Universal interface compatibility of a sensor

• US 8,495,263 B2
• Filed: 09/22/2008
• Issued: 07/23/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/21/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ypoint Capital, Inc,
• Original Assignee: Ypoint Capital, Inc,
• Inventors: Harish, Divyasimha
• Primary Examiner(s): LEE, CHUN KUAN
• Application Number:
  US12/234,745
• Publication Number:
  US 20090083459A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,765 Days
• Field of Search: 710/63
• US Class Current: 710/63
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/0423 Input/output
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/31125 Signal, sensor adapted interfaces build into fielddevice
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/33203 Wireless transmission of power and data, inductively, rotary transformer

Abstract

A method and apparatus of a universal interface compatibility of a sensor are disclosed. In one embodiment, a universal interface method includes acquiring an electrical power of an external source and conditioning the electrical power to provide to a sensor. The universal interface method further includes transferring the processed electrical power to the sensor, receiving a sensor output, converting the sensor output to a compatible form, and communicating the compatible form to an interface. The external source may include at least one of a USB power source, a battery, and a wall charger. The electrical power may be conditioned by at least one of detecting an input voltage, adjusting a variance of the electrical power, and altering a voltage of the electrical power. The compatible form may include at least one of a digital signal and an analog signal.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

acquiring an electrical power signal of an external source at a universal interface device;

communicating with a sensor coupled to the universal interface device through the universal interface device;

conditioning, at the universal interface device, the electrical power signal, wherein the conditioning is based on a type of power used and a quality of power used by the sensor;

transferring the conditioned electrical power signal to the sensor;

receiving, at the universal interface device, a output of the sensor operating on the conditioned electrical power signal;

converting the output of the sensor to an appropriate form thereof compatible with an interface associated with the universal interface device; and

communicating the appropriate form to the interface.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating an error signal through an error check module of the universal interface device to account for a problem in a reading of the sensor.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting the appropriate form compatible with the interface to a display.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the external source is at least one of a USB power source, a battery and a wall charger.

5. The method of claim 1, comprising conditioning the electrical power signal through at least one of detecting an input voltage, adjusting a variance of the electrical power signal, and altering a voltage of the electrical power signal.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the appropriate form compatible with the interface is one of a digital signal and an analog signal.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the interface is one of a wired interface, a wireless interface and an analog interface.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the wired interface is associated with a Universal Serial Bus (USB) standard, an I2C standard, and a Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) standard.

9. The method of claim 1, comprising performing at least one of the conditioning of the electrical power signal and the conversion of the output of the sensor to the appropriate form through a processor associated with the universal interface device.

10. A universal interface apparatus, comprising:

a processing module to acquire an electrical power signal of an external source and to communicate with a sensor coupled to the universal interface apparatus; and

a power conditioning module to condition the electrical power signal and to transfer the conditioned electrical power signal to the sensor,

wherein the conditioning is based on a type of power used and a quality of power used by the sensor,

wherein the processing module is further enables conversion of an output of the sensor operating on the conditioned electrical power signal to an appropriate form thereof compatible with an interface associated with the universal interface apparatus and communication of the appropriate form to the interface.

11. The universal interface apparatus of claim 10, further comprising a counter module to provide a count to the processing module when a frequency based output is received by the universal interface apparatus.

12. The universal interface apparatus of claim 11, wherein the processing module is further configured to transmit the appropriate form compatible with the interface to a display.

13. The universal interface apparatus of claim 10, wherein the external source is at least one of a USB power source, a battery and a wall charger.

14. The universal interface apparatus of claim 10, wherein the power conditioning module is configured to condition the electrical power signal through at least one of detecting an input voltage, adjusting a variance of the electrical power signal, and altering a voltage of the electrical power signal.

15. The universal interface apparatus of claim 10, wherein the appropriate form compatible with the interface is one of a digital signal and an analog signal.

16. The universal interface apparatus of claim 15, wherein the processing module is configured to perform the conversion of the output of the sensor to the appropriate form of the digital signal through an Analog-to-Digital (A/D) module.

17. The universal interface apparatus of claim 10, wherein the interface is one of a wired interface, a wireless interface and an analog interface.

18. The universal interface apparatus of claim 17, wherein the wired interface is associated with a USB standard, an I2C standard, and an SPI standard.

19. A system, comprising:

a sensor; and

a universal interface device coupled to the sensor, wherein the universal interface device further;

acquires an electrical power signal of an external source,

communicates with the sensor,

conditions the electrical power signal, wherein the conditioning is based on a type of power used and a quality of power used by the sensor,

transfers the conditioned electrical power signal to the sensor,

receives an output of the sensor operating on the conditioned electrical power signal,

converts the output of the sensor to an appropriate form thereof compatible with an interface associated with the universal interface device, and

communicates the appropriate form to the interface.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the external source is at least one of a USB power source, a battery and a wall charger.