Building support with concealed electronic component for a structure

Abstract

Building support with a concealed electronic component for a structure, including: a rigid support member; a mounting attachment affixed to the rigid support member, the mounting attachment adapted to support an electronic component; and a transceiver coupled to the electronic component, the transceiver adapted to support an external communication link. Other embodiments provide a backing material to support an electronic component concealed within a building structural element, wherein the building structural element comprises one or more rigid building support members, the backing material including: a substrate; a structure attachment along at least one surface of the substrate, the attachment adapted to attach the substrate to a rigid building support member; and one or more electronic component attachments disposed on a major surface of the rigid substrate.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This patent application claims the benefit of the U.S. patent application entitled “DATA FARMING AND SERVICE,” having Ser. No. 13 / 772,853, filed on Feb. 21, 2013, the entire content of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.BACKGROUND[0002]1. Field of the Invention[0003]Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to a concealed building support, and, in particular, to an apparatus, system and method for providing a concealed building support that is adapted to house or support an electronic component.[0004]2. Description of Related Art[0005]It is well known that we are a data driven society. Over the past several years there has been a push to convert all of our society's global data, communications, media, etc into a digital format and store that information on physical media such as hard drives, CDs and DVDs. The amount of digital data that our society is creating is growing exponentially, and the correspond...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0016]Embodiments in accordance with the present invention may be marketed to data farmers and Primary Source Data Clients as a “green” (i.e., eco-friendly) product. Compared to large data centers, embodiments use substantially less electricity. Conventional data storage centers typically use hard drive storage, which use spinning motorized drives that are constantly powered. In contrast, embodiments may utilize solid state technologies for reduced power consumption and reduced heat production required for storage. With the use of more efficient technology and the dispersal of individual storage assets, large data centers will not be required. The elimination of these centers would in turn eliminate the need for large heating, ventilation and air conditioning (“HVAC”) equipment and their resultant large power demands.

Problems solved by technology

A single storage asset, or a small number of clustered storage assets, may consume a relatively modest amount of energy, and / or generate a modest amount of heat, and / or generate little attention or scrutiny from outsiders.

Due to the inconvenience involved with maintaining local or nearby computer storage, and the resultant probabilities of data loss if the computers or storage media are not properly maintained, a trend has developed in recent years to migrate storage to “the Cloud,” which can then be remotely accessed from devices such as computers, laptops, tablets and phones.

Cloud-based storage typically requires a relatively large number of storage assets.

However, a concentration of storage assets in a data warehouse may create problems that exceed a tolerable level unless mitigated.

For example, an N-fold increase in the number of storage assets may by themselves cause an N-fold increase in power consumption and heat generation, which in turn requires higher-capacity climate control equipment and concomitant further increases in energy consumption for cooling.

Modern data warehouses have become massive facilities that consume large amounts of power, large plots of lands, and require high-capacity communication trunks to support the data traffic.

Furthermore, the conventional data warehouse draws attention to itself due to its physical size, the value of the data stored within it, and the threat of business disruption if the data warehouse were to be attacked or otherwise suffer a failure.

The required infrastructure of a conventional data warehouse, i.e., to supply the electrical energy, to supply cooling capacity, to supply communication network capacity, and to supply physical security, increases the cost and eco-footprint of operating a data warehouse and may not be appealing to eco-conscious consumers or consumers who seek a lower cost to store data in the Cloud.

Structural space is often closed off with limited physical access compared to open interior space.

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