Sensor web
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A Sensor Web, comprising:
- a first Sensor pod at a first location, sensing a specified parameter at said first location at a specified time; and
a second Sensor pod, at a second location, and in communication with said first Sensor pod, sensing a value of the same specified parameter at said second location, different than said first location.
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Abstract
a Sensor Web formed of a number of different sensor pods. Each of the sensor pods include a clock which is synchronized with a master clock so that all of the sensor pods in the Web have a synchronized clock. The synchronization is carried out by first using a coarse synchronization which takes less power, and subsequently carrying out a fine synchronization to make a fine sync of all the pods on the Web. After the synchronization, the pods ping their neighbors to determine which pods are listening and responded, and then only listen during time slots corresponding to those pods which respond.
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Citations
97 Claims
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1. A Sensor Web, comprising:
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a first Sensor pod at a first location, sensing a specified parameter at said first location at a specified time; and
a second Sensor pod, at a second location, and in communication with said first Sensor pod, sensing a value of the same specified parameter at said second location, different than said first location. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4)
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5. A method, comprising:
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synchronizing a plurality of spaced Sensor pods such that said spaced Sensor pods each include a synchronized clock; and
using said synchronized clock to synchronize said spaced Sensor pods to determine a parameter at times that are based on said synchronized clock. - View Dependent Claims (6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
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23. A method, comprising:
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carrying out an operation at each of a plurality of spaced Sensor pods collectively forming a Sensor Web;
communicating among the plurality of spaced sensor pods, which each of the spaced Sensor pods communicating using a different parameter;
polling among a plurality of different parameters, to determine a collection of which of the sensor pods are using each said different parameter; and
communicating using only ones of said different parameters which have been detected by said polling. - View Dependent Claims (24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40)
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41. A method, comprising:
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deploying a plurality of sensor pods having a specified hardware characteristic;
activating said sensor pods to carry out a specified operation at each of a plurality of spaced locations; and
evolving the Sensor Web by adding more sophisticated sensor pods which have an additional hardware characteristic by and said specified hardware characteristic. - View Dependent Claims (42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53)
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54. A method, comprising:
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deploying a plurality of sensor pods, which have an internal time base, to measure a specified parameter;
synchronizing said time bases among said plurality of sensor pods; and
using the synchronized time base to measure said specified parameter in each of said plurality of sensor pods, at a synchronized time. - View Dependent Claims (55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68)
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69. A method, comprising:
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using a plurality of sensor pods at a plurality of different locations to sense parameters at said plurality of different locations; and
forming vector information from said parameters from the plurality of sensor pods. - View Dependent Claims (70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75)
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76. A method, comprising:
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maintaining a plurality of sensor pods in a power managed state where the sensor pods turn on at each of a specified interval of time to sense parameters at said specified interval of time; and
commanding that said specified interval of time be changed, for each of said plurality of sensor pods, using a single command. - View Dependent Claims (77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82)
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83. A method, comprising:
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sensing a parameter at a first Sensor pod which controls an operation;
sensing the parameter at a second Sensor pod, at a different location then said first Sensor pod;
sharing information among said Sensor pods; and
commanding, from said second Sensor pod, said first Sensor pod to carry out said operation. - View Dependent Claims (84, 85, 86, 87)
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88. A method, comprising:
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first, coarsely synchronizing a Sensor pod to a master clock, using a coarse synchronization operation;
second, after said coarsely synchronizing, finely synchronizing said Sensor pod to said master clock using a fine synchronization operation, where said fine synchronization takes more power then said coarse synchronization.
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89. A method, comprising:
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synchronizing a plurality of spaced Sensor pods such that said spaced Sensor pods each include a synchronized clock; and
using said synchronized clock to synchronize said spaced Sensor pods to carry out a processing routine at times that are based on said synchronized clock. - View Dependent Claims (90, 91, 92)
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93. A system comprising:
a plurality of sensor pods, each having an assigned address, each of said plurality of sensor pods including a memory therein, said memory storing a list of which sensor pods responded to a ping operation, and each sensor pod including a controllable receiver which turns on only during time slots corresponding to values in said memory which represent which of the plurality of sensor pods turned on during the ping operation.
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94. A method, comprising:
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deploying a plurality of sensor pods separately;
carrying out a communication operation between said sensor pods to synchronize internal clocks of said sensor pods; and
communicating among said sensor pods by causing each Sensor pod to communicate during a different time slot within the Sensor pod.
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95. A method, comprising:
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sensing data in each of a plurality of Sensor pods which are in communication with one another;
sending the data from the Sensor pods using a specified command packet, including information sensed by the Sensor pod receiving the data; and
if an amount of data from a first Sensor pod is more than can fit in said packet, then forming a virtual pod, associated with the first Sensor pod, in a specified form, that produces a virtual pod packet only includes data. - View Dependent Claims (96, 97)
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Specification