Systems and methods for acquiring and providing information associated with a crisis

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9686663-B2
Application number	US-201414484166-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 11, 2014
Priority date	Sep 11, 2014
Publication date	Jun 20, 2017
Grant date	Jun 20, 2017

Abstract

Systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable media can determine a geographical area associated with a crisis. A first user within the geographical area can be identified based on locational data associated with the first user. Information about a safety status of the first user can be actively requested or acquired from the first user. The safety status of the first user can be broadcasted, communicated, or provided to at least a second user associated with the first user.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:
determining, by a computing system, a geographical area associated with a crisis;
identifying, by the computing system, a first user within the geographical area based on locational data associated with the first user;
requesting, by the computing system, from the first user information about a safety status of the first user;
determining, by the computing system, that a second user is within the geographical area;
receiving, by the computing system, information about a safety status of the second user from the first user; and
notifying, by the computing system, the second user within the geographical area that the information about the safety status of the second user has been received from the first user.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the identifying of the first user within the geographical area further comprises:
identifying a set of users who are refreshing web feed data;
acquiring respective locational data associated with each user in the set of users; and
identifying the first user out of the set of users as being at a location corresponding to the geographical area, wherein the first user is identified as being at the location based on the locational data associated with the first user.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:
identifying a set of users associated with the first user, the set of users including the second user;
determining that the second user is within the geographical area;
requesting, from the second user, information about a safety status of the second user; and
providing the safety status of the second user to at least a third user associated with the second user.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3 , wherein the third user corresponds to at least one of the first user or another user different from the first user and the second user.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:
requesting, from the second user, a confirmation or a non-confirmation for the information about the safety status of the second user.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the determining of the geographical area associated with the crisis further comprises:
acquiring at least one of governmental information indicating that the geographical area is associated with the crisis, information from one or more scientific instruments indicating that the geographical area is associated with the crisis, information from one or more private third-party sources indicating that the geographical area is associated with the crisis, information from one or more news sources indicating that the geographical area is associated with the crisis, information from one or more feeds indicating that the geographical area is associated with the crisis, or manual input specifying that the geographical area is associated with the crisis.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the geographical area includes at least one of a district, a zip code area, a city, a county, a region, a state, a province, or a country.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the determining of the geographical area associated with the crisis includes determining that the geographical area is currently associated with the crisis, wherein the identifying of the first user within the geographical area includes identifying the first user as being currently within the geographical area, and wherein the locational data associated with the first user includes current locational data associated with the first user.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:
generating a random probability metric;
identifying a third user when the random probability metric at least meets a specified probabilistic threshold level, the third user being associated with the first user and being outside the geographical area;
identifying a fourth user who is associated with the third user and who is within the geographical area;
requesting, from the fourth user, information about a safety status of the fourth user; and
providing the safety status of the fourth user to at least a fifth user associated with the fourth user.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 9 , wherein the specified probabilistic threshold level is adjustable.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:
providing information associated with the crisis to the first user, the information associated with the crisis including at least one of information about food, information about water, information about shelter, information about evacuation, or a warning associated with the crisis.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the requesting of the information about the safety status of the first user is performed via at least one of website communications, application communications, text messaging, email messaging, or telephone communications.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the providing of the safety status of the first user to the at least the second user associated with the first user further comprises:
providing a notification to the second user, the notification indicating the safety status of the first user and safety statuses of other social connections associated with the second user.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 13 , wherein the notification is provided in real-time, at one or more specified time periods, or when an amount of new safety statuses satisfies a threshold amount level.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 13 , wherein the notification is provided independently of at least one of a location of the second user or the safety status of the second user.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:
providing the second user with access to at least one of a first set of social connections having confirmed safety statuses or a second set of social connections yet to have confirmed safety statuses, wherein the first set includes the first user.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:
providing access to one or more user interactions associated with the safety status of the first user, the one or more user interactions including at least one of a comment, a message, a tag, or a share.

18. A system comprising:
at least one processor; and
a memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to perform:
determining a geographical area associated with a crisis;
identifying a first user within the geographical area based on locational data associated with the first user;
requesting, from the first user, information about a safety status of the first user;
determining that a second user is within the geographical area;
receiving information about a safety status of the second user from the first user; and
notifying, by the computing system, the second user within the geographical area that the information about the safety status of the second user has been received from the first user.

19. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium including instructions that, when executed by at least one processor of a computing system, cause the computing system to perform:
determining a geographical area associated with a crisis;
identifying a first user within the geographical area based on locational data associated with the first user;
requesting, from the first user, informati

Assignees

• Facebook Inc

Inventors

• Cottle Peter Michael
• Zeng Sharon
• Echevarria Jean Carla Ablaza
• Friedl Jasmine R
• Wu Cameron Chuk Hing
• Sa Brian Paihan
• Parthasarathy Abhishek

Classifications

• G08B21/10

  responsive to calamitous events, e.g. tornados or earthquakes · CPC title

• H04L67/10

  in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network (software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46) · CPC title

• H04W4/90 Primary

  Services for handling of emergency or hazardous situations, e.g. earthquake and tsunami warning systems [ETWS] · CPC title

• H04W4/021

  Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences · CPC title

• H04W4/22 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic