COMMUNICATION BETWEEN RESPONDERS

• US 20180063689A1
• Filed: 11/03/2017
• Published: 03/01/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 08/25/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Axon Enterprise, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Axon Enterprise, Inc.
• Inventors: BOHLANDER, Michael J., FORTNA, Raymond, HUANG, Anthony G., JOLMA, Jeffrey P., WEISS, Julianne C., DELUCA, Aerianna K.
• Granted Patent: US 10,237,716 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• 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 76/14 Direct-mode setup

Abstract

A method for communicating among responders from a plurality of responder agencies includes determining that responders from two responder agencies are located at an event or location. Each of the responders from the two responder agencies has a computing device that is configured to communicate with the other computing device of the responders. Authorization is received from the two responder agencies to permit direct communication between responders from the two responder agencies. A communication link is established between the computing devices of the responders of the two responder agencies in response to determining that the responders from the two responder agencies are located at the event or location and in response to receiving the authorization. The communication link permits direct communication between the responders of the two responder agencies.

Claims

1. A method of communicating among a plurality of responders, the method comprising:

defining a subset of the plurality of responders associated with a first responder, wherein each of the first responder and the responders in the subset has a computing device;

establishing a communication link between the computing devices of the first responder and the plurality of responders in the subset;

establishing a priority rank among the first responder and the responders in the subset; and

sending communications between computing devices the first responder and the responders via the communication link subset based on the priority rank.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the communications between the first responder and the responders in the subset comprise push-to-talk audio communications.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the computing devices of the plurality of responders in the subset are configured to determine a conflict between push-to-talk audio communications sent by at least two responders and to play one of the push-to-talk audio communications based on the priority rank of the at least two responders.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the communications between the first responder and the responders in the subset comprise at least one video clip.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the subset of the plurality of responders comprises a second responder that is a supervisor of the first responder.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the computing device of the first responder is configured to send an alert to the second responder via the communication link in response to an event at the location of the first responder.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein defining the subset of the plurality of responders associated with the first responder comprises receiving an indication of the subset from the first responder.

8. The method of claim 7 further comprising:

in response to determining that the indication from the first responder includes a superior of the first responder, requesting confirmation to add the superior of the first responder to the communication link.

9. The method of claim 7 wherein the indication of the subset from the first responder comprises an indication of responders within a geographic boundary defined by the first responder.

10. The method of claim 7 wherein the subset of the plurality of responders is defined based on one or more of locations of the computing devices the plurality of responders in the subset or the priority rank of the plurality of responders.

11. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving, by the computing device of the first responder, a message sent from the computing device of a second responder of the responders in the subset via the communication link to the computing devices of the responder and the other responders in the subset;

receiving, by the computing device of the first responder, a request to send a response to the second responder; and

sending the response via the communication link from the computing device of the first responder to the computing device of the second responder.

12. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

in response to determining that the computing device is at a particular locale, sending an indication of the particular locale from the computing device of the first responder to a remote computing device; and

receiving, by the computing device of the first responder from the remote computing device, information about the particular locale generated by a second responder.

13. A system for communicating among a plurality of responders, the system comprising:

a computing device associated with a first responder; and

instructions stored in the computing device, wherein the instructions, in response to execution by the computing device, cause the computing device to;

define a subset of the plurality of responders, wherein each of the responders in the subset has a computing device,

establish a communication link between the computing devices of the first responder and the plurality of responders in the subset, and

send communications to the computing devices of the responders in the subset based on a priority rank among the first responder and the responders in the subset.

14. A computer-readable medium having instructions thereon for communicating among a plurality of responders, wherein the instructions, in response to execution by a computing device of a first responder, cause the computing device to:

define a subset of the plurality of responders, wherein each of the responders in the subset has a computing device;

establish a communication link between the computing devices of the first responder and the plurality of responders in the subset; and

send communications to the computing devices of the responders in the subset based on a priority rank among the first responder and the responders in the subset.