Method and system for an emergency location information service (E-LIS) from automated vehicles

• US 9,635,534 B2
• Filed: 07/22/2015
• Issued: 04/25/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 05/16/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Everbridge Incorporated
• Original Assignee: RedSky Technologies, Inc. (Everbridge Incorporated)
• Inventors: Eisner, Gerald R., Maier, Nicholas M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Behnamian, Shahriar
• Application Number:
  US14/806,008
• Publication Number:
  US 20150334545A1
• Time in Patent Office: 643 Days
• Field of Search: 4554041, 4554042, 455521
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 1/00 Beacons or beacon systems transmitting signals having a characteristic or characteristics capable of being detected by non-directional receivers and defining directions, positions, or position lines fixed relatively to the beacon transmitters; Receivers co-operating therewith position fixing by co-ordinating a plurality of determinations of direction or position lines G01S5/00
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/17 Emergency applications
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 2205/06 Emergency
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0027 of actual mobile position, i.e. position determined on mobile
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72421 with automatic activation of emergency service functions, e.g. upon sensing an alarm
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72433 for voice messaging, e.g. dictaphones for answering incoming calls H04M1/64
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/025 using location based information parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/70 Services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication
• 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 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/003 locating network equipment
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/50 for emergency connections

Abstract

A method and system for determining and verifying a location of a network device of an automated vehicle (i.e., driverless, etc.) and/or an occupant of an automated vehicle in emergency situations from automated vehicles. The method and system provide a current physical geographic location for the automated vehicle or mobile devices of an occupant and/or of occupant of an automated vehicle in an emergency situation such as an accident, health, fire, terrorist attack, military incident, weather, flood event, etc. and forwarding the current physical geographic location to a legacy 911 network, a Emergency Services IP networks (ESInet) or text-to-911 Short Message Services (SMS) networks to alert emergency responders.

Claims

1. A method for locating an automated vehicle during an emergency with an emergency information system (E-LIS), comprising:

receiving on a server application on a server network device with one or more processors a wireless emergency message or a text-to-911 message with current location information from a vehicle location application on an automated vehicle with one or more processors via a wireless communications network indicating an emergency event has occurred, the automated vehicle comprising an automated transportation vehicle capable of sensing its own environment and safely navigating without human driver input;

determining from the server application a current set of 3D (X, Y, Z) geo-space coordinates for the automated vehicle with the current location information extracted from the received text-to-911 message including text-to-911 location information or extracted from the received wireless emergency message including audiovisual location information, Global Positioning System (GPS), Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi), Wi-Fi Aware, Bluetooth, near field communications (NFC), machine-to-machine (M2M) communications or cell tower location information collected automatically on the automated transportation vehicle while sensing its own physical environment and safely navigating without human driver input;

determining on the server application with the determined current set of 3D (X, Y, Z) geo-space coordinates a current physical geographic location for the automated vehicle;

sending from the server application an emergency response message or a 911-to-text response message including the determined current physical geographic location for the automated vehicle via a second communications network to a desired emergency response server with one or more processors; and

displaying in real-time on the server network device or another server network device with one or more processors on a graphical map the determined current physical geographic location for the automated vehicle for one or more desired emergency response agencies.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

determining automatically visually from the vehicle location application on the automated vehicle with an audiovisual component on the automated vehicle physical geographic information around the automated vehicle; and

determining from the vehicle location application on the automated vehicle a current set of 3D (X, Y, Z) geo-space coordinates or 2D (X, Y) geo-space coordinates with the determined visual physical geographic information.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

locating on the vehicle location application the automated vehicle in a physical geographic area with one or more of wireless Global Positioning System (GPS) signals, Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) signals, Wi-Fi Aware signals, Bluetooth signals, near field communications (NFC), machine-to-machine (M2M) communications or cell tower signals being sent from the automated vehicle from one or more communications components on the automated vehicle automatically activated on the automated vehicle by sending the wireless emergency message or a text-to-911 message from the automated vehicle.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the desired emergency response server is an E911 or 911 emergency response server, a text-to-911 server, a Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) server, an Emergency Services IP networks (ESInet) server or an emergency gateway network server device, each with one or more processors.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the current 3D (X, Y, Z) geo-space coordinates or 2D (X, Y) geo-space coordinates at the current physical location includes current 3D (X, Y, Z) geo-space coordinates or current 2D (X, Y) geo-space coordinates for a location in an urban or rural area, a location in a parking garage, a location in a building, a location on a street in an enterprise, campus, village, town, city, state, country or continent or global region.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the wireless emergency message includes an E911 communication message, a legacy 911 communication message, a Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) message or a Public safety answering point (PSAP) to AutoMatic location identification (ALI) (PAM) Interface Protocol message.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the wireless emergency message further includes the current 3D (X, Y, Z) geo-space coordinates or 2D (X, Y) geo-space coordinates of the automated vehicle within the wireless emergency message.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the emergency event includes a health event, an accident event, fire event, terrorist attack event, military event, weather event, flood event or crime event.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the emergency event includes an emergency event automatically detected by an emergency button, an accelerometer, radio frequency identifier (RFID) sensor, a barometric sensor, a moisture sensor, an altimeter, air bag deployment sensor or a temperature sensor included on the automated vehicle.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

the determined current physical geographic location including latitude, longitude, vertical distance, horizontal distance, elevation, height, depth, speed, acceleration, temperature, moisture or barometric pressure information for the automated vehicle.

11. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

displaying in real-time on the server network device or another server network device with one or more processors in real-time visual images of the automated vehicle for one or more desired emergency response agencies.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the automated vehicle includes a car, truck, boat, ship, locomotive, airplane, motorcycle, bicycle or Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV).

13. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

sending from a mobile application on a mobile network device with one or more processors located inside the automated vehicle a mobile wireless emergency message or a mobile text-to-911 message via the wireless communications network to the server application on the server network device indicating an emergency event has occurred with the automated vehicle.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein the mobile network device includes a smart phone, a table computer or wearable mobile network device, each with one or more processors.

15. The method of claim 13 wherein the mobile wireless emergency message includes an E911 communication message, a legacy 911 communication message, a Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) message or a PAM Interface Protocol message.

16. The method of claim 13 further comprising:

determining from the automated vehicle via the mobile network device with one or more wireless signals received on the mobile network device comprising;

Global Positioning System (GPS) signals, Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) signals, Wi-Fi Aware signals, near field communications (NFC), machine-to-machine (M2M) communications, Bluetooth signals, or cell tower signals automatically activated by the mobile application on the mobile network device by sending the mobile wireless emergency message or the mobile text-to-911 message from the mobile network device; and

determining on the automated vehicle or the mobile network device the current set of 3D (X, Y, Z) geo-space coordinates or 2D (X, Y) geo-space coordinates or current physical location for the automated vehicle or the mobile network device with the received one or more wireless signals.

17. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

sending from a mobile application on a mobile network device with one or more processors located inside the automated vehicle a mobile wireless emergency message or a mobile text-to-911 message to the vehicle location application on the automated vehicle indicating an emergency event has occurred with the automated vehicle; and

sending from the vehicle location application on the automated vehicle the mobile wireless emergency message or mobile text-to-911 message via the wireless communications network to the server application on the server network device indicating the emergency event has occurred with the automated vehicle.

18. The method of claim 1 wherein the wireless communications network includes a wireless telecommunications network, wireless cloud communications network, or wireless emergency network.

19. The method of claim 1 wherein the second communications network includes a wired or wireless telecommunications network, wired or wired cloud communications network, or wired or wireless emergency network.

20. An emergency location information system (E-LIS) for network devices, comprising in combination:

one or more automated vehicles each with one or more processors;

one or more mobile network devices each with one or more processors;

one or more server network devices each with one or more processors;

one or more emergency response servers each with one or more processors;

the one or more processors including a plurality of instructions configuring the one or more processors;

for receiving on a server application on a server network device with one or more processors a wireless emergency message or a text-to-911 message with current location information from a vehicle location application on an automated vehicle with one or more processors via a wireless communications network indicating an emergency event has occurred, the automated vehicle comprising an automated transportation vehicle capable of sensing its own environment and safely navigating without human driver input;

for determining from the server application a current set of 3D (X, Y, Z) geo-space coordinates for the automated vehicle with the current location information extracted from the received text-to-911 message including text-to-911 location information or extracted from the received wireless emergency message including audiovisual location information, Global Positioning System (GPS), Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi), Wi-Fi Aware, Bluetooth, near field communications (NFC), machine-to-machine (M2M) communications or cell tower location information collected automatically on the automated transportation vehicle while sensing its own physical environment and safely navigating without human driver input;

for determining on the server application with the determined current set of 3D (X, Y, Z) geo-space coordinates a current physical geographic location for the automated vehicle;

for sending from the server application an emergency response message or a 911-to-text response message including the determined current physical geographic location for the automated vehicle via a second communications network to a desired emergency response server with one or more processors;

for displaying in real-time on the server network device or another server network device with one or more processors on a graphical map the determined current physical geographic location for the automated vehicle for one or more desired emergency response agencies;

for sending from a mobile application on a mobile network device with one or more processors located inside the automated vehicle a mobile wireless emergency message or a mobile text-to-911 message via the wireless communications network indicating an emergency event has occurred with the automated vehicle;

for sending from the mobile application on the mobile network device with one or more processors located inside the automated vehicle the mobile wireless emergency message or a mobile text-to-911 message to the vehicle location application on the automated vehicle indicating the emergency event has occurred with the automated vehicle; and

for sending from the vehicle location application on the automated vehicle the mobile wireless emergency message or mobile text-to-911 message via the wireless communications network to the server application on the server network device indicating the emergency event has occurred with the automated vehicle.