Method and apparatus to provide outbreak notifications based on historical location data

• US 7,705,723 B2
• Filed: 03/15/2007
• Issued: 04/27/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: DP Technologies, Inc.
• Inventors: Kahn, Philippe, Kinsolving, Arthur
• Primary Examiner(s): POPE, DARYL C
• Application Number:
  US11/686,908
• Publication Number:
  US 20070229290A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,139 Days
• Field of Search: 340/521, 340/539.13, 340/539.1, 340/539.11
• US Class Current: 340/521
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/80 for detecting, monitoring or modelling epidemics or pandemics, e.g. flu
• CPC Class Codes: Y02A 90/10 Information and communication technologies [ICT] supporting adaptation to climate change, e.g. for weather forecasting or climate simulation

Abstract

A method and apparatus to collect user location data over time, correlating user location data with outbreak data. The method and apparatus further comprising an alert mechanism to indicate to a user if there was a potential exposure.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving user location data and storing the user location data;

identifying an outbreak;

backtracking contacts to the outbreak correlating historical locations of the outbreak with the stored user location data indicating past locations of the user; and

alerting the user of a potential point of contact with the outbreak when the stored user location data of the past locations of the user indicates that the user'"'"'s past location had overlapped with the historical locations of the outbreak.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

pruning the user location data periodically.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein pruning comprises one or more of the following:

removing locations having a low risk, removing time ranges, removing locations where the user was for a short time, and removing data completely from a particular date.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving outbreak data identifying the outbreak from a user patient;

determining an infection period for the outbreak;

retrieving the user location data for the user patient during the infection period; and

utilizing the user location data during the infection period to identify the historical locations of the outbreak; and

utilizing the historical locations of the outbreak to identify proximity-based alerts to be sent to other users.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

receiving a confirmation of infection from an alerted user; and

performing the tracing and alerting for the confirmed ill user.

6. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

maintaining user privacy while performing these processes.

7. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

generating a map of a spread of the outbreak based on the outbreak data and the identified user patients.

8. An outbreak notification system comprising:

a location receiving logic to receive location data from a user;

a user data store to store the location data; and

outbreak notification receiving logic to receive notification of an outbreak, the notification including historical locations of the outbreak;

a contact trace logic to backtrack the stored location data indicating past locations of the user to determine if the user has had past contact with the outbreak based on an overlap of one of the past locations of the user and one of the historical locations of the outbreak.

9. The outbreak notification system of claim 8, further comprising:

a location correlation logic to process the location data and generate map locations.

10. The outbreak notification system of claim 8, further comprising:

a user norm calculation to calculate a normal sequence of locations for a user; and

the user data store to store a user norm identification and deviations from the identified user norm, when the sequence of locations matches the normal sequence of locations for the user.

11. The outbreak notification system of claim 8, further comprising:

a pruning logic to prune data in the user data store, the pruning to reduce a volume of data.

12. The outbreak notification system of claim 11, wherein the pruning comprises one or more of:

removing locations having a low risk, removing time ranges, removing locations where the user was for a short time, and removing data completely from a particular date.

13. The outbreak notification system of claim 8, further comprising:

outbreak location processor to determine one or more locations at which the outbreak can be identified as infectious.

14. The outbreak notification system of claim 13, wherein the notification may be received from one or more of the following:

a news report, a press release, a notification by a system user, a notification from a healthcare provider, a notification from the Center for Disease Control or other appropriate agency.

15. The outbreak notification system of claim 13, wherein when the notification is received from a user,

a patient trace logic to trace the patient'"'"'s locations while the patient was infectious;

and

the contact trace logic to use the patient'"'"'s locations.

16. The outbreak notification system of claim 8, further comprising:

an alert logic to alert a user when the user is identified as having intersected the outbreak.

17. The outbreak notification system of claim 8, further comprising:

an alert logic to alert appropriate authorities of the outbreak spread.

18. The outbreak notification system of claim 8, wherein the alert logic maintains the users'"'"' privacy in notifying the appropriate authorities.

19. The outbreak notification system of claim 8, further comprising:

a mapping logic to map a spread of the outbreak.

20. An outbreak notification system comprising:

a user data store to store location data for a plurality of users over time;

outbreak notification receiving logic to receive notification of an outbreak, the notification including a location and time; and

a contact trace logic to backtrack data indicating past locations over time of a user from the user data store to determine past exposure of the user to the outbreak based on an overlap of the location and the time of the user and the outbreak.