PowerPhone Issued Patent for Sending Images to 9-1-1

MADISON, Conn., Aug. 19 /PRNewswire/ --  PowerPhone, Inc. a leading provider of emergency communications training and technology solutions announced today that the United States Patent and Trademark Office has awarded the company patent number 7,764,769 entitled "Integrated Call Handler and E-Mail Systems and Methods." The embodiment of the patent, PowerPhone's Incident Linked Multimedia (ILM) software, provides a tool for emergency and non-emergency call centers to receive, prioritize and process multimedia messages, such as text, video and images from cellular and other non-traditional callers.

"With nearly 90% of today's mobile devices camera enabled, the public can be an incredible resource for a more prepared public safety response," said Chris Salafia, president and CEO of PowerPhone. "The potential is limitless. Be it an image of a suspicious person, missing child, video from an accident or even an active shooting, scene specific multimedia can be an invaluable tool in ensuring our responders are better equipped with the one thing they most desire – actionable information."

The ILM System allows the 9-1-1 center to solicit incident specific images from cellular callers and to receive and process unsolicited images based upon a proprietary message priority engine and locally defined message relevance determinants. Once received by the center, ILM can incorporate the images into existing Computer Aided Dispatch and Records Management Systems.

"The magic of ILM is in the ability to prioritize and incorporate multimedia received into an agency's existing business rules and workflows," said Salafia.  "Whether it's registering an at-risk person's phone number or using location based services to ensure images from an active incident are processed immediately, ILM is the next step in a more robust emergency response system."

This patent is the third issued to PowerPhone in the last eighteen months. All three are integral components of PowerPhone's Total Response® Computer Aided Call Handling (CACH®) software, a revolutionary tool to provide 911 operators integrated police, fire and EMS call taking protocols and pre-arrival instructions for a broad range of emergency call types including domestic violence, active shootings, chest pains and rescues.

SOURCE PowerPhone, Inc.