Method and system for placing an emergency call

• US 8,712,367 B2
• Filed: 06/17/2008
• Issued: 04/29/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/06/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Continental Teves AG & Co. OHG (Continental AG)
• Original Assignee: Continental Teves AG & Co. OHG (Continental AG)
• Inventors: Sthlin, Ulrich, Rieth, Peter, Neumann, Karl-Thomas
• Primary Examiner(s): Gelin, Jean
• Application Number:
  US12/746,309
• Publication Number:
  US 20100273446A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,142 Days
• Field of Search: 455/404.1, 455/404.2, 455/412.1, 455/412.2, 455/414.1, 455/414.2, 455/414.4
• US Class Current: 455/404.1
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/17 Emergency applications
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0036 of measured values, i.e. measurement on mobile and position calculation on base station
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/016 Personal emergency signalling and security systems emergency non-personal manually actuated alarm activators G08B25/12
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/205 Indicating the location of the monitored vehicles as destination, e.g. accidents, stolen, rental
• 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 76/10 Connection setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/50 for emergency connections

Abstract

An emergency call device for a vehicle is specified in which, on occurrence of a certain event, a data record is generated which thereupon is transmitted during the emergency call. The event can be an external request by an operator or a trigger signal inside a vehicle. In this way, the operator can obtain the most recent information at any time during the emergency call.

Claims

1. A method for placing an emergency call from a vehicle in an accident to a rescue co-ordination center by text-to-speech method, comprising the steps:

detecting an accident of the vehicle by a sensor system of an automatic accident monitoring unit in the vehicle, and in response to a detected accident;

determining geographic accident co-ordinates of the vehicle by a positioning system,

transmitting at least the accident co-ordinates to a central call unit processor, the central call unit processor correlating the accident coordinates with a digital map to determine a cartographic accident position as text information,

converting the text information of the cartographic accident position into voice information by the central call unit processor, and

transmitting the voice information from the central call unit to the rescue co-ordination center over a voice channel,

transmitting the voice information from the rescue coordination center to a rescue vehicle, and

automatically establishing, by the rescue coordination center, a voice channel between the vehicle in the accident and the rescue vehicle.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising establishing a direct voice channel from the rescue co-ordination center to the vehicle in the accident.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein transmitting the voice information from the central call unit to the rescue co-ordination center further comprises establishing a provisional voice channel for transmitting messages of the vehicle passengers from the vehicle in the accident to the central call unit.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein transmitting the voice information from the central call unit to the rescue co-ordination center further comprises temporarily storing messages of the vehicle passengers by the vehicle in an accident in order to forward these to the rescue co-ordination center after completed transmission of the voice information.

5. A system for placing an emergency call from a vehicle in an accident to a rescue co-ordination center by text-to-speech method, comprising:

a processor configured to;

detect an accident of the vehicle by a sensor system, and in response to a detected accident determine the current geographic accident co-ordinates of the vehicle, transmit the accident co-ordinates to a central call unit processor for correlating the accident coordinates with a digital map stored there centrally, to obtain a cartographic accident position as text information which is converted by the central call unit processor into voice information in order to transmit the voice information over a voice channel to the rescue co-ordination center,

wherein the rescue coordinator center transmits the voice information to a rescue vehicle, and automatically establishes a voice channel between the vehicle in the accident and the rescue vehicle.

6. The system as claimed in claim 5, wherein the central call unit comprises a computer server having a navigation application unit with connected central digital map and text-to-speech application unit.

7. The system as claimed in claim 5, wherein at least one operator for transmitting the voice information from the central call unit to the rescue co-ordination center or for provisionally receiving messages of the vehicle passengers from the vehicle in the accident for the rescue co-ordination center is allocated to the computer server.

8. The system as claimed in claim 5, wherein the positioning system in the vehicle accesses a global satellite navigation system for obtaining the geographic accident co-ordinates.

9. The system as claimed in claim 8 wherein the positioning system in the vehicle accesses a global positioning system for obtaining the geographic accident co-ordinates.

10. The system as claimed in claim 5, wherein the voice channel between the central call unit and the rescue co-ordination center is set up by a mobile radio network.

11. The system as claimed in claim 5, wherein the voice channel between the central call unit and the rescue co-ordination center is set up via a landline network.

12. A non-transitory computer-readable medium on which a computer program product is stored which, when it is executed on a processor of a central call unit as claimed in claim 5 instructs the processor to carry out the following steps:

correlating the received accident co-ordinates with a centrally stored digital map for obtaining a cartographic accident position as text information,

converting the text information about the cartographic accident position determined into voice information, and

transmitting the voice information by voice channel from the central call unit to the rescue co-ordination center.