PORTABLE ELECTRONIC DEVICE WITH INTEGRATED CHEMICAL SENSOR AND METHOD OF OPERATING THEREOF

• US 20140208829A1
• Filed: 01/22/2014
• Published: 07/31/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 01/31/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sensirion AG (Sensirion Holding AG)
• Original Assignee: Sensirion AG (Sensirion Holding AG)
• Inventors: LECHNER, Moritz, BUHLER, Johannes, SANTSCHI, Rafael
• Granted Patent: US 9,746,455 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 73/31.01
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 27/122 Circuits particularly adapted therefor, e.g. linearising circuits
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 27/128 Microapparatus
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 33/497 of gaseous biological material, e.g. breath
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/65 Updates security arrangements therefor G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72406 by software upgrading or downloading
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/12 including a sensor for measuring a physical value, e.g. temperature or motion

Abstract

A portable electronic device and related methods are described using an integrated chemical sensor linked to a chemical sensor processing unit and being sensitive to the concentration of a component in a sample of air and further including an operating system providing instructions for the control of the portable device, wherein the chemical processing unit uses under operating conditions a first set of instructions and a second set of instructions stored within the portable device, wherein the first set of instructions is part of the operating system level of instructions and the second set of instructions is part of a user of instructions with the second set of instructions being linked to the operating system via a plugin interface and wherein the second set of instructions is communicated to the portable device from a remote computing system based on access to measurements and/or operating conditions of the chemical sensor.

Claims

1. Method of operating a portable electronic device enclosed in a housing with an integrated chemical sensor linked to a chemical sensor processing unit and being sensitive to the concentration of a component in a sample of air and having an operating system providing instructions for the control of the portable device, wherein the chemical processing unit uses under operating conditions a first set of instructions and a second set of instructions stored within the portable device, wherein the first set of instructions is part of the operating system level of instructions and the second set of instructions is part of a user level of instructions with the second set of instructions being linked to the operating system via an interface and wherein the second set of instructions is communicated to the portable device from a remote computing system based on access to measurements and/or operating conditions of the chemical sensor.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the second set of instructions comprises control or processing routines or parameters for control or processing routines within the first set of instructions as applied to control the operation of the chemical sensor.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the second set of instructions is applied to select, replace, or alter the performance of the control or processing routines within the first set of instructions.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the second set of instructions comprises executable code.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein storage location used to store the second set of instructions is reserved by the operating system to prevent write access with data not transferred directly or indirectly from the remote system.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the first set of instructions include an instruction to access the second set of instructions after a measurement of the chemical sensor is initiated at an operating system level.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein modifications or updates of the second set of instructions are independent of and applicable between modifications or updates of the operating system.

8. A portable electronic device enclosed in a housing with a chemical sensor linked to a chemical sensor processing unit and being sensitive to the concentration of a component in a sample of air and having an operating system providing instructions for the control of the portable device, wherein the chemical processing unit has under operating conditions access to a first set of instructions and a second set of instructions stored within the portable device, wherein the first set of instructions is part of the operating system level of instructions and the second set of instructions being part of a user level of instructions with the second set of instructions being linked to the operating system via an application programming interface, with the device having an assigned memory space for storage of the second set of instructions and a downloader for receiving the second set of instructions from remote computing system based on direct or indirect access to measurements and/or operating conditions of the chemical sensor and for storing the second set of instructions in the assigned memory space.

9. The portable electronic device according to claim 8, wherein the chemical sensor comprises a metal-oxide sensing material.

10. The portable electronic device according to claim 8, wherein the chemical sensor integrated onto a common substrate including CMOS circuitry.

11. The portable electronic device according to claim 8, being selected from a group comprising:

a mobile phone,

a handheld computer,

an electronic reader,

a tablet computer,

a game controller,

a pointing device,

a photo or a video camera,

a digital music player,

an electronic wrist watch,

a headset,

a personal health/fitness tracking device,

and a computer peripheral.