WO2010075546A2

WO2010075546A2 - Mobile safety and alert system

Info

Publication number: WO2010075546A2
Application number: PCT/US2009/069466
Authority: WO
Inventors: Rob Wilcox; Daniel Newman; Austin Gayer
Original assignee: Mffc Llc
Priority date: 2008-12-24
Filing date: 2009-12-23
Publication date: 2010-07-01
Also published as: WO2010075546A3

Abstract

A secure database and service are provided that allows a user to send a message to the secure database. The message may include a picture taken with their portable communication device. Once the message is received, notification messages may be transmitted to predetermined recipients indicating that a message has been sent by the user and prompting the predetermined recipients to check the safety the user. The secure database may also allow law enforcement personnel to view the message and/or picture on a limited basis if the safety of the user has been called into question.

Description

MOBILE SAFETY AND ALERT SYSTEM

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of U.S. provisional application no. 61/140,771 filed 24 December 2008, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

FIELD

The present invention is directed generally to communication systems and more particularly to a notification and reporting system used in connection with portable communication technology.

BACKGROUND

The safety of one's children is always in the back, if not the front, of a parent's mind. As children grow older and become more independent, parents have less and less control over the actions and safety of their children. Ultimately, children grow up and begin going out with friends at night and then they move away from the house, perhaps even going to school. When alone, the safety of the children ultimately rests in the hands of the children. The reality of the situation is that there are few options available to parents who want to ensure the safety of their children.

One option available to parents who want to keep track of their children's safety is to equip their child with a mobile phone. However, a parent is required to continuously call their child or require their child to check-in at predetermined intervals. This can be embarrassing for many children, having their parents call them every hour or half-hour. Additionally, if something happens to a child just after they check-in, it could be hours before the parent becomes aware of a potential emergency situation. In addition to the lack of mechanisms available to parents, there are currently very few mechanisms available to law enforcement officials and crime scene investigators when trying to solve a crime or determine the whereabouts of a lost child. It is standard protocol for investigators to search social networking websites to see if a victim has a profile page. Often times these profile pages help investigators gain some insight about the victim and their potential last known contacts. But, these profile pages are limited to instances where they are updated by the child. Of course, the child usually updates their page when they are in the safety of their own home. Thus, these sites do not usually help in detecting real-time clues as to a victim's last known location or potential witnesses if an emergency occurs.

SUMMARY

These and other needs are addressed by the various embodiments and configurations of the present invention. It is thus one aspect of the present invention to provide a communication method that includes receiving a message, analyzing the message to determine that the message is a safety update message, and in response to determining that the message is a safety update message, generating a safety alert message for transmission to at least one predetermined recipient.

This safety update and alert method allows a child or any other person to update concerned persons (e.g., parents) as to their whereabouts if the child is concerned for their own safety and want their parent to call and check-in with them. In this sense, the use of a safety update message is a request for contact that also allows the child to store information related to his/her whereabouts when they transmitted the safety update message. In accordance with at least some embodiments of the present invention, a picture of an individual may be taken with a cellular phone or smart phone and then that information can be transmitted wirelessly via a cellular communication network to a larger database. Once the picture information is received at the larger database a facial comparison against known felons and other individuals of interest to determine if the person whose picture was just taken is one of these individuals of interest. If the person is an individual of interest, then a safety alert message may be transmitted to predetermined recipients.

In some embodiments, a hard key, soft key (e.g. , programmable key, speed-dial, long-code dialing, etc.), or the like on a mobile communication device can be programmed to initiate methods of the present invention. In particular, if a mobile communication device is provided with one or more of a special-purpose hard key, soft key, or the like, then the user of the mobile communication device can simply press the special-purposed key to initiate one or more of the methods described herein. For example, the pressing of a special-purposed key may result in the generation of an emergency message or alert that is sent to a designated service (possibly a website or website operator), possibly via a preprogrammed phone number (e.g., a 1-800, 1-888, or similar toll-free number).

Upon receiving the call over the designated phone number, the designated service processes the call to determine alerting preferences for the calling user. Based on the preferences, the designated service will implement alerting to various parties which may include, but is not limited to, updating a website profile for the calling user, alerting predefined parties (e.g., personal contacts of the calling user, emergency personnel, etc.), determining a location of the calling user's mobile device, providing the location information to pre-defined parties, and so on.

These and other advantages will be apparent from the disclosure of the method(s) and apparatus(es) contained herein. The above-described embodiments and configurations are neither complete nor exhaustive. As will be appreciated, other embodiments of the invention are possible utilizing, alone or in combination, one or more of the features set forth above or described in detail below.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Fig. 1 is a block diagram depicting a communication system in accordance with embodiments of the present invention; and

Fig. 2 is a flow diagram depicting a communication method in accordance with embodiments of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Embodiments of the invention will be illustrated below in conjunction with an exemplary communication system. Although well suited for use with, e.g., a system having servers, routers, and the like, the invention is not limited to any particular type of communication system or configuration of system elements. Those skilled in the art will recognize that the disclosed techniques may be used in any communication application in which it is desirable to provide users with the ability to quickly send safety alert messages to a secure area.

The exemplary systems and methods of this invention will also be described in relation to analysis software, modules, and associated analysis hardware. However, to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the present invention, the following description omits well- known structures, components and devices that may be shown in block diagram form, are well known, or are otherwise summarized.

For purposes of explanation, numerous details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. It should be appreciated, however, that embodiments of the present invention may be practiced in a variety of ways beyond the specific details set forth herein.

Fig. 1 shows an illustrative embodiment of the present invention. A communication system 100 is depicted as including a first and second communication network 104a, 104b, respectively. The first communication network 104a may correspond to any type of known communications network or collection of communications equipment. The first network 104a may comprise a cellular communications network or some other type of wireless communications network.

The second communication network 104b may comprise any type of information transportation medium and may use any type of protocols to transport messages between endpoints. The Internet is an example of the communication network 104 that constitutes an IP network consisting of many computers and other communication devices located all over the world, which are connected through many telephone systems and other means. Other examples of the second network 104b include, without limitation, a standard Plain Old Telephone System (POTS), an Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN), the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), a Local Area Network (LAN), a Wide Area Network (WAN), a cellular communications network, and/or any other type of packet- switched or circuit-switched network known in the art. Both communication networks 104a, 104b may include wired and/or wireless communication technologies.

The first communication network 104a may be adapted to transport messages between portable communication devices 108 and other types of mobile or non-mobile communication devices to a database 120 (containing picture data, message data, and/or user communication preferences and profile information) via a communication server 116. In accordance with at least some embodiments of the present invention, one or more cellular or wireless access points 112 may be used to connect the mobile communication devices 108 to the communication network 104a.

In accordance with at embodiments of the present invention, the communication devices 108 may be adapted to transmit messages to the communication server 116. The communication devices 108 may transmit traditional messages as well as safety update messages. The messages may be transmitted in various formats such as Short Message Service (SMS) messages, email messages (e.g., Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) over Transport Control Protocol (TCP)/IP), Instant Messages (IM), Multimedia Message Service (MMS) messages (including text, picture, video, and/or audio content), and/or combinations thereof.

Both the communication server 116 and web server 124 may be maintained and operated by a designated service provider 132. In some embodiments, the components and features of the web server 124 and communication server 116 may be provided on a single server, thereby reducing the number of servers required of the service provider 132. In particular, one or both of the communication server 116 and web server 124 may operate as a virtual machine on the other of the communication server 116 and web server 124.

Upon receiving a message from a mobile communication device 108, the communication server 116 is adapted to invoke an alerting module 136 of the designated service 132 to analyze the message to determine whether it is a safety update message as opposed to a traditional message or some other type of message. If the alerting module 136 determines that the message is a safety update message, then relevant data (e.g., picture information, location information, alert messages, etc.) from the message is stored in the database 120. Additionally, the alerting module 136 may be adapted to generate and transmit a safety alert message to one or more predetermined recipients, such as contacts designated by the user 144 and/or emergency personnel 148. The predetermined recipients of a safety alert message are generally provisioned by the user that transmitted the initial safety update message and provisioning may be accomplished via either communication network 104a or communication network 104b. The provisioning may occur during transmission of the safety update message or prior to transmission of the message. More specifically, the user that transmitted the safety update message may have a profile on a face file website. The face file website may be administered by the designated service 132 and the user may have selected his/her predetermined recipients during set up of their user account.

The database 120 and the user profile on the face file website is generally a secure area that is only accessible by the account holder. The account holder may be allowed to access his/her profile via the second communication network 104b using a personal computing device 128. Examples of personal computing devices include, without limitation, personal computers, laptops, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), and the like. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the personal computing device 128 may also be a mobile communication device 108 such as a cellular phone, smart phone, or portable email capable device.

As noted above, each user's personal profile is maintained securely by the web server 124 such that only the account holder is allowed access to his/her website and pictures transmitted thereto via a mobile communication device 108. Certain exceptions may be made, however. For instance, a user may be allowed to select other individuals that are allowed to access their personal face file if certain conditions are met.

As another example, law enforcement officials (e.g., emergency personnel 148) may be allowed temporary access to a user's personal profile under certain circumstances (e.g. , the user sent a safety update message and was subsequently involved in some sort of crime or has been identified as a possible witness to a crime based on their known location as determined by a locating module 140 also provided at the designated service 132).

In accordance with at least some embodiments of the present invention, the locating module 140 may be configured to determine location information for a communication device 108 by using GPS locating techniques, cellular triangulation locating techniques, and any other known locating technique known in the art. Furthermore, the location information may be leveraged and provided to law enforcement officials to provide a path or projected path of the communication device 108. This path or projected path information can be provided to law enforcement officials thereby allowing them to intercept or predict a future location of the communication device and hopefully respond to an emergency in a more timely fashion. A sophisticated locating technique that extrapolates current and past location information to predict future location information can also be implemented in a device 108 and provided to the service provider 132. In this embodiment, an automatic location message is transmitted by the communication device 108 at a predetermined rate (e.g., every minute, ten seconds, five seconds, etc.) so that if the user is in a dangerous situation, they need not be reaching for their communication device 108 multiple times. Engagement of this feature may be accomplished the user placing the communication device 108 in a "continuous tracking mode" thereby initiating the transmission of multiple status update messages at predetermined intervals, where the messages include location information. This may also be useful in situations where an attacker takes the user's communication device 108, but the "continuous tracking mode" has already been engaged by the user. In some embodiments, the processes of the continuous tracking mode may operate in the background such that the holder of the phone is unaware that it is in such a mode. To this extent, the face file website may be used as a tool by law enforcement officials to investigate crimes or potential crimes. The amount of information provided to law enforcement officials may vary, however, depending upon the severity of the crime under investigation and the connection between the user and the crime. For example, if the user is identified as a missing person, then law enforcement officials, for example, may be allowed to access all information from that user's profile that has been transmitted to the database 120 in, for example, the last 24 hours (or some other predetermined amount of time) and the officials may only be allowed to access such information for a predetermined amount of time (e.g., 72 hours).

If the user was not directly involved in the crime but did send a safety update message around the time of a crime and within proximity to the location where the crime occurred (this information can be obtained by the locating module 140 from the safety update message or from the locating module 140 proactively querying a communication device 108 shortly after the device has transmitted a safety update message), then that user may be a potential witness to the crime that law enforcement officials would likely want to interview. If this is the case, then the user information may be provided to the law enforcement officials, but no other access to the user's personal profile is allowed or a lesser amount of access is allowed. All of these access permissions may be provisioned by the user during account set up or during account maintenance.

In accordance with at least some embodiments of the present invention, the safety alert messages (sent in response to the communication server 116 receiving a safety update message) may be sent to the predetermined recipients, which may include law enforcement officials. The safety alert messages may include selected information from the safety update message such as sender information, time of transmission, and/or location of transmission. The safety alert message may be transmitted in any number of formats including the possible formats used to transmit the safety update message. Additionally, the safety alert message may be transmitted as a call to a predetermined number that includes an automated message that audibly transmits the selected information. More specifically, if a voice call is used as the medium for a safety alert message, then a predetermined recording may be generated comprising the selected information and upon establishing a connection with the predetermined recipient and the communication server 116, the predetermined recording is played for the predetermined recipient. In some embodiments, the predetermined recipient may be dynamically determined based on the user's location (corresponding to the known location of the user's communication device 108) when the safety alert message is transmitted. For example, if a user's location is known to be within the area of a particular college or work campus, then campus security may be alerted as the designated emergency personnel 148. Alternatively, if a user's location is not within a college or work campus, then general emergency personnel such as city, county, or state law enforcement, fire personnel, medical personnel, etc. may be alerted as the emergency personnel. In some embodiments, however, a user may provision rules which indicate that general emergency personnel is alerted regardless of the user's location.

Upon receiving a safety alert message at their mobile communication device 108 and/or personal computing device 128 {e.g., multiple safety alert messages may be transmitted to a single predetermined recipient in a number of different formats to a number of different communication devices), the recipient of the safety alert message may be prompted to try and contact the sender of the safety update message. This allows the safety update message to act as a request for contact from one or more predetermined recipients. For example, a child may elect their parents as predetermined recipients of a safety alert message if the child transmits a safety update message to the communication server 116. Upon receiving a safety update message from the child, the alerting module 136 may be configured to transmit one or more safety alert messages to the child's parents. This allows the child to ask that his/her parents check on his/her safety as soon as the safety alert message is received.

As can be appreciated by one skilled in the art, the first and second communication networks 104a, 104b may be combined into a single communication network. In other words, the same communication network 104 may be utilized to carry messages from a user's communication device 108 to the secure network database 120 as well as allow a user to access data that was contained in the message. Particularly, a user may be allowed to access the web server 124 via the first communication network 104a and may bypass the communication sever 116 to do so. Alternatively, or in addition, a user may send safety update messages via the Internet or some other type of communications network 104.

Additionally, the alerting module 136 and locating module 140 may be provided as processor-executable instructions stored in a tangible storage computer readable medium and may be executed by a processor provided on a server. In some embodiments, one or both of the alerting module 136 and locating module 140 may be provided on the web server 124. In some embodiments, one or both of the alerting module 136 and locating module 140 may be provided on the communication server 116. In some embodiments, the alerting module and locating module 140 may be provided on the same or different servers.

With reference now to Fig. 2, an exemplary safety notification method will be described in accordance with at least some embodiments of the present invention. The method is initiated when a message is received at the communication server 116 (step 204). Transmission of a status update message may be initiated at a communication device 108 when a user presses a special-purposed key provided on the communication device 108. In particular, the special-purposed key may include, but is not limited to a hard key or a soft key. Transmission of a generic message, on the other hand, may be performed by dialing a number from the communication device 108, where the number does not correspond to a designated number associated with status update messages.

A hard key is a physical key provided on the communication device 108 that has the single purpose of causing the communication device 108 to generate and transmit a safety update message.

A soft key, on the other hand, is a button flexibly programmable to invoke any of a number of functions rather than being associated with a single fixed function or a fixed set of functions. A soft key is often located alongside a display device of a portable device such as a cellular phone, where the button invokes a function described by the text at that moment shown adjacent to the button on the display. In other words, a soft key is generally not persistent on the user interface of the communication device 108, whereas a hard key is persistent. Exemplary soft keys that can be used to invoke the generation and transmission of a safety update message include, without limitation, a programmable key for accessing and invoking an application or applet on the communication device which generates a safety update message, a speed-dial button to initiate dialing of a certain number associated with the service provider 132, or the like. Upon receiving the message from the communication device 108, the communication server 116 analyzes the message to determine whether it is a safety update message (step 208). If the message is not a safety update message (i.e., a generic message), then the method may skip to step 240. There are, however, several different ways to identify a message as a safety update message. As one example, and in accordance with at least some embodiments of the present invention, a safety update message may be transmitted utilizing a dedicated application on the mobile communication device 108. In this type of system, the application may mark messages sent by the communication device 108 as a status update message. The message may be marked in the body of the message (with a predetermined character or string identifying that the message is a status update message). The message may, alternatively, be marked in its header or subject field, depending upon the message format, with some sort of indicator or flag (e.g., an exclamation point located within the subject field of the message). The application may also mark the message as a safety update message by formatting the message according to some predetermined formatting criteria or encrypting the message with an encryption key used specifically to encrypt safety update messages.

Alternatively, or in addition, the safety update message may be transmitted to a predetermined number or address corresponding to the number or address of the communication server 116 or a unique address assigned to the user. If a predetermined address (e.g., phone number, email address, IM address, IP address, etc.) is used as the destination address for the message and the communication server 116 receives the message at that particular address, then the communication server 116 may automatically identify the message as a status update message. In other words, if the communication server 116 receives a message and that message identifies a predetermined destination address associated with a status update message, then the communication server 116 can identify the message as a safety update message without performing any additional analysis of the message.

After the message has been identified as a safety update message the method continues with the communication server 116 storing message information (e.g., select text from the body of the message, header information, time stamp information, location information, picture(s), video(s), audio data, and/or any other relevant information contained in the message) in the database 120 and securing that information for secure access by the user that sent the message and any other persons that have been given access permissions by that user (step 212). Additionally, or in the alternative, the safety update message may include meta information about the message/image. Meta information could include GPS data, weather conditions data, speed data (is this person in a speeding vehicle), etc.

Each user having an account with the service provider 132 may be assigned a different unique address to which they can send status update messages. When the communication server 116 receives a message directed toward such a unique address, the communication server 116 can automatically identify the location where that message information is to be stored in the database 120 (likely a secure location that is securely maintained for the user's access).

Thereafter, the database 120 is updated and the web page associated with that user's profile has some or all of the stored message information added thereto (step 216). In other words, the content of the user's face file website is updated automatically when information is received in a status update message.

Before or after the web page has been properly updated, the method continues with the communication server 116 determining whether the user has identified any predetermined recipients for a status alert message (step 220). Predetermined recipients may be identified a priori via provisioning of the user's account or they may be identified in the status update message itself.

If at least one entity {e.g., designated contacts 144 and/or emergency personnel 148) has been identified as a predetermined recipient for a status alert message when the user sends a status update message, the method proceeds to step 224 where the communication server 116 invokes the alerting module 136 which generates a status alert message with the predetermined recipient being identified as the status alert message recipient (step 224). The alerting module 136 then transmits the safety alert message to the predetermined recipients in the necessary format and via the proper communication medium (step 228).

Thereafter, or in the event that the user did not have any predetermined recipients, the method continues by determining whether any additional emergency actions need to be taken (step 232). This query may be answered affirmatively if the sender of the status update message has included certain predetermined content in the message that identifies the need to take additional emergency actions {e.g., a 911 or similar emergency indicator is included in the message). Additionally, the query may be answered affirmatively if one of the predetermined recipients of the safety alert message unsuccessfully attempts to contact the sender of the safety update message. This unsuccessful call-back may indicate that the sender of the safety update message is in trouble or needs some other type of emergency assistance.

If the query in step 232 is answered affirmatively, then the method continues by taking the necessary emergency actions (step 236). The types of emergency actions that may be taken can vary depending upon the information contained in the safety update message or the perceived seriousness of the emergency situation. One type of emergency action that may be taken in accordance with embodiments of the present invention is that law enforcement officials may be allowed access to some or all of the message information in the safety update message as well as access to some or all of the sender's face file profile. Another type of emergency action that may be taken in accordance with embodiments of the present invention is that the locating module 140 may be invoked to determine a current location of the user if no such location information was provided in the status update message originally sent by the user.

After emergency actions have been taken, if necessary, then the method continues with the communication server 116 waiting for additional messages (steps 240 and 244). The method will continue to wait until another safety update message is received at the communication server 116. Once another message is received, the method returns to step 208.

With respect to provisioning of user preferences in the database 120, after a user has signed up and established a user account, that user may control that information included in their website either via a personal computing platform 128 or a mobile communication device 108. There may be different levels of service that a user may subscribe to utilize and each level of service may allow the user to implement different functions or features.

There may be additional extensions to embodiments of the present invention. As one example, the face file website may include a selectively enabled social networking feature whereby a user may be allowed to send a picture of a place or person to his/her account as a safety update message and the user may be provided, in response, with feedback information (either general from non-related users or specific from users that have been networked with the user that sent the safety update message). This may allow the user to send a safety update message and cause a safety alert message to predetermined recipients. The predetermined recipients may provide feedback real-time via a response message.

In another alternative embodiment, other face file users could be transmitted alerts even though those users were not specifically identified as a predetermined recipient upon the user account setup. Rather, the user may have indicated that he/she would like to send a safety alert message to local face file users when a safety update message is transmitted to the system. This could be like a location based amber alert that notifies other face file users that are within a predetermined proximity to the sender of the safety update alert. This may also mark the other face file users that were within proximity of the sending user when a situation occurred. This information may be used later other entities.

While the above-described flowchart has been discussed in relation to a particular sequence of events, it should be appreciated that changes to this sequence can occur without materially affecting the operation of the invention. Additionally, the exact sequence of events need not occur as set forth in the exemplary embodiments. The exemplary techniques illustrated herein are not limited to the specifically illustrated embodiments but can also be utilized with the other exemplary embodiments and each described feature is individually and separately claimable.

The systems, methods and protocols of this invention can be implemented on a special-purpose computer in addition to or in place of the described communication equipment, a programmed microprocessor or microcontroller and peripheral integrated circuit element(s), an ASIC or other integrated circuit, a digital signal processor, a hardwired electronic or logic circuit such as discrete element circuit, a programmable logic device such as PLD, PLA, FPGA, PAL, a communications device, such as a server, personal computer, any comparable means, or the like. In general, any device capable of implementing a state machine that is in turn capable of implementing the methodology illustrated herein can be used to implement the various communication methods, protocols and techniques according to this invention.

Furthermore, the disclosed methods may be readily implemented in software using procedural or object-oriented software development environments that provide portable source code that can be used on a variety of computer or workstation platforms. Alternatively, the disclosed system may be implemented partially or fully in hardware using standard logic circuits or VLSI design. Whether software or hardware is used to implement the systems in accordance with this invention is dependent on the speed and/or efficiency requirements of the system, the particular function, and the particular software or hardware systems or microprocessor or microcomputer systems being utilized. The analysis systems, methods and protocols illustrated herein can be readily implemented in hardware and/or software using any known or later developed systems or structures, devices and/or software by those of ordinary skill in the applicable art from the functional description provided herein and with a general basic knowledge of the communication arts.

Moreover, the disclosed methods may be readily implemented in software that can be stored on a storage medium, executed on a programmed general-purpose computer with the cooperation of a controller and memory, a special-purpose computer, a microprocessor, or the like. In these instances, the systems and methods of this invention can be implemented as program embedded on personal computer such as an applet, JAVA® or CGI script, as a resource residing on a server or computer workstation, as a routine embedded in a dedicated communication system or system component, or the like. The system can also be implemented by physically incorporating the system and/or method into a software and/or hardware system, such as the hardware and software systems of a communications device or system.

It is therefore apparent that there has been provided, in accordance with the present invention, systems, apparatuses and methods for efficiently supporting a portable messaging and alerting system. While this invention has been described in conjunction with a number of embodiments, it is evident that many alternatives, modifications and variations would be or are apparent to those of ordinary skill in the applicable arts. Accordingly, it is intended to embrace all such alternatives, modifications, equivalents and variations that are within the spirit and scope of this invention.

Claims

What is claimed is:

1. A method, comprising: receiving a message; analyzing the message to determine that the message is a safety update message; and in response to determining that the message is a safety update message, generating a safety alert message for transmission to at least one predetermined recipient.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the analyzing step comprises identifying a destination address of the message and comparing the destination address with a table of unique addresses used to receive safety update messages, wherein each unique address in the table of unique addresses corresponds to a different user.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the message comprises text and picture information, the method further comprising: storing at least one of the picture and a portion of the text in a secure database; updating a web page associated with the sender of the safety update message, wherein updating comprises including at least one of the picture and a portion of the text in the web page; and including at least a portion of information contained in the safety update message in the safety alert message.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the message comprises at least one of an

SMS message, an email, and an MMS message.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the message comprises location information corresponding to a location of a communication device which transmitted the message.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising: determining that the message does not include location information; invoking a locating module to determine a location of a communication device which transmitted the message; determining a location of the communication device; and providing the location to at least one of a predetermined recipient and emergency personnel.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising: determining that the location corresponds to a location within an educational campus; and transmitting the safety alert message to campus security for the educational campus.

8. A communication method, comprising: determining, at a communication device, that a special-purposed key has been engaged on the communication device; generating a safety update message; and transmitting the safety update message to a communication server for processing by the communication server, wherein the safety update message comprises at least one of location, text, and picture information.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the safety update message comprises two or more of location, text, and picture information.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the special-purposed key comprises a hard key.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the special-purposed key comprises a soft key.

12. A communication system, comprising: a server having at least one network interface which facilitates communications with mobile communication devices; a web server configured to administer a web site for users to maintain personalized safety accounts; and an alerting module adapted to analyze a message received at the at least one network interface of the server, determine that the message is a safety update message, and, in response to determining that the message is a safety update message, generate a safety alert message for transmission to at least one predetermined recipient.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the alerting module analyzes the message by identifying a destination address of the message and comparing the destination address with a table of unique addresses, each unique address in the table of unique addresses being used to receive safety update messages, wherein each unique address in the table of unique addresses corresponds to a different user.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the message comprises text and picture information, and wherein the server is adapted to store at least one of the picture and a portion of the text in a secure database and then invoke the web server to update a web page associated with the sender of the safety update message, wherein during the update, the web server includes at least one of the picture and a portion of the text in the web page.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein the message comprises at least one of an SMS message, an email, and an MMS message.

16. The system of claim 12, wherein the message comprises location information corresponding to a location of a communication device which transmitted the message.

17. The system of claim 12, further comprising a location module adapted to determine that the message does not include location information, determine a location of a communication device which transmitted the message, determine a location of the communication device, and provide the location to at least one of a predetermined recipient and emergency personnel.

18. The system of claim 12, wherein the alerting module is provided as instructions stored on a computer readable medium of the server and wherein a processor of the server executes the instructions of the alerting module.

19. The system of claim 12, wherein the alerting module is provided as instructions stored on a computer readable medium of the web server and wherein a processor of the web server executes the instructions of the alerting module.

20. A communication method, comprising: taking a picture of an individual or location with a mobile communication device; generating a status update message that includes the picture of the individual or location, wherein the message comprises an MMS message, IM message, SMS message, or email message; transmitting the status update message to a centralized database where the picture of the individual or location is processed and it is determined whether a safety alert message is to be transmitted based on the processing of the picture of the individual or location; deciding to transmit a safety alert message to at least one predetermined recipient; and transmitting the safety alert message to at least one predetermined recipient, wherein the safety alert message comprises information related to the safety update message.