METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR MONITORING LIQUIDS

• US 20140127742A1
• Filed: 11/06/2012
• Published: 05/08/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 11/06/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Empire Technology Development LLC (Allied Inventors Management, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Empire Technology Development LLC (Allied Inventors Management, LLC)
• Inventors: Field, Christopher David
• Granted Patent: US 9,057,677 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 435/34
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 2291/02809 Concentration of a compound, e.g. measured by a surface mass change
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 2291/02881 Temperature
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 2291/048 Transmission, i.e. analysed material between transmitter and receiver
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 29/032 by measuring attenuation of acoustic waves
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 29/343 pulse waves, e.g. particular sequence of pulses, bursts
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 29/346 with amplitude characteristics, e.g. modulated signal
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 29/348 with frequency characteristics, e.g. single frequency signals, chirp signals measuring frequency of mechanical vibrations or acoustic waves in general G01H1/06, G01H3/04; measuring frequency or analysing frequency spectra G01R23/00
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 29/46 by spectral analysis, e.g. Fourier analysis or wavelet analysis spectral signal processing per se G06F17/14
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 1/72 using ultrasonic, sonic or infrasonic waves
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 11/00 Transmission systems employing sonic, ultrasonic or infrasonic waves

Abstract

Technologies are generally disclosed for systems and methods for monitoring a liquid. An illustrative method may include disposing one or more sensors in the liquid, sensing one or more properties exhibited by the liquid using the one or more sensors, producing sensed data from the properties by the one or more sensors, encoding the sensed data into an acoustic signal by the one or more sensors, transmitting the acoustic signal through the liquid by the one or more sensors and receiving the acoustic signal by one or more sound receiving devices.

Claims

1. A system for monitoring a liquid, the system comprising:

one or more sensors configured to sense one or more properties of the liquid and transmit an acoustic signal encoded with sensed data regarding the properties through the liquid; and

one or more sound receiving devices configured to receive the acoustic signal transmitted by at least one of the one or more sensors.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more sound receiving devices are hydrophones and are further configured to decode the acoustic signal to obtain the sensed data and transmit the sensed data to an electronic device.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the system further comprises an electronic device that is configured to process the sensed data received from the sound receiving device to obtain content-related information.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the liquid and the one or more sensors are contained within a container having one or more walls comprising an inside surface and an outside surface and wherein each of the one or more sensors:

is affixed to an inside surface of at least one of the walls,

moves freely within the liquid and is not affixed to a surface of the container,

is tethered to an immobile object within the container, or

is tethered to the container.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the container is one of a food container, a beverage container, a can, a drum, a tanker truck, a fuel storage tank, a fuel pipeline, a fuel tanker, a chemical storage tank, a chemical storage container, a swimming pool, an aquarium tank, an aerosol container, a water storage tank, a flexible liquid storage bladder, and a medical transport container.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the liquid is oil, gasoline, kerosene, diesel fuel, water, salt water, fresh water, milk, juice, beer, alcohol, ethanol, methanol, organic solvents, wine, spirits, carbonated drinks, blood, or medical fluids.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein each of the one or more sensors is disposed in the liquid and comprises one or more of the following:

a carbon dioxide sensor, an oxygen sensor, a biological oxygen demand sensor, a turbidity sensor, a pathogen sensor, a temperature sensor, an optic sensor, an analytic sensor, a chemical sensor, a pH sensor, a salinity sensor, a vibration sensor, and an accelerometer.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the properties comprises one or more of color, turbidity, temperature, chemical composition, carbon dioxide content, oxygen content, presence of pathogens, pH, salinity, and vibration exposure.

23. The system of claim 1, wherein the acoustic signal is further encoded with a unique identifier corresponding to the identity of the sensor.

3. (canceled)

7-9. -9. (canceled)

11-12. -12. (canceled)

15-22. -22. (canceled)

24. (canceled)

25. A method of monitoring a liquid, the method comprising:

disposing one or more sensors in the liquid;

sensing one or more properties exhibited by the liquid using the sensors;

producing sensed data from the properties by the sensors;

encoding the sensed data into an acoustic signal by the sensors;

transmitting the acoustic signal through the liquid by the sensors; and

receiving the acoustic signal by one or more sound receiving devices.

26. The method of claim 25, further comprising:

decoding the acoustic signal received by the one or more sound receiving devices to obtain the sensed data;

transmitting the sensed data to an electronic device by the sound receiving devices;

processing the sensed data to obtain liquid-related information by the electronic device; and

displaying the processed sensed data by the electronic device on a display.

30. The method of claim 25, wherein the one or more properties comprise one or more of color, turbidity, temperature, chemical composition, carbon dioxide content, oxygen content, presence of pathogens, pH and salinity.

33. The method of claim 25, further comprising receiving an acoustic signal comprising a unique identifier corresponding to the identity of one of the one or more sensors by the sound receiving devices.

34. The method of claim 25, further comprising detecting a location of each sensor via echolocation by the sound receiving devices.

27-29. -29. (canceled)

31-32. -32. (canceled)

35. An article of manufacture comprising:

a container for holding a liquid;

one or more sensors disposed within the container configured to sense one or more properties of the liquid and transmit an acoustic signal encoded with sensed data regarding the properties through the liquid; and

one or more sound receiving devices configured to receive the acoustic signal transmitted by at least one sensor.

36. The article of manufacture of claim 35, wherein each of the one or more sound receiving devices comprises a hydrophone and is further configured to decode the acoustic signal to obtain the sensed data and transmit the sensed data to an electronic device.

38. The article of manufacture of claim 35, wherein the electronic device is configured to process the sensed data received from the sound receiving device to obtain content-related information.

39. The article of manufacture of claim 35, wherein the container has one or more walls comprising an inside surface and an outside surface and wherein each of the one or more sensors:

is affixed to an inside surface of at least one of the walls,

moves freely within the liquid and is not affixed to a surface of the container,

is tethered to an immobile object within the container, or

is tethered to the container.

43. The article of manufacture of claim 35, wherein the container is one of a food container, a beverage container, a can, a drum, a tanker truck, a fuel storage tank, a fuel pipeline, a fuel tanker, a chemical storage tank, a chemical storage container, a swimming pool, an aquarium tank, an aerosol container, a water storage tank, a flexible liquid storage bladder, and a medical transport container.

45. The article of manufacture of claim 35, wherein each of the one or more sensors comprises one or more of the following:

a carbon dioxide sensor, an oxygen sensor, a biological oxygen demand sensor, a turbidity sensor, a pathogen sensor, a temperature sensor, an optic sensor, an analytic sensor, a chemical sensor, a pH sensor, a salinity sensor, a vibration sensor, and an accelerometer.

46. The article of manufacture of claim 35, wherein the properties comprise one or more of color, turbidity, temperature, chemical composition, carbon dioxide content, oxygen content, presence of pathogens, pH and salinity.

51. The article of manufacture of claim 35, further comprising at least one memory in operable communication with the one or more sensors, wherein the memory is configured to store manufacturing information for the content, and handling information for the content and wherein the manufacturing information and the handling information are encoded in the acoustic signal.

54. The article of manufacture of claim 35, wherein each sensor is configured to encode the acoustic signal with a unique identifier corresponding to the identity of the sensor.

37. (canceled)

40-42. -42. (canceled)

44. (canceled)

47-50. -50. (canceled)

52-53. -53. (canceled)

55. (canceled)