Method and apparatus for providing customization of public safety answering point information delivery

• US 9,942,740 B2
• Filed: 03/13/2017
• Issued: 04/10/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 03/14/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sirius XM Connected Vehicle Services Inc. (Liberty Media Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Sirius XM Connected Vehicle Services Inc. (Liberty Media Corporation)
• Inventors: Corley, Gregory Charles, Farrell, Tod, Garrison, Barry, Nelson, Scott, Schalk, Thomas Barton
• Primary Examiner(s): LETT, THOMAS J
• Application Number:
  US15/457,635
• Publication Number:
  US 20170188218A1
• Time in Patent Office: 393 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/26 Speech to text systems G10L15/08 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/40 for vehicles, e.g. vehicle-to-pedestrians [V2P]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/44 for communication between vehicles and infrastructures, e.g. vehicle-to-cloud [V2C] or vehicle-to-home [V2H]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/90 Services for handling of emergency or hazardous situations, e.g. earthquake and tsunami warning systems [ETWS]

Abstract

A method and system for providing emergency call (e-call) services is disclosed. A third-party service center receives a communication from a vehicle over a communication pathway. Signaling is automatically sent to the vehicle from the third-party service center over the communication pathway. Location information is received from the vehicle at the third-party service center in response to the signaling. Information is forwarded from the voice call and the location information to a public safety answering point (PSAP) determined by the third-party service center.

Claims

1. A method for providing emergency call services, which comprises:

receiving at an automated third-party service center a communication from a vehicle over a data channel;

automatically sending signaling to the vehicle from the third-party service center;

receiving at the third-party service center over the data channel in response to the signaling, synthetic audio in the form of recorded audio or text-to-speech message from the vehicle, the synthetic audio being generated by a vehicle e-call system and representing location information comprising at least latitude and longitude coordinates of the vehicle;

using an automated speech recognition system located at the third-party service center, transcribing from the synthetic audio and into text data at least the latitude and longitude coordinates to determine if the coordinates are valid; and

if the coordinates are valid, automatically forwarding information from the vehicle communication and the location information to a public safety answering point (PSAP) determined by the third-party service center.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the speech recognition system accepts packet audio data.

3. The method according to claim 1, which further comprises determining the PSAP with a database containing characteristic information on a plurality of PSAPs.

4. The method according to claim 3, which further comprises utilizing the database to select the PSAP using voice and/or location information.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the database is resident in an external device.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein the external device comprises an emergency services call router connected to the third-party service center over an Internet connection.

7. The method according to claim 1, which further comprises determining alternate position information and using the alternate position information to check the location information.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein the alternate position information is provided by a mobile device locator that determines the alternate position information using cellular network-based methods.

9. The method according to claim 1, which further comprises using a live agent to determine the location information when useable location information cannot be determined automatically.

10. A system for providing emergency call services, which comprises:

a vehicle e-call system;

a plurality of public safety answering points (PSAPs); and

an automated third-party service center that;

receives a communication from the vehicle e-call system over a data channel;

automatically sends signaling to the vehicle e-call system in response to the communication received from the vehicle e-call system;

in response to the signaling, receives synthetic audio from the vehicle e-call system over the data channel, the synthetic audio being in the form of recorded audio or a text-to-speech message and representing location information comprising at least latitude and longitude coordinates of the vehicle;

using an automated speech recognition system located at the third-party service center, transcribing from the synthetic audio and into text data at least the latitude and longitude coordinates to determine if the coordinates are valid;

if the coordinates are valid, determines a selected one of the plurality of PSAPs; and

automatically forwards information from the vehicle communication and the location information to the selected PSAP.

11. The system according to claim 10, wherein the speech recognition system accepts packet audio data.

12. The system according to claim 10, wherein the plurality of public safety answering points (PSAPs) each have characteristic information and further comprising a database containing the characteristic information on the plurality of PSAPs used by the third-party service center to determine the selected PSAP.

13. The system according to claim 12, wherein the third-party service center accesses the database to select the PSAP using voice and/or location information.

14. The system according to claim 13, wherein the database is resident in an external device.

15. The system according to claim 14, wherein the external device comprises an emergency services call router connected to the third-party service center over an Internet connection.

16. The system according to claim 10, wherein the third-party service center determines alternate position information and uses the alternate position information to check the location information.

17. The system according to claim 16, further comprising a mobile device locator that provides the alternate position information and determines the alternate position information using cellular network-based methods.

18. The system according to claim 10, wherein the third-party service center screens rogue or runaway devices from reaching the PSAP.