There are a variety of activities where, in order to engage in activity, having a remotely located control center with knowledge of the region in which the activity is occurring is beneficial. Furthermore, facilitating audio communication between people in the region and personnel in the control center is desirable. Conventional communications can be facilitated by telephone or two way radio devices, in some situations such conventional means of communication may not be available. For example, the region in which the activity occurs may be geographically remote, where there is no telephony infrastructure. In some cases the desired communication may be with people who are hostile or otherwise not receptive to taking a conventional communication device. In some cases people may enter a controlled area, and communication may be necessary to assess their intent. Furthermore, in some situation, in addition to communication challenges, obtaining layout information of the region can be beneficial. In such scenarios it is not uncommon for personnel to be tasked to a location with, at best, only general layout knowledge. The inability for supervisory personnel located remotely to communicate with people in a region, and provide direction to responders in the region is limited with conventional technology.
Accordingly, there is a need for a method and apparatus for creating an ad hoc two way audio communication system that can be augmented by providing a virtual three dimensional rendering of the region at a command center that is remote from the region.
Those skilled in the field of the present disclosure will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of embodiments of the present invention. Unless specified as a particular embodiment, it shall be assumed that any of the figures can include, or be used with any embodiment taught in the Detailed Description and any embodiment recited by the claims.
The apparatus and method components have been represented where appropriate by conventional symbols in the drawings, showing only those specific details that are pertinent to understanding the embodiments of the present invention so as not to obscure the disclosure with details that will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of the description herein. The details of well-known elements, structure, or processes that would be necessary to practice the embodiments, and that would be well known to those of skill in the art, are not necessarily shown and should be assumed to be present unless otherwise indicated.
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USPTO Backgrounds