Patent ID: 8682280

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving a broadcast emergency alert message; determining if the received broadcast emergency alert message comprises at least one parameter indicative of a characteristic of the emergency alert message in a header of the received broadcast emergency alert message wherein, characteristics of the emergency alert message include an alert type, an alert likelihood, a severity of the alert, a geographic extent of an alert area, and an originator of the alert message; when the received broadcast emergency alert message comprises the at least one parameter: determining that the at least one parameter indicates the alert likelihood and the severity of the alert; determining whether the alert likelihood exceeds a user-defined likelihood threshold and whether the severity of the alert exceeds a severity threshold; when the alert likelihood does not exceed the user-defined likelihood threshold or the severity of the alert does not exceed the severity threshold, ignoring the received broadcast emergency alert message; and when the alert likelihood exceeds the user-defined threshold likelihood and the severity of the alert exceeds the severity threshold, processing the received broadcast emergency alert message in accordance with predetermined instructions that define how to process the received broadcast emergency alert message based on the at least one parameter and a user-defined time frame in which the broadcast emergency alert message is received; if the received broadcast emergency alert message does not comprise the at least one parameter, then bypassing the predetermined instructions and rendering the received broadcast emergency alert message; and when the received broadcast emergency alert message is not received within the user-defined time frame, ignoring the received broadcast emergency alert message.