Campus alerting via wireless geocast

• US 8,868,027 B2
• Filed: 05/09/2013
• Issued: 10/21/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 11/04/2009
• 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: Hall, Robert J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Prez-Gutirrez, Rafael
• Assistant Examiner(s): SCHWARTZ, JOSHUA L
• Application Number:
  US13/890,423
• Publication Number:
  US 20130244564A1
• Time in Patent Office: 530 Days
• Field of Search: 455/414.3, 455/456.3
• US Class Current: 455/404.1
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/10 Control of the course of the game, e.g. start, progess, end
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/12 involving interaction between a plurality of game devices, e.g. transmisison or distribution systems protocols for networked virtual reality, networked games H04L29/06034
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/211 using inertial sensors, e.g. accelerometers or gyroscopes
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/216 using geographical information, e.g. location of the game device or player using GPS
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/30 Interconnection arrangements between game servers and game devices; Interconnection arrangements between game devices; Interconnection arrangements between game servers
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/31 Communication aspects specific to video games, e.g. between several handheld game devices at close range
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/40 Processing input control signals of video game devices, e.g. signals generated by the player or derived from the environment
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/45 Controlling the progress of the video game
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/812 Ball games, e.g. soccer or baseball
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/95 Storage media specially adapted for storing game information, e.g. video game cartridges
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/1093 using visible light
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/406 Transmission via wireless network, e.g. pager or GSM
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/66 for rendering three dimensional images
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/69 Involving elements of the real world in the game world, e.g. measurement in live races, real video
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0261 based on user location
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/59 for emergency or urgency
• 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 12/189 in combination with wireless systems selective distribution or broadcast in wireless communication networks H04W4/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• 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 4/027 : using movement velocity, acceleration information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 : Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/50 : Service provisioning or reconfiguring
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 : Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication
• 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 84/18 : Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks

Abstract

A geocast alerting system employs wireless geocast transmissions to deliver customized alerting messages to particular geographic areas. Geocast alerting regions and sub-regions can be defined within the system. Upon notice of the occurrence of an emergent situation, one or more geographic areas that may potentially be affected by the emergent situation are determined. The potentially effected geographic regions are compared with geocast alerting regions and sub-regions corresponding to particular geographic areas. Target alerting regions that should receive alerting messages are identified based on the comparison. The content of alerting messages can be tailored for each target alerting region. The content of alerting messages can contain distinct portions of content, each portion tailored based upon one or more conditions related to communications devices within the target alerting region.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

identifying a target geographic region for receipt of an alerting message pertaining to an emergent situation; and

providing the alerting message, the alerting message comprising an indication of the target geographic region and an indication of the emergent situation, wherein;

the alerting message is renderable by a recipient device of the alerting message based on a determination by the recipient device that a location at which the alerting message is received is within the target geographic region;

the alerting message is not renderable by the recipient device based on a determination by the recipient device that a location at which the alerting message is received is not within the target geographic region;

the alerting message is retransmittable by the recipient device based on a determination by the recipient device that the alerting message has been received at least a predetermined number of times; and

the alerting message is not retransmittable by the recipient device based on a determination by the recipient device that the alerting message has not been received at least a predetermined number of times.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying a plurality of target geographic regions for receipt of a respective plurality of alerting messages pertaining to the emergent situation;

determining respective content for each of the plurality of alerting messages; and

providing the plurality of alerting messages, each of the plurality of alerting message comprising;

an indication of a respective target geographic region; and

an indication of respective content.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the alerting message comprises a plurality of content portions;

each of the plurality of content portions comprises content tailored to a respective target geographic region;

tailored content is renderable by a recipient device of the alerting message when a location at which the alerting message is received is within a respective target geographic region for the tailored content; and

tailored content is not renderable by a recipient device of the alerting message when a location at which the alerting message is received is not within a respective target geographic region for the tailored content.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the alerting message further comprises a behavior routine; and

the behavior routine is invokable by a recipient device of the alerting message when the alerting message is renderable by the recipient device.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein content of the alerting message is determined at a time when an indication of the emergent situation is received.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein content of the alerting message is determined based on at least one of:

a type of the emergent situation;

a severity of the emergent situation;

a distance of the target geographic region from a potentially effected geographic region of the emergent situation;

a time of day;

a number of communication devices located within the target geographic region;

or

traffic conditions in the target geographic region.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the alerting message is retransmittable by a recipient device of the alerting message when the alerting message has been received at least a predetermined number of times and the alerting message was not sent from a location closer than a minimum distance from the location at which the alerting message was received; and

the alerting message is not retransmittable by a recipient device of the alerting message when the alerting message has not been received at least a predetermined number of times or the alerting message was sent from a location closer than a minimum distance from the location at which the alerting message was received.

8. A device comprising:

a processor; and

memory coupled to the processor, the memory comprising executable instructions, that when executed by the processor, cause the processor to effectuate operations comprising;

identifying a target geographic region for receipt of an alerting message pertaining to an emergent situation; and

providing the alerting message, the alerting message comprising an indication of the target geographic region and an indication of the emergent situation, wherein;

the alerting message is renderable by a recipient device of the alerting message based on a determination by the recipient device that a location at which the alerting message is received is within the target geographic region;

the alerting message is not renderable by the recipient device based on a determination by the recipient device that a location at which the alerting message is received is not within the target geographic region;

the alerting message is retransmittable by the recipient device based on a determination by the recipient device that the alerting message has been received at least a predetermined number of times; and

the alerting message is not retransmittable by the recipient device based on a determination by the recipient device that the alerting message has not been received at least a predetermined number of times.

9. The device of claim 8, further comprising:

identifying a plurality of target geographic regions for receipt of a respective plurality of alerting messages pertaining to the emergent situation;

determining respective content for each of the plurality of alerting messages; and

providing the plurality of alerting messages, each of the plurality of alerting message comprising;

an indication of a respective target geographic region; and

an indication of respective content.

10. The device of claim 8, wherein:

the alerting message comprises a plurality of content portions;

each of the plurality of content portions comprises content tailored to a respective target geographic region;

tailored content is renderable by a recipient device of the alerting message when a location at which the alerting message is received is within a respective target geographic region for the tailored content; and

tailored content is not renderable by a recipient device of the alerting message when a location at which the alerting message is received is not within a respective target geographic region for the tailored content.

11. The device of claim 8, wherein:

the alerting message further comprises a behavior routine; and

the behavior routine is invokable by a recipient device of the alerting message when the alerting message is renderable by the recipient device.

12. The device of claim 8, wherein content of the alerting message is determined at a time when an indication of the emergent situation is received.

13. The device of claim 8, wherein:

the alerting message is retransmittable by a recipient device of the alerting message when the alerting message has been received at least a predetermined number of times and the alerting message was not sent from a location closer than a minimum distance from the location at which the alerting message was received; and

the alerting message is not retransmittable by a recipient device of the alerting message when the alerting message has not been received at least a predetermined number of times or the alerting message was sent from a location closer than a minimum distance from the location at which the alerting message was received.

14. A computer-readable storage medium that is not a propagating signal, the computer-readable storage medium comprising executable instructions that when executed by a processor cause the processor to effectuate operations comprising:

identifying a target geographic region for receipt of an alerting message pertaining to an emergent situation; and

providing the alerting message, the alerting message comprising an indication of the target geographic region and an indication of the emergent situation, wherein;

the alerting message is renderable by a recipient device of the alerting message based on a determination by the recipient device that a location at which the alerting message is received is within the target geographic region;

the alerting message is not renderable by the recipient device based on a determination by the recipient device that a location at which the alerting message is received is not within the target geographic region;

the alerting message is retransmittable by the recipient device based on a determination by the recipient device that the alerting message has been received at least a predetermined number of times; and

the alerting message is not retransmittable by the recipient device based on a determination by the recipient device that the alerting message has not been received at least a predetermined number of times.

15. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, further comprising:

identifying a plurality of target geographic regions for receipt of a respective plurality of alerting messages pertaining to the emergent situation;

determining respective content for each of the plurality of alerting messages; and

providing the plurality of alerting messages, each of the plurality of alerting message comprising;

an indication of a respective target geographic region; and

an indication of respective content.

16. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein:

the alerting message comprises a plurality of content portions;

each of the plurality of content portions comprises content tailored to a respective target geographic region;

tailored content is renderable by a recipient device of the alerting message when a location at which the alerting message is received is within a respective target geographic region for the tailored content; and

tailored content is not renderable by a recipient device of the alerting message when a location at which the alerting message is received is not within a respective target geographic region for the tailored content.

17. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein:

the alerting message further comprises a behavior routine; and

the behavior routine is invokable by a recipient device of the alerting message when the alerting message is renderable by the recipient device.