COMMUNITY SAFETY, SECURITY, AND HEALTH COMMUNICATION AND NOTIFICATION SYSTEM

• US 20160006870A1
• Filed: 07/01/2015
• Published: 01/07/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 07/02/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Titan Health & Security Technologies, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Titan Health & Security Technologies, Inc.
• Inventors: MERJANIAN, VIC, Samra, Paul
• Granted Patent: US 9,699,310 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5116 for emergency applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/90 Services for handling of emergency or hazardous situations, e.g. earthquake and tsunami warning systems [ETWS]

Abstract

A community safety system, comprising a notification management entity comprising one or more servers, the notification management entity is communicatively coupled to a one or more user devices and one or more administrator devices; a plurality of registered users, wherein each registered user of the plurality of registered users is associated with a user category of a set of user categories; the notification management entity maintaining a list of the plurality of registered users and each registered user'"'"'s associated user category; and a community safety system application operating on each of the one or more user devices and the one or more administrator devices; wherein at least one of the one or more administrator devices is associated with a police department.

Claims

1. A community safety system, comprising:

a notification management entity comprising one or more servers, the notification management entity is communicatively coupled to a one or more user devices and one or more administrator devices;

a plurality of registered users, wherein each registered user of the plurality of registered users is associated with a user category of a set of user categories;

the notification management entity maintaining a list of the plurality of registered users and each registered user'"'"'s associated user category; and

a community safety system application operating on each of the one or more user devices and the one or more administrator devices;

wherein at least one of the one or more administrator devices is associated with a police department.

2. The community safety system of claim 1, wherein the notification management entity, upon receiving an emergency alert from a registered user via a user device, opens a dedicated communication channel between the user device of the registered user and a plurality of administrator devices.

3. The community safety system of claim 1, wherein the notification management entity, upon receiving an emergency alert from a registered user via a user device, opens a dedicated communication channel between the user device of the registered user and one or more administrator devices.

4. The community safety system of claim 3, wherein the one or more administrator devices comprises the at least one administrator device associated with a police department.

5. The community safety system of claim 3, wherein voice, video, text, or photographs may be transmitted over the communication channel between the user device of the registered user and the one or more administrator devices.

6. The community safety system of claim 1, the notification management entity further providing information of a registered user to one or more user devices or one or more administrator devices while an emergency alert initiated by the registered user is ongoing.

7. The community safety system of claim 6, wherein information of a registered user includes at least one of:

name of the registered user;

email address of the registered user;

location data of the registered user, wherein location data is obtained by the notification management entity only when the emergency alert is initiated;

or phone number of the registered user.

8. The community safety system of claim 1, the notification management entity providing a set of capabilities to a registered user via a user interface of the community safety system application operating on a user device or an administrator device associated with the registered user.

9. The community safety system of claim 8, the set of capabilities being the set of capabilities associated with the associated user category of the registered user logged into the community safety system application operating on the user device or the administrator device.

10. The community safety system of claim 1, wherein at least one user category is restricted from initiating alerts based on a location of a registered user.

11. The community safety system of claim 10, the notification management entity configured to obtain location data of a registered user from one or more location systems of a user device.

12. The community safety system of claim 11, wherein the location systems of the user device comprises a GPS receiver.

13. The community safety system of claim 1, the network comprising one or more of a wireless network, a cellular network, a wired network.

14. The community safety system of claim 1, wherein the one or more user devices comprise one or more of:

mobile phones;

laptops;

desktops;

tablets;

wearable communication devices, such as smartwatches;

or PDAs.

15. The community safety system of claim 1, wherein the one or more administrator devices comprise one or more of:

mobile phones;

laptops;

desktops;

tablets;

wearable communication devices, such as smartwatches;

or PDAs.

16. The community safety system of claim 1, wherein the community safety system application comprises a program downloaded to a user device or an administrator device.

17. The community safety system of claim 1, wherein the community safety system application comprises an application running within a web browser software operating on a user device or an administrator device.

18. The community safety system of claim 1, wherein data transmitted between the one or more user devices, one or more administrator devices, and the notification management entity are encrypted.

19. The community safety system of claim 1, wherein the notification management entity provides a lockdown initiator to a set of registered users of the plurality of registered users.

20. The community safety system of claim 19, wherein the notification management entity maintains a lockdown broadcast message, the notification management entity transmitting the lockdown broadcast message to the plurality of registered users when the lockdown initiator is activated.

21. The community safety system of claim 1, wherein the community safety system is implemented by a school, and the set of user categories comprises one or more of:

a student user category;

an administrator user category;

a teacher user category;

or a police user category.

22. The community safety system of claim 21, wherein a broadcast message may be initiated by a registered user associated with the administrator user category or the police user category.

23. The community safety system of claim 21, wherein the notification management entity prohibits a registered user associated with the student user category to initiate an emergency alert when the registered user is not within a security zone.

24. The community safety system of claim 23, the security zone comprising one or more school buildings and grounds defining a school campus.

25. The community safety system of claim 24, the security zone further comprising a buffer zone extending beyond the school campus.

26. The community safety system of claim 21, the set of user categories further comprising a parent user category.

27. The community safety system of claim 26, wherein the notification management entity provides a lockdown initiator to the teacher user category, administrator user category, and police user category, via a user interface of the community safety system operating on a user device or administrator device utilized by the registered user associated with the teacher user category, administrator user category, and police user category.

28. The community safety system of claim 1, wherein a first registered user associated with a user category may be tethered to a second registered user associated with a second user category.

29. The community safety system of claim 28, wherein the notification management entity sends an emergency alert generated by the first registered user to the second registered user when the first registered user is outside the security zone.

30. The community safety system of claim 28, wherein the second registered user may create a home zone associated with the first registered user, and the notification management entity is configured to send an alert to the second registered user whenever the first registered user enters or leaves the security zone, the home zone, or a combination of both.

31. The community safety system of claim 28, wherein the first registered user is associated with a student user category and the second registered user is associated with a parent user category.

32. The community safety system of claim 1, wherein the notification management entity, upon receipt of a request for an escort, transmits location data associated with a requesting registered user to one or more of the plurality of registered users.

33. A method of providing two-way communication in an emergency communication system, comprising:

a central management entity receiving an alert notification from a first registered user via an application operating on a user device;

tagging the received alert notification with information identifying the first registered user;

the central management entity broadcasting the tagged alert notification to one or more registered users associated with an administrator user category; and

opening a communication channel between the first registered user and the one or more registered users associated with an administrator user category.

34. The method of claim 33, wherein tagging the alert notification comprises:

the central management entity identifying the first registered user; and

locating and retrieving registration data associated with the identified first registered user, the registration data being maintained by the central management entity.

35. The method of claim 34, wherein tagging the alert notification further comprises retrieving from the user device of the first registered user data identifying the location of the first registered user.

36. The method of claim 33, wherein opening a communication channel between the first registered user and the one or more registered users associated with an administrator user category comprises opening a dedicated communication channel through the central management entity, the first registered user and the one or more registered users associated with an administrator user category capable of sending voice, text, video, and photographs over the communication channel.

37. A method of staggered police notification, comprising:

receiving a first alert notification from a first registered user;

receiving a second alert notification from a second registered user;

determining the elapsed time between receipt of the first alert notification and receipt of the second alert notification;

comparing the elapsed time with a threshold value; and

if the elapsed time is less than the threshold value, a notification management entity of a notification system transmits a broadcast message to one or more police departments via a notification system application operating on a user device associated with the one or more police departments.

38. The method of claim 37, wherein the threshold value is set by a registered user via a notification system application operating on a user device associated with the registered user and communicatively coupled to the notification management entity.

39. The method of claim 38, wherein the registered user is associated with an administrator user category of the notification system, wherein the notification management entity of the notification system assigns capabilities to the registered user based on the registered user'"'"'s association with the administrator user category.

40. A method of selectively enabling a user to generate an emergency alert, comprising:

receiving, at a notification management entity of a notification system, an emergency alert from a registered user;

identifying a user category associated with the registered user;

identifying, if necessary based on the associated user category, a location of the registered user;

determining whether the location of the registered user is within a security zone; and

transmitting the emergency alert if the location of the registered user is within the security zone.

41. The method of claim 40, further comprising, if the location of the registered user is not within the security zone, displaying an error message to the user via a notification system application operating on a user device associated with the registered user.

42. The method of claim 40, wherein at least one user category of the notification system is permitted to transmit an emergency alert from a location outside the security zone.

43. The method of claim 42, wherein the at least one user category is a police user category, and the registered user is associated with the police user category.

44. The method of claim 42, wherein the at least one user category is an administrator user category, and the registered user is associated with the police user category.

45. The method of claim 40, further comprising:

identifying if the registered user is tethered to another registered user associated with a second user category if the registered user is not located within the security zone; and

transmitting the emergency alert to the tethered registered user associated with the second user category if the registered user is tethered to another registered user.