Abstract:
When an emergency call is made from a location on a premises that has on-premises (non-public) emergency-response personnel, the communications system responds by accessing a private database of information about the premises, retrieves therefrom information about the location of the physical location on the premises and best access to the physical location from off-premises, and sends this information to both the on-premises emergency-response personnel and a public emergency-response center, as well as connects the call to the public emergency-response center.

Description:
TECHNICAL FIELD  
       [0001]     This invention relates to emergency communications systems and services.  
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0002]     Public emergency communications systems are known to respond to the placing of an emergency call by retrieving database information identifying the physical location of the caller and providing this location information to the personnel who receive the emergency call. One such system is the US E-911 emergency telephone system, an illustrative example of which is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,924,491.  
         [0003]     Many organizations that have their own premises communications systems (e.g., a PBX or a key telephone system) have emergency-call policies that require employees to place on-premises emergency calls to the telephone number of the organization&#39;s local security personnel instead of to the public emergency number (e.g., 911). The security personnel in turn call the public emergency number after they have gathered information from the caller, and pass this and other information on to the public emergency personnel. The reason for such policies is that, when a call is placed to the public emergency number from the premises communications system, only the calling phone number and the central address associated with the premises system is made available to the public emergency personnel. But that central address may not be the location of the calling number; for example, it may be a home-office location, a front-office location, or a security-office location of the organization. Thus, the public-emergency personnel may be misdirected when responding to the call. Requiring the emergency call to be made to the organization&#39;s security personnel enables the security personnel to determine the exact location of the caller and then direct the public emergency personnel to the appropriate building, entrance, floor, etc., in other words, to the exact location where the emergency is occurring. The unfortunate and serious downside of this policy is that the sequential calling which it engenders adds delay to the response time of the emergency crew, which can endanger both lives and property.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0004]     This invention is directed to solving these and other problems of the prior art. According to the invention, when a single (i.e., one) communication is placed to a public emergency-response center from a physical location that has non-public emergency-response personnel associated with the location—such as a premises with on-site security or medical emergency response (MER) personnel, for example,—information about the location is retrieved from a private database—one that is inaccessible to the public emergency-response center—and is provided to both the public emergency-response center and the emergency-response personnel associated with the location. Thus, a single emergency call is sufficient to notify both the local emergency-response personnel and the public emergency-response center of the emergency and to provide both with the non-public information about the location, such as information about where the physical location is located on the premises and best access to the physical location from off-premises. The response-time delay associated with the prior art is thus eliminated.  
         [0005]     The invention includes both a method as well as a corresponding apparatus for performing the method, and a computer-readable medium that contains instructions which, when executed in a computer, cause the computer to perform the method. The apparatus preferably includes an effector—any entity that effects the corresponding steps, unlike a means—for each method step.  
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING  
       [0006]     These and other features and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following description of an illustrative embodiment of the invention considered together with the drawing, in which:  
         [0007]      FIG. 1  is a block diagram of a communications system that includes an illustrative embodiment of the invention; and  
         [0008]      FIG. 2  is a flow diagram of functionality effected by a premises communications system of the system of  FIG. 1 . 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION  
       [0009]      FIG. 1  shows a communications system comprising a premises communications system  10  serving premises  20  of an organization and connected for external communications to a public communications system  22  and therethrough to a public emergency communications (E-911) system  24 . Premises communications system  10  comprises a plurality of end-user communications terminals  14 - 16  and one or more communications terminals  18  of local (e.g., on-premises  20 ) emergency-response personnel such as security personnel, interconnected with each other and with public communications system  22  by a controller  12 . Premises communications system  10  may be any desired communication system. For example, it may be a telephone communications system where end-user terminals  14 - 16  are telephones or sensors, controller  12  is a switching system such as a PBX or a key-system switch, and security personnel terminal  18  is a display telephone. Or, it may be a data communications system where terminals  14 - 16  are computers or sensors, security personnel terminal  18  is a computer, and controller  12  is a gateway/router. Or, if may be a hybrid system where end-user terminals  14 - 16  are sensors, digital display phones, VoIP phones, or softphone-equipped computers, security personnel terminal  18  is a softphone-equipped computer, a display terminal, or a VoIP phone, and controller  12  is a multimedia PBX, an Internet gateway, and/or an intranet router. Other configurations may be envisioned by those skilled in the art.  
         [0010]     Controller  12  is preferably a stored-program controlled machine comprising a memory  30  for storing programs and data, and a processor  32  for executing the programs and generating or using the data. Included among the programs stored in memory  30  is a program  34  that effects the functionality shown in  FIG. 2 . Controller  12  is also connected to a location-identification database  40 . Database  40  stores location information  42 - 44  in association with the addresses (e.g., telephone numbers) of end-user terminals  14 - 16 . Illustratively, the location information  42 - 44  for each terminal address includes the street address of the premises where the corresponding terminal  14 - 16  is located, the location of the premises entrance closest to the corresponding terminal  14 - 16 , the floor, aisle, and office where the corresponding terminal  14 - 16  is located, and—if the terminal is associated with a particular user—the identify of that user. Additional information may be provided as well. The information may exist in any desirable form, e.g., merely as text, or in graphical form such as an annotated map. Database  40  is private (e.g., to the organization on premises  20 ) and is not accessible by a public E-911 system  24 .  
         [0011]      FIG. 2  shows the functionality effected by controller  12  operating under control of program  34 . The functionality is initiated when controller  12  detects an emergency communication from a terminal  14 - 16 , at step  200 . In the case of premises communications system  10  being a telephone system, the emergency communication would be a “ 911 ” or a “9911” call. To generate a “911” call to external E-911 system  24 , a premises telephone system would generally require the caller to dial a “9” followed by “911.” But to avoid the need to dial the extra “9,” and the possible confusion caused thereby to the caller, system  10  preferably accepts both the “9911” and the “911” call and treats the “911” call as if it were a “9911” call, at step  202 .  
         [0012]     Processor  12  determines the address of the terminal from which the communication is originating—the calling number in the case of a telephone system  10 —at step  204 , and uses this number to retrieve the corresponding location information from database  40 , at step  206 . Optionally processor  12  then checks if there is on-premises medical emergency response (MER) personnel—usually volunteers spread among the population of premises  20 —at step  220 . If this option does not exist or if there is no on-premises MER personnel, processor  12  sends the location information that it retrieved at step  206  to both the E-911 system  24  and to security personnel terminal  18 , at step  210 . If premises communications system  10  is a data system, step  210  involves sending packets containing the retrieved information to both destinations. If premises communications system  10  is a telephone system, processor  12  initiates calls to both destinations, at step  208 , and sends the retrieved information to both destinations, at step  210 , illustratively as display information for a display terminal. Of course, conventional audio (voice) communications connections may—and likely will—also be established between the call originator and either the E-911 system or both the E-911 system and security personnel terminal  18 , at step  214 . Illustratively, the voice communication may be a conference call between the call-initiating terminal, system  24 , and terminal  18 ; the connection to terminal  18  may optionally be a listen-only connection. Functionality relevant to this invention then ends, at step  214 . Both local emergency (security) personnel associated with the location and public emergency personnel are thus provided with the detailed location information regarding where the emergency is taking place via a single communication to both security personnel terminal  18  and E-911 system  24 , without the local emergency personnel having to make a separate subsequent call to the public E-911 system  24 . Returning to step  220 , if it is determined that there is on-premises MER personnel, processor  12  accesses database  40  and retrieves therefrom information on the location of those persons, at step  222 , and compares this location information with the location information of the caller, at step  224 , to determine the MER person who is closest to the caller, at step  226 . Processor  12  then sends the location information on the location of the caller to the terminal (see terminal  16 , in  FIG. 1 ) closest MER person security personnel terminal  18 , and the E-911 system  24 , at steps  228 - 230 . Sending of the information to the MER person is akin to sending it to security personnel terminal  18 , as described in conjunction with steps  208 - 210 . Operation of processor  12  then continues at step  212 .  
         [0013]     Of course various changes and modifications to the illustrative embodiment described above will be apparent to those skilled in the art. These changes and modifications can be made without departing from the spirit and the scope of the invention and without diminishing its attendant advantages. It is therefore intended that such changes and modifications be covered by the following claims except insofar as limited by the prior art.