Claims:We Claim:
1. A device (10) for verifying a status of an individual (20), said device (10) adapted to:
- receive at least one input from said individual (20);
- create a profile for said individual (20) in a central repository based on said at least one input from said individual (20); characterized in that, said device (10):
• transmits a random prompt to a communication device (50) of said individual (20) to receive a credential from said individual (20);
• receives a location information of said communication device (50);
• verifies said status of said individual (50) based on said credential and said location information.
2. The device as claimed in claim 1, wherein said status comprises quarantine status or a geo-tagging status of said individual (20).
3. The device as claimed in claim 1, wherein said credential from said individual (20) is biometric parameter of the individual (20) comprising at least one of fingerprint, iris or facial image of said individual (20).
4. The device as claimed in claim 1, wherein said profile comprising at least one of a fixed location, age, gender, health information, social security information of said individual (20), a credential including facial image, fingerprint, iris image or other biometric information of said individual (20).
5. The device as claimed in claim 1, wherein said communication device (50) is at least one of a smartphone or a fixed communication device (50) at said fixed location.
6. The device as claimed in claim 1, wherein said location information of said communication device (50) is obtained by location tracking services of said communication device (50).
7. The device as claimed in claim 6, wherein verifying of said status is done to check if said location information of said communication device (50) and said fixed location of said individual (20) from said profile stored in said central repository is same or not.
8. The device as claimed in claim 1, wherein verifying of said status is done to check if said credential of said individual (20) is same as said at least one input from said individual (20) from said profile stored in said central repository.
9. A method of verifying a status of an individual (20), said method comprising:
- receiving at least one input from said individual (20) ;
- creating a profile for said individual (20) in a central repository based on said at least one input from said individual (20); characterized in that, said method:
• transmitting a random prompt to a communication device (50) of said individual (20) for receiving a credential from said individual (20);
• receiving a location information of said communication device (50), and
• verifying said status of said individual (20) based on said credential and said location information.
10. The method as claimed in claim 9, wherein said status comprises quarantine status of said individual (20).
11. The method as claimed in claim 9, wherein said credential from said individual (20) is biometric parameter of the individual (20) comprising at least one of fingerprint, iris or facial image of said individual (20).
12. The method as claimed in claim 9, wherein said profile comprises at least one of a fixed location, age, gender, health information, social security information of said individual (20), a credential including facial image, fingerprint, iris image or other biometric information of said individual (20).
13. The method as claimed in claim 9, wherein said communication device (50) is at least one of a smartphone or a fixed communication device at said fixed location.
14. The method as claimed in claim 9, wherein said location information of said communication device (50) is obtained by location tracking services of said communication device (50).
15. The method as claimed in claim 14, wherein verifying of said status is done to check if said location information of said communication device (50) and said fixed location of said individual (20) from said profile stored in said central repository is same or not.
16. The method as claimed in claim 14, wherein verifying of said status is done to check if said credential of said individual (20) is same as said at least one input from said individual (20) from said profile stored in said central repository
, Description:Complete Specification:
The following specification describes and ascertains the nature of this invention and the manner in which it is to be performed.
Field of the invention
[0001] This invention relates to a device and a method for verifying a status of an individual. More specifically, it relates to monitoring and verifying the quarantine status of individuals, during various situations such as when infected by a communicable disease.

Background of the invention
[0002] When an individual is affected by an infection or communicable disease, the individual needs to stay in quarantine within a geo-fenced area for stipulated time so that he/she does not transmit the infection to any other individual. However, many a times quarantined individuals do not follow such guidelines set by government or public health agencies. Individual’s smartphone GPS tracking based approaches are insufficient for effective monitoring as the individual could leave his/her smartphone at home or at contained geo-fenced area and go out. Also regular interval tracking or selfie based monitoring can also be duped by the individual. Hence tracking and verifying the status of the quarantined individual becomes a challenge.

[0003] According to an CN patent application numbered, CN111328016A, the position of an isolation person can be intelligently monitored by collecting wifi fingerprint feature signal of an isolation person at the isolation region and correlating the fingerprint signal with the isolation region. Then obtaining the wifi fingerprint signal of current position of the isolation personnel and calculating the relative distance between the isolation personnel and the WiFi fingerprint of the isolation area according to current collection & pre-collection of wifi fingerprint signal. This calculated relative distance judges if there is a separation of isolation personnel from isolated area and if the number of times of this separation is more than a predetermined number then alarm prompt is sent.

Brief description of the invention

[0004] The invention discloses a device and a method of verifying a status of an individual. The device is adapted to receive at least one input from the individual, create a profile for the individual in a central repository based on at least one input from the individual. The device then transmits a random prompt to a communication device of the individual to receive a credential from the individual and to receive a location information of the communication device, and then verifies the status of the individual based on the credential and the location information.

[0005] As an example, the status mentioned in the present invention is the quarantine/ isolation status of the individual. The status can be a geo-tagging status of the individual, which means whether a particular personal is physically present in a specific location for a specific time. The credential received from the individual after the random prompt is biometric parameter of the individual comprising at least one of fingerprint, iris or facial image of the individual.

[0006] The profile of an individual comprises at least one of a fixed location, age, gender, health information, social security information of said individual, a credential including facial image, fingerprint, iris image or other biometric information of the individual. This information is later used to verify if the credential received from the individual after random prompt is same as that stored in the profile of the individual.

[0007] The communication device is at least one of a smartphone or a fixed communication device at the fixed location. The location information of the communication device is obtained by location tracking services of the communication device and is used to verify the status of the individual by comparing with the fixed location store in the individual’s profile stored in the central repository.

Brief description of the accompanying drawings

[0008] Fig. 1 illustrates a block diagram of a device of verifying a status of an individual, according to an embodiment of the present invention; and
[0009] Fig. 2 illustrates a flow chart of method of verifying a status of an individual, according to an embodiment of the present invention;

Detailed description of the embodiments
[0010] Fig. 1 illustrates a block diagram of a device of verifying a status of an individual, according to an embodiment of the present invention. The device 10 receives one or more inputs from an individual 20 through a communication network 30 or cloud 30. Examples of the device 10 include, but not limited to, a server, a laptop or a mobile terminal. The device 10 can be used by a government officials such as health officers, corporation officers and so on. In an example, when the quarantine or isolation status of an individual needs to be verified, specific inputs such as name, address, gender, residential address, health related information, phone number, social security numbers, such as Aadhar number are collected with necessary consent from the individual. The device 10 receives such inputs and stores in a central repository 40 in a secured manner. The device 10 also creates a profile related to the individual and stores in the central repository. The device 10 may use any futuristic technologies such as Artificial Intelligence to create such profiles.

[0011] In order to validate the status of the individual such as whether the individual is physically contained within a specific geographical area/location, the device 10 sends a random prompt to a communication device 50 of the individual 20 to receive a credential from the individual 20. The communication device 50 can be a registered mobile phone of the individual. The communication device 50 can also be a fixed communication device placed in a fixed location.

[0012] Examples of the credential include, but not limited to a biometric parameter or other verification parameters. Biometric parameter can be finger print, iris, facial images of the individual.

[0013] The device 10 also receives a location information of the communication device 50 of the individual. The location information can be obtained using location tracking services like GPS, cell area triangulation methods, etc.

[0014] The device 10 verifies the status of the individual based on the credentials and the location information. For example, the device 10 validates the status of the individual, if the location of the communication device 50 is same as a location described in the profile of the individual and also if the credential received by the device 10 is same as the credential stored in the central repository. Thus, the quarantine status of the individual can be verified more accurately by the present invention.

[0015] Fig. 2 illustrates a flow chart of a method of verifying a status of an individual is disclosed. The method involves receiving at least one input from the individual 20 at step S1. At step S2, a profile is created for the individual 20 in a central repository based on at least one input from the individual 20. This individual profile contains specific inputs such as name, address, gender, residential address, health related information, phone number, social security numbers, such as Aadhar number, which are collected with necessary consent from the individual 20. A random prompt is transmitted to a communication device 50 of the individual 20 at step S3.Then the location information of the communication device 50 and a credential from the individual 20 are received for verification at step S4. The status of the individual based on the credential and the location information is verified at step S5. The status mentioned in the above method is quarantine or isolation status of the individual 20. This status is verified to check whether the individual 20 who is in isolation or is quarantined is present at the isolation/ quarantine fixed location or not.

[0016] The credential that is received from the individual 20 is biometric parameter of the individual 20 comprising at least one of fingerprint, iris or facial image of said individual 20. The credential can also be any other biometric information of the individual.

[0017] The profile created for the individual 20 in a central repository comprising at least one of a fixed location, age, gender, health information, social security information of the individual. The biometric information of the individual 20 can be retrieved from the social security information of the individual 20 taken from central repository while profile creation. The fixed location mentioned during profile creation is the residing location of the individual 20 where he/she is quarantined or isolated. Each individual profile has specific number of days of quarantine assigned to it as per the admin rules.

[0018] According to the present invention, the communication device 50 can be a smartphone or a fixed communication device at the fixed location. The communication device 50 can be connected through various modes of communication such as WIFI, Ethernet, Bluetooth, LoRa and the like for data exchange with the central repository

[0019] A deviation is the failure of the verification of the status of the individual 20 based on the credential or the location information. The random prompt that is transmitted to the communication device 50 of the individual 20 is based on a deviation history, the individual profile or time of the day. Deviation history consists of the log of number of deviations and at what time of the day the deviations are happening. If the frequency of the deviations is more, then more random prompts may be transmitted. The profile of physically-challenged individual may be given more leverage with respect to number of deviations. Also during night times, the number of random prompts would be less. Once a deviation is observed, its data is sent to the Admin from the central repositoryfor further actions. The actions taken after any deviations can be like informing the police officials to check or contacting respective doctors in case of emergency. The Admin can override the decisions made by the central repository to take actions, when deviations are triggered. For example there could be IT related system problems due to which entire system is not performing up to mark, then Admin can take decision not to consider messages from central repository.

[0020] According to one embodiment of the invention, the biometric information of the individual 20 used is fingerprint that is inputted on the communication device 50 which is a smartphone of the individual, to verify the status by checking if the fingerprint of the individual 20 is same as the input from the individual 20 from his/her profile stored in the central repository. However, the type of the biometric is not restricted to above-disclosed fingerprint, but can be any other type of unique biometric such as FaceID or iris scan that can be given as input on the communication device 50, as known to the person skilled in the art.

[0021] According to the above embodiment of the invention, the location information is obtained by location tracking services of the communication device 50 like GPS, to verify the status whether the location information of said communication device and the fixed location of the individual 20 from individual’s profile stored in the central repository is same or not.

[0022] According to another embodiment of the invention, an additional device which is a fingerprint scanner, is positioned at the fixed location to receive the credential input for status verification. The additional device can communicate with the smartphone 50 of individual 20 via Bluetooth to get verify the credentials from the central repository. In present embodiment, for verifying the location, the GPS tracking of the smartphone 50 of individual 20 is used. The additional device can be a smart electric meter or television set top box fixed at the individual’s home having internet connectivity. However, both these devices need to be equipped with a fingerprint scanner.

[0023] According to an embodiment of the present invention, the communication device (120) is an electrical device such as a smart television, fixed at the individual’s location, can directly communicate with central repository via WiFi, to get verify the credentials of the individual 20 in the backend. The credentials that can be inputted into the electrical device could be facial identification or a photograph clicked by a camera present in the electrical device.

[0024] The method of the present invention can also be used to monitor family or institutional quarantine with one or few number of devices depending on total number of people in a family or at a location etc. The present invention can also be used to monitor status of an individual 20 in other applications such as monitoring security guards at ATMs or for geo-tagging any personnel.

[0025] It should be understood that embodiments explained in the description above are only illustrative and do not limit the scope of this invention. Many such embodiments and other modifications and changes in the embodiment explained in the description are envisaged. The scope of the invention is only limited by the scope of the claims.