Notification and communication system using geofencing to identify members of a community

• US 10,251,023 B2
• Filed: 03/21/2017
• Issued: 04/02/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 04/29/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: In-Telligent Properties LLC
• Original Assignee: In-Telligent Properties Inc.
• Inventors: Sutherland, Allan C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Vu, Quoc Thai N
• Application Number:
  US15/464,848
• Publication Number:
  US 20170318419A1
• Time in Patent Office: 742 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/163 Real estate management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/021 Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/08 User group management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/90 Services for handling of emergency or hazardous situations, e.g. earthquake and tsunami warning systems [ETWS]

Abstract

A system to communicate with a community of people determined by a geofencing system to be physically present in a geographic region, wherein the system overrides any alert-inhibiting state in the people'"'"'s smart phones to deliver audio or visual alerts in emergency situations.

Claims

1. A system to communicate with members of a community, comprising:

a non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions stored therein that when executed by a computing device provide;

(a) a geofencing system operating in a geographic region for;

(i) determining the location of a plurality of first individuals based upon the location of their smart devices, and

(ii) adding, without user interaction, the individuals that are determined to be physically present in the geographic region to a community;

(b) a subscription system operating on the smart devices for adding second individuals that are not determined to be physically present in the geographic region to the community based on requests of the second individuals;

(c) a safety alert system operating on the smart devices for transmitting emergency safety alert messages to the members of the community, by;

(i) communicating with the smart devices to determine their alert-receiving state, and then automatically overriding any alert inhibiting state to ensure that the smart device is alert-enabled to receive the emergency safety alert messages, and

(ii) transmitting an emergency safety alert message to the smart device; and

(d) a geographic region-specific communication system operating on the smart devices for and sending geographic region-specific non-emergency non-safety alert messages from property management to the members of the community, wherein the smart device'"'"'s alert inhibiting state is set by the user to disable alert function and to block the geographic region-specific non-emergency non-safety alert messages such that the emergency safety alert message is delivered to the smart device and the non-emergency non-safety alert messages are not delivered to the smart device.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the geographic region is a building or property and the safety alerts are sent from building or property management.

3. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

(e) a non-geographic region specific communication system operating on the smart devices for sending non-geographic region-specific messages to the members of the community.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the geofencing system comprises a Bluetooth low energy proximity sensing device that sends signals to the smart devices that are physically present in the geographic region.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the Bluetooth low energy proximity sensing device is an I-Beacon.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the safety alert system and the geographic region-specific communication system both operate through a downloadable app on each of the smart devices.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the geographic region-specific messages comprise advertisements from businesses associated with the property.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the geofencing system determines the location of the smart devices within the geographic region.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the geofencing system adds individuals to the community when the individuals are not physically present in the geographic region but are physically present near the geographic region.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the subscription system adds individuals to a plurality of different communities.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the safety alert is an audible alarm.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the safety alert is a visual alarm.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the safety alert system and the geographic region specific communication system operate over wi-fi on the property.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the safety alert system and the geographic region specific communication system operate over in-building cellular antennae.

15. A system for communicating with members of a community, comprising:

a non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions stored therein that when executed by a computing device cause the system to perform operations comprising;

(a) using a geofencing system to determine which first individuals are physically present in a geographic region based upon the location of their smart devices;

(b) adding the first individuals that have been determined to be physically present in the geographic region by the geofencing system to a community;

(c) permitting second individuals that are not physically present on the geographic region to subscribe to join the community based on requests of the second individuals;

(d) determining the alert-receiving state of each of the individuals'"'"' smart devices, and then;

automatically overriding any alert-inhibiting state of the smart devices to ensure that the smart devices are alert-enabled to receive emergency safety alert messages, and then

(e) transmitting an emergency safety alert message to each of the smart devices; and

(f) transmitting geographic region-specific non-emergency non-safety alert messages to the smart devices, wherein each user'"'"'s smart device'"'"'s alert inhibiting state is set to disable alert function and to block the geographic region-specific non-emergency non-safety alert messages such that the emergency safety alert message is delivered to the smart device and the non-emergency non-safety alert messages are not delivered to the smart device.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the geographic region is a building or property and the safety alerts are sent from building or property management.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein using a geofencing system comprises sending signals from Bluetooth low energy proximity sensing devices in the geographic region to determine which smart devices are physically present in the geographic region.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein the individuals download a software app on their smart devices and the safety alert and geographic region-specific messages are sent through the downloaded software app on the smart devices.

19. The method of claim 15, wherein the safety alert comprises an audible or visual alarm.

20. The method of claim 15, wherein overriding any alert-inhibiting state comprises requesting to override any alert-inhibiting state and then overriding the alert-inhibiting state with the user'"'"'s permission to ensure that the smart device is alert-enabled.

21. The method of claim 15, wherein overriding any alert-inhibiting state comprises automatically overriding any alert inhibiting state to ensure that the smart device is alert-enabled.