Grapical user interface method and apparatus for communication assets and information in a dispatch environment

• US 8,448,070 B2
• Filed: 07/16/2009
• Issued: 05/21/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 07/16/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Eagle Technology, LLC (L3Harris Technologies, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Harris Corporation (L3Harris Technologies, Inc.)
• Inventors: Dailey, Timothy Eugene
• Primary Examiner(s): Augustine, Nicholas
• Application Number:
  US12/504,329
• Publication Number:
  US 20110016402A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,405 Days
• Field of Search: 715/733, 715/734, 715/735, 715/736, 715/738, 715/739, 715/742
• US Class Current: 715/738
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/324 by lowering clock frequency
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/22 comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/42 Graphical user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/60 logging of communication history, e.g. outgoing or incoming calls, missed calls, messages or URLs logging of telephone numbers H04M1/56, H04M1/57
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5116 for emergency applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5183 Call or contact centers with computer-telephony arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

The invention pertains to methods and apparatus for displaying information and presenting user interface controls for interfacing with a communication network and controlling communication assets on the network. The invention is particularly suited to a dispatch environment and specifically to providing an interface that permits a dispatcher to efficiently organize assets and information around individual incidents.

Claims

1. An apparatus for generating a graphical user interface for permitting a user to interface with a communication network comprising:

a computing device configured to;

provide a first graphical user interface within a display window comprising static elements including a plurality of User Interface (UI) controls and informational display modules, the UI controls facilitating the interface with and control of the communication network, and the informational display modules facilitating the display of information useful for coordinating efforts of field personnel;

receive an incident report that was input into the communication network after commencement of a temporal incident concerning at least one of a physical object, a person and a geographic location;

dynamically select, in real-time, a subset of the UI controls and the informational display modules that are useful for activating services necessary to respond to the temporal incident described in the incident report, which temporal incident the user is intended to address via communications on the communication network;

dynamically generate a second graphical user interface including the subset of UI controls and the informational display modules which were previously dynamically selected based on the contents of the incident report, said second graphical user interface being separate and distinct from said first graphical user interface; and

display the second graphical user interface while the first graphical user interface is being displayed in the display window;

wherein the first graphical user interface and the second graphical user interface are provided by different software packages.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the temporal incident is a public safety incident, the communication network is a public safety network, and the display window is configured to assist a dispatcher in communicating with communication assets to address the temporal incident.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the UI controls interface with a dispatch console for controlling communications on the communication network.

4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein said first graphical user interface is generated by computer aided dispatch (CAD) software.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the UI controls and informational display modules are selected as a function of a recommendation of communication assets to be assigned to the temporal incident generated by the CAD system.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the UI controls and informational display modules are selected as a function of communication assets assigned to the temporal incident.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the UI controls and informational display modules are selected based at least in part on data obtained from Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) software.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the data obtained from the CAD software comprises a recommendation of communication assets to be assigned to the temporal incident generated by the CAD software.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the UI controls and informational displays are at least partially configured by a user.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the UI controls and informational display modules comprise at least a plurality of talk group boxes, each displaying information about a corresponding talk group and containing at least one UI control for controlling communications on the communication network for the corresponding talk group.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein a status box is displayed in the display window indicating the status of each field asset assigned to the temporal incident.

12. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the UI controls and informational display modules are selected as a function of an electronic incident report.

13. A computer readable product embodied on computer readable media readable by a computing device for permitting a user to interface with a communication system, the product comprising computer executable instructions operative for:

interfacing with a Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) system to receive information about a temporal incident described in an incident report and a first graphical user interface window provided thereby, said first graphical user interface window comprising static elements including a plurality of User Interface (UI) controls facilitating the interface with and control of the communication system;

dynamically selecting, in real-time, a subset of the UI controls that are useful for activating services necessary to respond to the temporal incident described in said incident report, which temporal incident a user is intended to address via communications on a communication network;

dynamically generating a second graphical user interface window comprised of the subset of the UI controls which were previously dynamically selected based on the contents of the incident report, said second graphical user interface window being separate and distinct from said first graphical user interface window; and

displaying the second graphical user interface window while the first graphical user interface is being displayed in the display window;

wherein said incident report was input into said communication network after commencement of said temporal incident concerning at least one of a physical object, a person and a geographic location.

14. The computer readable product of claim 13, wherein the computer executable instructions are further operative for interfacing with the CAD system to receive the incident report.

15. The computer readable product of claim 13, wherein the computer executable instructions are further operative for:

generating an information set defining the subset of UI controls and a layout thereof within the second graphical user interface window; and

transmitting the information set to a computer other than the computer on which the second graphical user interface window was created.

16. The computer readable product of claim 13, wherein the computer executable instructions are further operative for selecting at least a plurality of talk group graphical user interfaces, each displaying information about a corresponding talk group and containing at least one UI control for controlling communications on the network for the corresponding talk group.

17. The computer readable product of claim 13, wherein the second graphical user interface window is configured to assist a dispatcher in communicating with field resources to address the temporal incident.

18. The computer readable product of claim 13, wherein the first graphical user interface window further comprises informational display modules including display information derived from the CAD system.

19. The computer readable product of claim 13, wherein the computer executable instructions are further operative for selecting the UI controls as a function of communication assets assigned to deal with the temporal incident.

20. The computer readable product of claim 13, wherein the computer executable instructions are further operative for:

permitting a user-software interaction to add or delete at least one UI control to the second graphical user interface window; and

permitting a user-software interaction-to arrange the UI controls of the subset in the second graphical user interface window.

21. The computer readable product of claim 13, wherein the computer executable instructions are further operative for interfacing with the CAD system to receive a recommendation of communication assets to be assigned to the temporal incident generated by the CAD system.

22. A computer readable product embodied on computer readable media readable by a computing device for permitting a dispatcher to control communication assets of a communication network, the product comprising computer executable instructions operative for:

generating a first window template into which a user can place User Interface (UI) controls and informational display modules pertaining to a communication network to create a custom interface corresponding to a temporal incident described in an incident report that is input into the communication network after commencement of a temporal incident concerning at least one of a physical object, a person and a geographic location;

providing a graphical user interface displaying static elements comprising a plurality of UI controls and a plurality of informational display modules pertaining to a plurality of talk groups on the communication network, said plurality of UI controls facilitating an interface with and the control of the communication network by the dispatcher, and the informational display modules facilitating the display of information useful for coordinating efforts of field personnel;

permitting the user to select first ones of the plurality of UI controls and second ones of the plurality of informational displays from the graphical user interface that are useful for activating services necessary to respond to the temporal incident described in the incident report, which temporal incident the dispatcher is intended to address via communications on the communication network; and

permitting a user to place the first and second ones which were selected in the template window;

wherein the template window is displayed while the graphical user interface is being displayed in a display window.

23. The computer readable product of claim 22, wherein the computer executable instructions are further operative for interfacing with a Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) system to receive information about the temporal incident and to automatically partially populate the template window with UI controls and informational display modules as a function of the information received from the CAD system.

24. The computer readable product of claim 22, wherein the computer executable instructions are further operative for permitting a user-software interaction to drag and drop UI controls and informational display modules into the template window.

25. A method of generating a customized graphical user interface window for interfacing with dispatch console software that controls a communication network in connection with a temporal incident, comprising:

receiving, by incident window software executing on a computer, an incident report containing incident information about the temporal incident from the dispatch console software, the incident report having been input into the communication network after commencement of the temporal incident concerning at least one of a physical object, a person and a geographic location;

dynamically selecting, in real time, a subset of first User Interface (UI) controls of a first graphical user interface window provided by the dispatch console software that are useful for activating services necessary to response to the temporal incident described in the incident report, which temporal incident a user is intended to address via communications on the communications network;

dynamically building a second graphical user interface window comprising the subset of first UI controls which were previously dynamically selected based on the contents of the incident report, said second graphical user interface window being separate and distinct from said first graphical user interface window; and

displaying the second graphical user interface window while the first graphical user interface window is being displayed in a display window.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the temporal incident is a public safety incident and the communication network is a public safety communication network.

27. The method of claim 25, wherein the second graphical user interface window further comprises at least one informational display modules displaying information derived from the dispatch console software.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein the incident information comprises a recommendation of communication assets to be assigned to the temporal incident.

29. The method of claim 25, wherein the subset of first UI controls are selected by a user from a database of UI controls.

30. The method of claim 25, wherein the subset of first UI controls comprises a talk group box displaying information about a corresponding talk group and containing at least one UI control for controlling communications on the network for the corresponding talk group.

31. The method of claim 25, wherein the subset of first UI controls are selected as a function of an electronic incident report.