Granted Patent B2

US 12,520,105 · App. 18/148,814 · Granted Jan 6, 2026

Inventors: Mark Holland (Vienna, VA); Jeffrey Michael Torgerson (Bellevue, WA); Robert Zaruba (Overland Park, KS)

Assignee: T-Mobile USA, Inc.

H04W4/029G06F16/29H04W4/025H04W4/90

Abstract

Claims (74)

1 . A system communicatively coupled to a plurality of base stations in a telecommunications network, the system comprising:

a traffic-monitoring module configured to:

receive, from one or more of the plurality of base stations, one or more characteristics of uplink network traffic transmitted to the one or more base stations by electronic devices that are registered to communicate on the telecommunications network,

wherein the one or more characteristics of the uplink network traffic are measured by the one or more base stations, and

wherein the one or more characteristics of the uplink traffic comprises a volume of the uplink network traffic, a spatial density of the electronic devices generating the uplink network traffic, or a rate of increase of the uplink network traffic; and

identify a contiguous geographic area in which the one or more characteristics of a subset of the uplink network traffic, generated by electronic devices located within the identified geographic area, satisfy a criterion,

wherein satisfaction of the criterion indicates an event is occurring in the identified geographic area;

an event data module configured to generate an event indicator based on the identified geographic area and the subset of the uplink network traffic; and

a service module configured to:

identify one or more media content items that were generated by respective electronic devices located within the identified geographic area;

link the one or more media content items to the event indicator; and

output the one or more media content items linked to the event indicator to an emergency response system.

2 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the service module is further configured to:

map each of the one or more media content items to a respective location within the identified geographic area based on a location of the respective electronic device that generated the media content item.

3 . The system of claim 2 , wherein the service module is further configured to:

detect a user of the emergency response system is approaching the identified geographic area from a first direction;

select a first media content item, of the one or more media content items linked to the event indicator, that is mapped to a location within the identified geographic area that is nearest to the first direction; and

output the first media content item to the emergency response system.

4 . The system of claim 2 , wherein the service module is further configured to:

generate an interactive map of the identified geographic area,

wherein, for each of the one or more media content items linked to the event indicator, an identifier of the media content item is displayed on the interactive map at a position that corresponds to the respective location to which the media content item is mapped;

send the interactive map for display by the emergency response system; and

in response to selection of a first identifier displayed on the interactive map, output a first media content item corresponding to the first identifier to the emergency response system.

5 . The system of claim 2 , wherein the service module is further configured to:

determine a hotspot region within the identified geographic area, wherein a subregion of the identified geographic area is determined to be the hotspot region when at least a threshold percentage of the subset of uplink network traffic originated within the subregion;

select a media content item that was generated by an electronic device located within the hotspot region; and

output the selected media content item to the emergency response system.

6 . The system of claim 1 , wherein identifying the one or more media content items comprises receiving the one or more media content items from the respective electronic devices.

7 . The system of claim 1 , wherein identifying the one or more media content items comprises receiving the one or more media content items from a content platform to which the one or more media content items were transmitted by the respective electronic devices.

8 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the service module is configured to output the one or more media content items linked to the event indicator to the emergency response system in response to a request received from the emergency response system.

9 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the emergency response system comprises a mobile device, and wherein outputting the one or more media content items linked to the event indicator comprises:

outputting the one or more media content items linked to the event indicator to the mobile device in response to detecting the mobile device is located within a threshold proximity to the identified geographic area.

10 . The system of claim 1 , wherein generating the event indicator comprises:

determining at least a subset of the electronic devices located within the identified geographic area are located inside a venue;

generating a geographic area identifier that identifies the venue as a location for the event; and

storing the geographic area identifier in the event indicator.

11 . The system of claim 1 , wherein generating the event indicator comprises:

selecting latitudinal and longitudinal coordinates that define a boundary around the identified geographic area; and

storing the latitudinal and longitudinal coordinates in the event indicator.

12 . At least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by at least one data processor of a system, cause the system to:

receive, from one or more base stations in a telecommunications network, characteristics of uplink network traffic transmitted to the base stations by electronic devices registered to operate on the telecommunications network,

wherein the characteristics of the uplink network traffic are measured by the one or more base stations,

wherein the characteristics of the uplink traffic comprise a volume of the uplink network traffic, a spatial density of the electronic devices generating the uplink network traffic, or a rate of increase of the uplink network traffic;

identify a geographic area in which the characteristics of a subset of the uplink network traffic, generated by electronic devices located within the identified geographic area, satisfy a criterion;

generate an event indicator based on the identified geographic area;

identify one or more media content items that were generated by respective electronic devices located within the identified geographic area;

store the one or more media content items in association with the event indicator; and

in response to a request received from an emergency response system, output the one or more stored media content items to the emergency response system.

13 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 12 , wherein generating the event indicator comprises:

determining at least a subset of the electronic devices located within the identified geographic area are located inside a venue;

generating a geographic area identifier that identifies the venue as a location for the event; and

storing the geographic area identifier in the event indicator.

14 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 12 , wherein generating the event indicator comprises:

selecting latitudinal and longitudinal coordinates that define a boundary around the identified geographic area; and

storing the latitudinal and longitudinal coordinates in the event indicator.

15 . At least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by at least one data processor of a system, cause the system to:

receive an event indicator from an event detection system in a data network,

wherein the event indicator identifies a geographic area in which characteristics of uplink network traffic, generated by electronic devices located within the identified geographic area and measured by one or more access nodes, satisfy a criterion,

wherein the characteristics of the uplink network traffic comprise a volume of the uplink network traffic, a spatial density of the electronic devices generating the uplink network traffic, or a rate of increase of the uplink network traffic;

identify one or more media content items that were generated by respective electronic devices located within the identified geographic area;

map each of the one or more media content items to a respective location within the identified geographic area based on a location of the respective electronic device that generated the media content item; and

output a first media content item of the one or more media content items to an emergency response system based on the location to which the first media content item is mapped.

16 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15 , wherein outputting the first media content item comprises:

detecting a user of the emergency response system is approaching the identified geographic area from a first direction; and

select the first media content item based on the first media content item being mapped to a location within the identified geographic area that is nearest to the first direction.

17 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15 , wherein the instructions when executed further cause the system to:

generate an interactive map of the identified geographic area,

wherein, for each of the one or more media content items, an identifier of the media content item is displayed on the interactive map at a position that corresponds to the respective location to which the media content item is mapped;

send the interactive map for display by the emergency response system; and

output the first media content item to the emergency response system in response to selection of a first identifier displayed on the interactive map that corresponds to the first media content item.

18 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15 , wherein the instructions when executed further cause the system to:

determine a hotspot region within the identified geographic area, wherein a subregion of the identified geographic area is determined to be the hotspot region when at least a threshold percentage of the uplink network traffic originated within the subregion;

select a media content item that was generated by an electronic device located within the hotspot region; and

output the selected media content item as the first media content item.

Assignments (1)

Continuity (1)

References Cited (60)