SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ENABLING EXTENSIBILITY IN SENSING SYSTEMS

• US 20090204370A1
• Filed: 02/11/2008
• Published: 08/13/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 02/11/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Xerox Corporation (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Palo Alto Research Center, Inc. (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Inventors: Liu, Juan, Chu, Maurice K.
• Granted Patent: US 9,104,430 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 702/188
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/61 Installation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4411 Configuring for operating with peripheral devices; Loading of device drivers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5066 Algorithms for mapping a plurality of inter-dependent sub-tasks onto a plurality of physical CPUs mappping at compile time, see G06F8/451
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0813 characterised by the conditions triggering a change of settings
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks

Abstract

One embodiment of the present invention provides a method and apparatus for enabling extensibility in sensing systems. The distributed sensing system comprises a number of sensor nodes, a device database, a sensing module registry, a sensing needs monitor, and an automatic composer. The device database is in communication with at least one sensor node and configured to maintain physical information on at least one sensor node. The sensing module registry is configured to maintain a registry of a number of software modules that are available for extracting information from sensor data. The sensing needs monitor is configured to maintain a list of context pairs that represent a number of sensing needs of a sensing application. The automatic composer is configured to generate a composition of software modules, at runtime, to realize the sensing needs of users and applications.

Claims

1. A distributed sensing system, comprising:

a number of sensor nodes;

a device database in communication with at least one sensor node and configured to maintain physical information on at least one sensor node;

a sensing module registry configured to maintain a registry of a number of software modules that are available for extracting information from sensor data;

a sensing needs monitor configured to maintain a list of context pairs that represent a number of sensing needs of a sensing application; and

an automatic composer configured to generate a composition of software modules, at runtime, to realize the sensing needs of users and applications, wherein the automatic composer is coupled to the device database, the sensing module registry, the sensing needs monitor, and the number of sensor nodes.

2. The distributed sensing system of claim 1, wherein a respective sensor node comprises one or more sensing devices to detect one or more of:

a sound signal, motion signal, vibration signal, altitude signal, luminous intensity signal, proximity signal, pressure signal, temperature signal, radiation signal, timing signal, humidity signal, electromagnetic field intensity signal, altitude signal, weight signal, airborne particulates signal, velocity signal, direction signal, and distance signal.

3. The distributed sensing system of claim 1, wherein the automatic composer is further configured to report when an existing sensor node configuration does not provide sufficient sensor coverage for realizing the sensing requirements of users and applications.

4. The distributed sensing system of claim 1, wherein a respective context pair represents sensing information as a name-location pair of the form:

<

name, location>

;

wherein the “

name”

field indicates a type of data or information on which the sensing information is based; and

wherein the “

location”

field indicates a point or region on which the sensing information is based.

5. The distributed sensing system of claim 1, wherein a respective context pair represents sensing information as a name-spatiotemporal pair of the form:

<

name, location/time>

;

wherein the “

name”

field indicates a type of data or information on which the sensing information is based; and

wherein the “

location/time”

field indicates a point or region, and a time, on which the sensing information is based.

6. The distributed sensing system of claim 1, wherein the sensing needs monitor is configured to interface with a graphical user interface (GUI);

and

wherein the GUI is configured to allow users to insert and delete context pairs.

7. The distributed sensing system of claim 1, wherein the physical information maintained by the device database describes sensor-specific calibration information, which includes lens distortion coefficients, orientation of cameras, and/or location of sensor nodes.

8. The distributed sensing system of claim 1, wherein the automatic composer is further configured to generate a composition of software modules, at runtime, to realize the sensing needs of users and applications by:

determining the necessary software modules and sensor nodes for achieving the sensing needs;

determining the necessary number of a respective type of software module, the configurations, and on which sensor nodes to instantiate the software modules; and

configuring the sensor nodes to execute the composition.

9. The distributed sensing system of claim 1, wherein when a sensor node failure is detected, the automatic composer is configured to generate a new composition of software modules, at runtime, using only the available sensor nodes.

10. A sensor node, comprising:

a sensing device configured to generate a sensor measurement; and

a computation unit configured to sample a sensor measurement from the sensing device, and execute one or more computation functions;

wherein a respective computation function takes as input one or more of sensor measurements and phenomena states, and generates a phenomenon state as output; and

wherein the sensor node is configured to accept a respective sensor node configuration at runtime, wherein the respective sensor node configuration comprises;

interconnection details which specify input parameters and one or more sensor nodes as a destination to the output phenomenon; and

one or more computation functions which can be executed by the computation unit.

11. The sensor node of claim 10, wherein the sensor node is configured to forward the output phenomenon to one or more sensor nodes or computing devices.

12. The sensor node of claim 11, wherein a sensor measurement describes one or more of:

a sound signal, motion signal, vibration signal, altitude signal, luminous intensity signal, proximity signal, pressure signal, temperature signal, radiation signal, timing signal, humidity signal, electromagnetic field intensity signal, altitude signal, weight signal, airborne particulates signal, velocity signal, direction signal, and distance signal.

13. A method for enabling extensibility in a sensing system, the method comprising:

maintaining physical information, within a device database, on at least one sensor node, wherein the physical information describes sensor-specific calibration information;

maintaining a registry, within a sensing module registry, of a number of software modules that are available for extracting information from sensor data;

maintaining a list of context pairs within a sensing needs monitor, wherein a context pair represents a sensing need of a sensing application; and

generating a composition of software modules, at an automatic composer during runtime, to realize the sensing needs of users and applications.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising detecting at a sensor node one or more of:

a sound signal, motion signal, vibration signal, altitude signal, luminous intensity signal, proximity signal, pressure signal, temperature signal, radiation signal, timing signal, humidity signal, electromagnetic field intensity signal, altitude signal, weight signal, airborne particulates signal, velocity signal, direction signal, and distance signal.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising reporting, at the automatic composer, when an existing sensor node configuration does not provide sufficient sensor coverage for realizing the sensing requirements of users and applications.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein a respective context pair represents sensing information as a name-location pair of the form:

<

name, location>

;

wherein the “

name”

field indicates a type of data or information on which the sensing information is based; and

wherein the “

location”

field indicates a point or region on which the sensing information is based.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein a respective context pair represents sensing information as a name-spatiotemporal pair of the form:

<

name, location/time>

;

wherein the “

name”

field indicates a type of data or information on which the sensing information is based; and

wherein the “

location/time”

field indicates a point or region, and a time, on which the sensing information is based.

18. The method of claim 13, further comprising interfacing between the sensing needs monitor and a graphical user interface (GUI);

and

wherein the GUI is configured to allow users to insert and delete context pairs.

19. The method of claim 13, wherein generating the composition of software modules comprises:

determining the necessary software modules and sensor nodes for achieving the sensing needs;

determining the necessary number of a respective type of software module, the configurations, and on which sensor nodes to instantiate the software modules; and

configuring the sensor nodes to execute the composition.

20. The method of claim 13, wherein when a sensor node failure is detected, the method further comprises generating a new composition of software modules, at runtime, using only the available sensor nodes.

21. The method of claim 13, wherein the physical information includes lens distortion coefficients, orientation of cameras, and/or location of sensor node.