Researchers Submit Patent Application, “System, Method, And Apparatus For Providing Help”, for Approval (USPTO 20200252508)
2020 AUG 21 (NewsRx) -- By a
The patent’s assignee is
News editors obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “In recent years, many companies have introduced devices that accept voice commands and take actions based upon those voice commands. Some such devices operate on smart phone, but lately, many companies are producing what is known a digital assistants which are typically stand-alone, smart speaker devices that are connected to a network (e.g. the Internet), listen for voice commands, and act on those voice commands through the network. Often, such devices utilize a keyword to initiate action. For example, one device from Amazon.RTM. is Alexa.RTM. In order to issue a command to this device, the user must first say the keyword, ‘Alexa’, or other optional Wake words, followed by the command. For example, ‘Alexa, what is the weather in
“Unrelated to these digital assistants are medical emergencies, predicaments, or medical alerts. Many people of all ages, though concentrated on those in their golden years, run into situations in which they need help, for example, after a fall, getting stuck in a home elevator, or the onslaught of a serious medical condition such as a stroke or heart attack. If another person is in the same home or nearby, the person having the medical emergency or other hazard can shout to get that person’s attention, but what about those who are alone, perhaps because others that live with them are out of the home, or they live alone. Shouting will not solicit help.
“A medical alarm is an alarm system designed to signal the presence of such an event that requires urgent attention and, if needed, to summon emergency medical personnel. Other terms for a medical alarm are Personal Emergency Response System (‘PERS’) or medical alert. Elderly people and disabled people who live alone commonly use/require medical alarms.
“Typical medical alarm systems in use today have a wireless pendant or transmitter that is activated after an event has occurred. When the transmitter is activated, a signal is transmitted and relayed to an alarm monitoring company’s central station. The central station is staffed with trained personnel to assess the situation and contact other emergency agency or other programmed phone numbers. In some cases, personnel are dispatched to the site where the alarm was activated.
“Such medical alarm systems work well when properly installed, when the batteries have sufficient charge and when the user remembers or agrees to wear them. However, since traditional medical alarm systems are, at least in part, user operated, there are problematic drawbacks. For example, if a user gets up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom without their device, and falls or becomes ill and cannot reach their emergency device, or telephone; then they cannot get the emergency help they need, rendering the medical alert useless. Often, users have complications during the night, when trying to reach the bathroom. Often such users are not in possession of their medical alert device.
“Furthermore, such medical alarm systems rely on user operations that requires users to change their behavior, making current medical alarm systems inherently susceptible to users’ personal limitations, proclivities, and flaws--putting reliance on the user to remember to recharge the battery and consistently wear a pendant, wrist band, panic button, or other device for the entire day and night. Some users, however, do not want to wear the alarm pendant or wrist band because of aesthetics and/or inconvenience and/or privacy, rendering the device useless when needed. Also, some users forget to don or wear the device and the device may not be within reach when they need it most. Additionally, some users forget to charge the device regularly and the device simply shuts down and ceases to operate until recharged. In fact, approximately 30% of all users of such devices cancel medical alert service annually, possibly due to the fact that they no longer wear or use the device, despite the fact that the user is still in need of a medical monitoring. In an independent research study, 83% of subscribers to medical alert services did not have their medical alert wearable device within reach in a slip and fall at home and resulted in five (5) minutes or longer stranded on the floor and unable to get up without assistance.
“Additionally, as of this writing, both Amazon.RTM. Alexa.RTM. and Google Assistant.RTM. and other digital personal assistants (DPA) are not permitted to dial 911 by operating system programming. If a voice command is given to ‘Call for Police,’ ‘Call for a Doctor,’ ‘Call for an Ambulance,’ fire or other emergency is given, those commands are blocked by the other digital personal assistant, by design. One of the issues with issuing calls directly to 911 is that greater than 90% of all issued alarms from electronic alarm systems in
“Privacy is also of the utmost importance. In
“What is needed is a system that provides help to a user that is monitored by a private, commercial system and activated by voice command thereby not requiring a personal panic button or device of any type that has to be worn by the users. Further, the system for providing help needs to install easily, provide client privacy for Protected Medical Information (‘PHI’), and alert medical staff should an emergency arise.”
As a supplement to the background information on this patent application, NewsRx correspondents also obtained the inventor’s summary information for this patent application: “The present invention relates to digital assistants and emergency communications and, more particularly, to a system for installation, configuration, and operation of a digital assistant connected to a private, commercial system. The system for providing help is activated by voice command. In some embodiments, this triggers 2-way voice communication between agents (staff) and the user and requires no panic button or device that needs to be worn by the users.
“The system for providing help includes keywords for a user to say/yell when help is needed, by simply using the appropriate voice command specified for the digital assistant, such as ‘Alexa, call for help.’ Thereby, the system for providing help enables a hands-free solution independent of any battery operated, worn electronic device. In some embodiments, the digital assistants are powered by household power, e.g. from a wall outlet, eliminating the need for a user to initiate recharging.
“In other embodiments, the digital assistants are powered by a continuously recharged battery-backup base unit which gives the user several hours of battery back-up in the instance of a power outage. The battery-backup base units are powered by household power, e.g. from a wall outlet continuously eliminating the need for the user to remember to recharge them.
“In other words, the system for providing help monitors and waits for a user’s call for help from anywhere in their home within listening distance of one or more digital assistants. The user is not required to change their normal behavior by wearing an electronic device or worry about battery charge levels in such electronic device.
“Additionally, the system for providing help is 911-non-compliant, as an agent (e.g. trained emergency professional) within the process assesses what is needed so as to facilitate the 911 call after the extent of the situation is known.
“In one embodiment, a system for providing help is disclosed including a preprogrammed kit for deployment to a premise. The preprogrammed kit includes a digital assistant that is preprogrammed with account information and at least one skill for recognizing a preprogrammed specific utterance. The kit also includes a virtual private network repeater that has a wired connection for connecting to an existing modem and a wireless transceiver, whereas communications between the wireless transceiver and the digital assistant are preprogrammed including addresses and passwords. The system further includes a plurality of agent computers, each connected to a server by a data network. The digital assistant is preprogrammed to transmit a request for help through the virtual private network repeater to the server upon the digital assistant recognizing the specific utterance and after receiving the request for the help, the server assigns one of the agent computers and forwards the request for the help to the one of the agent computers.
“In another embodiment, a method of providing help is disclosed including generating a unique user email address, creating a user account and assigning the unique user email address to the user account, and creating a provider account with a provider using the unique user email. A preprogrammed kit is provided (to a user) comprising a virtual private network repeater and at least one digital assistant. Each digital assistant preprogrammed with an address of the virtual private network repeater, a password for accessing the virtual private network repeater, and the user account, preprogramming a skill into each of the digital assistant(s) for recognizing a specific utterance. Connectivity is provided between each of the digital assistant(s) and a server through the virtual private network repeater. Each of the digital assistant(s) listen for the specific utterance and, upon recognizing the specific utterance by any of the digital assistant(s), that digital assistant sends a request for help to the server through the virtual private network repeater. Upon receiving the request for the help, the server forwards the request for help to an agent computer.
“In another embodiment, a system for providing help is disclosed including a unique user phone number generated for a user of the system for providing help for protecting privacy of the user, a provider account created using the unique user phone number to protect the privacy of the user, and an account for the user created in the system for providing help, the account having information regarding the user and the account having the unique user phone number. A preprogrammed kit is provided comprising a virtual private network repeater for connecting to an existing modem and a digital assistant. The digital assistant is preprogrammed with a skill recognizing a specific utterance and the digital assistant is pre-configured to connect with the virtual private network repeater. After the preprogrammed specific utterance is detected by the digital assistant, the digital assistant initiates a request for help and a call is made to the server having a caller-id of the unique user phone number, the server answers the call, recognizes the unique user phone number, assigns an agent computer, and forwards the request for help to the agent computer.
“Further embodiments include using digital assistants in Adult Living Facilities. In recent years, Adult Living Facilities have been developed with three primary levels of care: Independent Living, Assisted Living and Skilled Nursing Facilities. In some instances, there have been additional designations for
“The assisted living industry is made up of a variety of senior care services, including assisted living facilities. The Census divides the assisted living facilities industry into two major categories: continuing care retirement communities (NAICS 623311) and homes for the elderly (NAICS 623312). The primary distinction between the two is the presence of nursing care: continuing care retirement communities provide on-site nursing facilities, while homes for the elderly do not or are not required to have on-site nurses.
“Assisted living facilities provide excellent services for seniors who wish to remain independent but still need some assistance with daily living. Types of assistance offered in assisted living facilities include help with bathing, dressing, eating, grooming and getting around. There are a variety of options available in the assisted living facilities industry, making them popular with seniors.
“Future industry growth will be spurred by the 77 million Baby Boomers planning to retire over the next two decades. With life expectancy continuing to increase in the
“In such Adult Living Facilities, a digital assistant is placed in each resident’s room, or if occupied by multiple residents in the same shared-room environment with the option of providing a digital assistant next to each resident with a different preprogrammed specific utterance for each user-resident.
“Also, at the Adult Living Facility’s location, a digital assistant is positioned at each staff station (e.g. nurses’ station), and at one or more desks of administrative staff. One or more digital assistants are positioned strategically around common areas, living areas or shared recreation areas. Having digital assistants deployed across the Adult Living Facilities facility also provides most or all of the occupied space with an effective paging system. In such, broadcast announcements are provided for a nurse or staff member to make facility-wide, non-emergency announcements such as, meal-time reminders, invitation to join activities in the recreation area, or any other event. This is especially useful in
“In an emergency, residents speak the preprogrammed specific utterance (e.g. ‘Alexa, Call for Help’) which will quickly connect them by two-way voice to the staff/nurse’s station which is preferably staffed 24/7. If the call for help is unanswered by the staff/nurse, the digital assistant that is reporting the emergency is connected by two-way voice to an urgent response center which is staffed with agents 24 hours of each and every day. This provides for overflow of emergency calls when the Staff/nurse is otherwise occupied or momentarily away from the Staff/nurses station.
“Having digital assistants in many rooms, in some embodiments, intercom communication is available by the residents and/or the staff/nurses. In the past, residents pressed a call-button to page a nurse, requiring the nurse to walk to answer each resident’s request, which may or may not be urgent. Connecting all residents to other residents and to staff/nursing by two-way voice increases efficiency and often shortens response times to residents’ requests.
“For memory care residents, often the same questions is asked repeatedly because the patient does not recall just having asked the same question moments ago, such as ‘what time is it?’ Digital assistants will answer these questions without becoming frustrated or annoyed with the resident. In some cases, these types of memory care resident questions are stressful to staff and have been cited as one of the causes for high turnover of Adult Living Facility’s or
“It has been reported by adult living facilities and memory care operators that residents go missing from their rooms for prolonged periods requiring an impromptu search for the resident, utilizing several staff members time. The system of facility-wide digital assistant deployment provides for paging of a resident and allowing two-way communication with the staff/nurses’ station which reduces the need for a further search for the resident.
“By deploying digital assistants in each patients’ room, in some embodiments, each patient will have the ability to make and receive phone calls just by voice command as well as the ability to send and receive voice or text (SMS) messages. In some embodiments, the digital assistants provide smart voice assistance for control of lights, thermostats, television and other devices. Such features will increase safety for residents who have mobility issues and reduce isolation for residents while decreasing work-load on nurses and staff to do basic task such as turning lights on and off.
“The disclosed system and method anonymizes each resident and protects sensitive health information as required under HIPAA compliance, a necessary feature for the deployment of digital assistants in assisted living facilities or memory care facilities. Absent of such security protocols, the assisted living facilities or memory care facilities owner/operators would be at risk for significant HIPAA violations and fines making the use of digital assistants, and their many stated benefits, a high risk.
“As lifeline functionality is needed during a power outage, the disclosed system deploys internet (e.g. Wi-Fi) access points to provide sufficient coverage of the facility, with added universal power supplies powering each access point and digital assistants in each room, staff/nurse stations, administrative desks, and digital assistants located in common areas. In some embodiments, each resident’s digital assistant will be anonymized and assigned on the network by room number, or in the case of shared rooms as room 101-A, 101-B, etc. Through use of an encrypted secure database, only staff members or urgent response operators at an offsite call center have access to the secure data including the name of the resident and other private health information, per HIPAA compliance standards.”
The claims supplied by the inventors are:
“1. A system for providing help, the system comprising: a preprogrammed kit for deployment to premise, the preprogrammed kit comprising: a digital assistant, the digital assistant is preprogrammed with account information and a skill for recognizing a preprogrammed specific utterance; a virtual private network repeater, the virtual private network repeater having a wired connection for connecting to an existing modem and a wireless transceiver, whereas communications between the wireless transceiver and the digital assistant are preprogrammed including addresses and passwords; the system further includes a plurality of agent computers, each of the plurality of agent computers connected to a server by a data network; whereas the digital assistant is further preprogrammed to transmit a request for help through the virtual private network repeater to the server upon the digital assistant recognizing the specific utterance; and whereas after receiving the request for the help, the server assigns one of the agent computers and forwards the request for the help to the one of the agent computers.
“2. The system of claim 1, wherein a generated user email address is generated and assigned to the digital assistant, identifying an account associated with the digital assistant.
“3. The system of claim 2, wherein a user account is created with a provider of the digital assistant using the generated user email address, thereby shielding from disclosure identifying information to the provider of the digital assistant.
“4. The system of claim 1, wherein the digital assistant automatically connects to the server through the virtual private network repeater.
“5. The system of claim 4, wherein the server periodically confirms that the digital assistant remains connected to the server and if the digital assistant is found not to be connected to the server, the server initiates an escalation.
“6. The system of claim 5, wherein if the digital assistant is found to be connected to the server, the server initiates a vocal request to the digital assistant and if the digital assistants does not receive a verbal answer to the vocal request within a predetermined time period, the server initiates the escalation.
“7. A method of providing help, the method comprising: generating a unique user email address; creating a user account and assigning the unique user email address to the user account; creating a provider account with a digital assistant provider using the unique user email; providing a preprogrammed kit comprising a virtual private network repeater and at least one digital assistant, each digital assistant preprogrammed with an address of the virtual private network repeater, a password for accessing the virtual private network repeater, and the user account, preprogramming a skill into each of the digital assistant(s) for recognizing a specific utterance; providing a connectivity between each of the digital assistant(s) and a server through the virtual private network repeater; listening for the specific utterance by each of the digital assistant(s) and, upon recognizing the specific utterance by any of the digital assistant(s), the digital assistant sending a request for help to the server through the virtual private network repeater; and upon receiving the request for the help, the server forwarding the request for help to an agent computer.
“8. The method of claim 7, wherein the connectivity between each of the digital assistant and the server includes a mobile hotspot.
“9. The method of claim 7, wherein a mobile hotspot directly connects to the virtual private network repeater.
“10. The method of claim 7, further comprising the steps of: upon initialization, each of the digital assistant(s) automatically connects to the server.
“11. The method of claim 10, further comprising the steps of: periodically determining if any of the digital assistant(s) is connected to the server and if any of the digital assistant(s) is disconnected from the server, initiating an escalation.
“12. The method of claim 11, further comprising the steps of: for each of the digital assistant(s) that are connected to the server, sending a vocal request to each of the digital assistant(s) that are connected to the server and waiting for a predetermined time period for a vocal answer; if the vocal answer is not detected from at least one of the digital assistant(s) that are connected to the server within the predetermined time period, initiating the escalation.
“13. A system for providing help, the system comprising: a unique user phone number generated for a user of the system for providing help for protecting privacy of the user; a provider account created using the unique user phone number to protect the privacy of the user; an account for the user created in the system for providing help, the account having information regarding the user and the account having the unique user phone number; a preprogrammed kit comprising a virtual private network repeater for connecting to an existing modem and a digital assistant; the digital assistant is preprogrammed with a skill recognizing a specific utterance and the digital assistant is pre-configured to connect with the virtual private network repeater; whereas after the specific utterance is detected by the digital assistant, the digital assistant initiates a request for help and a call is made to a server, the call having a caller-id of the unique user phone number; the server answers the call, recognizes the unique user phone number, assigns an agent computer, and forwards the request for help to the agent computer.
“14. The system of claim 13, wherein the digital assistant automatically connects to the server through the virtual private network repeater.
“15. The system of claim 13, wherein the server periodically confirms that the digital assistant remains connected to the server and if the digital assistant is found not to be connected to the server, the server initiates an escalation.
“16. The system of claim 15, wherein if the digital assistant is found to be connected to the server, the server initiates a vocal request to the digital assistants and if the digital assistants does not receive a verbal answer to the vocal request within a predetermined time period, the server initiates the escalation.
“17. The system of claim 13, wherein the account in the system for providing help is indexed by the unique user phone number and the account includes an address of the user, health of the user, medications prescribed for the user, and contacts for local help related to the user.
“18. The system of claim 13, wherein the contacts for local help comprise a one or more contacts selected from the group consisting of a contact of a relative, the contact for local emergency medical services, a contact for local police, a contact of a clergy, a contact of a local fire department, and a contact of staff assigned to the user.”
For additional information on this patent application, see: Gray,
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