WO2016015097A1

WO2016015097A1 - Systems and methods for making personal emergency information available to third parties

Info

Publication number: WO2016015097A1
Application number: PCT/AU2015/050418
Authority: WO
Inventors: Ewan LE BOURHIS
Original assignee: Safemate Australia Pty Ltd
Priority date: 2014-07-28
Filing date: 2015-07-24
Publication date: 2016-02-04
Also published as: AU2015296893A1

Abstract

Systems and methods for making personal emergency information available to third parties, the methods including the steps of: providing a first person with a wireless device which can be interrogated to extract device information from the device; assessing whether a second person who has interrogated the device is authorised to access personal information of the first person; and selectively making the personal information available to the second person based on the result of the assessment.

Description

SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR MAKING PERSONAL EMERGENCY INFORMATION AVAILABLE TO THIRD PARTIES

Technical Field

The present invention relates to systems and methods for making personal emergency information available to third parties and has particular application to medical emergencies.

Background to the Invention

When a medical emergency occurs, it can be difficult for third parties such as emergency personnel to obtain information from a person who is unconscious or incapacitated, or from a person who otherwise has difficulty in communicating this type of information. Emergency personnel will require information from a patient to ascertain information such as their identity, medical history, allergies, and emergency contact information.

It is known to provide an indication of a person's known medical information by way of medical ID jewellery which provides a logo or inscription indicating a particular medical condition. However, these devices provide very limited information. There remains a need to provide improved mechanisms for providing personal medical information to third parties, remotely and quickly.

Summary of the Invention

In a first aspect the present invention provides a method of making personal emergency information available to third parties including the steps of: providing a first person with a wireless device which can be interrogated to extract device information from the device; assessing whether a second person who has interrogated the device is authorised to access personal information of the first person; and selectively making the personal information available to the second person based on the result of the assessment.

The method may further including the steps of: storing the personal

information in an internet accessible remote storage device; and associating the personal information of the first person with a code which forms part of the device information stored in their wireless device. The step of assessing whether the second person is authorised may include the step of conducting at least two interrogations of the wireless device, wherein the at least two interrogations must be spaced apart by a defined minimum time period.

The minimum time period may be communicated in response to the first interrogation.

The minimum time period may be variable.

At least two interrogations may be conducted within a defined maximum time period.

The method may further including the step of allocating various levels of authorisation to authorised persons, wherein the step of assessing whether the second person is authorised is carried out based on their level of authorisation.

The second person may interrogate the wireless device using their own mobile phone ("NFC").

The method may further include the step of obtaining information relating to the second person.

The information relating to the second person may include their phone number or IMEI number.

The information relating to the second person may include biometric information.

The biometric information may include at least one facial image.

The biometric information may include at least one voice recording.

The biometric information may include at least one fingerprint.

The method may further include the step of analysing at least some of the biometric information to assess the degree of stress that the second person is under.

In a second aspect the present invention provides a system for making personal emergency information available to third parties including: a number of wireless devices which can be interrogated to extract device information from the devices;

means for assessing whether persons who have interrogated a device are authorised to access personal information; and means for selectively making the personal information available based on the result of the assessment.

The wireless devices may be mounted in wrist worn straps, helmets, employee access cards, transportation cards, credit cards, or other similar items.

The wireless devices may be RFID or NFC devices. Brief Description of the Drawings

An embodiment of the present invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a schematic diagram showing operation of a system according to an embodiment of the invention.

Detailed Description of the Preferred Embodiment

Referring to figure 1, a system 10 is shown for making personal emergency information available to third parties in a medical emergency. The system 10 is embodied in an internet connected server computer 12 running suitably configured software under control of an operating system by way of a typical processor and memory architecture. Server 12 is connected to database 16 used for storing and retrieving information used in operating the system. Server 12 communicates via the internet to receive and transmit information used in the system as will be later described.

Operation of system 10 involves two people in two roles. In a first role persons use the system 10 to store personal information which they wish to be made available in an emergency situation. This role will hereinafter be referred to as person A or user A. In a second role persons use the system in an emergency situation to help them provide appropriate assistance to somebody who is in distress. This role will hereinafter be referred to as person B or user B. Of course, a particular person could adopt either role, depending upon the circumstances.

People (A) who wish to store personal emergency information in system 10 are each provided with a rubber wrist strap in which a wireless device in the form of a Near Field Communication (NFC) tag or Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is mounted. Users A create an account with the system through the website (P) which is linked to a unique code stored in their NFC tag. Users A then provide personal information including their name, address, two emergency phone numbers, allergies, medical conditions and any other remarks. The person (A) can:

- update their information at any time through the website (P).

- decide to opt out at any time by turning their visibility to invisible.

- decide to opt in at any time by turning their visibility to visible.

Any other person (B) with a NFC Reader(C) or RFID Reader (E) can interrogate the NFC tag or RFID tag respectively of person (A) to obtain device information from their tag including the unique ID of the NFC tag.

Advantageously, a person (B) can interrogate tags using the NFC functionality of their mobile phone. Persons (B) interact with system 10 by way of a software application (F) or (D) which has been previously installed on their mobile phone and persons (B) have previously established a user account with system 10.

Persons (B) who are official emergency services personnel can establish this fact with the operator of system 10 and this is recorded in their user account profile. These types of users are given access to a version of the mobile phone software known as the Safe Mate Pro App. All other persons (B) are considered to be part of the general public and use a version of the software known as the Safe Mate Public App.

The software on the person (B)'s phone sends the extracted unique ID to server 12 as part of a request for the personal information linked to the ID without knowing the (A)'s password. Server 12 applies seven security modules to assess if the person (B) who has caused the sending of the request should be considered as authorised to receive the personal information of person A as follows:

Jl) Session control

To use the system 10, the user (B) must have an account and connect with their login and password. Server 12 validates that the user (B) is connected with his login and password.

J2) Location control Users A can select which countries the Safe Mate System is activated in. If a request comes from an unexpected area (other countries not authorised by (A) the system denies the request. J3) Statistic control

If too many requests come from the same user (B) in a short period of time, the system denies the requests. Based on this principle, the Platform can be set to scan not more than:

• 1 ID per day and not more than 3 per month for the Safe Mate Public App

· 10 IDs per day and not more than 50 per month for the Safe Mate Pro App.

These figures can be adjusted. This security prevents from multiple fraudulent scans.

J4) Visibility control

If the NFC tag owner (A) has switched his visibility to NOT VISIBLE, the system denies the request.

J5) Profiling control

The user (B) is rated in system 10 regarding the information that is held in the system associated with their user account as follows:

- If (B) has provided a verified email address, (B) has a Level 1 access.

- If (B) has provided a verified phone number, (B) has a Level 2 access.

- If (B) has provided a verified first aid certificate, (B) has a Level 3 access.

- If (B) has provided a certified document about his volunteer job as a lifeguard, (B) has a Level 4 access.

- If (B) has a professional rescuer account (Lifeguard, paramedic, doctor, police, fire), (B) has a Level 5 access.

To access someone's (A) emergency information, (B) must be at least level 2.

Level 2 users (B) must use the "Multi-tap" technique (described below) to be authorised to access the data of the person (A).

J6) Multi-tap control

Depending of the authorisation level of (B) the system may request a second scan of the same NFC Tag to confirm the request. Server 12 determines a minimum and maximum time period within which the second tap must be performed. The minimum time is determined randomly between limits of 8 seconds and 30 seconds. The maximum time limit is set at 60 seconds. System 10 returns a response to the reader of User (B) which causes a countdown of the minimum time message to be displayed on their screen along with a message that they must perform a second scan within the minimum and maximum time periods. If the second tap is not performed within the allowed time the system denies the request. During the operation of the multi-tap control process, information relating to person B is obtained which is sent to server 12. This information can include biometric information such as voice recordings, facial images and fingerprints as well as other identifying information such as their phone number and the IMEI code of their smartphone. This information can be used to later identify user B and serves to deter persons from making unwarranted use of the system in an attempt to access personal information of person A.

In one embodiment, between the taps of the multi-tap procedure user B is shown a prompt on the screen of their smartphone which includes a target area, such as a circle, along with instructions to read some predetermined text. Person B is instructed to hold their phone so that their face is visible in the circle and reads out the text. The speech of person B reading the text is recorded by their phone microphone and is stored as a voice recording. During the time they are reading the text, several images of their face are captured by the front facing camera on their phone. The voice recording and the images are sent to server 12.

The voice recording can be analysed. The analysis of the voice can give an indication if person B is stressed or not. Unless person B is a professional rescuer, it is expected that person B will be stressed because they are in an emergency situation. This stress has a probability to be detected in the audio file (short breath, fast reading, signal with high amplitude). This analysis can be used to assess whether B is acting in a genuine emergency situation. The images of person B's face can be analysed. Again, unless person B is a

professional rescuer, it is expected that person B will be stressed because they are in an emergency situation. This stress has a probability to be detected in the images by the eyes and rises of person B being very open. This analysis can also be used to assess whether B is acting in a genuine emergency situation.

If the smartphone of user B includes a fingerprint scanner, then they may be prompted to scan one or more of their fingerprints. The fingerprint information is sent to server 12 for subsequent identification purposes.

J7) Test mode control

The test mode is for test purpose only and it does not trigger any action to (L) and (M).

If the request successfully goes through (J), (A)'s data are retrieved from database 16 and sent to (B) accordingly to (B')s access level (J5).

The Alert Management module (L) sends a message to the monitoring system of emergency services (O). The Feedback management module (M) sends a message to (A) informing (A) that their information data has been accessed. The Feedback management module (M) sends a message to (B) asking (B) in which situation (B) used the system. The

Feedback management module (M) is an input for the Statistic control module (J3) and the profiling control module (J5). It helps the system to know if a user (B) has a fair use of the application.

The Feedback management module (M) is able to be programmed to monitor the number of times a request is made. Access can be monitored and then if necessary, restricted to certain users.

Third party (O) can access data of (A) if their NFC tag has been scanned during the last 12 hours. The system 10 incorporates proximity programming in the NFC Tag and only allows for reading between NFCs and Radio Frequency Identifications (RFIDs) to occur only at very close distances (2 to 3 centimetres from the device). To ensure that the system is not scanned unnecessarily the system is programmed so that the NFC device must be held up to the RFID chip for more than 2 seconds.

System 10 can also be configured to automatically call an ambulance or medical service when scanned and send a message to the manager on duty as well as providing information in relation to the emergency and the communicate the user or users personal information to the emergency staff.

System 10 can also be programmed for companies that wish to monitor workplace injuries so that a message can be sent to the users' work place, if the incident occurs in the course of their employment.

It can be seen that embodiments of the system include at least one of the following advantages:

• allows for personal information to be stored and accessed by third parties in an emergency situation

• access to the personal information is controlled to guard against fraudulent use and/or privacy concerns

• personal data is not stored on the device worn by the person thereby avoiding the risk that data may be accessed by unauthorised persons in the event of loss or theft of the device

In the foregoing description the term "personal emergency information" of a person is intended to include the following:

• Name and address information (compulsory on subscribing to the Safe Mate system)

• Contact details of next of kin (compulsory on subscribing to the Safe Mate system) Age (optional)

Medical history (optional)

Currently taken medications (optional)

Medical conditions and allergies (optional)

Medicare / Private Health Insurance details (optional)

Passport/driving license (optional)

Any reference to prior art contained herein is not to be taken as an admission that the information is common general knowledge, unless otherwise indicated.

Finally, it is to be appreciated that various alterations or additions may be made to the parts previously described without departing from the spirit or ambit of the present invention.

Claims

CLAIMS:

1. A method of making personal emergency information available to third parties including the steps of:

providing a first person with a wireless device which can be interrogated to extract device information from the device;

assessing whether a second person who has interrogated the device is authorised to access personal information of the first person; and

selectively making the personal information available to the second person based on the result of the assessment.

2. A method according to claim 1 further including the steps of:

storing the personal information in an internet accessible remote storage device; and

associating the personal information of the first person with a code which forms part of the device information stored in their wireless device.

3. A method according to either of claim 1 or claim 2 wherein the step of

assessing whether the second person is authorised includes the step of conducting at least two interrogations of the wireless device, wherein the at least two interrogations must be spaced apart by a defined minimum time period.

4. A method according to claim 3 wherein the minimum time period is

communicated in response to the first interrogation.

5. A method according to claim 3 wherein the minimum time period is variable.

6. A method according to any one of claims 3 to 5 wherein the at least two

interrogations must be conducted within a defined maximum time period.

7. A method according to any preceding claim further including the step of

allocating various levels of authorisation to authorised persons, wherein the step of assessing whether the second person is authorised is carried out based on their level of authorisation.

8. A method according to any preceding claim wherein the second person

interrogates the wireless device using their own mobile phone.

9. A method according to any preceding claim further including the step of

obtaining information relating to the second person.

10. A method according to claim 9 wherein the information relating to the second person includes their phone number or EVIEI number.

11. A method according to claim 9 wherein the information relating to the second person includes biometric information.

12. A method according to claim 11 wherein the biometric information includes at least one facial image.

13. A method according to claim 11 wherein the biometric information includes at least one voice recording.

14. A method according to claim 11 wherein the biometric information includes at least one fingerprint.

15. A method according to claim 11 further including the step of analysing at least some of the biometric information to assess the degree of stress that the second person is under.

16. A system for making personal emergency information available to third parties safely and securely, including:

- a number of wireless devices which can be interrogated to extract device information from the devices;

- means for assessing whether persons who have interrogated a device are authorised to access personal information; and

- means for selectively making the personal information available based on the result of the assessment.

17. A system according to claim 16 wherein the wireless devices are mounted in wrist worn straps, helmets, employee access cards, transportation cards, credit cards, or other similar items.

18. A system according to either of claim 16 or claim 17 wherein the wireless devices are RFID or NFC devices.