Patent ID: 8706540

Claim:
A method for monitoring and managing a workforce in a geographic region comprising: gathering audio from a plurality of different communication devices deployed throughout the geographic region within which a workforce performs a function, wherein the plurality of different communication devices comprise wireless devices for receiving and conveying sound, wherein said workforce comprises a plurality of employees that work within the geographic region and that utilize the different communication devices to communicate with each other; aggregating the audio from the plurality of different communication devices to create an acoustic map of the geographic region, wherein the acoustic map comprises data which relates sound generating objects to their positions in the geographic region; processing sound generated from at least one of the sound generating objects plotted on the acoustic map to determine a workforce relative event; selecting among a set of plurality of different employees positioned in the geographic region wherein the selection is based upon the workforce relative event determined from the at least one sound generating object; assigning at least one task to a selected one of the different employees selected from the set of plurality of different employees; communicating the assigned task to the selected one of the different employees via one of the different communication devices; and wherein at least one of the sound generating objects is not able to be accurately discerned from input from any single one of the plurality of different communication devices but that is able to be discerned by aggregating the audio from the plurality of different communication devices and triangulating positions of each of the sound generating objects within the geographic region from three or more of the plurality of different communication devices, each obtaining audio at approximately the same time, where the audio includes a sound generated by the each of the sound generating objects for which a position is being determined.