METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR AN EMERGENCY LOCATION INFORMATION SERVICE (E-LIS)

• US 20110207429A1
• Filed: 05/02/2011
• Published: 08/25/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 05/16/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Everbridge Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Red Sky Technologies Incorporated
• Inventors: Eisner, Gerald R., MAIER, Nicholas M.
• Granted Patent: US 8,442,482 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/404.2
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• 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 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/50 for emergency connections

Abstract

A method and system for determining and verifying a location of mobile and non-mobile devices in emergency situations. The method and system provide a current physical geographic location for a mobile or non-mobile device (e.g., building address, a building floor, a room on a building floor, campus, enterprise, city, state, region, country, continent, etc.) with and without translation of location coordinates, in an emergency situation such as an accident, fire, terrorist attack, military incident, kidnapping, etc.

Claims

1. A method for locating a device during an emergency, comprising:

receiving on a network server device with one or more processors a wireless emergency message from an application on a first mobile network device with one or more processors via a wireless communications network indicating an emergency event has occurred with the first mobile network device;

determining on the network server device from the emergency message a current physical geographic location for the first mobile network device, wherein the emergency message includes a unique identifier for the first mobile network device on the wireless communications network and the unique identifier is used to access and verify location information about the first mobile network device in current three dimensional (3D) (X,Y,Z) geo-space coordinates at the current physical geographic location; and

returning from the network server device to a desired emergency response server with one or more processors the current physical geographic location for the first mobile network device.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising a computer readable medium having stored therein instructions for causing one or more processors to execute the steps of the method.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the emergency message further includes a current physical geographic location information in Global Positioning System (GPS) coordinates.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the desired emergency response server is an E911 or 911 emergency response server.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the emergency message further includes a triggering event from a sensor or another network device.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising a wired access point and the first mobile network device connected to a wired communications network with a wired connection.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the current 3D (X,Y,Z) geo-space coordinates at the current physical location includes current 3D (X,Y,Z) geo-space coordinates for a room on a building floor, building floor in a building, building on a street, an enterprise, campus, village, town, city, state, country or continent or global region.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the emergency message includes an E911 communication or a 911 communication message.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the emergency message is received over a wireless interface including:

Commercial Mobile Radio Services (CMRS), cellular telephone, Personal Communications Services network (PCS), Packet Cellular Network (PCN), Global System for Mobile Communications, (GSM), Generic Packet Radio Services (GPRS), Cellular Digital Packet Data (CDPD), Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) or Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB), Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi), Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX), IEEE 802.11xx, Global Positioning System (GPS) and GPS map, Digital GPS (DGPS), Instant Messaging (IM), Short Message Services (SMS), Radio Frequency Identifier (RFID), Industrial, Scientific and Medical (ISM), or a Zigbee wireless interface.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the unique identifier includes a Universal Resource Identifier (URI) for the first mobile network device unique across all wireless and wired communications network the first mobile network device is connected to.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the first mobile network device automatically determines and stores its own current physical geographical location information from the communications network.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the first mobile network device includes a smart network device comprising a smart phone or a tablet computer and wherein the application includes a smart application for the smart phone or the tablet computer.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the emergency event includes an accident, event, fire event, terrorist attack event, military event or crime event.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein the emergency event includes an emergency event detected by an accelerometer or a temperature sensor included on the first mobile network device.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a location request message on the server network device to determine a current physical location for the first mobile network device;

retrieving on the first mobile network device via one or more other server network devices on the wireless communications network the current physical location of the first mobile network device;

verifying the current physical location of the first mobile network device by comparing the retrieved current physical location information to a stored current physical location information for the first mobile network device; and

sending to the desired emergency response server the current physical geographic location for the first mobile network device.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein the sending step including sending location information about the first mobile network device in current three dimensional (3D) (X,Y,Z) geo-space coordinates at the current physical geographic location.

17. The method of claim 15 wherein the retrieving step includes retrieving the current physical geographic location for the first mobile network device with data link layer request using Internet Protocol (IP).

18. The method of claim 15 where the first mobile network device periodically determines and sends the current physical location for the first mobile network device to the server network device via the wireless communications network.

19. The method of claim 15 receiving step includes an automatic location request message generated on the first mobile network device when the first mobile network device is physical shaken in a pre-determined pattern.

20. An emergency location information system (E-LIS), comprising in combination:

means for receiving on a network server device with one or more processors a wireless emergency message from an application on first mobile network device with one or more processors via a wireless communications network indicating an emergency event has occurred with the first mobile network device;

means for verifying on the network server device information from the emergency message into a current physical geographic location for the first mobile network device, wherein the emergency message includes a unique identifier for the first mobile network device on the wireless communications network and the unique identifier is used to access information about the first mobile network device in current (X,Y,Z) geo-space coordinates at the current physical geographic location;

means for returning from the network server device to a desired emergency response server with one or more processors the current physical geographic location and position in (X,Y,Z) geo-space at the current physical location for the first mobile network device;

means for receiving a location request message on the server network device to determine a current physical location for the first mobile network device;

means for retrieving from the first mobile network device via the wireless communications network the current physical location of the first mobile network device;

means for verifying the current physical location of the first mobile network device by comparing the current physical location information to stored current physical location information for the first mobile network device stored in a computer readable medium associated with the first mobile network device; and

means for sending to the desired emergency response server the current physical geographic location for the first mobile network device obtained from the designated server network device.