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

• US 20130203376A1
• Filed: 03/14/2013
• Published: 08/08/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 05/16/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Everbridge Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Nicholas M. Maier
• Inventors: MAIER, Nicholas M., Eisner, Gerald R.
• Granted Patent: US 8,755,767 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/404.2
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/025 using location based information parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/70 Services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC]
• 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 device (e.g., building address, a building floor, a room on a building floor, campus, enterprise, city, state, region, country, continent, etc.), in an emergency situation such as an accident, fire, terrorist attack, military incident, etc. and forward the physical geographic location to a legacy 911 network or a Emergency Services IP networks (ESInet).

Claims

1. A method for locating a device during an emergency with an information system (E-LIS), comprising:

receiving on a server application on network server device with one or more processors a wireless emergency message from a mobile 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,

wherein the wireless emergency message includes a unique identifier comprising a specialized E911-based unique identifier for the first mobile network device unique across all wireless and wired communications network and an indication a current set of 3D (X,Y,Z) geo-space coordinates is stored on one or more other server network devices and not on the first mobile network device;

sending one or more request messages from the server application on the server network device to one or more other server network devices via a second communications network to request the 3D (X,Y,Z) geo-space coordinates of the first mobile network device;

receiving one or more response messages on the server application on the server network device from the one or more other server network devices via the second communications network including the 3D (X,Y,Z) geo-space coordinates of the first mobile network device;

consolidating on the server application on the server network device location information from the one or more response messages for the first mobile network device;

determining on the server application on the server network device with the E911-based unique identifier and the current set of 3D (X,Y,Z) geo-space coordinates a current physical geographic location for the first mobile network;

verifying on the server application on the server network device via the wireless communications network the first mobile network device is actually located in at the determined current physical geographic; and

sending an emergency response message including the determined and verified current physical geographic location for the first mobile network device from the server application on the network server device via the second communications network to a desired emergency response server with one or more processors.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the desired emergency response server is an E911 or 911 emergency response server, a Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) server or an Emergency Services IP networks (ESInet) server.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the first mobile network device, the server network device and the one or more other server network devices communicate with each other and other network devices with near field communications (NFC) or machine-to-machine (M2M) communications.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of sending one or more request messages from server network device to one or more other server network devices via a second communications network includes sending the one or more request messages through an E-2 interface.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the second communications network includes a wired communications network.

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

8. 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.

9. 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.

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

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the emergency response message includes an E911 or 911 emergency message.

12. 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.

13. 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.

14. 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.

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

16. 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.

17. The method of claim 1 wherein the second communications network is a data communications network.

18. The method of claim 1 wherein the server network device is an emergency gateway network device.

19. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of sending the determined and verified current physical geographic location for the first mobile network device from the server application on the network server device includes:

determining on the server application on the server network device whether the desired emergency response server can receive 911 messages from legacy 911 networks or from Emergency Services IP networks (ESInet); and

determining on the server application on the server network device whether the emergency response message is being sent to a legacy 911 network,

and if so,

creating a new legacy 911 message with the determined physical location information for the first mobile network device in a format usable on the legacy 911 network, and

forwarding the new legacy 911 message for transport and dissemination by the legacy 911 network,

and if not,

creating a new ESInet 911 message with the determined physical location information for the first mobile network device in a in format usable on the ESInet,

forwarding the new ESInet 911 message for transport and dissemination by the ESInet,

thereby providing transformation of 911 messages in both inbound and outbound directions including transformation of emergency messages without physical location information included, into new 911 messages with determined physical location information and from a format usable on legacy 911 networks into to a format usable on ESInets and from a format usable on ESInets into a format usable on legacy 911 networks.

2. A computer readable medium having stored therein a plurality of instructions for causing one or more processors to execute the steps of:

receiving on a server application on network server device with one or more processors a wireless emergency message from a mobile 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,

wherein the wireless emergency message includes a unique identifier comprising a specialized E911-based unique identifier for the first mobile network device unique across all wireless and wired communications network and an indication a current set of 3D (X,Y,Z) geo-space coordinates is stored on one or more other server network devices and not on the first mobile network device;

sending one or more request messages from the server application on the server network device to one or more other server network devices via a second communications network to request the 3D (X,Y,Z) geo-space coordinates of the first mobile network device;

receiving one or more response messages on the server application on the server network device from the one or more other server network devices via the second communications network including the 3D (X,Y,Z) geo-space coordinates of the first mobile network device;

consolidating on the server application on the server network device location information from the one or more response messages for the first mobile network device;

determining on the server application on the server network device with the E911-based unique identifier and the current set of 3D (X,Y,Z) geo-space coordinates a current physical geographic location for the first mobile network;

verifying on the server application on the server network device via the wireless communications network the first mobile network device is actually located in at the determined current physical geographic; and

sending an emergency response message including the determined and verified current physical geographic location for the first mobile network device from the server application on the network server device via the second communications network to a desired emergency response server with one or more processors.

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

a non-transitory computer readable medium;

the non-transitory computer readable medium have stored therein a plurality of instructions for causing one or more processors on one or more network devices;

for receiving on a server application on network server device with one or more processors a wireless emergency message from a mobile 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,

wherein the wireless emergency message includes a unique identifier comprising a specialized E911-based unique identifier for the first mobile network device unique across all wireless and wired communications network and an indication a current set of 3D (X,Y,Z) geo-space coordinates is stored on one or more other server network devices and not on the first mobile network device;

for sending one or more request messages from the server application on the server network device to one or more other server network devices via a second communications network to request the 3D (X,Y,Z) geo-space coordinates of the first mobile network device;

for receiving one or more response messages on the server application on the server network device from the one or more other server network devices via the second communications network including the 3D (X,Y,Z) geo-space coordinates of the first mobile network device;

for consolidating on the server application on the server network device location information from the one or more response messages for the first mobile network device;

for determining on the server application on the server network device with the E911-based unique identifier and the current set of 3D (X,Y,Z) geo-space coordinates a current physical geographic location for the first mobile network;

for verifying on the server application on the server network device via the wireless communications network the first mobile network device is actually located in at the determined current physical geographic; and

for sending an emergency response message including the determined and verified current physical geographic location for the first mobile network device from the server application on the network server device via the second communications network to a desired emergency response server with one or more processors.