Comprehensive tsunami alert system via mobile devices

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9792802-B2
Application number	US-201615083287-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 29, 2016
Priority date	May 14, 2008
Publication date	Oct 17, 2017
Grant date	Oct 17, 2017

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention address deficiencies of the art in respect to navigation in GPS-enabled mobile computing devices and provide a novel and non-obvious method, system and computer program product for location-based tsunami alerting navigational instructions in mobile computing devices. In an embodiment of the invention, a location-based tsunami alerting data processing system can be provided. The system can include a central processing unit coupled with a memory component, and a visual display along with location-based navigation logic that is enabled to compute a geographic zone of danger resulting from a tsunami, identify a geographic location for a mobile computing device corresponding to a subscriber, and render a set of personalized navigational instructions in the mobile computing device responsive to a determination that the subscriber is located in the geographic zone of danger.

First claim

I claim:

1. A non-transitory computer program product for location-based tsunami alerting, the computer program product embedded in a processor of a mobile computing device and comprising a set of instructions that when executed in the processor causes the processor to:
receive one or more sets of geographical coordinates, each set of geographical coordinates corresponding to a zone of danger resulting from a tsunami;
compute a geographic zone of danger based on the one or more sets of geographical coordinates;
determine a current geographic location for the mobile computing device;
responsive to determining that the current geographic location of the mobile computing device is in the computed geographic zone of danger, calculate a shortest safest path to direct the mobile computing device and also a user of the mobile computing device out of the computed geographic zone of danger;
render, in the mobile computing device, a set of personalized navigational instructions from the determined geographic location for the mobile computing device to a geographic location outside of the computed geographic zone of danger,
wherein the set of personalized navigational instructions includes at least one of a visual map and a path corresponding to step-by-step textual instructions along with a current pointer that points the user of the mobile computing device in a direction of the shortest safest path to get out of the computed geographic zone of danger based on the determined current geographic location of the mobile computing device and
wherein the current pointer points to a first zone of safety; and,
responsive to tracking the mobile computing device changing direction away from the first zone of safety, determine a second zone of safety that is closer to the current geographic location of the mobile computing device.

2. The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein the set of instructions that when executed further causes the hardware processor of the mobile computing device to compute a first zone of safety based on the one or more sets of geographical coordinates, wherein the first zone of safety comprises a set of geographic coordinates as a boundary area of the first zone of safety.

3. The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein the set of instructions that when executed causes the hardware processor of the mobile computing device to render the set of personalized navigational instructions further comprises dynamically updating the personalized navigational instructions in real-time.

4. The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein the set of instructions that when executed further causes the hardware processor of the mobile computing device to render updated distance information between the mobile computing device's current geographic location and a destination zone of safety.

5. The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein the set of instructions that when executed causes the hardware processor of the mobile computing device to determine the current geographic location for the mobile computing device is established by global positioning system (GPS) coordinates.

6. The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein the set of instructions that when executed causes the hardware processor of the mobile computing device to determine the current geographic location for the mobile computing device is established by cellular triangulation.

7. The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein the set of instructions that when executed further causes the hardware processor of the mobile computing device to compute a second zone of safety based on the one or more sets of geographical coordinates, wherein the second zone of safety comprises a set of geographic coordinates as a boundary area of the second zone of safety.

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Kirk Erik A

Classifications

• G01S2205/006

  for emergency situations · CPC title

• H04M2242/30

  Determination of the location of a subscriber · CPC title

• H04W4/02 Primary

  Services making use of location information · CPC title

• G08B27/005

  with transmission via computer network · CPC title

• G01C21/20

  Instruments for performing navigational calculations (G01C21/24, G01C21/26 take precedence) · CPC title