System and method for monitoring activities through portable devices

• US 9,817,948 B2
• Filed: 05/13/2016
• Issued: 11/14/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 05/15/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Josh Swank
• Original Assignee: Josh Swank
• Inventors: Swank, Josh
• Primary Examiner(s): Sarwar, Babar
• Application Number:
  US15/154,228
• Publication Number:
  US 20160335410A1
• Time in Patent Office: 550 Days
• Field of Search: 4554041-4042, 455410-411, 4554121-4142, 455418-420, 455 411- 412, 4554561-457, 4555521, 4555501, 455466, 370259
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72412 using two-way short-range wireless interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72421 with automatic activation of emergency service functions, e.g. upon sensing an alarm
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72457 according to geographic location
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/7246 by connection of exchangeable housing parts
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/183 Processing at user equipment or user record carrier

Abstract

A device and system are provided for notifying a user contact of the status of a user of a portable device. The status is determined by the portable device collecting user provided information and device collected information relevant to a user of portable device. The portable device may then transmit the device collected information and the user provided information to a server that in turn performs an analysis on the device collected information and the user provided information to determine whether a triggering event has occurred. If it is determined that a triggering event has occurred, the server will proceed to send a status update regarding the user of the portable device to preset user contacts. The triggering event is determined to have occurred based on preset user conditions and algorithms and artificial intelligence being executed at the server.

Claims

1. A portable electronic device, the portable electronic device comprising:

a processor;

a network interface for communicating with a wireless network;

an input device for accepting user provided information from a user of the portable electronic device;

one or more sensors for acquiring device collected information of the user of the portable electronic device;

a memory comprising instructions for causing the processor to perform the steps of;

collecting at least one of the user provided information and the portable electronic device collected information; and

transmitting at least one of the user provided information and the portable electronic device collected information to a server for communicating a status to a user contact upon occurrence of a triggering event, wherein content of the status is based on at least one of the user provided information and the device collected information, and wherein the portable electronic device is configurable to operate in two or more of plurality of operation modes, the operation modes include;

a health monitoring mode, an emergency countdown mode, an activity duration monitoring mode, a location, monitoring mode, an emergency contact mode, a geofence mode, a preset notification message mode, and a location tracking mode.

2. The portable device of claim 1, wherein the status is a notification message generated based on the at least one of the user provided information and the device collected information.

3. The portable device of claim 1, wherein the portable device is a wearable device tethered to a cellular phone.

4. The portable device of claim 1, wherein he portable device is a wearable device not tethered to a cellular phone.

5. The portable device of claim 1, wherein the status is provided to the user contact via one or more of:

a pre-recorded robo-call message, a live phone call, an email, a text message, an application notification message, an operating system notification message, and a distress signal.

6. The portable device of claim 1, wherein the one or more sensors comprises an image sensor, and upon the occurrence of the triggering event, the image sensor captures one or more images.

7. The portable device of claim 6, wherein the memory further comprises instructions for causing the processor to perform the further steps of communicating the one or more images to the user contact.

8. The portable device of claim 1, wherein the one or more sensors comprises a microphone, and upon the occurrence of the triggering event, the microphone captures an audio signal in an environment around the portable device.

9. The portable device of claim 8, wherein the memory further comprises instructions for causing the processor to perform the further steps of communicating the audio signal to the user contact.

10. The portable device of claim 1, wherein the memory further comprises instructions for causing the processor to perform the further steps of causing a device tethered to the portable device to communicate one or more images captured by an image sensor of the tethered device or communicate an audio signal captured by a microphone of the tethered device.

11. The portable device of claim 1, wherein the memory further comprises instructions for causing the processor to perform the further step of indicating that the status of the user has been communicated to the user contact.

12. The portable device of claim 1, wherein the step of communicating the status occurs automatically without intervention from the user.

13. The portable device of claim 1, further comprising a Global Positioning System (GPS) network interface, wherein the GPS network interface records location and timestamp information of the portable device, and wherein the memory further comprises instructions for causing the processor to perform the further step of communicating the location and timestamp information to a server.

14. The portable device of claim 1, wherein the user provided information comprises user input received at the input device providing a state of the user.

15. The portable device of claim 1, wherein the device collected information comprises one or more of:

a user'"'"'s heart rate, a user'"'"'s blood pressure, a users body temperature and a user'"'"'s blood glucose level.

16. The device of claim 1, wherein the health monitoring mode configures the input device and the one or more sensors to collect diagnostic and health-related information.

17. The device of claim 1., wherein the emergency countdown mode initiates a countdown timer that initiates emergency service contact unless the user enters a personal identification number via the input device.

18. The device of claim 1, wherein the activity duration monitoring mode configures the device to accept input from the user indicating a specific activity and expected duration of that activity.

19. The device of claim 1, wherein the geofence mode configures the device to notify an emergency contact upon the device leaving a predefined geographic boundary.

20. A system for monitoring a user, the system comprising:

a portable device associated with the user; and

a server communicatively coupled to the portable device through a wireless network,

wherein the portable device comprises;

a processor;

a network interface for communicating with the wireless network;

an input device for accepting user provided information of the user of the portable device;

one or more sensors for collecting device collected information from the user of the portable device;

a memory comprising instructions for causing the processor to perform the steps of;

collecting at least one of the user provided information and the device collected information; and

transmitting, by the network interface over the wireless network, the at least one of the user provided information and the device collected information to the server,

wherein the portable device is configurable to operate in two or more of a plurality of operation modes, the operation modes include;

a health monitoring mode, an emergency countdown mode, an activity duration monitoring mode, a location monitoring mode, an emergency contact mode, a geofence mode, a preset notification message mode, and a location tracking mode.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the server comprises:

a server processor; and

a server memory comprising server instructions for causing the server processor to perform steps of;

receiving the at least one of the user provided information and the device collected information from the portable device;

determining whether the at least one of the user provided information and the device collected information acts as a triggering event; and

.

conditionally communicating a notification message to a user contact when it is determined that the at least one of the user provided information and the device collected information acts as the triggering event,

wherein the notification message contains one or more of the user provided information and the device collected information.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the server memory further comprises server instructions for causing the server processor to perform the further step of storing the at least one of the user provided information and the device collected information at the server.

23. The system of claim 21, wherein the server memory further comprises server instructions for causing the server processor to perform the further step of transmitting to the portable device a user contact status message indicating that the notification message has been communicated to the user contact.

24. A method of reporting a status of a user of a portable device to a user contact, the method comprising:

receiving at least one of user provided information and device collected information of the user collected by at least one of an input device and one or more sensors associated with the portable device;

determining, based on the at least one of the user provided information and the device collected information, whether a triggering event has occurred; and

conditionally communicating the status of the user of the portable device to the user contact when the triggering event has occurred,

wherein the portable device is configurable to operate in two or more of plurality of operation mode, the operation mode include;

a health monitoring mode, an emergency countdown mode, an activity duration monitoring mode, a location monitoring mode, an emergency contact mode, a geofence mode, a preset notification message mode, and a location tracking mode.

25. The method of claim 24, further comprising transmitting a user contact status message indicating that the status of the user of the portable device has been communicated to the user contact.