Emergency response and tracking using lighting networks

• US 10,297,140 B2
• Filed: 01/02/2013
• Issued: 05/21/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 01/06/2012
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Signify Holding B.V. (Signify N.V.)
• Original Assignee: Signify Holding B.V. (Signify N.V.)
• Inventors: Cavalcanti, Dave Alberto Tavares, Soomro, Amjad, Wang, Jianfeng
• Primary Examiner(s): Pham, Quang
• Application Number:
  US14/370,132
• Publication Number:
  US 20150002292A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,330 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 1/7036 Collocated with electrical equipment other than beacons
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 1/7038 Signal details
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/28 the pass enabling tracking or indicating presence
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/02 Alarms for ensuring the safety of persons
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/0211 Combination with medical sensor, e.g. for measuring heart rate, temperature
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/0258 System arrangements wherein both parent and child units can emit and receive
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/0272 System arrangements wherein the object is to detect exact location of child or item using triangulation other than GPS
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/0275 Electronic Article Surveillance [EAS] tag technology used for parent or child unit, e.g. same transmission technology, magnetic tag, RF tag, RFID
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/0453 worn on the body to detect health condition by physiological monitoring, e.g. electrocardiogram, temperature, breathing detecting, measuring or recording for diagnostic purposes A61B5/00
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/0461 integrated or attached to an item closely associated with the person but not worn by the person, e.g. chair, walking stick, bed sensor
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/0476 Cameras to detect unsafe condition, e.g. video cameras
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/016 Personal emergency signalling and security systems emergency non-personal manually actuated alarm activators G08B25/12
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation

Abstract

Obtaining a target location of a user associated with a body worn device (50) that receiving information related to a condition of user and communicates an indication of the condition to a server (12) over a network (24). The method including: providing a network (24) formed of a plurality of lighting units (42, 32) and a database (22) for maintaining information describing a geographic location of each of the plurality of lighting units, each lighting unit transmitting a unique identifier; providing the body worn device with a lighting unit identifier sensor (52), the sensor receiving lighting unit identifiers of at least one of the plurality of lighting units; the body worn device communicating the received lighting unit identifiers with the indication in a message to the server via the network; and the database providing a geographic location of the one or more lighting units, the geographic location corresponding to the target location of the body worn device.

Claims

1. A method of obtaining a health condition and target location of a user associated with a body worn device including a sensor, the method comprising acts of:

monitoring an indication of, using the sensor of body worn device, a health condition of user;

determining, using the indication, whether a predetermined health condition is present in the user;

maintaining a database, in a sewer, of information describing geographic locations of a plurality of lighting units, each lighting unit transmitting an identifier using modulated light;

providing the body worn device with a lighting unit identifier sensor, the sensor receiving lighting unit identifiers of at least one of the plurality of lighting units;

transmitting, by the body worn device, the received lighting unit identifiers with the indication in a message to the server via a network; and

providing, by the server, a geographic location corresponding to the target location of the body worn device, using the database and the received lighting unit identifiers; and

wherein said sensor and said lighting unit identifier sensor are a same camera for both receiving said lighting unit identifiers and sensing said a health condition of the user.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the sensor is selected from being integrated with the body worn device and being flexibly placed on or around the body worn device to enhance detection performance.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the sensor is wirelessly connected to the one or more body worn devices.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the body worn device communicates at one of:

when the alarm or alert is generated, periodically, at predetermined times, and when certain predetermined conditions are met.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the communication further includes timestamps associated with one or more lighting unit identifiers for indicating the time a particular lighting unit identifier was received.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the body worn device includes a memory for storing the lighting unit identifiers and associated timestamps indicating when each iteration of individual lighting unit identifier was received.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the communicated one or more lighting unit identifiers include many lighting unit identifiers having different time stamps for obtaining a plurality of target locations and further comprising an act of forming a trajectory of the body worn device over time.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising an act of using the trajectory to assess a health condition of the user of the body worn device.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein

when a single lighting unit identifier is provided in the message, the location of the lighting unit is the target location, and

when a plurality of lighting unit identifiers is provided in the message with temporally close timestamps the locations of the plurality of lighting units are used to determine the target location.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising acts of:

requesting the database to provide the one or more geographic locations of the lighting units; and

alerting at least one emergency responder that a user wearing the body worn device requires assistance at the target location.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the target location is identified with at least one of building section, floor number and room number;

zip code, street name, and house number;

a building or city map with target location identified;

latitude, longitude and altitude;

a relative position with respect to a predetermined location; and

relative position with respect to another location conveyed in the query response.

12. A system for obtaining a health condition and geographic location of a user, the system comprising:

a network formed of a plurality of lighting units and a database for maintaining information describing a geographic location of the plurality of lighting units, each lighting unit transmitting an identifier using modulated light;

a server connected to the network for communicating an indication of the health condition of a user condition and a location of the user to a monitoring system; and

a body worn device worn by a user and configured to detect the user health condition and communicate the indication of the user condition to the server, the body worn device having a camera to receive both the lighting unit identifiers of at least one of the plurality of lighting units and sense said health condition of the user, the server receiving lighting unit identifiers and the indication from the body worn device, determining if a predetermined health condition is present using the indication, determining a geographic location corresponding to the target location of the body worn device using the database and the received non-GPS identifiers.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the target area is selected from selectable locations within buildings, hospitals, streets, and cities.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the plurality of lighting units transmit the identifier using electromagnetic spectrum.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein the camera is selected from being integrated with the body worn device and being flexibly placed on or around the body worn device to enhance detection performance convenience and is connected to the body worn device by one of a wireless and hardwired attachment.

16. The system of claim 12, wherein the communication of the body worn device

includes one or more timestamps associated with one or more lighting unit identifiers for indicating a time a particular lighting unit identifier was received, and

is transmitted to the server at one of when the alarm or alert is generated, periodically, at predetermined times, and when certain predetermined conditions are met.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the communicated one or more lighting unit identifiers include different time stamps indicating a trajectory of the body worn device over time, the trajectory indicating a health condition of the user wearing the body worn device.

18. The system of claim 12, wherein the target location is identified with at least one of a section in a building, floor number and room number;

zip code, street name and house number, a building or city map with target location identified;

latitude, longitude and altitude;

a relative position with respect to a predetermined location; and

relative position with respect to another location conveyed in the query response.