Conveying precise civic address with an emergency call

Abstract

A system for appending an emergency call (e.g., E911) with a location is described herein. The system appends the emergency call to a public safety answering point (PSAP) with a location from which the E911 call occurred. A user equipment (UE), which places the emergency call, connects to the beacon via short-range communication and acquires the location from a beacon. The UE transmits the location to the PSAP via a telecommunications network.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A user equipment (UE), comprising:
 a communication module configured to transmit a beacon connection inquiry; and   a processor configured to:
 generate the beacon connection inquiry in response to receiving user input that includes an emergency string, 
 receive a beacon inquiry response from a beacon that includes a beacon precise location, 
 in response to receiving the beacon inquiry response, determine whether the beacon precise location is closer in proximity to the UE than a stored location stored within a memory of the UE, and 
   an output configured to, based on the determination of whether the beacon precise location is closer in proximity to the UE than the stored location, transmit a communication in response to the emergency string that includes the beacon precise location or the stored location.   
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the beacon precise location includes one or more of a building number, a street name, a town, an identifying location within the a building, a floor number, a room number, and a directional corner. 
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the memory is further configured to store the beacon inquiry response or the beacon precise location. 
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the UE further includes a short-range communication module, the short-range communication module configured to receive the beacon inquiry response from the beacon and to transmit the communication in response to the emergency string that includes the beacon precise location. 
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 4 , wherein a short-range communication protocol of the short-range communication module includes Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Zigbee, or ultra-wideband. 
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to:
 in response to receiving the beacon inquiry response, determine that the beacon precise location is closer in proximity to the UE than the stored location, and   
       the output is further configured to, based on the determination that the beacon precise location is closer in proximity to the UE than the stored location, transmit the communication in response to the emergency string that includes the beacon precise location. 
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 6 , wherein the beacon inquiry response is a first beacon inquiry response from a first beacon that includes a first beacon precise location, and the processor is further configured to:
 receive a second beacon inquiry response from a second beacon that includes a second beacon precise location,   in response to receiving the first beacon inquiry response and the second beacon inquiry response, determine that the first beacon precise location or the second beacon precise location is closer in proximity to the UE than the stored location stored within the memory of the UE, and   
       the output is further configured to, based on the determination that the first beacon precise location or the second beacon precise location is closer in proximity to the UE than the stored location, transmit the communication in response to the emergency string that includes the first beacon precise location or the second beacon precise location, respectively. 
     
     
         8 . The system of  claim 7 , wherein the processor is further configured to determine whether the first beacon precise location or the second beacon precise location is closer in proximity to the UE based on a comparison of a feature of the first beacon inquiry response and the second beacon inquiry response. 
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 8 , wherein the feature is a signal strength. 
     
     
         10 . The system of  claim 9 , wherein the processor is further configured to determine the signal strength of the first beacon inquiry response and the signal strength of the second beacon inquiry response before comparing the signal strength of the first beacon inquiry response and the second beacon inquiry response. 
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 9 , wherein the first beacon inquiry response includes the signal strength of the first beacon inquiry response, and the second beacon inquiry response includes the signal strength of the second beacon inquiry response. 
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the UE further includes a network communicator configured to communicate with a network site of a telecommunications network, the network communicator configured to transmit the communication in response to the emergency string including the beacon precise location or the stored location to a public safety answering point (PSAP) via the telecommunications network. 
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the UE further includes a movement module configured to:
 after receiving the beacon inquiry response, determine movement of the UE from a first location to a second location,   transmit another beacon connection inquiry when the UE is determined to have moved from the first location to the second location, and   receive another beacon inquiry response when the UE is located at the second location.   
     
     
         14 . A method of determining a precise location of a user equipment (UE), comprising:
 receiving user input that includes an emergency string,   in response to receiving the user input that includes the emergency string, generating a beacon connection inquiry,   transmitting the beacon connection inquiry to one of multiple beacons;   in response to transmitting the beacon connection inquiry, receiving a beacon inquiry response that includes a beacon precise location,   in response to receiving the beacon inquiry response, determining whether the beacon precise location is closer in proximity to the UE than a stored location saved in a memory of the UE, and   based on determining whether the beacon precise location is closer in proximity to the UE than the stored location, transmitting a response communication to the emergency string that includes the beacon precise location or the stored location, respectively.   
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 14 , further comprising storing the beacon inquiry response in the memory if the beacon precise location is closer in proximity to the UE than the stored location. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 14 , further comprising:
 determining that the beacon precise location is closer in proximity to the UE than the stored location saved in the memory based on a signal strength of the beacon precise location, and   transmitting the response communication to the emergency string that includes the beacon precise location.   
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 14 , further comprising:
 determining that the stored location is closer in proximity to the UE than the beacon precise location based on a signal strength of the beacon precise location, and   transmitting the response communication to the emergency string that includes the stored location.   
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 14 , further comprising:
 transmitting the beacon connection inquiry to more than one of the multiple beacons,   in response to transmitting the beacon connection inquiry to more than one of the multiple beacons, receiving multiple beacon inquiry responses from the more than one of the multiple beacons, each of the multiple beacon inquiry responses including a respective beacon precise location,   in response to receiving the multiple beacon inquiry responses from the multiple beacons, determining whether any one or more of the multiple beacon inquiry responses is in closer proximity to the UE than the stored location, and   based on determining whether any one of the multiple beacon inquiry responses is in closer proximity to the UE than the stored location, transmitting the response communication to the emergency string that includes the one or more beacon precise locations or the stored location, respectively.   
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 18 , further comprising:
 determining that one of the multiple beacon precise locations of the respective more than one multiple beacon inquiry responses is closer in proximity to the UE than the stored location, and   based on determining that the one of the multiple beacon precise locations of the respective more than one multiple beacon inquiry responses is closer in proximity to the UE than the stored location, transmitting the response communication to the emergency string that includes the one or more of the multiple beacon precise locations.   
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 19 , further comprising determining that one of the multiple beacon precise locations is closer in proximity to the UE than the stored location based on a comparison of a respective signal strength of each of the multiple beacon precise locations.