Smart Sensor Local Data Gating for Low-Power Signal Processing
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Solution Overview
Problem
The increasing number of sensors coupled to systems leads to increased data processing needs, power consumption, latency, and network bandwidth, necessitating improved methods to manage sensor data efficiently.
Innovation Solution
A smart sensor system with local processing units that compare current data to reference data, enabling or disabling further processing based on threshold differences, reducing the need for additional computation, power, and bandwidth.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Quantity of substance
If the number of sensors coupled to a system increases, then the amount of data gathered increases, but processing needs, electrical power needs, latency, and network bandwidth requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and processes only the essential features of sensor data at the sensor level itself, rather than transmitting and processing all raw data centrally. The processing unit at the sensor extracts relevant information locally, reducing the data volume that requires power-intensive transmission and centralized processing.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the data processing function across multiple levels: extraction and initial processing occurs at the sensor level, while higher-level analysis occurs at the consumer level. This segmentation distributes the computational burden and reduces the power requirements at any single point in the system.
2Quantity of substance
If the number of sensors coupled to a system increases, then the amount of data gathered increases, but processing needs, electrical power needs, latency, and network bandwidth requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary data extraction and processing at the sensor level before data transmission. By pre-processing the data locally and extracting only essential features, the system reduces the time required for centralized processing and eliminates transmission delays for redundant data.
Solution Approach 2:
The processing unit extracts only the essential features of sensor data at the sensor level, rather than transmitting and processing all raw data centrally. This extraction reduces the data volume requiring centralized processing and eliminates transmission delays for redundant information.
3Quantity of substance
If the number of sensors coupled to a system increases, then the amount of data gathered increases, but processing needs, electrical power needs, and network bandwidth requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The processing unit at the sensor extracts only the essential features of sensor data, rather than transmitting and processing all raw data centrally. This extraction significantly reduces the complexity of centralized processing systems while maintaining data utility.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the processing architecture into distributed sensor-level extraction units and centralized consumer-level analysis units. This segmentation reduces the processing complexity at any single point by distributing computational tasks across the system hierarchy.
4Quantity of substance
If the number of sensors coupled to a system increases, then the amount of data gathered increases, but network bandwidth requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The processing unit extracts only the essential features of sensor data at the sensor level, rather than transmitting all raw data over the network. This extraction dramatically reduces network bandwidth requirements and the energy associated with data transmission.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments data processing to perform extraction locally at sensors and reserve network bandwidth for transmitting only extracted essential features. This segmentation minimizes network traffic and associated energy consumption.
Data Source
AI summary
Smart sensor methods and systems are described that improve on prior systems. An example device includes a sensor, a memory, a network connection, and two processing units, wherein a first processing unit compares current data provided by the first sensor to the reference data previously provided by the first sensor. Based on the result of the comparison, a second processing unit may be enabled to process the current data, or may be disabled to prevent the second processing unit from processing the current data.