Systems and methods for managing emergency information

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9497585-B1
Application number	US-201314025770-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Sep 12, 2013
Priority date	Sep 12, 2013
Publication date	Nov 15, 2016
Grant date	Nov 15, 2016

Abstract

A computer-implemented method for managing emergency information may include intercepting, on a mobile-computing device, an emergency communication being transmitted from the mobile-computing device. Intercepting the emergency communication may include monitoring outgoing communications on the mobile-computing device and determining that an outgoing communication being monitored is a communication about an emergency. This method may also include sending, from the mobile-computing device to a remote server that collects emergency data from a plurality of mobile-computing devices, information about the emergency communication and location information that identifies a location of the emergency. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method for managing emergency information, at least a portion of the method being performed by a computing device comprising at least one processor, the method comprising:
intercepting, on a mobile-computing device, an emergency communication being transmitted from the mobile-computing device by:
monitoring outgoing communications from the mobile-computing device, and
determining that an outgoing communication being monitored is a communication about an emergency;
sending, from the mobile-computing device to a safety-ratings system that collects emergency data and creates safety ratings, information about the emergency communication and location information that identifies a location of the emergency;
receiving, at the safety-ratings system, information about emergency communications that are intercepted while being sent from a plurality of mobile-computing devices by receiving the information about the emergency communications from the security software running on the plurality of mobile-computing devices, the plurality of mobile-computing devices comprising the mobile-computing device;

identifying, based on location information received from the plurality of mobile-computing devices, geographical regions where emergencies associated with the emergency communications occurred;
using the information about the emergency communications to establish safety ratings for the geographical regions where the emergencies occurred by calculating, at the safety-ratings system, the safety ratings based on an analysis of the information received from the plurality of mobile-computing devices, wherein establishing the safety ratings for the geographical regions comprises, for each geographical region being rated:
determining a total number of mobile-computing devices within the geographical region that are capable of providing information about emergency communications;
determining a volume of emergency communications received from one or more mobile-computing devices within the geographical region;
normalizing the safety rating for the geographical region by comparing the total number of mobile-computing devices within the geographical region with the volume of emergency communications received from the one or more mobile-computing devices within the geographical region.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein:
monitoring the outgoing communications from the mobile-computing device comprises monitoring telephone numbers dialed from the mobile-computing device;
determining that the outgoing communication being monitored is a communication about an emergency comprises determining that a dialed telephone number is an emergency dispatch number.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein:
the safety-ratings system operates as part of a server owned by a security software publisher;
the mobile-computing devices comprise mobile-computing devices configured with security clients of the security software publisher;
the security software comprises security software owned by the security software publisher.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising querying the mobile-computing device for location information that identifies a location to which a user of the mobile-computing device traveled after leaving the location of the emergency.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4 , wherein:
querying the mobile-computing device comprises:
pinging the mobile-computing device;
using the ping to identify the location to which the user of the mobile-computing device traveled after leaving the location of the emergency;

the method further comprises:
using the location to which the user of the mobile-computing device traveled after leaving the location of the emergency to determine a type and/or a severity of the emergency;
using the type and/or the severity of the emergency to establish the safety ratings for the geographical regions.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein establishing the safety ratings for the geographical regions comprises:
establishing a first safety rating for a city and a second safety rating for a neighborhood within the city;
assigning a higher safety score and/or a lower safety score to the neighborhood than to the city.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein monitoring the outgoing communications from the mobile-computing device comprises at least one of:
monitoring a telephone application on the mobile-computing device;
monitoring an application programming interface used in making phone calls from the mobile-computing device.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the information about the emergency communications comprises recordings of the emergency communications.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 8 , wherein establishing the safety ratings for the geographical regions comprises, for each emergency communication, analyzing the recording of the emergency communication to determine an intensity of the emergency communication.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 9 , wherein determining the intensity of the emergency communication comprises determining the intensity by analyzing at least one of:
a volume of a caller of the emergency communication;
a duration of the emergency communication;
natural language processed key words used in the emergency communication.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein establishing the safety ratings for the geographical regions comprises analyzing anti-theft submissions from one or more mobile-computing devices in the plurality of mobile-computing devices.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 11 , wherein analyzing the anti-theft submissions comprises analyzing a probability of a theft incident.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining that a mobile-computing device from the plurality of mobile-computing devices is located within or near a geographical region for which a safety rating has been established;
sending, to the mobile-computing device located within or near the geographical region, information about the safety rating of the geographical region.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining that an additional mobile-computing device is located near an emergency associated with an emergency communication received from a mobile-computing device in the plurality of mobile-computing devices;
sending, to the additional mobile-computing device, information about the emergency.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable-storage medium comprising one or more computer-readable instructions that, when executed by at least one processor of a computing device, cause the computing device to:
intercept, on a mobile-computing device, an emergency communication being transmitted from the mobile-computing device by:
monitoring outgoing communications from the mobile-computing device, and
determining that an outgoing communication being monitored is a communication about an emergency;

send, from the mobile-computing device to a safety-ratings system that collects emergency data and creates safety-ratings, information about the emergency communication and location information that identifies a location of the emergency;
receive, at the safety-ratings system, information about emergency communications that are intercepted while being sent from a plurality of mobile-computing devices by receiving the information about the emergency communications from security software running on t

Assignees

• Symantec Corp

Inventors

• Cooley Shaun
• Payne Charles
• Schaup Henry
• Perumal Vijay

Classifications

• H04W64/00

  Locating users or terminals {or network equipment} for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management · CPC title

• H04L29/08657

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04W4/02 Primary

  Services making use of location information · CPC title

• H04L67/535

  Tracking the activity of the user (network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34) · CPC title

• H04L67/52

  specially adapted for the location of the user terminal · CPC title