Event masking for television signal receiver having an emergency alert function

Used for event shielding of TV signal receiver with emergency alarm function

Technical field

The present invention generally relates to a television signal receiver, and more specifically, to a television signal receiver with an emergency alarm function capable of providing a shielding list of emergency events therein. The shielding list makes the establishment of the emergency alarm function affect the user. It is easier to say, and it also ensures that when an important emergency occurs, the emergency alarm function will be activated.

Background technique

Emergency events such as severe weather, natural disasters, fires, domestic emergencies, war operations, toxic chemical spills, radiation leakage, or other such situations may be destructive to unprepared individuals. For weather-related emergencies, such as the National Weather Service (NWS) and the authority of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), it is generally possible to detect severe weather conditions before the public. By using modern weather detection devices such as Doppler radar and weather satellites, NWS and NOAA are able to issue warnings of severe weather conditions, which have saved many lives. However, in order for such warnings to be effective, they must be delivered to their intended recipients.

Certain dedicated radios and scanners can receive emergency alarm signals provided by NWS and NOAA. However, such devices tend to be dedicated to this purpose and generally provide consumers with little, if any, functions other than monitoring these signals. Therefore, in order to receive advance warnings of weather-related emergencies, consumers are required to purchase a separate dedicated device, which may be too expensive for some consumers.

Some of these devices utilize SAME technology to provide emergency alarm functions. A device using the SAME technology typically requires the user to perform the establishment process of the emergency alarm function by selecting, for example, one or more geographic areas of interest and items of one or more types of emergency events that activate the emergency alarm function. Once the establishment process is completed, the emergency alarm function can be activated when an input emergency alarm signal including SAME data indicates that an emergency event corresponding to the geographic area selected by the user and the emergency event type occurs during the establishment process. When the emergency alarm function is activated, an alarm output such as an audio message may be provided to alert the individual of the emergency event.

One problem associated with a device using a technology such as SAME technology relates to the establishment process of the aforementioned emergency alert function. As shown above, the establishment process typically requires the user to select one or more types of emergency events that activate the emergency alarm function. During this establishment process, research shows that users tend not to choose (for example, turn off/prohibit) emergencies that they do not know about, or emergencies that they believe will rarely occur.

For example, an emergency event such as "urgent action notification" may be provided as a user option during the establishment process. Since the event name itself rarely provides an indication of what the event involves, the user may not understand the event and therefore may not select it as the event to activate the emergency alarm function. However, if, for example, the United States is being attacked or engaged in a war, it is important because the incident will occur.

As another example, an emergency event such as "fire warning" may be provided as a user option during the establishment process. Users living in relatively humid climates may believe that this event rarely occurs in their geographic area, and therefore may not select it as an event that activates the emergency alarm function. However, fires are still possible. Therefore, in the event of a widespread fire, notifying people will be critical.

Therefore, due to lack of understanding of the event or belief that the event will not occur frequently, such an emergency event is not selected during the establishment process, so if the event actually occurs, the user cannot be notified. Therefore, there is a need for a device with an emergency alarm function that avoids the above problems. The present invention has been made in response to these and other problems.

Summary of the invention

According to one aspect of the present invention, a method for controlling a television signal receiver with an emergency alarm function is disclosed. According to an exemplary embodiment, the method includes the steps of: receiving an input representing a geographic area, and providing a shielded list of emergencies in response to the input, wherein the shielded list of emergencies represents the children of all emergencies associated with the emergency alarm function set.

According to another aspect of the present invention, a television signal receiver with emergency alarm function is disclosed. According to an exemplary embodiment, the television signal receiver includes storage means for storing data associated with the emergency alarm function. The processing component receives the input representing the geographic area, and uses the data in the storage component to generate a mask list of emergency events in response to the input. The shielded list of emergency events represents a subset of all emergency events associated with the emergency alarm function.

Description of the drawings

By combining the drawings and referring to the following description of the embodiments of the present invention, the above-mentioned and other characteristics and advantages of the present invention and the ways to achieve them will become clearer, and the present invention will be better understood, in which: Figure 1 is suitable for implementation Exemplary environment of the present invention; Figure 2 is a block diagram of a television signal receiver according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention; Figure 3 is a flowchart illustrating exemplary steps according to the present invention; Figure 4 is a further illustration of Figure 3 Fig. 5 is a schematic diagram of a television signal receiver that provides an unblocked list of emergency events; and Fig. 6 is a flowchart of a television signal that provides a blocked list of emergency events according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. Schematic diagram of the signal receiver.

detailed description

The examples shown here illustrate preferred embodiments of the present invention, and these examples are not to be construed as limiting the scope of the present invention in any way.

Referring now to the drawings, and in particular to FIG. 1, there is shown an exemplary environment 100 suitable for implementing the present invention. In FIG. 1, the environment 100 includes, for example, signal transmission components of a signal transmission source 10, such as living components of a dwelling unit 15 (ie, 1, 2, 3...N, where N can be any positive integer), and, for example, a television signal The signal receiving part of the receiver 20.

In Figure 1, the residential unit 15 may represent a residence, shop and/or other residence located in a specific geographic area, such as but not limited to a specific continent, country, region, state, area code, zip code, city, municipality, sub Area, and/or other definable geographic areas. According to an exemplary embodiment, each dwelling unit 15 is equipped with at least one television signal receiver 20 with an emergency alarm function. According to the present invention, the emergency alarm function enables the television signal receiver 20 to receive emergency alarm signals and provide one or more alarm outputs to notify individuals of emergency events. As will be discussed later, the television signal receiver 20 can also provide an improved emergency alarm function establishment process, in which it ensures that the emergency alarm function will be activated when some important emergency event occurs.

According to an exemplary embodiment, the signal transmission source 10 transmits a signal including an emergency alarm signal that can be received by each television signal receiver 20. The emergency alarm signal may be provided by an authority such as NWS, or other authority such as a government entity. In response to the emergency alarm signal, each television signal receiver 20 may provide one or more alarm outputs to thereby notify the individual of the emergency event. The signal transmission source 10 can be via any wired or wireless link, such as but not limited to terrestrial, cable, satellite, optical fiber, digital subscriber line (DSL), and/or any other type of broadcast and/or multicast component The emergency alarm signal is sent to the television signal receiver 20.

Referring to FIG. 2, a block diagram of an exemplary embodiment of the television signal receiver 20 of FIG. 1 is shown. In FIG. 2, the television signal receiver 20 includes a signal receiving component such as a signal receiving component 21, a tuning component such as a tuner 22, a demodulation component such as a demodulator 23, an audio amplifying component such as an audio amplifier 24, and a speaker The audio output components of 25, the decoding components of the decoder 26, the processing components and storage components of the processor and the memory 27, the video processing components of the video processor 28, and the visual output components of the display 29, for example. Some of the aforementioned components can be realized by using an integrated circuit (IC), for example. For brevity of description, some conventional components of the television signal receiver 20 including the control signal may not be shown in FIG. 2.

The signal receiving component 21 is used to receive a signal including audio and/or video signals from a signal source such as the signal transmission source 10 of FIG. 1. According to an exemplary embodiment, the received audio signal may include a digitally encoded emergency alarm signal. The signal receiving component 21 may be implemented as any signal receiving component such as an antenna, an input terminal, or other components.

The tuner 22 is used to tune signals including audio and/or video signals. According to an exemplary embodiment, the tuner 22 can tune audio signals at at least the following designated NWS frequencies: 162.400 MHz, 162.425 MHz, 162.450 MHz, 162.475 MHz, 162.500 MHz, 162.525 MHz, and 162.550 MHz. Other frequencies can also be tuned. As previously indicated, such audio signals may include digitally encoded emergency alarm signals.

The demodulator 23 is used to demodulate the signal supplied from the tuner 22. According to an exemplary embodiment, the demodulator 23 demodulates the audio signal to thereby generate a demodulated audio signal representing audio content such as an NWS audio message, an alarm warning tone, and/or other audio content. The audio amplifier 24 is used to amplify the audio signal output from the demodulator 23 in response to the control signal provided by the processor 27. The speaker 25 is used to aurally output the amplified audio signal provided by the audio amplifier 24.

The decoder 26 is used to decode signals including audio and/or video signals. According to an exemplary embodiment, the decoder 26 decodes the audio signal provided by the demodulator 23 to thereby extract a digitally encoded frequency shift keying (FSK) signal, which represents an emergency alarm signal indicating an emergency event. According to the exemplary embodiment, the emergency alert signal includes data containing SAME data associated with the emergency event. The SAME data includes digital codes representing information such as a specific geographic area affected by the emergency, the type of the emergency (for example, tornado alert, radiation hazard warning, domestic emergency, etc.), and the deadline for the event alarm. SAME data is used by NWS and other authorities to improve the accuracy of emergency alarms and reduce the frequency of false alarms. Other data and information may also be included in the emergency alarm signal according to the present invention.

The processor and memory 27 are used to perform various processing and data storage functions of the television signal receiver 20. According to an exemplary embodiment, the processor 27 receives the emergency alarm signal from the decoder 26 and determines whether to activate the emergency alarm function of the television signal receiver 20 based on the data included in the emergency alarm signal. According to this exemplary embodiment, the processor 27 compares the data in the emergency alarm signal and the user establishment data associated with the shielding event stored in the memory 27 and other data to determine whether to activate the emergency alarm function. As will be described later, the establishment process of the emergency alarm function of the television signal receiver 20 allows the user to select, for example, the applicable geographic area for activating the emergency alarm function, and the type of emergency (for example, tornado alert, radiation hazard warning). , Domestic emergencies, etc.). In addition, for each geographic area, certain emergency events can be considered as "shielded events" and are not provided as user options during the establishment process, but are still automatically selected by default. According to an exemplary embodiment, when such a shielding event occurs in their associated geographic area, the emergency alert function is always activated. Further details regarding these aspects of the invention will be provided below.

When the emergency alarm function of the television signal receiver 20 is activated, the processor 27 outputs one or more control signals for enabling various operations. According to an exemplary embodiment, such a control signal enables one or more alarm outputs (e.g., audible and/or visual) to thereby notify the individual of the emergency. Such a control signal can also enable other operations of the television signal receiver 20, thereby switching it from the off/standby mode to the on mode.

The video processor 28 is used to process a signal including a video signal. According to an exemplary embodiment, such a video signal may include embedded messages such as NWS text messages and/or other messages for providing details about emergency events. The video processor 28 may include a closed caption circuit that enables closed caption display. The display 29 is used to provide a visual display corresponding to the processed signal provided by the video processor 28. According to an exemplary embodiment, the display 29 may provide a visual display including the aforementioned message providing details about the emergency.

Turning now to Fig. 3, a flow 30 illustrating exemplary steps according to the present invention is shown. For the sake of example and explanation, the steps of FIG. 3 will be described with reference to the television signal receiver 20 of FIG. 2. The steps of FIG. 3 are only examples, and are not intended to limit the present invention in any way.

In step 31, the establishment process of the emergency alert function of the television signal receiver 20 is executed. According to an exemplary embodiment, the user performs the establishment process by providing input to the television signal receiver 20 in response to an on-screen menu displayed via the display 29 (for example, using a remote control device not shown). Such an on-screen menu may be part of the electronic program guide (EPG) function of the television signal receiver 20, for example. According to an exemplary embodiment, the user can select at least the following items during the establishment process in step 31: A: Enable/Disable-The user can choose to enable or disable the emergency alarm function.

B: Frequency selection-the user can select the monitoring frequency to be tuned to to receive emergency alarm signals. For example, the user can select a frequency such as one of the following NWS transmission frequencies: 162.400 MHz, 162.425 MHz, 162.450 MHz, 162.475 MHz, 162.500 MHz, 162.525 MHz, and 162.550 MHz.

C: Geographical area-the user can select one or more geographic areas of interest. For example, the user can select a specific continent, country, region, state, area code, postal code, city, municipality, sub-region, and/or other definable geographic regions. According to an exemplary embodiment, such a geographic area may be represented in the memory 27 by location data such as one or more Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) location codes. Details on item C of the establishment process will also be provided later.

D: Event type-the user can select one or more types of emergency events to activate the emergency alarm function. For example, the user can designate events such as domestic emergency, radioactive hazard warning, and/or tornado warning to activate the emergency alarm function, while events such as thunderstorm warning do not activate the emergency alarm function. The user can also select whether the normal warning tone provided by the NWS and/or other alarm agencies activates the emergency alarm function. According to the present invention, different severity or alarm levels (such as declaration, alert, warning, etc.) can represent different "events". For example, the thunderstorm warning can be considered as a different event from the thunderstorm warning. Details on the item D of the establishment process will also be provided later.

E: Alarm output-the user can select one or more alarm outputs that will be provided when the emergency alarm function is activated. According to an exemplary embodiment, the user can select the visual and/or audible output to be provided for each type of emergency event that activates the emergency alarm function. For example, the user may choose to display visual messages (e.g., NWS text messages displayed as closed captions) and/or tune the television signal receiver 20 to a specific channel. The user may also, for example, select to audibly output warning tones (such as chimes, siren, etc.) and/or audio messages (such as NWS audio messages), as well as the desired volume of each output. In addition, the alarm output can be selected on an event-by-event basis. According to the present invention, other types of alarm output can also be provided.

According to the present invention, other menu selections may also be provided in step 31 and/or some of the above-mentioned menu selections may be omitted. In the memory 27, data corresponding to the user's selection during the establishment process of step 31 is stored.

Referring now to FIG. 4, a flow chart 31 illustrating further exemplary details of entries C and D with respect to step 31 of FIG. 3 is provided. That is, the flowchart 31 further provides exemplary details of the user establishment process of step 31, which is used to select one or more geographical areas of interest and one or more types of emergency events that activate the emergency alarm function. The steps in FIG. 4 are only exemplary, and are not intended to limit the present invention in any way.

In step 41, the user can select one or more geographical areas of interest. According to an exemplary embodiment, the user makes a selection in step 41 by providing input to the television signal receiver 20 in response to an on-screen menu displayed via the display 29 (for example, using a remote control device not shown). The processor 27 receives the input, and causes the data corresponding to the user selection in step 41 to be stored in the memory 27.

In step 42, the television signal receiver 20 provides a mask list of emergency events in response to the user selection in step 41. According to an exemplary embodiment, the processor 27 enables the pre-programmed data stored in the memory 27 and the data in the memory 27 corresponding to the user selection in step 41 to be used to generate a mask list of emergency events to be displayed via the display 29 in step 42. According to this exemplary embodiment, the memory 27 stores pre-programmed data representing all geographic areas (e.g., all FIPS location codes) and all emergency events associated with the emergency alert function. The memory 27 also stores pre-programmed data indicating (if any) which emergency events are considered to be "masked events" for each geographic area. Therefore, when the user selects a geographic area in step 41, the processor 27 accesses the pre-programmed data stored in the memory 27 corresponding to the selected geographic area to thereby determine which emergency events are shielded events of the selected geographic area. In this way, the processor 27 generates a shielded list of events in step 42 so that it excludes shielded events. In other words, the shielded list of emergency events includes all emergency events associated with the emergency alarm function except for shielded events. Therefore, the mask list of emergency events represents a subset of all emergency events associated with the emergency alarm function.

5 and 6 illustrate examples of the difference between the unmasked list of emergency events and the masked list of emergency events. Specifically, FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of a television signal receiver 20 having an on-screen menu 50 that provides an unmasked list 51 of emergency events representing all emergency events associated with the emergency alarm function. The number of emergency events associated with the emergency alarm function and the names of these events may be a matter of design choice, or may be specified, for example, by a standard protocol using SAME technology. According to exemplary embodiments, there may be more than 50 different emergencies.

Compared with FIG. 5, FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of a television signal receiver 20 having an on-screen menu 60 that provides a mask list 61 of emergency events according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. Specifically, the emergency shielded list 61 of FIG. 6 represents a subset of the unshielded list 51 of emergency events in FIG. 5. When the user selects Indianapolis and Indiana as geographic regions in step 41, the emergency shielding list 61 of FIG. 6 may be provided in step 42, for example.

In FIG. 6, the event 1 (ie, "urgent action notification") from FIG. 5 is blocked because the user may not know what the event actually involves. Therefore, during the establishment process, the user may not select this event as the event to activate the emergency alarm function because they do not know what the event is. However, this event is very important because it will happen if, for example, a war breaks out in the United States. Also in Figure 6, events 2 and 3 from Figure 5 (ie "Avalanche Warning" and "Tide Alert") are blocked because there are no mountains or coastlines close to Indiana. Therefore, avalanches or ocean tides are impossible.

Event 4 (ie "Fire Warning") from Figure 5 is also shielded in Figure 6, because fires are rare in the Indianapolis area due to humid weather. As a result, the user may not select the event as an event to activate the emergency alert function during the establishment process. However, fires may still be possible. Therefore, in the event of a widespread fire, it will be urgent to notify people. The details shown in FIGS. 5 and 6 are only examples and are not intended to limit the present invention in any way. In fact, it is a matter of design choice to determine what events constitute a shielded event in a given geographic area.

The shielded list of emergencies provided in step 42 can respond to users who select multiple geographic areas in step 41. According to an exemplary embodiment, when the user selects multiple geographic regions in step 41, the processor 27 generates a mask list of events from the data in the memory 27 in step 42 by using a logical OR operation. Reference will now be made to Table 1 below to provide details on the technique of generating the masked list of events.

Table 1 illustrates the event shielding data for 3 demonstration geographic areas and 6 demonstration emergencies. In Table 1, these three geographic regions are represented as Indianapolis, Indiana (i.e. 018067); Charleston, South Carolina (i.e. 045019); and Miami and Florida (i.e. 012086) FIPS location codes. These geographic areas are for example purposes only and illustrate the principles of the invention. In practice, these geographic areas must generally be within a predetermined distance from a particular transmitter.

In Table 1, the logical "0" item indicates a shielded event, and the logical "1" item indicates a revealed or unshielded event. Therefore, each of the three geographic regions in Table 1 includes shielded events. Table 1 may, for example, represent the manner in which pre-programmed data is stored in the memory 27 to indicate which emergency events are considered to be "shielded events" for each geographic area. As shown in Table 1, when the user selects multiple geographic areas in step 4, a logical OR operation can be used to generate a shielded list of events. Therefore, if the user selects the 3 geographic regions represented in Table 1 in step 41, then a logical OR operation is performed to obtain a shielded list of emergency events including all events except the events "Avalanche Warning" and "Tornado Warning". In this way, when the user selects multiple geographic regions in step 41, a shielded list of emergency events is generated in step 42, so that it excludes shielded events that are common to all geographic regions. According to the present invention, when more than one geographic area is selected by the user in step 41, other techniques can also be used to generate a shielded list of emergencies.

In step 43, the user can select one or more emergency events from the list of blocked events. According to an exemplary embodiment, the user makes a selection in step 43 by providing input to the television signal receiver 20 in response to an on-screen menu such as the menu 60 of FIG. 6 displayed via the display 29 (for example, using a remote control device not shown). According to this exemplary embodiment, the shielding event is automatically selected by default and is not presented for user selection. Therefore, because the user can consider a smaller number of events, the establishment process of the emergency alarm function is simplified. The data corresponding to the user selection in step 43 is stored in the memory 27 under the control of the processor 27.

Referring back to FIG. 3, in step 32, the television signal receiver 20 monitors the frequency selected by the user during the establishment process of step 31 (ie, item B) to issue an emergency alarm signal. According to an exemplary embodiment, the tuner 20 monitors the selected frequency and thereby receives an input emergency alarm signal. According to the present invention, the television signal receiver 20 can monitor the frequency during all operation modes, including, for example, when the television signal receiver 20 is turned on and off, and/or during the playback of recorded audio and/or video content. Receive emergency alarm signal.

In step 33, it is determined whether the emergency alarm function of the television signal receiver 20 is activated. According to an exemplary embodiment, the processor 27 makes this determination by comparing the data included in the input emergency alarm signal with the data stored in the memory 27. As previously indicated, the emergency warning signal may include data such as SAME data representing the type of emergency (such as tornado alert, radiological hazard warning, domestic emergency, etc.) and information about the specific geographic area affected by the emergency. . According to an exemplary embodiment, the processor 27 compares the SAME data corresponding to the user establishment data (ie entries C and D of step 31) and the data representing the shielding event stored in the memory 27 to thereby determine whether the emergency alarm function is activated . Thus, when the emergency event specified by the emergency alarm signal corresponds to: (1) for item C in step 31 (ie, step 41 in FIG. 4), the geographic area selected by the user; (2) for item D in step 31 (ie, In step 43) of FIG. 4, when the event or event type is selected by the user, the emergency alarm function of the television signal receiver 20 is activated.

If the determination of step 33 is negative, the process returns to step 32, where the tuner 22 continues to monitor the selected frequency. Alternatively, if the determination of step 33 is affirmative, the processing flow proceeds to step 34, where the television signal receiver 20 provides one or more alarm outputs to thereby notify the individual of the emergency.

According to an exemplary embodiment, the processor 27 enables one or more alarm outputs of step 34 according to a user selection during the establishment process of step 31 (ie entry E), and such alarm outputs may be audible and/ Or visual. For example, an audible output such as a warning tone and/or an NWS audio message may be provided via the speaker 25 in step 34, and the volume of such audible output may be controlled according to the volume level set by the user during the establishment process of step 31. A visual output may also be provided via the display 29 in step 34 to notify the individual of the emergency. According to an exemplary embodiment, an auxiliary message display such as an NWS text message (e.g. displayed as closed caption) and/or a video output from a specific channel may be provided in step 34 via the display 29 under the control of the processor 27.

According to another exemplary embodiment, the alarm output provided in step 34 may be based on the severity or alarm level of a particular emergency event. For example, emergency events can be classified into one of three different alarm level categories, such as declaration, alert, and warning. With such a grading scheme, the alarm output for emergency events of level 1 or declaration level can be provided by inconspicuous notification components such as flashing light emitting diodes (LEDs) because it is the least serious type of emergency. The alarm output for level 2 or alert level emergency events may have some types of audio components (e.g., radio messages). The alarm output for emergency events of level 3 or warning level can be provided by siren or other types of alarms, because it is the most severe type of emergency. Other types of audible and/or visual alarm output besides those explicitly described herein may also be provided in step 34 according to the present invention.

As described herein, the present invention provides a television signal receiver with an emergency alarm function that can provide a mask list of emergency events therein. The mask list makes the establishment of the emergency alarm function easier for users and also Ensure that when any shielded event or user-selected event occurs, the emergency alarm function will be activated. The present invention can also be applied to various devices with or without a display device. Therefore, the phrase "television signal receiver" used herein may refer to systems or equipment capable of receiving and processing television signals, including but not limited to televisions, computers or monitors including display devices, and, for example, set-top boxes, video cassette recorders (VCRs) ), a digital video disc (DVD) player, a video game box, a personal video recorder (PVR), a computer or other equipment that may not include a display device.

Although the present invention has been described as having a preferred design, the present invention can be further modified within the spirit and scope of this disclosure. Therefore, this application is intended to cover any modification, use, or adaptation of the present invention using its general principles. In addition, this application intends to cover the variations of the present disclosure within the scope of known or customary in the art that fall within the scope of the appended claims defined in the technical field to which the present invention pertains.