Importance

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Abstract

Surveillance platforms in airborne craft (8,10), land based vehicles (12), vessels at sea or fixed structures (14) detect dangers using conventional scanners and transmit information signals describing the dangers to a control center (2) which analyzes the data and determines the degree of danger and its geographic extent. The center generates a danger warning and emergency response including a danger index. The warning/response message identifies the degree of danger (danger index 144) and the GPS coordinates (142) of the impacted geographic area for a wide region or regions of the earth (FIGS. 2-6). A vulnerability index (FIG. 16) determined using neural networks (FIGS. 13-14) and fuzzy logic (FIGS. 15-20) enables a prioritized warning/response. The center broadcasts (18) the danger warning and emergency response (FIG. 9) to a large population of remotely located warning devices (11), such as a network of pagers each of which has a GPS receiver (6,28). The pagers compare the received danger coordinates with their own GPS coordinates and each pager determines the extent to which it is in danger. The warning device automatically issues a warning signal or signals, which may be audible, visual or vibratory, appropriate to the degree of danger. Emergency manned vehicles may also directly receive the broadcast warning/response and be immediately alerted to act appropriately relative to the degree of danger. One embodiment broadcasts (16) directly to home T.V.'s and radios (17) which have internal GPS receivers and which display/annunciate an emergency message customized to that receiver resulting from the internal comparison of the danger coordinates versus the local receiver coordinates.

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First Claim