ENHANCED HANDLING OF DURESS SITUATIONS

• US 20080227429A1
• Filed: 03/13/2007
• Published: 09/18/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 03/13/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Research In Motion Limited (Blackberry Limited)
• Inventors: Wilson, Nicholas Bryson, Hodgson, John
• Granted Patent: US 9,020,462 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/404.2
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72421 with automatic activation of emergency service functions, e.g. upon sensing an alarm
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/7243 with interactive means for internal management of messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 11/04 with alarm systems, e.g. fire, police or burglar alarm systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/10 including a GPS signal receiver

Abstract

A wireless communications device can be triggered by a user in a duress situation to provide to a predetermined recipient, or to a monitoring service, a duress message containing emergency-response information, such as GPS coordinates, a photograph and/or an audio clip to facilitate an emergency response to the duress situation. The wireless device can periodically send follow-up duress messages to provide updated GPS data, photos or other information. The wireless device monitoring can also reply to specific queries from the monitoring service to provide requested information that would be most useful to the recipient attempting to coordinate an emergency response. In the event that the device is outside data packet coverage, the duress message can be transmitted using an alternate mode of communication such as SMS or MMS. If no mode of communication is available, the device stores the duress message until communications are possible.

Claims

1. A method of handling a duress situation experienced by a user of a wireless device, the method comprising steps of:

enabling the user to trigger the wireless device to automatically generate a duress message for alerting a predetermined recipient that the user is in a duress situation;

capturing emergency-response information about the environment in which the device is situated;

automatically incorporating the emergency-response information into the duress message; and

automatically transmitting the duress message to the recipient.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the step of capturing the emergency-response information comprises steps of:

obtaining Global Positioning System (GPS) data using a GPS device; and

incorporating the GPS data into the duress message for transmitting to the recipient.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the step of capturing the emergency-response information comprises steps of:

surreptitiously taking a digital photograph using a digital camera embedded within the device; and

incorporating the digital photograph into the duress message for transmitting to the recipient.

4. The method as claimed in claim 3 wherein the step of surreptitiously taking a digital photograph comprises steps of:

disabling a camera flash on the digital camera;

disabling all visual indicators on the device that indicate that a digital photograph is being taken; and

setting the digital camera at a low resolution to facilitate data transmission.

5. The method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the step of capturing the emergency-response information comprises steps of:

surreptitiously recording a digital audio clip using a microphone embedded within the device; and

incorporating the digital audio clip into the duress message for transmitting to the recipient.

6. The method as claimed in claim 1 further comprising a step of transmitting a subsequent duress message to the recipient to provide updated emergency-response information to the recipient.

7. The method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the step of automatically transmitting the duress message to the recipient comprises a step of transmitting an e-mail duress message over a data packet network.

8. The method as claimed in claim 7 further comprising a step of transmitting the duress message using an alternate mode of communication when the device is outside a coverage area of the data packet network.

9. The method as claimed in claim 8 further comprising steps of:

locally storing the duress message when all modes of communication for the device are unavailable; and

transmitting the duress message as soon as a first mode of communication becomes available again.

10. The method as claimed in claim 1 further comprising steps of:

receiving from the recipient a query containing a request for further information;

obtaining the further information to reply to the query; and

transmitting to the recipient a reply containing the further information.

11. A system for monitoring communications from wireless devices to provide emergency responses to users in duress situations, the system comprising:

a wireless device configured for enhanced handling of duress situations, the wireless device having;

an input device for enabling the user to automatically generate a duress message for alerting a predetermined recipient that the user is in a duress situation;

a processor for directing the device to capture emergency-response information about the environment in which the device is situated and for instructing an e-mail application executing on the device to automatically incorporate the emergency-response information into the duress message and automatically transmit the duress message to the recipient; and

a monitoring service hosted on a server for monitoring communications from the wireless device and configured to identify an incoming duress message transmitted by the wireless device.

12. The system as claimed in claim 11 wherein the wireless device comprises a digital camera for surreptitiously capturing a digital picture that the device can transmit automatically to the monitoring service.

13. The system as claimed in claim 11 wherein the wireless device comprises a GPS chip for capturing position data for the device for transmission to the monitoring service.

14. A wireless communications device for communicating emergency-response information when a user of the device is under duress, the wireless device comprising:

an input device for enabling the user to trigger the wireless device to automatically generate a duress message for alerting a predetermined recipient that the user is in a duress situation; and

a processor for directing the device to capture emergency-response information about the environment in which the device is situated and for instructing an e-mail application to automatically incorporate the emergency-response information into the duress message and automatically transmit the duress message to the recipient.

15. The wireless communications device as claimed in claim 14 further comprising a digital camera for surreptitiously capturing a digital picture that the device can transmit automatically to the recipient.

16. The wireless communications device as claimed in claim 14 further comprising a GPS chip for capturing position data for the device for transmission to the recipient.

17. The wireless communications device as claimed in claim 14 further comprising a microphone to surreptitiously record a digital audio clip for transmission to the recipient.

18. A computer program product to be executed on a wireless device, the computer program product comprising code adapted to perform the steps of:

enabling the user to trigger the wireless device to automatically generate a duress message for alerting a predetermined recipient that the user is in a duress situation;

capturing emergency-response information about the environment in which the device is situated;

automatically incorporating the emergency-response information into the duress message; and

automatically transmitting the duress message to the recipient.

19. A monitoring service server for hosting a monitoring service for monitoring one or more duress messages transmitted by one or more wireless communications devices, the monitoring service server comprising:

an external data connection through a firewall to an external data network to which one or more wireless networks hosting the one or more wireless communications devices are connected;

an least one internal data connection to one or more respective applications servers disposed behind the firewall to which the wireless communications devices can establish secure connections through the firewall and monitoring service server; and

a monitoring service application executing on the monitoring service server for filtering data transiting the monitoring service server to detect a duress message containing emergency-response information about the environment in which the wireless communications device transmitting the duress message is situated.

20. The monitoring service server as claimed in claim 19 wherein the monitoring service application automatically establishes a communication link with an emergency response call center.