Room sterilization method and system

Abstract

A sterilization system consisting of a mobile emitter, a sensing subsystem and a data logging subsystem is described. The emitter has one or more UV emitting lamps or devices. The sensing system comprises at least one remote UV sensor and at least one door sensor. The door sensor comprises a safety shut off door detector and may contain an emergency stop detector and arming detector to protect people from being exposed to UV energy. The system has a remote control for starting, stopping and setting system parameters which include but are not limited to: treatment time, dosage, room size, room number, unit number, floor, facility name, operator name, operator identification number, password, default dosage values, dosage, and patient identification number. The number of treatments per unit of time can be maximized because of the use of incident light measurement.

1 . A fixed or mobile apparatus for disinfecting an area, said apparatus comprising:
 a UV emitter;   a computer operable to control said UV emitter;   a plurality of UV sensors in communication with said computer, said plurality of UV sensors operable to measure UV light at a plurality of locations within said area and further operable to communicate said measurements to said computer;   a door safety sensor in communication with said computer, said door safety sensor operable to detect and report whether a door is open or closed; and   a human-machine interface (HMI) operable to start and stop a disinfection procedure, and further operable to pause and resume said disinfection procedure in communication with said computer.   
     
     
         2 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein said door safety sensor further comprises an arming mechanism, said arming mechanism operable to prevent activation of said UV emitter unless said door is closed and said arming mechanism is active. 
     
     
         3 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein said door safety sensor and said plurality of UV sensors communicate with said computer using local area wireless communications. 
     
     
         4 . The apparatus of  claim 3 , wherein said local area wireless communications comprises said computer polling said door safety sensor and said plurality of UV sensors. 
     
     
         5 . The apparatus of  claim 3 , wherein said local area wireless communications comprises randomly timed transmissions from said sensors to said computer, said sensors being addressable to avoid collisions. 
     
     
         6 . The apparatus of  claim 3 , wherein said local area wireless communications comprises a wireless access point, said wireless access point being integrated into said apparatus. 
     
     
         7 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein said computer communicates with said door safety sensor more frequently than with said plurality of UV sensors. 
     
     
         8 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein said plurality of UV sensors comprise battery-powered UV sensors. 
     
     
         9 . The apparatus of  claim 8 , wherein said UV emitter further comprises at least one charging connector for said battery-powered UV sensors. 
     
     
         10 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein said plurality of UV sensors comprise cosine-corrected UV sensors. 
     
     
         11 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein said human-machine interface communicates with said computer using local area wireless communications. 
     
     
         12 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein said human-machine interface communicates with said computer using wide-area wireless communications. 
     
     
         13 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , further comprising at least one drone emitter unit, said at least one drone emitter unit providing additional UV light. 
     
     
         14 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , further comprising a wireless network adapter to provide internet access. 
     
     
         15 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , further comprising at least one device chosen from the group consisting of: a humidity generating device, an ozone generating device, and a vaporized hydrogen peroxide generating device. 
     
     
         16 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein said UV emitter comprises a plurality of substantially uncovered UV lamps. 
     
     
         17 . A tangible computer-readable medium encoding instructions for carrying out the method comprising:
 accepting authentication data from a user;   accepting from said authenticated user a set of disinfection job parameters, said set of disinfection job parameters comprising:
 a designator for a room or area to be disinfected; 
 a desired UV dosage; 
 a set of peripherals to be used in disinfecting said room or area, said set of peripherals comprising at least one safety sensor and at least one UV sensor; 
   accepting a door-closed signal from a door sensor coupled to a door adjacent to said room or area to be disinfected;   accepting an armed signal from said door sensor;   accepting a start instruction from said authenticated user;   after accepting said door-closed signal and said armed signal from said door sensor and said start instruction from said authenticated user, initiating emission of UV light from a UV emitter within said room or area to be disinfected;   monitoring an intensity and a cumulative dose of UV radiation received by said at least one UV sensor;   ceasing emission of UV light from said UV emitter when said desired UV dosage has been received by all of said at least one UV sensor; and   indicating a finished state to said authenticated user, said method further comprising ceasing emission of UV light from said UV emitter if said door sensor indicates that said door is open or if communication from said door sensor is interrupted;   ceasing emission of UV light from said UV emitter if communications from said at least one UV sensor is interrupted; and   ceasing emission of UV light from said UV emitter if an emergency stop switch is activated on said door sensor.   
     
     
         18 . The tangible computer-readable medium of  claim 17 , wherein said method further comprises the step of:
 optionally accepting a stop instruction from said authenticated user.   
     
     
         19 . The tangible computer-readable medium of  claim 17 , wherein said method further comprises:
 optionally accepting a pause instruction from said authenticated user; and   optionally accepting a resume instruction from said authenticated user.   
     
     
         20 . The tangible computer-readable medium of  claim 19 , wherein said method further comprises:
 recording said pause instruction and said resume instruction to allow analysis of protocol and system operation.   
     
     
         21 . The tangible computer-readable medium of  claim 17 , wherein said method further comprises:
 reading a battery charge state from each of said sensors;   notifying said user if any of said battery charge states is below a predetermined level.   
     
     
         22 . The tangible computer-readable medium of  claim 17 , wherein said method further comprises:
 communicating with a remote computer for job reporting, remote system configuration, data back-up, diagnostics, or remote operation.