Real-time status notification of responder actions to building owners / operators

Abstract

Devices, systems and methods for real-time status notification of central station actions to building owners / operators are described herein. A system includes: a building owner / operator communication device; an alarm system at a building, the alarm system having a control panel component and one or more alarm system device components; a central monitoring station configured to execute executable instructions to: receive an event alarm signal from the alarm system component; send a response request signal to a response facility; receive a response request signal reply indicating that response facility personnel will respond to the building; receive event response update data from the response facility personnel via a response personnel communication device; and send the event response update message to the building owner / operator communication device.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present disclosure relates to devices, systems, and methods for real-time status notification to building owners / operators in response to personnel actions. Background Art

[0002] Large facilities (e.g., buildings), such as commercial facilities, office buildings, hospitals, etc., may have alarm systems that can be triggered during an emergency (e.g., a fire), for example, to warn occupants to evacuate. For example, the alarm system may include a control panel (e.g., a fire control panel) within the building and multiple event devices (e.g., hazard sensing devices, such as fire detectors, smoke detectors, carbon monoxide detectors, carbon dioxide detectors, other hazardous chemical detectors, audio-visual monitoring devices, etc.) located throughout the facility (e.g., on different floors of the facility and / or in different rooms) that can sense hazardous events occurring in the facility and provide notification of the hazardous events to occupants of the facility via alarms or other mechanisms.

[0003] In conventional alarm monitoring systems, once an alarm event signal reaches a central monitoring station, monitoring personnel take appropriate actions based on the type of alarm and inform authorized emergency responders. For example, in the case of a fire alarm event signal, personnel at the central monitoring station would call the fire station and inform them that a fire alarm event signal has been received from the facility's alarm system. Or, in the case of a security breach, personnel would inform nearby police departments, etc. The actions taken by the central monitoring station personnel are recorded in their central monitoring station system, but their progress in handling the alarm is not known to the building owner / building facility manager.

[0004] Typically, progress actions include: notifying emergency responders, emergency responders starting to reach the target location, emergency responders have reached the target location, emergency responders are taking actions to suppress the incident, emergency responders have completed activities and have left the area, etc. These detailed actions are captured manually, and the information is maintained in the central monitoring station system, but these intermediate progress status details are not known to the building owner / building facility manager. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0005] Figure 1 is an example of a responder status system for use in an implementation in accordance with one or more embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0006] Figure 2 is an illustration of a display screen provided on a user interface showing an overview of events occurring within a responder status system generated in accordance with one or more embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0007] Figure 3is an illustration of a display screen provided on a user interface showing a summary of device status generated in accordance with one or more embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0008] Figure 4 is a diagram of the flow of events between a gateway and a central station generated according to one or more embodiments of the present disclosure. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0009] This article describes devices, systems and methods for real-time status notification of responder actions to building owners / operators. Currently, there is no mechanism in the alarm system to notify the building owner / facility manager, and data is only passed between the central station and the emergency / first responders. In the present disclosure, the responder status system includes a communication link between the central station and a remote server (e.g., a cloud server).

[0010] By using the embodiments described herein, real-time status information indicative of intermediate update data may be provided to the building owner / operator. As used herein, intermediate update data is data describing the status conditions between the event alarm signal and the signal that the event has been processed. The information provided may be, for example: the type of incident that occurred (fire, chemical release, safety condition), based on the incident, the specific actions that the central station has performed, the current action being performed, the next action to be performed, the third action to be performed, and other information.

[0011] Through a communication connection with the building owner / operator, e.g., via a connection to a central monitoring station, responders may also receive information regarding the best doors to enter, potential areas that may be hazardous (e.g., areas under construction), whether a previously routed path is still the preferred path or whether an alternate path should be followed, etc. In some embodiments, the building owner / operator may then, for example, return a reply to the central monitoring station, which may then be forwarded to responders (e.g., emergency responders, firefighters, police, security personnel, etc.).

[0012] Other information to be transmitted may be floors or specific areas of a building. For example, a building owner / operator may provide the number and / or location of fire extinguishers, the number and / or location of exits, real-time status updates of the condition of the building as responders are on route (e.g., smoke is coming out of the southwest corner of the building, it may be fully engulfed when you arrive, use entry point #2 as entry #1 may be on fire), and other relevant details. The information received from each party (building owner / operator, responders) may be taken as spoken text by the central monitoring center and automatically transcribed, for example, by transcription software, and the text may then be sent to the appropriate party (building owner / operator, responders).

[0013] As discussed above, this document describes devices, systems, and methods for real-time status notification of response personnel actions to building owners / operators. A system includes: a building owner / operator communication device; an alarm system at a building, the alarm system having a control panel component and one or more alarm system device components; a central monitoring station, the central monitoring station configured to execute executable instructions to: receive an event alarm signal from an alarm system component; send a response request signal to a response facility; receive a response request signal reply indicating that response facility personnel will respond to the building; receive event response update data from the response facility personnel via a responder communication device; and send the event response update message to the building owner / operator communication device.

[0014] In the following detailed description, reference is made to the accompanying drawings which form a part hereof. The drawings show, by way of illustration, the manner in which one or more embodiments of the present disclosure may be practiced.

[0015] These embodiments are described in sufficient detail to enable one of ordinary skill in the art to practice one or more embodiments of the present disclosure. It is to be understood that other embodiments may be utilized and process, electrical and / or structural changes may be made without departing from the scope of the present disclosure.

[0016] It should be understood that the elements shown in the various embodiments herein may be added, exchanged, combined and / or eliminated to provide multiple additional embodiments of the present disclosure. The proportions and relative sizes of the elements provided in the accompanying drawings are intended to illustrate embodiments of the present disclosure and should not be limiting.

[0017] The figures herein follow the following numbering convention: one or more first digits correspond to the figure number, and the remaining digits identify the element or component in the figure. Similar elements or components between different figures may be identified by using similar numerals. For example, 102 may refer to Figure 1 Component "02" in , and Figure 4 Similar elements in may be referenced as 402.

[0018] As used herein, "a" or "several" things may refer to one or more such things, while "plurality" things may refer to more than one such things. For example, "a plurality of components" may refer to one or more components, while "plurality of components" may refer to more than one component.

[0019] Figure 11 is an example of a responder status system used in an embodiment according to one or more embodiments of the present disclosure. In the illustrated embodiment, the responder status system 100 includes an alarm system 102 within a building 116, a central monitoring station having at least one computing device 108, a remote server (e.g., a cloud server) 118, and a building owner / operator communication device 120.

[0020] The central monitoring station is also connected to one or more response service providers 112, which can dispatch response personnel (e.g., firefighters) to the building 116 in response to the event alarm signal generated by the control panel 104 within the alarm system 102. The event alarm signal is generated in response to data from one or more alarm system devices 106 (e.g., smoke detectors) within the alarm system, which indicates that an event (e.g., a fire) may be occurring. The central monitoring station may be staffed by employees of the provider of the alarm system, and they may not know the specific details of each building they are monitoring, but are responsible for alerting the appropriate response personnel based on the type of response required and coordinating the response to that building to handle the event occurring at that building.

[0021] An alarm system may be any system for monitoring events that will affect the occupants of a building. Figure 1 As shown, the alarm system shown is a fire alarm system and includes a number of alarm system devices 106 and a control panel for managing the operation of the alarm system and its devices.

[0022] As used herein, the term "control panel" refers to a device for controlling components of an alarm system of a facility (building). For example, control panel 104 may be a fire control panel that may receive information from event device 106 and determine whether a dangerous event is occurring or has occurred.

[0023] The control panel 104 may be connected to a plurality of alarm system devices 106. As used herein, the term "alarm system device" refers to a device that may receive input related to an event. Such an event may be, for example, a dangerous event, such as a fire. For example, an alarm system device may receive input related to a fire occurring in a facility. Such alarm system devices 106 may be part of an alarm system for a facility and may include devices such as fire sensors, smoke detectors, heat detectors, carbon monoxide (CO) detectors, other chemical detectors, or combinations of these; interfaces; fire alarm sirens; input / output modules; suction units; and / or audio / video devices such as speakers, sounders, buzzers, microphones, cameras, video displays, video screens, and other types of alarm system devices.

[0024] These alarm system devices 106 may be automatic self-testing devices, such as smoke detectors, heat detectors, CO detectors, and / or others. Such self-testing devices may include mechanisms to generate aerosols, heat, carbon monoxide, etc., and sense these items to test the performance of the device depending on the type of device being tested in the device. This may be used, for example, to test the thermal sensing, chemical sensing, and / or light sensing capabilities of the event device.

[0025] The alarm system 102 may also include an edge / gateway device 110. The gateway device acts as a pass-through device for communication between the alarm system 102 in the building and the central monitoring station 108 and other components of the responder status system 100 located in a remote location (i.e., outside the building). The gateway device may also include edge intelligence functions that detect when an event alarm state exists at one alarm system device and collect data from other devices in the vicinity of the device indicating the event alarm state. This information may be useful, for example, to provide a more complete understanding of the incident.

[0026] For example, edge intelligence may indicate that there are four smoke detector devices (e.g., device 106) to the south of the device indicating the alarm that have slightly increased smoke levels, which indicates to central monitoring personnel which direction the fire may be spreading, and these detector devices may be operable to monitor the status of the situation.

[0027] The gateway device may also provide other important functions. For example, during commissioning of an alarm system, the gateway device may provide the ability to detect the quality of the connection between the alarm system device and the gateway device, and may report weak connections to a technician during the commissioning process or during system operation. It may identify which connections are problematic, and in some cases the location of the problem, which may guide the technician to the problem. In some embodiments, the gateway device may also identify trends in problems, for example, where it indicates that problems occur in a certain area every few weeks or months, which may prompt a technician to investigate activities in that space that may trigger recurring problems.

[0028] like Figure 1 , the responder status system may have various connections fixed (illustrated by lock icons 119 at various locations within the system 100) to reduce or eliminate unauthorized connections to the system. For example, in some embodiments, a security protocol may be utilized where real-time status information is only available to those parties who enter, for example, a username and password, thereby authorizing the system to provide such information to a party. Such embodiments may also be customized so that parties with different authorization levels can access different information. These levels and the type of information available for each level may be customized when the system is configured or once the system is set up, for example, by a building owner / operator or alarm system provider.

[0029] In an embodiment of the present disclosure, a gateway device of an alarm system at a facility (building) reports an event alarm signal to one or more central monitoring servers. These servers may be internal (within the facility) or such as Figure 1 As shown in the example of , externally (at a remote location away from the alarm system components including the gateway device).

[0030] From there, the event alarm signal is reported to the appropriate central monitoring station, which includes an administrator, as described above, who coordinates activities to respond appropriately based on the type of incident that is occurring. For example, a fire incident will require a fire-based response, which may include alerting the fire station to send a truck and contacting medical personnel (if there may be injuries). For safety issues, security personnel and / or the police will be contacted. The central monitoring server connects back to one or more alarm systems on site and / or remote (cloud) servers.

[0031] Any actions taken by the central monitoring personnel or emergency responders may be recorded in memory on their servers (this may be accomplished manually by an administrator and / or automatically via executable instructions stored in memory and executable to record actions triggered, for example, by receiving an event alarm signal), and these actions are transmitted back to the alarm system server, for example, via cloud-to-cloud interaction from the central monitoring server to one or more alarm system servers. In some embodiments, these actions may be tagged with corresponding alarm identifiers. Alarm identifiers may be used to locate events within a building and / or determine one event from another (e.g., a building may have both a security event and a fire event occurring simultaneously).

[0032] The actions of the responding personnel include: fire truck dispatched, on the way to the building, arrived at the location, firefighting in progress, successfully resolved the incident, which can be sent by the responding personnel to the central monitoring station, for example, through a software application on a mobile device, such as a phone, or any other appropriate communication mechanism. Such actions can be referred to as stages of handling the incident, and the process of handling the incident can be viewed as a staged process, where one stage is completed and another stage begins until the incident has been handled and all stages have been completed.

[0033] The alarm system server can then report these actions to the facility manager / building owner who may not be at the central monitoring station, for example, through an alarm system mobile software application on the building owner / operator's phone or other mobile device. Providing staged, real-time progress details from the central monitoring station to the building owner / operator through a mobile application via, for example, push notifications / SMS / email or through a graphical user interface will provide a significant advantage over current concepts.

[0034] The responder status system may also allow workflows to be defined for different types of alarms, and as the progression from one stage moves to another, the graphical user interface may display the current stage details in the user interface. In this way, the building owner / operator can quickly determine the status of the incident without having to navigate through the mobile application.

[0035] The remote server may also include artificial intelligence functionality that may, for example, inform the receiver of similar events occurring on a particular date based on data regarding one or more previous events, an estimated time to fully resolve the current event, the time period taken to respond to the previous event, the current time taken to respond to the current event. This may be accomplished, for example, by applying an inference model. This may be beneficial, for example, by informing the building owner / manager of a time frame so that they know how long they have to perform any event-related actions they may have to perform.

[0036] Figure 2 is an illustration of a display screen provided on a user interface providing an overview of events occurring within a system generated in accordance with one or more embodiments of the present disclosure. Figure 2 The left side of 221 shows a display of multiple events provided on a user interface on a communication device of a building owner / operator. Display 221 shows four exemplary events 222, where each event includes a description 226 with various information about the event.

[0037] For example, the information displayed includes: the type of event (mass notification supervision, fire, supervision, fire supervision), the sensed data received indicating the event (no threshold, mod ext pwr loss, short circuit, insufficient range), the type of problem that the event may cause (MNS relay, isolation NAC, smoke, smoke accumulation), the location (Hemsley Building, Waldorf Astoria, Somerset Building, Deutsche Bank Building), the date and time of each event, and / or status information (received at the central station - fire brigade), if the event is an unresolved current event. In some embodiments, the information displayed may also include a status identifier 224, which allows the viewer to quickly determine the status of the event. For example, this may be different icons for different status conditions or stages, or different colors in other suitable identifier types.

[0038] Figure 2To the right is an illustration of a display screen provided on a user interface showing a timeline of event activity generated in accordance with one or more embodiments of the present disclosure. In the illustration, the viewer has selected a second event that is illuminated on the left display illustration (selection is indicated by a hand with a finger and a circle, indicating an area where the viewer clicked on the second event with a cursor). In the right illustration, the display presents a timeline of event stages 230, some of which have been completed and others of which have not yet occurred. The display also has an indicator field indicating the type of response provided (Central Station - Rapid Response). The event response stages can be represented by different identifiers (e.g., colors, symbols, text) to help the viewer understand whether the response stage has occurred, is occurring, or has not yet occurred.

[0039] Figure 3 is an illustration of a display screen provided on a user interface showing an overview of device status generated in accordance with one or more embodiments of the present disclosure. In this example, the overview on display 321 includes a complete history of the event response that can be seen at one time by any stakeholder in the event response process (building owner / operator, responder, central monitoring station personnel). In this example, the display provides a category of event 334, an event description 336, which includes the type of event, location, device indicating that the event is occurring, event date and time, other details, and event timeline and current status information. Detailed timeline information can be viewed by clicking on the View Event Timeline text at 338. The device history can be accessed by clicking on button 340. The device history may include any information that can be used to diagnose the problem. For example, suitable information may include previous event information about events that occurred during the triggering of an alarm signal, maintenance history, and the like.

[0040] Figure 4 is a diagram of an event flow between a gateway device and a central monitoring station generated according to one or more embodiments of the present disclosure. In this diagram, a communication flow 442 for a configuration process 454 and an event alarm signal process 456 is shown.

[0041] During the configuration process, a technician 450 initiates the configuration process via a building owner / operator communication device 420 (a mobile device having a dedicated mobile software application configured to provide the functionality described herein). In the illustrated process, at 460, the building owner / operator communication device sends a request for receiver information to the remote server 418 to link the building owner / operator communication device to the responder status system. At 462, the gateway device 410 sends authentication information to the transmitter 452 to ensure that the user of the responder status system is authorized. The technician then requests central station reporting information from the remote server to initiate uploading of reporting data to the central monitoring station server 408.

[0042] With respect to the event alarm signal process, the control panel 404 of the alarm system identifies the event 468 and initiates an event alarm signal 430 that is sent to the gateway device 410. The gateway device 410 then forwards the event alarm signal to the transmitter 452, which forwards the signal to the central monitoring station server 408. The central monitoring station server 408 then sends the record information 480 / 482 to the remote server for storage thereon for maintaining a record of the event and for estimating the event time range as discussed herein.

[0043] There are several computing devices used for various functions in the responder status system. Each of these computing devices (e.g., gateway device, control panel, remote server, building owner / operator communication device, central monitoring station server) includes a processor and memory c that can function as described below. Other items that can be provided on such computing devices, such as user input and output components, are also described below.

[0044] The memory may be any type of storage medium that can be accessed by the processor to perform various examples of the present disclosure. For example, the memory may be a non-transitory computer-readable medium having computer-readable instructions (e.g., executable instructions / computer program instructions) stored thereon, which can be executed by the processor according to the present disclosure.

[0045] The memory may be volatile or nonvolatile memory. The memory may also be removable (e.g., portable) memory or non-removable (e.g., internal) memory. For example, the memory may be a random access memory (RAM) (e.g., dynamic random access memory (DRAM) and / or phase change random access memory (PCRAM)), a read-only memory (ROM) (e.g., electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM) and / or compact disk read-only memory (CD-ROM)), a flash memory, a laser disk, a digital versatile disk (DVD) or other optical storage device, and / or a magnetic medium such as a cassette, magnetic tape, or disk, among other types of memory.

[0046] In addition, although the memory is shown as being located within the computing device, the embodiments of the present disclosure are not limited thereto. For example, the memory may also be located within another computing resource (e.g., enabling computer readable instructions to be downloaded via the Internet or another wired or wireless connection).

[0047] The computing device may also include a user interface. For example, the user interface may display Figure 2 and Figure 3 The embodiment shown.

[0048] A user of a computing device (e.g., an operator) may interact with the computing device via a user interface. For example, the user interface may provide (e.g., display and / or present) information to a user of the computing device, and / or receive (e.g., input by a user of the computing device) information from a user of the computing device. For example, in some embodiments, the user interface may be a graphical user interface (GUI), which may provide information to a user of the computing device and / or receive information from a user of the computing device. The display may be, for example, a touch screen (e.g., the GUI may include touch screen functionality). Alternatively, the display may include a television, a computer monitor, a mobile device screen, other types of display devices, or any combination thereof, which is connected to the mobile device and configured to receive a video signal output from the mobile device.

[0049] As further examples, a user interface may include a keyboard and / or a mouse that a user may use to enter information into a computing device. However, embodiments of the present disclosure are not limited to a particular type of user interface.

[0050] The user interface can be localized into any language. For example, the user interface can utilize any language, such as English, Spanish, German, French, Mandarin, Arabic, Japanese, Hindi, etc.

[0051] Although specific implementations have been illustrated and described herein, those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that any arrangement calculated to achieve the same technique may be substituted for the specific implementations shown. This disclosure is intended to cover any and all modifications or variations of various implementations of the present disclosure.

[0052] It should be understood that the above description is given in an illustrative rather than limiting manner.By reading the above description, combinations of the above embodiments, as well as other embodiments not specifically described herein, will be apparent to those skilled in the art.

[0053] The scope of the various embodiments of the present disclosure includes any other applications using the above-described structures and methods.The scope of the various embodiments of the present disclosure should therefore be determined with reference to the appended claims, along with the full scope of equivalents to which such claims are entitled.

[0054] In the above detailed description, various features are grouped together in the exemplary embodiments shown in the drawings for the purpose of simplifying the disclosure. This method of disclosure should not be interpreted as reflecting an intention that the embodiments of the present disclosure require more features than are expressly recited in each claim.

[0055] Rather, as the following claims reflect, inventive subject matter lies in less than all features of a single disclosed embodiment.Thus the following claims are hereby incorporated into the Detailed Description, with each claim standing on its own as a separate embodiment.

Claims

1. A system (100) for providing real-time status notification to a building owner / operator in response to personnel actions, the system comprising: Building owner / operator communications equipment (120); An alarm system (102) at a building, the alarm system having a control panel component (104) and one or more alarm system equipment components (106); A central monitoring station (108), the central monitoring station having, user interface; Memory; and a processor configured to execute executable instructions stored in the memory to: receiving an event alarm signal from an alarm system equipment component (106); sending a response request signal (112) to a response facility; receiving a response request signal reply indicating that response facility personnel will respond to the building (116); receiving, at the central monitoring station, information about a building from the building owner / operator; forwarding information received from said building owner / operator to said response facility personnel, wherein said information is selected from the group consisting of: best door to enter the building, potential areas that may be hazardous, whether a previously routed path is still the preferred path or whether an alternate path should be chosen, number of fire extinguishers, location of fire extinguishers, number of exits, location of exits, real-time updates of building conditions while responders are on route; receiving incident response update data from said response facility personnel via a responder communication device; as well as An event response update message is sent to the building owner / operator communication device (120).

2. The system (100) of claim 1, wherein the building owner / operator communication device (120) is a mobile device or a personal computing device.

3. The system (100) according to claim 1, wherein the alarm system (102) further comprises a gateway device (110) for transmitting and receiving data with the control panel component (104) and the central monitoring station (108).

4. The system (100) of claim 3, wherein the gateway device (110) also transmits and receives data with the building owner / operator communication device (120).

5. The system (100) according to claim 3, wherein the gateway device (110) further transmits and receives data with a remote server (118).

6. The system (100) of claim 5, wherein the remote server (118) further transmits and receives data with the building owner / operator communication device (120).

7. The system (100) of claim 5, wherein the remote server (118) further transmits and receives data with the central monitoring station (108).

8. The system (100) of claim 1, wherein the system (100) further comprises a remote server (118) that transmits and receives data with the building owner / operator communication device (120) and the central monitoring station (108).

9. The system (100) of claim 3, wherein the gateway device (110) analyzes historical event data to determine an expected duration of a phase of a current event occurring at the building.

10. The system (100) of claim 9, wherein the gateway device (110) transmits the estimated duration to the building owner / operator communication device (120).

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