MOBILE SENSOR NETWORK

• US 20100255830A1
• Filed: 04/03/2009
• Published: 10/07/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 04/03/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Manolescu, Dragos A., Meijer, Erik
• Granted Patent: US 8,483,669 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/418
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 18/2134 based on separation criteria, e.g. independent component analysis
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/566 Grouping or aggregating service requests, e.g. for unified processing
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/12 including a sensor for measuring a physical value, e.g. temperature or motion telephones including GPS signal receivers H04M2250/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/38 for collecting sensor information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks

Abstract

A sensor network may be created by collecting information from a plurality of mobile devices, such as cellular telephones. The mobile devices use sensors, such as microphones, cameras, accelerometers, biometric readers, etc. to detect the sensory information. Sensory output related to detected sensory information may be transmitted from a mobile device to a receiver that receives the sensory outputs. The received sensory outputs from a plurality of mobile devices may be aggregated to generate aggregated data, which may be transmitted to one or more receivers that use the aggregated data to perform a function and/or present the aggregated data to a user. Additionally, the aggregated data may be reviewed by a reviewer component that can create (revised) detection instructions regarding how one or more mobile devices are to detect sensory information and/or what sensory information to detect (e.g., to make resulting aggregated data more relevant).

Claims

1. A method for aggregating data, comprising:

receiving first sensory output, indicative of sensory information detected in a first manner, from a first mobile device;

receiving second sensory output, indicative of sensory information detected in a second manner, from a second mobile device;

aggregating the first and second sensory outputs to produce aggregated data;

reviewing the aggregated data to determine a detection instruction;

receiving third sensory output from a third mobile device where the third sensory output is indicative of sensory information detected in a third manner according to the detection instruction; and

transmitting the aggregated data to a first receiver.

2. The method of claim 1, the first and second mobile devices comprising sensor nodes, wherein the respective sensor nodes are at least one of the following:

an accelerometer;

a camera; and

a biometric receiver.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the first and second mobile devices are cellular telephones.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first and second sensory outputs are aggregated to produce aggregated data indicative of a plurality of data sets comprising:

transmitting aggregated data indicative of a first data set to the first receiver; and

transmitting aggregated data indicative of a second data set, different than the first data set, to a second receiver.

5. The method of claim 1, comprising sending a notification to the first mobile device, wherein the notification instructs the first mobile device to transmit the first sensory output.

6. The method of claim 5, comprising presenting the notification on the first mobile device.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the first sensory output is received based upon an endorsement of the notification.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein the notification instructs the first mobile device to transmit the first sensory output when there is a substantial change in the sensory information detected.

9. The method of claim 1, comprising offering an incentive to transmit the first sensory output.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein sensory outputs from a cluster of mobile devices are received.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the first mobile device comprises the first receiver.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the first mobile device and the third mobile device are the same mobile device.

13. An apparatus for aggregating data, comprising:

a collector configured to receive sensor outputs, indicative of detected sensory information, from first and second mobile devices;

an aggregator configured to aggregate the received sensor outputs and generate aggregated data; and

a reviewer component configured to review the aggregated data to determine a detection instruction, wherein the detection instruction is transmitted to a third mobile device.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the first and the third mobile devices are the same mobile device.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the first mobile device detects sensory information in a first manner and the detection instruction instructs the first mobile device to detect sensory information in a second manner, different than the first manner.

16. The apparatus of claim 13, comprising a notification component configured to send a notification to the first mobile device, wherein the notification instructs the first mobile device to transmit sensory output to the collector.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the notification instructs the third mobile device to transmit sensory output to the collector when the third mobile device is in an area of interest.

18. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the notification instructs the first mobile device to transmit the sensory output when there is a substantial change in the sensory information detected by the first mobile device.

19. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the first and second mobile devices are handheld devices.

20. A method for aggregating data, comprising:

sending a notification to the a mobile device, wherein the notification instructs the first mobile device to transmit first sensory output, indicative of sensory information detected in a first manner, when at least one of the following occur;

there is a substantial change in the sensory information detected by the first mobile device; and

there is an endorsement of the notification;

receiving first sensory output from a first mobile device;

receiving second sensory output, indicative of sensory information detected in a second manner, from a second mobile device;

aggregating the first and second sensory outputs to produce aggregated data;

reviewing the aggregated data to determine a detection instruction;

receiving third sensory output from a third mobile device where the third sensory output is indicative of sensory information detected in a third manner according to the detection instruction;

transmitting aggregated data indicative of a first data set to a first receiver; and

transmitting aggregated data indicative of a second data set, different than the first data set, to a second receiver.