Acoustic Sensor Array for Emergency Person Location
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing monitoring systems face challenges in quickly locating individuals within a building during emergencies, as they often cover multiple rooms and may struggle with identifying weak or distant voices, leading to potential delays in providing assistance.
Innovation Solution
A computer-implemented method using a monitoring system with distributed sensing devices and a controller core that receives triggers for identifying a person's location through acoustic indicators, where sensing devices detect and analyze incident acoustic waves to determine the loudest or most significant signals, thereby pinpointing the individual's location within the building.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Area of stationary object
If monitoring systems cover multiple rooms in a building, then the monitoring area is expanded, but the time to locate a specific person increases
Solution Approach 1:
The monitoring system divides the building into multiple zones with distributed sensing devices. Each sensing device independently monitors its local area and can identify acoustic signals. When a distress signal is detected, the system segments the search by comparing acoustic indicators from different zones to pinpoint the exact location, reducing the time to locate a person while maintaining coverage of the entire building.
2Measurement precision
If sensing devices continuously monitor acoustic signals, then detection accuracy is improved, but power consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The sensing devices operate in periodic cycles, alternating between low-power sleep mode and active monitoring mode. The devices are selectively activated based on trigger events such as motion detection or scheduled intervals. During active periods, they perform acoustic analysis with high precision; during sleep periods, they consume minimal power. This periodic operation maintains detection accuracy while significantly reducing overall power consumption.
3Measurement precision
If processing devices are activated continuously, then acoustic analysis accuracy is improved, but power consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary filtering of acoustic signals at the sensing device level before activating the more power-intensive processing devices. Simple threshold-based detection is performed continuously with minimal power, while full acoustic analysis by processing devices is only activated when preliminary filters indicate a potential event of interest. This preliminary action maintains high accuracy for significant events while avoiding unnecessary power consumption during normal conditions.
4Measurement precision
If all sensing devices transmit acoustic indicators continuously, then location identification accuracy is improved, but data transmission load increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system extracts and transmits only the most relevant acoustic indicator data from each sensing device. Instead of transmitting continuous raw acoustic signals or all processed data, the system identifies key features such as acoustic event timestamps, location identifiers, and simplified spectral characteristics. This extraction approach maintains location identification accuracy by preserving essential information while dramatically reducing the volume of data transmitted across the network.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This approach allows for efficient and accurate location identification of individuals in a building, reducing response time for emergency services by selectively activating processing devices only when necessary and using acoustic analysis to filter out noise, thus conserving power and improving the accuracy of locating persons in need.
Implementation Method 1
each of the sensing devices has at least one sensor for detecting a threat-condition and an acoustic sensor for generating in the sensing device an acoustic indicator indicative of an incident acoustic wave
Data Source
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AI summary
A location of a person (103) is identified. A controller core is configured for interfacing with a plurality of sensing devices (104) at a plurality of locations (119). Each sensing device (104) has a sensor for detecting a threat-condition and an acoustic sensor (107) for generating an acoustic indicator indicative of an incident acoustic wave. The controller core is configured to: (i) upon receiving a trigger, instruct wireless transmission to the sensing devices (104), of a request for an acoustic indicator generated in the sensing device (104), wherein the request configures each of the sensing devices (104) to activate a process in respect of an incident acoustic wave; (ii) receive one or more of said requested acoustic indicators; and (iii) based on the received one or more acoustic indicators, identify a location of the person (103) within the building (121).