Voice alert methods and systems

Abstract

Methods, systems, and processor-readable media for providing instant/real-time voice alerts automatically to remote electronic devices. An activity can be detected utilizing one or more sensors. A text message indicative of the activity can be generated and converted into a digitized voice alert. The activity can also be a live utterance (e.g., a live announcement), which can then be instantly converted into a digitized voice alert for automatic delivery in a selected series of languages following the base language (e.g., English). The combined digitized voice alert can then be instantly transmitted through a network for broadcast of consecutive alerts (e.g., English followed by Spanish followed by Vietnamese, etc.) to one or more remote electronic devices that communicates with the network for an automatic audio announcement of the digitized voice alert through the one or more remote electronic devices.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method for providing instant voice alerts automatically to remote electronic devices, said method comprising:
 detecting a condition or activity at a premises utilizing at least one sensor via a monitoring system also located at the premises and connected to a data network;   generating a message indicative of said condition or activity into a data file that can be rendered on a remote electronic device as a digitized voice alert; and   transmitting the data file through the data network for receipt by at least one remote electronic device that is registered to communicate remotely with the monitoring system and receive messages over the data network for rendering of the digitized voice alert from the data file.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising configuring the at least one sensor to communicate via wire or wirelessly with the monitoring system and the monitoring system communicates with the at least one remote electronic device over the data network. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the monitoring system includes an intelligent router and the at least one sensor is configured to communicate via a wire or wirelessly with the intelligent router that thereafter communicates with said network. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the at least one sensor includes at least one of: a security sensor, a surveillance sensor, a smoke detector, a fire detector, a carbon monoxide detector, an energy usage monitoring sensor, a door or window opening sensor, and a flood sensor. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising configuring said at least one sensor to comprise a self-contained computer that communicates with said network. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising broadcasting said digitized voice message through said at least one remote electronic device in at least one language based on a language setting in a user profile. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 6  further comprising pre-selecting said at least one language in said user profile. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 6  further comprising establishing said user profile as a user preference via a server during a setup of said at least one remote electronic device. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 6  further comprising establishing said user profile as a user preference via an intelligent router during a setup of said at least one remote electronic device. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 6  further comprising during a setup of said at least one remote electronic device, selecting said at least one language from a plurality of different languages. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising converting said digitized voice message into more than one language from among a plurality of languages for broadcast of said digitized voice alert in consecutively different languages through said at least one remote electronic device. 
     
     
         12 . A system for providing instant voice alerts automatically to remote electronic devices, said system comprising:
 a processor;   a data bus coupled to the processor; and   a computer-usable medium embodying computer code, the computer-usable medium being coupled to said data bus, the computer program code comprising instructions executable by said processor and configured for:
 detecting a condition or activity at a premises utilizing at least one sensor via a monitoring system also located at the premises and connected to a data network; 
 generating a message indicative of said condition or activity into a data file that can be rendered on a remote electronic device as a digitized voice alert; and 
 transmitting the data file through the data network for receipt by at least one remote electronic device that is registered to communicate remotely with the monitoring system and receive messages over the data network for rendering of the digitized voice alert from the data file. 
   
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 12 , wherein the at least one sensor communicates with at least one of a monitoring system, intelligent router, and server, that in-turn communicates with said network. 
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 12 , wherein the at least one sensor includes at least one of: a security sensor, a surveillance sensor, a smoke detector, a fire detector, a carbon monoxide detector, an energy usage monitoring sensor, a door or window opening sensor, and a flood sensor. 
     
     
         15 . The system of  claim 13 , wherein the at least one sensor includes at least one of: a security sensor, a surveillance sensor, a smoke detector, a fire detector, a carbon monoxide detector, an energy usage monitoring sensor, a door or window opening sensor, and a flood sensor. 
     
     
         16 . The system of  claim 12 , wherein the instructions are further configured for broadcasting the digitized voice message through the at least one remote electronic device in at least one language based on a language setting in a user profile. 
     
     
         17 . The system of  claim 16 , wherein the instructions are further configured for allowing a pre-selection of the at least one language in said user profile. 
     
     
         18 . The system of  claim 17 , wherein said instructions are further configured during a set up of said at least one remote electronic device for selecting said at least one language from a plurality of different languages. 
     
     
         19 . The system of  claim 12 , wherein the instructions are further configured for converting the digitized voice message into more than one language from among a plurality of languages for broadcast of the digitized voice alert in consecutively different languages through the at least one remote electronic device. 
     
     
         20 . A processor-readable medium storing code representing instructions to cause a processor to perform a process to automatically provide an instant voice announcement to remote electronic devices, said code comprising of code to:
 detect a condition or activity at a premises utilizing at least one sensor via a monitoring system also located at the premises and connected to a data network;   automatically convert the detected condition or activity into a digitized voice message indicative of the detected condition or activity in response to detection of the condition or activity;   generate a message indicative of said condition or activity into a data file that can be rendered on a remote electronic device as a digitized voice alert; and   transmit the data file through the data network for receipt by at least one remote electronic device that is registered to communicate remotely with the monitoring system and receive messages over the data network for rendering of the digitized voice alert from the data file.