Method, system and computer program product for an emergency alert system for audio announcement

• US 8,356,316 B2
• Filed: 12/17/2009
• Issued: 01/15/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/17/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Velazquez, Leonardo, Ford, James
• Primary Examiner(s): HOSSAIN, FARZANA E
• Application Number:
  US12/640,529
• Publication Number:
  US 20110154391A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,125 Days
• Field of Search: 725 32- 33
• US Class Current: 725/33
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/59 for emergency or urgency
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6125 involving transmission via Internet transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8106 involving special audio data, e.g. different tracks for different languages
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/814 comprising emergency warnings arrangements specially adapted for emergency or urgency in broadcast systems H04H20/59; arrangements for providing alarms, notifications, alerts to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1895

Abstract

A method is disclosed for distributing emergency alert audio data, the method including but not limited to receiving emergency alert message (EAM) data at an encoder/decoder in an internet protocol television (IPTV) system; sending the EAM to an emergency alert control (EAC) server in the IPTV system; verifying at the EAC that a valid audio message is received in the EAM; if the EAM contains an audio file, creating a MP3 audio file from or another acceptable format for the audio file; and if the received EAM is a state/local alert, placing the EAM in first-in-first-out order in a message delivery queue for delivery to end user devices in the order of the message delivery queue, else, if a streaming playback of state/local alert message is in progress, suspending the streaming playback of the state/local alert message, and continuously streaming the received EAM to end user device in the IPTV system.

Claims

1. A method for distributing emergency alert audio data, the method comprising:

receiving emergency alert message data at an encoder/decoder in an internet protocol television (IPTV) system;

validating headers in the emergency alert message data;

sending the validated emergency alert message to an emergency alert control (EAC) server in the IPTV system;

verifying at the emergency alert control that a valid audio message is received in the emergency alert message data;

if the emergency alert message data contains an audio file, creating a MP3 audio file from the audio file; and

if the emergency alert message data is one of a state and local alert, placing the emergency alert message data in first-in-first-out order in a message delivery queue for delivery to end user devices in the order of the message delivery queue,

else, if a streaming playback of one of a state and local alert message is in progress, suspending the streaming playback of the one of a state and local alert message, and continuously streaming the received emergency alert message to end user device in the internet protocol television system,

the method further comprising;

calculating a start and stop time for delivering the audio data in emergency alert message data based on a time required to deliver and present the audio data in emergency alert message in a language in which the emergency alert message is delivered, time to complete multicast joins for the end users receiving the emergency alert message data and network time protocol tolerance, wherein the audio data further comprises multimedia data, and wherein calculating the time to deliver the audio data in the emergency alert message further comprises calculating the duration of the multimedia message data in the emergency alert message, wherein the multimedia message further comprises data selected from the group consisting of image data and video data;

finding key words in the multimedia data;

finding visual icons data in a data base associated with key words; and

inserting the visual icons data into the emergency alert message, wherein the visual icons data further comprise data indicating the nature of the alert message.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein a longest duration for video and audio presentations for the emergency alert message in any language is used for an emergency alert message duration to ensure that multiple retransmissions of the emergency alert message data to end user devices do not overlap.

3. The method of claim 2, the method further comprising:

storing the emergency alert message data in a data base in a non-transitory computer readable media accessible to the end user device;

accepting commands from the end user device, wherein the commands are one of to fast forward, reverse, rewind, pause and delete the presentation of at least one of audio, video, text and visual icon data.

4. A non-transitory computer readable medium containing a computer program of computer executable instructions that when executed by a computer perform function useful for distributing emergency alert audio data, the computer program further comprising:

instructions to receive emergency alert message data at an encoder/decoder in an internet protocol television (IPTV) system;

instructions to validate headers in the emergency alert message data;

instructions to send the validated emergency alert message to an emergency alert control server in the IPTV system;

instructions to verify at the emergency alert control that a valid audio message is received in the emergency alert message data;

instructions to, if the emergency alert message contains an audio file, create a MP3 audio file from the audio file; and

instructions to if the emergency alert message data is one of a state and local alert, placing the emergency alert message in first-in-first-out order in a message delivery queue for delivery to end user devices in the order of the message delivery queue, else, instructions to if a streaming playback the one of a state and local alert message is in progress,

instructions to suspend the streaming playback of the state/local alert message, and instructions to continuously stream the received emergency alert message to end user device in the internet protocol television system;

instructions to calculate a start and stop time for delivering the audio data in emergency alert message based on a time required to deliver and present the audio data in emergency alert message in a language in which the emergency alert message is delivered, time to complete multicast joins for the end users receiving the emergency alert message data and network time protocol tolerance;

wherein the audio data further comprises multimedia data, and wherein calculating the time to deliver the audio data in the emergency alert message further comprises instructions to calculate the duration of the multimedia message data in the emergency alert message, wherein the multimedia message further comprises data is one of image data and video data;

instructions to search for key words in the multimedia data;

instructions to search for visual icons data in a data base associated with keg words; and

instructions to insert the visual icons data into the emergency alert message, wherein the visual icons data further comprises data indicating the nature of the alert message.

5. The medium of claim 4, wherein a longest duration for video and audio presentations for the emergency alert message in any language is used for an emergency alert message duration to ensure that multiple retransmissions of the emergency alert message to end user devices do not overlap.

6. The medium of claim 5, the computer program further comprising:

instructions to store the emergency alert message data in a data base in a non-transitory computer readable media accessible to the end user device;

instructions to accept commands from the end user device, wherein the commands are one of to fast forward, reverse, rewind, pause and delete the presentation of at least one of audio, video, text and visual icon data.

7. A system for distributing emergency alert audio data, the system comprising:

a processor;

a non-transitory computer readable medium containing a computer program of computer executable instructions that when executed by the processor perform function useful for distributing emergency alert audio data, the computer program further comprising;

instructions to receive emergency alert message data at an encoder/decoder in an internet protocol television (IPTV) system;

instructions to validate headers in the emergency alert message data;

instructions to send the validated emergency alert message to an emergency alert control server in the IPTV system;

instructions to verify at the emergency alert control that a valid audio message is received in the emergency alert message;

instructions to, if the emergency alert message data contains an audio file, creating a MP3 audio file from the audio file; and

instructions to if the received emergency alert message is one of a state and local alert, placing the emergency alert message data in first-in-first-out order in a message delivery queue for delivery to end user devices in order of the message delivery queue, else, instructions to if a streaming playback of an alert message is in progress,

instructions to suspend the streaming playback of the alert message, and

instructions to continuously stream the received emergency alert message data to end user device in the internet protocol television system

instructions to calculate a start and stop time for delivering the audio data in emergency alert message based on a time required to deliver and present the audio data in emergency alert message in a language in which the emergency alert message is delivered, time to complete multicast joins for the end users receiving the emergency alert message and network time protocol tolerance, wherein the emergency alert message data further comprises multimedia data, and wherein calculating the time to deliver the emergency alert data in the emergency alert message data further comprises calculating the duration of the multimedia message data in the emergency alert message data, wherein the multimedia message further is one of image data and video data,

and instructions to find key words in the multimedia data;

instructions to find visual icons data in a data base associated with key words; and

instructions to insert the visual icons data into the emergency alert message, wherein the visual icons data further comprise data indicating the nature of the alert message.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein a longest duration for video and audio presentations for the emergency alert message in any language is used for the emergency alert message duration to ensure that multiple retransmissions of the emergency alert message data to end user devices do not overlap.

9. The system of claim 8, the computer program further comprising:

instructions to store the emergency alert message data in a data base in a computer readable media accessible to the end user device;

instructions to accept commands from the end user device, wherein the commands are one of fast forward, reverse, rewind, pause and delete the presentation of at least one of audio, video, text and visual icon data on the end user device.