Detecting Hazardous Conditions in Underground Environments

• US 20080129525A1
• Filed: 11/30/2006
• Published: 06/05/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: X Corp. (f/k/a Twitter, Inc.) (X Holdings Corp.)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Ferenczi, John L., Barrus, William G.
• Granted Patent: US 7,715,983 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/669
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/002 Generating a prealarm to the central station
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/016 Personal emergency signalling and security systems emergency non-personal manually actuated alarm activators G08B25/12

Abstract

A method of detecting hazardous conditions within an underground environment can include obtaining acceleration information at a plurality of communication nodes distributed throughout the underground environment and propagating the acceleration information among selected ones of the plurality of communication nodes to an analysis node. An indication of a hazardous condition within the underground environment can be identified from the acceleration information collected over a period of time. If an indicator is identified, a notification of the hazardous condition can be provided.

Claims

1. A method of detecting hazardous conditions within an underground environment comprising:

obtaining acceleration information at a plurality of communication nodes distributed throughout the underground environment;

propagating the acceleration information among selected ones of the plurality of communication nodes to an analysis node;

identifying, from the acceleration information collected over a period of time, an indication of a hazardous condition within the underground environment; and

if an indication is identified, providing a notification of the hazardous condition.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

detecting radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags associated with persons located within the underground environment at selected ones of the plurality of communication nodes;

propagating RFID tag information specifying detected RFID tags among selected ones of the plurality of communication nodes to the analysis node; and

indicating which persons have been detected by at least one of the communication nodes according to the RFID tag information.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising determining a location of a person according to which of the plurality of communication nodes have detected the RFID tag associated with that person.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying an indication of a hazardous condition further comprises identifying an indication that specifies that the hazardous condition has occurred.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying an indication of a hazardous condition further comprises indicating that the hazardous condition has occurred responsive to determining that data is not being received from at least one of the plurality of communication nodes.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying an indication of a hazardous condition further comprises identifying an indication that specifies a likelihood of the hazardous condition occurring in the future.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining that data is not being received from at least one communication node of the plurality of communication nodes; and

providing a notification that a hazardous condition in the underground environment has occurred.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising;

identifying a selected communication node from which data is received that is nearest to the communication node from which data is not being received; and

determining that the hazardous condition is located between the selected communication node from which data is received and the communication node from which data is not received.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising determining the location of the hazardous condition according to the communication nodes from which data is received and communication nodes from which data is not received.

10. A system for detecting hazardous conditions within an underground environment comprising:

a plurality of communication nodes forming a self-organized wireless network, wherein each of the plurality of communication nodes comprises an accelerometer providing acceleration information that is propagated throughout the wireless network; and

an analysis module, communicatively linked with the wireless network, that collects and evaluates the acceleration information over a period of time to identify an indication of a hazardous condition within the underground environment, wherein responsive to identifying the indication, the analysis module provides a notification of the hazardous condition.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein each of the plurality of communication nodes comprises a mote.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein each of the plurality of communication nodes comprises a radio frequency identification (RFID) reader detecting an RFID tag associated with a person, wherein information from the RFID tag is propagated through the wireless network to the analysis module indicating a location for the person associated with the RFID tag.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein each of the plurality of communication nodes further comprises a second RFID tag, wherein information read from the second RFID tag is propagated though the wireless network within a transmission to the analysis module identifying the communication node from which the transmission was sent.

14. The system of claim 10, wherein the analysis module determines that the hazardous condition has occurred responsive to determining that data is not being received from at least one of the plurality of communication nodes.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the analysis module determines a location of the hazardous condition according to the communication nodes from which the analysis module receives data and the communication nodes from which the analysis module does not receive data.

16. The system of claim 10, wherein at least one selected communication node of the plurality of communication nodes comprises an expandable communication bus structure providing structural support for a peripheral device communicatively linked with the communication node such that information collected by the peripheral device is propagated through the wireless network.

17. The system of claim 10, wherein the analysis module identifies the indication of a hazardous condition which specifies a likelihood of the hazardous condition occurring in the future.

18. A computer program product comprising:

a computer-usable medium having computer-usable program code that detects hazardous conditions within an underground environment, said computer program product including;

computer-usable program code that obtains acceleration information from a plurality of communication nodes distributed throughout the underground environment;

computer-usable program code that identifies, from the acceleration information collected over a period of time, an indication of a hazardous condition within the underground environment; and

computer-usable program code that, if an indication is identified, provides a notification of the hazardous condition.

19. The computer program product of claim 18, wherein the computer-usable program code that identifies an indication of a hazardous condition identifies an indication that specifies the hazardous condition has occurred.

20. The computer program product of claim 18, wherein the computer-usable program code that identifies an indication of a hazardous condition identifies an indication that specifies a likelihood of the hazardous condition occurring in the future.