Early detection of overheating devices

• US 8,910,508 B2
• Filed: 04/16/2012
• Issued: 12/16/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 04/16/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Liwa, Francisco D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Williams, Hezron E
• Assistant Examiner(s): Shabman, Mark A
• Application Number:
  US13/448,051
• Publication Number:
  US 20130269417A1
• Time in Patent Office: 974 Days
• Field of Search: 73/233.4
• US Class Current: 73/23.34
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 33/0004 Gaseous mixtures, e.g. polluted air gaseous biological material G01N33/497; exhaust gas of internal combustion engines G01M15/102
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 33/0034 comprising neural networks or related mathematical techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/206 comprising thermal management

Abstract

A sensor module is provided that monitors the odor within the physical enclosure of a computing device that includes one or more components. A recognition module determines whether the odor within the physical enclosure is indicative of an overheating component that is overheating within the physical enclosure of the computing device. The recognition module may use an artificial neural network (ANN) to determine whether the odor is indicative of an overheating component. An alert module initiates an overheating protocol in response to determining that the odor within the physical enclosure is indicative of an overheating component. The alert module may, for example, alert the user and/or applications that a component is overheating.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

a sensor module that monitors, using a sensor with a sensing material, an odor within a physical enclosure of a computing device, the physical enclosure comprising one or more components, the sensor comprising a metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor (“

MOSFET”

), the MOSFET acting as a transducer that represents the odor as an electrical signal, wherein the sensing material comprises a gate of the MOSFET and odor molecules interact with gate material of the MOSFET to alter a threshold voltage of the MOSFET;

a reference database comprising a plurality of reference alterations caused by the overheating component, each reference alteration comprising an electrical signal that corresponds with an odor, wherein determining that the odor within the physical enclosure is indicative of the overheating component comprises comparing an alteration in the sensing material with the reference database;

a recognition module that determines that the odor within the physical enclosure is indicative of an overheating component that is overheating within the physical enclosure of the computing device, wherein the recognition module comprises an artificial neural network that compares the alteration in the sensing material with the reference database, wherein determining that the odor within the physical enclosure is indicative of the overheating component comprises determining that the alteration corresponds to one or more of the reference alterations in the reference database; and

an alert module that initiates an overheating protocol in response to determining that the odor within the physical enclosure is indicative of the overheating component.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein monitoring the odor within the physical enclosure of the computing device comprises collecting one or more samples of odor molecules from within the physical enclosure of the computing device.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the sensing material is altered by odor molecules of the odor.

4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein monitoring the odor further comprises detecting an alteration in the sensing material caused by the odor molecules.

5. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the sensing material is reversibly altered by odor molecules of the odor.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a reference module that adds an alteration in a sensing material to a reference database in response to determining that the odor within the physical enclosure is indicative of the overheating component.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a reference module that receives one or more additional entries to the reference database from one or more separate computing devices.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the overheating protocol comprises alerting the user that at least one component within the physical enclosure of the computing device is overheating.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the overheating protocol comprises shutting down the computing device.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the overheating protocol comprises creating a log entry comprising data generated in connection with the overheating component.

11. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein odor molecules interact with gate material of the MOSFET to change a threshold voltage of the MOSFET based on changes in work functions of metal and oxide layers in the MOSFET during odor molecule interaction with the gate, wherein the gate surface is catalytically active to change the work functions due to polarization of the gate surface and interface of the catalytic metal and the oxide layer, and wherein odor molecules are detected by monitoring for changes in drain-source current of the MOSFET.

12. A system comprising:

a computing device comprising;

a physical enclosure;

one or more components situated within the physical enclosure; and

an odor apparatus comprising;

a sensor module that monitors, using a sensor with a sensing material, an odor within the physical enclosure, the sensor comprising a metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor (“

MOSFET”

), the MOSFET acting as a transducer that represents the odor as an electrical signal, wherein the sensing material comprises a gate of the MOSFET and odor molecules interact with gate material of the MOSFET to alter a threshold voltage of the MOSFET;

a reference database comprising a plurality of reference alterations caused by the overheating component, each reference alteration comprising an electrical signal that corresponds with an odor, wherein determining that the odor within the physical enclosure is indicative of the overheating component comprises comparing an alteration in the sensing material with the reference database;

a recognition module that determines that the odor within the physical enclosure is indicative of an overheating component that is overheating within the physical enclosure of the computing device, wherein the recognition module comprises an artificial neural network that compares the alteration in the sensing material with the reference database, wherein determining that the odor within the physical enclosure is indicative of the overheating component comprises determining that the alteration corresponds to one or more of the reference alterations in the reference database; and

an alert module that initiates an overheating protocol in response to determining that the odor within the physical enclosure is indicative of the overheating component.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the computing device is one of a laptop computer, a tablet, a cellular phone, a desktop computer, and a server.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the odor apparatus is installed on a motherboard of the computing device.

15. A computing device comprising:

a physical enclosure;

one or more components situated within the physical enclosure; and

an odor apparatus comprising;

a sensor module that monitors an odor within the physical enclosure of the computing device, the sensor module comprising a sensing material for detecting the odor, wherein electrical properties of the sensing material are altered by odor molecules of the odor, the sensor module further configured to detect and quantify the alteration in the electrical properties of the sensing material, the sensor comprising a metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor (“

MOSFET”

), the MOSFET acting as a transducer that represents the odor as an electrical signal, wherein the sensing material comprises a gate of the MOSFET and odor molecules interact with gate material of the MOSFET to alter a threshold voltage of the MOSFET;

a recognition module that determines that the odor within the physical enclosure is indicative of an overheating component that is overheating within the physical enclosure of the computing device, the recognition module comprising an artificial neural network that compares the alteration in the sensing material with a reference database comprising a plurality of reference alterations caused by the overheating component, each reference alteration comprising an electrical signal that corresponds with an odor, wherein determining that the odor within the physical enclosure is indicative of the overheating component comprises comparing an alteration in the sensing material with the reference database; and

an alert module that initiates an overheating protocol in response to determining that the odor within the physical enclosure is indicative of the overheating component.