Communication between responders

• US 10,237,716 B2
• Filed: 11/03/2017
• Issued: 03/19/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 08/25/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Axon Enterprise, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Axon Enterprise, Inc.
• Inventors: Bohlander, Michael J., Fortna, Raymond, Huang, Anthony G., Jolma, Jeffrey P., Weiss, Julianne C., Deluca, Aerianna K.
• Primary Examiner(s): Taylor, Nathan S
• Application Number:
  US15/803,460
• Publication Number:
  US 20180063689A1
• Time in Patent Office: 501 Days
• Field of Search: 4554041, 455518, 455 411, 455420, 370254, 370310, 370328, 370465
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/90 Services for handling of emergency or hazardous situations, e.g. earthquake and tsunami warning systems [ETWS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/14 Direct-mode setup

Abstract

A method for communicating among responders from a plurality of responder agencies includes determining that responders from two responder agencies are located at an event or location. Each of the responders from the two responder agencies has a computing device that is configured to communicate with the other computing device of the responders. Authorization is received from the two responder agencies to permit direct communication between responders from the two responder agencies. A communication link is established between the computing devices of the responders of the two responder agencies in response to determining that the responders from the two responder agencies are located at the event or location and in response to receiving the authorization. The communication link permits direct communication between the responders of the two responder agencies.

Claims

1. A method of communicating among a plurality of responders, the method comprising:

displaying a geographic area on a computing device of a first responder, the displayed geographic area including an indication of a location of a computing device of each of the plurality of responders;

receiving an indication of a geographic boundary within the displayed geographic area, the indication of the geographic boundary being received after the geographic area including the indications of the locations of the computing devices of the plurality of responders has been displayed;

defining a subset of the plurality of responders associated with the first responder, wherein the subset is defined based on the received indication of the geographic boundary;

establishing a communication link between the computing devices of the first responder and the plurality of responders in the subset;

establishing a priority rank among the first responder and the responders in the subset; and

sending communications between the computing devices of the first responder and the responders in the subset via the communication link based on the priority rank.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the communications between the first responder and the responders in the subset comprise push-to-talk audio communications.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the computing devices of the plurality of responders in the subset are configured to determine a conflict between push-to-talk audio communications sent by at least two responders and to play one of the push-to-talk audio communications based on the priority rank of the at least two responders.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the communications between the first responder and the responders in the subset comprise at least one video clip.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the subset of the plurality of responders comprises a second responder that is a supervisor of the first responder.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the computing device of the first responder is configured to send an alert to the second responder via the communication link in response to an event at the location of the first responder.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein defining the subset of the plurality of responders associated with the first responder comprises receiving the indication of the geographic boundary from the computing device of the first responder.

8. The method of claim 7 further comprising:

in response to determining that the indication of the geographic boundary from the computing device of the first responder includes a superior of the first responder, the computing device of the first responder requesting confirmation to add the superior of the first responder to the communication link.

9. The method of claim 7 wherein the indication of the geographic boundary comprises an indication of responders within the geographic boundary.

10. The method of claim 7 wherein the subset of the plurality of responders is defined based on the locations of computing devices of the plurality of responders in the subset and the priority rank of the plurality of responders.

11. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving, by the computing device of the first responder, a message sent from the computing device of a second responder of the responders in the subset via the communication link to the computing devices of the responder and the other responders in the subset;

receiving, by the computing device of the first responder, a request to send a response to the second responder; and

sending the response via the communication link from the computing device of the first responder to the computing device of the second responder.

12. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

determining that the computing device of the first responder is at a particular locale;

in response to determining that the computing device of the first responder is at the particular locale,

sending an indication of the particular locale from the computing device of the first responder to a remote computing device; and

receiving, by the computing device of the first responder from the remote computing device, information about the particular locale generated by a second responder.

15. The method of claim 9, wherein the geographic boundary includes a location at which the computing device of the first responder is located.

16. The method of claim 9, wherein the indication of the geographic boundary is received via a same display of the computing device of the first responder on which the geographic area including the indications of the locations of the computing devices of the plurality of responders is displayed.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the display is a touchscreen display.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the indications of the locations of the computing devices of the plurality of responders are displayed on a map of the geographic area and the geographic boundary is received as first responder input drawn over the map of the geographic area.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the displayed geographic area includes an indication of a location of a computing device of a responder in the plurality of responders that is not included in the subset based on the received indication of the geographic boundary.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the subset includes multiple responders of the plurality of responders, the multiple responders commonly selected based on the received indication of the geographic boundary.

13. A system for communicating among a plurality of responders, the system comprising:

a computing device associated with a first responder; and

instructions stored in the computing device, wherein the instructions, in response to execution by the computing device, cause the computing device to;

display a geographic area on the computing device associated with the first reminder, the displayed geographic area including an indication of a location of a computing device of each of the plurality of responders;

receive an indication of a geographic boundary within the displayed geographic area, the indication of the geographic boundary being received after the geographic area including the indications of the locations of the computing devices of the plurality of responders has been displayed;

define a subset of the plurality of responders, wherein the subset of the plurality of responders is defined based on the received indication of the geographic boundary;

establish a communication link between the computing devices of the first responder and the plurality of responders in the subset, and

send communications to the computing devices of the responders in the subset based on a priority rank among the first responder and the responders in the subset.

14. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions thereon for communicating among a plurality of responders, wherein the instructions, in response to execution by a computing device of a first responder, cause the computing device to:

display a geographic area on the computing device of the first responder, the displayed geographic area including an indication of a location of a computing device of each of the plurality of responders;

receive an indication of a geographic boundary within the displayed geographic area, the indication of the geographic boundary being received after the geographic area including the indications of the locations of the computing devices of the plurality of responders has been displayed on the computing device of the first responder;

define a subset of the plurality of responders, wherein the subset of the plurality of responders is defined at the computing device of the first responder based on the received indication of the geographic boundary;

establish a communication link between the computing devices of the first responder and the plurality of responders in the subset; and

send communications to the computing devices of the responders in the subset based on a priority rank among the first responder and the responders in the subset.