System and method for reporting the existence of sensors belonging to multiple organizations

• US 9,934,675 B2
• Filed: 12/11/2015
• Issued: 04/03/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 05/22/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: West Corporation
• Original Assignee: West Corporation
• Inventors: Coyne, Kevin, Eich, William J., Martyn, John R., Parayil, Shiby Sugunan
• Primary Examiner(s): PHAM, QUANG
• Application Number:
  US14/966,514
• Publication Number:
  US 20160098917A1
• Time in Patent Office: 844 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6218 to a system of files or objects, e.g. local or distributed file system or database
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/02 Alarms for ensuring the safety of persons
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/10 responsive to calamitous events, e.g. tornados or earthquakes
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/12 responsive to undesired emission of substances, e.g. pollution alarms
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 23/00 Alarms responsive to unspecified undesired or abnormal conditions
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/00 Alarm systems in which the location of the alarm condition is signalled to a central station, e.g. fire or police telegraphic systems
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/009 Signalling of the alarm condition to a substation whose identity is signalled to a central station, e.g. relaying alarm signals in order to extend communication range
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/016 Personal emergency signalling and security systems emergency non-personal manually actuated alarm activators G08B25/12
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/14 Central alarm receiver or annunciator arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 26/008 central annunciator means of the sensed conditions, e.g. displaying or registering
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 27/003 Signalling to neighbouring houses
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 27/005 with transmission via computer network
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/181 for receiving images from a plurality of remote sources

Abstract

A system and method for reporting the existence of sensors belonging to multiple organizations that are proximally located to a requested location. The report includes a first list of sensors that are unauthorized and discoverable and a second list of sensors that are authorized.

Claims

1. A method for reporting, in response to an emergency condition being detected, the existence of a plurality of sensors of specific monitoring systems belonging to respective multiple organizations to a recipient, the plurality of sensors being proximally located to a requested location and configured to detect the emergency condition based on sensor information, the method comprising:

(a) receiving, by a reporting system, a request from the recipient, the request comprising an authorization level of the recipient, the requested location and a proximity to the requested location;

(b) searching, by the reporting system, a memory of the reporting system for the plurality of sensors that are located within the proximity to the requested location;

wherein the memory comprises the sensor information detected by each of the plurality of sensors;

(c) creating, by the reporting system, a first list of sensors of the plurality of sensors that are unauthorized and discoverable by the reporting system, with steps comprising;

(i) determining, by the reporting system, an authorization level of a sensor of the plurality of sensors;

(ii) comparing, by the reporting system, the authorization level of said respective sensor to the authorization level of the recipient; and

(iii) adding, by the reporting system, said respective sensor to the first list of sensors if the following conditions are true;

(1) the authorization level of the recipient is below the authorization level of said respective sensor, and

(2) the Unauthorized Recipient Discovery field of said respective sensor is set to True;

wherein the Unauthorized Recipient Discovery field is set to True indicative of the recipient has access to a data record of said respective sensor but do not has access to said respective sensor information if the authorization level of the recipient is below the authorization level of said respective sensor;

(d) creating, by the reporting system, a second list of sensors of the plurality of sensors that are authorized, with steps comprising;

(i) determining, by the reporting system, an authorization level of a sensor of the plurality of sensors;

(ii) comparing, by the reporting system, the authorization level of said respective sensor to the authorization level of the recipient; and

(iii) adding, by the reporting system, said respective sensor to the second list of sensors of the plurality of sensors if the authorization level of the recipient is at least the same as the authorization level of said respective sensor; and

(e) sending, by the reporting system, a report to the recipient, wherein the report comprises the first list of sensors, the second list of sensors, and said respective sensor information for said sensor in the second list of sensors that are authorized.

2. The method for reporting the existence of the plurality of sensors of the specific monitoring systems belonging to the respective multiple organizations to the recipient that are proximally located to the requested location as recited in claim 1, wherein the proximity in the request is comprised of a radial distance or a polygonal shape.

3. The method for reporting the existence of the plurality of sensors of the specific monitoring systems belonging to the respective multiple organizations to the recipient that are proximally located to the requested location as recited in claim 1, wherein said request further comprises the Auto Send Sensor Information flag, wherein the reporting system is configured to automatically send the respective sensor information for said sensors in the second list of sensors to the recipient when the Auto Send Sensor Information flag in set to True.

4. The method for reporting the existence of the plurality of sensors of the specific monitoring systems belonging to the respective multiple organizations to the recipient that are proximally located to the requested location as recited in claim 3 wherein said sensor information is based on (1) sensor information fetched from cache of the reporting system, or (2) the respective sensor'"'"'s response to a data query for current information, or (3) the respective sensor'"'"'s response to a data query for historical information.

5. The method for reporting the existence of the plurality of sensors of the specific monitoring systems belonging to the respective multiple organizations to the recipient that are proximally located to the requested location as recited in claim 1, wherein data provided for each sensor listed in said first list of sensors and said second list of sensors is comprised of the sensor Organization Name and the sensor Organization Sensor Identifier.

6. The method for reporting the existence of the plurality of sensors of the specific monitoring systems belonging to the respective multiple organizations to the recipient that are proximally located to the requested location as recited in claim 1, wherein the plurality of sensors are selected from at least one member of the group consisting of:

air pressure, temperature, humidity, moisture, mechanical pressure, optical, acoustic waves, motion, presence of chemicals or gasses, presence of biological matter, presence of metal, electromagnetic radiation, biometric parameters, visual pattern recognition, nuclear radiation and visual streams.

7. The method for reporting the existence of the plurality of sensors of the specific monitoring systems belonging to the respective multiple organizations to the recipient that are proximally located to the requested location as recited in claim 1, wherein a protocol for sending the report to the recipient is selected from a set of protocols consisting of IP, TCP, UDP, SCTP, HTTP, HTTPS, SIP, XML, CAP, RTP, RTSP, SMTP, SMPP, MM4 and MM7.

8. A reporting system for reporting, in response to an emergency condition being detected, the existence of a plurality of sensors of specific monitoring systems belonging to respective multiple organizations to a recipient, the plurality of sensors being proximally located to a requested location and configured to detect the emergency condition based on sensor information, the system comprising:

(a) a memory comprising instructions; and

(b) a processor in communication with the memory, wherein the processor, when executing the instructions, performs operations comprising;

(i) processing a request from the recipient, the request comprising an authorization level of the recipient, the requested location and a proximity to the requested location;

(ii) searching a memory for the plurality of sensors that are located within the proximity to the requested location;

wherein the memory further comprises the sensor information detected by each of the plurality of sensors;

(iii) creating a first list of sensors of the plurality of sensors that are unauthorized and discoverable by the reporting system, with steps comprising;

determining an authorization level of a sensor of the plurality of sensors;

comparing the authorization level of said respective sensor to the authorization level of the recipient; and

adding said respective sensor to the first list of sensors if the following conditions are true;

(1) the authorization level of the recipient is below the authorization level of said respective sensor, and

(2) the Unauthorized Recipient Discovery field of said respective sensor is set to True;

wherein the Unauthorized Recipient Discovery field is set to True indicative of the recipient has access to a data record of said sensor but do not has access to the respective sensor information if the authorization level of the recipient is below the authorization level of said respective sensor;

(iv) creating a second list of sensors of the plurality of sensors that are authorized, with steps comprising;

(1) determining an authorization level of a sensor of the plurality of sensors;

(2) comparing the authorization level of said respective sensor to the authorization level of the recipient; and

(3) adding said respective sensor to the second list of sensors if the authorization level of the recipient is at least the same as the authorization level of said respective sensor; and

(v) sending a report to the recipient, wherein the report comprises the first list of sensors, the second list of sensors , and the respective sensor information for said sensor in the second list of sensors that are authorized.

9. The reporting system for reporting the existence of the plurality of sensors of the specific monitoring systems belonging to the respective multiple organizations to the recipient that are proximally located to the requested location as recited in claim 8, wherein the proximity in the request is comprised of a radial distance or a polygonal shape.

10. The reporting system for reporting the existence of the plurality of sensors of the specific monitoring systems belonging to the respective multiple organizations to the recipient that are proximally located to the requested location as recited in claim 8, wherein said request further comprises the Auto Send Sensor Information flag, wherein the reporting system is configured to automatically send the respective sensor information for said sensor in the second list of sensors to the recipient when the Auto Send Sensor Information flag in set to True.

11. The reporting system for reporting the existence of the plurality of sensors of the specific monitoring systems belonging to the respective multiple organizations to the recipient that are proximally located to the requested location as recited in claim 10, wherein said sensor information is based on (1) sensor information fetched from cache of the reporting system, or (2) the respective sensor'"'"'s response to a data query for current information, or (3) the respective sensor'"'"'s response to a data query for historical information.

12. The reporting system for reporting the existence of the plurality of sensors of the specific monitoring systems belonging to the respective multiple organizations to the recipient that are proximally located to the requested location as recited in claim 8, wherein the data provided for each sensor listed in said first list of sensors and said second list of sensors is comprised of the sensor Organization Name and the sensor Organization Sensor Identifier.

13. The reporting system for reporting the existence of the plurality of sensors of the specific monitoring systems belonging to the respective multiple organizations to the recipient that are proximally located to the requested location as recited in claim 8, wherein the plurality of sensors are selected from at least one member of the group consisting of:

air pressure, temperature, humidity, moisture, mechanical pressure, optical, acoustic waves, motion, presence of chemicals or gasses, presence of biological matter, presence of metal, electromagnetic radiation, biometric parameters, visual pattern recognition, nuclear radiation and visual streams.

14. The reporting system for reporting the existence of the plurality of sensors of the specific monitoring systems belonging to the respective multiple organizations to the recipient that are proximally located to the requested location as recited in claim 8, wherein a protocol for sending the report to the requesting recipient is selected from a set of protocols consisting of IP, TCP, UDP, SCTP, HTTP, HTTPS, SIP, XML, CAP, RTP, RTSP, SMTP, SMPP, MM4 and MM7.