1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to an emergency guiding system and an emergency guiding server, and particularly to an emergency guiding system and an emergency guiding server capable of providing evacuation guidance through portable devices.
2. Description of Related Art
In a conventional emergency guiding system, evacuation guidance is provided through devices often immovably disposed along the evacuation pathway. In an emergency, evacuation guidance is provided through the devices such as indicator lights or speakers. However, in dense smoke, the indicator lights may not be seen and thus will not be able to act as guides for evacuees. In addition, other factors such as the layout and the density of the devices will influence evacuation guidance.
What is needed, therefore, is an emergency guiding system capable of overcoming the limitation described.
Many aspects of the present disclosure can be better understood with reference to the following drawing(s). The components in the drawing(s) are not necessarily drawn to scale, the emphasis instead being placed upon clearly illustrating the principles of the present disclosure. Moreover, in the drawing(s), like reference numerals designate corresponding parts throughout the several views.
The emergency guiding server 10 includes a guiding scheme determination unit 11, a scene location data unit 12, and a route providing unit 13. The guiding scheme determination unit 11 produces a guiding scheme G (not shown) in response to the current status of an emergency area E of an emergency (see
In the illustrated embodiment, the emergency guiding server 10 is alerted to the emergency in the emergency area E by an alarm signal Sa (not shown) received from a hazard processing apparatus 200 which is coupled to a plurality of sensors 300. The hazard processing apparatus 200 is a fire alarm control panel. The hazard processing apparatus 200 transmits the alarm signal Sa including status information Is (not shown) of the actuated sensors 300 to the emergency guiding server 10 when the current status of the emergency area E is detected by the sensors 300. The guiding scheme determination unit 11 includes a predetermined guiding scheme database 111 including predetermined guiding schemes Gp (not shown) corresponding to the sensors 300. The predetermined guiding schemes Gp are guiding schemes determined in advance according to various possible scenarios of the kind of sensory data that might be received from the sensors 300 such as the location, the type, the detected parameters, and the actuation time of the sensors 300. Each of the predetermined guiding schemes Gp includes various sets of the status of the sensors 300 which are essential conditions in choosing the schemes, and the recommended route R. In other embodiments, the predetermined guiding schemes Gp can include the location of other objects related to the emergency such as fire apparatus. The guiding scheme determination unit 11 chooses one of the predetermined guiding schemes Gp as the guiding scheme G according to the status information Is of the actuated sensors 300 in the alarm signal Sa. In other embodiments, the guiding scheme determination unit 11 can determine the guiding scheme G by other methods such as using a guiding scheme determination algorithm, instead of using the predetermined guiding scheme database 111. In addition, the emergency guiding server 10 can receive the alarm signal Sa directly from the sensors 300. Since the emergency guiding server 10 is alerted to the emergency by the alarm signal Sa which represents the real time status of the emergency in the emergency area E, the recommended route R can be produced in a dynamic manner and updated corresponding to the real time status of the emergency.
In the illustrated embodiment, the location signal SI includes a location of the portable device 20. In other embodiments, the location signal Sl can include other parameters of the portable device 20.
The portable device 20 includes a location identification unit 21, a display unit 22, a direction identification unit 23, and an actuating unit 24. In the illustrated embodiment, the portable device 20 is a smart phone. In other embodiments, the portable device 20 can be other types of portable electronic devices such as feature phone, tablet computer, or notebook computer. In the illustrated embodiment, the location identification unit 21 is a GPS (Global Positioning System) receiver which produces the device location information Id including a latitude, a longitude, and an elevation of the portable device 20. In other embodiments, the location identification unit 21 can be other types of devices such as WPS (Wi-Fi Positioning System) receiver, while the device location information Id can include other types of location related parameters of the portable device 20.
In the illustrated embodiment, the display unit 22 displays a route chart C (see
In the illustrated embodiment, the actuating unit 24 such as an application software automatically enables the location identification unit 21 and the direction identification unit 23 in response to a triggering signal St (not shown) received from the emergency guiding server 10, and then directs the portable device 20 to transmit the location signal Sl to the emergency guiding server 10, wherein the emergency guiding server 10 produces the triggering signal St in response to the emergency. In other embodiments, the actuating unit 24 can automatically enable/disable other components of the portable device 20 which are necessary for the operation of the emergency guiding system. In addition, the portable device 20 can include a speaker unit such as phone speaker or loudspeaker, thereby providing audio guidance according to the recommended route R in the guiding signal Sg. The audio guidance can be provided through, for example, a phone call to drive the speaker unit.
The emergency guiding system utilizes a portable device to provide evacuation guidance according to the location of the portable device. In comparison with conventional emergency guiding systems which utilize devices immovably disposed at the scene of emergency to provide evacuation guidance, the guidance effect of the emergency guiding system is not liable to be influenced by dense smoke during a fire. In addition, since evacuation guidance are provided according to the location of the portable device and the real time status of the emergency, the emergency guiding system is capable of providing real time and more accurate evacuation guidance to the user of the portable device, while the time and the network bandwidth for transmitting the recommended route is saved by merely transmitting a portion of the recommended route adjacent to the portable device. Furthermore, since the display unit of the portable device merely displays the route chart which is a portion of the recommended route adjacent to the portable device, the user of the portable device can recognize the route to evacuate easily even when in a hurry, while the route chart has a smaller size and is more applicable to a portable device. Hence, the emergency guiding system is especially suitable for larger scenes such as skyscrapers or factory buildings.
While the disclosure has been described by way of example and in terms of preferred embodiment, it is to be understood that the disclosure is not limited thereto. To the contrary, it is intended to cover various modifications and similar arrangements as would be apparent to those skilled in the art. Therefore, the range of the appended claims should be accorded the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and similar arrangements.