Avaak, Inc.

Sciteq Electronics, Inc.

Other

Sorrento Networks, Inc.

Bar-Giora Goldberg

Gioia Messinger

Andy Cheng-Hsin Aoe

Shouhua Huang

Christopher McGill

A network sensor system and protocol is provided. The network sensor system includes a sensor node that has a sensor for collecting high-resolution data, and a radio for transmitting that data to a central hub. The sensor node communicates to the hub with a wireless data link, and operators solely from a battery. Accordingly, the sensor node is autonomous, and has no wire connections, so may be discreetly and simply installed. The sensor node is normally operated in a power-saving sleep mode, and is minimally activated only for required periods of time. The sensor node may be activated responsive to a low power timer, or from another locally generated interrupt. The sensor node also implements power-saving transfer protocols to further reduce power needs. Many sensor nodes may be associated with a single central hub, and larger networked sensor systems may be arranged.

Inventory or asset management system

A system and method is provided for enabling an advanced optical magnification (zooming) function for low-power sensors, such as a remote wireless camera, using electronic methods and enabling that magnification be performed in any part of the imager. An image sensor has a set of imager pixels that have a defined field of view. A display device is also provided, which has a far lower resolution than the imager. A magnification level is selected, which results in macroblocks being defined for the sensor. A display data value is generated for each macroblock, and the set of display data values is used to drive a data display. The area of magnification is flexibly selected on the imager. As the magnification level is increased, the number of imager pixels in each macroblock decrease, enabling the display to present increasingly higher resolution images. Accordingly, an aesthetically pleasing magnification function is provided for a low-power, battery operated mobile environment.

Advanced magnification device and method for low-power sensor systems

A network sensor system is provided that is capable of extremely low-power operation. The network sensor system implements a communication protocol that allows the sensors to operate at most times in a sleep mode, where only a low-power time is active. In this way, each sensor's receiver, transmitter, and support circuitry are operated only when strictly necessary. The network has a defined network time frame, and each device maintains and adjusts its own clock and relationship with the network time. In this way, each sensor is aware about when it may be sent a message, and opens a short listen window only when such a message is expected. If no message is received, or if the message is addressed to another sensor, the sensor goes back to sleep. The sensor's transmitter is only activated in the case where the message 1) is received during the listen period, 2) is addressed to the sensor, and 3) requires a transmission action. Otherwise, the transmitter remains deactivated.

Communication protocol for low-power network applications and a network of sensors using the same

A system and method is provided for automatically reading meters, such as utility meters. A camera unit is attached to or otherwise associated with an existing meter. From time to time, either automatically, or upon wireless command, the camera unit takes an image of the meter's readings, and communicates wirelessly the image or image data, to a local area receiver. The images can be transmitted immediately, or stored for later transmission, depending on the network protocol. The camera unit is battery powered, and operates communication protocols that enable extended operational life. These protocols allow for the camera's radio and processor to be turned on only when necessary, and then for only brief periods of time. At most times, the camera is in a power-conserving sleep mode. Multiple camera units may be arranged to communicate meter image data to the local area receiver, either using asynchronous or synchronous processes. In this way, star, point-to-point, MESH and ring networking topologies are enabled. The meter image data is communicated from the receiver to a central office using a wide area connection, where the image data is used for determining the meter reading. In one example, the image may be included with a utility bill as confirmed evidence of the current meter reading.

Remote meter reader using a network sensor system and protocol

An oscillator is provided that is arranged to function as a simplified receiver. The oscillator has a resonator portion and a non-linear portion, which cooperate to generate an oscillating signal. The resonator portion is positioned to receive a modulated signal. In one configuration, the oscillator operates at a frequency offset from the frequency of the carrier for the modulated signal. In this simple arrangement, the oscillator functions as an active mixer, and generates a product output signal. The output signal is extracted from a high impedance point of the oscillator's non-linear device. The output signal is a demodulated or mixed signal, and may be further processed to detect a data signal.

Simplified radio frequency receiver

An improved antenna diversity system is provided. The antenna diversity system has at least two spaced-apart antennas, with each antenna providing a respective antenna signal. The signal(s) may be processed and scaled according to its respective power level. The phase difference is determined between the signals, and the phase difference reduced by using phase rotation. The signals, which are now substantially in-phase, are summed to generate a combined antenna signal.

Diverse antenna system

A distributed detector system is provided for remotely detecting agents indicating the presence of particular biological, explosive, or chemical targets. The distributed detector system may be used for security threat detection, manufacturing or environmental monitoring, or medical assaying. In the detection system, a central server or base station wirelessly communicates with a set of distributed detectors. In this way, the central server or base station is able to aggregate detection information, as well as apply additional processing and analysis to data collected at the detectors. Each detector has a reactive material, such as a silicon-polymer, that changes an optical property in the presence of a target agent. A camera is positioned to take images of the reactive material from time to time, and has local processing to determine when the reactive material has likely changed. In some cases, the detector may have sufficient processing power to classify the change according to its urgency or threat level. The detector wirelessly communications to the central server or base station, and appropriate alerts or notifications can be generated.

Remote biological, chemical and explosive detector

Network sensor system and protocol

A fast switching phase lock loop (PLL) device is provided. The PLL has a voltage controlled oscillator that generates a signal at a frequency according to a received voltage. A memory holds a set of adjustment values, with each adjustment value set to cause the VCO to pre-tune to a desired frequency. When a new frequency is required from the VCO, the PLL counters are set for the new frequency values, and the adjustment value associated with the new frequency is retrieved from memory. A voltage generator uses the adjustment value to generate a new control voltage, which pre-tunes the VCO to a frequency near the desired frequency. In this way, the VCO only needs to make minor adjustments through its loop feedback filter to lock to the new frequency. After the VCO is locked, the actual control voltage is measured and used to update the adjusted value for that frequency. In this way, the set of adjustment values are continually updated to adapt to changing environmental or circuit conditions.

Fast switching phase lock loop (PLL) device and method

A Clock timing and Data Recovery (CDR) circuit for reconstructing a clock signal from a high speed data signal that contains no clock signal, such as data in a Non-Return-to-Zero format, and is particularly suitable for high data rate optical communication systems. The circuit uses a reference clock with a frequency that is sufficiently close to the data rate, to keep the circuit tuned to the correct frequency even when input data is absent. When input data is present, a quadrature downconverter mixes the reference clock with a series of pulses corresponding to the transition points of the data signal to produce two intermediate signals. These intermediate signals each go through baseband or intermediate band filters, whose outputs are then quadrature modulated to produce the correct output clock signal. Since the filters operate in a much lower frequency range than the associated data rate, the filters can be comparatively simple and economical, and exhibit superior resistance to aging and environmental effects. A wide range of data rates can be accommodated just by changing the frequency of the reference clock, without having to change the filter parameters. For networks that permit a variety of data rates to be used, automatic data rate detection can allow the correct reference clock frequency to be determined and selected for each incoming data message.

Flexible clock and data recovery module for a DWDM optical communication system with multiple clock rates

Convergent and extrapolated samples are provided for synthesizing sine waves. In a first embodiment, memory having the sine function, sin(x), mapped therein provides convergent samples. Memory size is reduced in a second embodiment by summing the outputs of two memories to produce convergent samples, one memory having an auxiliary function, f(x), mapped therein and a second having the sine function less the auxiliary function, sin(x)-f(x), mapped therein. A sine wave quadrant is conceptually divided into a plurality of uniform phase sectors demarked by boundaries phases. Additional memory provides extrapolation value sets uniquely associated with the sectors. In a given sector, extrapolation samples are produced by serially adding values of the associated extrapolation set to the convergent samples selected in the sector. An auxiliary function is chosen to closely approximate the sine function at at least the sector boundary phases, the difference between it and the sine function never exceeding the dynamic range of the sin(x)-f(x) memory. Each extrapolation value set can define a ramp having a slope closely matching the sine function slope within the set's associated sector. The first embodiment's extrapolation sets are derived from the second terms of Taylor Series expansions of the sine function at sector boundary phases. The second embodiment's extrapolation sets can be likewise derived but are adjusted as needed to compensate for quantization errors introduced by truncating the f(x) samples and limiting there number, both done to reduce memory size.

Source of quantized samples for synthesizing sine waves

A fractional divider using a counter means to provide fractionality. A divider is used to divide the VCO output signal by N or N+1 as selected. A divider control circuit controls the divider to divide by the appropriate divisor to obtain the selected output frequency. The fractional divider circuit counts divider control signals which represent a first division period. The fractional divider circuit establishes a second period of multiple first periods and at the terminal count of each second period, provides a selected number of fractional control signals to the divider control to cause division by a different number, such as N+1. The fractional divider comprises a first counter programmed to count first periods and issue its terminal count upon receiving the programmed count of first periods. The fractional divider also comprises a second counter to provide the selected number of fractional control signals upon receipt of the terminal count of the first counter. The first and second counters thus operate as a fraction, e.g. F/K, to result in a fractional reference frequency.

Programmable fractional-N frequency synthesizer

A digital-to-analog converter receives buffered data words from a multiplexer having 'N' inputs, each input receiving data from one of N processing paths, each path having a memory therein which provides the data. Each memory receives address information from a variable-increment counter in its path. The counters are initialized by an offset loader when a frequency is selected. The initialization is a two step process: (1) the counters are loaded with an initial value, and (2) an increment register is loaded with a number equal to N times a primary incremental value corresponding to the frequency. Initially, a first path counter is set to zero, a second path counter is offset by the incremental value, a third path counter is set to twice the incremental value, and so on until the last counter is offset by N-1 times the incremental value. Thereafter all path counters are sequentially incremented by the primary incremental value times N in order from first to last in cycles, and the data from the paths are selected by the multiplexer in the same order. The clocking of each path counter in a cycle precedes the selection of the path by a portion of the cycle sufficient to allow each path time to complete its incrementing process and have settled data at its respective multiplexer input before it is again selected.

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San Diego, CA, United States of America

Bar-Giora Goldberg