Patent Application
20180048601
The present disclosure relates to emergency services and in particular to a system and method of managing resources in an emergency callback scenario for emergency services personnel.
Emergency services such as police and military can encounter situations where personnel are required to report for work in response to a significant emergency or public safety event. When a request to return to work is sent to service personnel such as police officers, planning decisions on how to deploy the personnel can be problematic as systems for notification and tracking can be ad-hoc and not provide any indication of return time. In addition, the management of personal information required to contact the officers presents privacy concerns in the handling of the data. Accordingly, systems and methods that enable initiating and tracking emergency callback of personnel remains highly desirable.
Further features and advantages of the present disclosure will become apparent from the following detailed description, taken in combination with the appended drawings, in which:
It will be noted that throughout the appended drawings, like features are identified by like reference numerals.
Embodiments are described below, by way of example only, with reference to
In accordance with an aspect of the present disclosure there is provided a method of performing emergency call back, the method comprises: receiving an emergency call back initiation request at an emergency call back server; receiving a decryption key for a database associated with information of an organization for the emergency call back request; decrypting contact information in the database using the decryption key; generating call back message notification for at least one entry in the database; and sending the call back message notification to a messaging system.
In accordance with another aspect of the present disclosure there is provided a system for emergency call back comprising: a server for storing a call back database containing identification of personnel and encrypted contact information which is used to generate call back messaging notifications to one or more users, wherein responses from the one or more users is tracked to provide an estimated arrival time; and a second computing device storing a decryption key for the call back database remote from the server; wherein the decryption key is provided to the server to decrypt the encrypted contact information when an emergency event is initiated.
In accordance with yet another aspect of the present disclosure there is provided a non-transitory computer readable memory containing instructions which when executed by a processor of the emergency call back server cause the processor to perform: receive an emergency call back initiation request at the emergency call back server; receive a decryption key for a database associated with information of an organization for the emergency call back request; decrypting contact information in the database using the decryption key; generate call back message notification for at least one entry in the database; and send the call back message notification to a messaging system.
The Emergency Call Back System (ECBS) is designed for times of crisis when every minute counts. It allows for proper planning and efficient deployment of personnel in emergency situations for first responder personnel such as police, fire, and EMS. The system may also be utilized military related applications such as emergency deployments of units where deployment times are critical to resource decisions.
Depending on the circumstance, the Emergency Call Back System can be used for specialized tactical units, public order units, platoons, divisions, or an entire agency. When activated the officers receive a direct message to their mobile phone with the emergency notification requesting a timeframe of their expected arrival to a specific staging location. This allows leadership to plan for the arrival of certain officers and supervisors and at specific intervals so they can be quickly staged and deployed where immediately required.
The system uses a double-key encryption protocol ensuring the system is protected and meets a trusted level for the service and each individual member. An encryption key is utilized to encrypt user data, particularly contact numbers whereas the decryption key is provided to a key holder to ensure only authorized access is provided to the contact numbers when a callback event is initiated. The system and method described utilizes a symmetric key and public key encryption scheme to encrypt to contact information to further ensure the integrity of the call back system.
In an emergency requiring call back of personnel, a call back request can be initiated through a computing device 130 providing a web portal or application coupled to the ECBS server 140 through a communication network 150. Upon initiation of the request, a decryption key is provided, retrieved from device 120, or the ECBS server 140 may generate a permission request to an authorized user to enable access of the decryption key 124. The request may be a request for all personnel, a subset of personnel, personnel in particular rank, division, group or having particular skills. The relevant records are extracted by the ECBS server 140 and personal contact information is decrypted. Messaging requests are sent to messaging system 160 which provides an interface to cellular or landline networks 170. Messaging requests are received by messaging system 160 and converted to an appropriate format for the destination network for example short-message-service (SMS) mobile format and sent to the mobile network associated with the destination number for the destination devices 180a-180e. The message can comprise information describing an event, reason for call back, location of call back and a request for an estimated time of arrival. Predefined selections may be identified or an open selection of a response time may be provided. For example an officer may identify that they will be available for duty in 23 minutes, or may respond that they are unavailable for service by providing a predetermined code. In addition, the response dependent on the messaging protocol or messaging syntax utilized could include location information as to where the officer will be available to report to, such a rallying point. The contact information may define a mobile number, landline number or may be associated with an e-mail or application identifier if an associated web interface or application is implemented. If a mobile application is associated with the ECBS the officer may be able to provide select a set of pre-defined times 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 minutes etc., or more detailed ETA information. Additionally or alternatively, the officer may provide grid coordinate, staging area, sector, or division information to determine their relative location to their home staging point or alternate staging point. An initial response of an ETA may result in additional messaging to an officer to provide alternate or closest staging area and ETA. The web or application may also enable tracking of the mobile device to show their progress back to a rallying point or station. The messaging server 160 generates tokens to identify each message that has been sent to the recipients' 182a-182e and track responses provided by the recipients' 182a-182e. The token provides identification of the user which can be used by the ECBS 140 to track responses without the need to send personal information after the initial message generation. The messages such as SMS messages are sent via a cellular mobile network 170 to the mobile devices 180a-180e. As responses are received, tracking information can be displayed by computing device 130 on a display 132. The tracking information can identify officers' 182a-182e and their estimated arrival time at the desired location. Additional information may be retrieved from the personnel information 122 for enabling deployment decisions or display of capabilities of the responding officers.
The computing devices comprise at least a processor and a memory however, the functions described may be performed by a single device or distributed across multiple computing devices. Alternatively, functions of the ECBS 140 may be performed by a distributed to cloud computing service.
The data in the database 142 can be encrypted by encryption standards such as Triple-DES, Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), RSA, OpenPGP using hash standards such as SHA-1, SHA-2, HMAC, PBKDF2 or any similar standards. In addition, digital signatures may be used to track access or modification of data in the ECBS 140 or in tracking ECBS 140 or user access to the decryption key.
Although certain components and steps have been described, it is contemplated that individually described components, as well as steps, may be combined together into fewer components or steps or the steps may be performed sequentially, non-sequentially or concurrently. Further, although described above as occurring in a particular order, one of ordinary skill in the art having regard to the current teachings will appreciate that the particular order of certain steps relative to other steps may be changed. Similarly, individual components or steps may be provided by a plurality of components or steps. One of ordinary skill in the art having regard to the current teachings will appreciate that the system and method described herein may be provided by various combinations of software, firmware and/or hardware, other than the specific implementations described herein as illustrative examples.
The techniques of various embodiments may be implemented using software, hardware and/or a combination of software and hardware. Various embodiments are directed to apparatus, e.g. a node which may be used in a communications system or data storage system. Various embodiments are also directed to non-transitory machine, e.g., computer, readable medium, e.g., ROM, RAM, CDs, hard discs, etc., which include machine readable instructions for controlling a machine, e.g., processor to implement one, more or all of the steps of the described method or methods.
It is understood that the specific order or hierarchy of steps in the processes disclosed is an example of exemplary approaches. Based upon design preferences, it is understood that the specific order or hierarchy of steps in the processes may be rearranged while remaining within the scope of the present disclosure. The accompanying method claims present elements of the various steps in a sample order, and are not meant to be limited to the specific order or hierarchy presented.
In various embodiments devices and nodes described herein are implemented using one or more components or modules to perform the steps corresponding to one or more methods, for example, has generation, transmitting, processing, and/or receiving steps. Thus, in some embodiments various features are implemented using components or modules. Such components or modules may be implemented using software, hardware or a combination of software and hardware. In some embodiments each component or module is implemented as an individual circuit with the device or system including a separate circuit for implementing the function corresponding to each described component or module. Many of the above described methods or method steps can be implemented using machine executable instructions, such as software, included in a machine readable medium such as a memory device, e.g., RAM, flash memory, ROM, etc. to control a machine, e.g., general purpose computer with or without additional hardware, to implement all or portions of the above described methods, e.g., in one or more nodes. Accordingly, among other things, various embodiments are directed to a machine-readable medium e.g., a non-transitory computer readable medium, including machine executable instructions for causing a machine, e.g., processor and/or associated hardware, to perform one or more or all of the steps of the above-described method(s). Some embodiments are directed to a device including a processor configured to implement one, multiple or all of the steps of one or more methods of the invention.
Some embodiments are directed to a computer program product comprising a computer-readable medium comprising code for causing a computer, or multiple computers, to implement various functions, steps, acts and/or operations, e.g. one or more or all of the steps described above. Depending on the embodiment, the computer program product can, and sometimes does, include different code for each step to be performed. Thus, the computer program product may, and sometimes does, include code for each individual step of a method, e.g., a method of operating a communications device, e.g., a wireless terminal or node. The code may be in the form of machine, e.g., computer, executable instructions stored on a computer-readable medium such as a RAM (Random Access Memory), ROM (Read Only Memory) or other type of storage device. In addition to being directed to a computer program product, some embodiments are directed to a processor configured to implement one or more of the various functions, steps, acts and/or operations of one or more methods described above. Accordingly, some embodiments are directed to a processor, e.g., CPU, configured to implement some or all of the steps of the method(s) described herein. The processor may be for use in, e.g., a communications device or other device described in the present application.
Various features in the present application relate to a technical problem of how to anonymize sensitive data and, in particular, how to anonymize sensitive data for use in a user interface, e.g., where the anonymized data maybe and sometimes will be displayed to a user.
Numerous additional variations on the methods and apparatus of the various embodiments described above will be apparent to those skilled in the art in view of the above description. Such variations are to be considered within the scope.
This application claims priority from U.S. Patent Application No. 62/374,441 filed Aug. 12, 2016 the entirety of which is hereby incorporated by reference for all purposes.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62374441 | Aug 2016 | US |
