Remote sensor with modular bus adapter
First Claim
1. A modular bus adapter comprising:
- a communications bus;
a reconfigurable processing unit communicating with said communications bus, said reconfigurable processing unit operable to process input data to generate output data;
a configuration modification means communicating with said reconfigurable processing unit for modifying the operation of said reconfigurable processing unit;
first and second input/output interconnects communicating with said communications bus;
at least one input pod connected to said first input/output interconnect, for receiving said input data and transmitting said input data to said reconfigurable processing unit for processing to generate said output data; and
at least one output pod, connected to said second input/output interconnect, for transmitting said output data to a communications device;
wherein said configuration modification means is operable to modify the operation of said reconfigurable processing unit to permit said modular bus adapter to accept a plurality of different formats of input data and to transmit a plurality of different formats of output data.
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Abstract
A remote sensing system having a modular bus architecture. The bus architecture of the present invention comprises a modular reconfigurable processing unit which functions as an interface between the sensors and the communications components. The system has three main components: (1) input pods that provide physical and logical interfaces to whatever sensors (similar or dissimilar) are to be used, (2) output pods that provide physical and logical interfaces to whatever communications devices (similar or dissimilar) are to be used, and (3) a reconfigurable interface and processing unit that accepts both the input and output pods as plug-in devices and that provides control, format conversion, data buffering, data manipulation, power management, and other needed services for inputting the data, processing the data, and transmitting the data, regardless of the sensor type or communications device.
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Citations
32 Claims
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1. A modular bus adapter comprising:
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a communications bus;
a reconfigurable processing unit communicating with said communications bus, said reconfigurable processing unit operable to process input data to generate output data;
a configuration modification means communicating with said reconfigurable processing unit for modifying the operation of said reconfigurable processing unit;
first and second input/output interconnects communicating with said communications bus;
at least one input pod connected to said first input/output interconnect, for receiving said input data and transmitting said input data to said reconfigurable processing unit for processing to generate said output data; and
at least one output pod, connected to said second input/output interconnect, for transmitting said output data to a communications device;
wherein said configuration modification means is operable to modify the operation of said reconfigurable processing unit to permit said modular bus adapter to accept a plurality of different formats of input data and to transmit a plurality of different formats of output data. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A method for processing sensor data comprising the steps of:
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(a) receiving sensor data through one or more input pods;
(b) routing said sensor data via a communications bus to a reconfigurable processing unit;
(c) processing said sensor data according to at least one predetermined criteria specified through a configuration modification means;
(d) routing said processed sensor data via said communications bus to at least one output pod;
(e) transmitting said processed sensor data to an external device;
wherein said configuration modification means is operable to modify the operation of said reconfigurable processing unit to permit said reconfigurable processing unit to accept a plurality of different formats of sensor data and to generate a plurality of different formats of processed sensor data. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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21. A sensing system for remotely sensing data comprising:
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at least one physical sensor for acquiring sensor data;
at least one interconnect and processing unit;
at least one communications device, said communications device capable of transmitting processed sensor data to a remote location;
wherein said at least one interconnect and processing unit comprises at least one input pod, at least one output pod, a reconfigurable processing unit for processing said sensor data and a communications bus permitting communication between and among said at least one input pod, said at least one output pod and said reconfigurable processing unit; and
wherein said reconfigurable processing unit is reconfigurable by a user to select between and among a plurality of configurations, said configurations being dynamically controllable via software. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32)
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Specification