ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 21 -- United States Patent no. 12,688,246, issued on July 21, was assigned to MOTOROLA SOLUTIONS INC. (Chicago).

"Appearance search for incident response" was invented by Francesca Schuler (Palatine, Ill.), Larry D. Freeman (Valparaiso, Fla.) and Christine K. Rapala (West Dundee, Ill.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Apparatus and method for appearance search for incident response. One embodiment provides a method for appearance searching for incident response. The method includes receiving a search criteria at a command server and initiating an appearance search based on the search criteria. The appearance search is performed on a plurality of responding devices communica...