Method and apparatus for environmental sensing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing environmental sensing systems lack the ability to provide contextual information for alarm conditions, often resulting in premature or false alarms, and fail to predict when environmental parameters will exceed thresholds, leading to delayed corrective action.
Innovation Solution
A method and system that utilize multiple environmental sensors to monitor and analyze data, determining the context of anomalous readings and predicting when thresholds will be exceeded, providing timely and accurate alerts for users.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Device complexity
If a single environmental sensor is used to monitor parameters, then the device complexity is reduced, but the ability to determine contextual information and reduce false alarms deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple environmental sensors (temperature, humidity, light, motion) into a single integrated monitoring system. The sensor module aggregates data from different sensor types to provide comprehensive environmental monitoring, enabling contextual analysis that reduces false alarms while maintaining manageable system complexity through unified data processing
Solution Approach 2:
The monitoring system is designed to perform multiple functions: it monitors various environmental parameters simultaneously, analyzes contextual patterns across different sensor inputs, predicts threshold exceedances, and provides comprehensive alerts. This multi-functional approach allows a single system to deliver both simplified operation and high reliability through cross-parameter correlation
2Measurement precision
If alarm thresholds are set sensitively to detect all anomalies, then measurement precision is improved, but the frequency of false alarms increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements feedback through continuous monitoring of environmental parameters and comparison against learned normal patterns. When a parameter approaches a threshold, the system analyzes contextual data from multiple sensors to determine whether the change is part of normal usage patterns or indicates a genuine anomaly, providing feedback that adjusts alarm generation to reduce false positives while maintaining sensitive detection
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary analysis of environmental changes by comparing real-time sensor data against historical patterns and contextual information from multiple sensors. This preliminary action identifies normal fluctuations before they trigger alarms, allowing the system to distinguish between benign variations and genuine anomalies, thereby maintaining high detection sensitivity without generating false alarms
3Loss of time
If alarm alerts are generated immediately when thresholds are exceeded, then response time is reduced, but the ability to distinguish true alarms from false alarms deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary contextual analysis by evaluating multiple sensor inputs and comparing them against learned normal patterns before generating an alarm. This preliminary action occurs in real-time, allowing the system to quickly distinguish between true alarms and false alarms without delaying the alert, thus maintaining both rapid response time and high alarm validity
Solution Approach 2:
The system introduces an intermediary analysis layer between threshold detection and alarm generation. This intermediary evaluates contextual information from multiple sensors and applies pattern recognition to determine whether a threshold exceedance represents a genuine alarm condition or a false alarm, enabling fast and reliable alarm generation without sacrificing accuracy
4Reliability
If multiple environmental sensors are deployed to provide contextual information, then the ability to reduce false alarms is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple environmental sensors into a unified monitoring system with centralized data processing. By integrating temperature, humidity, light, and motion sensors into a single system that processes all inputs together, the patent achieves high reliability through contextual analysis while managing complexity through unified architecture and shared processing logic
Data Source
AI summary
A method for verifying an alarm condition in an environmental sensing system includes monitoring data received from environmental sensors; detecting anomalous data received from one of the plurality of environmental sensors; determining the context in which the anomalous data was acquired is consistent with typical usage activities; and providing an alarm condition alert when the determined context is not consistent with typical activities. A system for intelligently monitoring environmental conditions includes environmental sensors configured to monitor first and second environmental conditions and to communicate with an intelligent analysis module. The intelligent analysis module is configured with logic to determine whether anomalous data has been collected by the environmental sensors, to determine the context in which the anomalous data was collected, to determine whether the anomalous data can be attributed to a routine activity, and to provide an alarm condition if the anomalous data cannot be attributed to a routine activity.