Automatic notification of potential emergency condition during travel

摘要

Systems and methods are disclosed for tracking the progress of a trip where a person or persons wish to have a third party automatically informed of a delayed return. For long duration trips and/or trips to distant destinations, people typically make provision for having their pets and/or children watched over. However for short trips, they typically do not, especially with respect to their pets. The disclosed methods provide monitoring of a trip's progress such that if a traveler doesn't return home by a certain time, a third party is notified, thus avoiding a prolonged period of time wherein the pets and/or children are unattended, especially in the event of a catastrophic accident. The third party may be notified if an arrival time is predicted to be delayed, and when an actual arrival occurs. Provision is also included for adjusting the trip duration to delay or advance a designated arrival time.

主权项

1. A computerized process for determining a potential emergency condition and alerting designated users thereto via at least one of a plurality of communication networks, whereby the process is performed utilizing a system comprising at least,
one or more processors residing on a server or in the Cloud; a cellular communications network, an internet; a source of information regarding applicable route conditions; and one or more cellular phones each comprising a processor and a GPS receiver, wherein the one or more cellular phones are associated with one or more designated travelers; wherein to alert one or more emergency contact persons of a potential emergency condition, the process further comprises: receiving from a first user:
cellular phone numbers for the one or more designated travelers;a GPS-locatable arrival location;a designated date and time for an expected arrival (hereinafter: the designated arrival time) at the arrival location;one or more emergency contact persons to be notified of a potential emergency condition; andcontact information for the one or more designated travelers and the one or more emergency contact persons; automatically retrieving via the cellular communications network and the Internet, GPS position data generated by the one or more GPS receivers within the one or more cellular phones; automatically tracking, using at least the GPS position data received through the cellular communications network at the Internet, current locations of the one or more designated travelers; automatically determining a proximity of the one or more designated travelers with respect to the arrival location by comparing the current locations of the one or more designated travelers with the position of the arrival location; automatically determining at the designated arrival time, that a potential emergency condition exists because the one or more travelers have not reached the arrival location by the designated arrival time; and automatically altering the one or more emergency contact persons to inform them of the potential emergency condition.