EMERGENCY AND TRAFFIC ALERT SYSTEM

• US 20100250111A1
• Filed: 02/16/2010
• Published: 09/30/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/26/2009
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: B&C Electronic Engineering Incorporated
• Original Assignee: B&C Electronic Engineering Incorporated
• Inventors: Johnson, Carl, Gutierrez, Juan
• Application Number:
  US12/706,355
• Publication Number:
  US 20100250111A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/200
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3697 Output of additional, non-guidance related information, e.g. low fuel level G01C21/3679 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0965 responding to signals from another vehicle, e.g. emergency vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096775 where the origin of the information is a central station

Abstract

Systems and methods are disclosed for providing event notification to navigational applications. More specifically, the disclosed systems and methods provide emergency and non-emergency event information to users such that the event information is displayed to the user of a navigation application. For example, the location of an emergency event, such as a car accident or a fire is displayed on a personal navigation device. Furthermore, the real-time location of emergency vehicles responding to the event can be displayed on the navigation application. This provides additional information to drivers to help avoid traffic situations and clear the route for emergency vehicles. The disclosed systems and methods may also be employed to provide non-emergency information to users, such as parade or marathon information and routes, snow routes, evacuation routes, and traffic signal outages.

Claims

1. A computer storage medium encoding computer executable instructions that, when executed on a processor, perform a method of providing event notification, the method comprising:

receiving, from an event store, a client event ID, wherein the client event ID is associated with an event;

receiving, from the event store, a client severity level associated with the event;

receiving, from the event store, a location of the event; and

sending, to a navigation provider, a second event ID associated with the client event ID, a second severity level determined based on the client severity level, and the location of the event.

2. The computer storage medium of claim 1, wherein the method of providing event notification further comprises:

receiving, from the event store, information related to at least one asset assigned to the event; and

sending, to the navigation provider, the information identifying to the at least one asset.

3. The computer storage medium of claim 2, wherein the information related to the at least one asset further comprises:

a real-time location of the at least one asset; and

a type of the at least one asset.

4. The computer storage medium of claim 3, wherein the method of providing event notification further comprises sending, to the navigation provider, updated real-time location of the at least one asset.

5. The computer storage medium of claim 2, wherein the method of providing event notification further comprises:

determining a new second severity level associated with the event based on information from the event store; and

sending, to the navigation provider, the new second severity level associated with the event.

6. The computer storage medium of claim 5, wherein determining the new severity level associated with the event comprises is a function based upon at least one of:

a number of assets assigned to the event;

a type of the event;

the level of severity received from the event store; and

a number of assets present at the location of the event.

7. The computer storage medium of claim 2, wherein the method of providing event notification further comprises:

determining an event escalation; and

sending the event escalation to the navigation provider.

8. The computer storage medium of claim 7, wherein the event escalation is determined by an increase in the number of assets assigned to the event.

9. The computer storage medium of claim 1, wherein the event location comprises latitude and longitude coordinates of the location.

10. The computer storage medium of claim 1, wherein the event location comprises route information.

11. The computer storage medium of claim 1, wherein the new severity level associated with the event is based upon one of:

an indication of a full road closure;

an indication of a partial road closure; and

an indication of no road closure.

12. The computer storage medium of claim 1, wherein the method of providing event notification further comprises sending, to the navigation provider, an end event notification upon termination of the event.

13. The computer storage medium of claim 1, further comprising receiving updated information from the event store.

14. A system for providing event notifications, the system comprising:

a first event notification component communicatively coupled to a first event datastore, the first event notification component performing steps comprising;

receiving first event information related to a first event from the first event datastore;

generating a severity level for the first event based on the first event information; and

sending information related to the first event to a navigation provider component, wherein the information sent includes an event ID, the severity level and a location.

15. The system of claim 14, further comprising:

the first event datastore and a second event datastore, each datastore storing information related to one or more events comprising, for each event;

an event ID;

a severity level associated with the event; and

a location.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the second event datastore is communicatively coupled to the first event notification component, and wherein the first event notification component further performs steps comprising:

receiving second event information related to a second event from the second event datastore;

storing the second event information related to the second event; and

sending the information related to the second event to the navigation provider component.

17. The system of claim 16, further comprising a second event notification component communicatively coupled to the second event datastore, the second event notification component performing steps comprising:

receiving second event information related to the second event from the second event datastore;

storing the second event information related to the second event; and

sending the information related to the second event to the navigation provider component.

18. The system of claim 14, wherein the sent information related to the first event further comprises:

a real-time location of at least one asset associated with the first event.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the sent information related to the first event further comprises:

an asset type associated with each asset.

20. A system of providing event notification, the system comprising:

a first event datastore, the first event datastore storing first event information related to a first event, wherein the first event information includes;

an event ID;

a severity level associated with the first event;

a location for the first event; and

information related at least one asset assigned to the first event;

a first event notification component communicatively coupled to the first event datastore, the first event notification component performing steps including;

receiving first event information related to a first event from the first event datastore;

generating first navigation alert information based on the first event information; and

sending the first navigation alert information to a navigation provider component;

a second event datastore, the second event datastore storing second event information related to a second event, wherein the second event information includes;

an event ID;

a severity level associated with the second event; and

a location for the second event;

a second event notification component communicatively coupled to the second event datastore, the second event notification component performing steps including;

receiving second event information related to the second event from the second event datastore;

generating second navigation alert information based on the second event information related to the second event; and

sending the second navigation alert information to the navigation provider component;

the navigation provider component communicatively coupled to the first and second event notification components, wherein the navigation provider component performing steps comprising;

receiving the first navigation alert information;

determining a new severity level of the first event;

receiving the second navigation alert information;

determining a new severity level of the second event; and

sending, the first navigation alert information, the second navigation alert information, and the new severity levels associated with the first and second events to a personal navigation device; and

the personal navigation device communicatively coupled to the navigation provider component, the personal navigation device performing steps comprising;

receiving the information related to the first event, the new first severity level, the information related to the second event, and the new second severity level to a personal navigation device; and

providing a graphical user interface displaying an indication of at least one of the first and second events to the user.