Methods and apparatuses for emergency notifications to the hearing impaired

• US 9,214,094 B2
• Filed: 03/15/2013
• Issued: 12/15/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sorenson Ip Holdings, LLC
• Original Assignee: Sorenson Communications Incorporated
• Inventors: Taggart, Steve, Johnson, Bruce, Saunders, Steve, Cranor, Jarod, Brenner, Don, Chevrier, Brian, Mitchell, Jennifer
• Primary Examiner(s): Bugg, George
• Assistant Examiner(s): AKKI, MUNEAR T
• Application Number:
  US13/838,487
• Publication Number:
  US 20140266572A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,005 Days
• Field of Search: 340/4.1, 340/4.13, 340/539.12, 340/501, 340/7.6, 340/7.61, 704/271, 379/52
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2505/01 Emergency care
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0022 Monitoring a patient using a global network, e.g. telephone networks, internet
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1128 using image analysis A61B5/1127 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 21/009 Teaching or communicating with deaf persons G09B21/04 takes precedence; deaf and dumb persons G09B21/00
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/59 for emergency or urgency
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/147 Communication arrangements, e.g. identifying the communication as a video-communication, intermediate storage of the signals selecting H04Q

Abstract

Systems and methods for communicating emergency alerts to a hearing-impaired user are disclosed. Queries are performed to one or more emergency alert databases to develop emergency alert notifications. At least some of the emergency alert notifications are filtered responsive to user selected criteria to select one or more filtered emergency alerts. An attention desired indicator is transmitted to a hearing-impaired user device that subscribes to a hearing-impaired relay service supported by the server if the one or more filtered emergency alerts are present. The filtered emergency alerts are transmitted to the hearing-impaired user device in response to a emergency information query from that user device.

Claims

1. A server associated with a hearing-impaired relay service for supporting interpretive services and providing emergency alerts to hearing-impaired users, the server comprising:

a memory configured to store computing instructions; and

a processor operably coupled to the memory and configured to execute the computing instructions to;

support communication sessions for hearing-impaired user devices through the hearing-impaired relay service while the hearing-impaired user devices communicate with a remote device associated with a hearing-capable user;

receive emergency alert notifications from one or more external emergency alert services over an external network;

filter at least some of the received emergency alert notifications responsive to user selected criteria to select one or more filtered emergency alerts;

transmit an attention desired indicator directly to the hearing-impaired user devices that are supported by the hearing-impaired relay service if the one or more filtered emergency alerts are present that fit within the user selected criteria for the corresponding hearing-impaired user device;

receive an emergency information query from the hearing-impaired user device that is sent responsive to the attention desired indicator;

generate a video recording with a sign language translation of the received emergency alert notifications; and

transmit at least one of the one or more filtered emergency alerts comprising the video recording with its corresponding sign language translation directly to the hearing-impaired user devices in response to the emergency information query from the hearing-impaired user device.

2. The server of claim 1, wherein the one or more filtered emergency alerts comprises information as it was received from the one or more emergency alert services.

3. The server of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to execute the computing instructions to filter the emergency alert notifications for a selected severity level or higher.

4. The server of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured execute the computing instructions to filter the emergency alert notifications responsive to at least one of a selected source of the emergency alert and a selected type of the emergency alert.

5. The server of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to execute the computing instructions to filter the emergency alert notifications responsive to one or more selected locations.

6. The server of claim 5, wherein the processor is further configured to execute the computing instructions to determine at least one of the one or more selected locations from a geolocation process using a known address for the hearing-impaired user device.

7. The server of claim 5, wherein the processor is further configured to execute the computing instructions to determine at least one of the one or more selected locations from a global positioning satellite process for the hearing-impaired user device.

8. The server of claim 1, wherein the hearing-impaired relay service is a video relay service configured to provide a sign language interpretation of a voice signal from the remote device to the hearing-impaired user device during the communication session, or a text captioning relay service configured to provide text captioning of the voice signal from the remote device to the hearing-impaired user device during the communication session.

15. The server of claim 1, wherein the server is a relay server configured to provide the hearing-impaired user device with the ability to communicate with standard telephone users.

16. The server of claim 1, wherein the server is a session server configured to initiate and administer the communication sessions for the hearing-impaired user devices.

17. The server of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to further execute the computing instructions to transmit additional items for the hearing-impaired user device to act upon along with the transmission of the one or more filtered emergency alerts.

9. A method for operating a hearing-impaired relay service integrated with providing emergency alerts to a hearing-impaired user, the method comprising:

facilitating a communication session between a hearing-impaired user device and a remote device associated with a hearing-capable user through a hearing-impaired relay service providing translation services for the communication session;

receiving emergency alert notifications at the hearing-impaired relay service from one or more emergency alert services over an external network;

filtering at least some of the emergency alert notifications at the hearing-impaired relay service responsive to user selected criteria to select one or more filtered emergency alerts;

generating video data including a sign language interpretation of the one or more filtered emergency alerts;

transmitting an attention desired indicator from the hearing-impaired relay service to the hearing-impaired user device if the one or more filtered emergency alerts are present; and

transmitting at least one of the one or more filtered emergency alerts including the video data with its corresponding sign language interpretation from the hearing-impaired relay service to the hearing-impaired user device in response to an emergency information query being received from the hearing-impaired user device.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the one or more filtered emergency alerts comprises information as it was received from the one or more emergency alert services.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein filtering the emergency alert notifications is responsive to the user selected criteria selected from the group consisting of one or more selected locations, a selected severity level, a selected confidence level, a selected urgency level, a source of the emergency alert notification, type of the emergency alert notification, or a combination thereof.

12. A communication device specifically configured for use by a hearing-impaired user, the communication device comprising:

a display configured to present information to a hearing-impaired user;

a memory configured store computing instructions; and

a processor operably coupled to the memory and configured to execute the computing instructions to;

establish communication sessions with a remote communication device associated with a hearing-capable user with the assistance of a relay service configured to provide translation assistance for the hearing-impaired user during a communication session;

send an attention items query to the hearing-impaired relay service requesting to be notified if there are items related to emergency alert notifications that the hearing-impaired relay service has received from one or more external emergency alert services over an external network;

send an emergency information query to the hearing-impaired relay service in response to receiving a notification from the hearing-impaired relay service that there are emergency alert notifications for the communication device to consider;

receive at least one of the emergency alert notifications including a video recording of a sign language translation for the at least one emergency alter notification from the hearing-impaired relay service; and

present information including the video recording related to the received emergency alert notifications on the display.

13. The communication device of claim 12, wherein the processor is further configured to execute the computing instructions to cause a GUI to be presented on the display, wherein the GUI enables a user to select options for filtering at least some of the emergency alert notifications.

14. The communication device of claim 12, wherein the processor is further configured to execute the computing instructions to cause the display to present an emergency alert notifier indicating at least some of the emergency alert notifications are available to be considered by the user.

18. The communication device of claim 12, wherein the processor is configured to execute the computing instructions to send the attention items query to the hearing-impaired relay service as part of a regular heartbeat to query hearing-impaired relay service.