Interactive emergency visualization methods

• US 9,794,755 B1
• Filed: 04/24/2017
• Issued: 10/17/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 04/25/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Patrocinium Systems, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Patrocinium Systems, LLC
• Inventors: South, John A., Murphy, Jr., Richard Daniel
• Primary Examiner(s): Batista, Marcos
• Application Number:
  US15/495,497
• Publication Number:
  US 20170311131A1
• Time in Patent Office: 176 Days
• Field of Search: 455457, 370338
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 1/68 Marker, boundary, call-sign, or like beacons transmitting signals not carrying directional information
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/14 Determining absolute distances from a plurality of spaced points of known location
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/021 Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/30 Services specially adapted for particular environments, situations or purposes
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/33 for indoor environments, e.g. buildings
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/90 Services for handling of emergency or hazardous situations, e.g. earthquake and tsunami warning systems [ETWS]

Abstract

Methods for emergency visualization are disclosed. The methods include a computer-implemented method for interactive emergency visualization that includes receiving a notification concerning an incident associated with a multi-floor structure, requesting location information from a user device geographically associated with the multi-floor structure, and receiving, in response to the request, a beacon identifier from the user device, the beacon identifier being associated with a beacon disposed within the multi-floor structure. The method also includes determining on which floor of the multi-floor structure the user device is located based on the beacon identifier and stored information indicating the location of the beacon and displaying a graphical map of the multi-floor structure and information indicating the specific floor on which the user device is located.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for interactive emergency visualization, which comprises:

receiving a notification concerning an incident associated with a multi-floor structure;

establishing a geo-fence encompassing at least a portion of the multi-floor structure;

determining which of a plurality of user devices were previously within a first distance from the incident based on stored location information received from the plurality of user devices, wherein each user device is associated with an individual;

transmitting a request for current location information to each of the user devices determined to have previously been within the first distance;

receiving, in response to the request, current location information from at least a subset of the user devices determined to have previously been within the first distance, wherein the current location information includes both geographical location information and beacon information associated with respective beacons disposed within the multi-floor structure;

determining, based on the received current location information, which of the plurality of user devices are currently located within the geo-fence; and

displaying a graphical map illustrating the multi-floor structure, the geo-fence, and the geographical locations of user devices determined to be within the geo-fence, wherein the displaying includes displaying information associating at least one of the user devices with a specific floor of the multi-floor structure based on the detected beacon information.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein establishing the geo-fence includes activating a geo-fence defined before the incident.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein establishing the geo-fence includes defining a physical area associated with the multi-floor structure based on the incident.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the stored location information was received from the plurality of user devices prior to receiving the notification of the incident.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the stored location information is indicative of last known locations of the user devices.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the displaying includes displaying a floor plan of the specific floor within the multi-floor structure along with a location of the at least one user device within the floor plan.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the displaying the floor plan is performed in response to receiving a user selection of the specific floor on the graphical map.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a current safety status of an individual associated with the at least one user device, wherein the displaying includes displaying the current safety status of the individual.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the current safety status of the individual is visually distinguished by a characteristic of an icon representing the individual in the graphical map.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising;

receiving, after receiving the current location information, further location information from the user devices determined to be within the geo-fence; and

updating the graphical map based on the further location information.

11. A computer-implemented method for interactive emergency visualization, which comprises:

receiving a notification concerning an incident associated with a multi-floor structure;

identifying a plurality of user devices that were previously within a first distance from the incident based on stored location information received from the user devices, wherein each user device is associated with an individual;

transmitting a request for current location information to at least one of the user devices identified to have previously been within the first distance;

receiving, in response to the request, a beacon identifier from the user device, the beacon identifier being associated with a beacon disposed within the multi-floor structure;

determining on which floor of the multi-floor structure the user device is located based on the beacon identifier and stored information indicating the location of the beacon; and

displaying a graphical map of the multi-floor structure and information indicating the specific floor on which the user device is located.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the displaying includes displaying a floor plan of the specific floor on which the user device is located and displaying, in association with the floor plan, an icon representing the user device and an icon representing the beacon.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the icon representing the user device additionally represents a plurality of user devices associated with the beacon.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the icon representing the user device visually indicates the number of user devices associated with the beacon.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein the displaying the floor plan is performed in response to receiving a user selection of the specific floor on the graphical map.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein the beacon identifier comprises a first component representing the multi-floor structure and a second component representing a floor of the structure.

17. The method of claim 11, wherein the determining on which floor of the multi-floor structure the user device is located includes comparing the received beacon identifier to a plurality of stored beacon identifiers, where each of the stored beacon identifiers are respectively associated with a location of a beacon.

18. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

receiving from the user device, in response to the request, a plurality of beacon identifiers associated with a plurality of beacons disposed in the multi-floor structure and receiving respective indications of proximity between the user device and plurality of beacons; and

determining, based on the indications of proximity, which beacon in the plurality of beacons the user device is most near.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the displaying includes displaying an icon representing the user device along with an icon representing the beacon in the plurality of beacons most near to the user device.

20. The method of claim 11, wherein requesting location information from the user device includes determining whether the last known location of the user device is within a first distance from the multi-floor structure based on stored location information.

21. A computer-implemented method for interactive emergency visualization, which comprises:

receiving a notification concerning an incident associated with a multi-floor structure;

requesting current location information from a plurality of user devices geographically associated with the multi-floor structure, each user device being associated with an individual;

receiving, in response to the request, current location information from at least a subset of the user devices, wherein the current location information includes beacon information associated with respective beacons disposed within the multi-floor structure;

determining, based on the received current location information, which of the plurality of user devices are currently located within the multi-floor structure and on which floors;

receiving, from the user devices determined to be located within the multi-floor structure, safety status information about respective individuals associated with the user devices; and

displaying a graphical map illustrating the multi-floor structure and information indicating, for each floor of the multi-floor structure, a number of the user devices determined to be on that floor along with the safety status information about the individuals associated with the user devices determined to be on that floor.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein displaying the graphical map includes displaying a three-dimensional image of the multi-floor structure with representations of each floor.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the representations of the floors visually reflect the safety status information of the individuals associated with the user devices determined to be on the respective floors.

24. The method of claim 22, further comprising receiving a user selection of a representation of a specific floor and, in response, displaying a floor plan of the specific floor.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein displaying the floor plan includes displaying icons representing the user devices determined to be on that specific floor overlaid on the floor plan.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the icons visually indicate the respective safety status information of the individuals associated with the user devices represented by the icons.