A device,system, and method for generating information representing a
condition of an automatic door
TECHNICAL FIELD
The invention concerns in general the technical field of automatic door
technology. Especially the invention concernsobservation of an operation of
automatic doors.
BACKGROUND
Automatic doors may be used in a variety of environments, such as in
elevators and in buildings. The automatic door refers to door solutions in which
the door is configured to be operated without specific action by a user of a
door. Information aboutthe conditionof an automatic door, such as state,
movement, and/or existence of a defect of the automatic door, is important for
many reasons, for example for safety reasons.The information about the
condition of the automatic gives advantageous information about the operation
of the door.
According to known solutions the information aboutthe condition of the
automatic door may be obtained substantially accurately from the control
system of the door. For example in an elevator environment, the information
aboutthe condition of the door may be obtained from the elevator control
system. However, if the access to the control system of the door is blocked or
some other way unavailable for example due to unknown interface or protocol,
the information aboutthe condition of the door cannot be obtained from the
control system of the door. In that case other solutions for obtaining the
information need to be found.
Hence, there is need to develop further solutions to obtain information
aboutthe condition of the automatic door, especially when the access to the
door control unit is unavailable.
SUMMARY
An objective of the invention is to present a device, a system and a method
forgenerating information representing a condition of an automatic door.

Another objective of the invention is that the device, the system, and the
method for generating information representing a condition of an automatic
door enable retrofitting into an already existing automatic door system.
The objectives of the invention are reached by a device, a system, and a
method as defined by the respective independent claims.
According to a first aspect, a device for generating information representing a
condition of an automatic door is provided, wherein the device isarranged to
the automatic door, wherein the device comprising: an accelerometer
comprising at least one internal buffer for storing data, the accelerometer is
configured to obtain and buffer at least one acceleration value representing
acceleration of the automatic door; and a control unit comprising at least one
processor and at least one memory for storing at least one portion of computer
program code and any data values, the at least one processor is configured to
cause the control unit at least to perform: read and store the obtained at least
one acceleration value from the internal buffer of the accelerometer, and
generate at least one piece of information representing the condition of the
automatic door based on the at least one acceleration value for communicating
the generated at least one piece of information to an external server.
The control unit may be implemented as a system-on-a-chip, SOC.
Furthermore, the accelerometer and the control unit are configured to be in a
steep mode or in an active mode independently.
Furthermore, the accelerometer may be configured to enter into the active
mode from the sleep mode in response to that the at least one acceleration
value is defined to exceed a predefined limit.
Additionally, the control unit may be configured to enter into the active mode
from the sleep mode in response to receiving a control signal generated by the
accelerometer.
The first control signal may be triggered according to a predefined time
scheme or in response to buffering a predefined amount of information in the
internal buffer of the accelerometer.

Furthermore, the control unit mayfurther be configured to enter back into the
sleep mode from the active mode, after generating the at least one piece of
information representing the condition of the automatic door.
Alternatively or in additionally, the control unit and the accelerometer may be
configured to enter back into the sleep mode in response to a second control
signal generated by the control unit, wherein the second control signal may be
triggered in response to a detection of a low acceleration activity.
Alternatively or in addition, the control unit may be configured to enter into an
active mode from the sleep mode and to communicate the generated at least
one piece of information to the external server according to a predefined time
scheme.
The at least one piece of information representing the condition of the
automatic door may be at least one of the following: maximum peak-to-peak
acceleration, standard deviation of acceleration, root-mean-square of
acceleration, duration of each movement state, number of movements in open
direction, number of movements in closed direction, number of re-openings,
maximum acceleration value.
According to a second aspect, a system for generating information
representing a condition of an automatic door is provided, wherein the system
comprises a device described above arranged to the automatic door, and an
external server,wherein the device is configured to communicate the
generated at least one piece of information representing the condition of the
automatic door to the external server directly; or communicate the generated at
least one piece of information representing the condition of the automatic door
to the external server through a gateway device or an ad hoc network node,
wherein the gateway device or the ad hoc network node is configured to buffer
the at least one piece of information or to combine the at least one piece of
information with an additional piece of information; andwherein the external
server is configured to receive and store the at least one piece of information.
The external server may further be configured to:compare the received at least
one piece of information representing the condition of the automatic door to a
corresponding previously stored at least one piece of information representing
the condition of the automatic door; and generate information indicating a
failure or abnormal event of the automatic door in response to a detection that

the received at least one piece of information representing the condition of the
automatic door deviates from the corresponding previously stored at least one
piece of information representing the condition of the automatic door over a
predefined limit.
According to a third aspect, a method for generating information representing a
condition of an automatic door for a device described above is provided, the
device comprises an accelerometer and a control unit, wherein the method
comprising:obtaining at least one acceleration value representing acceleration
of the automatic door and buffering the obtained at least one acceleration
value to an internal buffer of the accelerometer by the accelerometer; reading
and storing the obtained at least one acceleration value from the internal buffer
of the accelerometer by the control unit; and generating at least one piece of
information representing the condition of the automatic door based on the at
least one acceleration value by the control unit.
Moreover, the method may further comprise that the accelerometer and the
control unit are in a sleep mode or in an active mode independently.
Furthermore, the method may further comprise entering the accelerometer into
the active mode from the sleep mode in response to defining that the at least
one acceleration value exceeds a predefined limit.
Additionally, the method may further comprise entering the control unit into the
active mode from the sleep mode in response to receiving a first control signal
generated by the accelerometer,
The method further may comprise triggering the first control signal according to
a predefined time scheme or in response to buffering a predefined amount of
information in the internal buffer of the accelerometer.
The method may further comprise entering the control unit back into the sleep
mode from the active mode, after generating the at least one piece of
information representing the condition of the automatic door.
Alternatively or in addition, the method may further comprise entering the
control unit and the accelerometer back into the sleep mode in response to a
second control signal generated by the control unit, wherein the second control
signal may be triggered in response to detecting a low acceleration activity.

The method may further comprise; communicating the generated at least one
piece of information to an external server directly; or communicating the
generated at least one piece of information from the device to the external
server through a gateway device or an ad hoc network node, wherein the
gateway device or the ad hoc network node buffers the at least one piece of
information or combines the at least one piece of information with an additional
piece of information.
The exemplary embodiments of the invention presented in this patent
application are not to be interpreted to pose limitations to the applicability of
the appended claims. The verb "to comprise" is used in this patent application
as an open limitation that does not exclude the existence of also un-recited
features. The features recited in depending claims are mutually freely
combinable unless otherwise explicitly stated.
The novel features which are considered as characteristic of the invention are
set forth in particular in the appended claims. The invention itself, however,
both as to its construction and its method of operation, together with additional
objectives and advantages thereof, will be best understood from the following
description of specific embodiments when read in connection with the
accompanying drawings.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF FIGURES
The embodiments of the invention are illustrated by way of example, and not
by way of limitation, in the figures of the accompanying drawings.
Figure 1illustrates schematicallyan example of the device according to the
invention.
Figure 2 illustrates schematically an example of the accelerometer of the
device according to the invention.
Figure 3 illustrates schematically an example of the control unit of the device
according to the invention.
Figure 4A illustrates schematically an example of the system according to the
invention.

Figure 4B illustrates schematically another example of the system according to
the invention.
Figure 5illustrates schematically an example of the method according to the
invention.
Figure 6 illustrates schematically another example of the method according to
the invention.
DESCRIPTION OF SOME EMBODIMENTS
Figure 1 illustrates schematically a simple example of a device 100for
generating information representing condition of an automatic door according
to the invention. In the context of this application the condition of the automatic
door may refer for example to a state, movement, existence of defects, such
as failure or abnormal event, of the automatic door.The device 100 comprises
an accelerometer 102 and a control unit 104. Furthermore, the device 100 may
comprisean energy storage 106. The energy storage 106 may be a battery, for
example. The device 100 may be fixed to the automatic door, for example to
any moving part of the automatic door, by any known fixing means. Some non-
limiting examples of the fixing means may be at least one of the following:
screw, bolt, tape, cable tie, hook and loop fastener. The moving part of the
automatic door to which the device 100 may be fixed, may be for example,
door panel or hanger plate. The accelerometer 102 in the context of this
application refers to any sensor suitable for detect physical acceleration.
Figure 2 illustrates schematically an example of the accelerometer 102
according to the invention. The accelerometer 102 comprises at least one
internal buffer 202 for storing any data. Furthermore, the accelerometer 102
may comprise at least one processor 204, a communication interface 206, a
user interface 208, and sensor relating devices 210. The mentioned elements
may be communicatively coupled to each other with e.g. an internal bus. The
sensor related devices 210 may comprise, but are not limited to, one or more
components for obtaining at least one acceleration value representing
acceleration of the automatic door. The communication interface 206 may
provide interface for communication with any external unit, such as with control
unit 104, in order to exchange pieces of information as will be described later.
The accelerometer 102 is configured to obtain at least one acceleration value
representing acceleration of the automatic door. Furthermore, the

accelerometer 102 is configured to buffer the obtained at least one
acceleration value in the internal buffer 202 of the accelerometer 102. The at
least one acceleration value may be for example, magnitude of the
acceleration, direction of the acceleration as a vector quantity, vibration, shock.
Figure 3 illustrates schematically an example of the control unit 104 according
to the invention. The control unit 104comprises at least one processor 302 and
at least one memory 304 for storing at least one portion of computer program
code 305a-305n and any data values. Furthermore, the control unit 104 may
comprise a communication interface 306 in order to provide interface for
communication with any external unit, such as accelerometer 102 database
and/orexternal systems, such as external server, gateway device, or ad hoc
network node in order to exchange pieces of information as will be described
later. Furthermore, the control unit 104 may comprise a user interface 308. The
mentioned elements may be communicatively coupled to each other with e.g.
an internal bus. For sake of clarity, the processor herein refers to any unit
suitable for processing information and control the operation of the control unit
104, among other tasks. The operations may also be implemented with a
microcontroller solution with embedded software. Similarly, the memory 304 is
not limited to a certain type of memory only, but any memory type suitable for
storing the described pieces of information may be applied in the context of the
present invention.
The processor 302 of the control unit 104 is at least configured to implement at
least some operations of the control unit 104 and method steps as will be
described later. The implementation of the method and operations of the
control unit 104 may be achieved by arranging the processor 302 to execute at
least some portion of computer program code 305a~305n stored in the memory
304 causing the processor 302, and thus the control unit 104, to implement
one or more operations of the control unit 104 and method steps as will be
described later. The processor 302 is thus arranged to access the memory 304
and retrieve and store any information therefrom and thereto. Moreover, the
processor 302 is configured to control the communication through the
communication interface 306 with any external unit, such as with external
server.
The control unit 104isat least configured to read and store the obtained at least
one acceleration value from the internal buffer 202 of the accelerometer102.

Moreover, the control unit 104is configured to generate at least one piece of
information representing the condition of the automatic door based on the at
least one acceleration value for communicating the generated at least one
piece of information to an external server 402.According to one embodiment of
the invention the control unit 106 may be implemented as a system-on-a-chip,
SOC. SOC herein refers to an integrated circuit that integrates ail components
of the system into a single chip. One advantage of implementing the control
unit as a SOC is low power consumption.
The at least one piece of information representing the condition of the
automatic door may be at least one of the following: maximum peak-to-peak
acceleration, standard deviation of acceleration, root-mean-square of
acceleration, duration of each movement state, number of movements in open
direction, number of movements in closed direction, number of re-openings,
maximum acceleration value. These are only non-limiting examples of the at
least one piece of information representing the condition of the automatic door.
The accelerometer 102 may further be configured to be in a sleep mode or in
an active mode. In addition, the control unit 104 may further be configured to
be in a sleep mode or in an active mode. Moreover, the accelerometer 102
and the control unit 104 may be configured to be in the sleep mode or in the
active modeindependently. In this context with the term independently is meant
that the accelerometer 102 and the control unit 104 do not have to be in a
same mode at a same time. For example the accelerometer 102 may be in the
active mode and at the same time the control unit 104 may be in the sleep
mode. However, the accelerometer 102 and the control unit 104 may also be
in the same mode at the same time. When the accelerometer 102 or the
control unit 104 is in the active mode, it may be configured to perform any
operation directed to it. When the accelerometer 102 or the control unit 104 is
in the sleep mode, it will enter into a power save mode by turning off most of
the electronic components in order to consume as low power as possible. As
an initial state both the accelerometer 102 and the control unit 104 may be in a
sleep mode.
Furthermore, the accelerometer 102 may be configured to enter into the active
mode from the sleep mode in response to that the at least one acceleration
value is defined to exceed a predefined limit. The predefined limit may be for
example an acceleration value representing the beginning of the movement of

the door in order to enable the accelerometer to start obtaining the
acceleration values when the door starts to move.Alternatively the limit may
also be defined to be any other acceleration value. According to another
example the limit may be defined to refer to an acceleration value representing
a vibration indicating for example vandalism. In other words if vandalism, such
as the door is kicked, is directed to the door, the accelerometer is configured to
enter into the active mode in order to obtain the at least one acceleration value
representing the vibration caused by the vandalism. This enables that the
device 104 may be used to detect, i.e. monitor, also vandalism directed to the
automatic door.
Alternatively or in addition, the control unit 104may be configured to enter into
the active mode from the sleep mode in response to receiving a first control
signal generated by the accelerometer 102. The first control signal may be
triggered according to a predefined time scheme. Alternatively or in addition,
the first control signal may be triggered in response to buffering a predefined
amount of information in the internal buffer 202 of the accelerometer 102. The
predefined amount of information in the internal buffer 202 may be any amount
of information that may be buffered in the internal buffer 202. For example the
control signal may be triggered, when the internal buffer 202 of the
accelerometer 102 is defined to be full or almost full.
Furthermore, the control unit 106 may be configured to enter back into the
sleep mode from the active mode after generating the at least one piece of
information representing the condition of the automatic door.
According to one embodiment of the invention the control unit 104and the
accelerometer 102 may be configured to enter back into the sleep mode from
the active mode in response to a second control signal generated by the
control unit 106.The second control signal may be triggered in response to a
detection of low acceleration activity. The detection of low acceleration activity
may be for example an acceleration value representing the ending of the
movement of the automatic door in order to enable the accelerometer 102 to
stop obtaining the acceleration values when the door ends its movement.
Alternatively,the detection of low acceleration activity may also be defined to
be a detection of any other acceleration value representing substantially low
acceleration indicating that the detected movement of the door is ending or
ended.

The invention described above relates also a system 400for generating
information representing a condition of an automatic door. The system 400
comprises the above described device 100 and an external server 402. In
Figures 4A and 4Bare schematically illustrated some examples of the system
400 according to the invention.
As described above the control unit 104 of the device 100 generates the at
least one piece of information, which may be communicated to the external
server 402. The control unit 104may be configured to communicate the
generated at least one piece of information to the external server 402
according to a predefined time scheme. This means that the information is not
communicated from the control unit 106 to the external server 402 continually.
Instead the information may be communicated from the control unit 106 to the
external server 402 at a time instant, which the control unit 106 defines to be
suitable for the communication. These suitable time instants for communication
between the control unit 104and the external server 402 may be for example
one of the following:
• when no data is communicated from the accelerometer 102 to the
control unit 104,
• when the control unit 104 is in active mode
• at regular time intervals, or
• atirregular time intervals.
Communicating the information from the control unit 104 to the external
server402 according to the predefined time scheme enables preserving energy
of the energy storage 106 of the device 100. In case that the control unit 104 is
in the sleep mode, the control unit 104 may be configured to enter into an
active mode from the sleep mode in order to communicate the generated at
least one piece of information to the external server 402.
Furthermore, the control unit 104 of the device 100 may be configured to
communicate the generated at least one piece of information representing the
condition of the automatic door directly to the external server 402 as illustrated
in Figure 4A. Alternatively, the control unit 104of the device 100 may be
configured to communicate the generated at least one piece of information
representing the condition of the automatic door to the external server 402
through a gateway device or an ad hoc network node 404as illustrated in

Figure 4B. In the context of this application the gateway device refers to a
network node suitable connecting two or more networks that may use different
protocols. Furthermore, in the context of this application the ad hoc network
node refers to a network node of a network that is a decentralized type of
network, wherein each node participates in routing by forwarding data for other
nodes.The gateway deviceor the ad hoc network node 404 may be configured
tobuffer the at least one piece of information or to combine the at least one
piece of information with an additional piece of information. Furthermore, the
external server 402 is configured to receive and store the at least one piece of
information.
The communication between the device 100 and the external server 402 may
be based on any known wired or wireless communication. If the information is
communicated from the device 100 to the external server 402 through the
gateway device or the ad hoc network node 404, the communication between
the device 100 and thegateway device or the ad hoc network node 404 is
based on wireless communication and the communication between the
gateway device or the ad hoc network node 404 and the external server 402
may be based on any wired or wireless communication. The wireless
communication between the device 100 and the external server 402, between
the device 100 and the gateway device or ad hoc network node 404, or
between the gateway device or ad hoc network node404 and external server
402 may be based on for example at least one of the following wireless
communication technologies: Bluetooth, WiFi, Cellular network, Zigbee, Lora,
ANT. Some non-limiting examples of the external server 402 may be remote
server, database server, mobile server, cloud server.
In addition to the above described the external server 402 may be further
configured to compare the received at least one piece of
informationrepresenting the condition of the automatic door to a corresponding
previously storedat least one piece of information representing the condition of
the automatic door. Furthermore, in response to a detection that the received
at least one piece of informationrepresenting the condition of the automatic
door deviates from the corresponding previously stored at least one piece of
informationrepresenting the condition of the automatic door over a predefined
limit the external server 402 may be configured to generate information
indicating a failure or abnormal event of the automatic door.The above
mentioned deviation may be a sudden change in one or more of the at least

one piece of information representing the condition of the automatic door,
which may indicate a failure or abnormal event in the operation of the
automatic door. For example a small piece of stone that is stuck in a sill groove
of the door may cause a sudden increase in horizontal vibration. Alternatively
or in addition, the above mentioned deviation may be a trend, i.e. gradual
change, in one or more of the at least one piece of information representing
the condition of the automatic door, which may also indicate a failure or
abnormal event in the operation of the automatic door. For example a gradual
dirt accumulation on top track of the door may cause a gradual increase in
vertical vibrations. Below some non-limiting examples of failures are described:
• poor installation quality may lead to shaking of at least one door panel
or hanger plate,
• wearout of rollers or accumulation of dirt in rollers or rolling surfaces in
door mechanism may lead to shaking of at least one door panel or
hanger plate,
• dirt, debris, or failed components in sill or elsewhere in the door
mechanism may lead to reopenings of the door,
• failure of curtain of light may lead to reopenings of the door,
• failure of at least one mechanical component that lead to triggering of
closing force limiter may lead to reopenings of the door.
Alternatively or in addition some non-limiting examples of abnormal events
may be such as vandalism, door opening during hoisting.
The failures may be functional failures and/or probable failures. In the context
of this application functional failure may be a state where the automatic door
has failed to provide its main functions, such as moving open, moving closed,
keeping users save, due to a failure in the door system. The probable failure,
in turn, in the context of this application means a state where the automatic
door is operating functionally, such as moving open, moving closed, keeping
users safe, but some beginning failure is starting to occur. One example of
possible failure may be for example shaking of automatic door due to rollers
wearing out.
The indication of the failure or abnormal event may be a signal transmitted to a
computing unit, such as service unit, service center.service company or
similar.In response to receiving the signal indicating the failure or abnormal

event the computing unit may be configured to instructmaintenance personnel
to solve the failure or abnormal event, for example. Alternatively or in addition,
the indication may be for example a visual indication, sound indication for a
service or maintenance personnel. The indication may also carry or comprise
information about at least one of the following: type of the failure or abnormal
event, reason for the failure or abnormal event,location of the failure or
abnormal event. Alternatively or in addition, the indication may enable defining
at least one of the following: type of the failure or abnormal event, reason for
the failure or abnormal event,location of the failure or abnormal event. This
enables that functional failures of the door may at least partly be avoided by
scheduling maintenance actions to the door before defined probable failure
turns into a functional failure. Alternatively or in addition, this enables that in
case of functional failure occurs information about the functional failure may be
provided in order to solve the failure quickly, which in turn leads to several
advantages, such as reducing at least partly downtime of the door, reducing at
least partly disruption and cost of unplanned maintenance actions, and
enabling implementation of usage- and/or condition-based maintenance
schemes.
Next an example of a method according to the invention is described by
referring to Figure 5. Figure 5 schematically illustrates the invention as a flow
chart. As discussed the device according to the invention comprises an
accelerometer and a control unit being in a sleep mode or in an active mode
independently. The accelerometer obtains at least one acceleration value
representing acceleration of the automatic door and buffers the obtained at
least one acceleration value to an internal buffer of the accelerometer at the
step 502. The control unit, in turn, reads the obtained at least one acceleration
value from the internal buffer of the accelerometer and stores the at least one
acceleration value into the at least one memory of the control unit at the step
504. After reading and storing the at least one acceleration value, the control
unit generates at least one piece of information representing the condition of
the automatic door based on the at least one acceleration valueby the control
unit at the step 506.
As discussed the accelerometer and the control unit may be in a sleep mode
or in active mode independently. Next will be described some examples how
the accelerometer and/or the control unit may change its state from the sleep
mode to the active mode and vice versa. These examples are schematically

illustrated in Figure 6 as a flow chart. The accelerometer may enter into the
active mode from the sleep mode, which may be the initial state as described
earlier, in response to defining that the at least one acceleration value exceeds
a predefined limit at the step 610 before the step 502. Alternatively or in
addition, the control unit may enter into the active mode from the sleep mode
in response to receiving a first control signal generated by the accelerometer
at the step 620 between steps 502 and 504. According to an example the first
control signal may be triggered according to a predefined time scheme.
Alternatively or in addition, the first control signal may be triggered in response
to buffering a predefined amount of information in the internal buffer of the
accelerometer.Furthermore, if the control unit detects a low acceleration
activity at the step 630, the control unit may generate a second control signal.
The control unit and the accelerometer may enter back into the sleep mode in
response to the second control signal generated by the control unit at the step
640. Alternatively, the control unit may enter back into the sleep mode from the
active mode, after generating the at least one piece of information representing
the condition of the automatic door at the step 650 in order to wait a new
instruction to enter back into active mode, for example in response to the first
control signal as described earlier.
As described the control unit may generate the at least one piece of
information. Furthermore, the control unit may communicate the generated at
least one piece of information to an external serveraccording to a predefined
time scheme as described earlier. According one embodiment of the invention
the control unit may communicate the generated at least one piece of
information directly to the external server. Alternatively or inaddition, the
control unit may communicate the generated at least one piece of information
to the external server through a gateway device or an ad hoc network node.
Furthermore, the gateway deviceor the ad hoc network node may buffer the at
least one piece of information or combine the at least one piece of information
with an additional piece of information. In case that the control unit is in the
steep mode the control unit enters into an active mode from the sleep mode
before communicating the generated at least one piece of information to the
external server.
The above described device 100,system 400 and method according to the
invention may be used especially, when the access to a door control system is
not available, for example due to unknown interface or protocol in order to

obtain information representing a condition of an automatic door. Thus, the
above described, device and system may be implemented as a retrofitted
device in an already existing automatic door system regardless of the producer
of the automatic door system, wherein the automatic door system may
comprise at least the automatic door and the door control system. This means
that the device, system, and methodaccording to invention may be arranged to
any automatic door for generating information representing a condition of an
automatic door. Alternatively, the device, system, and methodaccording to the
invention may be used to generate additional conditioninformation of an
automatic door in addition to the information obtained by means of the door
control system. Furthermore, the ability to retrofit the device and the system
according to the invention to any automatic door enables also condition-based
maintenance to automatic doors of varying technical configurations and ages.
The device 100, the system 400, and the method according to the invention
described above may be implemented in any automatic door environment
Some non-limiting examples of implementation environments are at least the
following: elevator environment, building environment.
The use of the internal buffer 202 of the accelerometer 102 for buffering the
obtained at least one acceleration value enables substantially low current
consumption, even as low as a few microamperes.In comparison, if the internal
buffer 202 of the accelerometer 102 is not used, but instead the obtained at
least one acceleration value is transmitted continuously in real time to the
control unit 104 the current consumption is significantly higher.
Furthermore, as described earlier the accelerometer 102 and the control unit
104 are configured to be in a sleep mode or in an active mode. The ability to
enter the accelerometer 102 and/or the control unit 104 into the sleep mode
where appropriate enables significant savings in the current consumption in
comparison to having the accelerometer 102 and control unit 104 in the active
mode constantly. For example, as described above the control unit 104 may
be entered into the active mode only for reading the acceleration values from
the accelerometer 102, generating the at least one piece of information, and/or
communicating the generated at least one piece of information to an external
server402 and the control unit 104 may be entered into the sleep mode during
the rest of the time. Similarly, the accelerometer 102 may be entered into the
active mode, when it detects that the automatic door starts to move and the

accelerometer 102 may be entered back into the sleep mode, when it is
detected that the movement of the automatic door is ended. Alternatively or in
addition, the accelerometer 102 may be entered into the active mode in
response to detection of vandalism directed to the automatic door as described
earlier. Moreover, the above mentioned savings in the current consumption
increases the lifetime of the battery.
The specific examples provided in the description given above should not be
construed as limiting the applicability and/or the interpretation of the appended
claims. Lists and groups of examples provided in the description given above
are not exhaustive unless otherwise explicitly stated.

CLAIMS
1. A device(100) for generating information representing a condition of an
automatic door, the device (100) isarranged tothe automatic door, wherein the
device(100) comprising:
- an accelerometer(102) comprising at least one internal buffer(202)
forstoring data, the accelerometer (102) is configured to obtain and bufferat
least one acceleration valuerepresenting acceleration of the automatic door,
and
- acontrol unit (104) comprising at least one processor (302) andat least
one memory (304) for storing at least one portion of computer program code
(305a-305n) and any data values, the at least one processor (302) is
configured to cause the control unit (104) at least to perform:
- read and store the obtainedat least one acceleration value from
the internal buffer (202) of the accelerometer (102), and
- generateat least one piece of informationrepresenting the
condition of the automatic door based onthe at least one acceleration value for
communicating the generatedat least one piece of information to an external
server (402),
2. The device (100) according to claim 1, wherein the control unit (104) is
implemented as a system-on-a-chip, SOC.
3. The device (100) according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the
accelerometer (102) and the control unit (104) are configured to be in a sleep
mode or in an active mode independently.
4. The device (100) according to claim 3, wherein the accelerometer (102)
isconfigured toenter intothe active modefrom the sleep mode in response to
that the at least oneacceleration value is defined to exceed a predefined limit.
5. The device (100) according to any of the claim 4, wherein the control unit
(104) is configured to enter into the active mode from the sleep modein
response to receiving a first control signal generated by the accelerometer
(102).

6 The device (100) according to claim 5, wherein the firstcontrol signal is
triggered according to a predefined time scheme or in response to buffering a
predefined amount of information in the internal buffer (202) of the
accelerometer (102).
7. The device (100) according to any of claims 3-6, wherein the control unit
(104) is further configured to enter back into the sleep mode from the active
mode, after generating the at least one piece of information representing the
condition of the automatic door.
8. The device (100) according to any of claims3-6, wherein the control unit
(104) and the accelerometer (102) are configured to enter back into the sleep
mode in response to a second control signal generated by the control unit
(104), wherein the second control signal is triggered in response to a detection
of a low acceleration activity.
9. The device(100) according to any of claims3-8, wherein the control unit
(104) is configured to enter into an active mode from the sleep modeand to
communicate the generated at least one piece of information to the external
server (402) according to a predefined time scheme.
10. The device (100) according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the at
least one piece of information representing the condition of the automatic door
is at least one of the following: maximum peak-to-peak acceleration, standard
deviation of acceleration, root-mean-square of acceleration, duration of each
movement state, number of movements in open direction, number of
movements in closed direction, number of re-openings, maximum acceleration
value.
11. A system (400)for generating information representing a condition of an
automatic door, the systemcomprising:
- adevice (100) according to any of the claims 1-10arranged to the
automatic door, and
- anexternal server (402),
wherein the device (100) is configured to:

- communicate the generated at least one piece of information
representing the condition of the automatic door to the external server (402)
directly, or
- communicate the generated at least one piece of information
representing the condition of the automatic door to the external server(402)
through a gateway device or an ad hoc network node (404), wherein the
gateway deviceor the ad hoc network node (404) is configured tobuffer the at
least one piece of information or to combine the at least one piece of
information with an additional piece of information, and
whereinthe external server(402) is configured to receive and store the at least
one piece of information.
12. The system(400) according to claim11, wherein the external server (402)
is further configured to:
- compare the received at least one piece of informationrepresenting the
condition of the automatic door to a corresponding previously storedat least
one piece of information representing the condition of the automatic door, and
- generate information indicating a failure or abnormal event of the
automatic door in response to a detection that the received at least one piece
of informationrepresenting the condition of the automatic door deviates from
the corresponding previously stored at least one piece of
informationrepresenting the condition of the automatic door over a predefined
limit.
13. A method for generating information representing a condition of an
automatic door for a device of any of claims 1-10, the device comprising an
accelerometer and a control unit, wherein the method comprising:
- obtaining (502) at least one acceleration value representing acceleration
of the automatic door and buffering the obtained at least one acceleration
value to an internal buffer of the accelerometerby the accelerometer,
- reading and storing (504) the obtained at least one acceleration value
from the internal buffer of the accelerometerby the control unit, and

- generating (506) at least one piece of information representing the
condition of the automatic door based on the at least one acceleration valueby
the control unit.
14. The method according to claim 13, wherein the method comprises that
the accelerometer and control unit are in a sleep mode or in an active mode
independently.
15. The method according to claim 14, wherein the method comprising
entering (610) the accelerometer into the active mode from the sleep mode in
response to defining that the at least one acceleration value exceeds a
predefined limit.
16. The method according to claim 15, wherein the method comprising
entering (620) the control unit into the active mode from the sleep mode in
response to receiving a first control signal generated by the accelerometer.
17. The method according to claim 16, wherein the method further
comprising triggering the first control signal according to a predefined time
scheme or in response to buffering a predefined amount of information in the
internal buffer of the accelerometer.
18. The method according to any of claims 14 to 17, wherein the method
further comprising entering (650)the control unit back into the sleep mode from
the active mode, after generating the at least one piece of information
representing the condition of the automatic door.
19. The method according to any of claims 14 to 17, wherein the method
further comprising entering (640) the control unit and the accelerometer back
into the sleep mode in response to a second control signal generated by the
control unit, wherein the second control signal is triggered in response
todetecting a low acceleration activity.
20. The method according to any of claims 13 to 19, wherein the method
further comprising:
- communicating the generated at least one piece of information to an
external serverdirectly, or

- communicating the generated at least one piece of information from the
device to the external server through a gateway device or an ad hoc network
node, wherein the gateway deviceor the ad hoc network node buffers the at
least one piece of information or combines the at least one piece of information
with an additional piece of information.