Dynamic determination of a geographically dispersed group for alert resolution

• US 10,460,593 B2
• Filed: 02/01/2019
• Issued: 10/29/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 08/04/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: T-Mobile USA, Inc. (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Original Assignee: T-Mobile USA, Inc. (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Inventors: Obaidi, Ahmad Arash, Yocam, Eric W., Mosher, Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): Lu, Shirley
• Application Number:
  US16/265,822
• Publication Number:
  US 20190188996A1
• Time in Patent Office: 270 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/005 Alarm destination chosen according to a hierarchy of available destinations, e.g. if hospital does not answer send to police station
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/006 Alarm destination chosen according to type of event, e.g. in case of fire phone the fire service, in case of medical emergency phone the ambulance
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 27/005 with transmission via computer network
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 27/006 with transmission via telephone network

Abstract

Described herein are techniques for receiving an alert associated with an entity and dynamically determining, based on the alert and on substantially real-time attributes for the entity, a geographically dispersed group in which each member of the geographically dispersed group either is a device associated with the entity or shares at least one attribute with the entity. The techniques further include requesting information about the entity from the geographically dispersed group, receiving information from at least a subset of the group, and taking action responsive to the alert based on the received information.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving an alert associated with a first device of a first entity indicating that the first device of the first entity is within proximity to a second device of a second entity;

based on the alert and on substantially real-time attributes for the first entity, dynamically determining a geographically dispersed group, each member of the geographically dispersed group either (i) being at least one device associated with the first entity or (ii) sharing at least one attribute with the first entity;

requesting information about at least one of the first entity or the second entity from the geographically dispersed group;

receiving the information from at least a subset of the geographically dispersed group; and

taking action responsive to the alert based on the information.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the alert associated with the first device is generated when a substantially real-time location of the first device is within proximity to a substantially real-time location of the second device.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining that the second entity comprises at least one of a predator or a non-custodial parent.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the action comprises sending an alert to a third device associated with a third entity, the third entity comprising at least one of a parent of the first entity, a guardian of the first entity, or an authority.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the dynamically determining includes identifying other persons from data profiles of each of the other persons, each data profile including the at least one attribute shared with the first entity, and selecting a subset of the other persons as members of the geographically dispersed group based at least in part on the alert.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the dynamically determining alternatively or additionally includes identifying the at least one device associated with the first entity and selecting at least a subset of the at least one device as members of the geographically dispersed group.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the at least one attribute includes a last name of the at least one of the other persons, a home address of the at least one of the other persons, a work address of the at least one of the other persons, substantially real-time locations of a plurality of devices of the at least one of the other persons, an employer of the at least one of the other persons, a telecommunication service plan identifier of the at least one of the other persons, or a familial role of the at least one of the other persons.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein the dynamically determining includes retrieving the at least one attribute from one or more data stores.

9. The method of claim 5, wherein selecting the subset includes selecting the subset of the other persons as members of the geographically dispersed group based on one or more rules, models, or confidence thresholds.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising selecting the one or more rules, models, or confidence thresholds based on the alert, on circumstances associated with alert, or on a location of the first entity.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein dynamically determining the geographically dispersed group based on the alert and substantially real-time attributes for the first entity comprises dynamically determining the geographically dispersed group based on one or more rules or models associated with the alert, on information associated with circumstances that gave rise to the alert, or on the substantially real-time attributes for the first entity.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the information requested varies based on circumstances associated with the alert.

13. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media having stored thereon programming instructions which, when executed by one or more computing devices, cause the one or more computing devices to perform operations comprising:

receiving an alert associated with a first device of a first entity indicating that the first device of the first entity is within proximity to a second device of a second entity;

dynamically determining a geographically dispersed group, including at least one of;

(i) identifying other persons from data profiles of each of the other persons, each data profile including at least one attribute in common with a data profile of the first entity, and selecting a subset of the other persons as members of the geographically dispersed group based at least in part on the alert, or

(ii) determining identified devices associated with the first entity and selecting at least a subset of the identified devices as members of the geographically dispersed group;

requesting information about the first entity from the geographically dispersed group;

receiving the information from the geographically dispersed group; and

taking action responsive to the alert based at least in part on the information.

14. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 13, wherein selecting the subset of the other persons or identified devices comprises selecting the subset based on one or more rules, models, or confidence thresholds.

15. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 13, wherein selecting the subset further comprises:

for each of the other persons, adding a point for each attribute in common with the first entity to calculate a score, and

selecting as the subset of the other persons those other persons with scores exceeding a threshold.

16. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 13, wherein requesting the information comprises sending at least one of a text message, a multi-media message, an email, or placing a call.

17. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 13, wherein taking action comprises sending an alert to a third device associated with a third entity, the third entity comprising at least one of a parent of the first entity, a guardian of the first entity, or an authority.

18. A system comprising:

a processor;

a data store coupled to the processor and configured to store attributes of a plurality of persons;

an alert module configured to be operated by the processor to generate an alert indicating that a first device of a first entity is within proximity to a second device of a second entity;

a group determination module configured to be operated by the processor to dynamically determine a geographically dispersed group by performing at least one of;

(i) retrieving attributes from the data store, identifying other persons from the plurality of persons based at least on shared attributes, and selecting a subset of the other persons as members of the geographically dispersed group based at least in part on the alert, or

(ii) determining identified devices associated with first entity and selecting at least a subset of the identified devices as members of the geographically dispersed group; and

an alert resolution module configured to be operated by the processor to request information about the first entity from the geographically dispersed group, receive the information from the geographically dispersed group, and take action responsive to the alert based at least in part on the information.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the group determination module is configured to select the subset based on one or more rules, models, or confidence thresholds.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein the data store is a store of a telecommunication service provider which includes attributes of service recipients of the telecommunication service provider.