System and method for monitoring, detecting and reporting emergency conditions using sensors belonging to multiple organizations

• US 9,293,029 B2
• Filed: 05/22/2014
• Issued: 03/22/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 05/22/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intrado Life & Safety Incorporated
• Original Assignee: West Corporation
• Inventors: Coyne, Kevin, Eich, William J., Martyn, John R., Parayil, Shiby Sugunan
• Primary Examiner(s): PHAM, QUANG
• Application Number:
  US14/285,147
• Publication Number:
  US 20150339911A1
• Time in Patent Office: 670 Days
• Field of Search: 340/517
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6218 to a system of files or objects, e.g. local or distributed file system or database
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/02 Alarms for ensuring the safety of persons
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/10 responsive to calamitous events, e.g. tornados or earthquakes
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/12 responsive to undesired emission of substances, e.g. pollution alarms
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 23/00 Alarms responsive to unspecified undesired or abnormal conditions
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/00 Alarm systems in which the location of the alarm condition is signalled to a central station, e.g. fire or police telegraphic systems
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/009 Signalling of the alarm condition to a substation whose identity is signalled to a central station, e.g. relaying alarm signals in order to extend communication range
• 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 25/14 Central alarm receiver or annunciator arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 26/008 central annunciator means of the sensed conditions, e.g. displaying or registering
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 27/003 Signalling to neighbouring houses
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 27/005 with transmission via computer network
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/181 for receiving images from a plurality of remote sources

Abstract

A system and method for monitoring sensors belonging to multiple organizations, detecting an emergency condition based on sensor information, associating a location with the detected emergency condition and then sending an emergency condition report to an authorized recipient. Sensor configuration data is either entered automatically using a sensor discovery engine or entered by a system administrator. The system monitors sensor information using a database-driven rules engine and reports emergency conditions to authorized recipients using a database-driven rules engine. The emergency condition report includes sensor information for sensors that are proximally located to the detected emergency condition.

Claims

1. A method for monitoring a plurality of sensors of specific monitoring systems belonging to respective multiple organizations;

the method comprising;

(a) processing a sensor registration request for each of said sensors, wherein the sensor registration request comprises an organization identifier, a sensor identifier and an authorization level;

(b) associating a geographic location with the sensor;

(c) processing sensor output information from said sensors to detect an emergency condition;

(d) identifying whether each requesting recipient having a recipient authorization level is either authorized or unauthorized for the detected emergency condition with steps comprising;

(i) comparing a recipient authorization level to a sensor authorization level;

(ii) determining that the recipient is authorized if the recipient authorization level is not below the sensor authorization level; and

(iii) determining that the recipient is unauthorized if the recipient authorization level is below the sensor authorization level;

(e) creating and then sending to at least one requesting recipient a list of authorized sensors and unauthorized sensors of said plurality of sensors that are within a proximate distance to the detected emergency condition, wherein a sensor of said plurality of sensors is determined as an authorized sensor if the recipient authorization level of the requesting recipient is at least the same as a sensor authorization level of said sensor, and a sensor of said plurality of sensors is determined as an unauthorized sensor if the recipient authorization level of the requesting recipient is below a sensor authorization level of said sensor; and

(f) if at least one authorized recipient is determined, creating and then sending an emergency condition report comprising sensor output information from an authorized sensor that is within the proximate distance to the detected emergency condition to the authorized recipient.

2. The method for monitoring the plurality of sensors of specific monitoring systems belonging to respective multiple organizations as recited in claim 1, wherein the method for processing the sensor registration request comprises:

(a) receiving the sensor registration request;

(b) logging the sensor registration request into a memory;

(c) validating the sensor registration request; and

(d) determining if the organization identifier, the sensor identifier and the authorization level from the sensor registration request should be stored in a memory, with steps comprising;

(iii) searching the memory for an existing sensor with the same organization identifier and the sensor identifier; and

(iv) storing in the memory the organization identifier, the sensor identifier and the authorization level from the sensor registration request if no existing sensors are found.

3. The method for monitoring the plurality of sensors of specific monitoring systems belonging to respective multiple organizations as recited in claim 1, wherein the method for associating the geographic location to the sensor comprises:

(a) receiving the organization identifier, the sensor identifier, a latitude and a longitude in a message selected from the group of messages consisting of;

(i) a sensor registration request message, and

(ii) a sensor location update request message; and

(b) determining if the latitude and the longitude from the group of messages should be stored in a memory, with steps comprising;

(i) searching the memory for an existing sensor with the same organization identifier and sensor identifier; and

(ii) storing in the memory the latitude and longitude from the group of messages if the existing sensor is found.

4. The method for monitoring the plurality of sensors of specific monitoring systems belonging to respective multiple organizations as recited in claim 1, wherein the method for processing the sensor output information to detect the emergency condition comprises:

(a) receiving sensor output information;

(b) caching into a memory the sensor output information;

(c) detecting the emergency condition by monitoring the sensor output information for a set of conditions comprising;

(i) failing to receive a positive heartbeat message within a configured heartbeat interval;

(ii) failing to receive a data stream, wherein the data stream IP transport-layer protocol is selected from a set of protocols consisting of UDP, TCP and SCTP;

(iii) the sensor output information comprises a measurement data value and the measurement data value is not within a normal range as configured for that sensor; and

(iv) the sensor output information comprises an alarm indication.

5. The method for processing the sensor output information to detect the emergency condition as recited in claim 4, wherein the measurement data value is averaged over a configured period of time.

6. The method for processing the sensor output information to detect the emergency condition as recited in claim 4, wherein detecting the emergency condition correlates multiple sensor output information.

7. The method for monitoring the plurality of sensors of specific monitoring systems belonging to respective multiple organizations as recited in claim 1, wherein the emergency condition report for the authorized recipient is suppressed based on a correlation logic of multiple sensor output information.

8. The method for monitoring the plurality of sensors of specific monitoring systems belonging to respective multiple organizations as recited in claim 1, wherein the sensor is at least one member of the group consisting of:

air pressure, temperature, humidity, moisture, mechanical pressure, optical, acoustic waves, motion, presence of chemicals or gasses, presence of biological matter, presence of metal, electromagnetic radiation, biometric parameters, visual pattern recognition, nuclear radiation and visual streams.

9. The method for monitoring the plurality of sensors of specific monitoring systems belonging to respective multiple organizations as recited in claim 1, wherein a protocol for sending the emergency condition report to the authorized recipient is selected from a set of protocols consisting of IP, TCP, UDP, SCTP, HTTP, HTTPS, SIP, XML, CAP, RTP, RTSP, SMTP, SMPP, MM4 and MM7.

10. A system for monitoring a plurality of sensors of specific monitoring systems belonging to respective multiple organizations;

the system comprising;

(a) a memory comprising instructions; and

(b) a processor in communication with the memory, wherein the processor, when executing the instructions, performs operations comprising;

(i) processing a sensor registration request for each of said sensors, wherein the sensor registration request comprises an organization identifier, a sensor identifier and an authorization level;

(ii) associating a geographic location with the sensor;

(iii) processing sensor output information from said sensors to detect an emergency condition;

(iv) identifying whether each requesting recipient having a recipient authorization level is either authorized or unauthorized for the detected emergency condition with steps comprising;

(1) comparing a recipient authorization level to a sensor authorization level;

(2) determining that the recipient is authorized if the recipient authorization level is not below the sensor authorization level; and

(3) determining that the recipient is unauthorized if the recipient authorization level is below the sensor authorization level;

(v) creating and then sending to at least one requesting recipient a list of authorized sensors and unauthorized sensors of said plurality of sensors that are within a proximate distance to the detected emergency condition, wherein a sensor of said plurality of sensors is determined as an authorized sensor if the recipient authorization level of the requesting recipient is at least the same as a sensor authorization level of said sensor, and a sensor of said plurality of sensors is determined as an unauthorized sensor if the recipient authorization level of the requesting recipient is below a sensor authorization level of said sensor; and

(vi) if at least one authorized recipient is determined, creating and then sending an emergency condition report comprising sensor output information from an authorized sensor that is within the proximate distance to the detected emergency condition to the authorized recipient.

11. The system for monitoring the plurality of sensors of specific monitoring systems belonging to respective multiple organizations as recited in claim 10, wherein the system for processing the sensor registration request comprises:

(a) the memory comprising the instructions; and

(b) the processor in communication with the memory, wherein the processor, when executing the instructions, performs operations comprising;

(i) receiving the sensor registration request;

(ii) logging the sensor registration request into the memory;

(iii) validating the sensor registration request; and

(iv) determining if the organization identifier, the sensor identifier and the authorization level from the sensor registration request should be stored in the memory, with steps comprising;

(1) searching the memory for an existing sensor with the same organization identifier and the sensor identifier; and

(2) storing in the memory the organization identifier, the sensor identifier and the authorization level from the sensor registration request if no existing sensors are found.

12. The system for monitoring the plurality of sensors of specific monitoring systems belonging to respective multiple organizations as recited in claim 10, wherein the system for associating the geographic location to the sensor comprises:

(a) the memory comprising the instructions; and

(b) the processor in communication with the memory, wherein the processor, when executing the instructions, performs operations comprising;

(i) receiving the organization identifier, the sensor identifier, a latitude and a longitude in a message selected from the group of messages consisting of;

(1) a sensor registration request message, and

(2) a sensor location update request message; and

(ii) determining if the latitude and the longitude from the group of messages should be stored in the memory, with steps comprising;

(1) searching the memory for an existing sensor with the same organization identifier and sensor identifier; and

(2) storing in the memory the latitude and longitude from the group of messages if the existing sensor is found.

13. The system for monitoring the plurality of sensors of specific monitoring systems belonging to respective multiple organizations as recited in claim 10, wherein the system for processing the sensor output information to detect the emergency condition comprises:

(a) the memory comprising the instructions; and

(b) the processor in communication with the memory, wherein the processor, when executing the instructions, performs operations comprising;

(i) receiving sensor output information;

(ii) caching into the memory the sensor output information;

(iii) detecting the emergency condition by monitoring the sensor output information for a set of conditions comprising;

(1) failing to receive a positive heartbeat message within a configured heartbeat interval;

(2) failing to receive a data stream, wherein the data stream IP transport-layer protocol is selected from a set of protocols consisting of UDP, TCP and SCTP;

(3) the sensor output information comprises a measurement data value and the measurement data value is not within a normal range as configured for that sensor; and

(4) the sensor output information comprises an alarm indication.

14. The system for processing the sensor output information to detect the emergency condition as recited in claim 13, wherein the processor, when executing the instructions, performs operations to average measurement data values over a configured period of time.

15. The system for processing the sensor output information to detect the emergency condition as recited in claim 13, wherein the processor, when executing the instructions, performs operations to correlate multiple sensor output information.

16. The system for monitoring the plurality of sensors of specific monitoring systems belonging to respective multiple organizations as recited in claim 10, wherein the processor, when executing the instructions, performs operations to suppress sending the emergency condition report to the authorized recipient based on a correlation logic of multiple sensor output information.

17. The system for monitoring the plurality of sensors of specific monitoring systems belonging to respective multiple organizations as recited in claim 10, wherein the sensor is at least one member of the group consisting of:

air pressure, temperature, humidity, moisture, mechanical pressure, optical, acoustic waves, motion, presence of chemicals or gasses, presence of biological matter, presence of metal, electromagnetic radiation, biometric parameters, visual pattern recognition, nuclear radiation and visual streams.

18. The system for monitoring the plurality of sensors of specific monitoring systems belonging to respective multiple organizations as recited in claim 10, wherein a protocol for sending the emergency condition report to the authorized recipient is selected from a set of protocols consisting of IP, TCP, UDP, SCTP, HTTP, HTTPS, SIP, XML, CAP, RTP, RTSP, SMTP, SMPP, MM4 and MM7.