my presentation regarding the possibility for tracking the hostages or people in danger....

1. LOCATION TRACKING AND ALLERTING
APPARARTUS AND METHOD
Potharaju S R Aditya S.Sahithya
M.S -Software Engineering M.S -Software Engineering
Vellore Institute of Technology Vellore Institute of Technology
Ph: +91-9789685001 Ph: +91-9786720112
aditya992005@gmail.com muthyamsahi185@yahoo.com
Abstract a mobile terminal during periods of
This invention describes a product that is emergency and for alerting friends, family
used during emergency incidents where the and other contacts of that user of the
location of people can be used to track who status of that user. In the event of sudden
could have been involved in the incident for emergencies arising such as terrorist
example Industrial Accidents, Extreme incidents , major industrial accidents or
Weather, Natural Disasters, Terrorist natural disasters , people naturally need to
Attacks etc.The service locates people using be reassured that their friends and family are
devices they carry with them typically their safe. That is, either that they are not near the
mobile phone through GPS satellite. The site of the emergency or that, if they are in
people's locations are compared to the the vicinity, that they are accounted for and
location and radius of the incident and the safe.
probability that they may have been
involved in the incident is determined Most people carry or have access to mobile
(possible or low probability).People are communications devices, such as mobile
also automatically contacted by a variety of phones (cell phones), network PDAs and so
means for example SMS to their mobile on and these can be used to inform the
and they are asked to confirm their status. contacts of the mobile user that the user is
Their status is automatically updated and safe. However, in the event of major
available to people who they have linked incidents, telecommunication networks often
themselves to via the service. The present become overloaded. Thus, if a user finds
invention arose in an attempt to provide an himself in the vicinity of an emergency
improved method for locating and tracking situation or may be a short distance outside
user's of mobile terminals and for alerting it, he is often not able to inform his friends
their contacts with their status details. and family immediately that he is safe. Even
if he is, he needs to call each separate
contact individually and this also adds to the
1. Introduction problem of congestion of the
telecommunications networks.
This invention relates to a method and
apparatus for locating and tracking a user of

2. The present invention arose in an attempt to status using a messaging service. This
provide an improved method for locating information can then be used multiple times
and tracking user's of mobile terminals and by all people who are associated with that
person. This highly streamlined
for alerting their contacts with their status
communication leads to fast and efficient
details feedback of everyone's status to all
interested parties. With previously proposed
systems, each individual colleague, family
2. Related Work member or other members must contact the
user individually to determine his status.
Essentially, the invention relates to a A person can use a number of methods to
method of effectively locating a mobile sign up for the service and interact (for
terminal (and therefore the user of the example: web, mobile, messaging, IVR, call
mobile terminal) during an emergency or centre). They can then use any of these
other incident and of being able to establish methods to manage a group or groups of
whether the user, based upon his position people that they are interested in knowing
relative to the incident, is likely to be safe or the status of during an emergency incident.
not. If he is at sufficient distance from the
incident or the incident's epicentre then a During an incident, the incident details are
message is sent to a number of first been entered into the system. The
predetermined contacts or other users in a system will use any one of a number of
group in effect stating that that user is OK. technologies to both locate appropriate
That is, he is at a sufficiently safe distance users and find their distance from the
away from the incident and so he is incident . These methods could be for
unaffected by it. If the user is determined to example: personal GPRS based devices,
be less than a predetermined distance from PDAs or smart cell phones equipped with
the incident epicentre, then the user may or GPS (global positioning service) receivers
may not be safe. In this instance, this new or other satellite positioning systems. Cell
innovative system automatically generates a phone infrastructure configured to report the
message and it is sent to the user's mobile location of its customers cell phone to
terminal requesting a response regarding the selected organisations and companies or
status of the user. If the user responds with other location determining methods or
a predefined message such as `I'm OK` or technologies.
similar, then the system is also arranged to
send an appropriate message to that The system will also contact people via one
particular user's predetermined contacts or more messaging service to confirm or
indicating that despite of his proximity to determine their status. This can be
the incident he has confirmed that he is safe. prioritised based on their location and
distance from the incident. The messaging
This invention provides an effective way to can be for example: email, instant
know the status of friends, colleagues and messaging, mobile instance messaging, SMS
family members during an emergency (short message service), MMS, paging,
incident. Each person can be located just outgoing IVR, or other communication
once using LBS (Location Based Services) service or technology.
and are preferably just once or if necessary
they are asked more than once about their

3. Based on the location and the response, the
product determines the status from the
messages received and it is summarised and
detailed information on each persons group
is returned to each group member and or The product is designed only to give
group owner. Further status information can information it has received and not to
be requested via the messaging channel. generate false positives or negatives.
The product has built in automatic testing
procedures that are continually using all sub
` components and report their status.
The product uses standard techniques and
safe mapping references to locate and track
incidents and the distance of a person from
an incident may calculated using the simple
equation D= ( A2 B2) see FIG. 2, or
otherwise. The product allows fast and
Xi,yi
accurate dissemination of information
regarding the incident to key people and the
general population
3.Location tracking System
Architecture
An embodiment using mobile phones, cell
phone location via registered cell, and SMS
messaging to contact people is shown in FIG
Figure 1
3.
A number of mobile terminals (shown in
A the figure as cell phones 2) are connected to
a telecommunications network via one or
more cell towers. In the example shown, the
Xi,yi first cell phone 1a is connected through a
R B first base station (cell tower) 3a to a service
provider 4. Two further cells phones 1b and
D DdD A 1c are connected through a second base
station 3b to the service provider 4. Cell
phone 1c in this instance also is equipped
with a GPS system 10 enabling its position
to be tracked by using the GPS satellite
system 11 for more accurate positioning.
The mobile telephone communications
network 4 is connected to an incident centre
5 over SMS (text) gateway 2 and an LBS
Figure 2 (location base service) gateway 5. The

4. service centre 6 includes an incident Figure 3
management and customer service unit 7, a
customer database 8, customer status
tracking module 9, messaging and group
The LBS (location based service gateway 5)
module 10 and a location tracking module
is used to estimate a person's location. The
11.This is connected via the SMS gateway
LBS in this realisation is based on the
and LBS gateway to the telecommunications
location of the cell that the cell phone is
network via firewalls12.The SMS
currently registered to. Cell size effects the
messaging gateway 2 is used to send and
accuracy which can be down to 500 m in a
receive messages. A desiccated number
city centre or as much as 25 k in a rural
( preferably a short code of 4 or 5 digits )
location. The accuracy is also returned by
is used to receive SMS (short message
the LBS gateway. The diagram also show
service) messages via the message gateway.
that some devices can used GPS or assisted
GPS to determine their positions more
precisely.
Operation of the product is described below
Cell phone/GPS device
using the mobile phone as the interface for
Cell tower all interaction. All operations would also be
Gps satellite
available via a Web interface and IVR or
possibly a customer service agent.
Firstly, a user registers as a new user of the
product. A person SMSs their name to the
Mobile telco short code. They are then welcomed to the
system and asked to SMS in phone numbers
of friends andfamily.
SMS
LBS gateway
gateway
Fire walls
Customer Messaging Location
service and groups tracking
Customer
Customer
status
database
tracking

5. Figure 4 [0006] An emergency location and alerting
service as in a) that also give status
information to members of a group about
other members of the group.
[0007] An emergency location and alerting
BRIEF DISCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS
service as in a) where locations of the people
Figure 1 Shows message sent to users of can be delivered in bulk from the mobile
different status.
operators rather than one at a time on
Figure 2 Shows the parameters used to calculate request.
the distance of user from the incident [0008] An emergency location and alerting
Figure 3 Shows incident location and alerting service as in a) were the incidents may have
system. multiple locations that can be can be tracked
and reported either together or separately.
Figure 4 GPS Receiver
[0009] An emergency location and alerting
service as in a) where when a person adds an
individual to their group they are also added
4. Services to that persons group.
[0001] An emergency location and alerting [0010] An emergency location and alerting
service that locates people and groups of service as in a) that also give status
people when an emergency incident occurs, information to members of a group about
determining their status via their distance other members of the group.
fromincident. [0011] An emergency location and alerting
[0002] An emergency location and alerting service as in a) where information on the
service as in that also determines a persons incident is sent to all people in the system.
likelihood of people be affected by the [0012] An emergency location and alerting
incident using their location accuracy service as in a) where information on the
information. incident is sent to selected people in the
[0003] An emergency location and alerting system.
service as in a) that also contact people via a [0013] The invention also extends to any
messaging system to determine their if they novel feature or novel combination of
were involved in the incident. features herein disclosed.
[0004] An emergency location and alerting
service as in a) that also determines a
persons likelihood of being affected by the
incident using this reply to a status request 4.1 Consent to join a User’s group
message.
Each number SMSed in is then sent a text
[0005] An emergency location and alerting
message. If they are not users they are first
service as in a) that also allows people to
prompted to register by SMSing their name
select groups of other people to be
to the short code. When they are registered
monitored.
they are prompted to respond with "YES"

6. and a optional 4 digit security code to A user may send commands to the product
consent joining the group. The request is at any time via the web, phone, SMS
reciprocal as the sender is also joined to the message or MMS message. Examples of
receivers group. The security code is used to main commands are listed below. TABLE-
determine which message a reply is U-00001 Command Notes First name
answering when there are multiple out registers the sender as a new customer last
standing requests request received. name NNNNNNN asks this phone for
The database 8 is used to store the consent to join your group Help send a list
registrations and grouping information for of these commands Help command send
each user. When an incident occurs, help on one of these commands Who list all
information about the incident is entered the people who can locate you (name and
either automatically via data feeds and or number) Group list all the people you can
alert services or manually by operations locate (name and number) Stop suspends the
staff. The incident information is also user from the service Stop removes this
updated at regular intervals as new number from your group NNNNNNN.
information becomes available. The incident Preferably, the service commands can be
may, for example, be a bomb or other listed by sending the word "help". Also
terrorist incident, a natural disaster, major requesting some one to join or leave your
fire or any other incident likely to affect an group is reciprocal so you are also removed
area of any size and where persons are likely or added to their group.
to be concerned for the well-being of other
persons in the vicinity. Service calls may be charged for by any
existing billing service for example
premium SMS, credit card or bank transfer.
When an incident occurs all users are
In one embodiment, they are billed via
optionally sent a SMS message with
PSMS (premium SMS). Each user is billed
information about the incident asking them
when they sign up and each month by
to respond with information on whether they
premium SMS text message.
were involved in the incident. Their status is
updated depending on their reply.
An example message is detailed below.
Either all or only users who do not respond
Note: Some of the text messages may be
quickly have their location determined using
over 160 characters and will require the
the LBS gateway and this is compared to the
sending of "long text messages"; this is two
location of the incident using the accuracy
messages that are automatically re-combined
data, time date and the distance they could
on the phone into one message.
have travelled during this time. Their status
is determined. Regular status update
messages are sent to users informing them
of the status of the incident and their group
members.

7. Table U-00001
command Notes
First name Registers customer as new
Last name
NNNNNNN ask this phone to consent to
join your group
Help send a list of these
commands
Who list all the people who
Can locate you
5. REFERENCES:
[1]http://calgary.rasc.ca Variation of Lati-
tude and Longitude.
[2]http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/Ahea
doftheCurve
[3]http://terminus_location_track_implemen
t.