Apparatus, and associated method, for generating an alert to notify emergency personnel of a vehicular emergency

• US 7,711,349 B2
• Filed: 04/24/2006
• Issued: 05/04/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 04/24/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Inventors: Simmons, Sean, Buckley, Adrian
• Primary Examiner(s): Ly; Nghi H
• Application Number:
  US11/410,275
• Publication Number:
  US 20070247289A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,471 Days
• Field of Search: 455/404.2, 455/456.1, 455/41.2, 455/457, 340/988, 342/547
• US Class Current: 455/404.2
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 21/00 Arrangements or fittings on vehicles for protecting or preventing injuries to occupants or pedestrians in case of accidents or other traffic risks safety belts or body harnesses in vehicles B60R22/00; devices, apparatus or methods for life-saving in general A62B; safety devices for propulsion unit control specially adapted for, or arranged in, vehicles B60K28/00; seats constructed to protect the occupant from the effect of abnormal g-forces, e.g. crash or safety seats, B60N2/42; energy-absorbing arrangements for hand wheels for steering vehicles B62D1/11; energy-absorbing arrangements for vehicle steering columns B62D1/19; harnessing in aircraft B64D25/00
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/016 Personal emergency signalling and security systems emergency non-personal manually actuated alarm activators G08B25/12

Abstract

Apparatus, and an associated method, for automatically reporting on the occurrence of a vehicular emergency. A vehicular-positioned transceiver searches for the presence of a paired transceiver positioned in proximity to the vehicular-positioned transceiver. The paired transceiver, forming part of a mobile station operable in a cellular communication system, is identified and used upon the occurrence of the vehicular emergency automatically to generate a report message that is routed to a public safety access point.

Claims

1. Vehicular-positioned apparatus for initiating communication of emergency data pursuant to a vehicular emergency, said apparatus comprising:

a paired transceiver detection initiation detector adapted to detect occurrence of a vehicular trip start event, said paired transceiver detection initiation detector configured to generate a pair-transceiver search command responsive to the occurrence of the vehicular trip start event;

a local transceiver adapted to receive the paired transceiver search command generated by said paired transceiver detection initiation detector, to receive indicia associated with the vehicle at which said local transceiver is positioned, and to receive indication of occurrence of the vehicular emergency, said local transceiver configured to perform a pair transceiver search responsive to the paired transceiver search command and to generate a vehicular emergency report responsive to the indication of the occurrence of the vehicular emergency.

2. The vehicular-positioned apparatus of claim 1 wherein the vehicular trip start event of which the occurrence thereof said paired transceiver detection detector is adapted to detect comprises turning of a vehicular ignition switch.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the vehicular trip start event of which the occurrence thereof said paired transceiver detection detector is adapted to detect comprises user actuation of a vehicular mounted actuator.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the pair transceiver search performed by said local transceiver is performed successively at selected intervals responsive to reception of the paired transceiver search.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising a memory element configured to store search results obtained responsive to performance by said local transceiver of the pair transceiver search.

6. The apparatus of claim 5 wherein the search results stored at said memory element comprise identifiers that identify a paired transceiver, capable of a communication with said local transceiver.

7. The apparatus of claim 6 wherein, when performance of the paired transceiver search identifies a plurality of paired transceivers, said memory element is configured to store identifiers that identify each of the plurality of paired transceivers.

8. The apparatus of claim 6 wherein the identifiers that identify a paired transceiver comprise an IP (Internet Protocol)-formatted address.

9. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said local transceiver comprises a Bluetooth™

-capable transceiver.

10. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the indicia associated with the vehicle that said local transceiver is adapted to receive comprises a vehicular identification number that uniquely identifies the vehicle.

11. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the indication of the vehicular emergency that said local transceiver is adapted to receive comprises an indication that identifies which type of vehicular emergency that has occurred.

12. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the vehicular emergency report generated by said local transceiver is for communication to a public safety access point by way of a paired transceiver identified responsive to performance of said paired transceiver search.

13. A method for facilitating communication of emergency data pursuant to a vehicular emergency, said method comprising the operations of:

performing a paired transceiver search by a vehicular-positioned local transceiver to identify a paired transceiver in proximity to the vehicular-positioned local transceiver;

identifying a paired transceiver responsive to the paired transceiver search;

providing vehicular emergency indicia to the vehicular-positioned transceiver upon occurrence of the vehicular emergency;

sending the vehicular emergency indicia to the paired transceiver for forwarding onto a public safety access point.

14. The method of claim 13 further comprising the operation of forwarding on the vehicular emergency indicia to the public safety access point.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the paired transceiver comprises a TTY element and wherein the vehicular emergency indicia is forwarded as TTY-formatted data.

16. The method of claim 14 wherein the vehicular-positioned transceiver comprises a Bluetooth™

-compatible transceiver and wherein said operation of performing the paired transceiver search comprises performing a search for a Bluetooth™

-compatible transceiver.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein the paired transceiver identified during said operation of identifying comprises a cellular radio transceiver having a Bluetooth™

-capable part.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein the cellular radio transceiver comprises a TTY capability and wherein said operation of sending comprises placing the vehicular emergency in TTY-format form.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein said operation of sending comprises contacting the public safety access point and exchanging TTY-formatted data with the public safety access point.

20. A method for alerting a public safety access point of a vehicular emergency, said method comprising the operations of:

providing a vehicle with a local area transceiver;

identifying a wide area transceiver having local area transceiver capability in proximity with the local area transceiver of the vehicle;

identifying a wide area transceiver having local area transceiver capability in proximity with the local area transceiver of the vehicle;

alerting the wide area transceiver of occurrence of the vehicular emergency by sending signals generated at the local area transceiver to the wide area transceiver;

communicating an indication of the occurrence of the vehicular emergency to the public safety access point using the wide area transceiver.