Method and apparatus for the creation of an event-associated electronic device directory

• US 8,344,878 B2
• Filed: 09/30/2009
• Issued: 01/01/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Goldman, Stuart O., Rauscher, Karl F., Malone, Bernard Louis III
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Tai T
• Application Number:
  US12/587,052
• Publication Number:
  US 20110074572A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,189 Days
• Field of Search: 340/539.13, 340/539.26, 340/5.6, 340/10.41, 340/13.26, 340/902, 340/903, 340/933, 340/944, 340/447, 340/572.1, 340/572.4
• US Class Current: 340/539.13
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 11/04 with alarm systems, e.g. fire, police or burglar alarm systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/021 Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/90 Services for handling of emergency or hazardous situations, e.g. earthquake and tsunami warning systems [ETWS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/50 for emergency connections

Abstract

A manner of creating an electronic device directory containing the identity of electronic devices that registered in an area associated with a plurality of events, which events are similar in certain respects. The directory is useful, for example, investigating criminal cases. When such an event occurs, an application server is notified and generates one or more device registration capture requests to determine which electronic devices are registered in the area and at approximately the same time at which the event occurs. The device registration capture associated with this event is compared with other device registration captures associated with other, similar events to create the electronic device directory. The electronic device directory entries are preferable filtered to select the devices most likely to be associated with the actual events in question.

Claims

1. A method of creating an electronic device directory for investigating an event, comprising:

detecting, at an application server, an occurrence of a first event;

comparing, in the application server, a first device registration capture associated with the first event with at least one device registration capture associated with a previous event to identify common electronic device registrations; and

generating an electronic device directory including at least selected ones of the common electronic device registrations.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising storing a record of characteristics associated with the first event in a memory storage device.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the memory storage device is located in the application server.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the device registration captures include only those electronic devices registered in a limited geographic area.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the device registration captures are generated in a cellular telephone network and the limited geographic area includes a cell in which the associated event occurred.

6. The method according to claim 1, further comprising generating at least one device registration capture request.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein the at least one device capture request is generated in response to detecting the occurrence of the first event.

8. The method according to claim 6, wherein the at least one device capture request specifies a geographic area for which the device registration capture is requested.

9. The method according to claim 8, further comprising generating a plurality of device registration requests, spaced apart in time, for determining which electronic devices are frequently registered in the geographic area.

10. The method according to claim 1, further comprising comparing, in the application server, characteristics associated with an event with characteristics associated with one or more other events to select candidates for comparing device registration captures.

11. An apparatus for creating an electronic device directory, comprising:

a device registration capture request generator for generating a request for transmission to a communication network to store identities of electronic devices registered with the network;

an electronic device directory generator for generating a directory of electronic devices found to have been registered in an area of each of a plurality of events and at or near time when the events occurred;

a controller operatively connected to the device registration capture request generator and the electronic device directory generator for supervising operation thereof; and

a memory storage device in communication with the controller for storing operating instructions and data.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, further comprising a device registration capture comparator for comparing two or more device registration captures to determine which electronic devices, if any, are reported as being registered on a plurality of the device registration captures.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the electronic device directory generator uses results of the device registration capture comparison in generating the electronic device directory.

14. The apparatus of claim 11 further comprising an event comparator to compare characteristics associated with one event with characteristics associates with at least one other event and to select candidate events for device registration capture comparison.