Locality based alert method and apparatus

Abstract

Information about emergency situations is securely collected and processed by an agency, such as the local police force. When the information is approved for distribution as an emergency alert of a particular type, the alert is transmitted to a server. The server in turn facilitates the distribution of information widely to the public, and on a locality by locality basis. The server may format the emergency alert message or information for a variety of devices and send the information to those devices to convey the information to the public. The devices may include, for example, wireless devices, such as cell phones, personal digital assistants or any other type of wireless device; computers; electronic road signs; EAS equipment; computers and webpages; and any other type of output device. The server may also act as a web portal to disseminate information to the public and to allow members of the public to sign up to receive emergency alerts in particular localities, for example by zip code, at no cost to government or the public.

1 . A method of distributing emergency alerts, comprising:
 receiving emergency information including a location of an abduction, and a time of the abduction;   retrieving a description of a person, and a picture of the person from a removable storage media;   identifying an affected locality using the location of the abduction and a difference between the time of the abduction and a current time, the affected locality increasing in size as the difference between the time of the abduction and the current time increases; and   distributing an emergency alert to a plurality of user devices within the affected locality using a wireless communication network, the emergency alert including the location of the abduction, the time of the abduction, the description of the person, and the picture of the person.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , including translating the emergency alert into different formats associated with the plurality of user devices, wherein the format depends on a type of the user device, and wherein the plurality of user devices are capable of operating using a plurality of different protocols. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , including storing information identifying user devices that are associated with alerts in at least one of a plurality of different localities. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein at least one of the location of the abduction, and the time of the abduction are retrieved from the removable storage media. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , including:
 identifying a second affected locality using the location of the abduction, the time of the abduction, and a second current time; and   distributing a second emergency alert associated with the abduction to a second plurality of user devices within the second affected locality.   
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , including retrieving a digital certificate from the removable storage media to authenticate the description of the person, and the picture of the person. 
     
     
         7 . A method of distributing emergency alerts, comprising:
 collecting emergency information via a network interface, the emergency information including a location of an emergency, a time of the emergency, and a type of the emergency;   identifying a first affected locality using the location of the emergency, the time of the emergency, the type of the emergency, and a current time; and   transmitting an emergency alert to a server for distribution of at least one of the location, time and type of the emergency to a plurality of devices within the first affected locality.   
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein the emergency information includes information about an abduction of a child, and wherein the emergency information includes a child description and an abductor description. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8 , including communicating with a storage media to retrieve information describing the child, wherein the storage media has a predetermined format. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein the storage media includes an image of the child and is encrypted. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 7 , including:
 identifying a second affected locality using the location of the emergency, the time of the emergency, the type of the emergency, and a second current time; and   transmitting a second emergency alert to the server for distribution of the emergency information to a second plurality of devices within the second affected locality.   
     
     
         12 . A system for emergency alert distribution, comprising:
 a user alert database accessible via a network for storing information identifying a plurality of user devices, and a location for each of the plurality of user devices;   an emergency information database accessible via the network for storing a plurality of emergency events, each emergency event including a location of the emergency event, a time of the emergency event, and a type of the emergency event; and   a server coupled to the user alert database and the emergency information database, wherein the server device is configured to:
 retrieve a location, time, and type of one of the plurality of emergency events from the emergency information database, 
 determine an affected locality using the location, time, and type of the one of the plurality of emergency events, and a current time, and 
 transmit an emergency alert to a plurality of user devices within the affected locality, the emergency alert including at least one of the location, time, and type of the one of the plurality of emergency events. 
   
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 12 , wherein the server is configured to translate emergency information into a plurality of different formats associated with different ones of the plurality of user devices, and wherein the type of format depends on the type of the user device and the type of the emergency event. 
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 13 , wherein one format of the plurality of different formats includes an emergency alert system (EAS) system format. 
     
     
         15 . The system of  claim 13 , wherein one format of the plurality of different formats includes at least one format associated with an electronic traffic sign. 
     
     
         16 . The system according to  claim 13 , wherein one format of the plurality of different formats includes a web page format associated with an uniform resource locator for an emergency corresponding to the emergency information. 
     
     
         17 . The system of  claim 13 , wherein one format of the plurality of different formats includes an electronic mail format for an emergency corresponding to the emergency information. 
     
     
         18 . The system of  claim 13 , wherein one format of the plurality of different formats includes at least one wireless device format for an emergency corresponding to the emergency information. 
     
     
         19 . The system of  claim 18 , wherein the at least one wireless device includes a mobile telephone. 
     
     
         20 . A computer system for distributing emergency alerts, comprising:
 means for receiving emergency information including a location of an abduction, and a time of the abduction;   means for retrieving a description of a person, and a picture of the person from a removable storage media;   means for identifying an affected locality using the location of the abduction and a difference between the time of the abduction and a current time, the affected locality increasing in size as the difference between the time of the abduction and the current time increases; and   means for distributing an emergency alert to a plurality of user devices within the affected locality using a wireless communication network, the emergency alert including the location of the abduction, the time of the abduction, the description of the person, and the picture of the person.   
     
     
         21 . The computer system of  claim 20 , including means for translating the emergency alert into different formats associated with the plurality of user devices, wherein the format depends on a type of the user device, and wherein the plurality of user devices are capable of operating using a plurality of different protocols. 
     
     
         22 . The computer system of  claim 21 , including means for storing information identifying user devices that are associated with alerts in at least one of a plurality of different localities. 
     
     
         23 . The computer system of  claim 20 , wherein at least one of the location of the abduction, and the time of the abduction are retrieved from the removable storage media. 
     
     
         24 . The computer system of  claim 20 , including:
 means for identifying a second affected locality using the location of the abduction, the time of the abduction, and a second current time; and   means for distributing a second emergency alert associated with the abduction to a second plurality of user devices within the second affected locality.   
     
     
         25 . The computer system of  claim 20 , including means for retrieving a digital certificate from the removable storage media to authenticate the description of the person, and the picture of the person.