Disaster event management

• US 10,375,555 B2
• Filed: 09/08/2017
• Issued: 08/06/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 09/08/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Neybert, Karl, Deshaies, Stephen, Husby, Barry, Steven, Daniel, Happ, Martha
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran, Mong-Thuy T
• Application Number:
  US15/698,785
• Publication Number:
  US 20190082312A1
• Time in Patent Office: 697 Days
• Field of Search: 455466
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/265 Personal security, identity or safety
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2242/04 for emergency applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2242/28 Services making use of subscriber schedule information
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2242/30 Determination of the location of a subscriber
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/14 Short messaging services, e.g. short message services [SMS] or unstructured supplementary service data [USSD]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/20 Services signaling; Auxiliary data signalling, i.e. transmitting data via a non-traffic channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/21 for social networking applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/90 Services for handling of emergency or hazardous situations, e.g. earthquake and tsunami warning systems [ETWS]

Abstract

Various embodiments disclosed herein provide for a disaster event management system that can track location of employees and other affected during disaster events and other emergency situations and determine their safety status. The disaster event management system can determine when an emergency event has occurred, and determine which employees are likely to be affected by the emergency, based on their location at the time and other directory information. The system can provide an interface on user equipment devices operated by the employees (mobile devices, laptops, computers, tablets, etc) to provide their status along with an identification code to verify their identification. In an embodiment, the system can prompt the user equipment devices to provide a status in response to determining that the employee may be affected by the emergency situation.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory that stores executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, facilitate performance of operations, comprising;

determining that an event that satisfies a criterion related to public safety has occurred;

determining that a first user equipment associated with a first user account is at a first location associated with the event;

sending a status update request to the first user equipment;

in response to receiving a first status update feedback from the first user equipment, updating a safety status of the first user account, the safety status of the first user account relating to a safety of a first person associated with the first user account;

in response to the determining that the first user equipment associated with the first user account is at the first location, determining that second status update feedback was not received from a second user equipment device associated with a second location of the event; and

in response to the determining that the second status update feedback was not received from the second user equipment device, transmitting the second location of the second user equipment device to a device associated with an emergency response system to inform an emergency responder of a higher magnitude of the event associated with the second location than with the first location.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving an identification code from the first user equipment; and

attempting to match the identification code to directory information associated with the first user account.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the operations further comprise:

in response to the identification code not matching the directory information, temporarily holding the updating of the status of the first user account until a matching identification code is received from the first user equipment.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the receiving the status update feedback comprises:

receiving the first status update feedback via a short message service message.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the receiving the status update feedback comprises:

receiving the first status update feedback via an internet protocol communication.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the determining that the first user equipment is at the first location associated with the event comprises:

determining the first location of the first user equipment based on network location information.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the determining that the first user equipment is at the first location associated with the event comprises:

determining the first location of the first user equipment based on global positioning coordinate information received from the first user equipment.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the determining that the first user equipment is at the first location associated with the event comprises:

determining the first location of the first user equipment based on calendar information associated with the first user account.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving a context update related to the event from the first user equipment; and

transmitting the context update to a third user equipment associated with a third user account.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the context update comprises at least one of textual data, or image data.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

generating a report comprising information relating to a group of status updates of user accounts associated with identities of people determined to be affected by the event.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the group of status updates are received within a defined amount of time after the event was determined to have initiated.

13. A method, comprising:

receiving, by a first device comprising a processor, a notification that an emergency event has occurred within a first defined distance from a worksite;

determining, by the first device, that a first user equipment device associated with a first employee is within a second defined distance from the worksite;

receiving, by the first device, a first status update from the first user equipment device, wherein the first status update comprises a validation code;

determining, by the first device, whether the validation code is a match with directory information associated with the first user equipment device;

in response to the receiving the first status update and the validation code being determined to be the match with the directory information, updating, by the first device, a status associated with the first employee;

determining, by the first device, that a second status update was not received from a second user equipment device associated with a second employee within the second defined distance from the worksite; and

in response to the determining that the second status update was not received from the second user equipment device, transmitting, by the first device, a location of the second user equipment device to a second device associated with a first responder system to prompt an emergency responder to respond to the location as an increased danger location.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

transmitting, by the first device, to the first user equipment device, a request to revalidate in response to the validation code being determined not to be the match with the directory information.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the receiving the first status update from the first user equipment device is in response to sending a status update request to the first user equipment device.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the determining that the first user equipment device is within the second defined distance from the worksite further comprises identifying a base station device that serves the first user equipment device.

17. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

determining, by the first device, that the emergency event has occurred based on an analysis of social graph data associated with social media.

18. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium, comprising executable instructions that, when executed by a processor of a first device, facilitate performance of operations, comprising:

determining that a first mobile device associated with a first employee is within a first predetermined distance of an emergency event based on a network location of the first mobile device;

receiving a first status update from the first mobile device, wherein the first status update comprises a validation code and status information;

matching the validation code to directory information associated with the first mobile device; and

in response to the matching the validation code to the directory information, updating a status of the first employee in an emergency tracking database with the status information

determining that a second status update was not received from a second mobile device associated with a second employee within a second predetermined distance of the emergency event, wherein the second predetermined distance is based on a job hierarchy found within the directory information; and

transmitting a location of the second mobile device to a second device associated with an emergency management system to inform an emergency responder of a higher danger associated with the emergency, in relation to the location, than the first predetermined distance.

19. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the receiving the first status update is in response to transmitting a status update request to the first mobile device via a text message or an internet protocol communication message.

20. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the validation code is an employee identification number of the first employee.