CAMPUS ALERTING VIA WIRELESS GEOCAST

• US 20110103302A1
• Filed: 12/21/2009
• Published: 05/05/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/04/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Hall, Robert J.
• Granted Patent: US 8,483,652 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/328
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/10 Control of the course of the game, e.g. start, progess, end
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/12 involving interaction between a plurality of game devices, e.g. transmisison or distribution systems protocols for networked virtual reality, networked games H04L29/06034
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/211 using inertial sensors, e.g. accelerometers or gyroscopes
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/216 using geographical information, e.g. location of the game device or player using GPS
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/30 Interconnection arrangements between game servers and game devices; Interconnection arrangements between game devices; Interconnection arrangements between game servers
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/31 Communication aspects specific to video games, e.g. between several handheld game devices at close range
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/40 Processing input control signals of video game devices, e.g. signals generated by the player or derived from the environment
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/45 Controlling the progress of the video game
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/812 Ball games, e.g. soccer or baseball
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/95 Storage media specially adapted for storing game information, e.g. video game cartridges
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/1093 using visible light
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/406 Transmission via wireless network, e.g. pager or GSM
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/66 for rendering three dimensional images
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/69 Involving elements of the real world in the game world, e.g. measurement in live races, real video
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0261 based on user location
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/59 for emergency or urgency
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1845 broadcast or multicast in a specific location, e.g. geocast protocols for adapting network applications to user terminal location H04L67/52; services specially adapted for wireless communication networks making use of the location of users or terminals H04W4/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/189 in combination with wireless systems selective distribution or broadcast in wireless communication networks H04W4/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/021 Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/027 : using movement velocity, acceleration information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 : Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/50 : Service provisioning or reconfiguring
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 : Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/90 : Services for handling of emergency or hazardous situations, e.g. earthquake and tsunami warning systems [ETWS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 : Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks

Abstract

A geocast alerting system employs wireless geocast transmissions to deliver customized alerting messages to particular geographic areas. Geocast alerting regions and sub-regions can be defined within the system. Upon notice of the occurrence of an emergent situation, one or more geographic areas that may potentially be affected by the emergent situation are determined. The potentially effected geographic regions are compared with geocast alerting regions and sub-regions corresponding to particular geographic areas. Target alerting regions that should receive alerting messages are identified based on the comparison. The content of alerting messages can be tailored for each target alerting region. The content of alerting messages can contain distinct portions of content, each portion tailored based upon one or more conditions related to communications devices within the target alerting region.

Claims

1. A method for geographically distributing an alerting message, the method comprising:

receiving an indication of an emergent situation;

identifying a target geographic region for receipt of an alerting message pertaining to the emergent situation;

determining content for the alerting message; and

transmitting the alerting message, the alerting message comprising;

a target portion indicating the target geographic region; and

a content portion comprising the content.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying a target geographic region comprises:

determining a potentially effected geographic region of the emergent situation;

comparing the potentially effected geographic region with each of one or more predefined geographic alerting regions to determine whether the potentially effected geographic region is at least one of the same as, a part of, overlaps with, or is remote from, each of the predefined geographic alerting regions; and

identifying at least one of the predefined geographic alerting regions as the target geographic region responsive to the comparison.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying a target geographic region comprises:

determining a potentially effected geographic region of the emergent situation;

dynamically defining a geographic alerting region in accordance with the potentially effected geographic region; and

identifying the defined geographic alerting region as the target geographic region.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying a plurality of target geographic regions for receipt of respective alerting messages pertaining to the emergent situation;

determining respective content for each of the alerting messages; and

transmitting the alerting messages, each alerting message comprising;

a first portion indicating a respective target geographic region; and

a second portion comprising the respective content.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving an indication of a type of the emergent situation; and

executing a default alerting process corresponding to the type of the emergent situation, wherein the default alerting process comprises;

identifying at least one target geographic region in accordance with the default alerting process;

determining respective content for each of the at least one target geographic region in accordance with the default alerting process; and

transmitting alerting messages comprising respective content to each of the at least one target geographic region in accordance with the default alerting process.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the alerting message further comprises a plurality of content portions, each of the plurality of content portions comprising content tailored to the target geographic region.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein each of the plurality of content portions are tailored in accordance with a context condition.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the content portion further comprises a behavior routine, and wherein when the content portion is rendered by a receiving device, the behavior routine is invoked on the receiving device.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the content is determined at a time of the transmitting.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the content is determined based on at least one of:

a type of the emergent situation;

a severity of the emergent situation;

a distance of the target geographic region from a potentially effected geographic region of the emergent situation;

a time of day;

a number of communication devices located within the target geographic region; and

traffic conditions in the target geographic region.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the packet-formatted alerting message is transmitted via a mobile ad hoc network.

12. A method for receiving an alerting message, the method comprising:

receiving a signal indicative of the alerting message, the signal comprising;

an indication of a target distribution region for the signal; and

an indication of alerting message content;

comparing a location at which the signal was received with the target distribution region; and

when the location at which the signal was received is at least one of the same as, a part of, or overlaps with the target distribution region, rendering the alerting message content.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the signal further comprises a plurality of indications of alerting message content portions, at least one of the content portions tailored based upon a context condition.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

determining whether the context condition applies; and

when the context condition applies, rendering the at least one of the content portions tailored based upon the context condition.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein the content is determined at a time when the signal is sent.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein the content is rendered at least one of visually, aurally, or mechanically.

17. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

when the location at which the signal was received is at least one of the same as, a part of, or overlaps with the target distribution region, rendering an indication of a sender location,

wherein the signal further comprises the indication of a sender location.

18. The method of claim 12, wherein the alerting message comprises a response to a geographic query.

19. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

determining whether to retransmit the signal; and

when it is determined to retransmit the signal, retransmitting the signal in accordance with the location at which the signal was received.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein, when it is determined to retransmit the signal, the method further comprising:

determining whether the signal has been received at least a predetermined number of times;

when it is determined that the signal has not been received the predetermined number of times, retransmitting the signal;

when it is determined that the signal has been received at least the predetermined number of times, determining whether the signal was sent from a location closer than a minimum distance from the location at which the signal was received;

when it is determined that the signal has been received at least the predetermined number of times and it is determined that the signal was not sent from a location closer than the minimum distance from the location at which the signal was received, retransmitting the signal;

when it is determined that the signal has been received at least the predetermined number of times and it is determined that the signal was sent from a location closer than the minimum distance from the location at which the signal was received;

determining whether the location at which the signal was received is closer to a center of the target distribution region than a location from which the signal was sent; and

when it is determined that the signal has been received at least the predetermined number of times and it is determined that the signal was sent from a location closer than some minimum distance from the location at which the signal was received, and it has been determined that the location at which the signal was received is closer to a center of the target distribution region than the location from which the signal was sent, retransmitting the signal.