Surveillance system and method

• US 7,978,061 B2
• Filed: 03/08/2010
• Issued: 07/12/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/30/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Aceinna Transducer Systems Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Memsic Transducer Systems Co., Ltd.
• Inventors: Broad, Alan S., Horton, Michael A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Blount; Eric M
• Application Number:
  US12/719,371
• Publication Number:
  US 20100157879A1
• Time in Patent Office: 491 Days
• Field of Search: 340/539.23, 340/539.25, 340/541, 340/545.3, 340/539.1
• US Class Current: 340/539.1
• CPC Class Codes: G01D 21/00 Measuring or testing not otherwise provided for
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/009 Signalling of the alarm condition to a substation whose identity is signalled to a central station, e.g. relaying alarm signals in order to extend communication range
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks

Abstract

A plurality of modules interact to form an adaptive network in which each module transmits and receives data signals indicative of proximity of objects. A central computer accumulates the data produced or received and relayed by each module for analyzing proximity responses to transmit through the adaptive network control signals to a selectively-addressed module to respond to computer analyses of the data accumulated from modules forming the adaptive network.

Claims

1. A method in a first module of a network for relaying data from a source to a destination via a network of adaptive modules, comprising:

receiving information via wireless communication for computing an amount of energy consumed by a plurality of modules in the network for communicating data between the plurality of modules;

selecting a second module of the network to relay data from the first module to the destination based on an amount of energy consumed by a subset of the plurality of modules in the network for wirelessly relaying the data from the first module to the destination via the second module, wherein the amount of energy consumed is determined based on a percentage of packets successfully transmitted between the subset of the plurality of the modules; and

transmitting the data to the second module via wireless communication.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first module operates with a constrained power source.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of the modules form connections autonomously based on the amount of energy needed for transmitting a message to the destination.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving hop information indicating a number of hops for transmitting the data to the destination via the second module, the second module selected further based on the hop information.

5. A first module in a computer-controlled network for wirelessly relaying data from a source to a destination, comprising:

a transceiver configured to receive information via wireless communication for computing an amount of energy consumed by a plurality of modules in the network to communicate data between the plurality of modules, the transceiver further configured to transmit the data; and

a processor configured to select a second module of the network for receiving the data from the first module based on an amount of energy consumed by a plurality of the modules in the network to wirelessly relaying the data from the first module to the destination via the second module, wherein the amount of energy consumed by the plurality of modules is determined based on a percentage of packets successfully transmitted between the plurality of the modules.

6. The first module of claim 5, wherein the first module operates with a constrained power source.

7. The first module of claim 5, wherein the plurality of the plurality of modules form connections autonomously based on the amount of energy needed for transmitting a message to the destination.

8. The first module of claim 5, wherein the processor is further configured to select the second module based on hop information indicating a number of hops for transmitting the data to the destination via the second module.