Incident-centric mass notification system

• US 9,641,692 B2
• Filed: 06/25/2013
• Issued: 05/02/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 06/25/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Siemens Schweiz AG (Siemens AG)
• Original Assignee: Siemens Schweiz AG (Siemens AG)
• Inventors: Ros, Johannes P., Wienands, Christoph, Gall, Michael A., Budnik, Christof J., Wittemann, Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): Lau, Hoi
• Application Number:
  US13/925,829
• Publication Number:
  US 20140376410A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,407 Days
• Field of Search: 4554041, 4554042, 4554122, 455521, 455466, 455418, 370259, 370331, 340902, 34053916
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/24 Reminder alarms, e.g. anti-loss alarms
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/10 relating to drugs or medications, e.g. for ensuring correct administration to patients
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 11/04 with alarm systems, e.g. fire, police or burglar alarm systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/42 Graphical user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/205 Broadcasting
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2242/04 for emergency applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/00 Automatic or semi-automatic exchanges
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5116 for emergency applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/90 Services for handling of emergency or hazardous situations, e.g. earthquake and tsunami warning systems [ETWS]

Abstract

An Incident-centric Mass Notification System (“Incident-centric MNS system”) for notifying a plurality of recipients of an Emergency Event is disclosed. The Incident-centric MNS system may include a Mass Notification System (“MNS”) Notification Engine, modality corridor (“MoCo”) dispatcher, and a plurality of modality corridors, wherein each modality corridor of the plurality of modality corridors establishes, for signal communication, a signal path from a plurality of signal paths, between the MNS Notification Engine and a recipient of the plurality of recipients. The MNS Notification Engine is configured to manage MNS Incidents and Notifications and the MoCo dispatcher is configured to select a first modality corridor from the plurality of modality corridors to establish a first signal path from the MNS Notification Engine.

Claims

1. An Incident-centric Mass Notification System (“

Incident-centric MNS system”

) for notifying a plurality of recipients of an Emergency Event, the Incident-centric MNS system comprising;

a Mass Notification System (“

MNS”

) Notification Engine, wherein the MNS Notification Engine is configured to manage MNS Incidents and Notifications;

a modality corridor (“

MoCo”

) dispatcher in signal communication with the MNS Notification Engine; and

a plurality of modality corridors,

wherein each modality corridor of the plurality of modality corridors, is over a different network and in signal communication with the MoCo dispatcher,

wherein each modality corridor of the plurality of modality corridors establishes, for signal communication, a signal path from a plurality of signal paths, between the MNS Notification Engine and a recipient of the plurality of recipients, and

wherein the MoCo dispatcher is configured to select a first modality corridor from the plurality of modality corridors to establish a first signal path from the MNS Notification Engine to the recipient based upon the recipient.

2. The Incident-centric MNS system of claim 1, wherein the first modality corridor includes a MoCo handler is in signal communication with the MoCo dispatcher, wherein the MoCo handler is configured to deliver Notifications from the MoCo dispatcher to the plurality of recipients via a plurality of delivery paths.

3. The Incident-centric MNS system of claim 1, wherein the MNS Notification Engine is in signal communication with a user interface (“

UI”

) that allows an MNS User to interface with the MNS Notification Engine.

4. The Incident-centric MNS system of claim 3, wherein the MNS User is a System Operator, wherein the System Operator is a System User for operating the Incident-centric MNS system during the Emergency Event.

5. The Incident-centric MNS system of claim 3,

wherein the recipient includes at least one MNS end-device capable of receiving outbound Notifications from the MNS Notification Engine and sending inbound Notifications to the MNS Notification Engine, and

wherein the at least one MNS end-device is capable of conveying the received outbound Notifications to a recipient user corresponding to the at least one MNS end-device.

6. The Incident-centric MNS system of claim 5,

wherein the MNS Notification Engine includes logic configured to manage a plurality of MNS Incidents and a plurality of Notifications,

wherein the logic configured to manage MNS Incidents and Notifications includes logic configured as an incident template,

wherein the logic configured as an incident template includes logic configured as an incident template content,

wherein the logic configured as incident template content includes at least one set of logic configured as a launch group,

wherein the at least one set of logic configured as a launch group includes logic configured as a notification template,

wherein the logic configured as a notification template includes data structures configured to hold pre-configured information about the plurality of Notifications, and

wherein the logic configured as a notification template is included in logic configured as a Notification Template Hierarchy.

7. The Incident-centric MNS system of claim 6, wherein the logic configured as a notification template includes logic configured as a Message Template, logic configured as a Live Announcement Template, or both.

8. The Incident-centric MNS system of claim 7,

wherein the logic configured as a Message Template includes a data structure configured to hold pre-configured details of a Message and

wherein the logic configured as a Live Announcement Template includes a data structure configured to hold pre-configured details of a Live Announcement.

9. The Incident-centric MNS system of claim 8,

wherein an MNS Incident, of the plurality of MNS Incidents, includes a plurality of MNS Incident states,

wherein the logic configured as a launch group includes a plurality of Notification Templates, and

wherein the launch group is configured to launch the plurality of Notification Templates simultaneously during an MNS Incident state of the plurality of MNS Incident states.

10. The Incident-centric MNS system of claim 9, wherein the plurality of MNS Incident states includes states selected from the group consisting of an active state, suspended state, suspending state, cancelled state, cancelling state, completed state, and closed state.

11. The Incident-centric MNS system of claim 10,

wherein the UI includes a plurality of graphical pictograms,

wherein each graphical pictogram represents an Emergency Event from a plurality of Emergency Events,

wherein the MNS User is a System Operator,

wherein the System Operator is a System User for operating the Incident-centric MNS system during an Emergency Event, and

wherein the UI is configured to allow a System Operator to quickly initiate an MNS Incident or launch a notification.