US007191934B2 (12) United States Patent (10) Patent No.: US 7,191.934 B2 Miller et al. (45) Date of Patent: Mar. 20, 2007 (54) TECHNIQUE FOR CREATING 5,291,399 A 3, 1994 Chaco INCIDENTSPECIFIC CREDENTIALSAT 5,337,361 A 8/1994 Wang et al. THE SCENE OF A LARGE-SCALE INCIDENT 5,343,446 A 8/1994 Simmons et al. OR WMD EVENT 5,393,965 A 2f1995 Bravman et al. 5,399,846 A 3, 1995 Pavlidis et al. 5,406,491 A 4/1995 Lima (75) Inventors: Russell L. Miller, Traverse City, MI 5,459,657 A 10/1995 Wynn et al. (US); Michael A. Whelan, Traverse 5,522,623 A * 6/1996 Soules et al. ................. 283.91 City, MI (US) 5,573.278 A 11/1996 Clemens 5,596,652 A 1/1997 Piatek et al. (73) Assignee: Salamander Technologies, Inc., 5,635,012 A 6/1997 Belluci et al. Traverse City, MI (US) 5,793,882 A 8, 1998 Piatek et al. 5,801,364 A 9, 1998 Kara et al. (*) Notice: Subject to any disclaimer, the term of this 5,995,077 A 11/1999 Wilcox et al. patent is extended or adjusted under 35 U.S.C. 154(b) by 0 days. (Continued) OTHER PUBLICATIONS (21) Appl. No.: 10/892,857 Financial World(R), Srikumar S. Rao, “Tomorrow's Rosetta Stones.” (22) Filed: Jul. 16, 2004 Nov. 22, 1994 (pp. 70-72). (Continued) (65) Prior Publication Data Primary Examiner Michael G. Lee US 2005/OO 1707O A1 Jan. 27, 2005 Assistant Examiner—Edwyn LabaZe (74) Attorney, Agent, or Firm Price, Heneveld, Cooper, Related U.S. Application Data DeWitt & Litton, LLP (60) Provisional application No. 60/488,762, filed on Jul. 21, 2003. (57) ABSTRACT An incident management system includes a check-in com (51) Int. Cl. puter system and a portable data terminal. The check-in G06F 7/00 (2006.01) computer system is utilized to read information from a (52) U.S. Cl. ....................... 235/376; 235/380: 235/487 plurality of pre-existing identification (ID) cards and utilize (58) Field of Classification Search ........ 235/375 377, at least a portion of the information to create an incident 235/380,385, 462.46, 487; 902/47 specific credential for each person responding to an incident. See application file for complete search history. The portable data terminal is configured to read the incident (56) References Cited specific credentials and communicate with the check-in computer system to provide current assignments of person U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS nel responding to an incident such that the personnel can be 5,113,445 A 5/1992 Wang tracked. 5,243,655 A 9/1993 Wang 5,266,780 A 1 1/1993 Kamata et al. 29 Claims, 4 Drawing Sheets 100 114. 1. CHECK-INPC 106 DISPLAY MEMORY SUBSYSTEM 124 COMMAND PC US 7,191.934 B2 Page 2 U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS 2004/0078223 A1* 4/2004 Sacco et al. ................... 705/2 2004/010.5529 A1* 6, 2004 Salvucci et al. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 379/45 6,029,889 2, 2000 Whalen et al. ............. 235,380 6,084,513 T/2000 Stoffer OTHER PUBLICATIONS 6,115,361 9, 2000 Fredericks et al. ......... 370,242 ID Systems, Craig Harmon, “Two-Dimensional Standards and ISO 6,305,605 10, 2001 Goetz et al. ......... ... 235,385 Update.” Nov. 1994 (pp. 22, 24 and 100). 6.421,650 T/2002 Goetz et al. ... ... TOS/3 Traverse City Record Eagle, T.M. Shultz, "GT County Firefighters 6,499,658 12, 2002 Goetz et al. ... 235,385 to Test New Bar Coding Data System.” Jul. 6, 1994 (1 page). 6,751,805 6, 2004 Austion ........................... 2.94 Maryland/DC Firefighter, Brad Schnaidt, “The Fire Service and 6,761,312 T/2004 Piatek et al. ... 235,385 Barcodes-Approaching the 21 Century.” vol. 9, No. 1, Autumn 6,796494 9, 2004 Gonzalo ........ ... 235,380 1994 (pp. 155, 157 and 159). 6,824,065 11, 2004 Boone et al. .. ... 235,492 The New York Times, Barnaby J. Feder, “For Bar Codes, an Added 6,857,210 2, 2005 Santa Cruz .... ... 40,124.06 Dimension.” Apr. 24, 1991 (2 pages). 7,027,955 4, 2006 Markwitz et al. ........... 7O2,187 Automatic I.D. News, Brad Schnaidt, “In the Line of Fire: 2-D Bar 2002.0024507 2, 2002 Boone et al. Codes Track Whose Battling Fires and Provide Rescue Workers 2002/0118118 8, 2002 Myllymaki et al. ...... 340,686.1 with Firefighter's Medical History,” Aug. 1994 (pp. 18-19). 2003/0052788 3, 2003 Kwong-Tai Chung ... 340/573.1 2003/O125998 T/2003 Fortune, Mark Alpert, “Building a Better Bar Code.” Jun. 15, 1992 McKenney et al. ............ 705/7 (1 page). 2003/O196097 10, 2003 Korosec et al. ...... ... 713,185 2003/0225612 12, 2003 DeSimone et al. ........... 705/13 * cited by examiner U.S. Patent Mar. 20, 2007 Sheet 1 of 4 US 7,191.934 B2 st st V N N N V s P -------- a1 d U.S. Patent Mar. 20, 2007 Sheet 3 of 4 US 7,191.934 B2 Co WCo 048 U.S. Patent US 7,191.934 B2 US 7,191.934 B2 1. 2 TECHNIQUE FOR CREATING These and other features, advantages and objects of the INCIDENTSPECIFIC CREDENTIALSAT present invention will be further understood and appreciated THE SCENE OF A LARGE-SCALE INCIDENT by those skilled in the art by reference to the following OR WMD EVENT specification, claims and appended drawings. CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS APPLICATION FIG. 1 is an electrical block diagram of an exemplary This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Emergency Management Accountability System (E-MAS), Patent Application Ser. No. 60/488,762, entitled SYSTEM 10 according to one embodiment of the present invention; AND METHOD FOR CREATING INCIDENT SPECIFIC FIG. 1A is a front view of an exemplary E-MAS creden CREDENTIALS AT THE SCENE OF A LARGE-SCALE tial, configured according to one embodiment of the present INCIDENT OR WMD EVENT, filed Jul 21, 2003, the invention; entire disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein by FIG. 1B is a back view of the E-MAS credential of FIG. reference. 15 1A: FIG. 2 is a block diagram of exemplary E-MAS func BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION tionality, according to one embodiment of the present inven tion; The present invention is generally directed to manage FIG. 3 is a site accountability block diagram, according to ment of a large-scale incident or weapons of mass destruc tion (WMD) event and, more specifically, to the implemen one aspect of the present invention; and tation of incident-specific credentials for responders to a FIG. 4 is an exemplary command computer system main large-scale incident or WMD event. SCC. The recent Sep. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks have high DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED lighted various deficiencies in how emergency or civilian responders to, or victims of a large-scale incident are 25 EMBODIMENTS tracked at the scene of an incident. In general. Such tracking has been required for both logistics and site security. The According to various embodiments of the present inven current state-of-the-art has been to login personnel or vic tion, incident-specific and time-limited credentials may be tims at one or more staging points. At login, a record of the created to identify various levels of authority with respect to: 30 1) attendance at a site or incident (either global or sector person has been created either using pencil and paper or a specific); 2) performance of specific functions; and 3) pri computerized log. A temporary ID has then been issued or ority of treatment. According to one embodiment of the a designator (e.g., color Sticker, grease pen markings) present invention, incident-specific identifications (IDS)/cre applied to a pre-existing ID to indicate the status of a person dentials are created in the field by copying data from (e.g., approved to be on-site, triage status, etc.). The current 35 pre-existing, machine-readable IDs that the person or victim method is time-consuming, non-standardized and prone to has brought to the site (e.g., a driver's license, a military ID, human error. a Fire-Trax tag, etc.). According to another embodiment of What is needed is a technique that accounts for personnel the present invention, “authorities” and/or “time limits’ may and/or victims at a scene of an incident that is standardized, be incorporated into the credential, e.g., in human-readable efficient and less prone to human error. 40 text and/or in a machine-readable media. It should be SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION appreciated that the “time limits’ may also be thought of as an authorization. According to one embodiment of the present invention, an According to yet another embodiment of the present incident management system includes a check-in computer invention, a biometric is incorporated into the ID (e.g., a system and a portable data terminal. The check-in computer 45 person’s photograph) to positively identify the person. For system reads information from a plurality of pre-existing example, when a firefighter shows up at a staging area of a identification (ID) cards and utilizes at least a portion of the major incident, the firefighter's ID (e.g., including a PDF417 information to create an incident-specific credential for each bar code) is scanned and pertinent data automatically popu person responding to an incident. The portable data terminal lates a standard credential template. The system operator is configured to read the incident-specific credentials and 50 selects the “authority” of the credential by either using a communicate with the check-in computer system to provide system default (e.g., permitted on-scene), and/or qualifying current assignments of personnel responding to an incident the permission based on a sector (e.g., rehabilitation only) Such that the personnel can be tracked.