System and method for detecting, collecting, analyzing, and communicating event related information

• US 7,725,565 B2
• Filed: 11/19/2008
• Issued: 05/25/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 02/25/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Georgetown University
• Original Assignee: Georgetown University
• Inventors: Wilson, James M., Blake, Jane W., Yoon, Jae In, Polyak, Mark G., Collmann, Jeffrey R., Li, Peter Chao-yuan
• Primary Examiner(s): Maung; Zarni
• Application Number:
  US12/274,243
• Publication Number:
  US 20090216860A1
• Time in Patent Office: 552 Days
• Field of Search: 709217-218, 709/219, 709225-229, 709/250, 709/246, 702/187, 702/188
• US Class Current: 709/219
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9566 URL specific, e.g. using aliases, detecting broken or misspelled links
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/067 Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/80 for detecting, monitoring or modelling epidemics or pandemics, e.g. flu
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• 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 system and method involves detecting operational social disruptive events on a global scale, assigning disease event staging and warnings to express data in more simplistic terms, modeling data in conjunction with linguistics analysis to establish responsive actions, generating visualization and modeling capabilities for communicating information, and modeling disease propagation for containment and forecasting purposes.

Claims

1. A method for communicating event information, comprising the steps of:

storing at a first server at least one parameter for each of a plurality of indications and warnings associated with an event;

identifying at least one information source at a second server comprising downloadable data;

downloading the data at the end of a predetermined time period;

filtering the downloaded data at the first server to identify a subset of the data comprising the at least one parameter;

storing an event report comprising a descriptive summary of the subset of the data and a first scale value selected from a range of scale values for describing a severity of the event; and

providing at least a portion of the event report over a communications network.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of selecting the event from a list of event types.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the list of event types includes at least one communicable disease event.

4. The method according to claim 2, further comprising filtering the selected event based on at least one geographical location.

5. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of identifying each of the plurality of indications and warnings.

6. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of

identifying the at least one parameter for each of the plurality of indications and warnings.

7. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of crawling the at least one information source to identify the downloadable data.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of downloading the data comprises the steps of:

downloading the data from the at least one information source; and

storing the data in a first database.

9. The method according to claim 8, further comprising the step of encoding the downloaded data.

10. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of storing a URL associated with the at least one information source in a second database.

11. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of translating the data from a first language into a second language.

12. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of filtering comprises the steps of:

receiving at the first server at least one keyword;

comparing the at least one keyword to the at least one parameter; and

outputting a list comprising the subset of the data.

13. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

storing a filter event schedule having at least one time event indexed to a pre-determined time of day; and

executing the time event at the predetermined time of day.

14. The method according to claim 1, wherein the first scale value comprises one of a number, a word, a phrase, and a color.

15. The method according to claim 14, wherein the word is one of “

alert,”

“

watch,” and

“

warning.”

16. The method according to claim 14, wherein the color is one of red, orange, yellow, and green.

17. The method according to claim 1, wherein the portion of the event report provided comprises a description of the event and the first scale value.

18. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of displaying the first scale value visually on a map of the geographical location.

19. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of storing a second event report comprising a second descriptive summary of the event having the at least one parameter;

and a second scale value selected from the range of scale values for describing the severity of the event.

20. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of storing an updated event report.