Method and system for digital data storage, abstraction and compression to preserve the most useful characteristics of the data

• US 5,997,171 A
• Filed: 09/23/1992
• Issued: 12/07/1999
• Est. Priority Date: 02/10/1986
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Texas Instruments, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Texas Instruments, Inc.
• Inventors: Talbott, Marvin T.
• Primary Examiner(s): Black, Thomas G.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Choules, Jack M.
• Application Number:
  US07/949,362
• Time in Patent Office: 2,631 Days
• Field of Search: 395/400, 395/800, 395/600, 395/872, 364/178, 364/557, 364/558, 364/550, 364/554, 364/556, 364/572, 364/715.02, 364/715.06, 364/221.4, 364/224.2, 364/239, 364/258.4, 364/920, 364/926.1 , 364/964, 358/261.1, 358/426, 374/102, 360/6
• US Class Current: 702/189
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 23/0221 Preprocessing measurements, e.g. data collection rate adjustment; Standardization of measurements; Time series or signal analysis, e.g. frequency analysis or wavelets; Trustworthiness of measurements; Indexes therefor; Measurements using easily measured parameters to estimate parameters difficult to measure; Virtual sensor creation; De-noising; Sensor fusion; Unconventional preprocessing inherently present in specific fault detection methods like PCA-based methods
• CPC Class Codes: H03M 7/3059 Digital compression and data reduction techniques where the original information is represented by a subset or similar information, e.g. lossy compression

Abstract

Data is digitally sampled at intervals, and these samples are stored for a fixed period. During this period the samples are also processed to select certain characteristics, such as maximum, minimum, average, etc., and these abstract indicators are stored and updated. Then, at some longer interval, the abstract is stored in another data block, and this data block of abstracts is also continuously monitored to select the maximum, minimum, etc., to produce a higher abstracted sample. The process of storage of samples and continuous selection can be repeated for even higher abstraction. Thus, the important characteristics are preserved, but the quantity of data to be stored is greatly reduced.

Claims

1. A method of storing data in an electronic digital system comprising the machine executed steps of:

a) repeatedly detecting a condition at spaced apart time intervals to produce electrical digital representation of the detected condition for each of said spaced apart time intervals,

b) providing a first memory and a second memory,

c) automatically storing each of said electrical digital representations in said first memory to provide stored electrical digital representations in said first memory,

d) examining said stored electrical digital representations in said first memory for predetermined criteria in said stored electrical digital representations and generating predetermined first abstracted electrical digital representations from said stored electrical digital representations representing said predetermined criteria and representing a first time period much longer than one of said spaced apart time intervals including the space between consecutive said spaced apart time intervals,

e) storing said first abstracted electrical digital representations in said second memory, and

f) displacing some of said stored electrical digital representations in said first memory with other stored electrical digital representations after generating said first abstracted electrical digital representations,

g) wherein said first abstracted electrical digital representations correspond to a maximum value and a minimum value of said condition over a plurality of said spaced apart time intervals.

2. A method according to claim 1 wherein said first abstracted electrical digital representations include time and date information for said maximum value and said minimum value.

3. A method of storing data in an electronic digital system comprising the machine executed steps of:

a) repeatedly detecting a condition at spaced apart time intervals to produce electrical digital representation of the detected condition for each of said spaced apart time intervals,

b) providing a first memory and a second memory,

c) automatically storing each of said electrical digital representations in said first memory to provide stored electrical digital representations in said first memory,

d) examining said stored electrical digital representations in said first memory for predetermined criteria in said stored electrical digital representations and generating predetermined first abstracted electrical digital representations from said stored electrical digital representations representing said predetermined criteria and representing a first time period much longer than one of said spaced apart time intervals including the space between consecutive said spaced apart time intervals,

e) storing said first abstracted electrical digital representations in said second memory, and

f) displacing some of said stored electrical digital representations in said first memory with other stored electrical digital representations after generating said first abstracted electrical digital representations,

further including the machine executed steps of;

g) providing a third memory, examining said stored first abstracted electrical digital representations stored in said second memory for second predetermined criteria and generating second abstracted electrical digital representations from said first abstracted electrical digital representations representing said second predetermined criteria and representing a second time period much longer than said first time period,

h) storing said second abstracted electrical digital representations in said third memory, and

i) displacing said stored first abstracted electrical digital representations stored in said second memory with other first abstracted electrical digital representations after generating said second abstracted electrical digital representations.

4. An electronic digital system for storing data comprising:

a) a detector for repeatedly detecting a condition at spaced apart time intervals and producing a digital representation of the condition for each such spaced apart time interval,

b) a first memory connected to said detector for storing each said digital representation for a predetermined Plurality of said spaced apart time intervals,

c) a processor connected to said first memory for examining said digital representations for each of said predetermined plurality of spaced apart time intervals stored in said first memory and generating first abstracted digital signals representative of predetermined criteria obtained from said stored digital representations over a first time period much longer than one of said spaced apart time intervals including the space between consecutive spaced apart time intervals,

d) a second memory storing said first abstracted digital criteria,

e) said digital criteria in said first memory being displaced by other digital criteria after said processor has generated said first abstracted digital criteria,

f) wherein said first abstracted digital representations correspond to a maximum value and a minimum value of said condition over a plurality of said spaced apart time intervals.

5. An electronic digital system for storing data comprising:

a) a detector for repeatedly detecting a condition at spaced apart time intervals and producing a digital representation of the condition for each such spaced apart time interval,

b) a first memory connected to said detector for storing each said digital representation for a predetermined plurality of said spaced apart time intervals,

c) a processor connected to said first memory for examining said digital representations for each of said predetermined plurality of spaced apart time intervals stored in said first memory and generating first abstracted digital signals representative of predetermined criteria obtained from said stored digital representations over a first time period much longer than one of said spaced apart time intervals including the space between consecutive spaced apart time intervals,

d) a second memory storing said first abstracted digital criteria,

e) said digital criteria in said first memory being displaced by other digital criteria after said processor has generated said first abstracted digital criteria,

f) wherein said first abstracted digital representations include time and date information for a maximum value and a minimum value.

6. An electronic digital system for storing data comprising:

a) a detector for repeatedly detecting a condition at spaced apart time intervals and producing a digital representation of the condition for each such spaced apart time interval,

b) a first memory connected to said detector for storing each said digital representation for a predetermined plurality of said spaced apart time intervals,

c) a processor connected to said first memory for examining said digital representations for each of said predetermined plurality of spaced apart time intervals stored in said first memory and generating first abstracted digital signals representative of predetermined criteria obtained from said stored digital representations over a first time period much longer than one of said spaced apart time intervals including the space between consecutive spaced apart time intervals,

d) a second memory storing said first abstracted digital criteria,

e) said digital criteria in said first memory being displaced by other digital criteria after said processor has generated said first abstracted digital criteria,

f) wherein said processor examines said stored first abstracted digital representations, selects second abstracted digital representations of said first abstracted digital representation, and stores said second abstracted digital representation over a second time period much longer than said first time period, wherein said first abstracted digital representations are replaced in said memory by other first abstracted digital representations after selection of said second abstracted digital representations.