Sensor Interface Mediator for Platform Portability
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Solution Overview
Problem
The increasing diversity and variability of physical sensors in mobile devices make it difficult for application developers to create applications that can be ported across different hardware platforms, and for systems engineers to provide a hardware platform that supports a wide range of sensors, leading to inflexibility and limited upgradability.
Innovation Solution
A sensor interface that allows for sensor-independent data requests, where a processor determines which sensors to use to satisfy client data requests, configures sensor inputs, and can create virtual sensors to combine or convert data, enabling efficient data acquisition without specifying particular sensors.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If application developers specify particular physical sensors in data requests to ensure data acquisition, then measurement precision and reliability are improved, but device complexity and difficulty of porting across hardware platforms increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a sensor interface as an intermediary layer between applications and physical sensors. This interface receives sensor-independent data requests from applications, determines which sensors can satisfy the requests, and manages the mapping between logical data requirements and physical sensor implementations. This mediator approach allows applications to request data without specifying sensors, while the interface handles the complexity of sensor selection and platform-specific variations.
Solution Approach 2:
The sensor interface is designed to be universal across different hardware platforms. It provides a unified method for applications to request sensor data without platform-specific details, while internally adapting to different sensor configurations. The interface can handle requests from multiple applications and map them to available sensors dynamically, making the system portable across devices with different sensor sets.
2Adaptability or versatility
If systems engineers provide a hardware platform with diverse sensor support to accommodate various applications, then adaptability is improved, but device complexity and difficulty of management increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the sensor system into distinct functional layers: the sensor interface layer that handles request management and sensor mapping, and the physical sensor layer that performs actual measurements. This segmentation allows the interface to manage diverse sensors through a unified method, separating the complexity of sensor diversity from the application layer and providing a simplified view to applications.
Solution Approach 2:
The sensor interface acts as a mediator between the diverse physical sensors and the applications. It receives uniform data requests from applications, determines which specific sensors can satisfy each request, and manages the configuration of sensor inputs. This intermediary approach allows the platform to support diverse sensors without exposing that complexity to applications or requiring complex integration logic in each application.
3Measurement precision
If the sensor interface is configured to be highly specific to particular sensors to optimize data acquisition, then measurement precision is improved, but adaptability to different hardware platforms and upgrades decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The sensor interface employs dynamic configuration capabilities where sensor inputs can be programmed and reconfigured based on available sensors and application needs. The interface dynamically determines which sensors to use for satisfying data requests and can adapt its operation to different hardware configurations. This dynamic approach allows the system to optimize for available sensors while maintaining flexibility to work with different sensor types and configurations across platforms.
Data Source
AI summary
A sensor interface is provided with a number of sensor inputs and a number of client inputs. The client inputs are configured to receive a number of data requests from a number of clients. The number of data requests include at least one data request that specifies a particular type of data to be returned, without identifying a particular physical sensor to be used in acquiring the particular type of data. A processor is configured to i) determine what sensor data can be used to satisfy the number of data requests, ii) configure ones of the sensor inputs to receive sensor data from a number of physical sensors, and iii) if possible, satisfy the number of data requests using the received sensor data. Methods and apparatus pertaining to such a sensor interface are also disclosed.