PERSONAL MOBILE SURVEILLANCE SYSTEMS AND METHODS

• US 20130057696A1
• Filed: 09/02/2011
• Published: 03/07/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/02/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Felt, Michelle, Roberts, Brian F., Relyea, Donald H.
• Granted Patent: US 8,976,244 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/158
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/0283 via a telephone network, e.g. cellular GSM
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/016 Personal emergency signalling and security systems emergency non-personal manually actuated alarm activators G08B25/12
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/186 Video door telephones
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/90 Services for handling of emergency or hazardous situations, e.g. earthquake and tsunami warning systems [ETWS]

Abstract

An exemplary method includes a mobile user device subsystem 1) acquiring, during operation in a normal surveillance mode, a first set of surveillance data, 2) transmitting, during operation in the normal surveillance mode, the first set of surveillance data to a server subsystem, 3) detecting, during operation in the normal surveillance mode, a trigger event, 4) transitioning, in response to the detecting of the trigger event, from operation in the normal surveillance mode to operation in an enhanced surveillance mode, 5) acquiring, during operation in the enhanced surveillance mode, a second set of surveillance data; and 6) transmitting, during operation in the enhanced surveillance mode, the second set of surveillance data to the server subsystem, wherein the second set of surveillance data comprises an enhanced set of data compared to the first set of surveillance data. Corresponding systems and methods are also disclosed.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

acquiring, by a mobile user device subsystem during operation in accordance with a normal surveillance mode, a first set of surveillance data;

transmitting, by the mobile user device subsystem during operation in accordance with the normal surveillance mode, the first set of surveillance data to a server subsystem;

detecting, by the mobile user device subsystem during operation in accordance with the normal surveillance mode, a trigger event;

transitioning, by the mobile user device subsystem in response to the detecting of the trigger event, from operation in accordance with the normal surveillance mode to operation in accordance with an enhanced surveillance mode;

acquiring, by the mobile user device subsystem during operation in accordance with the enhanced surveillance mode, a second set of surveillance data; and

transmitting, by the mobile user device subsystem during operation in accordance with the enhanced surveillance mode, the second set of surveillance data to the server subsystem;

wherein the second set of surveillance data comprises an enhanced set of data compared to the first set of surveillance data.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the mobile user device subsystem transmits data to the server subsystem by way of a wireless network; and

the transmitting of the second set of surveillance data to the server subsystem consumes more bandwidth of the wireless network than is consumed by the transmitting of the first set of surveillance data to the server subsystem.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the acquiring of the second set of surveillance data consumes more resources of the mobile user device subsystem than are consumed by the acquiring of the first set of surveillance data.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the second set of surveillance data includes values for more surveillance data parameters than are included in the first set of surveillance data.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the acquiring of first set of surveillance data during operation in accordance with the normal surveillance mode comprises periodically acquiring a value for a surveillance data parameter; and

the acquiring of the second set of surveillance data during operation in accordance with the enhanced surveillance mode comprises continuously acquiring a value for the same surveillance data parameter.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the acquiring of first set of surveillance data during operation in accordance with the normal surveillance mode comprises periodically capturing still-shot camera images of an environment of the mobile user device subsystem; and

the acquiring of the second set of surveillance data during operation in accordance with the enhanced surveillance mode comprises capturing video images of the environment of the mobile user device subsystem.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the first set of surveillance data does not include user environment data; and

the second set of surveillance data includes user environment data.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the second set of surveillance data includes user device status data, user condition data, and user environment data.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the mobile user device subsystem comprises a mobile phone device.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the mobile user device subsystem comprises a discrete user-wearable device.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the mobile user device subsystem comprises a combination of a mobile phone device configured to communicate with the server subsystem by way of a wireless network and one or more discrete user-wearable devices configured to capture user environment data representative of a condition of an environment of the mobile user device subsystem and to provide the captured user environment data to the mobile phone device.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein:

the one or more discrete user-wearable devices comprise one or more camera devices; and

the user environment data comprises one or more images of at least a portion of the environment.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the trigger event is indicative of potential danger to a user of the mobile user device subsystem.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing, by the mobile user device subsystem in response to the detecting of the trigger event, a user interface including an option configured to be selected by a user of the mobile user device subsystem to initiate a sending of an emergency communication.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, by the server subsystem, the first set of surveillance data and the second set of surveillance data from the mobile user device subsystem by way of a wireless network;

receiving, by the server subsystem, additional surveillance data from one or more additional mobile user device subsystems by way of the wireless network;

detecting, by the server subsystem based on the received surveillance data, a mass emergency event; and

sending, by the server subsystem in response to the detecting of the mass emergency event, an alert message.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

detecting, by the mobile user device subsystem during operation in accordance with the enhanced surveillance mode, an additional trigger event;

transitioning, by the mobile user device subsystem in response to the detecting of the additional trigger event, from operation in accordance with the enhanced surveillance mode back to operation in accordance with the normal surveillance mode;

acquiring, by the mobile user device subsystem during resumed operation in accordance with the normal surveillance mode, the first set of surveillance data; and

transmitting, by the mobile user device subsystem during resumed operation in accordance with the normal surveillance mode, the first set of surveillance data to the server subsystem.

17. The method of claim 1, embodied as computer-executable instructions on at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium.

18. A method comprising:

receiving, by a server subsystem from a mobile user device subsystem operating in accordance with a normal surveillance mode, a first set of surveillance data;

storing, by the server subsystem, the first set of surveillance data;

detecting, by the server subsystem based on the first set of surveillance data, a predefined trigger event;

instructing, by the server subsystem in response to the detecting of the predefined trigger event, the mobile user device subsystem to transition from operating in accordance with the normal surveillance mode to operating in accordance with an enhanced surveillance mode;

receiving, by the server subsystem from the mobile user device subsystem operating in accordance with the enhanced surveillance mode, a second set of surveillance data; and

storing, by the server subsystem, the second set of surveillance data;

wherein the second set of surveillance data comprises an enhanced set of data compared to the first set of surveillance data.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the trigger event is indicative of potential danger to a user of the mobile user device subsystem.

20. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

receiving, by the server subsystem, additional surveillance data from one or more additional mobile user device subsystems; and

detecting, by the server subsystem based on the received surveillance data, a mass emergency event; and

sending, by the server subsystem in response to the detecting of the mass emergency event, an alert message.

21. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

detecting, by the server subsystem based on the second set of surveillance data, an additional predefined trigger event; and

instructing, by the server subsystem in response to the detecting of the additional predefined trigger event, the mobile user device subsystem to transition back from operating in accordance with the enhanced surveillance mode to operating in accordance with the normal surveillance mode.

22. The method of claim 18, embodied as computer-executable instructions on at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium.

23. A system comprising:

a server subsystem comprising at least one server device; and

a mobile user device subsystem comprising at least one user device and communicatively coupled to the server subsystem by way of a wireless network, the mobile user device subsystem configured to

acquire and transmit a first set of surveillance data to the server subsystem,

detect a trigger event indicative of potential danger to a user associated with the mobile user device subsystem, and

acquire and transmit, in response to the detection of the trigger event, a second set of surveillance data to the server subsystem,

wherein the second set of surveillance data comprises an enhanced set of data compared to the first set of surveillance data.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein the server subsystem is configured to

receive the first set of surveillance data and the second set of surveillance data from the mobile user device subsystem by way of the wireless network,

receive additional surveillance data from one or more additional mobile user device subsystems by way of the wireless network,

detect, based on the received surveillance data, a mass emergency event, and

send, in response to the detection of the mass emergency event, an alert message.