Emergency Alert System Using Occupancy Estimation
Solution Overview
Problem
Delays in providing emergency details to responders can have severe consequences, as existing systems lack efficient methods to accurately alert and inform emergency responders about occupancy and threat situations in real-time.
Innovation Solution
A system that uses occupancy sensors and threat sensors to determine an occupancy estimate, processes this data through a server, and outputs notifications to emergency responders, including building information, to facilitate timely and informed responses.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If real-time occupancy sensing and processing systems are implemented, then emergency response information accuracy is improved, but system complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple occupancy sensing methods (direct sensing, indirect sensing, historical data) into a unified estimation system. The server integrates data from various sources including sensor readings, building blueprints, and historical occupancy patterns to generate comprehensive occupancy estimates, resolving the contradiction by merging simple individual components into a complex but coordinated system that achieves high accuracy without requiring each individual component to be overly complex
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary actions by pre-processing occupancy data, storing historical occupancy information, and pre-establishing communication channels with emergency services. Building blueprints and sensor configurations are prepared in advance, so that when an emergency occurs, the system can quickly retrieve and transmit relevant occupancy information without needing to process everything in real-time, thus reducing the operational complexity during critical moments
2Reliability
If comprehensive building information is transmitted to emergency responders, then response effectiveness is improved, but communication bandwidth and data transmission time increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system extracts only the most critical occupancy information needed for emergency response from the complete building data set. Rather than transmitting all sensor data, building blueprints, and historical records, the server identifies and transmits specifically the occupancy estimates, floor locations, and area-specific occupancy counts that are most relevant to emergency responders, thus maintaining response effectiveness while reducing transmission time and bandwidth requirements
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the parameter representation of building information by converting detailed sensor readings and building models into summarized occupancy estimates. Instead of transmitting raw sensor data points and complete architectural drawings, the system transforms this information into condensed parameters such as occupancy counts by floor, occupancy density by area, and estimated locations of occupants, which convey the same operational information more efficiently
Data Source
AI summary
A method and system for alerting emergency responders. The method includes acquiring readings from one or more occupancy sensors of a building, determining an occupancy estimate based on the readings from the one or more occupancy sensors, storing the occupancy estimate in a server, determining whether an emergency event has occurred at the building based on one or more threat parameters received from one or more threat sensors. Further, the method includes outputting a notification to at least one external device of emergency responders and transmitting building information associated with the emergency event to the emergency responders when the emergency event has occurred. The building information includes the occupancy estimate.