Methods, Systems, and Products for Emergency Services

• US 20140146170A1
• Filed: 11/24/2012
• Published: 05/29/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 11/24/2012
• 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: Tofighbakhsh, Mostafa
• Granted Patent: US 9,906,758 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/143
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/016 Personal emergency signalling and security systems emergency non-personal manually actuated alarm activators G08B25/12
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72418 for supporting emergency services
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72457 according to geographic location
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/52 including functional features of a camera constructional features concerning the integration of cameras in portable phones H04M1/0264
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/188 Capturing isolated or intermittent images triggered by the occurrence of a predetermined event, e.g. an object reaching a predetermined position signal generation from motion picture films H04N5/253

Abstract

Methods, systems, and products provide emergency services during emergency situations. When an emergency situation is determined, activation commands are sent to activate cameras and/or microphones within a geographic vicinity of the emergency situation. Mobile devices and traffic cameras, for example, are thus instructed to capture image and audio data during the emergency situation.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving at a server an emergency notification sent from a communications device during an emergency situation;

retrieving at the server a location of the communications device;

querying for nearby devices within a geographic vicinity of the location of the communications device;

sending an activation command from the server to one nearby device of the nearby devices to capture image data from a camera in the one nearby device during the emergency situation.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising querying a home location register for the location of the communications device.

3. The method according to claim 2, further comprising retrieving an address from the home location register that corresponds to the one nearby device within the geographic vicinity of the location of the communications device.

4. The method according to claim 3, further comprising sending the activation command to the address that corresponds to the one nearby device.

5. The method according to claim 1, further comprising excluding a nearby device having a distance from the location that exceeds a radius.

6. The method according to claim 1, further comprising determining the location of the one nearby device.

7. The method according to claim 6, further comprising determining a vector from the location of the communications device to the location of the one nearby device.

8. A system, comprising:

a processor; and

memory to store instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations, the operations comprising;

receiving at a server an emergency notification sent from a communications device during an emergency situation;

retrieving at the server a location of the communications device;

querying for nearby devices within a geographic vicinity of the location of the communications device;

sending an activation command from the server to one nearby device of the nearby devices to capture image data from a camera in the one nearby device during the emergency situation.

9. The system according to claim 8, wherein the operations further comprise querying a home location register for the location of the communications device.

10. The system according to claim 9, wherein the operations further comprise retrieving an address from the home location register that corresponds to the one nearby device within the geographic vicinity of the location of the communications device.

11. The system according to claim 10, wherein the operations further comprise sending the activation command to the address that corresponds to the one nearby device.

12. The system according to claim 8, wherein the operations further comprise excluding a nearby device having a distance from the location that exceeds a radius.

13. The system according to claim 8, wherein the operations further comprise determining the location of the one nearby device.

14. The system according to claim 13, wherein the operations further comprise determining a vector from the location of the communications device to the location of the one nearby device.

15. A computer readable medium storing processor executable instructions for performing operations, the operations comprising:

receiving at a server an emergency notification sent from a communications device during an emergency situation;

retrieving at the server a location of the communications device;

querying for nearby devices within a geographic vicinity of the location of the communications device;

sending an activation command from the server to one nearby device of the nearby devices to capture image data from a camera in the one nearby device during the emergency situation.

16. The computer readable medium according to claim 15, wherein the operations further comprise querying a home location register for the location of the communications device.

17. The computer readable medium according to claim 16, wherein the operations further comprise retrieving an address from the home location register that corresponds to the one nearby device within the geographic vicinity of the location of the communications device.

18. The computer readable medium according to claim 17, wherein the operations further comprise sending the activation command to the address that corresponds to the one nearby device.

19. The computer readable medium according to claim 15, wherein the operations further comprise excluding a nearby device having a distance from the location that exceeds a radius.

20. The computer readable medium according to claim 15, wherein the operations further comprise:

determining the location of the one nearby device; and

determining a vector from the location of the communications device to the location of the one nearby device.