Proximate Location Association for Wireless Emergency Services
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Solution Overview
Problem
Wireless emergency calls lack equivalent civic location information, making it difficult for emergency responders to determine the precise address for dispatch, as they rely on limited cell site ID and position information.
Innovation Solution
A system that retrieves and associates proximate location information with pre-provisioned physical addresses using additional environmental data like RFID tags, location beacons, or WiFi access points to provide reliable location information to emergency responders, mimicking landline address accuracy.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If wireless emergency calls use only cell site ID and basic position information, then the system maintains simplicity and compatibility with existing wireless infrastructure, but the location information is insufficient to provide definitive civic location for emergency dispatch
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple location information sources including cell site ID, WiFi access points, Bluetooth devices, RFID tags, and location beacons into a unified location determination system. By merging these diverse data sources, the system achieves definitive civic location identification that none of the individual sources could provide alone, resolving the contradiction between information accuracy and system complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary location information database that stores pre-collected environmental data about WiFi access points, Bluetooth devices, RFID tags, and location beacons. This intermediary database acts as a mediator between the mobile device's raw location data and the emergency dispatch system, enabling accurate civic location determination without requiring direct integration with each individual data source, thus managing system complexity while improving location accuracy.
2Reliability
If the system collects and processes additional environmental location data from multiple sources, then definitive civic location can be determined for emergency dispatch, but the processing time and system complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary actions by pre-collecting and storing location information about environmental data sources (WiFi access points, Bluetooth devices, RFID tags, location beacons) in a database before emergency calls occur. This advance preparation allows the system to quickly match observed environmental data during an emergency call against the pre-stored database, determining civic location rapidly without the time penalty of real-time data collection and analysis, thus improving reliability without significant time loss.
3Adaptability or versatility
If precise position information is used instead of fixed landline civic location, then mobile flexibility is maintained, but the equivalent fixed landline address information needed for emergency response is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a copy of fixed landline civic location information by using environmental data sources (WiFi access points, Bluetooth devices, RFID tags, location beacons) as unique identifiers that correspond to specific physical locations. Instead of relying on the mobile device's own position data, the system copies the civic location information associated with these environmental markers, thereby maintaining mobile service flexibility while recovering the definitive address information typically available only from fixed landlines.
Data Source
AI summary
Automatic Location Information (ALI) data that is representative of a landline address is digitally retrieved, and automatically transferred to an emergency call taker over a wireless system emergency network. Importantly, the ALI information is determined based on association to a proximate location. Before an emergency call is initiated, additional environmental information, such as a RFID tag, location beacon, WiFi access point, Bluetooth device, or other communication signal with a known location, is included in the wireless session data exchange, used to match one or more location inputs to a fixed civic location (street address) which is used to dispatch emergency responders. Alternatively, the mechanism matches to a precise geodetic location (e.g., where no civic location is available).