Method and apparatus for extracting information from an array of hazardous material sensors
First Claim
1. A method of obtaining enhanced resolution from an array of low resolution hazardous material sensors, the method comprising the steps of:
- receiving identification information associated with an object in a vicinity of a first low resolution hazardous material sensor;
receiving a first low resolution hazardous material sensor reading from the first low resolution hazardous material sensor processing the identification information to determine an identity of the object; and
correlating the first low resolution hazardous material sensor reading with other low resolution hazardous material sensor readings for the same object based on the identity of the object, to obtain a statistically more significant collective sensor reading than may be obtained from one of the individual low resolution hazardous material sensor readings.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Information may be extracted from an array of relatively low sensitivity hazardous material sensors deployed, for example within a population center, by collecting identification information, such as video data, RFID data, proximity data, and IR data along with the hazardous material sensor reading. The identification information may then be used to identify objects in the vicinity of the hazardous material sensor at the time the reading was taken. By using identification data to identify an object, and then correlating sensor data readings for that object with other sensor data readings for the same object, as identified using previously collected identification information, a statistically more significant reading may be obtained for that particular object than would be obtainable by any one particular hazardous material sensor. Optionally the proximity of the object to the sensors may be used to weight the readings from the sensors.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method of obtaining enhanced resolution from an array of low resolution hazardous material sensors, the method comprising the steps of:
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receiving identification information associated with an object in a vicinity of a first low resolution hazardous material sensor;
receiving a first low resolution hazardous material sensor reading from the first low resolution hazardous material sensor processing the identification information to determine an identity of the object; and
correlating the first low resolution hazardous material sensor reading with other low resolution hazardous material sensor readings for the same object based on the identity of the object, to obtain a statistically more significant collective sensor reading than may be obtained from one of the individual low resolution hazardous material sensor readings. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A processing center, comprising:
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a processor; and
control logic configured to execute on said processor, said control logic comprising first program instructions configured to implement identification software, said identification software being configured to receive as inputs identification information associated with an object from at least one identification sensor in a vicinity of a low resolution hazardous material sensor, and said identification software being configured to derive from the identification information an identity of the object; and
said control logic further comprising second program instructions configured to implement correlation processing software, said correlation processing software being configured to use the identity of the object to retrieve previous low resolution hazardous material sensor readings and use the new low resolution hazardous material sensor reading in connection with the previous low resolution hazardous material sensor readings to generate a correlated hazardous material sensor reading, said correlated hazardous material sensor reading having a statistically more significant value than may be obtained from one of the individual low resolution hazardous material sensor readings. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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- 18. A sensor unit, said sensor unit comprising a low resolution hazardous material sensor, an identification device, and a processor, said processor being configured to coordinate acquisition of a reading from the low resolution hazardous material sensor with acquisition of identification information from the identification device.
Specification