METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR DYNAMIC SHORT DIAL ALLOCATION IN EMERGENCY SYSTEMS

Abstract

A method, system, and computer program product for dynamic short dial allocation in emergency systems can be configured for acquisitioning, by a PSAP element, data from a caller, smart device and/or sensor processing and storing the data. Further, identifying, by a decision framework located at the PSAP side an emergency incident by means of the data and extracting, by the decision framework an appropriate emergency pattern for the identified emergency incident. Furthermore, gathering geolocation information from the caller, smart device and/or sensor and retrieving emergency services or departments at the geolocation area of the caller, smart device and/or sensor. Subsequently, providing appropriate emergency services or departments which must be notified according to the emergency incident to the call taker and displaying appropriate short dials for the emergency services or departments which must be notified.

Claims

1. A method for dynamic short dial allocation in emergency systems, comprising: acquisitioning, by a Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) element, data from an emergency event; processing, by the PSAP element, the data; storing, by the PSAP element the data into a data storage database; identifying, by a decision framework located at the PSAP side an emergency incident by means of the data; extracting, by the decision framework an appropriate emergency service for the identified emergency incident; gathering, by the PSAP element geolocation information from the emergency event; retrieving, by the PSAP element emergency services at the geolocation area of the emergency event; providing, by the PSAP element appropriate emergency services which must be notified according to the emergency incident to a call taker at the PSAP side; and displaying, by the PSAP element appropriate short dials for the emergency services which must be notified, to a graphic user interface (GUI) of a PSAP device of the call taker.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprising retrieving, by the PSAP element policy rules.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the identifying of the emergency incident further comprising using an emergency pattern database.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the extracting of the appropriate emergency service further comprising using an emergency scenario database.

5. The of claim 1 wherein the providing of the appropriate emergency services or department which must be notified according to the emergency incident to the call taker further comprises using a database with pre-stored short dials, wherein querying the database to select certain pre-stored short dials for a certain geolocation and a certain emergency scenario.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein in the case that more than one emergency services (m) have to be notified the time complexity is reduced from a tree_depth (O(n))*(m)+(m−1) to m.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the method is utilized in conjunction with NG911, NG112 and/or GEMMA, extending an existing protocol for transferring media data with a new field.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein the existing protocols for transferring media data is at least one of Session Description Protocol (SDP) or computer supported telecommunications applications (CSTA).

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the new field is one of automaticCall or directDeviceID.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the automaticCall will be set to true when the call is initiated automatically by at least one of third-party service, network connecting device or Internet of Things (IoT).

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the third-party service, network connecting devices or Internet of Things (IoT) is at least one of a sound detector, a smoke detector, a gas detector, a camera, a smart phone, a smart watch, smart sensors, telephones, mobile devices, or wearable sensors.

12. A system for dynamic short dial allocation in emergency systems, comprising: a Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) element configured to acquire, to process and to store data from an emergency event, wherein the PSAP element is further configured to gather geolocation information from the emergency event; and to retrieve emergency services at the geolocation area of the event; and wherein the PSAP element is configured to provide appropriate emergency services which must be notified according to the emergency incident to a call taker at the PSAP side; and to display appropriate short dials for the emergency services which must be notified, to a graphic user interface (GUI) of a PSAP device of the call taker; a decision framework located at the PSAP side configured to identify an emergency incident by means of the data; and to extract the appropriate emergency service(s) for the identified emergency incident; a data storage database; and a PSAP call handling application or PSAP application with a GUI.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the system further comprising an emergency pattern database and/or an emergency scenario database.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the system further comprising a database with pre-stored short dials and wherein the system is configured to query this database to select certain pre-stored short dials for a certain geolocation and a certain emergency scenario.

15. A non-transitory computer readable medium having machine-readable instructions stored thereon so that a method is performed when the instructions are run by a communication device configured as a Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP), the method comprising: acquisitioning, by the PSAP element, data from an emergency event; processing, by the PSAP element, the data; storing, by the PSAP element the data into a data storage database; identifying, by a decision framework located at the PSAP side an emergency incident by means of the data; extracting, by the decision framework an appropriate emergency service for the identified emergency incident; gathering, by the PSAP element geolocation information from the emergency event; retrieving, by the PSAP element emergency services at the geolocation area of the emergency event; providing, by the PSAP element appropriate emergency services which must be notified according to the emergency incident to a call taker at the PSAP side; and displaying, by the PSAP element appropriate short dials for the emergency services which must be notified, to a graphic user interface (GUI) of a PSAP device of the call taker.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0042] The invention and embodiments thereof will be described below in further detail in connection with the drawing. It should be appreciated that like reference numbers can identify similar components.

[0043] FIG. 1 shows a schematic illustration of components and steps according to a system and/or method of an embodiment of the invention;

[0044] FIG. 2 shows a flowchart of the method for dynamic short dial allocation in emergency systems according to another embodiment of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0045] FIG. 1 schematically shows an illustration of components and steps according to a system and/or method of an embodiment of the invention. Data from an emergency call is transferred from devices or other sensors of the caller to the emergency call center or a PSAP. In addition, further data can be transferred from other devices or sensors located in the proximity or in the sphere of the caller for example from IoT (Internet of things) devices. The data is processed and stored in a dedicated database which also stores the geolocation information of the calling or calling device or sensor, if available. The data is then compared with an emergency pattern database to see whether it is a “standardized” emergency. If this is the case, the emergency services or emergency departments that match the identified emergency scenario are selected from an emergency scenario database using an emergency service extractor. Using the caller's geolocation information or that of devices/sensors, only the emergency services/departments located in that geolocation area will be provided. These emergency services/departments should then be made available using short-dial buttons. For this purpose, another database with pre-stored short dials can be queried which selects certain pre-stored short dials for a certain geolocation and a certain emergency scenario. Subsequently, the available and necessary short dials are displayed, for example, on the GUI of the PSAP. However, it is also possible to include certain emergency policy rules in the process. For this purpose, a further database with policy rules is queried to determine whether certain rules must be taken into account for a specific emergency scenario and whether other emergency services or departments should also be displayed or be displayed instead.

[0046] FIG. 2 shows a flowchart of the method for dynamic short dial allocation in emergency systems. If an emergency call is received by an emergency call center (PSAP), the data of the emergency call is transferred to the emergency call center (PSAP). In addition, other available data from the caller's device as well as from other devices or sensors in its vicinity can be collected and transmitted. In a subsequent step, the data is processed, and it is first determined whether an emergency incident already exists for this data. This is done with the help of a database that contains different emergency patterns. If an emergency incident matches the existing patters already stored at the emergency patterns database, it is then determined whether one or more emergency services or emergency departments must be alerted if this emergency incident occurs. This is done with the help of another database which contains different emergency scenarios. If there is no such emergency scenario, the PSAP agent or call taker is shown all available short-dial buttons. If, on the other hand, an emergency scenario can be identified, an attempt is made to use the geolocation information of the caller or the devices or sensors in his or her immediate proximity in order to obtain the appropriate and available emergency services or emergency departments. Subsequently, this geolocation information can be compared and differentiated with the standard policy rules. This means, for example, which emergency service must be notified in addition or instead of another in any case. Subsequently, only those necessary emergency services or emergency departments are made available and displayed to the PSAP agent or the call taker by means of an appropriate short-dial button, which are available for the emergency at hand and must be alerted according to the local or other regulations.

[0047] In the following, an example is described of how the method according to an embodiment of the invention reduces the complexity and the time required to adequately respond to an emergency call compared to the currently used method. Currently, an administrator of an emergency system configures a set of short dials to de displayed to all the call takers that belong to the same organization or in other words to all PSAP agents or personnel that receives the emergency calls. Most of the times these buttons correspond to general organization categories (i.e. hospital, police, coast guard, etc.). Each one of these buttons has children buttons meaning a different button for each above-mentioned subcategory (i.e. COVID-19 hospitals, general hospitals, etc). These subcategory buttons may have further subcategories based on the size of the province for which the emergency center is responsible. Usually, there is not any central entity that routes the calls to the service. Currently, the PSAP agent that handles the call, upon the identification of the emergency event and the required services, he/she navigates to the tree-based pre-configured short dial menu in order to select the appropriate services. Based on the depth of the tree, the time complexity for navigating to the short dial menu is O(n). Even for a small province the depth of the tree can be at least two or three (O(2) or O(3)). A common example is the police station button and subcategories based on smaller departments per each area.

[0048] This simple paradigm has an O(2) complexity and time consuming. In case of medium and large states this number can be increased rapidly to O(n) complexity and time consuming where (n) are the sub-provinces of the state. Assuming a small to medium sized city emergency center has a depth of the tree of O(2). This means that there are categories for each emergency department (i.e. hospital, police, coast guard, etc.) and each of these categories are divided to subcategory of the local department. Now imagine the following scenario, a gas explosion occurs in an industrial area of the city's sub-domain. Citizens call the emergency center in order to report the issue and ask for help. Call taker of city's emergency center has to select the short dial of fire department button (1.sup.st step) and then select the appropriate fire department of the sub-domain (2.sup.nd step). In order to contact the police on this area, the call taker/PSAP agent has to navigate to the main menu of short dials (1 click back-3.sup.rd step) and select police button (4.sup.th step) and then select the police department of the sub-domain (5.sup.th step) in order to contact the police department on this area. In case that more departments (m) are involved as, for example the hospital for victims, the complexity and time consuming to coordinate the first responders is increased and is equal to

tree_depth(O(n))*(m)+(m−1)

2*2+(2−1)=5  (function 1)

[0049] In this example, the gas IoT device triggers our mechanism located at the emergency center and provides its geolocation data and the gas level concentration. The mechanism retrieves the geolocation data of the emergency triggering mechanism and/or the emergency type of the device and displays only the appropriate buttons by means of the fire and police departments of the appropriate local area. Call taker has to select the short dial for the fire department (1.sup.st step) and then the short dial for the police department (2.sup.nd step) in order to coordinate them. For coordinating m departments, the complexity and time consuming, function (1) is simplified to function 2:

tree_depth(O(1))*(m)=1*(m)=m

1*2=2.  (function 2)

[0050] Since there aren't back and forth steps to navigate to the main menu and tree_depth equals always to O(1). Moreover, in case of extreme emergency cases such as earthquake, gas explosion, etc., the emergency centers of a province usually get overwhelmed and the emergency routing is directed to other emergency centers. This means that the tree depth is greater than 2 or the call taker may not have at all the appropriate short dial buttons to transfer emergency calls direct to the appropriate first responders. The proposed mechanism can bypass this using geolocation information and identifying triggering event from IoT devices leading to decreased response time.

[0051] In the following, a further case study is described in which the method according to an embodiment of the invention can be used. Let us assume that person A's home is equipped with IoT devices sound detectors, cameras and person A is wearing a smart device, smart watch, that detects heart beats. Now person A is attacked by person B. The smart devices, camera and sound detector detect person A screaming and the smartwatch of person A detects an abnormal heartbeat. These smart devices send to the PSAP the data. At the PSAP side, the data is gathered from the same device (home gateway) that reach the PSAP. This data is processed and evaluated finally an emergency scenario is identified which suggests that the ambulance and the police emergency service should be notified. The geographical data and the applied policy rules for this time frame and the network traffic at the ambulance and police service in this geographical zone are considered. Based on this piece of information, at the call taker side, a set of two short dial buttons are provided that corresponds to the ambulance and police service at person A's geographical zone. This can eliminate the response to the emergency incident.

[0052] Embodiments can contribute to a dynamic allocation method of short dials based on the geographical data and the type of emergency received from the triggering devices.

[0053] It should be appreciated that different embodiments of the method, communication system, communication apparatus, PSAP, and ESRP can be developed to meet different sets of design criteria. For example, the particular type of network connection, server configuration or client configuration for a device for use in embodiments of the method can be adapted to account for different sets of design criteria. As yet another example, it is contemplated that a particular feature described, either individually or as part of an embodiment, can be combined with other individually described features, or parts of other embodiments. The elements and acts of the various embodiments described herein can therefore be combined to provide further embodiments. Thus, while certain exemplary embodiments of a telecommunication apparatus, telecommunication device, computer device, a network, a server, a communication system, and methods of making and using the same have been shown and described above, it is to be distinctly understood that the invention is not limited thereto but may be otherwise variously embodied and practiced within the scope of the following claims.