SENSOR DATA COLLECTING DEVICE

• US 20160302255A1
• Filed: 08/31/2015
• Published: 10/13/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 04/10/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: Takeda, Akira, Kodaka, Takeshi, Yokosawa, Akira
• Granted Patent: US 9,839,064 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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: H04L 69/28 Timers or timing mechanisms used in protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/70 Services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/27 Transitions between radio resource control [RRC] states
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/38 triggered by timers

Abstract

A sensor data collecting device includes a first circuit and a controller. The controller has a first state and a second state and acquires data of one or a plurality of sensors in the second state. The first circuit includes a first register and causes the controller to transit from the first state to the second state. The controller sets the first register based on a minimal data generation period among data generation periods.

Claims

1. A sensor data collecting device that is connectable to a plurality of sensors having different data generation periods, the sensor data collecting device comprising:

a controller that has a first state and a second state and acquires data of one or a plurality of the sensors in the second state; and

a first circuit that includes a first register and causes the controller to transit from the first state to the second state based on a register value of the first register, wherein

the controller sets the first register based on a minimal data generation period among the data generation periods.

2. The sensor data collecting device according to claim 1,

wherein the first circuit includes an interrupt controller including the first register and a power management unit,

the interrupt controller generates a first signal for the power management unit when an interrupt request is issued from the sensor having the minimal data generation period, and

the power management unit causes the controller to transit to the second state by using the first signal as a trigger.

3. The sensor data collecting device according to claim 2, wherein the first register includes a second register in which information representing presence/no-presence of an interrupt request from the plurality of the sensors is stored and a third register in which information identifying the sensor having the minimal data generation period is stored.

4. The sensor data collecting device according to claim 3, wherein the controller, when transiting to the second state, acquires data of one or a plurality of sensors issuing the interrupt requests based on a register value of the second register, clears the second register, and transits to the first state.

5. The sensor data collecting device according to claim 1,

wherein the first circuit includes a timer including the first register and a power management unit, first time information is stored in the first register, the first time information being next data generation time of the sensor having the minimal data generation period among the plurality of the sensors,

when current time coincides with the first register value, the timer generates a second signal for the power management unit, and

the power management unit causes the controller to transit to the second state by using the second signal as a trigger.

6. The sensor data collecting device according to claim 5,

wherein the controller includes a management table managing the data generation period and the first time information of each of the sensors, and

the controller acquires data of one or a plurality of sensors for which the current time is the first time information or more when transiting to the second state.

7. The sensor data collecting device according to claim 6, wherein the controller updates the first time information of the sensor of which the data is acquired, updates the first register value based on the first time information of the sensor having the minimal data generation period, and transits to the first state.

8. The sensor data collecting device according to claim 1,

wherein the first circuit includes an interrupt controller including second and third registers, a timer including a fourth register, and a power management unit,

information representing presence/no-presence of an interrupt request from the plurality of the sensors is stored in the second register,

information identifying the sensor having the minimal data generation period among the plurality of the sensors is stored in the third register,

first time information is stored in the fourth register, the first time information being next data generation time of the sensor having the minimal data generation period,

the interrupt controller generates a first signal for the power management unit when the interrupt request is generated from the sensor having the minimal data generation period based on the second and third registers,

the timer generates a second signal for the power management unit when current time coincides with a register value of the fourth register, and

the power management unit causes the controller to transit to the second state by using the first signal or the second signal as a trigger.

9. The sensor data collecting device according to claim 7,

wherein the controller includes a management table managing a data generation period, the first time information, and a trigger type of each of the sensors, the trigger type representing presence/no-presence of an interrupt request function, and

the controller, when transiting to the second state, acquires data of one or a plurality of first sensors issuing the interrupt requests based on a register value of the second register and acquires data of one or a plurality of second sensors for which the current time is the first time information or more among the sensors having the trigger type representing no-presence of the interrupt request function, the first sensors being among the sensors.

10. The sensor data collecting device according to claim 9, wherein the controller, after acquisition of the data of the first sensor, clears the second register, updates the first time information of the first sensor, then acquires the data of the second sensor, updates the first time information of the second sensor, updates one of the third register and the fourth register according to the trigger type of the sensor having the minimal data generation period, and then transits to the first state.

11. A sensor data collecting device that is connectable to a plurality of sensors having a plurality of different data generation periods, the sensor data collecting device comprising:

a controller that has a first state and a second state and acquires data of one or a plurality of the sensors in the second state; and

a first circuit that includes a first register and causes the controller to transit from the first state to the second state based on a register value of the first register, wherein

the controller calculates first time information that is next data generation time based on the data generation period for each of the sensors, calculates the second time information by adding a data lifetime to the first time information for each of the sensors, and sets the first register based on the first time information of a first sensor having the largest first time information among one or a plurality of the first time information that is smaller than the minimal second time information among the sensors.

12. The sensor data collecting device according to claim 11,

wherein the first circuit includes an interrupt controller including the first register and a power management unit,

the first register includes a second register in which information representing presence/no-presence of an interrupt request from the plurality of the sensors is stored and a third register in which information identifying the first sensor is stored,

the interrupt controller generates a first signal for the power management unit when the interrupt request is issued from the first sensor based on the second and third registers, and

the power management unit causes the controller to transit to the second state by using the first signal as a trigger.

13. The sensor data collecting device according to claim 12,

wherein the controller includes a management table managing the data generation period, the first time information, a data lifetime, and second time information of each of the sensors, and

the controller, when transiting to the second state,

acquires data of one or a plurality of sensors issuing the interrupt requests based on a register value of the second register, clears the second register,

updates the first and second time information of the sensor issuing the interrupt requests, specifies the first sensor based on the management table after the update, stores information identifying the first sensor into the third register, and then transits to the first state.

14. The sensor data collecting device according to claim 11,

wherein the first circuit includes a timer including the first register and a power management unit,

the first register includes a fourth register in which the first time information of the first sensor is stored,

when current time coincides with a register value of the fourth register, the timer generates a second signal for the power management unit, and

the power management unit causes the controller to transit to the second state by using the second signal as a trigger.

15. The sensor data collecting device according to claim 14,

wherein the controller includes a management table managing a data generation period, the first time information, a data lifetime, and second time information of each of the sensors, and

the controller, when transiting to the second state,

acquires data of one or a plurality of the sensors for which the current time is the first time information or more based on the management table, updates the first time information of the sensor of which the data is acquired,

updates the second time information of each of the sensors, specifies the first sensor based on the management table after the update, stores the first time information of the first sensor into the fourth register, and transits to the first state.

16. The sensor data collecting device according to claim 11,

wherein the first circuit includes an interrupt controller including second and third registers, a timer including a fourth register, and a power management unit,

information representing presence/no-presence of an interrupt request from the plurality of the sensors is stored in the second register, information identifying the first sensor is stored in the third register by the controller, the first time information of the first sensor is stored in the fourth register,

the interrupt controller generates a first signal for the power management unit when the interrupt request is issued from the first sensor based on the second and third registers,

the timer generates a second signal for the power management unit when current time coincides with a register value of the fourth register, and

the power management unit causes the controller to transit to the second state by using the first signal or the second signal as a trigger.

17. The sensor data collecting device according to claim 16,

wherein the controller includes a management table managing a data generation period, the first time information, a data lifetime, second time information, and a trigger type of each of the sensors, the trigger type representing presence/no-presence of an interrupt request function, and

the controller, when transiting to the second state,

acquires data of one or a plurality of second sensors issuing the interrupt requests based on a register value of the second register, clears the second register, updates the first time information of the second sensor,

acquires data of one or a plurality of third sensors for which the current time is the first time information or more among the sensors having the trigger type representing no-presence of the interrupt request function, updates the first time information of the third sensor,

updates the second time information of each of the sensors, specifies the first sensor based on the management table after the update, updates one of the third register and the fourth register according to the trigger type of the first sensor, and

transits to the first state.

18. The sensor data collecting device according to claim 13,

wherein a value acquired by subtracting a first margin value from the data generation period of each of the sensors is set as the data generation period, and

the controller, when transiting to the second state,

acquires data of one or a plurality of sensors issuing the interrupt requests based on a register value of the second register, clears the second register,

updates the first time information of the sensor identified as the first sensor by the third register among the sensors issuing the interrupt requests based on the current time and the data generation period,

updates the first time information of the sensor not identified as the first sensor by the third register among the sensors generating the interrupt requests based on the first time information of the previous time and the data generation period,

calculates second time information of each of the sensors by adding the data lifetime of each of the sensors to the first time information after the update of each of the sensors, specifies a fourth sensor having the largest first time information among one or a plurality of the first time information that is smaller than a value acquired by subtracting a second margin value from minimal second time information among the second time information of each of the sensors, and sets information identifying the fourth sensor into the third register.

19. The sensor data collecting device according to claim 17, wherein the controller presents the data generation time of each of the sensors to a user by using the first time information.

20. The sensor data collecting device according to claim 17,

wherein the controller has the first state that is configured by a plurality of stages of a sleep state, and

the controller calculates a first time interval from startup of this time to startup of the next time and transits to one of the first state of the plurality of stages of the sleep state based on the calculated first time interval.