RO128347A2 - System for automatic generation of reports on geographical distribution of emergency calls - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention relates to a system for the automatic generation of reports on the geographical distribution of emergency calls dialed by mobile phones to a unique call number for interventions. According to the invention, the system includes a plurality of mobile devices (), each of them comprising a mobile phone () and a GPS subsystem () which permanently calculates the current position of the device () based on the signals received from a plurality of dedicated satellites (), a call receiving centre () and a plurality of terrestrial communication stations () which ensure wireless voice communication between pairs of devices () or between devices () and the call receiving centre (), as well as data communication between the devices () and a report generating subsystem () which, in its turn, consists of a computer () running a dedicated software application intended to update a map () incorporating mapping information and information concerning the history of the emergency calls initiated from the geographical area represented on the map, where the mapping information may be stored locally, in the computer () or may be obtained from a specialized service, via an Internet connection ().

Description

Technical field of the invention

The present invention relates to the problem of automatic generation of synthetic reports, updated in real time, regarding the number of recent calls to the unique number of emergencies generated in a certain geographical area (city, district, group of neighboring buildings).

The proposed solution only considers calls to the unique emergency number generated from mobile phones.

The present invention relates to the field of determining the geographical position of the points from which emergency calls are generated from mobile phones, as well as to the field of management, processing and presentation of cartographic information.

The ictual state of the art in the considered field and related fields

The generalization of the use of a unique telephone number for emergency calls (112 in Europe, 911 in North America) allowed the development of technical solutions for the automatic generation of emergency calls, either by manually actuating a panic button located on the mobile phone. (US2010304709A1), either at the occurrence of alarm conditions, detected by monitoring medical parameters measured with sensors included in the mobile communication device, or distributed in the environment, but in radio communication with the mobile communication device (US2011014954A1, WO2009124326A1).

Another class of devices that can automatically generate calls to the unique emergency number are the monitoring devices intended for vehicles, capable of detecting and reporting accidents, theft, etc. (for example, WO9002399A1).

Most devices that automatically generate emergency calls in certain situations rely on GPS (Global Positioning System) to report

Description page 1 of 6 ΰ:; - ο β g 7 7 - I)? -09- 2011 the geographical coordinates of the point where the call was generated, considering that most modern "smart phones" include a GPS receiver, or can be relatively easily connected with an external GPS receiver.

GPS tracking devices have the disadvantage that they cannot be used inside buildings, because the walls greatly attenuate the radio signal emitted by GPS satellites.

For this reason, alternative solutions have been proposed for locating (determining the geographical position) of a mobile phone, based on the calculation of the distances between the mobile phone and a plurality of terrestrial communication channels (relays) whose geographical position is known. The principles of these methods are described in [1], and some implementation examples are available in US6061565A, FR2878684A1, US6490456B1.

On the other hand, numerous applications are currently available (Google Maps ™, YahoolMaps ™, Microsoft Virtual Earth ™, MapQuest ™, etc.), which provides map information about a selected geographic area, in graphical form (maps, satellite photos) ), accompanied by additional information about the area, presented in textual form (weather, traffic, tourist information), usually through a web browser. Patent W02011006172A1 describes a solution for processing cartographic information by overlapping, for advertising purposes, images with company logos.

Brief description of the invention

The number of emergency calls reported to the population in the unit of time is a synthetic demographic indicator, which can provide information on the level of crime, or on the rate of morbidity (number of illnesses related to the population) in a certain geographical area.

Increased zonal values of this indicator, above the statistical average calculated at the level of larger geographical areas, may indicate either an area with high crime or the existence of an epidemic in the respective area.

The information is of interest for the decision makers regarding the allocation of resources for emergency intervention, but also for developers and real estate agents, for tourists, who can decide to avoid the high value areas of this indicator, as well as for the general public.

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The present invention describes a solution for the automatic generation of synthetic reports, updated in real time, regarding the number of recent calls to the unique number of emergencies generated in a certain geographical area (city, neighborhood, group of neighboring buildings).

The proposed solution only considers calls to the unique emergency number generated from mobile phones.

The system includes a mobile communication device (1), composed of a mobile phone (11) and a GPS tracking subsystem (12), which permanently calculates the current position of the device based on the signals received from a plurality of dedicated satellites (4). ).

During an emergency call to the unique intervention number, the voice communication is directed by the relay (3) to a call pick-up center (Center Horses - 2), and the information about the geographical position of the call initiator is transmitted digitally to the generating subsystem. of reports (5), composed of a computer (51), running a dedicated software application for updating a map (52), which incorporates both cartographic information and information on the history of emergency calls initiated from the represented geographical area. map.

The cartographic information can be stored locally, at the level of the computer 51, or can be obtained from a specialized service (for example Google Maps), via an internet connection (6).

Specific claims are included for situations where the location of the initiator of the call is made by methods other than that based on the Global Positioning System (GPS).

Brief description of the drawings

Figure 1 shows the general structure of the system in one of the preferred implementations.

Figure 2 shows the structure of the system in an alternative implementation.

Figure 3 shows the logic scheme for sequencing operations in system operation.

Figure 4 shows an example of a system-generated raoort in graphical form (fig. 4 a), by superimposing the cartographic image of a geographical area (fig. 4 b) with a grid that encodes the density of emergency calls initiated from the cell. respective colors or shades of gray (fig. 4.c).

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Detailed description of preferred implementations

In a first preferred implementation, the system is composed of the following elements / subsystems (Figure 1):

- A plurality of mobile communication devices (1), each of which is composed of a mobile phone (11) and a GPS tracking device (12), which permanently calculates the current position of the device based on the signals received from a plurality dedicated satellites (4). The GPS tracking device can be incorporated into the mobile phone, as its subsystem.

- A call center (2)

- A plurality of terrestrial communication stations (3) that provide wireless voice communication between pairs of devices (1), or between devices (1) and the call center (2), as well as data communication between devices (1). ) and the subsystem for generating reports (5).

- Yeah. report generation subsystem (5), composed of at least one computer (51), running a dedicated software application for updating a map (52), which incorporates both cartographic information and emergency call history information initiated. from the geographical space represented by the map. The cartographic information can be stored locally, at the level of the computer 51, or can be obtained from a specialized service (for example Google Maps), via an internet connection (6).

The operation of the system in this configuration is as follows:

- The initiation of an emergency call is made by a human operator, with the help of a communication device (1). Emergency reporting is done by a two-way voice transmission between the operator who initiated the call and the personnel at the call center (2).

- The microcontroller in the mobile phone (11) detects that an emergency call has taken place and, at the end of the voice communication, automatically initiates a data transmission (in the form of an SMS, for example) to the reporting subsystem (5), in which the current position of the communication device that initiated the emergency call is reported. If at the time of data transmission, the GPS receiver (12) is non-operational (for example, because the user is inside a building), then the last correctly determined position is reported.

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- The computer (51) runs a dedicated software application, which creates and maintains a data structure, hereinafter referred to as "map" (52) in the form of a two-dimensional table. Each cell in the table corresponds to a geographical area, identified by its geographical coordinates (latitude, longitude).

- For each cell of the table, a real positive parameter, called the density of recorded emergency calls, is calculated and noted in this description with D. The initial value of parameter D is zero for all the cells of the map.

- When detecting a call to the unique emergency number, identify the cell on the map (52) that corresponds to the geographical position of the place where the emergency call was initiated and the parameter D corresponding to the respective cell is increased by an amount Q1.

- The values of parameter D for all cells change in time, by

d. growth with a Q2 amount, at regular intervals of time, called "depreciation time".

- A report on the geographical distribution of emergency calls, generated by the software application running on the computer (51) consists mainly of a graphic image obtained by superimposing two images: a cartographic image of the considered geographical area (as it is provided by the Google Maps application, for example, and an image was built locally in the form of a grid, in which each cell corresponds to a cell in the map (52). Parameter D values for each cell are represented by different colors, or by different shades of gray). The process is illustrated in Figure 4. Optionally, the reports may contain explanatory text messages. Reports are generated upon request.

- Requests for reports can be issued either from communication devices (1), e-mail, broadly by sending an SMS message to the subsystem (5), or from a computer accessing the subsystem (5) through the connection to the Internet (6) .

- The logic scheme of the system operation is presented in figure 3.

In an alternative implementation (figure 2) the communication devices (1) are simplified and reduced to a simple mobile phone (11). The location of the emergency call initiation points is made at the subsystem for generating the reports (5), by means of a localization module (53), which calculates

Description page 5 of 6 te 2 Ο 1 1 - 0 0 9/7 -0 7 -09- ZOif the geographical coordinates of the point from which the emergency call is generated starting from the relative position of the mobile phone (11) with respect to a plurality of terrestrial communication stations (31, 32, 33). Otherwise, the operation of the system remains identical to that described for the preferred implementation.

Claims (1)