Abstract:
A mobile button device ( 10 ) comprises a call button ( 12 ), a local wireless link ( 20 ) to a communicator ( 30 ), and a cellular connection ( 22 ). The mobile button device is programmed to perform an alarm reporting method including: originating an alarm by sending the alarm via the local wireless link to the communicator for alarm reporting by the communicator; after sending the alarm to the communicator, monitoring alarm reporting status via the local wireless link to the communicator; and reporting the alarm via the cellular connection in response to the monitoring determining that the communicator failed to report the alarm. For example, the monitoring may include polling the communicator via the local wireless link and the monitoring determines that the communicator failed to report the alarm if the polling indicates the communicator is unavailable ( 70 ) or a timeout condition ( 72 ) is reached.

Description:
FIELD 
       [0001]    The following relates generally to the Personal Emergency Response System (PERS) arts and related arts. 
       BACKGROUND 
       [0002]    A Personal Emergency Response System (PERS) enables an elderly person or other person at elevated risk of incapacitating medical emergency to summon help. For example, a PERS may be activated by a person experiencing a debilitating fall, a heart attack, an acute asthma attack or other respiratory emergency, or so forth. The PERS typically includes a mobile button device in the form of a necklace-worn pendant, a bracelet, or the like. By pressing the call button of the mobile button device, a speakerphone console in the residence is activated, by which the at-risk person is placed into telephonic contact with a PERS response agent. The agent speaks with the calling person (hereinafter referred to as a PERS “subscriber” as the person subscribes with the PERS service, although any associated costs or fees may be paid by a medical insurance company or other third party), and takes appropriate action such as talking the subscriber through the problem, summoning emergency medical service (EMS), or dispatching a neighbor or other authorized person to check on the subscriber. The PERS architecture typically assumes a homebound subscriber (where “home” may be an individual residence, a group residence, an apartment, an assisted care facility, or so forth). In this architecture, the speakerphone console is connected with a telephone line (i.e. landline) thus providing a secure physical connection to the PERS call center. 
         [0003]    A disadvantage of this architecture is that the PERS is only usable when the subscriber is in his or her residence. Another disadvantage is that the telephone line to which the speakerphone console is connected is preferably a dedicated line, which introduces additional installation costs and monthly telephone company fees. If the speakerphone console is instead connected to a telephone line that is also used by the subscriber and others in the residence for telephone calls or the like, then the possibility exists that the telephone line may be busy at the time the subscriber initiates an emergency call. 
         [0004]    The following discloses a new and improved systems and methods that address the above referenced issues, and others. 
       SUMMARY 
       [0005]    In one disclosed aspect, a mobile button device comprises a call button, a local wireless link to a communicator, and a cellular connection. The mobile button device is programmed to perform an alarm reporting method including: originating an alarm by sending the alarm via the local wireless link to the communicator for alarm reporting by the communicator; after sending the alarm to the communicator, monitoring alarm reporting status via the local wireless link to the communicator; and reporting the alarm via the cellular connection in response to the monitoring determining that the communicator failed to report the alarm. For example, the monitoring may include polling the communicator via the local wireless link and the monitoring determines that the communicator failed to report the alarm if the polling indicates the communicator is unavailable or a timeout condition is reached. 
         [0006]    In another disclosed aspect, a device combination for reporting an alarm includes a mobile button device and a communicator. The mobile button device includes a call button, a local wireless link, and a cellular connection. The communicator is configured to be paired together with the mobile button device by the local wireless link. The communicator is programmed to receive an alarm originated by the mobile button device via the local wireless link and report the received alarm and provide an alarm reporting status to the mobile button device via the local wireless link. The mobile button device is programmed to originate the alarm by sending the alarm via the local wireless link to the communicator, monitor the alarm reporting status from the communicator via the local wireless link, and report the alarm via the cellular connection in response to determining from the monitored reporting status that the communicator failed to report the alarm. 
         [0007]    In another disclosed aspect, an alarm method comprises originating an alarm at a mobile button device and communicating the alarm from the mobile button device to a communicator via a local wireless link pairing together the mobile button device and the communicator. At the communicator, an attempt is made to report the alarm via a telephone line connected with the communicator. At the mobile button device, alarm reporting status of the communicator is monitored via the local wireless link and, in response to the monitoring detecting failure of the communicator to report the alarm via the telephone line, a cellular connection of the mobile button device is operated to report the alarm. 
         [0008]    In another disclosed aspect, an alarm method comprises: (i) originating an alarm at a mobile button device; (ii) communicating the alarm from the mobile button device to a communicator via a local wireless link pairing together the mobile button device and the communicator; (iii) at the communicator, reporting the alarm via a telephone line connected with the communicator; (iv) attempting to establish audio contact with the subscriber from a Personal Emergency Response System (PERS) via the communicator connected to the telephone line; and (v) If the attempt (iv) to establish audio contact via the communicator fails, calling the mobile button device via a cellular connection and a built-in speaker and microphone of the mobile button device. 
         [0009]    One advantage resides in providing redundant mechanisms for reporting a medically or safety related alarm originating at a mobile button device. 
         [0010]    Another advantage resides in facilitating use of a common telephone line for alarm reporting that also services general telephonic activity, while retaining high connectivity reliability for the alarm reporting. 
         [0011]    Another advantage resides in enabling alarm reporting in the residence even when the connected telephone line is unavailable (e.g. dead or busy). 
         [0012]    A given embodiment may provide none, one, two, more, or all of the foregoing advantages, and/or may provide other advantages as will become apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art upon reading and understanding the present disclosure. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0013]    The invention may take form in various components and arrangements of components, and in various steps and arrangements of steps. The drawings are only for purposes of illustrating the preferred embodiments and are not to be construed as limiting the invention. 
           [0014]      FIG. 1  diagrammatically illustrates a robust alarm reporting system employing a mobile button device and a communicator as disclosed herein. 
           [0015]      FIG. 2  diagrammatically illustrates an alarm reporting method suitably performed by the mobile button device of  FIG. 1 . 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       [0016]    In illustrative embodiments described herein, the at-risk person served by the medical or safety alarm reporting system is referred to as a “subscriber”. This recognizes that the at-risk person subscribes with the PERS service so that the subscriber&#39;s mobile button device and linked communicator are associated with the service and appropriate subscriber data are stored at the server and made available to a service agent handling a call from the subscriber. It is to be understood that the term “subscriber” has no further connotation—for example, any costs or fees associated with the subscription may be paid by the subscriber, or by a medical insurance company, or by a governmental agency, or by some other third party. 
         [0017]    Terminology such as “home” or “residence” merely connotes the location where the alarm reporting communicator is installed. The home or residence may, by way of non-limiting example, be an individual residence, a group residence, an apartment, an assisted care facility, or so forth. 
         [0018]    With reference to  FIG. 1 , an illustrative alarm reporting service provides service both in the subscriber residence and when the subscriber is away from the residence. In illustrative  FIG. 1 , the alarm is reported to a Personal Emergency Response System (PERS)  8 , which is diagrammatically represented in  FIG. 1  and may include, by way of illustration, a call center staffed by response agents each having an electronic work station including a computer on which a subscriber&#39;s profile may be displayed and telecommunication equipment such as a headset via which the agent can converse with a subscriber. In other embodiments, the alarm may be reported to a local Emergency Response Service (EMS), or to a relative or a neighbor serving as a visiting caregiver for the subscriber. 
         [0019]    The subscriber carries or wears a wearable mobile button device  10  which includes a call button  12  for triggering an alarm and optionally other features such as a built-in speaker  14  and microphone  16 . The illustrative wearable mobile button device  10  is a pendant that is worn around the neck via a necklace  18  (shown in part). More generally, the wearable mobile button device is a unitary device that can have any suitable wearable form factor, such as the illustrative necklace-worn pendant, or a bracelet or wristband mount, or so forth, and includes simple and effective mechanism such as the illustrative push button  12  for triggering a call to a PERS call center. The mobile button device  10  is suitably battery-powered to enable complete portability. The call button  12  is suitably a (preferably large) push button  12 , although other call button topologies are contemplated. It is also contemplated to provide a wearable mobile button device that automatically triggers an alarm based on certain input. For example, the wearable mobile button device  10  may include an accelerometer-based fall detector that triggers an alarm upon the accelerometer detecting a fall event, e.g. a rapid downward acceleration indicative of a sudden fall. The mobile button device  10  optionally has other attributes such as optionally being waterproof so it can be worn in a bath or shower. Because the mobile button device  10  is designed to be operated by the subscriber under duress possibly including compromised physical or mental agility, the mobile button device  10  is preferably designed to minimize operational complexity and likelihood of operator error. For example, in some embodiments the mobile button device  10  includes only the call button  12  and no other user controls, and the call button  12  is preferably large with a tactile surface to facilitate its activation by the subscriber even if the subscriber&#39;s hand is trembling or the subscriber has vision difficulty, pain, or is otherwise debilitated. 
         [0020]      FIG. 1  diagrammatically illustrates internal components of the mobile button device  10 , including local wireless link  20 , a cellular connection  22 , a battery  24 , an accelerometer-based fall detector  26 , and an electronic processor  28  (e.g. a microprocessor or microcontroller). It will be appreciated that these various components may be variously integrally formed and/or mounted separately or as combined units in the housing of the mobile button device  10 . For example, various groups of components  20 ,  22 ,  26 ,  28  may be commonly mounted as a hybrid integrated circuit, monolithic integrated circuit, or so forth. The local wireless link  20  may be suitably implemented as a WiFi radio, a dedicated 900 MHz radio, or so forth. The cellular connection  22  may be implemented as a 3G, 4G, 5G or other cellular radio, or other cellular radio communicating by connecting with geographically distributed cellular towers. 
         [0021]    The local wireless link  20  is configured to pair the mobile button device  10  with a communicator  30 , using a short range wireless communication protocol such as WiFi, a dedicated 900 MHz link, or so forth. The communicator  30  is located in the residence and is connected with the PERS or other alarm response service  8  (e.g. with a service call center) via a reliable communication link  32  such as a telephone landline, i.e. telephone line  32 . The local wireless link  20  has a range approximately coinciding with the spatial extent of the residence (and possibly its immediate environs, e.g. extending to encompass a neighboring house or an apartment floor above or below a residence apartment or so forth). Although the local wireless link  20  preferably provides coverage for the entire residence, it is contemplated that in some instances the short range communication may fail to provide such complete coverage and there may, for example, be one or two rooms of a large house that are not covered by the local wireless link  20 . 
         [0022]    The communicator  30  optionally includes a speaker  34  and a microphone  36  enabling the communicator  30  to serve as a speakerphone console via which a service agent handling an alarm can directly speak with the subscriber. To this end, the communicator  30  employs the telephone line  32 . In other contemplated embodiments, the speakerphone capability (speaker  34  and microphone  36 ) is omitted and the communicator merely reports the alarm via the telephone line  32 . 
         [0023]    The cellular connection  22  is configured to wirelessly communicate with a cellular network, e.g. a cellular telephone (cellphone) network. This is diagrammatically indicated in  FIG. 1  as communication between the cellular  22  and a cellular tower (i.e. cell tower)  38 . The cellular connection  22  of the mobile button device  10  provides alarm reporting service to the subscriber when the subscriber (or more particularly the mobile button device  10 ) is out-of-range of the in-residence communicator  30 . For embodiments in which the service is designed to provide direct telephonic communication between the agent handling the alarm and the subscriber, it will be appreciated that the agent cannot leverage the speaker  34  and microphone  36  of the communicator  30  for this purpose when the subscriber is out of range of the communicator  30 . In such embodiments, the built-in speaker  14  and microphone  16  of the mobile button device  10  is used to handle a mobile telephone call with the agent via the cellular connection  22 . 
         [0024]    The electronic processor  28  of the mobile button device  10  is programmed to execute an alarm reporting application or method  40  which detects an alarm trigger such as operation of the call button  12  or detection of a fall event by the fall detector  26 , and reports the alarm to the PERS  8  or other alarm handling individual or service. Some suitable embodiments of the alarm reporter  40  are described in further detail later herein with reference to  FIG. 2 . The electronic processor  28  optionally further executes a PERS application  42  which interacts with the PERS  8  to provide assistance to the subscriber to handle the alarm. For example, the PERS application  42  may initiate or receive a mobile telephone call with the PERS agent handling the alarm and conduct the mobile telephone call using the built-in speaker  14  and microphone  16  of the mobile button device  10 . (By contrast, in embodiments providing such telephonic communication, when in-residence this conversation is conducted by the communicator  30  using its speaker  34  and microphone  36 ). 
         [0025]    The illustrative alarm reporting architecture described herein does not assume a homebound subscriber. Rather, alarm reporting service continues to be provided even when the subscriber leaves the residence, via the cellular connection  22 . However, this raises an issue if the agent wishes to send assistance to the subscriber&#39;s location, since the agent cannot assume the subscriber is located at the residence. Accordingly, the illustrative mobile button device  10  further includes one or more locator services  44 . For example, the locator service(s)  44  may include a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver. In another embodiment, GPS data (if GPS satellite reception is available) and/or information on in-range cellular towers (such as illustrative tower  38 ) and/or WiFi access points (APs, if the local wireless link  20  includes WiFi) are provided to a global locator service such as Skyhook™ (Boston, Mass., USA) via the cellular connection  22 , and the global locator service correlates detected cell towers and/or APs with geographical location and combines this with the GPS data to provide a robust location assessment. 
         [0026]    In the following, some illustrative embodiments of the alarm reporter  40  are described. In general, when the communicator  30  cannot report the alarm for any reason, the mobile button device  10  reports the alarm itself. Thus, no single communication method is relied upon to report alarms. When the mobile button device  10  originates an alarm, it first sends it to the communicator  30  and start checking the reporting status by polling the communicator  30  via the local wireless link  20 . If the communicator  30  cannot report the alarm for any reasons such as the telephone line  32  being unavailable (e.g. dead or busy), it indicates such reporting status when polled by the mobile button device  10 . If the communicator  30  cannot report alarm after (for example) 12 polls (˜3 minutes if the polling is performed every 15 seconds), the mobile button device  10  goes ahead and reports the alarm itself using its cellular connection  22 . 
         [0027]    With reference now to  FIG. 2 , an alarm reporting method suitably performed by the mobile button device  10  of  FIG. 1  is described. In an operation  50 , an alarm trigger is detected. This may be, for example, detection of activation of the call button  12 , or detection of a fall event by the accelerometer-based fall detector  26 . The detection of an alarm trigger causes the mobile button device  10  to originate an alarm. In an operation  52 , it is determined whether the communicator  52  is in range, that is, whether the mobile button device  10  can communicate with the communicator  52  via the local wireless link  20 . (Thus, not being “in range” in this context encompasses either being spatially out of range, i.e. the mobile button device  10  being too far away from the communicator  30  for the local wireless link  20  to operate, or being out-of-range due to a technical problem, e.g. a failure of the local wireless link  20 ). The operation  52  can be performed, for example, by sending a message to the communicator  30  via the local wireless link  20  and detecting whether an acknowledgement message is received from the communicator  30  via the local wireless link  20  in reply. If the communicator  30  is not in range, then the alarm is reported by the mobile button device  10 —to this end, flow passes to an operation  54  in which the mobile button device  10  reports the alarm (e.g. to the PERS  8  or to some other alarm handling service) via the cellular connection  22 . In this situation, the communicator  30  is out-of-range and hence unavailable to handle the alarm, and so in an operation  56  the mobile button device  10  follows the reporting operation  54  by continuing with an out-of-residence alarm handling procedure in an operation  56 . This out-of-residence alarm handling procedure may include, by way of illustration, sending the location determined by the locator service(s)  44  to the PERS  8 , and/or conducting a mobile telephone call at the mobile button device  10  via the cellular connection  22  following the reporting operation  54 . The mobile telephone call is suitably conducted using the speaker  14  and microphone  16  of the mobile button device  10 . 
         [0028]    With continuing reference to  FIG. 2 , if on the other hand at operation  52  it is determined that the communicator  52  is in range, then flow passes to an operation  60  in which the alarm is sent from the mobile button device  10  to the communicator  30  via the local wireless link  20  for reporting by the communicator  30  via the telephone line  32 . The communicator  30  then attempts to report the alarm to the PERS  8  via the telephone line  32 . This is expected to be successful since the telephone line  32  is generally reliable—however, it could be unsuccessful if, for example, the telephone line  32  is unavailable, e.g. dead or busy (in the case of a common telephone line that is also used for general telephone communications). To determine whether the communicator  32  is able to successfully report the alarm, the mobile button device  10  polls the communicator via the local wireless link  20  in an operation  62  to check the alarm reporting status. If the communicator returns an alarm report confirmation  64  in response to a poll of the communicator  32  then, as indicated by diagrammatic block  66 , the alarm reporting process is complete from the standpoint of the mobile button device  10 . With the alarm reported by the communicator  30 , it is known that the subscriber is in the residence and hence it is expected that the in-residence alarm will be handled by the communicator  30 , e.g. by conducting a telephone call between the subscriber and a PERS agent via the telephone line  32  using the speaker  34  and microphone  36  of the communicator  30 . 
         [0029]    On the other hand, the response of the communicator  30  to the poll  62  may be the status  70  that the communicator  30  is unavailable. Such unavailable status is typically due to unavailability of the telephone line  32 , although it could be due to some other problem such as an internal problem with the communicator  30  or a problem with landline call handling at the PERS  8 . In general, The status of “unavailable”  70  encompasses any detected condition that prevents the communicator  30  from reporting the alarm via the telephone line  32 . If the communicator  30  reports its status as “unavailable”  70  in response to the poll operation  62 , then flow passes to the operation sequence  54 ,  56  which has already been described. The mobile button device  10  reports the alarm itself using the cellular connection  22  in the operation  54  and performs any subsequent alarm handling at the mobile button device  10  in the operation  56 . The mobile button device  10  takes over the reporting  54  and handling  56  of the alarm in response to the unavailable status  70  of the communicator  30 . 
         [0030]    In some cases, the communicator  30  may report an alarm reporting status such as “waiting” to indicate that it has transmitted the alarm report via the telephone line  32 , but has not yet received confirmation from the PERS  8  (or other alarm receiving service) that the reported alarm has been received. As another possibility, the communicator  30  may fail to respond to the poll operation  62  at all. In such cases, the polling operation  62  is optionally repeated one or more times. More generally, the polling operation  62  is repeated until a timeout condition  72  is reached. For example, the timeout  72  may be a certain number of repetitions of the polling operation  62  (e.g. 12 repetitions in one illustrative embodiment), or the timeout  72  may be specified as a time interval, e.g. the polling operation  62  may be repeated for 3 minutes. In some embodiments, the timeout  72  may be reached after a single iteration of the polling operation  62  (that is, no repetitions) with no response to the polling being provided by the communicator  30 . When the timeout  72  is reached without receiving an alarm report confirmation  64 , flow again passes to the operation sequence  54 ,  56  which has already been described. The mobile button device  10  reports the alarm itself using the cellular connection  22  in the operation  54  and performs any subsequent alarm handling at the mobile button device  10  in the operation  56 . The mobile button device  10  takes over the reporting  54  and handling  56  of the alarm in response to the timeout condition  72  being reached, under the assumption that the communicator  30  or the telephone line  32  is experiencing some problem that is preventing alarm reporting by the communicator  30 . 
         [0031]    An advantage of the alarm reporting system described with reference to  FIGS. 1 and 2  is that it can provide alarm reporting both in-residence via the communicator  30  and out-of-residence via the cellular connection  22 . However, it will be appreciated that the system of  FIGS. 1 and 2  can also be advantageously applied in the context of a homebound or shut-in subscriber who is unable to leave the residence. In this situation, the mobile button device  10  is always within geographical range of the communicator  30 . Nonetheless, the cellular connection  22  and the alarm reporter  40  still provides a substantial advantage in that it provides a redundant alarm reporting pathway in the event that the communicator  30  is unable to report an alarm. For example, if the local wireless link  20  fails for some technical reason, this is detected in the operation  52  of  FIG. 2  leading to the alarm being reported in operation  54  and handled in operation  56 . If the local wireless link  20  is working so that the alarm is sent to the communicator via the operation  60 , but the connection between the communicator  30  and the PERS  8  is unavailable for some reason such as the telephone line  32  being dead or busy, then this is detected as an unavailable status  70  or due to reaching the timeout  72 , again leading to the alarm being reported in operation  54  and handled in operation  56 . Another advantage is that the PERS response agent can communicate with the subscriber even if the subscriber is in radio frequency communication range of the communicator  30  but is not in audio range (such as in the bathroom, while the communicator  30  is in the living room, so that the subscriber may not be able to hear the speaker  34  and/or the microphone  36  may not be able to pick up the subscriber&#39;s voice). In that case, the PERS response agent can call the subscriber directly via the cellular connection  22  and can converse via the built-in speaker and microphone  14 ,  16  of the mobile button device  10 . 
         [0032]    It will be further appreciated that the disclosed cellular connection  22  and the alarm reporter  40  has the advantage of providing robustness against occasional loss of availability of the telephone line  32 , since in such cases the wireless connection  22  can be used by the mobile button device  10  to directly report the alarm. This can facilitate using the same telephone line both as the telephone line  32  to which the communicator  30  is connected and also as a general-purpose telephone line for making occasional telephone calls. This in turn can reduce installation costs by removing the need to install a separate dedicated telephone line for connecting the communicator  30 , and can reduce monthly costs by removing the additional fee charged by the telephone company for providing telephone service to the separate telephone line. 
         [0033]    The invention has been described with reference to the preferred embodiments. Modifications and alterations may occur to others upon reading and understanding the preceding detailed description. It is intended that the invention be construed as including all such modifications and alterations insofar as they come within the scope of the appended claims or the equivalents thereof