School-wide notification and response system

• US 7,174,005 B1
• Filed: 05/19/2005
• Issued: 02/06/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 04/28/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: TechRadium, Inc.
• Original Assignee: TechRadium, Inc.
• Inventors: Hickey, David Lynn, Ross, Darren Lynn, Rodkey, Ryan Scott, Rodkey, Jr., John Frank
• Primary Examiner(s): Gauthier, Gerald
• Application Number:
  US11/132,542
• Time in Patent Office: 628 Days
• Field of Search: 379/88.12, 379/79, 379/88.19, 379/201.01
• US Class Current: 379/88.12
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1895 for short real-time information, e.g. alarms, notifications, alerts, updates
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/214 using selective forwarding
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/226 Delivery according to priorities

Abstract

A school-wide notification and response system utilizes an administrator interface to transmit a message from an administrator to a contact devices for employees and parents associated with a school. The system comprises a dynamic information database that includes parent and employee contact data, priority information, and response data. The administrator initiates distribution of the message based upon grouping information, priority information, and the priority order. The message is transmitted through at least two industry standard gateways simultaneously to groups of parent and employee contact devices based upon priority information. Once the message is received by the parent and employee contact devices, the parent and employee contact devices transmit a response through the industry standard gateways back to the dynamic information database.

Claims

1. A school-wide emergency digital notification and response system, comprising:

a. an administrator interface for preparing and transmitting a message from an administrator to at least one parent contact device and at least one employee contact device, wherein each parent contact device corresponds to a parents in a school, and wherein each a employee contact device corresponds to an employee of the school;

b. a dynamic information database for storing the message remote to the school, wherein the dynamic information database comprises;

i. parent data comprising;

1. parent user contact device information; and

2. parent priority information that indicates a contact order for the parent contact device;

ii. employee data comprising;

1. employee contact device information; and

2. employee priority information that indicates a contact order for the employee contact device;

iii. user selected grouping information comprising;

1. at least a first group associated with each parent user contact device;

2. at least a second group associated with each employee user contact device;

3. a parent priority order for contacting each parent user contact device within the first group; and

4. an employee priority order for contacting each employee user contact device within the second group;

iv. response data comprising;

1. parent response information indicates which parent contact devices have received the message;

2. employee response information indicates which employee contact devices have received the message; and

3. response information that indicates when insufficient contact device information exists to contact the parent contact device, the employee contact device, or combinations thereof;

wherein the administrator initiates distribution of the message using the parent data, employee data, and grouping information, wherein the message is transmitted through at least two industry standard gateways simultaneously, and the message is received by at least one parent contact device and at least one employee contact device, and wherein the at least one parent contact device and at least one employee contact device transmits a response through the industry standard gateways to the dynamic information database.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the parent data and the employee data further comprise a user selected language for translating the message to be transmitted.

3. The system of claim 2, further comprising a language converter for translating the message to be transmitted into the user selected language.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising a text-to-sound file converter for translating the message from text to a sound file.

5. The system of claim 1, further comprising reporting information for generating custom designed reports created by the administrator, the at least first group, the at least second group or combinations thereof, standard reports generated from the dynamic information database, or combinations thereof.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the reporting information comprises a date the message was sent, a time the message was sent, a date the message was received, a time the message was received, content of the message, a recipient of the message, recipient information for the message, and combinations thereof.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the administrator interface is a local area network web interface, a wide area network web interface, virtual private network interface, asynchronous transfer mode interface, synchronous optical network interface a call center interface, a voice mail, or combinations thereof.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the administrator is a person, a computer, another digital notification and response system, an analog emergency notification system, and combinations thereof.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the message comprises a designation selected from the group consisting of low priority, general priority, significant priority, high priority, and severe priority.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein each designation is associated with a color.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the message is a prewritten message stored in the dynamic information database for subsequent use by the administrator.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the dynamic information database is an SQL™

database, MySQL™

database, other industry standard databases, an Oracle™

database, or combinations thereof.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the grouping information is a predefined group identified in the dynamic information database, wherein the predefined group is identified by the administrator prior to transmitting the message.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the two industry standard gateways are selected from the group consisting of a SMTP gateway, a SIP, an H.323, an ISDN gateway, a PSTN gateway, a softswitch, and combinations thereof.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein an employee contact data and a parent contact data are a member selected from the group consisting or an user name, an user address, an user phone number, an user device address, a social security number, an account code, employee identification number, student identification number, and combinations thereof.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein the priority order of a user devices is selected by the user.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the parent priority order directs transmission of the message first to all parent contact devices indicated as a first contact, then second to all parent contact devices indicated as a second contact, then continues contacting parent contact devices based on the priority order until all parent contact devices are contacted.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the employee priority order directs transmission of the message first to all employee contact devices indicated as a first contact, then second to all employee contact devices indicated as a second contact, then continues contacting employee contact devices based on the priority order until all employee contact devices are contacted.

19. The system of claim 1, wherein the contact devices area handheld wireless device, a wireless phone, a land phone, an email address, a fax machine, a pager, a digital display, an LED display, or combinations thereof.