Patent Application
20210193336
The present disclosure relates to integrating building automation emergency response systems into building automation systems, and more particularly to dynamically directing occupants to a safe location in the event of an emergency.
In the event of an emergency arising in a building, such as an office building, a school building, a theater, or the like, the building's occupants must be quickly directed to a safe evacuation route to exit the building. Possible building emergencies may include fire, explosion, hazardous materials release, natural gas leaks, plumbing failure or flooding, power failure, elevator failure, and medical emergencies. Other types of emergencies perpetrated by actors may include active shooter, bomb threats and suspicious mail, demonstrations or protests, and workplace violence. Any delay in providing safe evacuation route directions to occupants could have potentially disastrous consequences.
In accordance with one embodiment described herein, a server associated with a building automation emergency response system of a building, receives indications of a detected emergency in the building from one or more sensors distributed among one or more zones in the building. The indications comprise a sensor reading level of the detected emergency and an identity of the one or more sensors. The server determines a zone danger level of the detected emergency in the one or more zones, based on the identity of the one or more sensors indicating a location in the one or more zones, and based on the sensor reading level of the detected emergency of the one or more sensors in the one or more zones. The server calculates a respective evacuation route commencing from one or more user interfaces distributed among the one or more zones in the building. The evacuation route is calculated to traverse one or more zones having respective zone danger levels. A route danger level is computed as a sum of products of distance segments along the route and the respective zone danger level of the zones traversed by the segments. The safest evacuation route is the route that has a minimum route danger level in reaching a respective safe exit location of the building. The server then transmits a depiction of the safest evacuation route to the one or more user interfaces for display on a display device. The server continues receiving updated indications of the detected emergency from the one or more sensors. In response, the server determines updated zone danger levels, updated route danger levels, calculates an updated safest evacuation route commencing from the one or more user interfaces, and transmits an updated depiction of the safest evacuation route to the one or more user interfaces for display, to guide occupants to a safe location in the event of an emergency.
In accordance with an embodiment described herein, the server maintains a record of past indications comprising past instances of sensor reading level of the detected emergency and the identity of the one or more sensors in the one of the one or more zones. The server determines a weight for the past instances of sensor reading level of the detected emergency of the one or more sensors in the one or more zones. The weight is based on how frequently and recently the past instances of sensor reading level of the detected emergency have been detected by the one or more sensors. The server determines a past zone danger level of the detected emergency in the one or more zones, based on the past sensor reading levels of the detected emergency of the one or more sensors in the one or more zones. The server calculates a past-present zone danger level of the one or more zones by adding the present zone sensor level with the past zone danger level of the one or more zones. The server then calculates the safest evacuation route based on the past-present zone danger level of the one or more zones.
In accordance with an embodiment described herein, the server determines a predicted sensor danger level of the detected emergency in the one or more sensors. The predicted sensor danger level is based on a predicted rate of movement of the emergency or on structural or other conditions of the zones. The server determines a predicted zone danger level of the detected emergency in the one or more zones. The predicted zone danger level is based on the predicted sensor danger level of the detected emergency of the one or more sensors in the one or more zones. The server calculates a past-present-predicted zone danger level of the one or more zones by adding the past-present zone danger level with the predicted zone danger level of the one or more zones. The server then calculates the safest evacuation route based on the past-present-predicted zone danger level of the one or more zones.
In accordance with an embodiment described herein, the server determines that the first evacuation route having the first route danger level is safer than the second evacuation route having the second route danger level. The server then transmits a depiction of the safer first evacuation route to a respective one of the one or more user interfaces for display on the display device as the safest evacuation route.
In accordance with an embodiment described the sensor for detecting an emergency is at least one of a gunshot sensor, a fire sensor, an explosion sensor, a hazardous materials release sensor, a natural gas leak sensor, a smoke sensor, a plumbing flooding sensor, a power failure sensor, or an elevator failure sensor.
In accordance with an embodiment described herein, a server, comprises:
In accordance with an embodiment described herein, the server further comprises:
In accordance with an embodiment described herein, the server further comprises:
In accordance with an embodiment described herein, the server further comprises:
In accordance with an embodiment described herein, the server further comprises:
In accordance with an embodiment described herein, the server further comprises:
In accordance with an embodiment described herein, the server further comprises:
In accordance with an embodiment described herein, a computer program product comprising computer executable program code recorded on a computer readable non-transitory storage medium, the computer executable program code comprises:
In accordance with an embodiment described herein, the computer program product further comprises:
In accordance with an embodiment described herein, the computer program product further comprises:
In accordance with an embodiment described herein, the computer program product further comprises:
In accordance with an embodiment described herein, the computer program product further comprises:
In accordance with an embodiment described herein, the computer program product further comprises:
In accordance with an embodiment described herein, the computer program product further comprises:
In accordance with an embodiment described herein, a method, comprises:
In accordance with an embodiment described herein, the method further comprises:
In accordance with an embodiment described herein, the method further comprises:
In accordance with an embodiment described herein, the method further comprises:
In accordance with an embodiment described herein, the method further comprises:
In accordance with an embodiment described herein, the server further comprises:
The resulting method, apparatus, system, and computer program product integrates building automation emergency response and occupant evacuation systems into building automation systems to dynamically direct occupants to a safe location in the event of an emergency.
A more detailed description of the disclosure, briefly summarized above, may be had by reference to various embodiments, some of which are illustrated in the appended drawings. While the appended drawings illustrate select embodiments of this disclosure, these drawings are not to be considered limiting of its scope, for the disclosure may admit to other equally effective embodiments.
Identical reference numerals have been used, where possible, to designate identical elements that are common to the figures. However, elements disclosed in one embodiment may be beneficially utilized on other embodiments without specific recitation.
What is needed is a way to integrate building automation emergency response and occupant evacuation systems into building automation systems to dynamically direct occupants to a safe location in the event of an emergency.
In the embodiment of
In the embodiment of
The building automation emergency response and occupant evacuation system 160 maintains a record of past received indications comprising past instances of sensor reading levels of the detected emergency and the identity of the sensors 124 producing the reading level in a zone. The zone that includes a particular sensor 124 is determined from a look-up table of unique identities for the respective sensors 124 and the identity of a zone where a respective sensor is located. The building automation emergency response and occupant evacuation system 160 determines a past-present zone danger level of the detected emergency in a zone, based on calculating a sum of products of weight values for the past instances of the sensor reading levels times the past sensor reading levels. The weight values for the past instances of sensor reading level may be based on how frequently and recently the past instances of sensor reading level have been detected by the sensors. The past-present zone danger level of a zone is calculated by adding the present sensor reading level and the past sensor reading levels of the zone. The following Table A shows an example of a record of past instances of the sensor reading level SA[t] at time “t” for sensors s(1) and S(2) in Zone(A). The time t starts at t=0 and continues as t=1, then t=2, etc. The table also shows an example calculation of the sensor danger values for S(1) and S(2) as sums of products of the sensor reading times an example weight value “W”. The table also shows an example calculation of the danger value for Zone(A) as a sum of the danger values for the fire sensor S(1) and the smoke sensor S(2) in Zone(A):
To more clearly show weighting of sensor types in Table A, weights (W) may be applied to the total for each sensor. This is a way of expressing that type of danger is worse than another. For example, if fire is considered to be twice as dangerous as smoke, then S(1) could have a weight of Ws=0.5 for smoke and S(0) would have a weight of Wf=1 for fire. In Table A, this would give:
Zone(A) Danger Sum of Sensors=(150*Wf)+(100*Ws)=Danger (at time t=1)
Zone(A) Danger Sum of Sensors=(150*1)+(100*0.5)=200 (at time t=1)
A record is kept of each zone in which an emergency sensor has been triggered. Danger in a zone may be determined by number of sensor activations weighted by how long ago they occurred. Given the type of sensor, a scale factor or weight may be applied to the sensor danger value, for example gunshots are more dangerous than a fire emergency. The sensor readings for fire emergencies or gas leak emergencies may provide an analog sensor reading based on the severity of the emergency. The sensor readings for gunshot emergencies may provide an analog sensor reading based on a decibel level indicating a caliber of the gun. The example weight value may be a function that may be tuned by a systems installer or by data accumulation over time.
During a detected emergency, as discussed above, the past-present zone danger level of a zone for the zones in the building is calculated by adding the present sensor reading level and the past sensor reading levels of the zone. In this example, fire has been detected by the sensor S(1) in Zone(A) and smoke has been detected by sensor S(36) in Zone(N). The building automation emergency response and occupant evacuation system 160 calculates a respective evacuation route commencing from the user interfaces 100 distributed among the zones in the building. The evacuation route is calculated to traverse one or more zones having respective zone danger levels. A route danger level is computed as a sum of products of distance segments along the route and the respective zone danger level of the zones traversed by the segments. The safest evacuation route is the route that has a minimum route danger level in reaching a respective safe exit location of the building. Each proposed evacuation route commencing from a given zone is examined by calculating a route danger level as the sum of the products of the length of the component segments, such as D1, D2, and D3 for Route(B3) from Zone(B), times the zone danger level for each respective zone through which the segment passes in
The Route(B3) has the smallest route danger level for the sum of the products of the length of the component segments, D1, D2, and D3 for Route(B3) from Zone(B), times the zone danger level for each respective zone Zone(N), Zone(F), and Zone(O) through which the respective segments pass in
Continuing with the example, fire has been detected by the sensor S(1) in Zone(A) and smoke has been detected by sensor S(36) in Zone(N). For an evacuation commencing from Zone(F), each proposed evacuation route is examined by calculating the route danger level as a sum of the products of the length of the component segments, such as D1, D2, and D3 for Route(F1) from Zone(F), times the zone danger level for each respective zone through which the segment passes. The following Table D shows an example calculation of the route danger level during the example emergency to determine the safest evacuation route commencing from Zone(F), from among the two possible evacuation routes: ROUTE(F1) and ROUTE(F2).
The Route(F2) has the smallest route danger level for the sum of the products of the length of the component segment D1 for Route(F2) from Zone(F), times the zone danger level for Zone(O) through which the respective segment passes. Thus, ROUTE(F2) is the safest evacuation route commencing from Zone(F), to avoid the fire emergency detected in Zone (A) and smoke emergency in Zone(N), according to an embodiment of the disclosure.
Continuing with the example, fire has been detected by the sensor S(1) in Zone(A) and smoke has been detected by sensor S(36) in Zone(N). An occupant in the office in Zone(B) may begin an evacuation by viewing the user interface UI(2) in Zone(B) showing the safest evacuation route ROUTE(B3) commencing from Zone(B), to avoid the emergency detected in Zone (A) and Zone(N). The occupant follows ROUTE(B3), which leads into Zone(F). The occupant may continue the evacuation by viewing the user interface UI(6) in Zone(F) showing the safest evacuation route ROUTE(F2) commencing from Zone(F), to the exit at the back door of the building. The building automation emergency response and occupant evacuation system 160 provides to each user interface 100 in each respective zone of the building, a respective depiction of the evacuation route commencing from the respective zone, which provides an occupant viewing each respective user interface along the evacuation route, with a situational awareness that is unique to that respective zone.
Different safest routes are transmitted to the different user interfaces, since the user interfaces each have their own safest route based on their location relative to the exits and the emergency. The server transmits one or more depictions of the safest evacuation routes to the one or more user interfaces in the one or more zones for display on one or more display devices. The one or more depictions are of the one or more safest routes transmitted to respective ones of the one or more user interfaces, based on the locations of the respective ones of the one or more user interfaces relative to the one or more exit locations and the detected emergency.
The building automation emergency response and occupant evacuation system 160 may receive updated indications of the detected emergency in the building from the one or more sensors 124. In response, the building automation emergency response and occupant evacuation system 160 determines updated zone danger levels in the one or more zones, calculates updated route danger levels based on the updated zone danger levels, determines updated safest evacuation routes based on the updated route danger levels, and transmits the updated depictions of the safest evacuation routes to the one or more user interfaces 100 for display.
The building automation emergency response and occupant evacuation system 160 calculates a respective evacuation route “Z” commencing from the user interfaces 100 distributed among the zones in the building. The evacuation route is calculated to traverse one or more zones having respective zone danger levels. A route danger level is computed as a sum of products of distance segments along the route and the respective zone danger level of the zones traversed by the segments. The safest evacuation route is the route that has a minimum route danger level in reaching a respective safe exit location of the building.
The building automation emergency response and occupant evacuation system 160 may determine a predicted sensor danger level of the detected emergency in the one or more sensors, based on a predicted rate of movement of the emergency or on structural or other conditions of the zones. For example, emergencies such as fire, smoke, hazardous materials release, natural gas leaks, and flooding naturally expand, sometimes quickly, from a zone of initial occurrence to adjacent zones. For example, in
Continue with the example of the fire detected by the sensor S(1) in Zone(A) and smoke detected by sensor S(36) in Zone(N). For an evacuation commencing from Zone(B), each proposed evacuation route commencing from Zone(B) is examined by calculating a route danger level as the sum of the products of the length of the component segments, such as D1, D2, and D3 for Route(B3) from Zone(B), times the zone danger level for each respective zone through which the segment passes in
At the time of 3 minutes after the fire starts in Zone(A), the fire is predicted to spread to the adjacent Zone(N). The building automation emergency response and occupant evacuation system 160 calculates a present-predicted zone danger level of Zone(N), by adding the present zone danger level of Zone(N) (smoke=100) and the predicted zone danger level of Zone(N) at 3 minutes into the future (fire=100). In this example, the predicted zone danger level of Zone(N) at 3 minutes into the future is 100, because it is adjacent to Zone(A) where there is presently a fire emergency. The following Table E shows an example calculation of the route danger level during the example emergency at 3 minutes into the future, to determine the safest evacuation route commencing from Zone(B), from among the three possible evacuation routes: ROUTE(B1), ROUTE(B2), and ROUTE(B3) in
For the adjacent Zone(N), the building automation emergency response and occupant evacuation system 160 calculates a present-predicted zone danger level of Zone(N), by adding the present zone danger level of Zone(N) (smoke=100) and the predicted zone danger level of Zone(N) (fire at 3 minutes=100). In this example, the predicted zone danger level of Zone(N) at 3 minutes is 100. The Route(B3) has the smallest route danger level for the sum of the products of the length of the component segments, D1, D2, and D3 for Route(B3) from Zone(B), times the zone danger level at 3 minutes for each respective zone Zone(N), Zone(F), and Zone(O) through which the respective segments pass in
At the time of 6 minutes after the fire starts in Zone(A), the fire prediction map indicates the fire is predicted to have spread to zones (B), (C), (D), (F), (M), and (N). The building automation emergency response and occupant evacuation system 160 calculates a present-predicted zone danger level of Zone(F), by adding the present zone danger level of Zone(F) (=0) and the predicted zone danger level of Zone(F) (fire=100) at 6 minutes into the future. In this example, the predicted zone danger level of Zone(F) is 100 at 6 minutes after the fire starts in Zone(A), which raises the route danger level for ROUTE(B3) 1200. The ROUTE(B3) is no longer the safest evacuation route, because fire is predicted to have spread to Zone(F) by 6 minutes. The ROUTE(B2) will be the safest evacuation route, by 6 minutes after the fire starts in Zone(A). The following Table F shows an example calculation of the route danger level during the example emergency at 6 minutes into the future, to determine the safest evacuation route commencing from Zone(B), from among the three possible evacuation routes: ROUTE(B1), ROUTE(B2), and ROUTE(B3) in
For the Zone(F), the building automation emergency response and occupant evacuation system 160 calculates a present-predicted zone danger level of Zone(F), by adding the present zone danger level of Zone(F) (=0) and the predicted zone danger level of Zone(F) (fire at 6 minutes=100). The Route(B2) has the smallest route danger level for the sum of the products of the length of the component segments, D1, D2, and D3 for Route(B2) from Zone(B), times the zone danger level at 6 minutes for each respective zone Zone(N), Zone(L), and Zone(O) through which the respective segments pass in
In an embodiment, the building automation emergency response and occupant evacuation system 160 may determine the safest route by calculating the route dangers over time (for example in increments of 1 minute) and add them all together to get a total for each route. The danger of a zone may change as the occupant is passing through the zone. The change in danger may be determined by observing the occupant's movement speed and simulating the occupant's motion through the path/zones over time and calculating the danger at each point in time along a path through the zones.
A predicted sensor danger level of the detected emergency for a sensor may be based on structural or other conditions of the zone where the sensor is located. For example, the building may have been constructed in stages, with the back section of the building having been constructed of wood and wall board materials, which are more combustible than brick and block construction in other parts of the building. At the time of commissioning the building automation emergency response and occupant evacuation system 160, a table is compiled and stored in memory 132 of the predicted sensor danger level in the zones, based on structural or other conditions of the zone where each sensor is located. The following example Table G stored in memory 132, correlates the predicted sensor danger level in the zones Zone(G), Zone(H), and Zone(L) that are constructed of combustible wood and wall board materials. Other zones Zone(D), and Zone(E) are also shown in Table G, which are located in portions of the building that are not constructed of combustible materials, and thus have a low value for the predicted sensor danger level. The following Table G is used when the detected emergency is a fire emergency.
Continue with the example of the fire detected by the sensor S(1) in Zone(A) and smoke detected by sensor S(36) in Zone(N). For an evacuation commencing from Zone(B), each proposed evacuation route commencing from Zone(B) is examined by calculating a route danger level as the sum of the products of the length of the component segments, such as D1, D2, and D3 for Route(B2) from Zone(B), times the zone danger level for each respective zone through which the segment passes in
For the Zone(L), the building automation emergency response and occupant evacuation system 160 calculates a present-predicted zone danger level of Zone(L), by adding the present zone danger level of Zone(L) and the predicted zone danger level of Zone(L) in Table G due to combustibility of the zone. The Route(B2) route danger level is calculated as the sum of the products of the length of the component segments, D1, D2, and D3 for Route(B2) from Zone(B), times the zone danger level for each respective zone Zone(N), Zone(L), and Zone(O) through which the respective segments pass in
The Route(B3) has the smallest route danger level in Table H for the sum of the products of the length of the component segments, D1, D2, and D3 for Route(B3) from Zone(B), times the zone danger level for each respective zone Zone(N), Zone(F), and Zone(O) through which the respective segments pass in
For certain types of threats, there are logical paths the threat is likely to proceed on. For non human threats such as fire and gas leaks, it may be assumed that they will spread into surrounding zones, factoring in the material of the zones and any barriers. A speed factor may be applied during commissioning to change the rate of spread based on the building materials and ventilation connections. Danger may be calculated into the future for T seconds (t=0 t=T). At each point in time (t), the system may determine the location of the danger along a vector of movement and if the danger is expected to enter a zone, the zone danger level may be increased.
In example embodiments, the building automation emergency response and occupant evacuation system 160 determines a predicted sensor danger level of the detected emergency in the one or more sensors, based on a predicted rate of movement of the emergency or on structural or other conditions of the zones, as previously discussed. The building automation emergency response and occupant evacuation system 160 determines a predicted zone danger level of the detected emergency in the one or more zones, based on the predicted sensor danger level of the detected emergency of the one or more sensors in the one or more zones, as previously discussed. In this embodiment, the building automation emergency response and occupant evacuation system 160 calculates a past-present-predicted zone danger level of the one or more zones by adding the past-present zone danger level and the predicted zone danger level of the one or more zones. The building automation emergency response and occupant evacuation system 160 then calculates the safest evacuation route as the minimum value route danger level for the one or more evacuation routes based on the past-present-predicted zone danger level of the one or more zones.
In example embodiments, the building automation emergency response and occupant evacuation system 160 calculates the safest evacuation route, based at least on one of [1] avoiding where the emergency has been located and is currently located, or [2] avoiding where the emergency is predicted to be located.
The building automation emergency response and occupant evacuation system 160 calculates a respective evacuation route “Z” commencing from the user interfaces 100 distributed among the zones in the building. The evacuation route is calculated to traverse one or more zones having respective zone danger levels. A route danger level is computed as a sum of products of distance segments along the route and the respective zone danger level of the zones traversed by the segments. The safest evacuation route is the route that has a minimum route danger level in reaching a respective safe exit location of the building.
The building automation emergency response and occupant evacuation system 160 calculates a respective evacuation route “Z” commencing from the user interfaces 100 distributed among the zones in the building. The evacuation route is calculated to traverse one or more zones having respective zone danger levels. A route danger level is computed as a sum of products of distance segments along the route and the respective zone danger level of the zones traversed by the segments. The safest evacuation route is the route that has a minimum route danger level in reaching a respective safe exit location of the building.
Predicted Zone Danger Level from Human Threats
For human threats, it may be more likely that they will proceed in a given direction in search of some target or goal and will move along human traversable paths provided in the building's floor plan during commissioning. The likelihood of the human threat traversing a possible path may be determined by each possible path's similarity in its direction to a predicted direction of travel by the human threat. During the emergency, prior movement of the human threat may be used to predict future movement of the location of that threat. In predicting where a human threat may be located in the future, the system may simulate future situations and display evacuation routes according to present and predicted threats. For simulation of a predicted danger, an algorithm for calculating the safest evacuation route may consider time (t) at each step of the calculation. An assumption may be made as to the movement speed of the occupants during an evacuation. The time needed by an occupant to reach a given zone along the evacuation route may be used as a weight value to be multiplied times a given zone danger level. A safest evacuation route will be based on a minimum route danger level among the possible evacuation routes.
For Zone(F), the building automation emergency response and occupant evacuation system 160 calculates a present-predicted zone danger level of Zone(F), by adding the present zone danger level of Zone(F) (=0) and the predicted zone danger level of Zone(F) (gunman at 6 minutes=100). The Route(B2) has the smallest route danger level for the sum of the products of the length of the component segments, D1, D2, and D3 for Route(B2) from Zone(B), times the zone danger level at 6 minutes for each respective zone Zone(N), Zone(L), and Zone(O) through which the respective segments pass in
The method performed by the example logic blocks 500, comprises the following logic blocks:
Block 502: receiving, by the server, one or more indications of a detected emergency in a building from one or more sensors distributed among one or more zones in the building, the one or more indications comprising a sensor reading level of the detected emergency and an identity of the one or more sensors;
Block 504: determining, by the server, one or more zone danger levels of the detected emergency in the one or more zones, based on the identity of the one or more sensors indicating a location in the one or more zones, and based on the sensor reading level of the detected emergency of the one or more sensors in the one or more zones;
Block 506: calculating, by the server, a route danger level of one or more evacuation routes from one or more user interfaces located in the one or more zones in the building toward one or more respective exit locations of the building, the one or more evacuation routes comprising a sequence of one or more distance segments traversing the one or more zones having respective zone danger levels, the server calculating the route danger level as a sum of products of the one or more distance segments times the respective zone danger levels of the one or more zones traversed;
Block 508: determining, by the server, one or more safest evacuation routes of the one or more evacuation routes from the one or more user interfaces respectively located in the one or more zones, the safest evacuation routes having route danger levels that are less than a route danger level of other ones of the one or more evacuation routes from the respective user interfaces;
Block 510: transmitting, by the server, one or more depictions of the safest evacuation routes to the one or more user interfaces in the one or more zones for display on one or more display devices, wherein the one or more depictions are of the one or more safest routes transmitted to respective ones of the one or more user interfaces, based on the locations of the respective ones of the one or more user interfaces relative to the one or more exit locations and the detected emergency; and
Block 512: receiving, by the server, updated indications of the detected emergency in the building from the one or more sensors, and in response, determining updated zone danger levels in the one or more zones, calculating updated route danger levels based on the updated zone danger levels, determining updated safest evacuation routes based on the updated route danger levels, and transmitting updated depictions of the safest evacuation routes to the one or more user interfaces for display.
Current building automation emergency response systems are not designed to accurately determine the safest route to safety using indications of emergency received from building sensors, transmit the safest route to user interfaces for display, determine updated safest evacuation routes based on updated danger levels, and transmit the updated safest evacuation routes for display on user interfaces. This is a technical problem. An exemplary embodiment of a building automation emergency response system may comprise a processor instructed to receive, by the server, an indication of a detected emergency in a building from sensors among one or more zones in the building. The indications may comprise sensor reading levels of the detected emergency and an identity of the sensors. The processor may determine a danger zone level of the detected emergency in the one or more zones, based on the identity of the sensors indicating a location in the one or more zones, and based on the sensor reading levels of the detected emergency of the sensors in the one or more zones. The processor may calculate a route danger level of one or more evacuation routes from one or more user interfaces located in the one or more zones toward one or more respective exit locations of the building. The one or more evacuation routes may comprise a sequence of one or more distance segments traversing the one or more zones having respective zone danger levels. The processor may determine one or more safest evacuation routes of the one or more evacuation routes from the one or more user interfaces, respectively, located in the one or more zones, the safest evacuation routes having route danger levels that are less than a route danger level of other ones of the one or more evacuation routes from the respective user interfaces. The processor may transmit one or more depictions of the safest evacuation routes to the one or more user interfaces in the one or more zones for display on one or more display devices. The depictions may be of the safest routes transmitted to the respective user interfaces based on the locations of the respective user interfaces relative to the exit locations and the detected emergency. The processor may receive updated indications of the detected emergency in the building from one or more sensors, and, in response, determine updated zone danger levels in the one or more zones, calculate updated route danger levels based on the updated zone danger levels, determine updated safest evacuation routes based on the updated route danger levels, and transmit updated depictions of the safest evacuation routes to the one or more user interfaces for display. At least this foregoing combination of features comprises a building automation emergency response system that serves as a technical solution to the foregoing technical problem. This technical solution is not routine and is unconventional. This technical solution is a practical application of a building automation emergency response system that solves the foregoing technical problem and constitutes an improvement in the technical field of building-automation-system design at least by facilitating accurately determining the safest route to safety using indications of emergency received from building sensors, transmitting the safest route to user interfaces for display, determining updated safest evacuation routes based on updated danger levels, and transmitting the updated safest evacuation routes for display.
In the preceding, reference is made to various embodiments. However, the scope of the present disclosure is not limited to the specific described embodiments. Instead, any combination of the described features and elements, whether related to different embodiments or not, is contemplated to implement and practice contemplated embodiments. Furthermore, although embodiments may achieve advantages over other possible solutions or over the prior art, whether or not a particular advantage is achieved by a given embodiment is not limiting of the scope of the present disclosure. Thus, the preceding aspects, features, embodiments and advantages are merely illustrative and are not considered elements or limitations of the appended claims except where explicitly recited in a claim(s).
The various embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented as a system, method or computer program product. Accordingly, aspects may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment (including firmware, resident software, micro-code, etc.) or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects that may all generally be referred to herein as a “component”, “circuit,” “module” or “system.” Furthermore, aspects may take the form of a computer program product embodied in one or more computer-readable medium(s) having computer-readable program code embodied thereon.
Any combination of one or more computer-readable medium(s) may be utilized. The computer-readable medium may be a non-transitory computer-readable medium. A non-transitory computer-readable medium may be, for example, but not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. More specific examples (a non-exhaustive list) of the non-transitory computer-readable medium can include the following: an electrical connection having one or more wires, a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory), an optical fiber, a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. Program code embodied on a computer-readable medium may be transmitted using any appropriate medium, including but not limited to wireless, wireline, optical fiber cable, RF, etc., or any suitable combination of the foregoing.
Computer program code for carrying out operations for aspects of the present disclosure may be written in any combination of one or more programming languages. Moreover, such computer program code can execute using a single computer system or by multiple computer systems communicating with one another (e.g., using a local area network (LAN), wide area network (WAN), the Internet, etc.). While various features in the preceding are described with reference to flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, a person of ordinary skill in the art will understand that each block of the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, as well as combinations of blocks in the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, can be implemented by computer logic (e.g., computer program instructions, hardware logic, a combination of the two, etc.). Generally, computer program instructions may be provided to a processor(s) of a general-purpose computer, special-purpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus. Moreover, the execution of such computer program instructions using the processor(s) produces a machine that can carry out a function(s) or act(s) specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.
The flowchart and block diagrams in the Figures illustrate the architecture, functionality and/or operation of possible implementations of various embodiments of the present disclosure. In this regard, each block in the flowchart or block diagrams may represent a module, segment or portion of code, which comprises one or more executable instructions for implementing the specified logical function(s). It should also be noted that, in some alternative implementations, the functions noted in the block may occur out of the order noted in the figures. For example, two blocks shown in succession may, in fact, be executed substantially concurrently, or the blocks may sometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending upon the functionality involved. It will also be noted that each block of the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, and combinations of blocks in the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, can be implemented by special purpose hardware-based systems that perform the specified functions or acts, or combinations of special purpose hardware and computer instructions.
It is to be understood that the above description is intended to be illustrative, and not restrictive. Many other implementation examples are apparent upon reading and understanding the above description. Although the disclosure describes specific examples, it is recognized that the systems and methods of the disclosure are not limited to the examples described herein but may be practiced with modifications within the scope of the appended claims. Accordingly, the specification and drawings are to be regarded in an illustrative sense rather than a restrictive sense. The scope of the disclosure should, therefore, be determined with reference to the appended claims, along with the full scope of equivalents to which such claims are entitled.
This application claims the benefit of and priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/950,756, filed on Dec. 19, 2019 under 35 U.S.C. 119(e), which application is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62950756 | Dec 2019 | US |
