Multimedia alerting

• US 8,519,860 B2
• Filed: 04/07/2011
• Issued: 08/27/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 04/09/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: DTN, LLC (TBG AG)
• Original Assignee: Weather Decision Technologies
• Inventors: Johnson, James T., Taylor, Mark, Daniell, William Todd, Eilts, Michael D., Wrzesien, Sheetal, Barrere, Charles
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee, Benjamin C
• Assistant Examiner(s): Foxx, Chico A
• Application Number:
  US13/082,250
• Publication Number:
  US 20110248863A1
• Time in Patent Office: 873 Days
• Field of Search: 340/601, 340/500, 340/506, 340/539.1, 340/995.1, 340/686.1, 702/3, 702/4
• US Class Current: 340/686.1
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 27/006 with transmission via telephone network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1845 broadcast or multicast in a specific location, e.g. geocast protocols for adapting network applications to user terminal location H04L67/52; services specially adapted for wireless communication networks making use of the location of users or terminals H04W4/02
• 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 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/53 using third party service providers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/55 Push-based network services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/61 taking into account QoS or priority requirements

Abstract

Alert information is provided to a user of a device. In response to receiving an alert notification, a current location of the device is determined and converted to a device geographical tile that encompasses the determined current location; alert data received about the alert are processed and stored in an alert database if it is determined that a device tile code of the device geographical tile matches any alert geographical tiles that define the alert; a database query of the alert database is performed to identify alerts having one or more alert geographical tile codes that match the device tile code that have not been presented to a user of the device; and the user of the device is notified via the user interface of the device of the identified alerts and the user is prompted to view the identified one or more alerts via the user interface of the device.

Claims

1. A method of providing alert information to a user of a location-enabled device, comprising:

in response to receiving notification of the occurrence of an alert, determining a current location of the device and the device converting the determined current location to a device geographical tile of a plurality of geographical tiles that encompasses the determined current location, wherein each of the plurality of geographical tiles represents a unique geographic projection of a rendered geographical area of defined size and wherein the device geographical tile is represented by a device tile code;

processing and storing alert data received about the alert in an alert message event in an alert database that stores a plurality of alerts if it is determined that the device tile code of the device geographical tile matches any of one or more alert geographical tiles that represent the one or more alert geographical tiles that define the alert, wherein each of the one or more alert geographical tiles is represented by one or more alert tile codes, the one or more alert geographical tiles are of the plurality of geographical tiles, and the device geographical tile and each of the one or more alert geographical tiles are the defined size of the plurality of geographical tiles;

performing a database query of the alert database to identify one or more alerts stored in the alert database having one or more alert geographical tile codes that match the device tile code representative of the current location of the device and that have not been presented to a user of the device through a user interface of the device, wherein performing the database query comprises searching the alert database for the device tile code; and

notifying the user of the device via the user interface of the device of the identified one or more alerts of interest to the current location that have not been presented and prompting the user to view the identified one or more alerts via the user interface of the device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of geographical tiles represents a unique Mercator rendered geographical area approximately 2 square kilometers in size.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein prompting the user to view the identified one or more alerts via the user interface of the device further comprising:

prompting the user of the device with an abbreviated description of the alert and an inquiry as to whether the user wishes to view the alert via the user interface of the device; and

in response to a positive response from the user via the user interface to view the alert, playing for the user via the user interface an audio version of the alert and displaying for the user an alert box of the user interface with an alert viewing option to view the alert and a close alert option to close the alert box.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising the device requesting to receive alert data of the one or more alerts.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising the device requesting to receive alert data of the alert from a web-based service and downloading the alert data from the web-based service.

6. The method of claim 4, further comprising the device requesting and receiving the audio version of the alert.

7. The method of claim 4, the device processing an alert text notification further comprising:

the device extracting an alert identifier of the alert from the alert text notification.

8. The method of claim 4, wherein in response to a request from the user of the device using the user interface of the device, further comprising requesting to receive media data related to the alert associated with the device tile code of the device geographical tile of the device from a third-party media provider.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein in response to the request from the user, a software application registered to receive alerts for the device requesting to receive media data from the third-party media provider.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising the software application downloading metadata associated with the third-party media provider from a media server and rendering the metadata to the user for selection via the user interface of the device.

11. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

the device downloading a list of available media associated with the device tile code of the device geographical tile of the device for the alert from a media server; and

upon selection by the user using the user interface of one or more media from the list of available media, downloading the one or more media to the device from the media server.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein in response to receiving notification of the occurrence of an alert, the device notifying a software application registered to receive alerts for the device.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising the software application processing the alert text notification and requesting to receive alert data of the alert from a web-based service, the device receiving alert data of the alert, and the software application controlling a user interface of the device to presenting to a user of the device the received alert data through the user interface of the device.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising the software application requesting to receive alert data of the alert from a web-based service and downloading the alert data from the web-based service.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising the device receiving the audio version of the alert and the application software controlling the device to play the audio version of the alert via the user interface of the device.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising the device receiving and presenting to a user of the device the received alert data of the one or more alerts through a user interface of the device.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising the device requesting and receiving the audio version of the one or more alerts and playing the audio version of the one or more alerts via the user interface of the device.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising the device retrieving a media file associated with an alert of the one or more alerts from a text-to-speech cache server and rendering the audio of the media file to the user of the device using a text-to-speech engine coupled to the text-to-speech cache server.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the received alert data presented to the user through a user interface of the device comprises one or more of alert text of an alert, alert audio of the alert, and a geographical map representation of the alert.

20. The method of claim 16, further comprising the device storing received alert data of the one or more alerts in a device database.

21. The method of claim 1, further comprising in response to receipt of a request message requesting tracking of the device for alert notifications, the device:

prompting a user of the device to accept or reject receive alerts on the device; and

if the user accepts to receive alerts on the device, the device sending a grant request message to an alert service provider authorizing tracking of the device for alert notifications.

22. The method of claim 1, wherein the alert data comprises one or more of a time of issue of the alert, a duration of the alert, a severity of the alert, an estimated time of arrival of a weather condition, and estimated time of departure of the weather condition, a direction of the weather condition, a heading of the weather condition, a title of the alert, and a base text of the alert.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the estimated time of arrival and estimated time of departure are of a lightning weather condition.