First responder localization and communication system

• US 7,619,515 B2
• Filed: 12/06/2006
• Issued: 11/17/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/07/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Brian Valania
• Original Assignee: Brian Valania
• Inventors: Valania, Brian
• Primary Examiner(s): Goins; Davetta W
• Assistant Examiner(s): Labbees; Edny
• Application Number:
  US11/635,126
• Publication Number:
  US 20070126573A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,077 Days
• Field of Search: 3405391-5399, 3405721-5729, 340/539.11, 340/539.12, 340/539.13, 340/539.16
• US Class Current: 340/539.2
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08 Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/20 Monitoring the location of vehicles belonging to a group, e.g. fleet of vehicles, countable or determined number of vehicles

Abstract

A system for tracking, graphically selecting and interacting with people, vehicles and/or equipment (“Mobile Units”) employs a tracked device attached to Mobile Unit capable of collecting information relating to the Mobile Unit to which it is attached and for communicating this digital information via radio waves to a base connected to a network. A number of servers are connected to the bases through a hierarchy network and can selectively display the monitored locations graphically. The user may also graphically select Mobile Units with which to communicate and/or control remotely. The system is well adapted for creating a hierarchy structure which can potentially track numerous people, vehicles, equipment across a country or globally.

Claims

1. A tracking and remote interaction system [100] for tracking, selecting and interacting with a plurality of mobile units comprising:

a) a plurality of tracked units [4100] each attached to a different mobile unit, the tracked units [4100] comprising;

i. a location device [4113] for monitoring its location and for providing a signal indicating its location;

ii. a microphone [4111] and an analog-to-digital (A/D) converter [4112] for providing a data stream;

iii. a data merger [4116] for merging the signal from the location device [4113] and the data stream from the analog-to-digital (A/D) converter [4112] to provide a composite signal;

iv. a modulator [4118] for passing the composite signal from the location device and for transmitting a radio signal to a base [3100];

v. a receiver [4120] for receiving radio signals sent to the tracked unit [4100], for decoding the received signals into digital streams and for playing back communication in the digital streams, and for implementing commands in the digital streams;

c) a base [3100] comprising;

i. a receiver [3120] including a demodulator [3128], a decoder [3127], and a data parser [3126], for receiving the radio signals from the tracked unit [4100], for demodulating, decoding, and parsing the radio signal to provide information including location information, and voice communications of the tracked unit [4100],

ii. a transmitter [3110] for receiving digital information and for transmitting voice communications and commands as digital information to selected tracked units [4100] through an antenna [3150];

d) a server [2100] coupled to the base [3100] for receiving the digital stream including the location information from the base comprising;

i. a map database [2130] having map information of an area of interest surrounding the locations of the tracked units [4100];

ii. a tracking database [2150] capable of holding location information of a plurality of tracked units [4100];

iii. an actions database [2170] capable of receiving communications, responses and commands intended to be sent to a tracked unit [4100];

iv. a processor [2190] coupled to the tracking database [2150] capable of receiving the location information from the base [3100] and storing it in the tracking database [2150], the processor [2190] also coupled to the map database [2130] capable of receiving map information from the map database [2130] and displaying a graphical representation of a map;

the processor [2190] also capable of reading information from the tracking database [2150] and for displaying an overlay indicating the locations of the tracked units [4100] on a graphical display;

the processor [2190] also capable of interacting with a user to allow the user to select tracked unit [4100] with which to interact to send messages and commands, and receive responses;

the processor [2190] also capable of passing the information in the actions database [2170] as a digital stream to transmitter [3110] of base [3100] causing it to be sent to each of the selected tracked units [4100].

2. The tracking and remote interaction system [100] of claim 1, wherein the location device [4113] is a global positioning device.

3. The tracking and remote interaction system [100] of claim 1, wherein the mobile units are first responders.

4. The tracking and remote interaction system [100] of claim 1, wherein the mobile units are vehicles.

5. The tracking and remote interaction system [100] of claim 1, wherein the mobile units are pieces of equipment.

6. The tracking and remote interaction system [100] of claim 1, wherein the communications are voice communications.

7. The tracking and remote interaction system [100] of claim 1, wherein the communications are commands.

8. The tracking and remote interaction system [100] of claim 1, wherein the communications are commands to alter the life-support controls of a first responder.

9. A method of selecting and remotely interacting with a plurality of mobile units comprising the steps of:

a) tracking the location [603] of a plurality of mobile units;

b) providing the tracked locations [605] to a hierarchical network for storage;

c) selecting a region on interest [607] to display;

d) interacting with the hierarchical network to provide information relating to mobile units in the selected region;

e) graphically representing a map [609] with the mobile units of the selected region;

f) interacting with the user [611] to allow the user to select mobile units on the graphical representation with which to interact;

g) providing communications [613] to be sent to the selected mobile units, to the base;

h) simultaneously providing the communications to the selected mobile units [617] without sending the communication to other mobile units which were not selected.

10. The method of selecting and remotely interacting of claim 9, wherein the location is tracked using global positioning technology.

11. The method of selecting and remotely interacting of claim 9, wherein the mobile units are first responders.

12. The method of selecting and remotely interacting of claim 9, wherein the mobile units are vehicles.

13. The method of selecting and remotely interacting of claim 9, wherein the mobile units are pieces of equipment.

14. The method of selecting and remotely interacting of claim 9, wherein the communications are voice communications.

15. The method of selecting and remotely interacting of claim 9, wherein the communications are commands.

16. The method of selecting and remotely interacting of claim 9, wherein the communications are commands to alter the life-support controls of a first responder.