Crowdsourced Emergency Detection for Regional Response Coordination

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing systems fail to effectively leverage the connected nature of customer premises to detect and respond to regional emergencies, such as earthquakes, floods, or fires, by coordinating emergency-state reporting across multiple devices to facilitate timely and targeted remedial actions.

Innovation Solution

A computing system that crowdsources emergency-state reports from multiple customer premises, using centralized or decentralized architectures, to determine region-wide emergency situations and trigger appropriate remedial actions, such as utility disconnections or alerts, based on sensor data and geographic correlations.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If existing systems are used to detect emergencies, then individual device monitoring is available, but coordinated regional emergency detection and response is insufficient

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveemergency detection reliabilityVSAvoidsystem coordination complexity

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent combines data from multiple customer premises devices (sensors, meters, communication systems) into a unified emergency detection system. The computing system aggregates information across geographic regions to identify emergency patterns that would be undetectable at individual premises, thereby improving detection reliability without requiring complex decentralized coordination.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #5Merging (Combining)

Solution Approach 2:

A centralized computing system serves as an intermediary between individual customer premises devices and emergency response authorities. This intermediary aggregates data from multiple sources, processes emergency detection algorithms, and coordinates response actions, simplifying the overall system architecture while improving regional emergency detection capabilities.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

2Reliability

If real-time emergency response actions are taken, then safety and harm reduction are improved, but prediction accuracy of emergency trajectory is insufficient

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveemergency response effectivenessVSAvoidemergency trajectory prediction accuracy

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSMeasurement precision

Solution Approach 1:

The system performs preliminary analysis by continuously monitoring baseline data from customer premises devices to establish normal operational patterns. When deviations indicating emergency onset are detected, the system predicts trajectory and triggers preliminary protective actions before the emergency fully impacts target areas, improving both prediction accuracy and response effectiveness.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The computing system continuously receives feedback from sensor data, meter readings, and customer reports, processing this information through emergency detection algorithms to refine trajectory predictions. This feedback loop enables iterative improvement of prediction accuracy while maintaining real-time response capability through automated alert generation and utility coordination.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #23Feedback

3Loss of time

If utility disconnection actions are triggered automatically, then response time is reduced, but false alarms and erroneous actions increase

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveresponse timeVSAvoidaction accuracy

Core Design Contradiction:

Loss of timeVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The system implements partial automation by triggering utility disconnection only when multiple independent indicators converge on emergency detection, rather than using single-point triggers. This partial action approach reduces response time for confirmed emergencies while filtering out false alarms through multi-factor verification, balancing speed and accuracy.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #16Partial or excessive action

Solution Approach 2:

The automated action system incorporates feedback mechanisms that continuously verify emergency conditions before executing utility disconnection. The computing system monitors ongoing sensor data and customer responses to confirm emergency validity, reducing false alarms while maintaining rapid response to genuine emergencies through automated coordination with utility companies.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #23Feedback

Data Source

PatentUS20260080770A1Use of Crowdsourcing as Basis to Predict Emergency Impact and to Facilitate Emergency Response

Publication Date: 2026.03.19 ROKU INC

AI summary

A method and a system for using crowdsourcing as a basis to predict and respond to emergency impact. An example method includes (i) a computing system receiving emergency-state reporting provided by multiple customer premises in a region, (ii) the computing system determining, based on the received emergency-state reporting provided by the multiple customer premises in the region, that a region-wide emergency situation exists in the region, and (iii) the computing system taking action, in response to the determining, based on the emergency-state reporting provided by the multiple customer premises in the region, that the region-wide emergency situation exists in the region.