Systems, methods, and computer program products for reporting condition of first entity to second entity

• US 8,981,928 B2
• Filed: 11/06/2012
• Issued: 03/17/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 10/26/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Narayanaswami, Chandrasekhar
• Primary Examiner(s): HUNNINGS, TRAVIS R
• Application Number:
  US13/670,227
• Publication Number:
  US 20140118142A1
• Time in Patent Office: 861 Days
• US Class Current: 340/539.13
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0635 Risk analysis of enterprise or organisation activities
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0252 based on events or environment, e.g. weather or festivals
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/006 Alarm destination chosen according to type of event, e.g. in case of fire phone the fire service, in case of medical emergency phone the ambulance

Abstract

A system for reporting a condition of a first entity to a second entity, the system includes a processor that executes instructions to determine the condition of the first entity based on an aggregation of structured and unstructured information and entity-activity information of the first entity, and a reporting unit that reports the condition of the first entity to the second entity.

Claims

1. A system for reporting a condition of a first entity to a second entity, the system comprising:

a processor that executes instructions to determine the condition of the first entity based on an aggregation of structured and unstructured information and entity-activity information of the first entity; and

a reporting unit that reports the condition of the first entity to the second entity,

wherein said condition of the first entity comprises a level of safeness of the first entity.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein the condition of the first entity is determined by monitoring a source of information to obtain condition-related information, monitoring an activity of the first entity to obtain the entity-activity information, and aggregating the condition-related information and the entity-activity information.

3. The system according to claim 1, wherein the processor executes instructions to monitor an activity of the first entity in order to obtain the entity-activity information.

4. The system according to claim 3, wherein the processor executes instructions to determine the activity of the first entity based on implicit feedback from the first entity.

5. The system according to claim 3, wherein the processor executes instructions to determine the activity of the first entity based on explicit feedback from the first entity.

6. The system according to claim 1, further comprising:

a location determination unit that determines a location of the first entity based on the entity-activity information; and

an event monitoring unit that determines a location of a condition reporting area based on the structured or unstructured information,

wherein the reporting unit reports the condition of the first entity to the second entity, when a distance between the location of the first entity and the location of the condition reporting area is less than or equal to a predetermined threshold distance.

7. The system according to claim 1, further comprising a condition determination unit that determines whether the location of the first entity is within a predetermined distance of a location of one or more other entities,

wherein the determination of the condition of the first entity is further based on feedback from the one or more other entities, if the location of the first entity is within the predetermined distance of the location of one or more other entities.

8. The system according to claim 7, wherein the reporting unit reports a last known condition of the first entity, if the location of the first entity is not within the predetermined distance of the location of one or more other entities.

9. The system according to claim 1, further comprising a designation unit that designates the second entity from among from a plurality of entities, based on a designation of the first entity.

10. A system for reporting a condition, the system comprising:

a processor that executes instructions to monitor a location of a first entity;

a location determination unit that obtains location information of the first entity, based on the location of the first entity;

an event monitoring unit that aggregates a list of events based on one or more sources of unstructured information, determines a location of events in the list of events based on structured or information including the unstructured information, and obtains location information of the events based on the location of events in the list of events;

a condition determination unit that compares the location information of the events with the location information of the first entity, and determines a condition of the first entity based the comparison; and

a reporting unit that reports the condition of the first entity to a second entity,

wherein said condition of the first entity comprises a level of safeness of the first entity.

11. The system according to claim 10, wherein the condition determination unit further analyzes feedback from the first entity, and determines the condition of the first entity based on the comparison and the analyzed feedback from the first entity.

12. The system according to claim 10, wherein the condition determination unit further determines whether the location of the first entity is within a predetermined threshold distance from a location of an entity having a known condition, and requests the entity to determine the condition of the first entity if the location of the first entity is within the predetermined threshold distance from the location of the another entity.

13. A device that reports a condition, the device comprising:

a storage unit that stores instructions; and

a processor that executes the instructions stored in the storage unit,

wherein, when the processor executes the instructions stored in the storage unit, the device monitors a location of a first entity, obtains location information of the first entity based on the location of the first entity, aggregates a list of events based on a source of structured or unstructured information, determines a location of events in the list of events based on information including the unstructured information, obtains location information of the events based on the location of events in the list of events, compares the location information of the events with the location information of the first entity, determines a condition of the first entity based the comparison, and reports the condition of the first entity to a second entity, and

wherein said condition of the first entity comprises a level of safeness of the first entity.

14. The device according to claim 13, wherein, when the processor executes the instructions stored in the storage unit, the device further analyzes feedback from the first entity in order to determine the condition of the first entity.

15. The device according to claim 13, wherein, when the processor executes the instructions stored in the storage unit, the device further determines whether the location of the first entity is within a predetermined threshold distance from a location of another entity having a known condition, and requests another entity to determine the condition of the first entity, if the location of the first entity is within the predetermined threshold distance from the location of the another entity.

16. A method of reporting a condition of a first entity to a second entity, the method comprising:

determining, as performed on a processor in a computer system, the condition of the first entity based on an aggregation of structured and unstructured information and entity-activity information of the first entity; and

reporting the condition of the first entity to the second entity,

wherein said condition of the first entity comprises a level of safeness of the first entity.

17. A computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therewith, the computer readable program code causing the processor to perform the method of claim 16.

18. The method according to claim 16, wherein the determining of the condition of the first entity comprises:

monitoring a source of information to obtain condition-related information;

monitoring an activity of the first entity to obtain the entity-activity information; and

aggregating the condition-related information and the entity-activity information.

19. The method according to claim 16, further comprising monitoring an activity of the first entity to obtain the entity-activity information.

20. The method according to claim 19, further comprising determining the activity of the first entity based on implicit feedback from the first entity.

21. The method according to claim 19, further comprising determining the activity of the first entity based on explicit feedback from the first entity.

22. The method according to claim 16, further comprising:

determining a location of the first entity, based on the entity-activity information; and

determining a location of a condition reporting area, based on the structured or unstructured information,

wherein, the reporting of the condition of the first entity to the second entity, occurs if a distance between the location of the first entity and the location of the condition reporting area is less than or equal to a predetermined threshold distance.

23. The method according to claim 16, further comprising:

determining whether or not the location of the first entity is within a predetermined distance of a location of one or more other entities; and

determining the condition of the first entity based on feedback from the one or more other entities, if the location of the first entity is within the predetermined distance of the location of one or more other entities.

24. The method according to claim 23, further comprising reporting a last known condition of the first entity, if the location of the first entity is not within the predetermined distance of the location of one or more other entities.

25. The method according to claim 16, further comprising designating, from a plurality of entities, the second entity, based on a designation of the first entity.