Patent Application
20080079572
The present invention is illustrated by way of example and not as a limitation in the figures of the accompanying drawings, in which
An apparatus and method of using wireless network communication signals for the detection of movement within a physical environment in the range of the wireless network is disclosed in various embodiments. However, one skilled in the relevant art will recognize that the various embodiments may be practiced without one or more of the specific details, or with other replacement and/or additional methods, materials, or components. In other instances, well-known structures, materials, or operations are not shown or described in detail to avoid obscuring aspects of various embodiments of the invention. Similarly, for purposes of explanation, specific numbers, materials, and configurations are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the invention. Nevertheless, the invention may be practiced without specific details. Furthermore, it is understood that the various embodiments shown in the figures are illustrative representations and are not necessarily drawn to scale.
Reference throughout this specification to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment” means that a particular feature, structure, material, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the invention, but do not denote that they are present in every embodiment. Thus, the appearances of the phrases “in one embodiment” or “in an embodiment” in various places throughout this specification are not necessarily referring to the same embodiment of the invention. Furthermore, the particular features, structures, materials, or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments. Various additional layers and/or structures may be included and/or described features may be omitted in other embodiments.
Various operations will be described as multiple discrete operations in turn, in a manner that is most helpful in understanding the invention. However, the order of description should not be construed as to imply that these operations are necessarily order dependent. In particular, these operations need not be performed in the order of presentation. Operations described may be performed in a different order than the described embodiment. Various additional operations may be performed and/or described operations may be omitted in additional embodiments.
There is a general need for a method of detecting movement and sending notification of the movement in a physical region without having to purchase and install additional motion detection and alarm equipment. In one embodiment, one may use a wireless networking apparatus to determine baseline conditions corresponding to a wireless communications link within a physical region. The wireless networking apparatus may monitor subsequent conditions corresponding to the wireless communications link to determine a difference profile for a comparison between the baseline conditions and the subsequent conditions. The wireless networking apparatus may transmit a command signal if the difference profile corresponds to a securing breach condition in the physical region.
Turning now to the figures, the illustration in
In some embodiments, station A 110, station B 115 and/or station C 120, hereinafter “the stations”, may be part of a desktop computer or television or a portable wireless communication device such as a laptop or portable computer with wireless communication capability, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a web tablet, a wireless telephone, a wireless headset, a pager, an instant messaging device, a digital camera, or other device that may receive and transmit information over a wireless network. For example, station A 110 may be a laptop monitoring for movement over wireless communication link 125 in a physical region 140 such as a home, in an office, in a building, or over an open field, though the embodiment is not so limited. The stations may be isolated from one another, or they may be in communication with one another through a wired or a wireless connection.
The wireless communication link 125 may be in accordance with specific communication standards, such as the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) standards including IEEE 802.11(a), 802.11(b), 802.11(g), and/or 802.11(n) standards and/or proposed specifications for wireless local area networks, although the scope of the invention is not limited in this respect as they may also be suitable to transmit and/or receive communications in accordance with other techniques and standards. For more information with respect to the IEEE 802.11, please refer to “IEEE Standards for Information Technology—Telecommunications and Information Exchange Between Systems”—Local Area Networks—Specific Requirements—Part 11 “Wireless LAN Medium Access Control (MAC) and Physical Layer (PHY), ISO/IEC 8802-11: 1999” and related amendments/versions.
Station A 110 may be in communication over wireless communication link 125 with access point 145. An access point in a wireless network system is used for various purposes or functions including: (1) providing connection between the stations and the wireless network; (2) performing the point control functions for the associated stations, as defined by a standardized protocol such as the IEEE 802.11 standard; and (3) providing the connectivity between the wireless network and the wired network (e.g., an Ethernet network). The access point 145 communicates to the internet through an internet gateway 150 such as a cable modem, a digital subscriber line (DSL) modem, or a similar device that allows high-speed access to information at a distant server, which may be an Internet server, via a cable system, a satellite connection, or a normal telephone network. The internet gateway 150 connects to the internet through an internet service provider (ISP) 160, which is sometimes referred to as an internet access provider (IAP). The ISP 160 may be a company that provides individuals and other companies access to the Internet and other web related services.
In one embodiment, station A 110 is used to sense movement in the physical region 140 and send a command signal to initiate a notification such as a short message service (SMS) notification 165, an email notification 170, and/or a monitoring entity notification 175, though the embodiment is not so limited. An SMS notification 165 or an email notification 170 may be sent to a digital mobile phone and other mobile devices, e.g. a personal digital assistant (PDA), Pocket PC, a Blackberry®, a pager, or a laptop computer, in the form of an appropriate short text message or email to notify a user about an event, such as a physical movement in the physical region 140.
In one embodiment, an SMS notification 165 is sent by a radio tower 180 to a mobile device 185 to notify a user of a movement in the physical region 140. For example, if the mobile device 185 comprises a cellular phone, an RF interface would include radio hardware to support cellular-based communications using an appropriate cellular standard. In other embodiments, other wireless communication standards may be employed, such as but not limited to communications defined by the Institute of Electrical Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) 802.11, Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) and IEEE 802.16 Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) suites of standards. Alternatively or in combination with the SMS notification 165 or email notification 170, station A 110 may send a monitoring entity notification 175 to a security monitoring company, to alert them of an event in the physical region 140.
The illustration in
One function of the transmitting and receiving circuitry 210 is to provide the ability to transmit a request for and receive baseline conditions and subsequent conditions over the wireless communications link 125. Baseline conditions are parameters used to characterize the wireless communication link 125 in the absence of an event, such as the movement of an intruder in the physical region 140. Subsequent conditions are parameters used to characterize the wireless communications link 125 after the baseline conditions have been established. A difference profile may be determined based on a difference between the subsequent conditions and the baseline conditions. The difference profile is compared to a security breach condition, which is a pre-determined condition set to trigger a command signal to alert a user of a movement in the physical region 140. If a movement is detected by the station A 110, then a command signal will be sent over a wireless connection such as the communications link 125 or a wired connection such as a modem or auto dialer through an interface 250.
In one embodiment, the baseline conditions and subsequent conditions are radio frequency (RF) energy signals received by station A 110 at a desired energy level. For example, the conditions may be in the form of received signal strength indicator (RSSI) signals. The RSSI signals are a measurement of the received radio signal strength, in the form of a generic radio receiver technology metric. The conditions may also be in the form of a packet error rate (PER). A PER is the ratio, in percent, of a number of test packets not successfully received by the access point to the number of test packets sent to the access point by a test set. Further, the conditions may be in the form of a signal to noise ratio (SNR). Signal to noise ration is an expression for the power ratio between a signal and a background noise received by the station.
The station A 110 may also include a controller 220 containing a media access control processor 230, a cache memory 228, a baseband subsystem 222, a digital to analog controller 224, and an analog to digital controller 226, though the embodiment is not so limited. The controller may be used to convert the baseline conditions to baseline data and the subsequent conditions to subsequent data. The controller may also be used to store baseline data, subsequent data, and data concerning a security breach condition. An additional memory 240 device may be connected to the controller 220 to provide additional storage space for data. The additional memory 240 may be volatile or non-volatile memory in the form of read only memory (ROM); a random access memory (RAM); a magnetic disk storage media; an optical storage media; or a flash memory device, etc.
In one embodiment, station A 110 may receive an RSSI between −10 dB milliwatts (dBm) and −96 dBm, as typical with Cisco®. The station A 110 may determine baseline conditions by determining an average value and a standard deviation based on received RSSI values. Threshold values may be established at ±10% of the average value and the standard deviation. If one or more subsequently measured group of RSSI values, creating a difference profile, exceeds the threshold values, a command signal may be transmitted. In another embodiment, the threshold values may be established at ±20% of the average value and the standard deviation, though the embodiment is not so limited. Threshold values for channel information based on preambles, PER, and SNR may be set similarly.
A plurality of embodiments of the use of wireless network communication signals for the detection and notification of movement within a physical region in the range of the wireless communication link have been described. The above description of illustrated embodiments of the invention, including what is described in the Abstract, is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise forms disclosed. While specific embodiments of, and examples for, the invention are described herein for illustrative purposes, various equivalent modifications are possible within the scope of the invention, as those skilled in the relevant art will recognize. In the description and claims, the terms “coupled” and “connected,” along with their derivatives, may have been used. It should be understood that these terms are not intended as synonyms for each other. Rather, in particular embodiments, “connected” may be used to indicate that two or more elements are in direct physical or electrical contact with each other while “coupled” may further mean that two or more elements are not in direct contact with each other, but yet still co-operate or interact with each other.
Reference throughout this specification to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment” means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the present invention. Thus, the appearances of the phrases “in one embodiment” or “in an embodiment” in various places throughout this specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment. Furthermore, the particular features, structures, or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments.
Thus, embodiments of this invention may be used as or to support a software program executed upon some form of processing core (such as a processor of a computer) or otherwise implemented or realized upon or within a machine-readable medium. A machine-readable medium includes any mechanism for storing information in a form readable by a machine (e.g., a computer). For example, a machine-readable medium can include such as a read only memory (ROM); a random access memory (RAM); a magnetic disk storage media; an optical storage media; and a flash memory device, etc.
Modifications may be made to the invention in light of the above detailed description. The terms used in the following claims should not be construed to limit the invention to the specific embodiments disclosed in the specification and the drawings. Rather, the scope of the invention is to be determined entirely by the following claims, which are to be construed in accordance with established doctrines of claim interpretation.
