SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR DETECTING PATTERNS IN SPATIO-TEMPORAL DATA COLLECTED USING AN RFID SYSTEM

• US 20110254664A1
• Filed: 04/14/2011
• Published: 10/20/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 04/14/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mojix Inc
• Original Assignee: Mojix Inc
• Inventors: Jones, Christopher Richard, Sadr, Ramin
• Granted Patent: US 9,762,976 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/10.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2209/47 using RFID associated with sensors
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2209/753 where the polling of the sub-stations is synchronous
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2209/823 where the data is sent when the measured values exceed a threshold, e.g. sending an alarm
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2209/886 using energy harvesting, e.g. solar, wind or mechanical
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 9/00 Arrangements in telecontrol or telemetry systems for selectively calling a substation from a main station, in which substation desired apparatus is selected for applying a control signal thereto or for obtaining measured values therefrom

Abstract

Systems and methods are described that collect spatio-temporal data using an RFID system that is capable of locating the spatial position of a sensor, which is typically unaware of its location. Such systems and methods can be contrasted with conventional RFID systems in that they are able to determine the location of sensors in space as opposed to with respect to read zones related to the underlying RFID reader infrastructure. One embodiment includes an RFID system having a plurality of read zones and configured to obtain the spatio-temporal state of sensors within a sensor cloud, where the spatio-temporal state of each sensor includes sensor information, a time stamp, and a spatial location specified independently of the read zones of the RFID system, a spatio-temporal database configured to store spatio-temporal state of a plurality of sensors over time, and an application server configured to trigger events based upon the detection of at least one condition by applying at least one filter to the data within the spatio-temporal database.

Claims

1. A process for detecting conditions within a sensor cloud and triggering events using an RFID system having a plurality of read zones, comprising:

obtaining the spatio-temporal state of a plurality of sensors within the sensor cloud using the RFID system, where the spatio-temporal state of each sensor includes sensor information, a time stamp, and a spatial location specified independently of the read zones of the RFID system;

storing the spatio-temporal state of the plurality of sensors within a spatio-temporal database;

applying at least one filter to the spatio-temporal data to detect the presence of at least one condition; and

triggering at least one event based upon the detection of the at least one condition.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the spatial location is specified as a spatial co-ordinate.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the spatial coordinate specifies a unique position in 3-dimensional space.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the spatio-temporal state of at least one sensor also includes at least one value selected from the group consisting the identity of a device within the RFID system that was activated to obtain the sensor data, the phase of the signal from the sensor received by a RFID receiver, and the direction of arrival of the signal received from the sensor by a RFID receiver.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the calculation of the spatial location of each sensor does not rely upon the receipt by the sensor of a signal generated by a device that does not form part of the RFID system.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the filter applied to the spatio-temporal data to detect the presence of at least one condition comprises at least one spatial condition, where each spatial condition specifies at least one spatial location independently of the read zones of the RFID system.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the filter detects whether a sensor is present within the at least one spatial location specified by the at least one spatial condition.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the filter also detects whether the spatio-temporal data collected concerning a sensor having a spatio-temporal state that satisfies the at least one spatial condition also satisfies a temporal condition.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the filter also detects whether the spatio-temporal state of a sensor that satisfies the at least one spatial condition includes sensor data that satisfies a data condition.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the filter applied to the spatio-temporal data to detect the presence of at least one condition comprises a sequence of spatial conditions, where each spatial condition specifies at least one spatial location independently of the read zones of the RFID system.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the filter detects whether a sensor moves between the spatial locations specified by the sequence of spatial conditions.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the filter also detects whether the spatio-temporal data collected concerning a sensor having a trajectory that satisfies the sequence of spatial conditions also satisfies at least one temporal condition.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the filter also detects whether the spatio-temporal state of a sensor having a trajectory that satisfies the sequence of spatial conditions includes sensor data that satisfies a data condition.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the filter applied to the spatio-temporal data to detect the presence of at least one condition detects motion of a sensor.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the event triggered by the filter is the reading of a sensor that is determined to be in motion by an RFID system to obtain the spatio-temporal state of the sensor.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising applying a time based filter to condition the spatio-temporal data within the spatio-temporal database.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the event is selected from the group consisting of sending a notification, initiating a sensor read using the RFID system, activating a device, and initiating a process.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the sensor cloud comprises sensors selected from the group consisting of binary detectors, passive RFID tags, active RFID tags, and RFID tags that include transducers.

20. The RFID system of claim 1, wherein the application server is configured to apply fillers including at least one spatial condition, where each spatial condition specifies at least one spatial location independently of the read zones of the RFID reader system.

19. An RFID system, comprising:

an RFID reader system having a plurality of read zones and configured to obtain the spatio-temporal state of sensors within a sensor cloud, where the spatio-temporal state of each sensor includes sensor information, a time stamp, and a spatial location specified independently of the read zones of the RFID reader system;

a spatio-temporal database configured to store spatio-temporal state of a plurality of sensors over time; and

an application server configured to trigger events based upon the detection of at least one condition by applying at least one filler to the data within the spatio-temporal database.