Title of Invention : Emergency assistance system and method thereof

Technical Field

[1 ] The field of invention generally relates to emergency assistance devices and more specifically, the invention provides a system and method of incorporating distress message trigger mechanism within a configurable smart card.

Background Art

[2] With increasing crime rates, the world has witnessed advent of multiple protection and emergency assistance technologies that range from self defence assistance to continuous monitoring to ensure the overall safety of any individual. Continuous monitoring and distress message communication devices have gained immense popularity as families, near and dear ones and organizations are able to track children, women, elderly, employees etc. and are able to send help when they are in need or in any emergency situation.

[3] Most continuous monitoring systems rely on some sort of location determination technology that requires continuous location tracking to ensure that help or assistance can be provided at the right time. One such implementation is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,624,754 wherein an alarm triggers based on certain alarm conditions and the system permits the user's location to be monitored based on a signaling unit. Multiple other patents have been filed that claim different types of location determination technologies for enabling continuous tracking of individuals including U.S. Pat. No. 4,799,062 that relies on radio position determination and U.S. Pat. No. 5,021 ,794 that relies on UHF radio direction finding and distance-measuring equipment to find a person. These continuous tracking technologies suffer from a major drawback i.e. there are serious privacy concerns for the individual being tracked as such individual may not want to be constantly tracked unless the individual being tracked is a criminal.

[4] Further, other alternate technologies such as activity monitoring devices, fall sensing devices etc. are limited in their usage as they cannot identify and alert third parties in case of emergencies such as mugging, molestation, rape etc. [5] Therefore, there is a great need of a technology solution that is able to provide emergency assistance and is also able to address the privacy concerns that get raised due to continuous monitoring techniques and is able to identify the location of a person or send distress messages only when the need arises. It is further desirable to have artificial intelligence in such a solution that is able to automatically send distress messages based on the situation the user is in.

[6] The present invention attempts to address all these concerns and further attempts to provide a technology solution that is easy to carry, configurable and intelligent to sense the user situation and / or inputs and provide necessary distress assistance.

Summary of Invention

[7] The present invention provides an emergency assistance system and method to implement the system. The system consists of a smart card disposed with at least one sensor, a triggering module along with a processor in communication with the triggering module and a communication module in communication with the processor. The triggering module is in communication with the sensor, which is configured to generate at least one trigger based on at least one user situation or action whereas the sensor is configured to identify the user situation or action. The processor is configured to process the trigger and fetch pre-stored message or notification associated with the trigger and the communication module is configured to communicate the message or notification to a smart phone paired with the smart card.

Brief Description of Drawings

[8] This invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, throughout which, like reference letters indicate corresponding parts in the various figures.

[9] The embodiments herein will be better understood from the following description with reference to the drawings, in which:

[10] Fig. 1 depicts/illustrates in detail the interaction of a smart card with smart device, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. [1 1 ] Fig. 2 depicts/illustrates in detail the components embedded in the smart card generating SOS trigger during distress, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

[12] Fig. 3 depicts/illustrates in detail the working of the Artificial Intelligence

module incorporated within smart card, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

[13] Fig. 4 depicts/illustrates in detail the components and working of smart device application, in accordance with an embodiment of invention.

[14] Fig. 5 depicts/illustrates a system and method configured to notify the SOS trigger in the smart card through wired/wireless interaction with the smart device application.

Description of Embodiments

[15] The embodiments herein and the various features and advantageous details thereof are explained more fully with reference to the non-limiting embodiments that are illustrated in the accompanying drawings and / or detailed in the following description. Descriptions of well-known components and processing techniques are omitted so as to not unnecessarily obscure the embodiments herein. The examples used herein are intended merely to facilitate an understanding of ways in which the embodiments herein may be practiced and to further enable those of skill in the art to practice the embodiments herein. Accordingly, the examples should not be construed as limiting the scope of the embodiments herein.

[16] The embodiments here in below provide a system and method of generating a distress message (SOS) based on triggers initiated by a smart card. The smart card is incorporated with a distress message triggering mechanism, which wirelessly communicates with a smart device and prompts the device to send a SOS message or notification to preconfigured numbers based on user configured preferences.

[17] Further, the system contains a smart device application that enables the user to pre-select or preset mode of sending the SOS message including but not limited to call, SMS, email etc. [18] In the present description, the smart card may mean any credit card sized or similar sized portable card unit including but not limited to an RFID card, employee card, general identity card etc. which is capable of being configured to incorporate an SOS trigger mechanism and a communication module to communicate with a smart device such as a smart phone, tablet, etc. such that the smart card is able to trigger an SOS message from the smart device to third parties in times of emergency. In the context of present disclosure, third parties may mean a set contact numbers pre-configured in the smart device to be contacted for help. The smart card may be a RFID card, Employee ID card and the like to ensure that users don't need to carry an extra card.

[19] Referring now to the drawings, where similar reference characters denote corresponding features consistently throughout the figures, there are shown preferred embodiments.

[20] Fig. 1 depicts/illustrates in detail the system 1 00 of interaction of a smart card with a smart device, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. According to the system 100, the smart card 1 10 is incorporated with a SOS trigger mechanism and generates different types of trigger such as emergency trigger, safe home trigger and other pre-configured triggers based upon specific user situation or actions. The generated trigger is communicated to the smart device 120 in wireless communication with the smart card 1 10, each generated trigger is associated with a specific SOS message or notification which is communicated to third parties. The smart card 1 10 consists of a unique identifier based on which the smart device identifies the smart card and the corresponding trigger.

[21 ] In one embodiment, the wireless interaction between the smart card 1 1 0 and the smart device 1 20 may be achieved using wireless protocols currently known or developed in the future including but not limited to Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and the like.

[22] The smart device 1 20 is configured with an application that is further configured to identify the trigger initiated by the smart card 1 10 and the application initiates a pre-configured communication protocol to send a distress message, safe home message or other similar message to third parties. The mode of communication may be based on user preferences and may include initiating a call to multiple numbers in a round robin manner, sending SMS to preset numbers, sending emails etc. The trigger may also result in a localized action such as an alarm or buzzer sound that emanates from the smart device 120 speaker.

[23] Fig. 2 depicts/illustrates in detail the components embedded in smart card 200 generating SOS trigger during distress, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. The smart card 1 10 is incorporated with the SOS triggering mechanism wherein the triggering module 216 generates a trigger based on multiple user actions or situation. Each smart card 1 10 has a unique identifier, which is used during paring with the smart device.

[24] The SOS triggering mechanism may comprise of any hardware module or sensor (not shown in the figure) in communication with the triggering module 21 6. The hardware module or sensor is configured to sense a specific user situation / action. In an exemplary embodiment the hardware module or sensor may be a circuit breakage sensor that detects circuit breakage when the smart card lanyard breaks or the smart card itself gets damaged. In another exemplary embodiment, the hardware module or sensor may sense a button (touch interface or otherwise) on the smart card being pressed by the user. The hardware module or sensor may be in communication with the triggering module 21 6 that generates a trigger based on a user situation / action identified by the hardware module or sensor part of the triggering mechanism.

[25] In a preferred embodiment, the unique identifier may be a barcode, QR code, any digit or any letter or combination thereof and the like. The smart device application scans the unique identifier and enables pairing of smart device with the smart card for communication of triggers. In one embodiment, user action initiating triggers may be, but not limited to, pressing of button embedded in the smartcard, voice command and the like whereas situations responsible for generation of triggers may be, but not limited to, detaching the lanyard, breakage of the smartcard and the like.

[26] Further, with respect to fig. 2, the smart card 1 10 is incorporated with an on board power supply unit 214 and does not require charging through wall sockets, the low battery of smart card 1 10 is indicated by glowing of LED or sending notification to the paired smart device.

[27] In one embodiment, the smart card may be incorporated with re-chargeable batteries or solar panel to charge batteries.

[28] In one embodiment, the triggering module 216 may generate a general trigger, which comprises of medical, home safe and assistance options to be selected by user based on pressing of button 222 incorporated with in smart card 1 1 0. On selecting type of trigger, user can further choose the means of communicating the trigger to the smart device. For instance, user is lost somewhere and needs help to find his way, then in such case pressing of button incorporated within smart card will aid user to select the type of trigger such as assistance and further user can select mode of communication of the trigger, the associated SOS message or notification is conveyed to third parties to seek required help.

[29] In another embodiment, when the user wearing smart card 1 10 talks, specific keywords or phrases are fetched by the processor 210 and matched with the preconfigured keywords stored in memory unit 21 2 of the smart card 1 10. Upon successful matching of keywords or phrases, relevant trigger is generated by triggering module 216 and is communicated to the smart device that in turn sends the associated SOS message or notification to third parties based on the chosen communication protocol.

[30] In yet another embodiment, the triggering module 216 may generate emergency trigger, which may comprise triggers based on a lanyard circuit breakage or Artificial Intelligence module. For instance, when the lanyard gets detached from smart card 1 10 or damage to the smart card 1 10 takes place, there is breakage of circuit, which leads to generation of trigger from triggering module 216, which is communicated to the smart device paired with smart card 1 10 through wireless interactions.

[31 ] Fig. 3 depicts/illustrates in detail the working of Artificial Intelligence module 300 incorporated within smart card 1 1 0, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. The smart card 1 1 0 is incorporated with Artificial Intelligence module 310 embedded with different types of sensors. The data from various sensors is analyzed by Artificial Intelligence module 310, which leads to generation of trigger by triggering module 216, which is communicated to the smart device paired with smart card 1 10 through the Wi-Fi unit 220.

[32] The sensors (referred to as attribute sensors) embedded within Artificial Intelligence module 310 sense changes in different attributes related to the user or user surroundings such as temperature, pressure, voice command, acceleration of the user and the like. The module 31 0 is embedded with a set of attribute sensors such as temperature sensor 320, pressure sensor 322, fall detection sensor 324 and voice sensor 326. The memory unit 212 stores a standard range of each attribute. The data detected by the set of sensors are analyzed by the artificial intelligence module 310. When the sensed data doesn't fall in the standard range, the Artificial Intelligence module 310 notifies the triggering module 21 6 which in turn generates the trigger and corresponding SOS message or notification is communicated to preconfigured number through smart device paired with smart card 1 10.

[33] For instance, when there is a change in body temperature of the person wearing the smart card 1 10 or change in the blood pressure, it is sensed by the temperature sensor 320 or pressure sensor 322 respectively. The module 31 0 draws an analogy between sensed data and the standard range of temperature or pressure as stored in memory unit 212. If the sensed temperature or pressure varies than the standard range, the Artificial intelligence module 310 notifies triggering module 21 6 to generate the trigger. The trigger is communicated to the smart device which in turn may send a message or notification about the user catching fire or his/her blood pressure getting high/low to third parties such as fire brigade or doctor for help.

[34] Further, the fall detection sensor 324 embedded within Artificial Intelligence module 310 measures the physical variables describing the detection of sudden or abnormal change in acceleration and movement of the person wearing smart card 1 10, which is later communicated to third parties to seek help.

[35] Similarly, the voice sensor 326 embedded within the Artificial Intelligence module 310 senses the voice of the person through a microphone (not shown) disposed in the smart card 1 10 and sends it to the Artificial Intelligence module 310, that maps it with pre stored keywords or phrases and based on a match an appropriate trigger is generated. The trigger is communicated to smart device and the corresponding SOS message or notification is communicated to third parties through smart device paired with smart card 1 10 through Bluetooth unit 218 or Wi Fi unit 220.

[36] In one embodiment of the present invention, instead of communicating the generated trigger from the smartcard to the smart device, the SOS message or notification may directly be sent to the smart device. In this case, the memory unit 212 of smartcard stores a set of pre-defined triggers with corresponding SOS message or notification. The processor 210 compares the generated trigger to the set of pre-defined triggers and fetches the appropriate SOS message or notification based on the trigger.

[37] Fig. 4 depicts/illustrates in detail the components and working of smart device application 400, in accordance with an embodiment of invention. On receiving the trigger from the smart card 1 10, the smart device 120 communicates the same to the preconfigured number through the communication module 414.

[38] The smart device 1 20 is configured with an application, which consists of a status module 418, which identifies the type of trigger generated by the smart card such as emergency trigger, safe home trigger or general trigger. Once the application identifies the trigger type, a corresponding pre stored message is chosen by the application and based on user preferences a communication protocol is used by the communication module 414 to send the message to third parties. The mode selection module 420 incorporated within the smart device 120 application enables the user to decide the manner of sending message such as text message, voice message, round robin call, email and like on receiving SOS trigger from smart card. The smart device application allows in storing and updating the information about the user and to feed the numbers for round robin calling.

[39] Further, the smart device 120 is incorporated with a tracking module 416, which aids to keep track of the person wearing the smart card through smart device paired with smart card, which is in close vicinity. The tracking may be based on the GPS module embedded within smart device paired with smart card, which gives the location details of the smart device. In case the GPS is disabled in smart device, the location of the smart device is tracked based on custom algorithm which calculates the location based on the mobile tower signal triangulation or trilateration.

[40] Fig. 5 depicts/illustrates a method 500 to notify the SOS trigger generated by smart card through wireless interaction with smart device application. The smart card is incorporated with a triggering mechanism which generates a trigger 51 0 based on user inputs or situation. The generated trigger is communicated to a smart device 520 paired with the smart card through wireless interaction. On receiving the trigger, smart device chooses the communication protocol 530 based on user preference to send a pre stored message to third parties. The message is sent to third parties 540 based on such communication protocol.

[41 ] The foregoing description of the specific embodiments will so fully reveal the general nature of the embodiments herein that others can, by applying current knowledge, readily modify and/or adapt for various applications such specific embodiments without departing from the generic concept, and, therefore, such adaptations and modifications should and are intended to be comprehended within the meaning and range of equivalents of the disclosed embodiments. It is to be understood that the phraseology or terminology employed herein is for the purpose of description and not of limitation. Therefore, while the embodiments herein have been described in terms of preferred embodiments, those skilled in the art will recognize that the embodiments herein can be practiced with modification within the spirit and scope of the embodiments as described herein.