METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR AN EMERGENCY LOCATION INFORMATION SERVICE (E-LIS) FROM UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLES (UAV)

• US 20150140954A1
• Filed: 12/22/2014
• Published: 05/21/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 05/16/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Everbridge Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Gerald R. Eisner, Nicholas M. Maier
• Inventors: MAIER, Nicholas M., EISNER, Gerald R.
• Granted Patent: US 9,094,816 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/404.2
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/025 using location based information parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/70 Services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/90 Services for handling of emergency or hazardous situations, e.g. earthquake and tsunami warning systems [ETWS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/003 locating network equipment
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/50 for emergency connections

Abstract

A method and system for determining and verifying a location of a network device in emergency situations with emergency messages including legacy 911, E911 and text-to-911 messages from an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or drone. The method and system provide a current physical geographic location for mobile devices in urban areas (e.g., spot, chair, desk on in a room on a building floor, campus, enterprise, city, state, region, country, continent, etc.) and rural areas in an emergency situation such as an accident, fire, terrorist attack, military incident, weather, flood event, etc. and forwarding the current physical geographic location to a legacy 911 network, a Emergency Services IP networks (ESInet) or text-to-911 Short Message Services (SMS) networks to alert emergency responders.

Claims

1. A method for locating a network device during an emergency with an emergency information system (E-LIS), comprising:

receiving on a server application on a server network device with one or more processors a wireless emergency message or a text-to-911 message from a mobile application on a first mobile network device with one or more processors via a wireless communications network indicating an emergency event has occurred with the first mobile network device;

sending a wireless emergency location request message from the server application on the server network device via the wireless communications network to an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with one or more processors flying over a geographic area including the first mobile network device;

receiving on the server application on the server network device via the wireless communications network from the UAV a wireless emergency location response message including a current set of 3D (X,Y, Z) geo-space coordinates or 2D (X,Y) geo-space coordinates for the first mobile network device;

determining on the server application on the server network device with the current set of 3D (X,Y, Z) geo-space coordinates or 2D (X,Y) geo-space coordinates a current physical geographic location for the first mobile network device; and

sending an emergency response message or a 911-to-text message including the determined current physical geographic location for the first mobile network device from the server application on the server network device via a second communications network to a desired emergency response server with one or more processors.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

locating visually the first mobile network device with an audiovisual component on the UAV in the geographic area; and

determining from the UAV a current set of 3D (X,Y, Z) geo-space coordinates or 2D (X,Y) geo-space coordinates for the determined visual location of the first mobile network device.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

locating the first mobile network device in the geographic area from the UAV with one or more of wireless Global Positioning System (GPS) signals, Wireless Fidelity (WiFi) signals, wireless Bluetooth signals or cell tower signals being sent from the first mobile network device from one or more communications components automatically activated on the first mobile network device by sending the wireless emergency message or a text-to-911 message.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the desired emergency response server is an E911 or 911 emergency response server, a text-to-911 server, a Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) server, an Emergency Services IP networks (ESInet) server or an emergency gateway network server device, each with one or more processors.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the current 3D (X,Y, Z) geo-space coordinates at the current physical location includes current 3D (X,Y, Z) geo-space coordinates for a chair at a desk in a room in an office on a building floor, a spot on a building floor, a building floor in a building, building on a street in an enterprise, campus, village, town, city, state, country or continent or global region.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the current 3D (X,Y,Z) geo-space coordinates or 2D (X,Y) geo-space coordinates include a current physical location in a rural area.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the wireless emergency message includes an E911 communication message, a legacy 911 communication message, a Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) message or PAM Interface Protocol (PAM) message.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the emergency event includes an accident, event, fire event, terrorist attack event, military event, weather event, flood event or crime event.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the emergency event includes an emergency event automatically detected by an accelerometer, radio frequency identifier (RFID) sensor, a barometric sensor, a moisture sensor, an altimeter or a temperature sensor included on the first mobile network device.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

displaying in real-time on the server network device or another server network device with one or more processors in real-time on a graphical map the determined current physical geographic location for the first mobile network device for one or more desired emergency response agencies.

11. The method of claim 10 further comprising:

displaying in real-time on the server network device or another server network device with one or more processors in real-time visual images of the first mobile network device for one or more desired emergency response agencies.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of sending the wireless emergency location request message from the server application on the server network device via the wireless communications network to the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) includes sending the wireless emergency location request message to the UAV on an Aeronautical Mobile Service (AMS) wireless frequency, another pre-determined wireless aviation frequency a wireless telecommunications frequency or other wireless networking communications frequency.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the first mobile network device includes a smart phone, a table computer or wearable mobile network device, each with one or more processors.

14. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

sending from the mobile application on the first mobile network device with one or more processors a first wireless emergency message or a first text-to-911 message on a pre-determined wireless aviation frequency via the wireless communications network directly to the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with one or more processors indicating an emergency event has occurred with the first mobile network device.

15. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

locating from the UAV the first mobile network device with one or more wireless signals received from the first mobile network device comprising;

Global Positioning System (GPS) signals, Wireless Fidelity (WiFi) signals, wireless Bluetooth signals or cell tower signals, being sent from the first mobile network device on one or more communications components automatically activated by a first mobile application on the first mobile network device by sending the wireless emergency message or a text-to-911 message from the first mobile network device; and

determining on the UAV the current set of 3D (X,Y, Z) geo-space coordinates or 2D (X,Y) geo-space coordinates or current physical location for the first mobile network device with the received one or more wireless signals.

16. A method for locating a network device during an emergency with an emergency information system (E-LIS), comprising:

receiving on a server application on a server network device with one or more processors via a wireless communications network from an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) a wireless emergency location response message including a current set of 3D (X,Y, Z) geo-space coordinates or 2D (X,Y) geo-space coordinates for a first mobile network device with one or more processors,

wherein a mobile application on the first mobile network device sent a first wireless emergency message or a first text-to-911 message on a pre-determined wireless frequency via the wireless communications network directly to the UAV indicating an emergency event has occurred with the first mobile network device;

determining on the server application on the server network device with the current set of 3D (X,Y, Z) geo-space coordinates or 2D (X,Y) geo-space coordinates a current physical geographic location for the first mobile network device; and

sending an emergency response message or a 911-to-text message including the determined current physical geographic location for the first mobile network device from the server application on the server network device via a second communications network to a desired emergency response server with one or more processors.

17. The method of claim 16 further comprising:

determining on the UAV with current set of 3D (X,Y, Z) geo-space coordinates or 2D (X,Y) geo-space coordinates the current physical geographic location for the first mobile network device; and

sending an emergency response message or a 911-to-text message including the determined current physical geographic location for the first mobile network device directly from the UAV via a second communications network to a desired emergency response server with one or more processors.

18. The method of claim 17 further comprising:

locating the first mobile network device from the UAV with one or more of wireless Global Positioning System (GPS) signals, Wireless Fidelity (WiFi) signals, wireless Bluetooth signals or cell tower signals being sent from the first mobile network device from one or more communications components automatically activated on the first mobile network device after sending the wireless emergency message or a text-to-911 message.

19. The method of claim 16 wherein the step of receiving on the server application on the server network device via the wireless communications network from the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) the wireless emergency location response message includes receiving the wireless emergency location response message from the UAV on an Aeronautical Mobile Service (AMS) wireless frequency, another pre-determined wireless aviation frequency, wireless telecommunications frequency or other wireless networking communications frequency.

20. An emergency location information system (E-LIS) for network devices, comprising in combination:

one or more unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) each with one or more processors;

one or more mobile network devices each with one or more processors;

one or more server network devices each with one or more processors;

one or more emergency response servers each with one or more processors;

a non-transitory computer readable medium on a server network device with one or more processors including a plurality of instructions configuring the one or more processors for;

for receiving on a server application on a server network device with one or more processors a wireless emergency message or a text-to-911 message from a mobile application on a first mobile network device with one or more processors via a wireless communications network indicating an emergency event has occurred with the first mobile network device;

for sending a wireless emergency location request message from the server application on the server network device via the wireless communications network to an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with one or more processors flying over a geographic area including the first mobile network device;

for receiving on the server application on the server network device via the wireless communications network from the UAV a wireless emergency location response message including a current set of 3D (X,Y, Z) geo-space coordinates or 2D (X,Y) geo-space coordinates for the first mobile network device;

for determining on the server application on the server network device with the current set of 3D (X,Y, Z) geo-space coordinates or 2D (X,Y) geo-space coordinates a current physical geographic location for the first mobile network device;

for sending an emergency response message or a 911-to-text message including the determined current physical geographic location for the first mobile network device from the server application on the server network device via a second communications network to a desired emergency response server with one or more processors;

for displaying in real-time on the server network device or another server network device with one or more processors in real-time on a graphical map the determined current physical geographic location for the first mobile network device for one or more desired emergency response agencies; and

for receiving on the server application on the server network device with one or more processors via the wireless communications network from the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) a wireless emergency location response message including a current set of 3D (X,Y, Z) geo-space coordinates, 2D (X,Y) geo-space coordinates or the determined current physical location for the first mobile network device,

wherein the mobile application on the first mobile network device sent a first wireless emergency message or a first text-to-911 message on a pre-determined wireless frequency via the wireless communications network directly to the UAV indicating an emergency event has occurred with the first mobile network device.