Expert system assistance for persons in danger

• US 8,044,772 B1
• Filed: 07/18/2008
• Issued: 10/25/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/10/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Vehicle Intelligence and Safety LLC
• Original Assignee: Kevin Roe
• Inventors: Roe, Kevin
• Primary Examiner(s): Crosland; Donnie
• Application Number:
  US12/176,149
• Time in Patent Office: 1,194 Days
• Field of Search: 340/576, 340/7.5, 422/84, 73/233
• US Class Current: 340/7.5
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 28/06 responsive to incapacity of driver
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 2540/24 Drug level, e.g. alcohol
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/04 responsive to non-activity, e.g. of elderly persons G08B21/06 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/10 responsive to calamitous events, e.g. tornados or earthquakes
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/12 responsive to undesired emission of substances, e.g. pollution alarms
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/22 responsive to presence or absence of persons
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 7/066 guiding along a path, e.g. evacuation path lighting strip

Abstract

Methods and systems using one or more expert systems to quickly assist (e.g., advise and/or rescue) persons in danger at a location (e.g., buildings, tunnels, bridges, factories, refineries, recreational areas, such as parks, golf courses, ski-slopes, public transportation vehicles, such as buses, subways, trains, planes, ships, and equivalents), to screen and selectively test the location and/or person and assist the person if danger to the person is determined. One embodiment is a method to advise a person in danger, possibly having an impairment, using one or more expert systems. A second embodiment is a method to assist people in danger, possibly having an impairment, such as chemical impairment, physical impairment, medical impairment, or emotional impairment, using one or more expert systems. A third embodiment is a system to assist a person, if the system determines a danger at a location and/or if the system determines if a person has an impairment, such as chemical impairment, physical impairment, medical impairment, or emotional impairment, using one or more expert systems.

Claims

1. A method to assist a person in danger, comprising:

screening a location or a person by one or more expert systems to detect a potential danger to a person;

selectively testing said location or said person when said screening indicates a potential danger to said person; and

assisting said person if said selective testing of said location or said person indicates said danger.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said screening of said location or said person includes utilization of information derived from one or more existing modules selected from the group of existing modules consisting of:

an operations module, an audio module, an information module, an security module, and a climate control module.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

allowing said person or one or more people in proximity to said person to activate a screening of said person for impairment by one or more expert systems.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising measuring at least one characteristic of said person including one or more characteristics selected from the group consisting of:

at least one chemical in proximity to said person, breathing rate of said person, blood pressure of said person, blood pulse rate of said person, blood oxygen level of said person, blood sugar level of said person, temperature of a portion of skin of said person, temperature in proximity to said person, one or more optical characteristics of at least one eye of said person, optical response to at least one stimulus of at least one eye of said person, at least one speech characteristic of said person, comparison of at least one speech characteristic of said person to a reference speech characteristic of said person, delay in response by said person to a prompt, a speed of dexterity of said person in performing at least one task, and a consistency of dexterity of said person in performing at least one task.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said selective testing of said location or said person includes utilization of information derived from one or more existing modules selected from the group of existing modules consisting of:

an operations module, an audio module, an information module, an security module, and a climate control module.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said assisting includes one or more responses selected from the group of responses consisting of:

advising a person of the safest evacuation route or a safer evacuation route from a location, advising said person of a second location having less danger or having emergency supplies, shielding said person from additional harm, changing a posture of said person, supplying medical drugs or other medical aid to said person, performing medical treatment on the impaired person, increasing or decreasing air temperature in proximity to said person, increasing or decreasing a supply of appropriate gases in proximity to said person, sending a warning message to summon medical assistance, contacting other entities, activating a radio beacon, assuring said person of one or more remedial actions, speaking to said person to minimize panic, tenor or anxiety of said person, disabling equipment at said location, disabling said equipment at said location after a time delay, temporarily disabling said equipment at said location for a pre-selected time duration, shutting off power to said equipment at said location, limiting operation of said equipment at said location to a lower speed of operation, limiting operation of said equipment at said location to allow only return of said equipment at said location to a pre-selected state or a pre-selected location, autonomously moving said equipment at said location to a second location, activating an alarm, sending a warning message to another entity for assistance, and issuing a warning message to said person.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said selective testing utilizes one or more other factors chosen from the group of factors consisting of air temperature, oxygen level, carbon dioxide level, carbon monoxide levels, combustion by-product levels, nitrous oxide levels, ozone levels, hydrocarbon vapor levels, the presence of any gas associated with impairment, air humidity, air pressure, explosions or otherwise dangerous environmental decompression or compression of said person, fires, sound loudness levels in proximity to a module at a location, and a history of said location.

8. A method to assist a person in danger or having an impairment, comprising:

screening a location or a person by one or more expert systems to detect a potential danger to said person;

selectively testing said location or said person when said screening of said location or said person detects a potential danger at said location or a potential impairment of said person; and

assisting said person if said selective testing of said location or said person indicates said danger at said location or said impairment of said person.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein said screening of said location or said person includes utilization of at least a portion of one or more existing modules selected from the group of existing modules consisting of:

an operations module, an audio module, an information module, an security module, and a climate control module.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein said screening of said location or said person includes a time-sharing allocation of at least one processor executing at least one expert system.

11. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

allowing said person or one or more people in proximity to said person to activate a screening of said location for a danger or activate a screening of said person for impairment by one or more expert systems.

12. The method of claim 8, further comprising measuring at least one characteristic of said person including one or more characteristics selected from the group consisting of:

at least one chemical in proximity to said person, breathing rate of said person, blood pressure of said person, blood pulse rate of said person, blood oxygen level of said person, blood sugar level of said person, temperature of a portion of skin of said person, temperature in proximity to said person, one or more optical characteristics of at least one eye of said person, optical response to at least one stimulus of at least one eye of said person, at least one speech characteristic of said person, comparison of at least one speech characteristic of said person to a reference speech characteristic of said person, delay in response by said person to a prompt, a speed of dexterity of said person in performing at least one task, and a consistency of dexterity of said person in performing at least one task.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein said selective testing of said location or said person includes utilization of at least a portion of one or more existing modules selected from the group of existing modules consisting of:

an operations module, an audio module, an information module, an security module, and a climate control module.

14. The method of claim 8, wherein said rescuing of said person includes one or more responses selected from the group of responses consisting of:

advising a person of the safest evacuation route or a safer evacuation route from a location, advising said person of a second location having less danger or having emergency supplies, shielding said person from additional harm, changing a posture of said person, supplying medical drugs or other medical aid to said person, performing medical treatment on said impaired person, increasing or decreasing air temperature in proximity to said person, increasing or decreasing the supply of appropriate gases in proximity to said person, sending a warning message to summon medical assistance, contacting other entities, activating a radio beacon, assuring said person of one or more remedial actions, speaking to said person to minimize panic, tenor or anxiety of said person, disabling equipment at said location, disabling said equipment at said location after a time delay, temporarily disabling said equipment at said location for a pre-selected time duration, shutting off power to said equipment at said location, limiting operation of said equipment at said location to a lower speed of operation, limiting operation of said equipment at said location to allow only return of said equipment at said location to a pre-selected state or a pre-selected location, autonomously moving said equipment at said location to a second location, activating an alarm, sending a warning message to another entity for assistance, and issuing a warning message to said person.

15. The method of claim 8, wherein said selective testing of said location or said person includes a time-sharing allocation of one or more processors of one or more existing modules executing one or more expert systems.

16. The method of claim 8, wherein said selective testing selectively changes according to one or more other factors chosen from the group of factors consisting of air temperature, oxygen level, carbon dioxide level, carbon monoxide levels, combustion by-product levels, nitrous oxide levels, ozone levels, hydrocarbon vapor levels, the presence of any gas associated with impairment, air humidity, air pressure, explosions or otherwise dangerous environmental decompression or compression of said person, fires, sound loudness levels at a location, and history of said location.

17. A system to assist a person in danger, comprising:

a screening module to screen and selectively test a location or a person when said screening indicates potential danger to said person, wherein said screening module utilizes one or more expert system modules in screening said location or said person; and

an assisting module to assist said person if said selective testing of said location or said person indicates said danger at said location or said impairment of said person.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein said screening module includes one or more expert system modules that utilize at least a portion of one or more modules selected from the group of modules consisting of:

an operations module, an audio module, an information module, an security module, and a climate control module.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein said assisting module uses one or more responses selected from the group of responses consisting of:

advising a person of the safest evacuation route or a safer evacuation route from a location, advising said person of a second location having less danger or having emergency supplies, shielding said person from additional harm, changing a posture of said person, supplying medical drugs or other medical aid to said person, performing medical treatment on said person, increasing or decreasing air temperature in proximity to said person, increasing or decreasing the supply of appropriate gases in proximity to said person, assuring said person of one or more remedial actions, speaking to said person to minimize panic, terror or anxiety of said person, disabling equipment at said location, disabling said equipment at said location after a time delay, temporarily disabling said equipment at said location for a pre-selected time duration, shutting off power to said equipment at said location, limiting operation of said equipment at said location to a lower speed of operation, limiting operation of said equipment at said location to allow only return of said equipment at said location to a pre-selected state or a pre-selected location, activating an alarm, sending a warning message to another entity for assistance, and issuing a warning message to said person.

20. The system of claim 17, wherein said screening module includes at least one module to measure at least one characteristic of said location or said person selected from the group of characteristics consisting of:

at least one chemical in proximity to said location, temperature in proximity to said person, breathing rate of said person, blood pressure of said person, blood pulse rate of said person, blood oxygen level of said person, blood sugar level of said person, temperature of a portion of skin of said person, one or more optical characteristics of at least one eye of said person, optical response to at least one stimulus of at least one eye of said person, at least one speech characteristic of said person, comparison of at least one speech characteristic of said person to a reference speech characteristic of said person, delay in response by said person to a prompt, a speed of dexterity of said person in performing at least one task, and a consistency of dexterity of said person in performing at least one task.