Smart fabric that detects events and generates notifications

• US 9,978,247 B2
• Filed: 09/24/2015
• Issued: 05/22/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 09/24/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Alampallam, Narayanan V., Bhaskar, Srinivas
• Primary Examiner(s): Alizada, Omeed
• Application Number:
  US14/864,813
• Publication Number:
  US 20170092098A1
• Time in Patent Office: 971 Days
• CPC Class Codes: A41D 1/002 adapted to accommodate electronic equipment patients' garments for medical monitoring A41D13/1281; luminous ornaments A41D27/085
• CPC Class Codes: A41D 1/005 with embedded cable or connector
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/02 Alarms for ensuring the safety of persons
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/0446 worn on the body to detect changes of posture, e.g. a fall, inclination, acceleration, gait
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/18 Status alarms G08B21/02 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/0343 to be carried on the body
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/385 Transceivers carried on the body, e.g. in helmets
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks

Abstract

Various technologies described herein pertain to smart fabric that includes a sensor array, which includes sensor nodes arranged at respective sites in the fabric. The sensor nodes are configured to output signals indicative of detected conditions at the respective sites in the fabric. The fabric can further include a transmitter and a control unit. The control unit can be configured to receive the signals indicative of the detected conditions at the respective sites in the fabric from the sensor nodes, and transmit, using the transmitter, data specifying the detected conditions at the respective sites in the fabric. The data can be transmitted to a computing system for analyzing a state of the fabric to detect an occurrence of an event. The event can be a tear of the fabric, a torsion in the fabric greater than a threshold torsion, a strain in the fabric greater than a threshold strain.

Claims

1. A fabric, comprising:

a sensor array that comprises a plurality of sensor nodes arranged at respective sites in the fabric, the sensor nodes comprise respective Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags, the sensor array further comprises a plurality of RFID readers, the sensor nodes configured to output signals indicative of detected conditions at the respective sites in the fabric, the detected conditions at the respective sites in the fabric comprise detected distances between the RFID tags and the RFID readers;

a transmitter; and

a control unit configured to;

receive the signals indicative of the detected conditions at the respective sites in the fabric from the sensor nodes in the sensor array; and

transmit, using the transmitter, data specifying the detected conditions at the respective sites in the fabric, the data transmitted to a computing system for analyzing a state of the fabric to detect an occurrence of an event, the event being at least one of a tear of the fabric, a torsion in the fabric greater than a threshold torsion, or a strain in the fabric greater than a threshold strain.

2. The fabric of claim 1, the sensor array being embedded in the fabric.

3. The fabric of claim 1, the sensor array being mechanically coupled to the fabric.

4. The fabric of claim 1 being formed into a garment.

5. The fabric of claim 1, the sensor nodes further comprise respective magnetometers, the detected conditions at the respective sites in the fabric further comprise detected magnetic moments at the respective sites in the fabric outputted by the magnetometers.

6. The fabric of claim 1, the sensor nodes further comprise respective accelerometers, the detected conditions at the respective sites in the fabric further comprise detected accelerations at the respective sites in the fabric outputted by the accelerometers.

7. The fabric of claim 1, the sensor nodes further comprise respective Global Positioning System (GPS) sensors, the detected conditions at the respective sites in the fabric further comprise detected geographic coordinates at the respective sites in the fabric outputted by the GPS sensors.

8. The fabric of claim 1, further comprising a tag that identifies the sensor array, the tag being readable by the computing system to initiate analyzing the state of the fabric by the computing system.

9. The fabric of claim 1, further comprising a power source that supplies power to the sensor array, the transmitter, and the control unit.

18. The fabric of claim 1, the occurrence of the event detected by the computing system using a machine learning classification algorithm.

10. A computing system, comprising:

at least one processor; and

memory that comprises computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform acts including;

receiving, from a transmitter comprised in a fabric, data specifying detected conditions at sites in the fabric, the sites corresponding to sensor nodes in a sensor array, the sensor nodes comprise respective Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags, the sensor array further comprises a plurality of RFID readers, the detected conditions at the sites in the fabric comprise detected distances between the RFID tags and the RFID readers;

analyzing a state of the fabric to detect an occurrence of an event, analyzing the state of the fabric based on the data specifying the detected conditions at the sites in the fabric, the event being at least one of a tear of the fabric, a torsion in the fabric greater than a threshold torsion, or a strain in the fabric greater than a threshold strain; and

responsive to detection of the occurrence of the event, causing a notification indicative of the event to be generated.

11. The computing system of claim 10, the memory further comprising computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform acts including:

reading a tag of the fabric; and

responsive to the tag being read, initiating the analyzing of the state of the fabric.

12. The computing system of claim 10, the memory further comprising computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform acts including:

responsive to the detection of the occurrence of the event;

generating the notification indicative of the event; and

outputting the notification indicative of the event.

13. The computing system of claim 10, the memory further comprising computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform acts including:

responsive to the detection of the occurrence of the event, transmitting an indicator specifying that the event has occurred to a disparate computing system, wherein the indicator causes the disparate computing system to output the notification indicative of the event.

19. The computing system of claim 10, the detected conditions at the sites in the fabric further comprise detected geographic coordinates at the sites in the fabric outputted by respective Global Positioning System (GPS) sensors.

14. A method of controlling notification generation, comprising:

receiving data specifying detected conditions at sites in a fabric, the sites corresponding to sensor nodes in a sensor array, the sensor nodes comprise respective Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags, the sensor array further comprises a plurality of RFID readers, the detected conditions at the respective sites in the fabric comprise detected distances between the RFID tags and the RFID readers;

analyzing a state of the fabric to detect an occurrence of an event, analyzing the state of the fabric based on the data specifying the detected conditions at the sites in the fabric, the event being at least one of a tear of the fabric, a torsion in the fabric greater than a threshold torsion, or a strain in the fabric greater than a threshold strain; and

responsive to detection of the occurrence of the event, causing a notification indicative of the event to be generated.

15. The method of claim 14, receiving the data specifying the detected conditions at the sites in the fabric further comprising:

receiving signals indicative of the detected conditions at the sites in the fabric from the sensor nodes in the sensor array.

16. The method of claim 15, the method being performed by a control unit, wherein the fabric comprises the control unit.

17. The method of claim 14, the data specifying the detected conditions at the sites in the fabric being wirelessly received from a transmitter comprised in the fabric.

20. The method of claim 14, the sensor nodes further comprise respective Global Positioning System (GPS) sensors, and the detected conditions at the sites in the fabric further comprise detected geographic coordinates at the sites in the fabric outputted by the GPS sensors.