SYSTEM FOR ATTENDANCE REGISTRATION OF
SERVICE-WORKERS IN MOVEMENT AND
A PERSONAL ATTENDANCE REGISTRATION DEVICE FOR USE THEREIN
Field of the invention
The present invention relates to a system for attendance registration of service workers moving between external spread out service recipients, wherein said attendance registration is authenticated by a personal authorizing key, held by every service-recipient.
The present invention further relates to a personal attendance registration device held by every service worker and operated for attendance registration by said authorizing key, and to a method for using said system and device.
Background of the invention:
Many companies employ service workers in clients home, in the areas of home health care, maintenance services, security services and the like. In these companies it is difficult to control and to supervise the attendance of each worker in the correct time and place, or to follow up and update the employment hours for control and calculations of payments.
There are some types of labor tracking systems in the market, comprising tracking device held by each of the workers. The existing labor tracking systems and devices lacks the following:
They are relatively expensive.
The existing personal devices are relatively complicated, require special training to the workforce for its operation, and cause frequent "user mistakes" done by the workers.
The registration of working hours in the personal device is in the worker hands, and dishonest workers can easily take advantage on it.
The system for attendance registration of service workers (and the associate personal device) according to the present invention, comply with the abovementioned problems, and solves them.
For a facile use and in order to avoid spending workforce training hours, the mobile personal device held by each worker has no more than four operation buttons.
In order to avoid labor fraudulence by dishonest workers, the mobile personal device held by each worker allows loading labor tracking data to its internal memory, conditional to a compulsory checkout of an authorizing key held exclusively by each of the service recipients.
In addition, the system of the present invention is easily adaptable to any existing database and software, so it may be put to use in growing-up companies for cooperating with any conventional existing office computer, without the need of changing the existing controlling software and workforce database.
Summary of the invention:
The present invention relates to a system for attendance registration of service workers moving between external spread out service recipients,
comprising; an employer office computer, and a plurality of mobile attendance registration devices having means for downloading their registered data into the office computer, each is held by one of the workers for a periodical (i.e. daily, weekly or monthly, etc.) personal attendance reporting to the office computer, wherein registering attendance data in the mobile device is enabled only by a legal authorizing key held exclusively by each service recipient and having an identification data readable by the mobile device (the identification data is preferably comprising the recipient details) and said authorizing key is for an automatic identification such that when a positive identification occurs it is accompanied by the (either manual or automatic) registration of the current time and date data in a memory of the mobile device for downloading it later (either daily, weekly or monthly) to the office computer.
The present invention further relates to a personal (mobile) attendance registration device for use in the system for attendance registration of service workers moving between external spread out service recipients, comprising; (a) power supply; (b) controlling unit and associate circuitry; (c) authorizing port and its associate circuitry; (d) time and date clock (hereinafter called also: "internal clock"); (e) at least one memory unit; (f) communication means for exchanging (either downloading registered attendance data, or loading work-instructions) data with an employer office computer ; (g) means (as known in the art, i.e. a read-only memory-chip permanently programmed in advance by the device manufacturer, or, according to another variation of the device, a programmable memory-chip temporarily programmed by the office
computer for limited periods; each of said memory-chips can be either a part of other component of the device, or a separate component) with a particular self identification code for definitely identifying the device to an employer office computer, from plurality of other similar devices each having its own particular identification, (h) user-panel (having actuators for operating the device and according to another device variations having also display), wherein;
feeding the authorizing port with a legal authorizing key (held exclusively by a service recipient and comprising identification data) activates (and according to other variations of the device, - enables using the user-panel for) loading to the memory of the device the current time and date indicated by the internal clock and saving it until reported to an office computer.
According to another embodiment of the device removing the authorizing key from the authorizing port, automatically causes loading to the device's memory the new current time and date data, (according to this embodiment the authorizing key has to be connected to the device along the entire service duration).
In the context of the present invention, a "legal authorizing key" is a key related to a patient designated to the specific service-worker holding the device. If the verification of legality is done by the device ( by loading it in advance with the appropriate instructions and restrictions), there is no necessity in storing the key data. Otherwise, the key data is loaded together with the time data, and the verification of legality is done later by the office-computer.
According to the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the authorizing key is a magnetic card, and the authorizing port is a magnetic card reader.
According to another embodiment of the present invention the authorizing key is a smart card and the authorizing port is a smart card reader.
According to another embodiment the authorizing key is a remote sensing card and the authorizing port is a remote sensing reader.
According to another embodiment of the present invention a fingerprints or iris image of the service recipient are used (as an authorizing key) as an identification means read out by a fingerprints or iris image reader of the mobile personal attendance registration device. Thus, in the context of the present invention (unless specified "fabricated authorizing key") the term "authorizing key" relates also to any part of a human body used as a personal identification means readable by the mobile attendance registration device.
When using a fabricated authorizing key, it is preferably comprise means for a non-removable connection to a stationary part (such as a wall or a door frame) of the recipient house. The non-removable connection may be achieved either by using mechanical means such as unidirectional bolts, or by protecting the connecting means by an affirmation means such as a breakable seal or label.
Preferably the fabricated authorizing key is fixed steadily and oriented such that the user may briefly read its data to the attendance registration
device, or the attendance registration device may be leftover, attached to the key, until the end of the current service.
Detailed description of the invention:
The present invention will be further described in detail by Figure 1. This figure is solely intends to illustrate a block diagram of one attendance registration device according to the present invention, and in no way intends to limit the scope of the invention.
Figure 1 illustrates a block diagram of a mobile attendance registration device according to the present invention.
The device is comprised of an authorizing port (2) for reading data from an authorizing key, held by every service recipient. The readout of the authorizing data is controlled by a processor (3) uses for controlling the device operation. The data readout from a specific authorizing key is fed to tlie processor for an optional checkout (i.e. for assuring that tlie worker holding the specific device is authorized to work with the client holding tlie specific authorizing key), and for being load to the memory (4). In case that a registration is authorized, the memory is loaded with the authorizing data and with the time and date indicated by the real time clock (5) at the moment of authorization.
According to one embodiment of the device according to the present invention the registration procedure is being accomplished automatically following to receiving an authorization key data in the authorization port. The time and date correlated with the appearance of the authorization key
data are registered and specified as the time the service started. The time and date correlated with a second appearance of the authorization key data (according to one variation of the present embodiment) or the time and date correlated with the disappearance of the said data (according to another variation of the present embodiment in which the device is leftover attached to the card till the end of the service) are registered and specified as the time the service ended.
According to another embodiment of the device of the present invention, the registration procedure is accomplished according to orders entered by the user through a key pad, which in this illustration represented by keys 1 - 4 (6X7)(8X9).
The device according to the present invention is optionally comprises an acoustic output port (10) allowing downloading data registered in the memory (4) through an acoustic coupler (11) to an employer office computer, and a bi-directional electro-optic port (12), allowing bi-directional data transferring (including loading and downloading data) between the device and an employer office computer, through an electro-optical communication adapter (13).
The energy for operating the device is supplied by a battery (14) which its voltage is regulated by an optional battery power supply (15).
The device modes, its operation status, and other user data are optionally displayed by a display unit (16).