Rapid threat response for minimizing human casualties within a facility

• US 6,590,496 B2
• Filed: 12/06/2000
• Issued: 07/08/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 12/06/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Leidos, Inc. (Leidos Holdings, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Science Applications International Corporation
• Inventors: Peterson, Edward W., Grot, Richard A.
• Primary Examiner(s): TRIEU, VAN THANH
• Application Number:
  US09/731,954
• Publication Number:
  US 20020084900A1
• Time in Patent Office: 944 Days
• Field of Search: 340/573.1, 340/506, 340/522, 340/523, 340/525, 340/584, 340/628, 340/641.3, 340/691.6, 340/578, 340/636, 340/539, 340/310.06, 340/517, 187/390, 702/1, 705/9, 236/49.1, 165/281, 621/766, 454/322
• US Class Current: 340/522
• CPC Class Codes: A62B 3/00 Devices or single parts for facilitating escape from buildings or the like, e.g. protection shields, protection screens; Portable devices for preventing smoke penetrating into distinct parts of buildings A62B1/00 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 7/06 using electric transmission , e.g. involving audible and visible signalling through the use of sound and light sources

Abstract

A method and apparatus are described for responding to an emergency at a facility by analyzing a plurality of threat conditions to determine possible responses to an emergency and selecting a response to the emergency for minimizing human casualties within the facility. The present invention may be characterized in one embodiment as a method for generating an automated response to an emergency that includes the steps of (a) receiving as input threat condition data for a facility; (b) analyzing the threat condition data to determine a matrix of possible responses to an emergency; and (c) selecting a response from the matrix of possible responses to minimize human casualties.

Claims

1. A method for generating an automated response to an emergency, comprising the steps of:

receiving a plurality of first inputs relevant to one or more emergency conditions;

storing combinations of one or more of the first inputs and states of the first inputs in an incident matrix and associating each of the combinations of the first inputs with one of the emergency conditions;

analyzing the combinations of the first inputs to generate a matrix of emergency response options for each of the combinations of the first inputs;

selecting an emergency response from the matrix of emergency response options to minimize human casualties for each of the combinations of the first inputs;

arranging the selected emergency response associated with each of the combinations of the first inputs in a response matrix;

receiving one or more second inputs relevant to threat conditions;

checking the one or more second inputs against the selected emergency responses to the combinations of the first inputs for a false alarm; and

identifying from the incident matrix one of the emergency conditions corresponding to a combination of the second inputs.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

selecting from the response matrix one of the emergency responses corresponding to the identified emergency condition.

3. A system for generating an automated response to an emergency, comprising:

an incident matrix sets up to receive a plurality of first inputs relevant to one or more emergency conditions, stores combinations of one or more of the first inputs, and associates each of the combinations of the first inputs with an emergency scenario;

a first module that receives and analyzes the emergency scenarios from the incident matrix to generate a matrix of one or more emergency response options for each of the emergency scenarios, wherein the first module further selects an emergency response from the matrix of emergency response options to minimize human casualties for each of the emergency scenarios;

a response matrix that receives the selected emergency responses for the emergency scenarios and arranges each of the selected emergency responses with a corresponding one of the emergency scenarios;

a second module that receives one or more second inputs relevant to threat conditions and the selected emergency responses for the emergency scenarios, wherein the second module checks the one or more second inputs for a false alarm based on the selected emergency scenarios for the emergency scenarios; and

a third module that receives the emergency scenarios from the incident matrix and a combination of the second inputs from the second module and identifies the combination of the second inputs as one of the emergency scenarios.

4. The system of claim 3, further comprising:

an incident specific response generator that receives the identified emergency condition from the third module and the selected emergency response corresponding to the identified emergency scenario from the response matrix and outputs emergency instructions based on the corresponding selected emergency response.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein the first module comprises:

a fourth module that receives and analyzes the emergency scenarios from the incident matrix and generates one or more of the emergency response options for each of the emergency scenarios;

a matrix for maintaining the generated emergency response options for the emergency scenarios; and

a fifth module that selects the emergency response from the matrix of emergency response options to minimize human casualties for each of the emergency scenarios.