Emergency notification using indoor positioning

• US 8,890,685 B1
• Filed: 02/18/2014
• Issued: 11/18/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 02/18/2014
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Guardly Corp.
• Original Assignee: Guardly Corp.
• Inventors: Sookman, Josh, Dubeau, Nolan
• Primary Examiner(s): Mehmood, Jennifer
• Assistant Examiner(s): Jiang, Yong Hang
• Application Number:
  US14/182,925
• Time in Patent Office: 273 Days
• Field of Search: 340/5.8, 340/5.81, 340/539.11, 340/539.12, 340/539.13, 340/539.14, 340/539.17, 340/539.16
• US Class Current: 340/539.13
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/001 Alarm cancelling procedures or alarm forwarding decisions, e.g. based on absence of alarm confirmation
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/008 Alarm setting and unsetting, i.e. arming or disarming of the security system
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/016 Personal emergency signalling and security systems emergency non-personal manually actuated alarm activators G08B25/12
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/90 Services for handling of emergency or hazardous situations, e.g. earthquake and tsunami warning systems [ETWS]

Abstract

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for providing location based assistance using indoor positioning data. One of the methods includes receiving, by a user device, selection of an alert request, the alert request specific to an emergency for a user of the user device, initiating, by the user device, a timer having a predetermined duration, automatically gathering, by the user device, physical indoor location data for the user device, automatically sending, by the user device, a message indicating the alert request to an assistance system upon expiration of the timer, the message comprising the physical indoor location data, and automatically facilitating, by the user device, communication between the user of the user device and the assistance system.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, by a user device, selection of an alert request, the alert request specific to an emergency for a user of the user device;

initiating, by the user device, a timer having a predetermined duration;

automatically gathering, by the user device during the predetermined duration of the timer, two or more time-separated wireless fingerprints that can be used to determine a physical indoor location of the user device;

automatically sending, by the user device upon expiration of the timer, a message indicating the alert request to an assistance system and comprising the two or more time-separated wireless fingerprints;

automatically facilitating, by the user device, communication between the user of the user device and the assistance system;

receiving, by the user device, data identifying the physical indoor location of the user device from the assistance system;

presenting, by the user device, a location user interface including an identifier of the physical indoor location of the user device to allow the user of the user device to input updated physical indoor location data for the user device;

automatically gathering, by the user device, additional indoor location data associated with the user device; and

sending, by the user device, the updated physical indoor location data or the additional indoor location data to the assistance system.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein facilitating, by the user device, communication between the user of the user device and the assistance system comprises:

presenting, by the user device, a real-time text message interface;

receiving, by the user device, input from the user of the user device and representing communications from the user to an operator of the assistance system;

sending text messages to the assistance system using the input from the user; and

receiving text messages from the assistance system representing communications from the assistance system to the user of the user device.

3. The method of claim 1, comprising:

presenting, by the user device, a countdown user interface depicting a cancel option to cancel the timer and not send the alert request, a send now option to send the alert request upon receipt of a selection of the send now option, and a current duration of the timer, the countdown user interface presented after selection of the alert request and prior to automatically sending the message indicating the alert request to the assistance system.

22. The method of claim 2, comprising:

presenting, by the user device, an emergency type prompt that allows the user of the user device to identify a type of emergency for the alert request.

23. The method of claim 1, wherein facilitating, by the user device, communication between the user of the user device and the assistance system comprises:

determining, by the user device, a type of emergency for the alert request;

determining, by the user device, a preferred communication type for the type of emergency; and

sending text messages to and receiving text messages from the assistance system based on determining that the preferred communication type for the type of emergency is text based communications.

4. A method comprising:

receiving, by an assistance system, a message from a user device, the message comprising an alert request and physical indoor location data for the user device, the alert request specific to an emergency for a user of the user device;

determining, by the assistance system, a physical indoor location of the user device using the physical indoor location data;

presenting, by the assistance system, an operator user interface to an operator, wherein the operator user interface facilitates communication between the assistance system and the user device and comprises a map that includes an identifier representing the physical indoor location of the user device and a display of past alerts for a region that includes the physical indoor location or a geographical area that is similar to the physical indoor location;

providing, by the assistance system, the physical indoor location of the user device to the user device for presentation in a location user interface that includes an identifier for the physical indoor location of the user device;

receiving, by the assistance system from the user device, an updated physical indoor location of the user device determined using input from the user of the user device or additional indoor location data automatically gathered by the user device; and

updating, by the assistance system, the map using the updated physical indoor location of the user device or the additional indoor location data.

5. The method of claim 4, comprising:

authenticating, by the assistance system, a user account assigned to the user device and corresponding with the user of the user device;

determining, by the assistance system and after authenticating the user device, one or more contacts identified in the user account to notify upon occurrence of the alert request; and

notifying, by the assistance system, the contacts.

6. The method of claim 4, comprising:

determining, by the assistance system, hardware components installed in physical locations proximate to the physical indoor location of the user device;

presenting, by the assistance system, one or more user interface elements for each of the hardware components; and

controlling, by the assistance system, the hardware components upon receipt of a selection of a corresponding user interface element.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein presenting, by the assistance system, the user interface elements for each of the hardware components comprises presenting the user interface elements in the operator user interface.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein presenting, by the assistance system, the user interface elements for each of the hardware components comprises presenting the user interface elements on a second user device operated by an emergency personnel.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein:

the hardware components comprise a door proximate to the physical indoor location of the user device; and

presenting, by the assistance system, the user interface elements for each of the hardware components comprises presenting, by an access control component, an unlock door option that unlocks the door.

10. The method of claim 6, wherein:

the hardware components comprise a fire sprinkler proximate to the physical indoor location of the user device; and

presenting, by the assistance system, the user interface elements for each of the hardware components comprises presenting, by a fire system component, an open valve option that opens the fire sprinkler.

11. The method of claim 6, wherein:

the hardware components comprise a video camera proximate to the physical indoor location of the user device; and

presenting, by the assistance system, the user interface elements for each of the hardware components comprises;

receiving, by a video camera component and from the video camera, a video stream of a physical area proximate to the user device; and

presenting, by the video camera component, the video stream in the operator user interface.

12. The method of claim 4, comprising:

providing, by the assistance system, one or more emergency personnel other than the operator with the determined physical indoor location of the user device.

13. The method of claim 4, comprising:

facilitating, by the assistance system, communication between the assistance system and the user device using the operator user interface.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein facilitating, by the assistance system, communication between the assistance system and the user device comprises sending text messages to and receiving text messages from the user device.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein facilitating, by the assistance system, communication between the assistance system and the user device comprises initiating a telephone call between the user device and the assistance system and presenting a user interface for the telephone call in the operator user interface.

24. The method of claim 4, comprising:

receiving, by the assistance system, updated physical indoor location data for the user device;

determining, by the assistance system, an updated physical indoor location of the user device using the updated physical indoor location data; and

changing, by the assistance system in the operator user interface, a location of the identifier on the map to represent the updated physical indoor location of the user device.

25. The method of claim 4, wherein the alert request is for a particular emergency type, the method comprising:

receiving, by the assistance system, a plurality of other messages each of which is from another corresponding user device and comprising another alert request and other physical indoor location data for the corresponding other user device, each of the other alert requests specific to another emergency for another respective user of the corresponding other user device and having a specific emergency type;

determining, by the assistance system, that the specific emergency type for each of the other alert requests and the particular emergency type for the alert request are the same;

determining, by the assistance system, a physical indoor location of each of the other user devices using the corresponding other physical indoor location data; and

presenting, by the assistance system in the operator user interface, another identifier in the map, for each of the other alert requests, representing the corresponding physical indoor location of each of the respective other user devices in response to that the specific emergency type for each of the other alert requests and the particular emergency type for the alert request are the same, wherein the operator user interface facilitates communication between the assistance system and each of the other user devices.

16. A computer storage medium encoded with instructions that, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform operations comprising:

receiving, by an assistance system, a message from a user device, the message comprising physical indoor location data for the user device and a request to monitor the user device indicating that a user operating the user device is not currently in an emergency situation but an operator of the assistance system should monitor the user for a potential emergency situation;

determining, by the assistance system, a physical indoor location of the user device using the physical indoor location data;

determining, by the assistance system, one or more cameras that capture images of an area that includes the physical indoor location of the user device using the physical indoor location;

presenting, by the assistance system, an operator user interface to the operator, wherein the operator user interface comprises an image or a video stream from at least one of the cameras, a map that includes an identifier representing the physical indoor location of the user device, and a display of past alerts for the user operating the user device;

providing, by the assistance system, the physical indoor location of the user device to the user device for presentation in a location user interface that includes an identifier for the physical indoor location of the user device;

receiving, by the assistance system from the user device, an updated physical indoor location of the user device determined using input from the user of the user device or additional indoor location data automatically gathered by the user device; and

updating, by the assistance system, the map using the updated physical indoor location of the user device or the additional indoor location data.

17. The computer storage medium of claim 16, the operations comprising:

receiving, by the assistance system, an alert request different from the request to monitor the user device; and

facilitating, by the assistance system, communication between the assistance system and the user device using the operator user interface.

18. The computer storage medium of claim 17, wherein receiving the alert request comprises receiving the alert request from the user device.

19. The computer storage medium of claim 17, wherein receiving the alert request comprises receiving input from the operator indicating that the user operating the user device is in an emergency situation.

20. The computer storage medium of claim 19, the operations comprising:

presenting, in the operator user interface, a list including an identifier for each of multiple user devices from which the assistance system has received a request to monitor the corresponding user device, each of the user devices operated by a different user.

21. A system comprising:

a user device and one or more storage devices storing instructions that are operable, when executed by the user device, to cause the user device to perform operations comprising;

receiving, by the user device, selection of an alert request, the alert request specific to an emergency for a user of the user device;

initiating, by the user device, a timer having a predetermined duration;

automatically gathering, by the user device during the predetermined duration of the timer, two or more time-separated wireless fingerprints that can be used to determine a physical indoor location of the user device;

automatically sending, by the user device upon expiration of the timer, a message indicating the alert request to an assistance system and comprising the two or more time-separated wireless fingerprints;

automatically facilitating, by the user device, communication between the user of the user device and the assistance system;

receiving, by the user device, data identifying the physical indoor location of the user device from the assistance system;

presenting, by the user device, a location user interface including an identifier of the physical indoor location of the user device to allow the user of the user device to input updated physical indoor location data for the user device;

automatically gathering, by the user device, additional indoor location data associated with the user device; and

sending, by the user device, the updated physical indoor location data or the additional indoor location data to the assistance system.