System and method for detecting, collecting, analyzing, and communicating event-related information

• US 9,746,985 B1
• Filed: 04/20/2011
• Issued: 08/29/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 02/25/2008
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Georgetown University
• Original Assignee: Georgetown University
• Inventors: Humayun, Ahmed A., Silverstein, Steven J., Zalasky, Gregory P., Jones, Kevin D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Kumar, Anil N
• Application Number:
  US13/090,742
• Time in Patent Office: 2,323 Days
• Field of Search: 715764, 715703, 715763, 715846
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/904 Browsing; Visualisation therefor for navigating the web G06F16/954; browsing optimisation for the web G06F16/957
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/005 Input arrangements through a video camera
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0481 based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0484 for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063 Operations research, analysis or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/1091 Recording time for administrative or management purposes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/20 for the management or administration of healthcare resources or facilities, e.g. managing hospital staff or surgery rooms
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/80 for detecting, monitoring or modelling epidemics or pandemics, e.g. flu
• CPC Class Codes: Y02A 90/10 Information and communication technologies [ICT] supporting adaptation to climate change, e.g. for weather forecasting or climate simulation

Abstract

A system and method involves detecting operational social disruptive events on a global scale, assigning disease or non-disease event staging and warnings to express data in more simplistic terms, modeling data in conjunction with linguistics analysis to establish responsive actions, generating visualization and modeling capabilities for communicating information, and modeling disease or non-disease propagation for containment and forecasting purposes.

Claims

1. A computer-aided system for detecting and communicating information regarding a socially disruptive event, the socially disruptive event having an event type, the system comprising:

non-transitory computer readable storage media that stores;

indications and warnings associated with a plurality of event types, the indications and warnings indicative of social disruption; and

keywords and synonyms associated with the plurality of event types, the plurality of event types comprising at least one of emerging threats, biological events, civil unrest, cybersecurity events, socioeconomic events, events impacting food and water security, or infrastructure events;

an information collection and processing subsystem that identifies and downloads publicly available documents relevant to the socially disruptive event by searching open source electronic media sources for the indications and warnings associated with the event type of the socially disruptive event, the socially disruptive event comprising at least one of an emerging threat, a biological event involving humans, a biological event involving animals, a biological event involving plants, a political event, a socioeconomic event, an economic event, an industrial event, an infrastructure event, an environmental event, civil unrest, dislocation, riots, violence against property, violence against people, a cybersecurity event, events impacting food and water security, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, improvised explosive devices, human trafficking, narcotics, public opinion about a political topic, public opinion about public policy, public opinion about religion, public opinion about entertainment, a natural disaster, natural disaster aftermath, natural resource exploitation, or military activity; and

an information analysis and reporting subsystem that provides a graphical user interface that provides functionality for a user to;

characterize an action described in each of the downloaded documents by selecting a subject from a predefined list of subjects, selecting an object from a predefined list of objects, and selecting an act being performed by the subject on the object from a predefined list of acts, wherein the predefined list of subjects, the predefined list of objects, and the predefined list of acts are specially crafted to characterize events of the event type of the socially disruptive event;

search or filter the downloaded documents using the synonyms and keywords associated with the event type of the socially disruptive event; and

generate and output event reports characterizing the actions described in the downloaded documents.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein the graphical user interface is adapted to display an event stage table containing scale values for assigning a degree of severity to the socially disruptive event.

3. The system according to claim 1, wherein the information analysis and reporting subsystem automatically ranks or clusters the downloaded documents using one or more Bayesian casual models.

4. The system according to claim 1, wherein the graphical user interface further provides functionality to edit the predefined list of subjects, the predefined list of objects, or the predefined list of acts.

5. The system according to claim 1, wherein the graphical user interface further provides functionality for the user to rank or cluster the downloaded documents.

6. The system according to claim 1, wherein the graphical user interface further provides functionality for the user to identify a specific emerging threat from a predefined list of emerging threats.

7. The system according to claim 1, wherein the graphical user interface further provides functionality for the user to identify an event location from a predefined list of nations of interest.

8. The system according to claim 1, wherein the graphical user interface further provides functionality for the user to identify a date and/or time that the socially disruptive event took place.

9. The system according to claim 1, wherein the indications and warnings indicative of social disruption comprise at least one of reports of human, animal, or plant disease, official acceptance or denial, official action, demand for medical services, reports of local perception of threat, business practice changes, compromise or collapse of integrity of infrastructure, temperature changes, perception changes, or suggestion that individuals or organizations have begun changing their daily routine activities.

10. The system according to claim 1, wherein social disruption comprises alteration in the normal functioning of a social system that, under extreme conditions, can lead to the collapse of social infrastructure.

11. The system according to claim 1, wherein the publicly available documents include at least one of a hypertext markup language (HTML) document, an extensible markup language (XML) document, a portable document format (PDF) document, text, an image, an audio file, or a file created from a radio frequency signal intercepted through the air, sea, or a space platform.

12. The system according to claim 1, wherein the publicly available documents include at least one of words, numbers, indicia, quotes, excerpts, images, records, code, or scripts.

13. The system according to claim 1, wherein the open source electronic media sources are web servers publicly accessible via the Internet.

14. A computer-aided method for detecting and communicating information regarding a socially disruptive event, the socially disruptive event having an event type, the method comprising:

storing indications and warnings associated with a plurality of event types, the indications and warnings indicative of social disruption;

storing keywords and synonyms associated with the plurality of event types, the plurality of event types comprising at least one of emerging threats, biological events, civil unrest, cybersecurity events, socioeconomic events, events impacting food and water security, or infrastructure events;

identifying and downloading publicly available documents relevant to the socially disruptive event by searching open source electronic media sources for the indications and warnings associated with the event type of the socially disruptive event, the socially disruptive event comprising at least one of an emerging threat, a biological event involving humans, a biological event involving animals, a biological event involving plants, a political event, a socioeconomic event, an economic event, an industrial event, an infrastructure event, an environmental event, civil unrest, dislocation, riots, violence against property, violence against people, a cybersecurity event, events impacting food and water security, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, improvised explosive devices, human trafficking, narcotics, public opinion about a political topic, public opinion about public policy, public opinion about religion, public opinion about entertainment, a natural disaster, natural disaster aftermath, natural resource exploitation, or military activity;

providing a user interface that provides functionality for a user to;

characterize an action in each of the downloaded documents by selecting a subject from a predefined list of subjects, selecting an object from a predefined list of objects, and selecting an act being performed by the subject on the object from a predefined list of acts, wherein the predefined list of subjects, the predefined list of objects, and the predefined list of acts are specially crafted to characterize events of the event type of the socially disruptive event;

search or filter the downloaded documents using the synonyms and keywords associated with the event type of the socially disruptive event; and

generate and output event reports characterizing the actions described in the downloaded documents.

15. The method according to claim 14, wherein the graphical user interface is adapted to display an event stage table containing scale values for assigning a degree of severity to the socially disruptive event.

16. The method according to claim 15, wherein the information analysis and reporting subsystem automatically ranks or clusters the downloaded documents using one or more Bayesian casual models.

17. The method according to claim 15, wherein the graphical user interface further provides functionality to edit the predefined list of subjects, the predefined list of objects, or the predefined list of acts.

18. The method according to claim 15, wherein the graphical user interface further provides functionality for the user to rank or cluster the downloaded documents.

19. The method according to claim 15, wherein the graphical user interface further provides functionality for the user to identify a specific emerging threat from a predefined list of emerging threats.

20. The method according to claim 15, wherein the graphical user interface further provides functionality for the user to identify an event location from a predefined list of nations of interest.

21. The method according to claim 15, wherein the graphical user interface further provides functionality for the user to identify a date and/or time that the socially disruptive event took place.

22. The method according to claim 15, wherein the indications and warnings indicative of social disruption comprise at least one of reports of human, animal, or plant disease, official acceptance or denial, official action, demand for medical services, reports of local perception of threat, business practice changes, compromise or collapse of integrity of infrastructure, temperature changes, perception changes, or suggestion that individuals or organizations have begun changing their daily routine activities.

23. The method according to claim 15, wherein social disruption comprises alteration in the normal functioning of a social system that, under extreme conditions, can lead to the collapse of social infrastructure.

24. The method according to claim 15, wherein the publicly available documents include at least one of a hypertext markup language (HTML) document, an extensible markup language (XML) document, a portable document format (PDF) document, text, an image, an audio file, or a file created from a radio frequency signal intercepted through the air, sea, or a space platform.

25. The method according to claim 15, wherein the publicly available documents include at least one of words, numbers, indicia, quotes, excerpts, images, records, code, or scripts.

26. The method according to claim 15, wherein the open source electronic media sources are web servers publicly accessible via the Internet.