MONITORING METHOD AND SYSTEM

• US 20070153993A1
• Filed: 02/16/2007
• Published: 07/05/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 02/02/2004
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Mobile Reach Media Inc.
• Original Assignee: Mobile Reach Media Inc.
• Inventors: Cohen, Philip
• Application Number:
  US11/676,010
• Publication Number:
  US 20070153993A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/100.50
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 11/002 with telemetering systems telemetering in general G08C

Abstract

A system and method for monitoring a monitored subject is disclosed. In a broad aspect, the method comprises activating a monitoring service to send notification messages to the monitored subject, sending at least one notification message to a monitored subject in accordance with a first notification schedule, determining if a response to the at least one notification message sent at the sending step is received from the monitored subject within a pre-specified time period, and invoking a non-response system state when a response to the at least one notification message is not received from the monitored subject within the pre-specified time period, wherein a non-response message is sent to a monitoring party at the invoking step. Various features of the system and method are disclosed herein.

Claims

1. A method of monitoring a monitored subject comprising the steps of:

activating a monitoring service to send notification messages to the monitored subject;

sending at least one notification message to the monitored subject, via a mobile communication device, in accordance with a first notification schedule;

determining if a response to the at least one notification message sent at the sending step is received from the monitored subject via the mobile communication device within a pre-specified time period; and

invoking a non-response system state when a response to the at least one notification message is not received from the monitored subject within the pre-specified time period, wherein a non-response message is sent to a monitoring party at the invoking step.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one notification message sent to the monitored subject at the sending step is in a data format.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the invoking step is performed only when a correct response to the at least one notification message is not received from the monitored subject within the pre-specified time period.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the invoking step is performed after receiving a pre-specified number of incorrect responses.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of sending a message to the monitoring party when a response to the at least one notification message has been received from the monitored subject within the pre-specified time period.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of requesting the determination of the location of the mobile communication device of the monitored subject.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the step of requesting the determination of the location of the mobile communication device of the monitored subject comprises requesting location information from a mobile communication device location service.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the requesting step comprises transmitting one of a data packet and an electronic message to the mobile communication device location service.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of determining if an acknowledgment to the non-response message is received from the monitoring party within a pre-specified time period.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising the steps of sending a non-response message to one or more alternate contact parties if the acknowledgement to the non-response message is not received from the monitoring party within a pre-specified time period, and determining if an acknowledgement to the non-response message is received from at least one alternate contact party within a pre-specified time period.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising the step of sending a confirmation message to at least one of the one or more alternate contact parties and the monitoring party, the confirmation message indicating the party who acknowledged the non-response message.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the activating step is performed by the monitored subject.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the activating step is performed by the monitored subject in response to a message received from the monitored subject via the mobile communications device.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the message received from the monitored subject is in a data format.

15. The method of claim 12, further comprising the step of sending a message to the monitoring party when the activating step is performed by the monitored subject.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising deactivating the monitoring service.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the deactivating step is performed by the monitored subject.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein at least the sending step is repeated, but wherein the sending step comprises sending at least one notification message to a monitored subject in accordance with an alternate notification schedule.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the step of sending at least one notification message to a monitored subject in accordance with an alternate notification schedule is performed only if a response has been received to a previous notification message sent to the monitored subject in accordance with the first notification schedule.

20. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of sending the monitoring party a supplementary message received from the monitored subject with a correct response to a notification message, the supplementary message having been sent by the monitored subject after the non-response system state has been invoked.

21. The method of claim 1, wherein the sending step is performed only if a pre-emptive message has not been received within a pre-specified time preceding a time in which the at least one notification message is to be sent to the monitored subject in accordance with the first notification schedule.

22. The method of claim 1, wherein the monitored subject responds to a notification message by pressing a single button on the mobile communication device of the monitored subject.

23. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of returning to a normal operating state once the monitored subject responds to the at least one notification message after a non-response system state has been invoked.

24. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of returning to a normal operating state once a time-out condition is satisfied after a non-response system state has been invoked.

25. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of sending a session summary to the monitoring party.

26. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one notification message comprises a multiple-choice question.

27. The method of claim 26, further comprising sending the monitoring party an alert message when the monitored subject responds to the notification message with a pre-specified answer to the multiple-choice question.

28. A system for monitoring a monitored subject, comprising a notification engine programmed to perform the steps of the method as claimed in claim 1.

29. A computer-readable medium comprising instructions for performing the steps of the method as claimed in claim 1.