Systems and methods for multi-criteria alarming

• US 10,229,583 B2
• Filed: 09/13/2017
• Issued: 03/12/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 07/18/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Matsuoka, Yoky, Fadell, Anthony Michael, Rogers, Matthew Lee, Lee, Jeffrey
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Hung T
• Application Number:
  US15/703,615
• Publication Number:
  US 20180012480A1
• Time in Patent Office: 545 Days
• Field of Search: 340517, 340521, 340628, 340632, 25033003, 25033915
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 17/10 Actuation by presence of smoke or gases , e.g. automatic alarm devices for analysing flowing fluid materials by the use of optical means
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 19/00 Alarms responsive to two or more different undesired or abnormal conditions, e.g. burglary and fire, abnormal temperature and abnormal rate of flow
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/14 Toxic gas alarms G08B21/16 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/182 Level alarms, e.g. alarms responsive to variables exceeding a threshold
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/001 Alarm cancelling procedures or alarm forwarding decisions, e.g. based on absence of alarm confirmation
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/002 Generating a prealarm to the central station
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/008 Alarm setting and unsetting, i.e. arming or disarming of the security system
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 29/14 checking the detection circuits
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 29/20 Calibration, including self-calibrating arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 3/10 using electric transmission; using electromagnetic transmission

Abstract

Systems and methods for using multi-criteria state machines to manage alarming states and pre-alarming states of a hazard detection system are described herein. The multi-criteria state machines can include one or more sensor state machines that can control the alarming states and one or more system state machines that can control the pre-alarming states. Each state machine can transition among any one of its states based on sensor data values, hush events, and transition conditions. The transition conditions can define how a state machine transitions from one state to another. The hazard detection system can use a dual processor arrangement to execute the multi-criteria state machines according to various embodiments. The dual processor arrangement can enable the hazard detection system to manage the alarming and pre-alarming states in a manner that promotes minimal power usage while simultaneously promoting reliability in hazard detection and alarming functionality.

Claims

1. A hazard detection system, comprising:

a carbon monoxide sensor;

an alarm; and

a processing component in communication with the carbon monoxide sensor, the processing component operative to;

receive carbon monoxide (“

CO”

) data values from the carbon monoxide sensor;

manage a plurality of CO time buckets by selectively adding and subtracting time units to at least one of the buckets based on the received CO data values, wherein each CO time bucket comprises a time unit quantity, the time unity quantity indicates a number of time units that are in a CO time bucket and wherein the time unit quantity is added to at least one of the CO time buckets when the CO data value is one of equal to and greater than an implementation level associated with that at least one CO time bucket and the time unit quantity is subtracted from at least one of the CO time buckets when the CO data value is less than a fraction of the implementation level associated with that at least one CO time bucket; and

transition among a plurality of states based on the received CO data values and a plurality of transition conditions, wherein the plurality of transition conditions comprises an alarm time threshold for each CO time bucket.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of transition conditions comprises an alarm time threshold for each CO time bucket.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the processing component is operative to activate the alarm when the time unit quantity is equal to the alarm time threshold of any one of the CO time buckets.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of transition conditions comprises at least one time threshold, and wherein the processing component is operative to start a timer when the state machine transitions to a hush alarm state.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the processing component is operative to:

initialize the time unit quantity of each CO time bucket to zero;

prevent the time unit quantity of each CO time bucket from dropping below zero; and

prevent the time unit quantity of each CO time bucket from exceeding the alarm time threshold associated with its respective CO time bucket.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of states comprises idle, alarm, and alarm hush states.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising a housing, and wherein the CO sensor and the processing component are mounted to or within the housing.