Kinetically Activated Self-Diagnostics for Hardware Fault Correction
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Hardware devices often experience malfunctions, and users resort to physically striking them to attempt correction, but this lacks knowledge of the cause or permanence of the fix, and existing technologies lack proactive fault detection and correction capabilities.
Innovation Solution
A kinetically activated method and device that embeds an integrated circuit with sensors, a processor, diagnostic support services, and a kinetic energy harvester to initiate self-diagnostics upon detecting excessive force, enabling real-time fault detection and correction, and broadcasting diagnostic messages to other devices for solutions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If users physically strike or shake malfunctioning devices to attempt correction, then immediate fix may be achieved, but knowledge of cause and permanence of fix is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The device performs self-diagnostics automatically upon detecting kinetic input, eliminating the need for user intervention while capturing diagnostic information that would otherwise be lost. The system serves itself by detecting faults and reporting them without requiring user knowledge or action.
Solution Approach 2:
The system provides immediate feedback through notifications to the user about detected faults and their causes. This feedback loop ensures that users gain knowledge about what went wrong and what actions were taken, converting the information loss from physical striking into useful diagnostic data.
2Reliability
If kinetic energy harvester is added to power self-diagnostics, then proactive fault detection is enabled, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The kinetic energy harvester serves multiple functions: it powers the self-diagnostics system, captures kinetic input events, and provides energy buffer capacity. By making one component multi-functional, the overall device complexity is reduced despite adding capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent combines the kinetic energy harvester with the diagnostic system and power management circuitry into an integrated architecture. The processor, memory, sensors, and energy harvesting components work as a unified system, reducing the complexity that would arise from separate independent subsystems.
3Reliability
If self-diagnostics are triggered by excessive force detection, then real-time fault detection is achieved, but false triggers from normal use may occur
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically adjusts the force threshold for triggering diagnostics based on operational context and historical data. The threshold is not fixed but adapts to differentiate between normal operational forces and abnormal events that indicate faults, reducing false positives while maintaining sensitivity.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary analysis of kinetic events before triggering full diagnostics. By pre-processing kinetic data and comparing it against known fault patterns, the system can filter out normal operational variations and only initiate diagnostics when genuine fault indicators are detected.
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
Enables proactive, real-time detection and correction of faults in hardware devices, providing users with knowledge of the issue and potential solutions, enhancing operational sustainability and user experience.
Implementation Method 1
a kinetic energy harvester and an energy buffer... sense via the embedded integrated circuit a particular shock, impact, vibration or the like and initiate a self-diagnostic routine
Data Source
AI summary
A kinetically activated method and device for initiating self-diagnostics in a variety of hardware devices to enable proactive detection and correction of faults, errors, malfunctions, failures and the like.