SYSTEM, DEVICE AND METHOD OF PROVIDING LOCATION BASED, EMERGENCY AND SERVICE CALL AND INVENTORY INFORMATION

• US 20090021425A1
• Filed: 07/20/2007
• Published: 01/22/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 07/20/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Original Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Inventors: Cameron, Michael, Weatherford, Sidney
• Granted Patent: US 7,629,884 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 342/357.430
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/08 using communication transmission lines G08B13/19658, G08B21/0286, G08B25/016 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/202 Dispatching vehicles on the basis of a location, e.g. taxi dispatching
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/50 for emergency connections

Abstract

A system for providing location based, event and inventory information having a first terminal coupled to a database correlating address information to location based coordinate information, said first terminal adapted to transmit said location based coordinate information and a second terminal adapted to receive the location based coordinate information, automatically input such location based coordinate information into a map display and display a map including the address that correlates to said location based coordinate information.

Claims

1. A dispatch system, comprising:

a first terminal coupled to a database adapted to receive a first address and event data and to correlate the first address to a first set of location based data, wherein the first terminal is located remote from the first address;

a second terminal having a map display unit the second terminal adapted to receive a second set of location based data from a location system based on the location of the second terminal, the second terminal adapted to transmit such second set of location based data over a communication channel to the first terminal;

the first terminal adapted to maintain the second set of location based data in a memory,

dependent on the second set of location based data and the event data meeting certain criteria, the first terminal adapted to transmit the first set of location based data and event data to the second terminal; and

the second terminal further adapted to automatically input such location based data into the display unit adapted to display a map including the first address that correlates to said first set of location based data.

2. The dispatch system of claim 1, wherein the first set and second set of location based data is global positioning satellite (GPS) coordinate data.

3. The dispatch system of claim 1, wherein the event information comprises information related to the type and scope of an emergency or service call.

4. The dispatch system of claim 1, further comprising a short range radio frequency identification (RFID) reader coupled to the second terminal and adapted to obtain inventory data representing inventory information from RFID tags proximate the second terminal, the second terminal further adapted to transmit the inventory data to the first terminal.

5. The dispatch system of claim 4, wherein the first terminal is adapted to correlate the inventory data with the event data, and, if a positive correlation is obtained, the first terminal adapted to transmit the first set of location based data and event data to the second terminal.

6. The dispatch system of claim 1, further comprising a wireless infrastructure adapted to facilitate the transmission and reception of the global positioning satellite (GPS) coordinate information from the first terminal to the second terminal over the communication channel.

7. The dispatch system of claim 6, wherein the wireless infrastructure comprises one or more of a simplex system, a semi-duplex system, a duplex system, a trunked system, an analog system, a digital system, a GSM system, a CDMA system, a 3G system, and a 4G system.

8. The dispatch system of claim 1, wherein the first terminal is located at a dispatch center and the second terminal is a remote global positioning satellite (GPS) transceiver/display.

9. A terminal, comprising:

a receive unit;

a global positioning satellite (GPS) unit coupled at least to the receive unit;

a transmit unit coupled at least to the GPS unit;

a radio frequency identification (RFID) unit coupled at least to the transmit unit;

the GPS unit adapted to generate terminal GPS coordinate data which is correlated to the location of the terminal;

the receiver unit adapted to receive and demodulate modulated remote GPS coordinate data representing an location or address remote from the terminal, said remote GPS coordinate data being obtained from a wireless system over a communication channel;

the GPS unit being adapted to display a map based on the remote GPS coordinate data showing the location of the address correlated to the remote GPS coordinate data and a route from an address based on the terminal GPS coordinate data to an address based on the remote GPS coordinate data;

the RFID reader adapted to obtain inventory data representing inventory information proximate the terminal;

the transmit unit adapted to transmit the proximate GPS coordinate data and inventory data over a communication channel for use by a dispatch system.

10. The terminal of claim 9, in combination with a base station having a central database wherein the transmit unit is adapted to obtain from the GPS unit, and transmit from time to time, the terminal GPS coordinate data to the base station.

11. The terminal of claim 10, in combination with at least one wireless system over which the terminal and base station intercommunicate, wherein the wireless system comprises one or more of a simplex system, a semi-duplex system, a duplex system, a trunked system, an analog system, a digital system, a GSM system, a CDMA system, a 3G system, and a 4G system.

12. The terminal of claim 11, in combination with a plurality of slave terminals having similar functionality, said plurality of slave terminals being coordinated by at least one master terminal coupled to the base station of the central database, said master terminal adapted to maintain near contemporaneous GPS coordinate data for each slave terminal.

13. The terminal of claim 12, wherein the at least one master terminal is located at a dispatch center adapted to receive a plurality of address information remote from the dispatch center, correlate the address information to a plurality of respective remote GPS coordinate data, and transmit said remote GPS coordinate data to one of the plurality of terminals based on the distance from a specific remote GPS coordinate data to a specific slave terminal.

16. The method of claim 13, further comprising the steps of:

using a radio frequency identification (RFID) unit to obtain inventory data related to inventory information proximate the second terminal; and

transmitting by the second terminal to the first terminal over the communication channel of the wireless system, inventory data from time to time.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the inventory information comprises parts, tools, equipment or supplies tagged with RFID tags.

14. A method of providing location data and event information to a responder, comprising the steps of:

entering an address into a first terminal and obtaining a first set of global positioning satellite (GPS) system coordinate data for said address;

entering event data in to the first terminal;

obtaining a second set of GPS coordinate data correlated to a second terminal coupled to a GPS receiver/map display;

depending on the distance between the first set of GPS coordinate data and second set of GPS coordinate data, and the nature of the event data, transmitting said first set of GPS coordinate data and event data over a communication channel of a wireless system to the second terminal;

automatically inputting said first set of GPS coordinate data into the GPS receiver/map display of the second terminal;

displaying the address correlated to the first set of GPS coordinate data on the map display unit of the GPS receiver/map display of the second terminal.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising the step of mapping the shortest route from the location of the second terminal based on the second set of GPS coordinate data to the address represented by the first set of GPS coordinate data transmitted from the first terminal over a communication channel of a wireless system.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein the first terminal is located at a dispatch center and the event information relates to the nature and scope of an emergency event.

19. The method of claim 15, wherein the first terminal is located at a dispatch center and the event information relates to the nature and scope of a service call.

20. The method of claim 15, wherein the first terminal and second terminal inter-communicate over a wireless system comprising one or more of a simplex system, a semi-duplex system, a duplex system, a trunked system, an analog system, a digital system, a GSM system, a CDMA system, a 3G system, and a 4G system.

21. A method of responding to an event, comprising the steps of:

responsive to notification of an event, a first terminal determining the physical location of the event and storing received pertinent information regarding the event;

determining from a list of one or more remote responders a best responder that is capable of handling the event, wherein location of the remote responders and a list of each of the remote responders'"'"' available tools and supplies are automatically available to the first terminal so as to accurately determine the best responder;

automatically selecting the best responder, with regard to the event, according to the best responder'"'"'s current location and the best responder'"'"'s available tools and supplies; and

automatically sending the coordinates and details associated with the event to a second terminal associated with the best responder, wherein the coordinates of the event and the pertinent information regarding the event are displayed on a display coupled with the second terminal.