JP7818170B2 - reporting device - Google Patents

Description

This invention relates to a reporting device suitable for use in a reporting system that automatically reports the occurrence of an emergency, such as a fire or the intrusion of a suspicious person, to a reporting destination.

Known notification devices that automatically report emergencies such as a fire at a property or an intrusion by a suspicious person include special number notification devices that call special numbers such as 110 or 119, and notification devices that automatically notify security companies in electronic security systems.

In addition to the main call function, which sends a call to a special call control desk for special numbers such as 110 or 119, or to a specific contact point such as a security company, this type of reporting device also automatically sends a secondary voice call (general call) over a telephone line after the main call has been made, for post-event reporting to a general contact point (such as the end user responsible for the property).

In this case, multiple destinations can be set for general reporting, and the destinations can be prioritized, for example, to report in the following order: property manager → deputy manager → emergency response officer, etc. Also, for general reporting, regardless of whether the report is successful (the person being called answers and hears the report voice message) or unsuccessful (the person being called does not answer, is on the phone, or the call is cut off before the voice message is heard, etc.), the device will send the report to the next destination in order of priority, and for any destinations where the report fails, the device will repeat the reporting sequence in order of priority, allowing the device to be set to report to all destinations (see Patent Document 1 (JP 61-224551 A)).

Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 61-224551

In the conventional reporting device described above, notification messages for reporting emergency situations, such as "A fire has broken out" or "A suspicious person has entered," are stored in memory in advance for use in primary and secondary (general) reports. If the destination responds to a report, the stored notification message is read and sent to the destination. Then, for secondary reports, the report is made according to priority, and the notification message is transmitted to the destination in order of priority.

However, with secondary reporting on conventional reporting devices, when a report is made to the next contact in priority order, the user at the next contact who responds to the report simply receives a report message informing them of the occurrence of an emergency. Since the status of the report to the previous contact is unknown, the user at the next contact who responds to the report may be confused about what action to take in response to the report.

Figure 5 shows an example of a secondary reporting sequence in a conventional reporting device of this type. In this example, the secondary reporting destinations are set to a manager, such as the president, and a deputy manager, such as the department head, and priority is set so that reporting is made in the order of manager → deputy manager.

As shown in Figure 5, when an abnormality such as a fire or the intrusion of a suspicious person is detected, the notification device first sends a report to the telephone terminal (telephone number) of the person in charge, who has the highest priority. In the example of Figure 5, it is assumed that the person in charge does not respond to this report at that telephone terminal. The notification device detects that there is no response from the person in charge's telephone terminal (non-response), determines that the report has failed, stops sending the report to the person in charge's telephone terminal, and sends a report to the telephone terminal (telephone number) of the next-highest-ranking deputy person in charge.

In the example of Figure 5, the assistant manager responds to this report using his telephone terminal. When the reporting device detects a response from the assistant manager's telephone terminal, it creates a communication path between the assistant manager and his telephone terminal, and sends an audio report message, in this example, "This is an emergency...", over this communication path. The assistant manager then hears this audio report message.

Next, in this example, since the previous attempt to notify the person in charge failed, the notification device attempts to notify the person in charge again via their telephone terminal. In the example shown in Figure 5, the second attempt to notify the person in charge also fails, and subsequent repeated attempts to notify the person in charge also fail.

In the example reporting sequence shown in Figure 5, the deputy manager hears the audio report message, but is confused because he does not know whether the report has been sent to the manager. If the deputy manager thinks, "The report must have been sent to the manager, and the manager will deal with it," he may leave the report alone without taking any action.

However, in the example shown in Figure 5, all reports to the responsible person actually fail, and the responsible person does not take any action in response to the reports. This creates a problem in that, even though a report is made based on the occurrence of an emergency, no appropriate action is taken in response to this report.

Next, the example in Figure 6 is similar to the example in Figure 5 in that the initial report sent to the telephone terminal (telephone number) of the manager, who has a higher priority, fails, but the report sent to the telephone terminal (telephone number) of the deputy manager, who has the next highest priority, is successful. In the example in Figure 6, when the reporting device attempts to report again to the telephone terminal of the manager that failed the previous time, there is a response from the manager, and the report is successful.

In the case of Figure 6, when both the deputy manager and the manager receive the alert message, they are unaware of the status of the alert to the other reporter. As a result, as shown in Figure 6, a situation may arise in which the deputy manager takes some action based on the audio alert message, and the manager also takes some action based on the audio alert message. When this happens, instructions are given in the form of duplicate actions, which could cause confusion at the site where the instructions are received.

The purpose of this invention is to provide a notification device that can solve the above problems.

In order to solve the above problem, the invention of claim 1 comprises:
A reporting device that automatically reports to multiple pre-registered reporting destinations in order of priority,
The system is configured to send a notification message when a first notification is made to a notification destination with the highest priority, and
when reporting to a next report destination after a first report to the report destination with the highest priority, in addition to the report message, a report-related message is sent based on information obtained when reporting to another report destination among the plurality of report destinations that was made before the first report to the next report destination ,
a storage means for receiving and storing a message from the notification destination for which the notification has been successful;
The notification-related message includes a message stored in the storage means.
The present invention provides a notification device characterized by the above.

In the reporting device of the invention of claim 1 configured as described above, when reporting to the next reporting destination after the initial reporting to the highest priority reporting destination, in addition to the reporting message, a reporting-related message is sent based on information obtained when reporting to the other reporting destination. In other words, with the reporting device of the invention of claim 1 configured as described above, it is possible to send a reporting-related message, for example, a message regarding the reporting status up to the reporting destination.

Therefore, according to the invention of claim 1 configured as described above, when a report is made to the next report destination in accordance with priority, a report-related message is sent along with the report message, allowing the user at the next report destination who responds to the report to deal with the report appropriately.

This invention has the remarkable effect of allowing the next user to respond to the report to take appropriate action.

1 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of a reporting system including a first embodiment of a reporting device according to the present invention; FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an example of the flow of operations of the sub-notification processing unit in the first embodiment of the notification device according to the present invention. 10A and 10B are diagrams illustrating an example of a sequence of a secondary notification in the first embodiment of the notification device according to the present invention. FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of a second embodiment of a reporting device according to the present invention. FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of a sub-notification sequence in a conventional notification device. FIG. 10 is a diagram showing another example of a sub-notification sequence in a conventional notification device.

Below, several embodiments of the notification device according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

[First embodiment]
1 is a diagram illustrating an example of the configuration of an emergency notification system including a notification device 1 according to a first embodiment. As described above, the notification device 1 according to the first embodiment in the emergency notification system of this example is configured to be able to issue a primary notification and a secondary notification when an abnormality occurs.

The reporting device 1 is connected to a communications network 2 that includes telephone lines. The communications network 2 is connected to a primary reporting destination 3 and multiple secondary reporting destinations 41, 42, ..., 4n (n is a natural number). As mentioned above, the primary reporting destination 3 is a special call control desk for special numbers such as 110 or 119, or a receiving terminal such as a security company. In this example, the secondary reporting destinations 41, 42, ..., 4n are telephone terminals for general reporting destinations that are preset in the reporting device 1 as described below.

In this example, as shown in FIG. 1, the reporting device 1 of the first embodiment is configured by connecting a main reporting processing unit 11, a secondary reporting processing unit 12, a reporting message storage unit 13, a secondary reporting destination information storage unit 14, a reporting status message storage unit 15, a display unit 16, various sensors 171, 172, ..., 17m (m is a natural number), and an input operation unit 18 to a control unit 10.

The various sensors 171, 172, ..., 17m include fire sensors and surveillance sensors that monitor intruders. Surveillance sensors include motion sensors and sensors that detect the opening and closing of doors and windows. The input operation unit 18 may also be configured to allow voice input in addition to text input.

The control unit 10 is composed of, for example, a microprocessor, and controls the entire reporting device 1. The control unit 10 detects the occurrence of an abnormality by monitoring the sensor output of sensors 171, 172, ..., 17m. When the control unit 10 detects the occurrence of an abnormality, it controls the main reporting processing unit 11 and the secondary reporting processing unit 12 to issue a main report and a secondary report.

When activated by the control unit 10, the main report processing unit 11 automatically dials the main report destination 3 to issue a report. The report message storage unit 13 stores audio report messages such as "This is an emergency." When the main report destination 3 responds, the main report processing unit 11 sends the audio report message obtained from the report message storage unit 13 to the main report destination 3.

When the main report processing unit 11 has completed the main report, the control unit 10 activates the secondary report processing unit 12. The secondary report processing unit 12 executes a secondary report based on the secondary report destination information stored in the secondary report destination information storage unit 14. The control unit 10 accepts the setting of multiple secondary report destinations in advance via the input operation unit 18, and also accepts the setting of priorities for the multiple secondary report destinations, which are stored in the secondary report destination information storage unit 14. Under the control of the control unit 10, the display unit 16 displays each input secondary report destination for confirmation.

The secondary notification processing unit 12 executes secondary notifications to multiple secondary notification destinations stored in the secondary notification destination information storage unit 14 according to the set priority order, regardless of whether the notification to each secondary notification destination is successful or unsuccessful. As mentioned above, a successful notification occurs when the person being notified responds and a notification voice message is sent that the person being notified can hear. A failed notification occurs when the person being notified does not respond, is busy, or is disconnected before the voice notification message is sent.

Then, when the first notification sequence to multiple secondary notification destinations is completed in order of priority, if there is a secondary notification destination for which the notification has failed, the secondary notification processing unit 12 performs a second notification sequence in order of priority to that secondary notification destination.Then, the secondary notification processing unit 12 repeats the notification sequence in order of priority until there are no more secondary notification destinations for which the notification has failed.

In this case, in this embodiment, when a first notification is made to the secondary notification destination with the highest priority and that secondary notification destination responds, the secondary notification processing unit 12 is configured to read out the audio notification message stored in the notification message storage unit 13 and send only this audio notification message to that secondary notification destination with the highest priority.

In this embodiment, the secondary reporting processing unit 12 is equipped with a reporting status grasping unit 121 that grasps and stores/manages the success or failure of reporting for each secondary reporting destination, including the secondary reporting destination with the highest priority. The reporting status grasping unit 121 grasps, stores, and manages reporting status information on success or failure of reporting, in association with each secondary reporting destination.

When reporting to the next report destination after the first report to the highest priority secondary report destination and the next report destination responds, the secondary report processing unit 12 is configured to not only read and send out the audio report message stored in the report message storage unit 13, but also read out a report status message corresponding to the report status up to the secondary report to the next report destination from the report status message storage unit 15 and send it to the next report destination. Here, the next report destination after the first report to the highest priority secondary report destination includes all next report destinations when a second report sequence is performed in accordance with priority when there is a secondary report destination for which the report failed, and includes the highest priority secondary report destination for which the report failed during the first report.

The reporting status message is voice message information used to notify whether the reporting was successful or unsuccessful, and is an example of a reporting-related message. Examples of reporting status messages that are stored and prepared in advance include "The first reporting destination could not be contacted" (for cases where the reporting to the first reporting destination has failed) and "The second reporting destination has been contacted" (for cases where the reporting to the second reporting destination has been successful).

If the secondary report destination information storage unit 14 has registered as its secondary report destination a phrase identifying the secondary report destination, such as a name or job title, it is possible to create and use a report status message using that phrase. In this case, the report status message storage unit 15 leaves the secondary report destination name blank, stores "Could not contact XX (XX means blank; same below)" in the event of a failed report, and stores "XX has been contacted" in the event of a successful report. The report status message can then be created by inserting the name, job title, etc. stored in the secondary report destination information storage unit 14 into the "XX" portion of the stored report status message.

In the sub-notification sequence, if there are multiple sub-notification destinations before the sub-notification destination that receives the notification status message, the notification status message may be configured to be sent to notify the notification status of all of the previous multiple sub-notification destinations.Also, if there are multiple sub-notification destinations before the sub-notification destination that receives the notification status message, one to multiple sub-notification destinations may be set in a specific order, for example, only the highest-ranking sub-notification destination may be set, and the notification status message may be sent to notify the notification status of the set sub-notification destination.

In the configuration of the reporting device 1 in Figure 1, the main reporting processing unit 11 and the sub-report processing unit 12 can be configured as software (programs) that execute processing, and can be included in the control unit 10.

[Example of Operation of the Sub-Notification Processing Unit 12 in the Notification Device 1 of the First Embodiment]
Next, an example of the operation of the sub-notification processing unit 12 in the notification device 1 of the first embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart of Fig. 2. In the description of the flowchart of Fig. 2, the sub-notification processing unit 12 will be described as being configured such that processing is executed by software (program) and is included in the control unit 10. In other words, the execution entity of each step in the flowchart of Fig. 2 will be described as the control unit 10.

When the control unit 10 detects an abnormality, it issues a primary report using the functions of the primary report processing unit 11, and once the primary report is complete, it starts the secondary report sequence shown in Figure 2.

The control unit 10 first references the secondary report destination information storage unit 14 and sets the highest priority report destination (secondary report destination) as the report destination (step S1). Next, the control unit 10 seizes the line, automatically dials the set report destination (step S2), and monitors whether the report destination responds (step S3).

If it is determined in step S3 that the destination has responded, the control unit 10 sends a notification message to the destination, notifying them of the occurrence of an emergency, read from the notification message storage unit 13 (step S4). Once the notification message has been sent, the line is released (step S5), and information indicating that the notification was successful is stored in association with the destination (step S6).

Also, if it is determined in step S3 that the call destination did not respond, the control unit 10 disconnects the line (step S7) and stores information about the call failure in association with the call destination (step S8). Note that even if the call destination does not not respond but is busy or is disconnected before the voice call message is sent, the control unit 10 also disconnects the line and stores information about the call failure in association with the call destination.

After step S6 or step S8, the control unit 10 references the secondary reporting destination information storage unit 14, sets the next reporting destination as the reporting destination (step S9), seizes the line, automatically dials the reporting destination of the set destination (step S10), and monitors whether the next reporting destination has responded (step S11).

If it is determined in step S11 that the next report destination did not respond, the control unit 10 returns the process to step S7 to disconnect the line, and in the next step S8, stores the information about the report failure in association with the report destination, and then executes the processes from step S8 onwards. Furthermore, if it is determined in step S11 that the next report destination responded, the control unit 10 sends a report message read from the report message storage unit 13 to the report destination notifying them of the occurrence of an emergency, and also sends a report status message read from the report status message storage unit 15 to notify them of the report status for the report destination preceding the next report destination as a report-related message (step S12).

Then, once the sending of the notification message and notification-related message in step S12 is complete, the control unit 10 determines whether the notification has been successful for all secondary notification destinations stored in the secondary notification destination information storage unit 14 (step S13).

If it is determined in step S13 that the notification has not been successful for all of the secondary notification destinations stored in the secondary notification destination information storage unit 14, the control unit 10 returns the process to step S5 to disconnect the line, and in the next step S6, stores the successful notification information in association with the secondary notification destination, and then executes the processes from step S6 onwards.

Furthermore, if it is determined in step S13 that the notifications to all secondary notification destinations stored in the secondary notification destination information storage unit 14 have been successful, the control unit 10 disconnects the line (step S14) and terminates this secondary notification processing routine.

[Example of a secondary report sequence]
Figure 3 shows an example of a secondary reporting sequence in which the secondary reporting destination information storage unit 14 has a person in charge (e.g., the president) set as the highest-level reporting destination, and two people, a deputy person in charge (e.g., a department manager) set as the next highest-level reporting destination.

In the example of Figure 3, when an abnormality is detected by the notification device 1, the notification device 1 sends a report to the telephone terminal of the person in charge. In the example of Figure 3, the person in charge does not respond to this report.

The reporting device 1 recognizes that the report failed because the manager's telephone terminal did not respond, stores this information, and reports the report to the deputy manager's telephone terminal as the next reporting destination. In the example of Figure 3, the deputy manager responds to this report, so reporting device 1 sends the deputy manager a reporting message stating "This is an emergency..." and, in response to the failure of the report to the manager, who is the first reporting destination, a reporting status message stating "We were unable to contact the first reporting destination." The deputy manager hears this reporting message and reporting status message and thinks, "Since the manager (president) has not been contacted, I will take the initiative," and takes appropriate action based on the report.

The reporting device 1 determines that the report was successful based on the deputy manager's response to the report made to his/her telephone terminal as the next report destination and the deputy manager's response to the report message, and stores this information. Then, since the previous report to the manager was unsuccessful, the reporting device 1 makes another report to the manager's telephone terminal. In the example of Figure 3, the manager responds to this second report.

Then, the reporting device 1 sends the manager a reporting message stating "This is an emergency..." and, in response to the successful notification to the second reporting destination, the deputy manager, sends a reporting status message stating "The second reporting destination has been contacted." The manager listens to this reporting message and reporting status message and thinks, "If the deputy manager (general manager) has already been contacted, I'll try contacting him first," and takes appropriate action, such as contacting the deputy manager (general manager), without taking any prescribed action based on the report.

As can be seen from the example sequence in Figure 3, the reporting device 1 of this first embodiment makes it possible to know the reporting status of other reporting destinations before reporting to the next reporting destination, thereby preventing a situation in which appropriate action is not taken at all in the conventional reporting sequence described using Figure 5. It also prevents a situation in which actions based on reports are duplicated, as in the conventional reporting sequence described using Figure 6.

Second Embodiment
In the reporting device of the first embodiment described above, a reporting status message is sent as a reporting-related message to notify other reporting destinations of the reporting status before reporting to the next reporting destination. However, the reporting-related message is not limited to the reporting status message as in the first embodiment, and may be any message based on information that can be obtained at the time of reporting before reporting to the next reporting destination.

The reporting device 1A of the second embodiment described below is configured to be able to send, as report-related messages, message messages such as instruction messages from a report recipient who responded to a report made before the report to the next report destination, in addition to report status messages. In other words, in the second embodiment, the report-related messages are message messages obtained when reporting to another report destination out of multiple report destinations made before the report to the next report destination.

Figure 4 is a block diagram showing an example configuration of a notification device 1A of the second embodiment. Parts that are the same as those of the notification device 1 of the first embodiment shown in Figure 1 are given the same reference numerals, and detailed descriptions of these parts will be omitted.

As shown in FIG. 4, the notification device 1A of the second embodiment is provided with an incoming call processing unit 21, a recording unit 22, and a recorded message storage unit 23 in addition to the configuration of the notification device 1 of the first embodiment. The incoming call processing unit 21, the recording unit 22, and the recorded message storage unit 23 are configured to perform the necessary processing operations under the control of the sub-notification processing unit 12.

The secondary notification processing unit 12 in the notification device 1A of this second embodiment is configured to send a notification message to the secondary notification destination that responded to the notification (and, if a notification status message is also sent, send that notification status message), and then receive a message from the notification recipient at the secondary notification destination, in this example a voice instruction message, at the receiving processing unit 21, and store the received voice instruction message in the recorded message storage unit 23 by the recording unit 22.

In this case, after sending the notification message (and, if a notification status message is also sent, the notification status message is also sent), the secondary notification processing unit 12 will send a message prompting the user to input a message if there is a message to be transmitted to the secondary notification destination before receiving the message. For example, a message prompting the user to input a message could be, "If there is a message for another secondary notification destination, please speak when the beep sounds."

In the above example, when the secondary notification processing unit 12 receives a response to a notification, it records the message received by the incoming call processing unit 21 before releasing the line. However, if the incoming call processing unit 21 has the function of accepting incoming calls, it may accept an incoming call from the secondary notification destination where the notification was successful even after the line has been released, receive a message such as a voice instruction message, and have the recording unit 22 store the received message in the recorded message storage unit 23.

When a message such as a voice instruction message is stored in the recorded message storage unit 23, the sub-report processing unit 12 will include this message in the report-related message and send it to the report recipient who responds to the report to the next report destination.

In the second embodiment described above, in addition to a report status message, a message such as an instruction message from the report recipient who responded to the report before the next report destination is sent as a report-related message. However, instead of a report status message, the report-related message may instead be a recorded voice message only.

[Other embodiments or modifications]
In some reporting devices, the secondary reporting mode is not limited to the voice reporting mode to a telephone terminal as described above, but may also be set to a reporting mode via email or a dedicated app for each secondary reporting destination. In such reporting devices, when a report is made to a secondary reporting destination in a mode other than voice reporting, a message informing the next reporting destination of the reporting mode may be sent as a reporting-related message. For example, when a report is made to a secondary reporting destination of a person in charge with a higher priority by email, a message stating "A report has been made to the person in charge by email" may be sent as a reporting-related message. In other words, in this example, a reporting-related message is sent based on information about the reporting mode obtained when a report was made to another of the multiple reporting destinations before the report to the next reporting destination.

Note that the reporting device in the above-described embodiment is a device that sends a secondary report to a secondary report destination after sending a primary report, but the reporting device according to this invention may also be a device that only has the same function as the secondary report function described above.

1, 1A... Reporting device, 2... Communication network, 3... Primary report destination, 41-4n... Secondary report destination, 10... Control unit, 11... Primary report processing unit, 12... Secondary report processing unit, 13... Report message storage unit, 14... Secondary report destination information storage unit, 15... Report status message storage unit, 16... Display unit, 171-17m... Sensor, 21... Received call processing unit, 22... Recording unit, 23... Recorded message storage unit, 121... Report status grasping unit

Claims (5)

A reporting device that automatically reports to multiple pre-registered reporting destinations in order of priority,
The system is configured to send a notification message when a first notification is made to a notification destination with the highest priority, and
when reporting to a next report destination after a first report to the report destination with the highest priority, in addition to the report message, a report-related message is sent based on information obtained when reporting to another report destination among the plurality of report destinations that was made before the first report to the next report destination ,
a storage means for receiving and storing a message from the notification destination for which the notification has been successful;
The notification device, wherein the notification-related message includes a message stored in the storage means. A reporting device that automatically reports to multiple pre-registered reporting destinations in order of priority,
The system is configured to send a notification message when a first notification is made to a notification destination with the highest priority, and
when reporting to a next reporting destination after a first reporting to the reporting destination with the highest priority, in addition to the reporting message, a reporting-related message is sent based on information obtained when reporting to another reporting destination among the plurality of reporting destinations that was made before the reporting to the next reporting destination ,
The notification device, wherein the notification-related message includes a message conveying a mode of notification to a notification destination. The notification is automatically made in order according to the priority order, regardless of whether the notification to the notification destination is successful or unsuccessful,
The notification device according to claim 1 or 2 , wherein the notification-related message includes a message of notification success or failure to a notification destination with a higher priority. The notification is automatically made in order according to the priority order, regardless of whether the notification is successful or unsuccessful for the destination, and is repeated until the notification is successful for all destinations;
3. The reporting device according to claim 1 , wherein the reporting-related message includes a message indicating whether or not a reporting destination with a lower priority has responded. a reporting status ascertaining means for ascertaining and storing reporting statuses of success and failure of reporting for each reporting destination in the reports automatically made in sequence according to the priority order;
3. The reporting device according to claim 1 , wherein the reporting-related message includes a message for transmitting a reporting status to another reporting destination grasped by the reporting status grasping means.