Identifying persons of interest using mobile device information
AssigneeTyco Safety Products Canada Ltd.
InventorMark Brenner
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An alarm system including an alarm panel, a sensor operatively connected to the alarm panel and operable to detect alarm events, and a communicator module operatively connected to the alarm panel and operable to capture signals transmitted by mobile devices within a predefined area, extract mobile device identifiers from the signals, and record the mobile device identifiers in an active device identifier list that is maintained in a memory associated with the communicator module.
Claims21
An alarm system comprising:
- an alarm panel;
- a sensor operatively connected to the alarm panel and operable to detect alarm events;
- and
- a communicator module operatively connected to the alarm panel and operable to:
- capture cellular signals based upon a cellular communication protocol, and transmitted by mobile devices within a predefined area;
- extract mobile device identifiers from the cellular signals;
- and
- record the mobile device identifiers in an active device identifier list that is maintained in a memory associated with the communicator module, the active device identifier list comprising mobile device identifiers extracted from a predefined number of the strongest signals received from the mobile devices during a predefined period of time.
A method for identifying persons of interest, the method comprising:
- receiving, at a communicator module in an alarm panel of an alarm system, a cellular signal transmitted from a mobile device that is in a vicinity of a monitored site where the alarm system is installed;
- the communicator module extracting a mobile device identifier from the cellular signal;
- the communicator module determining whether the mobile device identifier is to be added to an active device identifier list based upon a strength of the cellular signal;
- and
- the communicator module adding the mobile device identifier to the active device identifier list if the communicator module determines that the mobile device identifier is to be added to the active device identifier list;
- wherein determining whether the mobile device identifier should be added to the active device identifier list comprises the communicator module evaluating a strength of the cellular signal and comparing the strength to a weakest previously recorded signal strength in the active device identifier list.
A method for identifying persons of interest comprising:
- a mobile network service provider maintaining a database of mobile device identifiers, timestamps, and geographic locations associated with check-in packets transmitted via cellular signals by mobile devices;
- and
- a central station issuing, upon receiving a notification of an alarm event at a monitored site that is monitored by the central station, a request to the mobile network service provider for mobile device identifiers associated with a predefined number of strongest signals received from mobile devices determined via the cellular signals to have been within the predetermined area during a predefined event period.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.