APPLICATION AGNOSTIC SENSOR, CONTROL COMPUTER AND METHODS FOR OPERATING

• US 20150276925A1
• Filed: 05/13/2014
• Published: 10/01/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/25/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Eric Moskwa, Ulrich Scholten
• Original Assignee: Eric Moskwa, Ulrich Scholten
• Inventors: Scholten, Ulrich, Moskwa, Eric
• Granted Patent: US 9,746,551 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0002 Remote monitoring of patients using telemetry, e.g. transmission of vital signals via a communication network A61B5/07 takes precedence; transmission systems for measured values G08C; transmission H04B; transmission of digital information H04L; wireless communication networks H04W
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0507 using microwaves or terahertz waves
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1102 Ballistocardiography
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1113 Local tracking of patients, e.g. in a hospital or private home
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1116 Determining posture transitions
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/113 occurring during breathing
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/117 Identification of persons methods or arrangements for recognising patterns, e.g. fingerprints, G06F18/00, G06V40/00; identification of persons by analysing their voice or speech G10L17/00
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/444 Evaluating skin marks, e.g. mole, nevi, tumour, scar
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4818 Sleep apnoea
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/02 Systems using reflection of radio waves, e.g. primary radar systems; Analogous systems
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/66 Radar-tracking systems; Analogous systems
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 15/02 using reflection of acoustic waves G01S15/66 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 17/02 Systems using the reflection of electromagnetic waves other than radio waves G01S17/66 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/003 Transmission of data between radar, sonar or lidar systems and remote stations

Abstract

A multi-application-transceiver device, control computer, computer implemented method and computer program product for operating the multi-application-transceiver device is disclosed. At least one signal transceiver receives a reflected signal in response to an original signal sent by the at least one signal transceiver. The reflected signal is reflected from at least one target object. A signal conversion unit converts the reflected signal into digital format. A digital signal processor component pre-processes the converted reflected signal using an alterable rule engine with a received rule set to discriminate a state inn change of the at least one target object against an earlier state of the at least one target object in the context of a particular monitoring application. A middleware component communicates with at least one remote computing device wherein communicate includes to send the pre-processed signal to the remote computing device, and to receive from the at least one remote computing device the rule set for the alterable rule engine. The received rule set defines an application specific setting for the at least one signal transceiver and for the digital signal processor component to enable the particular monitoring application.

Claims

1. A multi-application-transceiver device, comprising:

a middleware component configured to receive a rule set, over a network, from a remote computing device storing a plurality of rule sets, each rule set corresponding to a different monitoring application, the received rule set defining application specific settings for a monitoring application to be enabled on the multi-application-transceiver device;

at least one signal transceiver configured to receive a reflected signal in response to an original signal sent by the at least one signal transceiver, the reflected signal being reflected from at least one target object;

a signal conversion unit configured to convert the reflected signal into digital format;

a digital signal processor component including an alterable rule engine configured to store the received rule set and implement the monitoring application by loading the application specific settings of the received rule set, the digital signal processor component configured to signal process the converted reflected signal using the received rule set to discriminate a change in a state of the at least one target object against an earlier state of the at least one target object in a context of the monitoring application; and

an interface configured to communicate results of the signal processing to a user or the remote computing device according to the received rule set.

2. The multi-application-transceiver device of claim 1, wherein the at least one signal transceiver includes multiple image sensors, the multiple image sensors including two or more image sensors selected from the group of:

radar sensor, sonar sensor, Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) sensor, and infrared sensor.

3. The multi-application-transceiver device of claim 1, wherein the enabled monitoring application is configured to detect a dislocation of the at least one target object or detect a cross-section change of the at least one target object to monitor a health status of the at least one target object.

4. The multi-application-transceiver device of claim 1, wherein the at least one signal transceiver includes a plurality of sensors, and the multi-application-transceiver device further includes:

a Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuit (MMIC) unit configured to operate the plurality of sensors according to the application specific settings of the received rule set.

5. The multi-application-transceiver device of claim 1, wherein the enabled monitoring application is configured to monitor for sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).

6. The multi-application-transceiver device of claim 1, wherein the at least one signal transceiver is equipped with a plurality of antennas, wherein the antennas of the plurality of antennas are configured to be controlled independently and concurrently according to the application specific settings of the received rule set.

7. The multi-application-transceiver device of claim 1, wherein the multi-application-transceiver device is a mobile phone.

8. The multi-application-transceiver device of claim 1, wherein the monitoring application is configured to discover a presence of macromolecule in a sample and to estimate a concentration of the macromolecule in the sample through magnitude of re-emitted electromagnetic radiation having a frequency within a resonance frequency range of the macromolecule.

9. The multi-application-transceiver device of claim 1, wherein

the middleware component is further configured to receive from the remote computing device a secondary rule set for the alterable rule engine, wherein the secondary rule set defines application specific settings for the at least one signal transceiver and for the digital signal processor component;

and

the digital signal processor component is further configured to signal process the converted reflected signal in the context of the monitoring application and the secondary monitoring application in parallel.

10. The multi-application-transceiver device of claim 1, wherein

the at least one signal transceiver includes multiple image sensors and at least one non-imaging sensor, and the digital signal processing component is further configured to receive additional sensor data from the at least one non-imaging sensor, and to use the additional sensor data when signal processing the converted reflected signal.

11. The multi-application-transceiver device of claim 1, further comprising:

an actuator configured to communicate the results to a user, wherein the digital signal processing component is further configured to control the actuator in accordance with the received rule set.

12. The multi-application-transceiver device of claim 1, wherein the digital signal processing component is configured to pre-process the converted reflect signal to generate a pre-processed signal, and send the pre-processed signal, over the network, to the remote computing device, the middleware configured to receive the rule set, over the network, from the remote computing device in response to the pre-processed signal.

13-14. -14. (canceled)

15. A computer implemented method for operating a multi-application transceiver device, comprising:

receiving, over a network, at a multi-application transceiver device, a rule set from a remote computing device storing a plurality of rule sets, each rule set corresponding to a different monitoring application, the received rule set defining application specific settings for a monitoring application to be enabled on the multi-application-transceiver device, the application specific settings including sensor configuration parameters, digital signal processing parameters, and event condition action rules;

implementing the monitoring application by loading the application specific settings of the received result set including configuring a plurality of sensors using the sensor configuration parameters of the received rule set;

receiving, by the plurality of sensors, one or more reflected signals reflected from at least one target object;

signal processing the reflected signals using the digital signal processing parameters of the received result set to discriminate a change in a state of the at least one target object against an earlier state of the at least one target object in a context of the monitoring application; and

communicate results of the signal processing, over the network, to the remote computing device for further analysis according to the event condition action rules of the received rule set.

16. The computer implemented method of claim 15, wherein the plurality of sensors include multiple image sensors and at least one non-imaging sensor.

17. The computer implemented method of claim 16, further comprising:

receiving additional sensor data from the at least one non-imaging sensor, and using the additional sensor data when signal processing the reflected signal.

18. The computer implemented method of claim 15, further comprising:

controlling an actuator of the multi-application-transceiver device in accordance with the event condition action rules of the received rule set.

19. A computer program product having executable instructions that when loaded into a non-transitory computer readable medium of a computing device and executed by at least one processor of the computing device are configured to:

receive, over a network, at a multi-application transceiver device, a rule set from a remote computing device storing a plurality of rule sets, each rule set corresponding to a different monitoring application, the received rule set defining application specific settings for a monitoring application to be enabled on the multi-application-transceiver device, the application specific settings including sensor configuration parameters, digital signal processing parameters, and event condition action rules;

implement the monitoring application by loading the application specific settings of the received result set;

configure a plurality of sensors using the sensor configuration parameters of the received rule set including setting a distance range between the multi-application-transceiver device and at least one target for at least one of the plurality of sensors;

receive, by the plurality of sensors, one or more reflected signals reflected from the at least one target object within the set distance range;

convert the reflected signals to a digital format;

signal process the converted reflected signals using the digital signal processing parameters of the received result set including setting parameters for a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) function and applying the converted reflected signals to the FFT function; and

communicate results of the signal processing, over the network, to the remote computing device according to the event condition action rules of the received rule set.

20. The computer program product of claim 19, wherein the executable instructions to signal process the reflected signals includes applying synthetic aperture radar algorithms to the converted reflected signals to create a resulting three-dimensional (3D) image, and the resulting 3D image is sent to the remote computing device for a time-frequency analysis.

21. The computer program product of claim 19, wherein the executable instructions include executable instructions to:

receive, over the network, a secondary rule set from the remote computing device, the secondary rule set defining application specific settings for a secondary monitoring application to be also enabled on the multi-application-transceiver device, the secondary monitoring application being different than the monitoring application; and

implement the secondary monitoring application by loading the application specific settings of the secondary rule set such that the monitoring application and the secondary monitoring application can be executed in parallel.

22. The computer program product of claim 21, wherein the executable instructions include executable instructions to:

receive and implement updates for the monitoring application and the secondary monitoring application from the remote computing device.