Abstract:
A personal safety system is proposed which facilitates the automatic identification and location of a wireless subscriber who may otherwise be in distress in tandem with, an additional means for messaging a list of pre-designated emergency contacts. In light of the Sep. 11, 2001 tragedy this invention becomes particularly salient.

Description:
BACKGROUND ART  
         [0001]    Owing largely to the advances and publicity surrounding Global Positioning Systems (GPS), personal/emergency location systems (and analogous art) remain quite widespread. Indeed, it seems unsurprising then that much of the relevant disclosures speak specifically to the incorporation of GPS technology, as with U.S. Pat. No. 6,362,778 to Neher, entitled Personal Location Detection System and U.S. Pat. No. 5,724,660 to Kauser et al., entitled Method and Apparatus for Locating a Mobile Station by Comparing Calculated Location Area with GPS Coordinates, for instance.  
           [0002]    Other inventions call for the incorporation or utilization of some additional supplementary device or unit, as with U.S. Pat. No. 6,275,164 to MacConnell et al., entitled Emergency Locator System for instance; without considering the ubiquity and convenience of mobile phones and their existing infrastructure.  
           [0003]    U.S. Pat. No. 5,742,666 to Alpert, entitled Emergency Mobile Telephone and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 20020057764 by Salvucci et al., entitled Real-Time Incident and Response Information Messaging in a System for the Automatic Notification that an Emergency Call has occurred from a Wireline or Wireless Device; both detail art akin to that disclosed herein however the technical means of implementation remain materially dissimilar to anyone versed thereof. Indeed, the invention of present aims at utilizing current and future advances in wireless and mobile technology, infrastructure and pervasiveness, towards providing a straightforward and innovative approach in situations of distress and tragedy.  
           [0004]    References Cited:  
           [0005]    U.S. Patent Documents  
                                                 U.S. Patent Application                                20020057764   May 2002   Salvucci et al.   379/37        U.S. Pat. No. 5,724,660   March 1998   Kauser et al.   455/456       U.S. Pat. No. 5,742,666   April 1998   Alpert   455/404       U.S. Pat. No. 6,275,164   August 2001   MacConnell et al.   340/692       U.S. Pat. No. 6,362,778   March 2002   Neher   342/357                  
 
           [0006]    Other References  
           [0007]    GSM 03.71, Digital cellular telecommunications system (Phase 2+); Location Services (LCS); (Functional description)—Stage 2  
           [0008]    TIA/EIA/IS-J-STD-036, Enhanced Wireless 9-1-1 Phase II  
         TECHNICAL FIELD  
         [0009]    The present invention relates to telecommunication network implementations, and, in particular, to a method and system for messaging a list of pre-designated emergency contacts via a variety of messaging mechanisms.  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0010]    The Wireless Handset Emergency Location Provisioning System (Wireless HELPS) discloses art very much desirable in light of recent world events and tragedies, whereby an emergency communication application broadcasts a message to a list of pre-defined contacts upon receiving a distress signal from the wireless subscriber in question.  
           [0011]    Said subscriber having first been provisioned into the Wireless Handset Emergency Location Provisioning System. At which time, the wireless subscriber must provide the method which s/he chooses to send out the distress signal. S/he may also include additional contacts to his/her emergency contacts list. For each contact, the subscriber must specify the method which the emergency message will be delivered (Short Message Service (SMS), e-mail, or voice call), the destination address of the contact, and the emergency message.  
           [0012]    The Wireless Handset Emergency Location Provisioning System listens for distress signals sent by provisioned subscribers from their mobile phones in the form of Short Message Service (SMS), UnStructured Supplementary Services (USSD), or voice call. When a distress signal is received, the system looks up the subscriber&#39;s emergency contacts and the subscriber&#39;s location. After which time the system transmits the emergency message as defined by the subscriber and his/her location to all of his/her emergency contacts, as before.  
           [0013]    Indeed, these features and other such advantages of the present invention shall readily become apparent from the following description and accompanying drawings.  
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0014]    [0014]FIG. 1 is a flow diagram of the subscriber provisioning feature of an embodiment of the present invention.  
         [0015]    [0015]FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the emergency messaging and locating system according to an embodiment of the present invention.  
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
       [0016]    With reference now to FIG. 1, prior to implementing the emergency location provisioning and messaging system said wireless user must first access  10  the emergency location and contact provisioning application  70  and provision his or her identifier which may include the subscriber&#39;s Mobile Station Integrated Services Digital Network Number (MSISDN) or Mobile Directory Number (MDN) or Network Address Identifier (NAI) as a new subscriber to the emergency contact application  70 . Those skilled in the art shall recognize that a variety of addressing schemes may be utilized as a form of subscription identification without diluting the intent and scope of the present invention; and indeed, will recognize further that a variety of mechanisms may be utilized in accessing  10  the emergency location and contact provisioning application including, but are by no means bounded by, Internet browser, voice-based call using speech-to-text technologies, and/or voice-based call using Dual-Tone-Multi-Frequency (DTMF) Interactive Voices Response based technologies. Having been received by the emergency contact application  70 , the subscriber is thereby incorporated into the subscriber profile database  20 . The wireless user will configure the contact provisioning application with the list of emergency contacts as well as associated addressing information which may include, but not be limited to, mobile telephone numbers, land-line telephone numbers, and e-mail addresses. The wireless user will also configure the contact provisioning application with the preferred means of messaging for each contact. The information pertaining to a given subscriber&#39;s emergency contact lists and associated messaging mechanism will be stored in a subscriber profile database  20  by the contact provisioning application. Readers skilled in the art will recognize that the wireless user may elect to configure and or alter the information resident in the subscriber profile database  20  via the use of the contact provisioning application upon initial subscription or at any point in time subsequent to the initial subscription procedure.  
         [0017]    The emergency contact application  70  therewith registers the subscriber&#39;s addressing information to receive notification from the Short Message Service (SMS messaging) application  51  upon receipt of a distress signal. The registration sequence and notification will be received via a SMS Application Programming Interface (API). Indeed, those skilled in the art shall recognize that a variety of object oriented application programming interfaces will serve the purpose of notification without affecting the intent and scope of the present invention.  
         [0018]    Now, in consideration of FIG. 2, the subscriber initiates a distress signal from his or her mobile phone  100  through a plurality of means, as Short Message Service (SMS)  60 , UnStructured Supplementary Services (USSD)  61  or as a voice communication  62  to the emergency contact service  50 . Members skilled in the art will recognize that a plurality of notification mechanisms may be implemented without causing detriment to the intent and scope of the present invention. The distress signal containing the subscriber identifier having been received forwards and parses said signal to the SMS API enabled service  51 , USSD API enabled Service  52 , or Call Control API enabled Service  53  as per the subscriber&#39;s pre-designated preference for distress signal delivery method.  
         [0019]    The emergency contact service  50  notifies the emergency contact application  70  that a distress signal has been received and a query is made to determine if the originating subscriber identifier  100  remains a registered party to the service. Otherwise the signal is discarded  80 . A service provider may elect to offer a basic unsubscribe level of service whereby a predefined configurable list of contact and associated addressing information is utilized to contact emergency response centers, public safety answering point services, or law enforcement agencies as the case may be.  
         [0020]    The emergency contact application  70  then queries the subscriber profile database  20  for the emergency contact list for said subscriber. Upon return of such emergency contact list by the latter  20 , the emergency contact application  70  then further optionally queries a Location-Based Service  200  via an API for the location of said subscriber. Where the latter  200  returns the subscriber&#39;s location, such information is appended by the emergency contact application  70  to the emergency message and sent to each contact as per the pre-defined method of delivery. The Location-Based Service will generally query the carrier&#39;s infrastructure through any number of mechanisms designed to retrieve the subscribers location as such. The plurality of which include, but are not to be limited by, the procedures and methods described in GSM 03.71 and TIA-J-STD-036 as revised periodically. The location information retrieved from the Location-Based Service  200  may nonetheless be inevitably constrained by the underlying location technology infrastructure deployed by a given carrier.  
         [0021]    The subscriber&#39;s location and the subscriber&#39;s wireless handset (or mobile unit)  100  can essentially be considered equivalent, as the subscriber would be the one in possession of the unit initiating the distress signal. The emergency contact application  70  appends the location information to the emergency message  90  and sends it accordingly to each contact as per the pre-defined method of delivery.  
         [0022]    The methods of delivery available include SMS  56 , e-mail  57 , and voice  58 . The Service corresponding to each method of delivery ( 60 ,  61  and/or  62 ) relays the emergency message to the destination party. Those skilled in the art shall recognize indeed that other delivery notification mechanisms may be utilized without diluting the intent and scope of the present invention. A non-exhaustive sample list of destination parties include, emergency response centers, public safety answering point services, law enforcement agencies (default), and significant others as configured by the subscriber.