Personal emergency triggering, notification and communication for smartwatches

• US 10,477,008 B2
• Filed: 01/21/2016
• Issued: 11/12/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 01/23/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Smartwatcher Technologies AG
• Original Assignee: Smartwatcher Technologies AG
• Inventors: Cohen, Morgan
• Primary Examiner(s): Eisner, Ronald
• Application Number:
  US15/544,502
• Publication Number:
  US 20180176362A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,391 Days
• Field of Search: 4554041, 4554042, 4554561-457, 34053913, 340988-996, D101042
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/265 Personal security, identity or safety
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/001 Alarm cancelling procedures or alarm forwarding decisions, e.g. based on absence of alarm confirmation
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/005 Alarm destination chosen according to a hierarchy of available destinations, e.g. if hospital does not answer send to police station
• 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: H04L 67/55 Push-based network services
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72412 using two-way short-range wireless interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72424 with manual activation of emergency-service functions
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2242/04 for emergency applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2242/30 Determination of the location of a subscriber
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/46 Arrangements for calling a number of substations in a predetermined sequence until an answer is obtained
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5166 in combination with interactive voice response systems or voice portals, e.g. as front-ends
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/53375 Message broadcasting
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/12 Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/90 Services for handling of emergency or hazardous situations, e.g. earthquake and tsunami warning systems [ETWS]

Abstract

A wearable mobile device executes a personal safety service client application to detect a triggering event indicating an emergency, wherein the triggering event is detected from user input received by the wearable mobile device. The application determines a location of the wearable mobile device, the location of the wearable mobile device corresponding to a location of the emergency, and provides an indication of the emergency and the location of the emergency to a personal safety service server. The personal safety service server sends a notification message via a push notification displayed on user devices of a predefined group of emergency contacts indicating the occurrence of the emergency and periodically receives updates to the location of the wearable mobile device from the personal safety service client application.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method enabling a user to inform a pre-defined group of emergency contacts about an occurrence of emergency associated with the user, the method comprising:

detecting, by a processing device, a triggering event indicating an emergency, wherein the triggering event is detected from user input received by a wearable mobile device;

determining, by the processing device, a location of the wearable mobile device, the location of the wearable mobile device corresponding to a location of the emergency;

providing, by the processing device, an indication of the emergency and the location of the emergency to a personal safety service server, wherein the personal safety service server is configured to send a notification message via a push notification displayed on user devices of the predefined group of emergency contacts indicating the occurrence of the emergency associated with the user;

providing, by the processing device, confirmation that the notification message sent via a push notification was displayed on the user device of at least one member of the predefined group of emergency contacts; and

periodically providing, by the processing device, updates for the location of the wearable mobile device to the personal safety service server.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the wearable mobile device comprises a smartwatch.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the wearable mobile device is connected to a mobile device via a personal area wireless data network, the mobile device having wide area network connectivity and location services, wherein the location services are used in determining the location of the wearable mobile device.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the wearable mobile device comprises wide area network connectivity and location services.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the user input received by the wearable mobile device comprises at least one of (a) pressing one or more physical buttons on wearable mobile device, (b) turning or pressing a crown of the wearable mobile device, (c) shaking the wearable mobile device to activate an accelerometer, (d) making a selection on a touchscreen of the wearable mobile device, or (e) speaking a predetermined phrase.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing a confirmation that the triggering event was detected and that the indication of the emergency was provided to the personal safety service server.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the confirmation comprises a vibration of the wearable mobile device.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

when a wide area network connection is not available for the wearable mobile device, buffering location data corresponding to the wearable mobile device; and

providing the location data corresponding to the wearable mobile device to the personal safety service server once the wide area network connection becomes available.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, during the emergency, user input comprising information about a nature of the emergency, the user input comprising a selection of a description of the emergency from a user interface displayed on the wearable mobile device; and

providing the information about the nature of the emergency to the personal safety service server.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the personal safety service server is configured to notify remaining members of the predefined group of emergency contacts when one of the predefined group of emergency contacts views the notification message.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the personal safety service server is configured to send messages between members of the predefined group of emergency contacts and between members of the predefined group of emergency contacts and the user.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

in response to detecting the triggering event indicating the emergency, initiating a telephone call to official emergency services.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the personal safety service server is configured to notify the predefined group of emergency contacts that the user has initiated the telephone call to the official emergency services.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the personal safety service server is configured to initiate a telephone call to the members of predefined group of emergency contacts in sequence and connecting a first member of the predefined group of emergency contacts that answers the telephone call to the user via the wearable mobile device.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

in response to detecting the triggering event indicating the emergency, capturing audio via a microphone on the wearable mobile device; and

streaming the captured audio to the personal safety service server, wherein the personal safety service server is configured to make the captured audio available to the predefined group of emergency contacts.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

detecting a cancelation event indicating that the emergency has ended, wherein the cancelation event is detected from user input received by the wearable mobile device; and

providing an indication that the emergency has ended to the personal safety service server, wherein the personal safety service server is configured to notify the predefined group of emergency contacts that the emergency has ended.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein members of the predefined group of emergency contacts accepted an invitation to be an emergency contact for the user, and wherein the user is not an emergency contact for the members of the predefined group of emergency contacts.

18. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions which, when executed by a processing device, cause the processing device to:

detect a triggering event indicating an emergency, wherein the triggering event is detected from user input received by a wearable mobile device;

determine a location of the wearable mobile device, the location of the wearable mobile device corresponding to a location of the emergency;

provide an indication of the emergency and the location of the emergency to a personal safety service server, wherein the personal safety service server is configured to send a notification message via a push notification displayed on user devices of the predefined group of emergency contacts indicating the occurrence of the emergency associated with a user;

provide confirmation that the notification message sent via a push notification was displayed on the user device of at least one member of the predefined group of emergency contacts; and

periodically provide updates for the location of the wearable mobile device to the personal safety service server.

19. A personal safety service system comprising:

a wearable mobile device comprising a first processing device and a first memory, the first memory storing a personal safety service client application, executable by the first processing device from the first memory to;

detect a triggering event indicating an emergency, wherein the triggering event is detected from user input received by the wearable mobile device;

determine a location of the wearable mobile device, the location of the wearable mobile device corresponding to a location of the emergency;

provide an indication of the emergency and the location of the emergency to a personal safety service server, wherein the personal safety service server is configured to send a notification message via a push notification displayed on user devices of the predefined group of emergency contacts indicating the occurrence of the emergency associated with a user;

provide confirmation that the notification message sent via a push notification was displayed on the user device of at least one member of the predefined group of emergency contacts; and

periodically provide updates for the location of the wearable mobile device to the personal safety service server.