Patent ID: 7679506

Claim:
A method of communicating a geographically targeted emergency alert message, comprising: a) identifying an emergency situation warranting notification of persons within a geographic area of concern; b) defining the geographic area of concern; c) creating a geographic area message that represents the geographic area of concern; d) selecting or creating an emergency alert message; e) transmitting the geographic area message and the emergency alert message to a satellite; f) retransmitting the emergency alert message and the geographic area message by the satellite to the earth; g) receiving the retransmission of the emergency alert message and the geographic area message by an emergency alert enabled device; h) turning on the emergency alert enabled device if the emergency alert enabled device was off when the retransmission of the emergency alert message and the geographic area message was received by the emergency alert enabled device; i) fixing the geographic position of the emergency alert enabled device; j) performing an analysis of the geographic area message and the geographic position of the emergency alert enabled device to determine whether the emergency alert enabled device is located within the geographic area of concern; and k) presenting the emergency alert message if and only if the emergency alert enabled device is located within the geographic area of concern.