Data processing: measuring – calibrating – or testing – Measurement system in a specific environment – Earth science
Reexamination Certificate
2001-04-13
2002-12-10
McElheny, Jr., Donald E. (Department: 2862)
Data processing: measuring, calibrating, or testing
Measurement system in a specific environment
Earth science
Reexamination Certificate
active
06493633
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to systems and methods for event identification, forecasting, and notification, and more particularly, to computerized systems and methods for reporting and forecasting real-time weather information.
2. Technical Background
The importance of weather reporting and forecasting in our daily lives cannot be contested. A large percentage of the people in the United States watch their local evening news on a nightly basis to see the local weather report and forecast. This information may then used to make decisions for the next day, or for the upcoming weekend, such as what to wear, what activity to participate in, what activity not to participate in, what to bring on an outing, etc. Under certain circumstances, such as in the case of severe weather, some people may find themselves in situations where they are making life and death decisions based upon the weather information they have available to them.
To assist local television stations, as well as the national networks, in providing accurate and timely weather reporting and forecasting, the National Weather Service (NWS) maintains a network of radar installations located at approximately one hundred thirty-eight sites throughout the United States. Observers at each of these installations monitor the weather conditions within their area and provide hourly teletyped messages to subscribers, typically through a third party weather service provider such as GTE Contel, a subsidiary of GTE Government Systems. In addition, other services provide lightning strike information on a subscription basis, such as through Global Atmospherics, Arizona, U.S.A.
The weather information provided by any one or a combination of the above services may be synthesized at a local television station into a understandable format for presentation to the public. In general, the meteorological data is gathered at the local television station and combined with image maps of a geographical region to generate a weather image i.e., a graphical illustration of the weather. In addition, the local temperatures for various communities or cities within the viewing area of the station may also be generated on the weather image. A sequence of these composite weather images can be looped to create weather animation. The local television station may then broadcast the weather images to viewers.
Although the current weather reporting and forecasting systems used by television stations and networks have much benefit, they may not provide relevant weather information during severe weather. This is particularly true when it comes to the existence of severe weather which arises quickly without much warning, as is often the case with tornadoes. It is well known that tornadoes and other types of severe weather can strike quickly without much prior notice. The information provided by the television stations and networks regarding these types of severe weather are seldom provided in a real-time fashion and are generally not detailed as to the specific location or direction of the weather front. Therefore, the public is often not given sufficient warning to adequately prepare for the weather in order to protect their property or find a safe refuge for themselves. Moreover, the weather information that is provided is often provided on a county wide basis which, depending on the size of the county, the actual path of the severe weather through a county, and the position of the listeners within the county, may be irrelevant. The listener may consequently become impatient or inattentive, and stop viewing the weather report.
An alternative source of weather information is through weather radios such as the Realistic Weather Radio Alert III, Model No. 12-140, distributed through Radio Shack, a division of the Tandy Corporation. In general, weather radios may provide listeners with prerecorded or live weather updates on an essentially continuous basis. The weather radios receive the weather information updates which are broadcasts by the national Weather Service (NWS) from local transmitters using specific frequencies designated by the Federal Communication Commission (FCC). The weather updates usually comprise regular weather information which is prerecorded and then broadcast, except for the issuance of severe weather watches or warnings. In those cases, a prerecorded (or sometimes live) watch or warning message is preceded by a tone (e.g., a 1,000 cycle tone) that is manually activated at the broadcast station. The tone weather radios that are turned on and within the range of the broadcasted signal may receive the tone which activates an audible alarm on the radio. The audible alarm is typically not distinctive as to the whether it is for a watch and warning, nor does the audible alarm indicate the type or severity of the severe weather. The alarm will usually continue until the user pushes an alert key or button on the weather radio. It is noted that NWS personnel are responsible for both manually recording of the audio messages for broadcast and the manually activating of the tone.
What is needed therefore, but presently unavailable in the art, is a system and method capable of broadcasting, among other things, information indicative of a narrowly defined boundary for an event and/or a projected path of an event to a plurality of remote devices that are positioned throughout the area of coverage of the system, and which are each configured to independently determine if it is affected by the event. In a preferred embodiment, those devices determining that they are affected by the event will respond to the broadcast by activating an alert indicator of some type while those devices determining that they are not affected by the event will not respond to the broadcast. Such a system and method should be capable of broadcasting the information in real-time over the entire coverage area of the system, and should include smart devices that perform the alerting function. Each smart device should itself be configured to independently determine if it is affected by the event rather than being instructed from a central location that it is affected. Each remote device should preferably be programmed or otherwise provided with information indicative of its geographic location so that each may compare its known location against geographically coded information provided in the broadcast which defines the boundaries of the event or events. The system should be capable of alerting stationary devices that are positioned, for example, within buildings such as schools and homes, as well as mobile devices such as those carried on a person or positioned in a moving vehicle. While the system and method of the present invention is particularly well suited for events such as severe storms or other weather conditions, it is equally applicable to the dissemination of information pertaining to events such as chemical or other toxic discharges, forest fires, nuclear accidents, and other emergency events where early warning of the event can provide those in harms way with ample advance notice to prepare for the event. It is to the provision of such a system and method that the present invention is primarily directed.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide more relevant weather information.
It is another object of the present invention is to provide site specific weather information.
It is a further object of the present invention is to provide substantially real-time weather information.
These and other objects are provided in accordance with one aspect of the present invention by a system for providing real-time site specific weather information that includes a weather alert manager that receives meteorological data and combines the meteorological data with a geographical grid covering a predefined geographic area to produce storm profiles for the storms within the geographical area, wherein the geographic grid partitions the geographic area into a plurality of cells. A distr
Baron, Sr. Robert O.
Benson Tony L.
Thompson Tom S.
Caprio Frank M.
Kim Do Te
Lanier Ford Shaver & Payne P.C.
McElheny Jr. Donald E.
LandOfFree
Systems and methods for distributing real-time site specific... does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Systems and methods for distributing real-time site specific..., we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Systems and methods for distributing real-time site specific... will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2992681