Searching sensor data

• US 9,171,079 B2
• Filed: 01/28/2011
• Issued: 10/27/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 01/28/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Banka, Tarun, Pandey, Manoj Kumar, Dutta, Debojyoti, Sen, Mainak, Balakrishnan, Raja Suresh Krishna
• Primary Examiner(s): KUDDUS, DANIEL A
• Application Number:
  US13/016,942
• Publication Number:
  US 20120197911A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,733 Days
• Field of Search: 707/741, 707/957, 707/959
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2264 Multidimensional index structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/953 Querying, e.g. by the use of web search engines
• 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

In particular embodiments, a method includes receiving a query for particular sensor data among multiple sensor data from multiple sensors. The plurality of sensor data has been indexed according to a multi-dimensional array. One or more first ones of the dimensions include time, and one or more second ones of the dimensions include one or more pre-determined sensor-data attributes. The method includes translating the query to correspond to the indexing of the plurality of sensor data. The translated query includes one or more values for one or more of the dimensions of the multi-dimensional array. The method includes communicating the translated query to search among the plurality of sensor data according to its indexing to identify the particular sensor data.

Claims

1. A method comprising, by one or more computer systems:

building a profile for the end user based on one or more learned preferences of the end user;

receiving a query, from the end user, for particular sensor data among a plurality of sensor data from a plurality of sensors, the received query comprising a unique resource locator that uniquely identifies a particular one of the plurality of sensors, the plurality of sensor data being indexed according to a multi-dimensional array, one or more first ones of the dimensions comprising time and one or more second ones of the dimensions comprising one or more pre-determined sensor-data attributes;

translating the query to correspond to the indexing of the plurality of sensor data, the translated query comprising one or more values for one or more of the dimensions of the multi-dimensional array;

appending, based on the unique resource locator that identifies the particular one of the plurality of sensors in the query received from the end user, the unique resource locator to the translated query, the unique resource locator specifying the particular one of the plurality of sensors;

communicating the translated query to search among the plurality of sensor data according to the indexing of the plurality of sensor data to identify sensor data associated with the particular one of the plurality of sensors;

receiving a list of matching sensor data;

tailoring the list of matching sensor data based on the user profile of the end user to provide a representation expected by the end user;

receiving query results comprising meta data associated with a subset of the plurality of sensors;

selecting a particular one of the subset of sensors; and

requesting the data available at the particular one of the subset of sensors.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein communicating the translated query comprises transmitting the query to a search engine that responds with a set of sensor data with substantially similar values for the one or more dimensions as the multidimensional array in the translated query.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the query is generated by a user.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the query is generated by a sensor network through the use of a standard application program interface.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein translating the query comprises:

searching a cache of a set of recent popular queries for a cached query that is substantially similar to the query received from the user,

providing the-one or more of the cached queries to the user for selection by the user; and

in response to a user input selecting one of the cached queries, translating the received query into the selected query.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising communicating the query directly to the specific sensor.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein one of the dimensions of the multi-dimensional array comprises one or more values specifying data type.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the value is numerical.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the value is text.

10. A method comprising, by one or more computer systems:

building a profile for an end user based on collectively learned preferences of the end user, the profile comprising a set of keywords and a weight assigned to each keyword in the set of keywords;

receiving a translated query for sensor data associated with a specific sensor among a plurality of sensor data from a plurality of sensors, the plurality of sensor data being indexed according to a multi-dimensional array, one or more first ones of the dimensions comprising time and one or more second ones of the dimensions comprising one or more pre-determined sensor-data attributes, the translated query having been translated from an original query for particular sensor data, the translated query comprising an unique resource locator specifying the specific sensor of the plurality of sensors, the translated query comprising one or more values for one or more of the dimensions of the multi-dimensional array;

generating one or more multi-dimensional-array filters based on the translated query;

determining that the translated query is not accurate;

modifying the translated query based on the profile for the end user to provide a more relevant response to the translated query;

applying the one or more multi-dimensional-array filters to the plurality of sensor data as indexed to identify the sensor data associated with the specific sensor among a plurality of sensor data for a response to the modified translated query;

accessing a cache of popular queries and their associated results;

determining whether the received translated query matches one of the queries in the cache of popular queries; and

in response to a determination that the received translated query matches one of the queries in the cache of popular queries, communicating the results associated with the matched query in the cache of popular queries to the query originator.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein one or more of the multi-dimensional-array filters omits any sensor data below a ranking specified by the translated query.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein one of the multi-dimensional-array filters omits any sensor data not falling within a time range specified by the translated query.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein one of the multi-dimensional-array filters omits any sensor data not falling within a distance specified by the translated query to a location specified by the translated query.

14. A method comprising, by one or more computer systems:

building a profile for the end user based on one or more learned preferences of the end user, the profile comprising a set of keywords and a weight assigned to each keyword in the set of keywords;

receiving a translated query identifying sensor data associated with a specific sensor among a plurality of sensor data from a plurality of sensors, the translated query having been translated from an original query for particular sensor data, the translated query comprising an unique resource locator specifying the specific sensor of the plurality of sensors, the translated query comprising one or more values for one or more of the dimensions of the multi-dimensional array;

generating one or more multi-dimensional-array filters based on the translated query;

determining that the translated query is not accurate;

modifying the translated query based the profile for the end user to provide a more relevant response to the translated query;

applying the one or more multi-dimensional-array filters to the plurality of sensor data as indexed to identify the sensor data associated with the specific sensor among a plurality of sensor data for a response to the modified translated query;

sorting the information based on the one or more learned preference in the profile for the end user, wherein sorting the information comprises ordering the information such that the information that is the most relevant to the user is displayed first;

communicating the information as sorted for display to the user, the display of the information providing a response to the original query, wherein communicating the information comprises;

rendering a page comprising multiple panels on the user'"'"'s display;

determining, for each sensor data in the sorted information, which panel the sensor data is most relevant to; and

rendering each sensor data in the determined most relevant panel.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the relevance of the information is determined at least in part by the popularity of sensor communicating the information.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the stored profile of a user comprises a location associated with the user, and the relevance of the information is determined at least in part by the location associated with the user.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein rendering each sensor data in the determined most relevant panel comprises:

generating a link for each sensor data configured to, when selected, retrieve requested sensor data; and

pre-caching each of the links by setting up the session for the link.

18. The method of claim 14, wherein the relevance of each sensor data is determined at least in part by a number of data dimensions of the sensor data.

19. The method of claim 14, wherein the relevance of each sensor data is determined at least in part by the reputation of the sensor data originator.

20. One or more computer-readable non-transitory storage media embodying software that is configured when executed to:

building a profile for the end user based on one or more learned preferences of the end user;

receive a query, from the end user, for particular sensor data among a plurality of sensor data from a plurality of sensors, the received query comprising a unique resource locator that uniquely identifies a particular one of the plurality of sensors, the plurality of sensor data being indexed according to a multi-dimensional array, one or more first ones of the dimensions comprising time and one or more second ones of the dimensions comprising one or more pre-determined sensor-data attributes;

translate the query to correspond to the indexing of the plurality of sensor data, the translated query comprising one or more values for one or more of the dimensions of the multi-dimensional array;

append, based on the unique resource locator that identifies the particular one of the plurality of sensors in the query received from the end user, the unique resource locator to the translated query, the unique resource locator specifying the particular one of the plurality of sensors;

communicate the translated query to search among the plurality of sensor data according to the indexing of the plurality of sensor data to identify sensor data associated with the particular one of the plurality of sensors;

receive a list of matching sensor data;

tailor the list of matching sensor data based on the user profile of the end user to provide a representation expected by the end user;

receive query results comprising meta data associated with a subset of the plurality of sensors;

select a particular one of the subset of sensors; and

request the data available at the particular one of the subset of sensors.

21. The media of claim 20, wherein communicating the translated query comprises transmitting the query to a search engine that responds with a set of sensor data with substantially similar values for the one or more dimensions as the multidimensional array in the translated query.

22. The media of claim 20, wherein the query is generated by a user.

23. The media of claim 22, wherein translating the query comprises:

searching a cache of a set of recent popular queries for a cached query that is substantially similar to the query received from the user,

providing the one or more of the cached queries to the user for selection by the user; and

in response to a user input selecting one of the cached queries, translating the received query into the selected query.

24. The media of claim 20, wherein the query is generated by a sensor network through the use of a standard application program interface.

25. The media of claim 20, further comprising software that is configured when executed to:

communicate the query directly to the specific sensor.

26. The media of claim 20, wherein one of the dimensions of the multi-dimensional array comprises one or more values specifying data type.

27. The media of claim 26, wherein the value is numerical.

28. The media of claim 26, wherein the value is text.

29. One or more computer-readable non-transitory storage media embodying software that is configured when executed to:

building a profile for an end user based on collectively learned preferences of the end user, the profile comprising a set of keywords and a weight assigned to each keyword in the set of keywords;

receive a translated query for sensor data associated with a specific sensor among a plurality of sensor data from a plurality of sensors, the plurality of sensor data being indexed according to a multi-dimensional array, one or more first ones of the dimensions comprising time and one or more second ones of the dimensions comprising one or more pre-determined sensor-data attributes, the translated query having been translated from an original query for particular sensor data, the translated query comprising an unique resource locator specifying the specific sensor of the plurality of sensors, the translated query comprising one or more values for one or more of the dimensions of the multi-dimensional array;

generate one or more multi-dimensional-array filters based on the translated query;

determining that the translated query is not accurate;

modifying the translated query based on the profile for the end user to provide a more relevant response to the translated query;

apply one or more of the multi-dimensional-array filters to the plurality of sensor data as indexed to identify the sensor data associated with the specific sensor among a plurality of sensor data for a response to the modified and translated query;

access a cache of popular queries and their associated results;

determine whether the received translated query matches one of the queries in the cache of popular queries; and

in response to a determination that the received translated query matches one of the queries in the cache of popular queries, communicating the results associated with the matched query in the cache of popular queries to the query originator.

30. The media of claim 29, wherein one or more of the multi-dimensional-array filters omits any sensor data below a ranking specified by the translated query.

31. The media of claim 29, wherein one of the multi-dimensional-array filters omits any sensor data not falling within a time range specified by the translated query.

32. The media of claim 29, wherein one of the multi-dimensional-array filters omits any sensor data not falling within a distance specified by the translated query to a location specified by the translated query.

33. One or more computer-readable non-transitory storage media embodying software that is configured when executed to:

building a profile for an end user based on collectively learned preferences of the end user, the profile comprising a set of keywords and a weight assigned to each keyword in the set of keywords;

receive information identifying sensor data associated with a specific sensor among a plurality of sensor data from a plurality of sensors, the plurality of sensor data being indexed according to a multi-dimensional array, one or more first ones of the dimensions comprising time and one or more second ones of the dimensions comprising one or more pre-determined sensor-data attributes, the translated query having been translated from an original query for particular sensor data, the translated query comprising an unique resource locator specifying the specific sensor of the plurality of sensors, the translated query comprising one or more values for one or more of the dimensions of the multi-dimensional array;

generate one or more multi-dimensional-array filters based on the translated query;

determine that the translated query is not accurate;

modify the translated query based on the profile for the end user to provide a more relevant response to the translated query;

apply the one or more multi-dimensional-array filters to the plurality of sensor data as indexed to identify the sensor data associated with the specific sensor among a plurality of sensor data for a response to the modified translated query;

sort the information based on one or more preferences in the profile for the end user to provide a representation expected by the end user, wherein sorting the information comprises ordering the information such that the information that is most relevant to the user is displayed first; and

communicate the information as sorted for display to the end user, the display of the information providing a response to the original query, wherein communicating the sorted information for display comprises;

rendering a page comprising multiple panels on the user'"'"'s display;

determining, for each sensor data in the sorted information, which panel the sensor data is most relevant to; and

rendering each sensor data in the determined most relevant panel.

34. The media of claim 33, wherein the relevance of the information is determined at least in part by the popularity of sensor communicating the information.

35. The media of claim 33, wherein the stored profile of a user comprises a location associated with the user, and the relevance of the information is determined at least in part by the location associated with the user.

36. The media of claim 33, wherein rendering each sensor data in the determined most relevant panel comprises:

generating a link for each sensor data configured to, when selected, retrieve requested sensor data; and

pre-caching each of the links by setting up the session for the link.

37. The media of claim 33, wherein the relevance of each sensor data is determined at least in part by a number of data dimensions of the sensor data.

38. The media of claim 33, wherein the relevance of each sensor data is determined at least in part by the reputation of the sensor data originator.

39. An apparatus comprising:

one or more communication interfaces;

one or more memory devices containing one or more instructions for execution by one or more processing devices; and

the processing devices configured when executing the instructions to;

build a profile for the end user based on one or more learned preferences of the end user;

receive a query, from the end user, for particular sensor data among a plurality of sensor data from a plurality of sensors, the received query comprising a unique resource locator that uniquely identifies a particular one of the plurality of sensors, the plurality of sensor data being indexed according to a multi-dimensional array, one or more first ones of the dimensions comprising time and one or more second ones of the dimensions comprising one or more pre-determined sensor-data attributes;

translate the query to correspond to the indexing of the plurality of sensor data, the translated query comprising one or more values for one or more of the dimensions of the multi-dimensional array;

appending, based on the unique resource locator that identifies the particular one of the plurality of sensors in the query received from the end user, the unique resource locator to the translated query, the unique resource locator specifying the particular one of the plurality of sensors;

communicate the translated query to search among the plurality of sensor data according to the indexing of the plurality of sensor data to identify sensor data associated with the particular one of the plurality of sensors;

receive a list of matching sensor data;

tailor the list of matching sensor data based on the profile of the end user to provide a representation expected by the end user;

receive query results comprising meta data associated with a subset of the plurality of sensors;

select a particular one of the subset of sensors; and

request the data available at the particular one of the subset of sensors.

40. The apparatus of claim 39, wherein communicating the translated query comprises transmitting the query to a search engine that responds with a set of sensor data with substantially similar values for the one or more dimensions as the multidimensional array in the translated query.

41. The apparatus of claim 39, wherein the query is generated by a user.

42. The apparatus of claim 41, wherein translating the query comprises:

searching a cache of a set of recent popular queries for a cached query that is substantially similar to the query received from the user,

providing the one or more of the cached queries to the user for selection by the user; and

in response to a user input selecting one of the cached queries, translating the received query into the selected query.

43. The apparatus of claim 39, wherein the query is generated by a sensor network through the use of a standard application program interface.

44. The apparatus of claim 39, the processing devices further configured when executing the instructions to:

communicate the query directly to the specific sensor.

45. The apparatus of claim 39, wherein one of the dimensions of the multi-dimensional array comprises one or more values specifying data type.

46. The apparatus of claim 45, wherein the value is numerical.

47. The apparatus of claim 45, wherein the value is text.

48. An apparatus comprising:

one or more communication interfaces;

one or more memory devices containing one or more instructions for execution by one or more processing devices; and

the processing devices configured when executing the instructions to;

building a profile for an end user based on collectively learned preferences of the end user, the profile comprising a set of keywords and a weight assigned to each keyword in the set of keywords;

receive a translated query for sensor data associated with a specific sensor among a plurality of sensor data from a plurality of sensors, the plurality of sensor data being indexed according to a multi-dimensional array, one or more first ones of the dimensions comprising time and one or more second ones of the dimensions comprising one or more pre-determined sensor-data attributes, the translated query having been translated from an original query for particular sensor data, the translated query comprising an unique resource locator specifying the specific sensor of the plurality of sensors, the translated query comprising one or more values for one or more of the dimensions of the multi-dimensional array;

generate one or more multi-dimensional-array filters based on the translated query;

determine that the translated query is not accurate;

modify the translated query based on the profile for the end user to provide a more relevant response to the translated query;

apply one or more of the multi-dimensional-array filters to the plurality of sensor data as indexed to identify the sensor data associated with the specific sensor among a plurality of sensor data for a response to the modified and translated query;

access a cache of popular queries and their associated results;

determine whether the received translated query matches one of the queries in the cache of popular queries; and

in response to a determination that the received translated query matches one of the queries in the cache of popular queries, communicating the results associated with the matched query in the cache of popular queries to the query originator.

49. The apparatus of claim 48, wherein one or more of the multi-dimensional-array filters omits any sensor data below a ranking specified by the translated query.

50. The apparatus of claim 48, wherein one of the multi-dimensional-array filters omits any sensor data not falling within a time range specified by the translated query.

51. The apparatus of claim 48, wherein one of the multi-dimensional-array filters omits any sensor data not falling within a distance specified by the translated query to a location specified by the translated query.

52. An apparatus comprising:

one or more communication interfaces;

one or more memory devices containing one or more instructions for execution by one or more processing devices; and

the processing devices configured when executing the instructions to;

building a profile for an end user based on collectively learned preferences of the end user, the profile comprising a set of keywords a weight assigned to each keyword in the set of keywords;

receive information identifying sensor data associated with a specific sensor among a plurality of sensor data from a plurality of sensors, the plurality of sensor data being indexed according to a multi-dimensional array, one or more first ones of the dimensions comprising time and one or more second ones of the dimensions comprising one or more pre-determined sensor-data attributes, the translated query having been translated from an original query for particular sensor data, the translated query comprising an unique resource locator specifying the specific sensor of the plurality of sensors, the translated query comprising one or more values for one or more of the dimensions of the multi-dimensional array;

generate one or more multi-dimensional-array filters based on the translated query;

determine that the translated query is not accurate;

modify the translated query based on the profile for the end user to provide a more relevant response to the translated query;

apply the one or more multi-dimensional-array filters to the plurality of sensor data as indexed to identify the sensor data associated with the specific sensor among a plurality of sensor data for a response to the modified and translated query;

sort the information based on one or more preferences in the profile for the end user, wherein sorting the information comprises ordering the information such that the information that is the most relevant to the user is displayed first

communicate the information as sorted for display to the user, the display of the information providing a response to the original query, wherein communicating the sorted information for display comprises;

rendering a page comprising multiple panels on the user'"'"'s display;

determining, for each sensor data in the sorted information, which panel the sensor data is most relevant to; and

rendering each sensor data in the determined most relevant panel.

53. The apparatus of claim 52, wherein the relevance of the information is determined at least in part by the popularity of sensor communicating the information.

54. The apparatus of claim 52, wherein the stored profile of a user comprises a location associated with the user, and the relevance of the information is determined at least in part by the location associated with the user.

55. The apparatus of claim 52, wherein rendering each sensor data in the determined most relevant panel comprises:

generating a link for each sensor data configured to, when selected, retrieve requested sensor data; and

pre-caching each of the links by setting up the session for the link.

56. The apparatus of claim 52, wherein the relevance of each sensor data is determined at least in part by a number of data dimensions of the sensor data.

57. The apparatus of claim 52, wherein the relevance of each sensor data is determined at least in part by the reputation of the sensor data originator.