead of logical status. The output device drivers may include a visual indicator (215) that may be a light, strobe or other suitable visual indicator. This indicator may be used for the purpose of giving a visual warning to users, tenants, bystanders or response personnel. Normally the alarm will sound if any detection zone is activated in the armed state or any panic button is pressed at any time. The siren will sound with the standard, possibly user-defined, fixed alarm tone and stop after the pre-programmed time. However, as provided by this invention there may be a change if a user at the relevant premises visually or otherwise verifies that an intruder is indeed present, the manually operated trigger can be activated in the manner of a panic button. This additional activation will then escalate the level inside the intruder alarm central processing unit (4) to a burglary and/or panic condition and the output would be changed accordingly. The central processing unit will then start to sound the alarm tone and interrupt it periodically, say every 2 to 10 seconds or any other suitable time with a pre-recorded and programmed voice message for example which in this case may confirm the presence of an Intruder. This alarm signal, followed by the voice message will be repeated until the preprogrammed maximum siren time is reached. It will be appreciated that instead of a voice message the alarm signal may simply be changed to a different alarm signal which is audibly distinct from the first. The different alarm signals may be preselected and/or configured to a user's specification and may be controlled with software operating on the central processing unit (204).

To comply with any local municipal or other regulatory laws or requirements, this alarm siren time may follow the alarm panel pre-programmed time as programmed by the alarm installer at the time of installation and may also be manually interruptible by a user.

All voice messages may be pre-recorded or synthesized and stored in digitized format in a solid state memory section (218) of the installation. The messages may be triggered by any predetermined sequence of input events and recalled from the memory, processed and converted to signals which are then sent to a loudspeaker driver. The loudspeaker driver may consist of an audio amplifier and output stage suitable to drive a high-powered outdoor loudspeaker. All logical sequences, actions and processing logic required to make the installation work may be permanently programmed into the central processing unit (204) at the time of manufacture, or may be configurable by software programmed into the central processing unit (204). As described above with reference to Figure 1 , and with reference now to Figure 3 of the drawings, a separate accessory unit (321 ) may be retrofitted to an existing intruder alarm installation (322) either internally of that unit or externally thereof in which instance it will typically have its own housing. The accessory includes an electronic processing unit (323) having a first input for receiving an output from the intruder alarm installation in which at least one automatic intruder sensor (302) is connected to an intruder alarm control unit (304) adapted to detect when an automatic intruder sensor of the at least one automatic intruder sensor has been triggered. It should be appreciated that the intruder alarm system may have multiple outputs or configured to provide a variety of different output signals, and that any or all such output signals may be connected as inputs to the processing unit (323) of the accessory, or via the input signal interface (324) of the accessory. An input signal interface (324) of the accessory may also be configured to receive additional inputs from one or more manually or peripheral automatically operable triggers, that could be selected form the same as those described above, namely a mobile remote panic switch (308); a fixed panic switch (309), a mobile telephone (310) or other peripheral devices. A first output from the accessory may send control signals to a first sound emitting device (325), or other signal emitting device previously associated with the alarm system, for generating a first signal when it receives a signal from the intruder alarm installation corresponding to an output generated in response to an automatic intruder sensor having been triggered. A second output may be fed to a second output device driver (326) from the accessory and drive either the first or an alternative signal emitting device (327) for generating the second signal in response to the manually operable trigger, or other automatically triggered peripheral device, having been activated.

While the present invention has been described in terms of particular embodiments and applications, in both summarized and detailed forms, it is not intended that these descriptions in any way limit its scope to any such embodiments and applications, and it will be understood that many substitutions, changes and variations in the described embodiments, applications and details of the method and system illustrated herein and of their operation can be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of this invention. For example, the signal emitting devices may be configured to provide warnings in audible, visual or electronic signal formats. The accessory may also be optimized for any type of alarm installation that will benefit from multiple different warning signals to convey information to a user. In this way, the user may be able to identify the type of trigger event and is privy to changes in the status or severity of the trigger event. For example, the accessory may be configured to emit warning signals that may be sounds, light flash sequences and/or electronic signals to mobile devices. The warning signals may be pre-programmed to correspond with a type of trigger event or a change detected in the trigger event or its progression. The choice and variety of output signal to the signal emitting warning devices may therefore be customized in software to preset or user defined specification.

The accessory enables an alarm installation to dynamically alert users by generating at least two different signals, although it will be appreciated that any number of different alert signals may be provided, preferably distinguishable sound signals, that a user can observe to enable the user to distinguish between different trigger events, such as the presence of an intruder, a fire or any other safety or security risk or to indicate an increase in the severity of the event to a panic or emergency situation requiring particular action.

Any of the steps, operations, components or processes described herein may be performed or implemented with one or more hardware or software units, alone or in combination with other devices. In one embodiment, a software unit is implemented with a computer program product comprising a non-transient computer-readable medium containing computer program code, which can be executed by a processor for performing any or all of the steps, operations, or processes described. Software units or functions described in this application may be implemented as computer program code using any suitable computer language such as, for example, Java™, C++, or Perl™ using, for example, conventional or object-oriented techniques. The computer program code may be stored as a series of instructions, or commands on a non- transitory computer-readable medium, such as a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), a magnetic medium such as a hard-drive, or an optical medium such as a CD- ROM. Any such computer-readable medium may also reside on or within a single computational apparatus, and may be present on or within different computational apparatuses within a system or network.

Block diagrams of accessories, installations and computer program products according to embodiments are used herein. Each block of the block diagrams, and combinations of blocks in the block diagrams, may provide functions which may be implemented by computer readable program instructions.

Throughout the specification and claims unless the contents requires otherwise the word 'comprise' or variations such as 'comprises' or 'comprising' will be understood to imply the inclusion of a stated integer or group of integers but not the exclusion of any other integer or group of integers.

Claims

CLAIMS:

An accessory for an alarm installation comprising an electronic circuit having:

at least one input for receiving a first output from an alarm installation in which at least one automatic sensor is connected to an alarm control unit adapted to detect when an automatic sensor experiences a trigger event, and for receiving a second output from one or more of the alarm installation, a manually operable trigger based on personal observation and a peripheral monitoring device; and

at least one output for driving one or more signal emitting devices for generating a first warning signal when it receives the first output, and for driving the one or more signal emitting devices for generating a second warning signal when it receives a second output from one or more of the alarm installation, the manually operable trigger and the peripheral monitoring device,

wherein the second warning signal is distinguishable from the first warning signal and has at least one characteristic that conveys that a situation requiring urgent attention exists.

An accessory for an alarm installation as claimed in claim 1 in which the signal emitting devices are sound emitting devices and the signals emitted are audible signals.

An accessory for an alarm installation as claimed in claim 2 in which the second audible signal is configured to be emitted in sequential bursts interposed between sequential bursts of the first audible signal.

An accessory for an alarm installation as claimed in either one of claims 2 or 3 in which the second audible signal includes information as to the change in the trigger event or a characteristic associated with the cause for activating the manually operable trigger.

An accessory for an alarm installation as claimed in claim 4 in which the second audible signal includes synthesized or recorded words that draw attention to any one of the change in the trigger event, the location of the alarm installation; a person activating the manually operable trigger; and the cause of the manually operable trigger having been activated, and any combination thereof.

An accessory for an alarm installation as claimed in any one of the preceding claims in which the signal emitting device is a loudspeaker.

7. An accessory for an alarm installation as claimed in any one of the preceding claims in which a first signal emitting device is a siren and a second signal emitting device is a loudspeaker. 8. An accessory for an alarm installation as claimed in any one of the preceding claims in which communication from the manually operable trigger is either hard wired or wireless.

9. An accessory for an alarm installation as claimed in any one of the preceding claims in which the installation includes additional communications facilities including a mobile telephone communications facility for communicating information regarding triggering of the alarm installation to a remote mobile telephone or other communications device.

An accessory for an alarm installation as claimed in any one of the preceding claims in which the accessory is configured for installation into an existing alarm control unit in which instance the accessory does not necessarily have its own housing.

An accessory for an alarm installation as claimed in any one of the preceding claims which the accessory is configured as a plug-in separate unit. 12. An accessory for an alarm installation as claimed in any one of the preceding claims in which the alarm installation is configured to detect the presence of an intruder and the automatic sensor is adapted to be triggered by an intruder.