System for digitally notifying customers of a utility

• US 8,165,274 B1
• Filed: 12/19/2007
• Issued: 04/24/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 04/28/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: TechRadium, Inc.
• Original Assignee: TechRadium, Inc.
• Inventors: Rodkey, Ryan Scott, Rodkey, John Frank Jr., Hickey, David Lynn, Ross, Darren Lynn, Ramsey, Ronald Frank
• Primary Examiner(s): Gauthier, Gerald
• Application Number:
  US11/960,462
• Time in Patent Office: 1,588 Days
• Field of Search: 340/607, 340/332, 370/352, 379/37, 379/45, 379/79, 379/88.12, 379/88.19, 379/114.03, 379/201.01, 455/404.1, 455/412.2, 455/404.2, 700/286, 709/206, 709/223, 725/33
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/61 taking into account QoS or priority requirements

Abstract

A digital notification and response system for digitally notifying customers of an utility. The system includes a plurality of user contact devices, an application programming interface, and a dynamic information database. Real time digital user data comprising bank identified grouping information for forming user groups, user contact device information for each contact device, and utility provided user contact device priority information is received by the application programming interface and stored in the dynamic information database. The user contact device priority information is used to form a first and second group of user contact devices. Messages are transmitted through at least two industry standard gateways to the user contact devices, wherein the messages are simultaneously transmitted to the first group of user contact devices before the second group of user contact devices. Responses from the contact devices are received by the application programming interface and stored in the dynamic information database.

Claims

1. A digital notification and response system for digitally notifying customers of a utility comprising:

a plurality of user contact devices in communication with a network;

real time digital user data comprising;

utility identified grouping information for forming at least one user group, user contact device information for each user contact device, and utility provided user contact device priority information;

an application programming interface in communication with a processor and the network for receiving the real time digital user data from the utility;

a dynamic information database in communication with the processor for storing the real time digital user data, wherein a first group of user contact devices for each user in the at least one user group and a second group of user contact devices for each user in the at least one use group are formed using the utility provided user contact device priority information;

at least two industry standard gateways for transmitting at least one message from the utility through the application programming interface to the plurality of user contact devices, wherein the at least one message is simultaneously transmitted to the first group of user contact devices before being simultaneously transmitted to the second group of user contact devices; and

wherein the application programming interface receives a response from at least one of the plurality of user contact devices through the at least two industry standard gateways simultaneously, and wherein the response is stored in the dynamic information database.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one message comprises predefined messages selected from the group consisting of:

“

power lines are down”

, “

there is a brown out”

, “

you didn'"'"'t pay your bill”

, “

wash your clothes after 10;

00 pm”

, or combinations thereof.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the utility is a gas utility, a water utility, an electricity utility, a telephone utility, or combinations thereof.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the real time digital user data further comprises a group identification for the at least one user group.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least user group is represented as a list.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the application programming interface is adapted to receive a user message with updated real time digital user data from at least one of the plurality of user contact devices and update the real time digital user data in the dynamic information database using the user message.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the application programming interface is adapted to form new groups of users using the user contact device information and instruction from the utility.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one message from the utility comprises activation of an audio alarm, a visual alarm, a designated ring tone, or combinations thereof.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the application programming interface controls an administrator interface and provides additional code to the administrator interface for creating and transmitting messages to the plurality of user contact devices.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the application programming interface is adapted to control the administrator interface to only transmit the at least one message within a predefined time interval, and wherein the administrator interface comprises a manual override to suppress the predefined time interval to allow the at least one message to be sent at any time.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one message comprises a survey for requesting additional information.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the application programming interface is adapted to receive a survey response to the survey and store the survey response in the dynamic information database.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the dynamic information database further comprises a searchable list of the last message sent to at least one of the plurality of user contact devices.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the dynamic information database is encrypted.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the encrypted dynamic information database has at least one encryption key.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein the application programming interface communicates with a local area network, a wide area network, a virtual private network, an asynchronous transfer mode network, a synchronous optical network, a call center interface, a voice mail interface, a satellite network, a wireless network, or combinations thereof.

17. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least two industry standard gateways are selected from the group consisting of:

a SMTP gateway, a SIP gateway, and H.323 gateway, and ISDN gateway, a PSTN gateway, a softswitch, and combinations thereof.

18. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of user contact devices are selected from the group consisting of:

handheld wireless devices, wireless phones, land phones, e-mail addresses, fax machines, pagers, digital displays, LED displays, webpages, a TTY/TDD devices, instant messaging devices, and combinations thereof.