APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS

• US 20120036529A1
• Filed: 08/04/2010
• Published: 02/09/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 08/04/2010
• 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: MCCARTHY, MARY, MCCLENNY, JOHN, AUGUSTINE, ANDREW J.
• Granted Patent: US 8,407,736 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/33
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/40 Processing or translation of natural language natural language analysis G06F40/20; semantic analysis G06F40/30
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 27/005 with transmission via computer network
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 27/008 with transmission via TV or radio broadcast
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/59 for emergency or urgency
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/63 to plural spots in a confined site, e.g. MATV [Master Antenna Television]
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/51 of receiving stations
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/43074 of additional data with content streams on the same device, e.g. of EPG data or interactive icon with a TV program
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4348 Demultiplexing of additional data and video streams
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/436 Interfacing a local distribution network, e.g. communicating with another STB or one or more peripheral devices inside the home
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4516 involving client characteristics, e.g. Set-Top-Box type, software version or amount of memory available
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4882 for displaying messages, e.g. warnings, reminders arrangements for providing short real-time information to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1895
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8106 involving special audio data, e.g. different tracks for different languages
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/814 comprising emergency warnings arrangements specially adapted for emergency or urgency in broadcast systems H04H20/59; arrangements for providing alarms, notifications, alerts to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1895

Abstract

A system that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, a server having a controller operable to monitor for emergency messages over a broadcast network and over the Internet, obtain an emergency message based on the monitoring where the emergency message comprises text data, audio data, schedule data and location data and where the text and audio data correspond to a plurality of languages, generate an alert message comprising the schedule data, the location data and at least a portion of the plurality of languages of the text and audio data, and multicast the alert message over an Internet Protocol Television network to a plurality of set top boxes, wherein each of the set top boxes presents a text alert that is synchronized with an audio alert based on the multicast alert message when the location data corresponds with a location of the set top box. Other embodiments are disclosed.

Claims

1. A server comprising a controller operable to:

monitor for emergency messages over a broadcast network and over the Internet;

obtain an emergency message based on the monitoring, the emergency message comprising text data, audio data, schedule data and location data, wherein the text and audio data correspond to a plurality of languages;

generate an alert message comprising the schedule data, the location data and at least a portion of the plurality of languages of the text and audio data; and

multicast the alert message over an Internet Protocol Television network to a plurality of set top boxes, wherein each of the plurality of set top boxes presents a text alert that is synchronized with an audio alert based on the multicast alert message when the location data corresponds with a location of the set top box, wherein each of the plurality of set top boxes presents the text and audio alerts corresponding to a language selected from the at least a portion of the plurality of languages, and wherein each of the plurality of set top boxes presents the text and audio alerts according to a schedule determined from the schedule data.

2. The server of claim 1, wherein at least one language from the obtained plurality of languages of the text and audio data is not multicast to the plurality of set top boxes.

3. The server of claim 2, wherein the controller is operable to select the at least a portion of the plurality of languages of the text and audio data for multicasting based on demographic information associated with a region in which the plurality of set top boxes are located.

4. The server of claim 2, wherein the controller is operable to select the at least a portion of the plurality of languages of the text and audio data for multicasting based on language preference information received from one or more set top boxes of the plurality of set top boxes.

5. The server of claim 1, wherein the obtained emergency message is a first emergency message and wherein the controller is operable to:

obtain a second emergency message;

compare the first and second emergency messages; and

generate the alert message based on the comparison of the first and second emergency messages.

6. The server of claim 1, wherein error correction is performed by the set top boxes based on redundant information in a translation of at least a portion of one or more other languages from the at least a portion of the plurality of languages, and wherein the translation is performed by the set top boxes.

7. The server of claim 1, wherein the controller is operable to translate the text and audio data into another language and transmit the translation in the multicast alert message with the at least a portion of the plurality of languages of the text and audio data.

8. The server of claim 1, wherein the controller is operable to multicast the alert message to one or more communication devices in addition to the plurality of set top boxes.

9. The server of claim 1, wherein the controller is operable to:

determine a priority of languages for the at least a portion of the plurality of languages of the text and audio data; and

arrange each language of the at least a portion of the plurality of languages of the text and audio data in a multicast data stream according to the determined priority.

10. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium operating in a set top box, comprising computer instructions to:

receive a multicast of an alert message over an Internet Protocol Television network, the alert message comprising location data and a plurality of languages of text and audio data;

select a language from the plurality of languages of the text and audio data; and

present text and audio alerts in the selected language based on the multicast alert message when the location data corresponds with a location of the set top box.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, comprising computer instructions to:

translate at least a portion of another language from the plurality of languages of the text and audio data; and

perform error correction on the selected language using corresponding data from the translation.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the multicast plurality of languages of the text and audio data are selected from a group of languages of the text and audio data based on demographics associated with the location of the set top box.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the alert message comprises schedule data, and further comprising computer instructions to:

determine a schedule from the schedule data; and

present the text and audio alerts according to the determined schedule.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the language is selected based on a user profile associated with the set top box.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, comprising computer instructions to monitor viewing behavior at the set top box, wherein the language is selected based on the monitored viewing behavior.

16. A method comprising:

obtaining an emergency message comprising emergency information and location data;

obtaining text and audio data corresponding to a plurality of languages representative of the emergency message;

generating an alert message comprising the location data and at least a portion of the plurality of languages of the text and audio data; and

multicasting the alert message to a plurality of communication devices, wherein each of the plurality of communication devices presents a text alert that is synchronized with an audio alert based on the multicast alert message when the location data corresponds with a location of the communication device, and wherein each of the plurality of communication devices presents the text and audio alerts corresponding to a language selected from the at least a portion of the plurality of languages.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein error correction is performed by the communication devices based on redundant information in a translation of at least a portion of one or more other languages from the at least a portion of the plurality of languages, and wherein the translation is performed by the communication devices.

18. The method of claim 16, comprising selecting the at least a portion of the plurality of languages of the text and audio data for multicasting based on demographic information associated with a region in which the plurality of communication devices are located.

19. The method of claim 18, comprising selecting the at least a portion of the plurality of languages of the text and audio data for multicasting based on language preference information received from one or more communication devices of the plurality of communication devices.

20. The method of claim 16, comprising translating the emergency message to obtain the text and audio data corresponding to the plurality of languages representative of the emergency message.