METHODS AND APPARATUSES FOR EMERGENCY NOTIFICATIONS TO THE HEARING IMPAIRED

• US 20140266572A1
• Filed: 03/15/2013
• Published: 09/18/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sorenson Ip Holdings, LLC
• Original Assignee: Sorenson Communications Incorporated
• Inventors: Chevrier, Brian, Taggart, Steve, Johnson, Bruce, Saunders, Steve, Cranor, Jarod, Brenner, Don, Mitchell, Jennifer
• Granted Patent: US 9,214,094 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/4.13
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2505/01 Emergency care
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0022 Monitoring a patient using a global network, e.g. telephone networks, internet
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1128 using image analysis A61B5/1127 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 21/009 Teaching or communicating with deaf persons G09B21/04 takes precedence; deaf and dumb persons G09B21/00
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/59 for emergency or urgency
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/147 Communication arrangements, e.g. identifying the communication as a video-communication, intermediate storage of the signals selecting H04Q

Abstract

Systems and methods for communicating emergency alerts to a hearing-impaired user are disclosed. Queries are performed to one or more emergency alert databases to develop emergency alert notifications. At least some of the emergency alert notifications are filtered responsive to user selected criteria to select one or more filtered emergency alerts. An attention desired indicator is transmitted to a hearing-impaired user device that subscribes to a hearing-impaired relay service supported by the server if the one or more filtered emergency alerts are present. The filtered emergency alerts are transmitted to the hearing-impaired user device in response to a emergency information query from that user device.

Claims

1. A server for providing emergency alerts to a hearing-impaired user, comprising:

a memory configured for storing computing instructions; and

a processor operably coupled to the memory and configured for executing the computing instructions to;

query one or more emergency alert databases to develop emergency alert notifications;

filter at least some of the emergency alert notifications responsive to user selected criteria to select one or more filtered emergency alerts;

transmit an attention desired indicator to a hearing-impaired user device that subscribes to a hearing-impaired relay service supported by the server if the one or more filtered emergency alerts are present;

transmit the filtered emergency alerts to the hearing-impaired user device in response to a emergency information query from that user device.

2. The server of claim 1, wherein the one or more filtered emergency alerts comprises information as it was received from the one or more emergency alert databases.

3. The server of claim 1, wherein the one or more filtered emergency alerts comprises information received from the one or more emergency alert databases converted to a video including sign language interpreting the one or more filtered emergency alerts.

4. The server of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured for executing the computing instructions to filter the emergency alert notifications for a selected severity level or higher.

5. The server of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured for executing the computing instructions to filter the emergency alert notifications responsive to at least one of a selected source of the emergency alert and a selected type of the emergency alert.

6. The server of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured for executing the computing instructions to filter the emergency alert notifications responsive to one or more selected locations.

7. The server of claim 6, wherein the processor is further configured to determine at least one of the one or more selected locations from a geolocation process using a known address for the hearing-impaired user device.

8. The server of claim 6, wherein the processor is further configured to determine at least one of the one or more selected locations from a global positioning satellite process for the hearing-impaired user device.

9. The server of claim 1, wherein hearing-impaired relay service is a text captioning relay services.

10. The server of claim 1, wherein hearing-impaired relay service is a video relay service.

11. A method for communicating emergency alerts to a hearing-impaired user, comprising:

performing queries to one or more emergency alert databases to develop emergency alert notifications;

filtering at least some of the emergency alert notifications responsive to user selected criteria to select one or more filtered emergency alerts;

transmitting an attention desired indicator to a hearing-impaired user device that subscribes to a hearing-impaired relay service supported by the server if the one or more filtered emergency alerts are present;

transmitting the filtered emergency alerts to the hearing-impaired user device in response to a emergency information query from that user device.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the one or more filtered emergency alerts comprises information as it was received from the one or more emergency alert databases.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the one or more filtered emergency alerts comprises information received from the one or more emergency alert databases converted to a video including sign language interpreting the one or more filtered emergency alerts.

14. The method of claim 11, further comprising filtering the emergency alert notifications responsive to one or more selected locations.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising determining at least one of the one or more selected locations from a geolocation process using a known address for the hearing-impaired user device.

16. The method of claim 14, further comprising determining at least one of the one or more selected locations from a global positioning satellite process for the hearing-impaired user device.

17. The method of claim 11, further comprising filtering the emergency alert notifications for a selected severity level or higher.

18. A computing device for use by a hearing-impaired user, comprising:

a display for presenting information to a hearing-impaired user;

a memory configured for storing computing instructions; and

a processor operably coupled to the memory and configured for executing the computing instructions to;

send an attention items query to a hearing-impaired relay service that the computing device is associated with requesting to be notified if there are any items that the computing device should consider;

send an emergency information query to the hearing-impaired relay service in response to receiving a notification from the hearing-impaired relay service that there are emergency alerts for the computing device to consider; and

present information related to the emergency alerts on the display.

19. The computing device of claim 18, wherein the processor is further configured for executing the computing instructions to cause the display to present a GUI enabling a user to select options for filtering at least some of the emergency alerts.

20. The computing device of claim 18, wherein the processor is further configured for executing the computing instructions to cause the display to present an emergency alert notifier indicating that emergency alerts are available to be considered by the user.