SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR SENSOR-BASED COMPUTING

• US 20070093990A1
• Filed: 12/01/2006
• Published: 04/26/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Tarantola, Carlo, Skolecki, Maciej, Odrowaz-Sypniewski, Marcin, Wojcik, Grzegorz
• Granted Patent: US 7,930,143 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 702/186
• CPC Class Codes: G01D 21/00 Measuring or testing not otherwise provided for
• CPC Class Codes: G01D 9/005 Solid-state data loggers

Abstract

Various embodiments of the invention provide devices, methods and systems, including without limitation data acquisition systems, that can provide flexible sensing and/or data acquisition solutions. An exemplary sensing device, which may be in communication with one or more computers, such as a server, etc., can include one or more sensor(s), a processor and/or a data store. The sensing device can, perhaps in response to instructions received from the computer, filter and/or otherwise process data acquired by the sensor before transmitting the desired data to the computer. The sensing device may store some or all of the acquired data locally and/or may transmit, replicate, etc. some or all of the stored data to the computer.

Claims

1. A sensing device comprising:

at least one sensor;

a processor;

a data store; and

instructions executable by the processor to;

acquire data with the at least one sensor;

process the data; and

store the data in the data store.

2. A sensing device as recited in claim 1, wherein the data acquired by the at least one sensor is raw data, and wherein the data stored in the data store comprises the union of the raw data and programming logic associated with the raw data.

3. A sensing device as recited in claim 1, wherein the sensing device comprises a radio frequency identification (RFID) sensor.

4. A sensing device as recited in claim 1, wherein the sensor is selected from the group consisting of a moisture sensor, a temperature sensor, a pressure sensor, a strain gauge, a mass or weight sensor, a motion sensor, and a location sensor.

5. A sensing device as recited in claim 1, wherein the sensing device is configured to communicate with a server computer.

6. A sensing device as recited in claim 5, wherein the data store is configured to store a data set and wherein communicating with the server computer comprises synchronizing at least a portion of the data set with the server computer.

7. A sensing device as recited in claim 1, wherein the data store comprises a random access memory device.

8. A sensing device as recited in claim 1, wherein the data store comprises a disk drive.

9. A sensing device as recited in claim 1, wherein the data store comprises a lightweight database.

10. A sensing device as recited in claim 9, wherein the lightweight database is a distributed database.

11. A sensing device as recited in claim 10, wherein the lightweight database is distributed among a plurality of sensing devices.

12. A sensing device as recited in claim 9, wherein the lightweight database is configured to be synchronized with a database on a server computer.

13. A distributed computing system comprising:

a server computer comprising a first processor and a computer readable medium with instructions executable by the server computer to;

communicate with a sensing device; and

at least one sensing device in communication with the server computer, the sensing device comprising;

at least one sensor;

a second processor;

a data store; and

instructions executable by the sensing device to;

acquire data with the at least one sensor;

process at least a portion of the acquired data; and

store at least a portion of the acquired the data in the data store.

14. A distributed computing system as recited in claim 13, wherein the computer readable medium comprises instructions executable by the server computer to provide an instruction to a sensing device.

15. A distributed computing system as recited in claim 14, wherein the sensing device is configured to:

receive the instruction provided by the server computer; and

act in accordance with the instruction provided by the server computer.

16. A distributed computing system as recited in claim 13, wherein the data acquired by the at least one sensor is raw data, and wherein the data received from the sensing device comprises the union of at least some of the raw data and programming logic associated with the at least some of the raw data.

17. A distributed computing system as recited in claim 13, wherein the at least one sensing device is a plurality of sensing devices.

18. A distributed computing system as recited in claim 13, wherein the at least one sensing device comprises further instructions executable by the second processor to transmit at least a portion of the acquired data for reception by the server computer, and wherein the computer readable medium comprises further instructions executable by the server computer to receive the at least a portion of the acquired data transmitted by the at least one sensing device.

19. A distributed computing system as recited in claim 18, wherein the instructions to transmit and receive at least a portion of the acquired data together comprise instructions executable to synchronize data between the sensing device and the server computer.

20. A computer system as recited in claim 13, wherein the data store comprises a data set, wherein the server computer comprises a second data store, and wherein the at least one sensing device comprises further instructions executable by the second processor to synchronize at least a portion of the data set between the data store and the second data store.

21. A distributed computing system as recited in claim 13, wherein:

the data store is a first data store, local to the sensing device and configured to store data acquired by the at least one sensor; and

the server computer further comprises a composite data store local to the server computer, the composite data store being configured to receive at least some of the data stored in the first data store.

22. In a computer system, a method of distributed computing, the method comprising:

providing a sensing device in communication with a server computer, the sensing device being remote from the server computer and comprising a processor, a data store and at least one sensor;

acquiring data with the at least one sensor;

processing at least a portion of the acquired data with the processor; and

storing at least a portion of the acquired data in the data store.

23. A method as recited in claim 22, wherein the data acquired by the at least one sensor is raw data, and wherein the data stored in the data store comprises the union of the raw data and programming logic associated with the raw data.

24. A method as recited in claim 22, the method further comprising:

transmitting at least a portion of the data from the sensing device for reception by the server computer.

25. A method as recited in claim 22, the method further comprising:

synchronizing at least a portion of a data set with a second data store local to the server computer.

26. A method as recited in claim 22, the method further comprising:

receiving at the sensing device an instruction provided by the server computer; and

acting in accordance with the instruction provided by the server computer.

27. A method as recited in claim 26, wherein the instruction provided by the server computer comprises a command to activate the sensor.

28. A method as recited in claim 26, wherein the sensing device comprises a sensor and wherein the instruction comprises a command to deactivate the sensor.

29. A method as recited in claim 26, wherein the sensing device comprises a sensor and wherein the instruction comprises a command to acquire data with the sensor.

30. A method as recited in claim 26, wherein the sensing device comprises a sensor and wherein the instruction comprises a command to process acquired data in a particular manner.

31. A method as recited in claim 22, wherein processing the data comprises filtering the data into a set of desired data and a set of undesired data.

32. A method as recited in claim 31, wherein storing at least a portion of the data comprises storing the set of desired data and discarding the set of undesired data.

33. A method as recited in claim 22, wherein processing the data comprises transforming the data.

34. A sensing device comprising:

sensor means for acquiring data;

means for processing the acquired data;

means for storing at least part of the acquired data; and

means for storing at least part of the acquired data.

35. A sensing device as recited in claim 34, further comprising:

means for receiving an instruction from a server computer.

36. A sensing device as recited in claim 34, further comprising:

means for synchronizing at least part of a data set with a server computer.

37. A computer program product stored on a computer readable medium, the computer program product comprising instructions executable by a sensing device to:

acquire data with a sensor;

process at least a portion of the acquired data with a processor; and

store at least a portion of the acquired data at a data store resident on the sensor.

38. A computer program product stored on a computer readable medium, the computer program product comprising instructions executable by server computer to:

transmit an instruction to a sensing device, the instruction comprising a command to acquire data with a sensor local to the sensing device; and

synchronize at least a portion of the acquired data between the sensing device and a data store local to the server computer.

39. A computer data structure for use in a distributed computing environment, the data structure comprising:

a first data store local to a first sensing device, the sensing device comprising a first sensor, the first data store being configured to store data acquired by the first sensor;

a composite data store local to a server computer, the composite data store being configured to receive at least some of the data stored in the first data store.

40. A computer data structure as recited in claim 39, wherein the first data store and the composite data store together comprise a distributed database.

41. A computer data structure as recited in claim 39, wherein the first data store is configured to synchronize with the composite data store.

42. A computer data structure as recited in claim 39, wherein the first data store is configured to receive at least some of the data stored in the composite data store.

43. A computer data structure as recited in claim 39, further comprising:

a second data store local to a second sensing device, the second sensing device comprising a second sensor, the second data store being configured to store data acquired by the second sensor;

wherein;

the composite data store is further configured to receive at least some of the data stored in the second data store.