System and method for emergency notification content delivery

• US 9,147,338 B2
• Filed: 03/04/2013
• Issued: 09/29/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 10/10/2001
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Hunter, Charles Eric, Ballou, Bernard L., Hebrank, John H., Fallon, James, Summer, Robert D.
• Primary Examiner(s): POPE, DARYL C
• Application Number:
  US13/784,264
• Publication Number:
  US 20130241726A1
• Time in Patent Office: 939 Days
• Field of Search: 340/539.1, 340/539.11, 340/539.13, 455/404.1, 455/404.2, 455/550.1
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 19/00 Alarms responsive to two or more different undesired or abnormal conditions, e.g. burglary and fire, abnormal temperature and abnormal rate of flow
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/12 responsive to undesired emission of substances, e.g. pollution alarms
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/016 Personal emergency signalling and security systems emergency non-personal manually actuated alarm activators G08B25/12
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 27/00 Alarm systems in which the alarm condition is signalled from a central station to a plurality of substations
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 7/06 using electric transmission , e.g. involving audible and visible signalling through the use of sound and light sources
• CPC Class Codes: G09F 27/00 Combined visual and audible advertising or displaying, e.g. for public address
• 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 68/00 User notification, e.g. alerting and paging, for incoming communication, change of service or the like
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/50 for emergency connections

Abstract

A method for disseminating emergency notification content from an emergency originating source. The method comprising: delivering the emergency notification content from the emergency originating source to at least one transmitting party; selecting a subset of users from among a set of users for dissemination of the emergency notification content based on the subject matter of the emergency notification content; and delivering the emergency notification content from the at least one transmitting party to a device corresponding to each user from the selected subset of users.

Claims

1. A method for disseminating emergency content, the method comprising:

determining, by an emergency notification system, that a plurality of devices are in a location corresponding to an emergency notification;

delivering the emergency notification from the emergency notification system to the plurality of devices, wherein at least one device of the plurality of devices is configured to determine whether at least one characteristic of a location of the at least one device is associated with the emergency notification; and

receiving a response from the at least one device, the response comprising an indication whether the at least one characteristic of the location of the at least one device is associated with the emergency notification.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the response from the at least one device comprises an indication of the location of the at least one device.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating, by an emergency notification system, a subsequent emergency notification based, at least in part, on the response from the at least one device.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

delivering a subsequent emergency notification based, at least in part, on the response from the at least one device.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one device comprises one or more from a group consisting of a set top box, a computer, a video cassette player, a DVD player, a CD player, a WebTV device, a video game player, a video game controller, a pager, a cellular phone, and a personal digital assistant.

6. A system for disseminating emergency content, the system comprising:

one or more computing devices configured to determine that a plurality of devices are in a location corresponding to an emergency notification;

a transmitter configured to deliver the emergency notification from the system to the plurality of devices, wherein at least one device of the plurality of devices is configured to determine whether at least one characteristic of a location of the at least one device is associated with the emergency notification; and

a receiver configured to receive a response from the at least one device, the response comprising an indication whether the at least one characteristic of the location of the at least one device is associated with the emergency notification.

7. The system of claim 6 wherein the response from the at least one device comprises an indication of the location of the at least one device.

8. The system of claim 6, wherein the one or more computing devices are further configured to generate a subsequent emergency notification based, at least in part, on the response from the at least one device.

9. The system of claim 6, wherein the transmitter is further configured to deliver a subsequent emergency notification based, at least in part, on the response from the at least one device.

10. The system of claim 6, wherein the at least one device comprises one or more from a group consisting of a set top box, a computer, a video cassette player, a DVD player, a CD player, a WebTV device, a video game player, a video game controller, a pager, a cellular phone, and a personal digital assistant.

11. A method for presenting an emergency message, the method comprising:

receiving, by a first device, a first signal related to an emergency message intended to be transmitted to devices in a location;

generating, by the first device, a second signal in response to receiving the first signal, the second signal configured to cause a second device to output the emergency message, wherein at least one characteristic of a location of the second device is associated with the emergency message; and

sending the second signal from the first device to the second device;

wherein the second device is configured to turn on and output the emergency message on a display component in response to receiving the second signal.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the second signal comprises an infrared signal.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the second signal comprises control information to set a volume level of the second device.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the second signal comprises control information to change a channel of the second device.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein generating the second signal comprises converting the first signal into the second signal.

16. A system for presenting an emergency message, the system comprising:

a receiver configured to receive a first signal related to an emergency message intended to be transmitted to devices in a location;

at least one computing device configured to generate a second signal in response to receiving the first signal, the second signal configured to cause a device to output the emergency message, wherein at least one characteristic of a location of the device is associated with the emergency message; and

a transmitter configured to send the second signal to the device;

wherein the device is configured to turn on and output the emergency message on a display component in response to receiving the second signal.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the second signal comprises an infrared signal.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the second signal comprises control information to set a volume level of the device.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein the second signal comprises control information to change a channel of the device.

20. The system of claim 16, wherein the at least one computing device is configured to generate the second signal by converting the first signal into the second signal.