Systems for Detecting, Collecting, Communicating, and Using Information About Environmental Conditions and Occurrences

• US 20120112901A1
• Filed: 11/09/2010
• Published: 05/10/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 11/09/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Landis+Gyr Technology, Inc. (Landis+Gyr Group AG)
• Original Assignee: Cellnet Innovations, Inc.
• Inventors: Chasko, Stephen J.
• Granted Patent: US 8,624,730 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/517
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/10 responsive to calamitous events, e.g. tornados or earthquakes
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/009 Signalling of the alarm condition to a substation whose identity is signalled to a central station, e.g. relaying alarm signals in order to extend communication range
• 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: Y02A 50/00 in human health protection, e.g. against extreme weather

Abstract

Systems and methods are disclosed for identifying and providing warnings of tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, and other environmental occurrences. Temperature, pressure, seismic activities and other environmental conditions are measured with improved granularity using sensors at multiple locations. More extensive distribution of sensors is enabled using existing networks, such as utility (e.g., gas and electricity) meter networks. Network traffic is improved by screening information locally so that only limited information is sent for central processing. A given location, for example, may compare its own and its neighbors measurements against a profile to identify the probable existence of a tornado before sending a message to a central processing device. Upon receiving such a message and possibly other information (e.g., other messages or weather service information), a central device may send notifications to specific facilities that an environmental occurrence may be occurring, for example, notifying specific residences in the expected path of a tornado.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

an environmental sensor, at a facility, generating data about an environmental condition at the facility;

a transmission component, at the facility, sending an environmental condition message to a node of a mesh network, the environmental condition message relating to the data about the environmental condition at the facility; and

wherein the mesh network comprises one or more nodes that receive and route utility measurement messages from facilities, wherein the measurement messages comprise information about measurements from utility sensors at the facilities.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the message indicates that the data about the environmental condition at the facility satisfies a profile for a type of environmental occurrence.

3. The system of claim 2 wherein a comparison device, at the facility, compares the data about the environmental condition at the facility with the profile for the type of environmental occurrence.

4. The system of claim 2 wherein the type of environmental occurrence is one of a tornado, a hurricane, an earthquake, a chemical event, a nuclear event, a blizzard, an icing, flooding, volcano, or explosion.

5. The system of claim 2 wherein sending an environmental condition message to a node of a mesh network comprises sending the message through the mesh network to a central processing device, wherein, in response to the message, the central processing device sends notifications to one or more of the facilities through the mesh network notifying that an environmental occurrence may be occurring or about to occur at the one or more of the facilities to which the notifications are sent.

6. The system of claim 2 wherein, in response to receiving one of the notifications, a warning is provided to one or more occupants at the facility.

7. The system of claim 2 wherein the environmental sensor, the transmission component, and the comparison device are all parts of a single utility meter device.

8. A system comprising:

environmental sensors at multiple facilities, each of the environmental sensors generating data about an environmental condition at different ones of the multiple facilities; and

a network allowing communication amongst the environmental sensors at the multiple facilities;

wherein a subset of the environmental sensors share data about the environmental condition at their respective facilities;

wherein an environmental condition message relating to shared data about the environmental condition at the subset of environmental sensors is sent through the network to a central location.

9. The system of claim 8 wherein the environmental condition message is sent based upon a comparison of the shared data with a profile for a type of environmental occurrence.

10. The system of claim 8 wherein the environmental condition message is sent based upon whether the velocity or acceleration of changes to the environmental condition exceed a configurable trigger.

11. The system of claim 8 wherein the subset includes a team of only a first facility and a predetermined number of its closest neighboring facilities.

12. The system of claim 8 wherein the subset includes a team of only a first facility and neighboring facilities within a predetermined distance of the first facility.

13. The system of claim 8 wherein the network is a mesh network of one or more nodes that receive and route utility measurement messages from the multiple facilities, wherein the measurement messages comprise information about measurements from utility sensors at the multiple facilities.

14. The system of claim 13 wherein the environmental condition message has a higher routing priority within the mesh network than the utility measurement messages.

15. A method comprising:

receiving an environmental condition message over a network, the environmental condition message comprising information relating to an environmental condition at a facility, wherein the information relating to the environmental condition was collected from an environmental sensor at a facility;

receiving a utility message over the network, the utility message comprising information relating to measurements from a utility sensor at the facility; and

identifying a probable environmental occurrence using the information relating to the environmental condition.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein both the environmental condition message and utility message were sent from the facility over a mesh network to a central processing device that identifies the probable environmental occurrence, wherein the central processing device sends notifications to one or more facilities through the mesh network notifying that the probable environmental occurrence may be occurring or about to occur at the one or more facilities to which the notifications are sent.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein, in response to receiving the notifications:

a warning is provided to one or more facility occupants; and

measurement, recording, storage, or sending of information relating to the environmental condition, audio, or video at one or more facilities is initiated or increased.

18. The method of claim 15 wherein identifying the probable environmental occurrence further involves using environmental condition information from facilities at multiple locations.

19. The method of claim 15 wherein identifying the probable environmental occurrence involves using both the information relating to the environmental condition and the information relating to the measurements from the utility sensor.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein the information relating to the measurements from the utility sensor is information about a power surge or a power outage.

21. The method of claim 15 wherein identifying the probable environmental occurrence comprises using information from a radar device relating to weather conditions near the facility.

22. The method of claim 15 further comprising using the information relating to an environmental condition and a confirmation of whether a predicted occurrence did or did not actually occur to update a profile used to identify future occurrences.