Programming And Managing Sensor Networks

• US 20080016440A1
• Filed: 07/14/2006
• Published: 01/17/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 07/14/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Seth, Siddharth S., Woo, Alec LC, Zhao, Feng, Liu, Jie
• Application Number:
  US11/457,673
• Publication Number:
  US 20080016440A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/700
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0266 using meta-data, objects or commands for formatting management information, e.g. using eXtensible markup language [XML]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/08 Configuration management of networks or network elements address allocation H04L61/50
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/22 comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI]

Abstract

Sensor nodes are programmed by representing a sensor node of a sensor network as a field on a displayed page, displaying a list of programs with which the sensor node can be programmed, and programming the sensor node in accordance with user selection of the field representing the at least one sensor node and a program from the list of programs. Also, a spreadsheet application can be configured to receive and display streaming sensor data from one or more sensor nodes of a sensor network.

Claims

1. One or more computer-readable media comprising instructions for:

displaying a page including data of a sensor network;

representing at least one sensor node of a sensor network as a field on the displayed page;

displaying a list of programs with which the at least one sensor node of the sensor network can be programmed; and

programming the at least one sensor node in accordance with user selection of (i) the field representing the at least one sensor node and (ii) a program, from the list of programs, with which to program the at least one sensor node.

2. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 1, wherein the displayed page comprises at least one of a spreadsheet, a database, a word processing document, and an extensible markup language (XML) document.

3. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 1, wherein the displayed page comprises a spreadsheet and the field comprises a cell of the spreadsheet, such that the at least one sensor node is represented as a cell of the spreadsheet.

4. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 1, wherein the list of programs with which the at least one sensor node of the sensor network can be programmed includes at least one spreadsheet function.

5. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 1, wherein the list of programs with which the at least one sensor node of the sensor network can be programmed includes at least one operating system.

6. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 1, further comprising instructions for positioning the field representing the at least one sensor node on the page in correspondence with a location of the at least one sensor node on a deployment map of the sensor network.

7. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 1, further comprising instructions for, prior to representing the at least one sensor node on the page, discovering sensor nodes of the sensor network.

8. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 7, wherein the instructions for discovering the sensor nodes comprise instructions for querying local ports of a device on which the one or more computer-readable media are stored.

9. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 7, wherein the instructions for discovering the sensor nodes comprise instructions for querying a lookup table of all deployed sensor nodes of the sensor network.

10. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 1, wherein the instructions for programming the at least one sensor node comprise visual basic for applications (VBA) script.

11. A system comprising:

a sensor network having at least one sensor node for collecting data; and

a user terminal in communication with the sensor network, the user terminal comprising a spreadsheet application usable to program sensor nodes of the sensor network.

12. The system of claim 11, further comprising at least one gateway interposed in the system between the sensor network and the user terminal, the gateway routing communications between sensor nodes of the sensor network and the spreadsheet application of the user terminal.

13. The system of claim 11, the spreadsheet application comprising a cell representing the at least one sensor node of the sensor network.

14. The system of claim 11, the spreadsheet application comprising a list of programs with which the at least one sensor node of the sensor network can be programmed.

15. The system of claim 11, the spreadsheet application comprising a cell representing the at least one sensor node of the sensor network, and a list of programs with which the at least one sensor node of the sensor network can be programmed, such that the at least one sensor node can be programmed by selection of the cell and a program from the list of programs.

16. A method comprising programming a sensor node using a spreadsheet application, comprising:

representing sensor nodes of a sensor network as cells on a spreadsheet;

displaying a list of programs with which sensor nodes of the sensor network can be programmed; and

sending a program from the list of programs to a sensor node, in response to selection of the program and the sensor node.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the list of programs with which the sensor nodes of the sensor network can be programmed includes at least one spreadsheet function.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the plurality of cells representing sensor nodes is positioned on the page in correspondence with location of the sensor nodes on a deployment map of the sensor network.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein displaying the list of programs with which sensor nodes of the sensor network can be programmed comprises displaying each program in a cell of the spreadsheet.

20. The method of claim 16, further comprising, prior to representing the sensor nodes on the spreadsheet, discovering sensor nodes of the sensor network by (i) querying local ports of a device on which spreadsheet application is stored, (ii) querying an external device that serves as a gateway or a proxy for at least one sensor, or (iii) querying a lookup table of all deployed sensor nodes of the sensor network.