Environmental monitoring system which leverages a social networking service to deliver alerts to mobile phones or devices

• US 9,460,448 B2
• Filed: 03/19/2011
• Issued: 10/04/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/20/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NimbeLink Corp
• Original Assignee: NimbeLink Corp
• Inventors: Felgate, Arthur Everett
• Primary Examiner(s): Khan, Suhail
• Application Number:
  US13/052,070
• Publication Number:
  US 20110230160A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,026 Days
• Field of Search: 455/466
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 11/01 electric
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0224 based on user history
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/18 Status alarms G08B21/02 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/10 using wireless transmission systems G08B25/009 takes precedence

Abstract

A system for remote monitoring of environmental conditions at a site and transmitting alerts to interested parties'"'"' mobile devices via a social networking service is described. The system employs a wireless communications device, partially exposed outside a small, metal enclosure, to transmit SMS (text message) alerts to a social networking site. Interested parties, including other devices, receive the alerts by simply subscribing to the ‘user’ device. Thus, no configuration of the device by interested parties is required. Temperature alerts are generated by the device without user-configured or fixed thresholds. A wall-mounted installation of the device conceals the external antenna within the wall cavity.

Claims

1. An environmental monitoring system for monitoring an environment, sensing a change in an environmental condition, and efficiently notifying subscribers of a social networking service account of the change in the environmental condition, the system comprising:

a sensor configured to sense an environmental condition, including an initial environmental condition and a subsequent environmental condition;

a microcontroller operatively coupled to the sensor, the microcontroller having a memory storing a measurable, predetermined environmental condition deviation, the microcontroller configured to dynamically establish system alarm thresholds based on the sensed environmental condition and the predetermined environmental condition deviation, including establishing an initial alarm threshold based on the initial environmental condition and the predetermined environmental condition deviation, and to determine whether the subsequent environmental condition sensed by the environmental sensor exceeds the initial alarm threshold; and

a wireless communications device operatively coupled to, and co-located with, the microcontroller, the wireless communications device configured to transmit a wireless alert to a social networking site when the subsequent environmental condition exceeds the initial alarm threshold, causing the social networking site to publish the wireless alert to a social networking service account associated with the environmental monitoring system and having a plurality of subscribers to the social networking service account, the wireless alert including an indication of the change in the environmental condition;

wherein the microcontroller is further configured to establish a subsequent alarm threshold to replace the initial alarm threshold when the subsequent environmental condition exceeds the initial alarm threshold, the subsequent alarm threshold based on the subsequent environmental condition and the measurable, predetermined environmental condition deviation, thereby allowing dynamic changes to system alarm thresholds.

2. The environmental monitoring system of claim 1 wherein only cellular short message service (SMS) messages addressed to a fixed address associated with the social networking site are used to transmit the alert to the social networking site, and transmitting SMS messages relating to the alert to the plurality of subscribers.

3. The environmental monitoring system of claim 1 wherein at least partially concurrent notification of a plurality of users is achieved by the social networking site transmitting copies of the wireless alert to subscribers of the social networking service account.

4. The environmental monitoring system of claim 1 wherein a plurality of users receive the wireless alert by subscribing to the social networking service account.

5. The environmental monitoring system of claim 4 wherein only cellular short message service (SMS) messages addressed to a fixed address associated with the social networking site are used to transmit the wireless alert to the social networking site, and transmitting SMS messages relating to the alert to the plurality of subscribers.

6. The environmental monitoring system of claim 4 wherein at least partially concurrent notification of a plurality of users is achieved by the social networking site transmitting copies of the wireless alert to subscribers of the social networking service account.

7. The environmental monitoring system of claim 5 wherein at least partially concurrent notification of a plurality of users is achieved by the social networking site transmitting copies of the wireless alert to subscribers of the social networking service account.

8. The environmental monitoring system of claim 1 wherein the social networking site is selected from the group of social networking sites consisting of Twitter and Facebook.

9. The environmental monitoring system of claim 1 wherein the social networking site is a publish-subscribe network.

10. A method of sending an alarm comprising the steps of:

a) Sensing an initial environmental condition and a subsequent environmental condition;

b) Establishing an initial alarm threshold based on the initial environmental condition and a predetermined environmental condition deviation;

c) Detecting an initial alarm condition, the initial alarm condition occurring when the sensed subsequent environmental condition exceeds the initial alarm threshold;

d) Establishing a subsequent alarm threshold based on the subsequent environmental condition that exceeded the initial alarm threshold and on the predetermined environmental condition deviation, allowing dynamic changes to system alarm thresholds;

e) Encoding the initial alarm condition into one or more encoded alarm condition messages;

f) Transmitting at least one of the encoded alarm condition messages to a social networking site via one or more wireless alerts, wherein at least one of the wireless alerts is created at a monitored site by a co-located wireless communication device and a microcontroller cooperating to transmit said wireless alerts, the alarm condition defined without user interaction, and wherein said social networking site publishes the alarm condition message to a social networking service account associated with the wireless communication device, the social networking service account having a plurality of subscribers;

g) Alerting a receiver of said alarm condition via the social networking site transmitting a copy of the alarm condition message to subscribers of the social networking service account.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the receiver is a mobile phone.

12. The method of claim 10 wherein the receiver is a device or a machine having a subscription to the social networking service account.

13. The method of claim 10 wherein only cellular short message service (SMS) messages addressed to a fixed address associated with the social networking site are used to transmit the wireless alerts to said social networking site and wherein the social networking site transmitting a copy of the alarm condition message to subscribers of the social networking service account comprises the social networking site transmitting an SMS message.

14. The method of claim 10, further comprising the steps of a sensing an environmental condition that exceeds the subsequent alarm threshold after sensing the subsequent condition, and transmitting a subsequent encoded alarm condition message to the social networking site.

15. A method of receiving wireless environmental alerts from a remote location comprising the steps of:

a) Subscribing to a social networking service account of a device that includes an environmental sensor configured to sense an environmental condition, including an initial environmental condition and a subsequent environmental condition, a microcontroller coupled to the sensor, and a wireless transmitter coupled to the microcontroller, the microcontroller having a memory storing a measurable, predetermined environmental condition deviation, the microcontroller configured to dynamically establish system alarm thresholds based on the sensed environmental condition and the predetermined environmental condition deviation, including establishing an initial alarm threshold based on the initial environmental condition and the predetermined environmental condition deviation, and to determine whether a subsequent environmental condition sensed by the environmental sensor exceeds the initial alarm threshold, and to establish a subsequent alarm threshold to replace the initial alarm threshold when the subsequent environmental condition exceeds the initial alarm threshold, the subsequent alarm threshold based on the subsequent environmental condition and the measurable, predetermined environmental condition deviation, thereby allowing dynamic changes to system alarm thresholds;

b) Placing the device at a remote location having the environmental condition;

c) Turning on the device;

d) Receiving wireless alerts on a mobile device whereby no additional configuration steps are needed, the wireless alerts being created and transmitted to a social networking site associated with the social networking service account by the device, and including a first alert corresponding to the initial alarm threshold being exceeded and a second alert corresponding to the subsequent alarm threshold being exceeded.

16. The method of claim 15 further comprising the step of connecting power to the device.

17. The method of claim 15 further comprising the step of checking for adequate signal strength level.

18. A system for machine-to-machine communications, comprising:

a) A first device associated with a first social networking account and having an environmental sensor configured to sense an environmental condition at a monitored site of the first device, the first device publishing a first alarm update to a social networking site, wherein the first alarm update is created and sent by an environmental alarm system located at the monitored site when the environmental condition at the monitored site sensed by the environmental sensor exceeds an initial alarm threshold based on an initial environmental condition and a measurable, predetermined environmental condition deviation and the first device publishing a second alarm update to the social networking site when the environmental condition sensed by the environmental sensor exceeds a subsequent alarm threshold, the subsequent alarm threshold established as being equal to the initial alarm threshold plus the measurable, predetermined environmental condition deviation, allowing dynamic changes to system alarm thresholds; and

b) A second device at a remote location subscribing to updates from the first device, whereby information is transferred from the first device to the second device by the social networking service of the social networking site, the second device configured to take an action based upon the first or the second alarm update.

19. The system of claim 18 wherein only cellular short message service (SMS) messages addressed to a fixed address associated with the social networking site are used to transmit the alarm updates to the social networking site and the alarm updates are transmitted as SMS messages to the second device by the social networking site.

20. The system of claim 19 wherein the environmental alarm system includes a microcontroller configured to utilize configuration information contained in a received SMS message to reconfigure a setting of the environmental alarm system.

21. An environmental monitoring system for monitoring an environment and sensing a change in an environmental condition comprising:

a sensor configured to sense an environmental condition, including an initial environmental condition and a subsequent environmental condition;

a microcontroller operatively coupled to the sensor, the microcontroller having a memory storing a measurable, predetermined environmental condition deviation, the microcontroller configured to dynamically establish system alarm thresholds based on the sensed environmental condition and the predetermined environmental condition deviation, including establishing an initial alarm threshold based on the initial environmental condition and the predetermined environmental condition deviation, and to determine whether the subsequent environmental condition sensed by the environmental sensor exceeds the initial alarm threshold, and to establish a subsequent alarm threshold to replace the initial alarm threshold when the subsequent environmental condition exceeds the initial alarm threshold, the subsequent alarm threshold based on the subsequent environmental condition and the measurable, predetermined environmental condition deviation, thereby allowing dynamic changes to system alarm threshold;

a wireless transceiver operatively coupled to, and co-located with, the microcontroller, the wireless transceiver configured to transmit a first wireless alert including an indication that the subsequent environmental condition has exceeded the initial alarm threshold in the form of an SMS message to a social networking site, the transmitted wireless alert causing the social networking site to publish the wireless alert to a social networking service account associated with the environmental monitoring system, the social networking service account having a plurality of subscribers to the social networking service account, including at least one user and at least one machine, the at least one machine configured to take an action based upon the received alert message, the wireless transceiver also configured to receive an SMS message.

22. The environmental monitoring system of claim 21, wherein the microcontroller is further configured to utilize configuration information contained in the received SMS message to reconfigure a parameter of the system.

23. The environmental monitoring system of claim 22, wherein the SMS message includes a telephone number of a subscriber or a user to receive the wireless alert.

24. The environmental monitoring system of claim 21, wherein the system further comprises a SIM card associated with a unique telephone number.