Early Detection of Overheating Devices

• US 20140032944A1
• Filed: 10/01/2013
• Published: 01/30/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 04/16/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Liwa, Francisco D.
• Granted Patent: US 9,250,667 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/300
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 33/0004 Gaseous mixtures, e.g. polluted air gaseous biological material G01N33/497; exhaust gas of internal combustion engines G01M15/102
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 33/0034 comprising neural networks or related mathematical techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/206 comprising thermal management

Abstract

A method is provided that monitors the odor within the physical enclosure of a computing device that includes one or more components. The method includes determining whether the odor within the physical enclosure is indicative of an overheating component that is overheating within the physical enclosure of the computing device. Determining whether the odor within the physical enclosure may include an artificial neural network (“ANN”) to determine whether the odor is indicative of an overheating component. The method includes initiating an overheating protocol in response to determining that the odor within the physical enclosure is indicative of an overheating component. The method may, for example, alert the user and/or applications that a component is overheating.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

monitoring an odor within a physical enclosure of a computing device comprising one or more components;

determining that the odor within the physical enclosure is indicative of an overheating component that is overheating within the physical enclosure of the computing device; and

initiating an overheating protocol in response to determining that the odor within the physical enclosure is indicative of the overheating component.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein monitoring the odor within the physical enclosure of the computing device comprises collecting one or more samples of odor molecules from within the physical enclosure of the computing device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein odor molecules of the odor reversibly alter a sensing material for detecting the odor molecules.

4. The method of claim 3, determining that the odor within the physical enclosure is indicative of an overheating component that is overheating within the physical enclosure of the computing device further comprises an artificial neural network comparing an alteration in the sensing material with a reference database comprising a plurality of reference alterations caused by overheating components.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising adding an alteration in a sensing material to the reference database in response to determining that the odor within the physical enclosure is indicative of the overheating component.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising receiving one or more additional entries to the reference database from one or more separate computing devices.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the overheating protocol comprises shutting down the computing device.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the overheating protocol comprises creating a log entry comprising data generated in connection with the overheating component.