Intelligent power management for monitoring a movable object

• US 10,568,034 B2
• Filed: 01/23/2017
• Issued: 02/18/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 01/23/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Blustream Corp.
• Original Assignee: Blustream Corp.
• Inventors: Bean, Robert, Audi, Michael Dominick, Gordon, Jr., James Michael, Rapp, Kenneth N., Buote, William
• Primary Examiner(s): Sandiford, Devan A
• Application Number:
  US16/070,429
• Publication Number:
  US 20190069243A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,121 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/28 Supervision thereof, e.g. detecting power-supply failure by out of limits supervision
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3206 Monitoring of events, devices or parameters that trigger a change in power modality
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3209 Monitoring remote activity, e.g. over telephone lines or network connections
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2200/1637 Sensing arrangement for detection of housing movement or orientation, e.g. for controlling scrolling or cursor movement on the display of an handheld computer
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0254 detecting a user operation or a tactile contact or a motion of the device
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 in wireless communication networks

Abstract

Sensor data characterizing an event associated with a movable object is received. Based on the sensor data, an objective from a plurality of predefined objectives for monitoring the movable object is selected. A series of operational states having increasing power requirement levels is transitioned through. At each operational state, whether the selected objective is achievable using a respective method associated with the respective operational state and respective power requirement level is determined. Related apparatus, systems, techniques and articles are also described.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving sensor data characterizing an event associated with a movable object;

selecting, based on the sensor data, an objective from a plurality of predefined objectives for monitoring the movable object;

transitioning through a series of operational states having increasing power requirement levels, and at each operational state determining whether the selected objective is achievable using a respective method associated with the respective operational state and respective power requirement level, wherein the selected objective comprises establishing a wireless connection with a device from a plurality of predetermined devices using a short-range wireless protocol;

wherein at least one of the receiving, the selecting, and the transitioning is performed by at least one data processor forming part of at least one computing system; and

notifying, by a central server in communication with the devices, a user device associated with the movable object based on a strength of the wireless connection.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the sensor data comprises data associated with one or more of a timer, an accelerometer, a global positioning system, a position sensor, a thermometer, a humidity sensor, pressure sensor, voltage sensor, current sensor, wind speed sensor, mass spectrometer and infrared sensors.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the event comprises one or more of end of a time duration, movement of the movable object, change in surrounding temperature, surrounding humidity and detection of chemical properties of the movable object.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the selected objective comprises determination of a location of the movable object.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the respective method associated with the respective operational state comprises nine-degree-of-freedom Kalman filtering, three-degree-of-freedom Kalman filtering, time of flight detection, range finding, pressure sensing, short-range wireless positioning and global positioning.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the selected objective comprises communication of the received sensor data.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the respective method associated with the respective operational state comprises communication using Bluetooth, WiFi, LPWAN, SigFox, RF communication protocol and/or cellular protocol.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving a portion of the sensor data causes a transition from a sleep state to a communication state.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein transitioning through the series of operational states comprises transitioning between a sleep state and a communication state, wherein the communication state comprises communicating sensor data to the device.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the selected objective further comprises determining a distance between one or more pre-determined devices and the movable object.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

searching for a predetermined device using a short-range wireless protocol,

wherein the sensor data comprises data from a motion detector, the selected objective comprises monitoring motion of the movable object and the series of operational states comprise a sleep state, a short-range wireless communication state and a cellular communication state,

wherein transitioning between the sleep state and the short-range wireless communication state upon receiving the data from the motion detector and transitioning between the short-range wireless communication state and the cellular communication state is based on an availability of the predetermined device;

notifying, by a central server in communication with one of the predetermined device and the movable object, a user device with information related to the data from the motion detector.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the short-range and cellular communication states comprise transmitting the received data from the motion detector.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the motion detector comprises one or more of a 3 degree-of-freedom inertial measurement unit, a 9 degree-of-freedom inertial measurement unit, a limit switch, a range finder, a barometer, a gyroscope, a 1-axis accelerometer and a magnetometer.

14. The method of claim 1, comprising analyzing the received sensor data by an analytics engine to determine a behavior of the movable object.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the selected objective comprises establishing a plurality of wireless connections with a plurality of receivers.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising determining a location based on strengths of the plurality of wireless connections and locations of the plurality of receivers.

17. A system comprising:

a sensor configured to generate sensor data characterizing an event associated with a movable object;

processing circuitry configured to select, based on the sensor data, an objective from a plurality of predefined objectives for monitoring the movable object and transition through a series of operational states having increasing power requirement levels, and at each operational state determine whether the selected objective is achievable using a respective method associated with the respective operational state and respective power requirement level; and

a radio, wherein the selected objective comprises establishing a wireless connection with a device from a plurality of predetermined devices using a short-range wireless protocol,

wherein the processing circuitry is configured to notify, using the radio and by a central server in communication with the devices, a user device associated with the movable object based on a strength of the wireless connection.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the sensor comprises one or more of a timer, an accelerometer, a global positioning system, a position sensor, a thermometer, a humidity sensor, pressure sensor, voltage sensor, current sensor, wind speed sensor, mass spectrometer and infrared sensors.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein the event comprises one or more of an end of a time duration, a movement of the movable object, a change in surrounding temperature, surrounding humidity, and a detection of chemical properties of the movable object.

20. The system of claim 17, wherein the respective method associated with the respective operational state comprises one or more of nine-degree-of-freedom Kalman filtering, three-degree-of-freedom Kalman filtering, time of flight detection, range finding, pressure sensing, short-range wireless positioning and global positioning.

21. The system of claim 17, wherein transitioning through the series of operational states comprises transitioning between a sleep state and a communication state, wherein the communication state comprises communicating sensor data to the device.

22. The system of claim 17, wherein the selected objective further comprises determining a distance between one or more pre-determined devices and the movable object.

23. The system of claim 17, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to search for a predetermined device using a short-range wireless protocol,

wherein the sensor data comprises data from a motion detector, the selected objective comprises monitoring motion of the movable object and the series of operational states comprise a sleep state, a short-range wireless communication state and a cellular communication state,

wherein transitioning between the sleep state and the short-range wireless communication state upon receiving the data from the motion detector and transitioning between the short-range wireless communication state and the cellular communication state is based on an availability of the predetermined device;

wherein the processing circuitry is configured to notify, by a central server in communication with one of the predetermined device and the movable object, a user device with information related to the data from the motion detector.

24. The system of claim 17, wherein the selected objective comprises establishing a plurality of wireless connections with a plurality of receivers.

25. The system of claim 24, further comprising determining a location based on strengths of the plurality of wireless connections and location of the plurality of receivers.

26. A method comprising:

receiving sensor data characterizing an event associated with a movable object;

selecting, based on the sensor data, an objective from a plurality of predefined objectives for monitoring the movable object;

transitioning through a series of operational states having increasing power requirement levels, and at each operational state determining whether the selected objective is achievable using a respective method associated with the respective operational state and respective power requirement level;

wherein at least one of the receiving, the selecting, and the transitioning is performed by at least one data processor forming part of at least one computing system;

searching for a predetermined device using a short-range wireless protocol,

wherein the sensor data comprises data from a motion detector, the selected objective comprises monitoring motion of the movable object and the series of operational states comprise a sleep state, a short-range wireless communication state and a cellular communication state,

wherein transitioning between the sleep state and the short-range wireless communication state upon receiving the data from the motion detector and transitioning between the short-range wireless communication state and the cellular communication state is based on an availability of the predetermined device; and

notifying, by a central server in communication with one of the predetermined device and the movable object, a user device with information related to the data from the motion detector.