System and method for automatically generating an alert message with supplemental information

• US 7,145,462 B2
• Filed: 01/09/2004
• Issued: 12/05/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 01/10/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fitbit, Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Inventors: Dewing, Wende L., Whillock, Rand P.
• Primary Examiner(s): Wu, Daniel
• Assistant Examiner(s): Bugg, George A.
• Application Number:
  US10/754,409
• Publication Number:
  US 20040212505A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,061 Days
• Field of Search: 340/573.1
• US Class Current: 340/573.1
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0002 Remote monitoring of patients using telemetry, e.g. transmission of vital signals via a communication network A61B5/07 takes precedence; transmission systems for measured values G08C; transmission H04B; transmission of digital information H04L; wireless communication networks H04W
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1117 Fall detection
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6887 mounted on external non-worn devices, e.g. non-medical devices
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/0423 detecting deviation from an expected pattern of behaviour or schedule
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/0469 Presence detectors to detect unsafe condition, e.g. infrared sensor, microphone G08B21/0476 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/0492 Sensor dual technology, i.e. two or more technologies collaborate to extract unsafe condition, e.g. video tracking and RFID tracking
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/005 Alarm destination chosen according to a hierarchy of available destinations, e.g. if hospital does not answer send to police station
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/006 Alarm destination chosen according to type of event, e.g. in case of fire phone the fire service, in case of medical emergency phone the ambulance
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/016 Personal emergency signalling and security systems emergency non-personal manually actuated alarm activators G08B25/12

Abstract

An automated monitoring and response system includes sensors for monitoring an actor and the actor'"'"'s environment, and an alert module interfaced with the sensors and adapted to identify an existence of an emergency situation relating to the actor or the environment. The alert module is adapted to generate an alert message for one or more responders, the alert message including a primary alert message component and a supplemental alert message component. The supplemental alert message component includes non-primary supplemental information relating to the actor and/or the environment and giving context to the at least one emergency situation, including, for example, sensor data relevant to the emergency situation.

Claims

1. A method of providing an alert message relating to an actor in an environment with an automated monitoring and response system, the method comprising:

(a) providing at least one sensor;

(b) storing facts about at least one of the actor and the environment;

(c) identifying an existence of at least one emergency situation relating to the actor or the environment, wherein identifying includes evaluating sensory data provided by the at least one sensor located in the environment in conjunction with the stored facts;

(d) generating a primary alert message component of primary information for enabling a response to the at least one emergency situation, wherein the primary alert message component includes;

an indication that the at least one emergency situation exists,

a location of the at least one emergency situation,

an emergency type classification, and

actor identification information;

(e) automatically generating a supplemental alert message component comprising non-primary supplemental information relating to the actor and/or the environment and giving context to the at least one emergency situation; and

(f) electronically sending the primary and supplemental alert message components to at least one designated responder.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the supplemental information includes data generated by the at least one sensor.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein a plurality of sensors are provided in the environment, and further wherein the supplemental information includes data generated by at least two of the plurality of sensors.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the supplemental information includes status information of the actor.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the status information includes information indicating at least one state of the actor selected from the group consisting of current health, current location in the environment, current activity, and recent activity.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the supplemental information indicates an inferred cause of the at least one emergency situation based on an assessed status of the actor.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the supplemental information includes an indication of a series of events leading to the at least one emergency situation.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the supplemental information includes historical record information.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the supplemental information includes static environment specific information.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the supplemental information includes information relied upon for the identifying of the existence of the at least one emergency situation.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

formulating a response plan for responding to the at least one emergency situation.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the supplemental information includes the response plan.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein formulating the response plan includes selecting at least one responder from a plurality of designated responders.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein formulating the response plan further includes:

after selecting the at least one responder, automatically preparing the supplemental information content and/or formatting based upon at least one property of the selected responder selected from the group consisting of location, availability, response capability, technological capability, information access authorization, and training/expertise.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

verifying whether the at least one designated responder has received the sent alert message components.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the existence of the at least one emergency situation includes:

assessing a current situation of the actor and/or the environment based on sensory data provided by the at least one sensor located in the environment; and

comparing the assessed current situation against at least one reference situation representing a predefined emergency situation, wherein a similarity between the current situation assessment and the at least one reference situation is indicative of an existence of an emergency situation.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the existence of the at least one emergency situation includes:

inferring the existence of the emergency situation from circumstantial information about the actor and/or the environment.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the supplemental information includes a segment of video generated by a camera located in the environment.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the supplemental information includes a segment of recorded audio.

20. An automated monitoring and response system, comprising:

sensors for monitoring an actor and the actor'"'"'s environment; and

an alert module interfaced with the sensors and adapted to identify an existence of at least one emergency situation relating to the actor or the environment and to generate an alert message for at least one responder;

wherein the alert message includes a primary alert message component and a supplemental alert message component;

wherein the primary alert message component comprises primary information for enabling a response to the at least one emergency situation, the primary information including;

an indication that the at least one emergency situation exists,

a location of the at least one emergency situation,

a basic emergency type classification for the at least one emergency situation, and

actor identification information;

wherein the supplemental alert message component comprises non-primary supplemental information relating to the actor and/or the environment and giving context to the at least one emergency situation, and includes data from at least two of the sensors.

21. The automated monitoring and response system of claim 20, wherein the alert module is further adapted to identify an emergency situation relating to the actor or the environment and send the alert message to at least one designated responder.

22. The automated monitoring and response system of claim 20, wherein the supplemental information includes status information of the actor including at least one state of the actor selected from the group consisting of current health, current location in the environment, current activity, and recent activity.

23. The automated monitoring and response system of claim 20, wherein the alert module is adapted to infer a cause of the at least one emergency situation, and wherein the supplemental information includes an indication of the inferred cause.

24. The automated monitoring and response system of claim 20, wherein the supplemental information includes historical record information.

25. The automated monitoring and response system of claim 20, wherein the supplemental information includes static environment specific information.

26. The automated monitoring and response system of claim 20, wherein the alert module is adapted to generate the supplemental information to include information relied upon for the identifying of the existence of the at least one emergency situation.

27. The automated monitoring and response system of claim 20, wherein the alert module is adapted to generate the supplemental information to include information based on sensory data gathered close in time to the occurrence of the emergency situation.

28. The automated monitoring and response system of claim 27, wherein the alert module is adapted to limit the information based on sensory data included in the supplemental information to information determined to be relevant to the emergency situation.

29. The automated monitoring and response system of claim 20, wherein the alert module is further adapted to:

assess the nature of each emergency; and

generate the supplemental information according to selected of a plurality of protocols based on nature of the emergency.

30. The automated monitoring and response system of claim 20, wherein the alert module is further adapted to formulate a response plan for responding to the at least one emergency situation and further wherein the supplemental information includes the response plan.

31. The automated monitoring and response system of claim 30, wherein the response plan is formulated for at least one responder selected from a plurality of designated responders, and further wherein the alert module is adapted to form the response plan based on at least one criteria selected from the group consisting of nature of the emergency situation, inferred nature of the emergency situation, designated responder priority classification, the actor'"'"'s responder preferences, designated responder availability;

and a capability rating of each designated responder.

32. The automated monitoring and response system of claim 20, wherein the alert module is further adapted to formulate the supplemental information based upon at least one responder property selected from the group consisting of location, availability, response capability, technological capability, information access authorization, and training/expertise.

33. The automated monitoring and response system of claim 20, wherein the alert module is further adapted to verify whether the at least one designated responder has received a sent alert message.

34. The automated monitoring and response system of claim 20, wherein the alert module is further adapted to compare sensory data provided by the sensors against a reference sequence of sensor events representing a predefined emergency situation, and identify an existence of at least one emergency situation when sensory data coincides with the reference sequence of sensor events.

35. The automated monitoring and response system of claim 20, and further comprising:

a situation assessment module interfaced with the alert module and adapted to assess a current situation of the actor and/or the environment based on data provided by the sensors;

wherein the alert module is adapted to compare the assessed current situation against at least one reference situation representing a predefined emergency situation; and

wherein the alert module is adapted to identify an existence of at least one emergency situation when there is similarity between the current situation assessment and the at least one reference situation.

36. The automated monitoring and response system of claim 20, and further comprising:

a database interfaced with the alert module for storing facts about the actor and/or environment;

wherein the alert module is adapted to access the facts as part of identifying the existence of the at least one emergency situation.

37. The automated monitoring and response system of claim 36, wherein the database is adapted to store sensory data from the sensors, and further wherein the alert module is adapted to determine which of the sensor data relates to the at least one emergency situation, and wherein the supplemental information includes the sensor data determined to be related to the at least one emergency situation.

38. A method of providing an alert message relating to an actor in an environment with an automated monitoring and response system, the method comprising:

(a) providing at least one sensor;

(b) identifying an existence of at least one emergency situation relating to the actor or the environment;

(c) generating a primary alert message component of primary information for enabling a response to the at least one emergency situation, wherein the primary alert message component includes;

an indication that the at least one emergency situation exists,

a location of the at least one emergency situation,

an emergency type classification, and

actor identification information;

(d) automatically generating a supplemental alert message component comprising non-primary supplemental information relating to the actor and/or the environment and giving context to the at least one emergency situation, wherein the supplemental information includes a segment of recorded audio; and

(e) electronically sending the primary and supplemental alert message components to at least one designated responder.