1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a system and method for monitoring various environmental conditions.
2. Description of the Related Art
Under the current heightened level of alert due to the serious threat of terrorist attack against the United States, various govemmental and private security agencies now employ systems and devices to monitor the environment for the presence of hazardous chemicals, biological agents and radioactive substances. Because such systems and devices must be very sensitive to the presence of these agents, false alarms can be a common occurrence. Moreover, because these hazardous agents may be widely dispersed, many sensing devices are necessary to provide the required coverage. Additionally, conventional sensors and systems for detecting these agents can be prohibitively expensive.
False alarms can create an uncertain situation for hazardous materials (HAZMAT) operators, thus inhibiting their performance and their decision-making processes. Accordingly, a significant need exists to reduce the number of false alarms that typically occur when using a single technology to detect the presence of chemical warfare agents (CWA's).
Wireless technologies have become more and more popular recently. For example, wireless Internet and cell phones have already taken a huge portion of the market share away from wired Internet and telephone lines. As people are more open to wireless technologies because of increased convenience and information security, companies introduce novel wireless technologies and specific areas of applications. One of the most popular wireless technologies presently in use is the Blackberry™ (hereinafter Blackberry) manufactured by Research in Motion Limited (RIM), Ontario, Canada. The Blackberry supports a variety of functions that are popular among professionals—such as e-mail, cell phone, browser and organizer. Moreover, as the Blackberry uses existing cellular communication networks for communication, it has a vast area-of-service capability.
Blackberry is an end-to-end wireless connectivity option. The Blackberry is unique because it is a single integrated device which allows users to easily send e-mails. Additionally, unlike the traditional way of connecting to an e-mail server to check emails, the Blackberry's “push” technology will automatically direct e-mails to the user's Blackberry device and notify the user when a message is received.
Blackberry devices support a wide range of networks. For example, in the United States, Blackberry supports CDMA2000 1X Networks, DataTAC™ Networks, Global System for Mobile communications/General Packet Radio Service (GSM/GPRS) Networks, Mike Networks, Mobitex, and Nextel Networks. Outside the United States, the Blackberry operates on more than 50 networks in more than 30 countries.
The Blackberry is not only a convenient device for individual users, it also provides a mobile communication solution for corporations and government organizations. The Blackberry is especially useful for transmitting time-sensitive data and information. For example, out-of-office salesmen can receive customer information immediately rather than go back to the office and check e-mail.
A block diagram illustrating conventional Blackberry architecture is shown in
Accordingly, under current conditions where there is a threat of terrorism using biological, chemical, nuclear and/or other agents against the United States and other countries, agent detection equipment and methods using the Blackberry and Blackberry-type devices for communication may provide a low-cost, scalable, accurate and easy-to-implement solution for identifying dangerous agents and reporting the results to one or more recipients and for allowing the control of mitigating and warning devices.
It is, therefore, a feature of the present invention to provide a system and method for monitoring various environmental conditions and for transmitting coded information about those conditions and for controlling devices to respond to those conditions using a communication device such as, for example, a Blackberry or Blackberry-type communication device.
It is another feature of the present invention to provide a small-sized, low-power, low-cost environmental monitoring/control system which uses a communication device (e.g., a Blackberry 950 communication device) that is compatible with wireless e-mail systems, and extensible to controlling environmental control systems (e.g., in buildings and other locations), and that can be made secure using multiple encryption schemes to the text of e-mails.
It is a further feature of the present invention to provide an environmental monitoring/control system which uses base64 encoding of data for transmission by a communication device (e.g., a Blackberry), which spoofs the communication device so that the communication device determines that a data file such as, for example, a JPEG picture file, is a standard text e-mail. This process uses the communication device as a data pipe to exfiltrate data.
It is another feature of the present invention to use a Blackberry communication device to exfiltrate data thereby standardizing the communication and processing interfaces.
It is yet another feature of the present invention to provide a mobile monitoring system and method for detecting environmental conditions, the mobile monitoring system and method including a sensing unit having a sensing unit for obtaining data related to environmental conditions, the sensing unit including at least one radiation sensor and at least one of an electro-optical (EO) imager and a plurality of orthogonal chemical sensors for acquiring a similar data product using dissimilar means, a controller interfaced with the sensing unit for receiving and encoding the data related to environmental conditions into a predetermined format, and a communication device for receiving the data in a predetermined format from the controller, forming an e-mail message and transmitting the e-mail message including the data in a predetermined format to at least one predetermined recipient. The mobile monitoring system and method further includes a receiver for receiving e-mails containing queries, instructions and/or commands from a control station and/or a user and transmitting the received e-mails to the controller for further processing.
It is still yet a further feature of the present invention to provide at least one sensing unit having a plurality of sensors including a chemical sensor, a biological sensor, a radiation sensor and/or an imager for detecting powders, explosives, nerve agents (e.g., VX gas, sarin, etc.), blister agents (e.g., mustard gas), chemical agents, biological agents (e.g., anthrax), radioactive elements and/or images (e.g., photographic images). It is a further object of the present invention to provide at least one air pump activated by a controller, the air pump being used for moving air through both a manifold and a sorbent tube, the manifold being interfaced with at least one or more sensors for providing air flow to the sensors with which the manifold is attached. In alternative embodiments, two air pumps are provided, each air pump being interfaced with the manifold for providing air flow to at least one of the sensors.
It is yet another feature of the present invention to provide at least two sensors which are orthogonal to each other and the outputs of the sensors are weighted so as to minimize false alerts.
It is another feature of the present invention to provide an EO imager including a visible light imager, an infra-red (IR) imager, a ultra-violet (UV) imager and/or an X-ray imager.
It is still yet a further feature of the present invention to implement a base64 encoding scheme for encoding the data related to environmental conditions, alerts, actions, triggers, results of the processing of the data and/or for providing images for transmission using ASCII data. It is a further feature of the present invention to provide information on decoding and assembling encoded data within the encoded data. It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a pearl-script within an encoded e-mail for providing recipients with the option to interact with the environmental monitoring/control system of the present invention.
It is yet another feature of the present invention to provide a method for detecting environmental conditions using a wireless device, the method including obtaining orthogonal data related to environmental conditions and encoding the data related to environmental conditions and/or one or more images into a predetermined format using a base64 encoding scheme, forming an e-mail message having a subject line and a body, the e-mail message including the data related to environmental conditions and/or images, and transmitting the e-mail message including the data in a predetermined format to at least one predetermined recipient. The e-mail message further includes information on how to decode and assemble the encoded data. The method further includes the step of receiving at least one of a command and a query and providing the received command and/or query to a controller for processing.
The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:
The following detailed description of the preferred embodiments of the present invention will be made with reference to the accompanying drawings. In describing the invention, explanations about related functions or constructions which are known in the art will be omitted for the sake of clarity in understanding the concept of the invention.
A block diagram illustrating the basic configuration of a system for monitoring environmental conditions including a sensor ensemble (SE) according to a first embodiment of the present invention is shown in
The subject line and the recipients are selected by the microprocessor 212 according to predetermined conditions. For example, if a triggering event meets or exceeds a predetermined threshold (e.g., a threshold corresponding to a major event), the recipients of an alerting e-mail (e.g., majors, generals, etc.) can be chosen accordingly. On the other hand, if a triggering event only meets or exceeds a minor threshold (e.g., a threshold corresponding to a minor event such as a slight increase in background radiation which could be caused by an individual with implanted radioactive seeds to treat a cancerous condition), then only local police officers/guards would be alerted. The one or more e-mails containing the data from the sensing unit 202 are transmitted to desired recipients (not shown) via a serving base station (not shown) and a wired e-mail server which transmits the e-mail over normal protocols that govern Internet (and other) e-mail. Users of this system can communicate with the communication device 214 to query the status, adjust the system's parameters and/or request a service by sending a formatted e-mail to the communication device 214. A microprocessor on the communication device 214 then processes data contained in the received e-mail and optionally controls the sensors and/or optional relays. Alternatively, after the e-mail is initially processed by the communication device, data contained in the received e-mail is forwarded to the microprocessor 212 which further processes the received data and responds accordingly (e.g., by adjusting the sensors within sensor unit 202, responding to system “pings” etc.). Formatted e-mails are forwarded to the communication device 214 via the Internet or other network, a serving base station (not shown), and the antenna 216. The received messages are then processed and stored by either or both the communication device 214 and the microprocessor 212 and desired actions (e.g., wireless transmission to a recipient) are then taken (as will be described below). For example, a formatted e-mail is transmitted from the transmit/receive antenna 216 to a control center 220 (or to one or more e-mail servers (not shown)) via its transmit/receive antenna 218.
A block diagram illustrating the system for monitoring environmental conditions according to a second embodiment of the present invention is shown in
A block diagram illustrating the system for monitoring environmental conditions according to a third embodiment of the present invention is shown in
A block diagram illustrating the system for monitoring environmental conditions according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention is shown in
In operation, the AaC 502 reads outputs from the SS 504 (and can optionally act upon the SS 504 for example by calibrating the sensors, turning the sensors on/off etc. as desired) in order to wrap or merge the data received from the SS 504 into a meta-datagram, which is transmitted via the communication device 514 (i.e., the communication pipe). The communication device 514 can communicate using traditional communication schemes including IEEE 802.11, Bluetooth, Ethernet, etc. as desired. The system 500 can also accept commands and queries from the communication pipe by way of messages which are sent to the system 500 from an external source (e.g., a user, a control center, etc). The messages can be used to affect the subsystems SS, AO and AaC, 504, 506 and 502, respectively. The SS 504 interfaces with the AaC 502 using various communication protocols including Serial (e.g., RS-232, RS-422), Ethernet, WiFi and Custom (e.g., SPI, direct sensing of the ADC, etc.).
In operation, the microcontroller 518 manages the configuration, control and flow of data and commands to/from the SS 504. The microcontroller 518 also runs algorithms and determines if the current sample meets certain requirements such as to trigger an alarm condition. Moreover, if an alarm condition is detected, then an e-mail message can be generated and transmitted via the communication device 514. The communication device 514 can optionally send a message to the microcontroller 518 to affect the SS 504 or other systems by, for example, changing system parameters. For example, when the radiation sensor suite 504R is triggered, the AaC 502 reads the information it has received and determines whether the trigger meets a preset threshold (e.g., radiation threshold). If the AaC 502 determines that the trigger it has received meets or exceeds a preset threshold, the AaC 502 can then trigger the imager 504I to capture an image of an actor (e.g., an individual, a vehicle, an object such as a container, a rock, etc.) which caused radiation suite 504R to trigger and/or trigger the relay 506R, the motor 506M and/or the indicators 5061 to control desired systems. For example, if a radiation sensor in the radiation sensor suite 504R is triggered, the microcontroller 518 can configure an e-mail to warn of the threat. Moreover, the microcontroller 518 can then send an image of the actor which caused the triggering event and trigger the motor 504M to stop/start ventilation in a building and/or to take environmental samples. Additionally, the relay 506R can be triggered to open/close doors and indicators 5061 can be triggered to warn individuals of possible danger, etc. Moreover, the microcontroller 518 can activate the sorbent tube 504S if predetermined conditions are met or if activated by an external source (e.g., the control center, the user, etc.).
The sensors in each suite (e.g., the chemical sensor suite 504C, the biological sensor suite 504B and/or the radiation sensor suite 504R) are preferably orthogonal to each other and/or to other suites. Moreover, in one embodiment there can be up to 256 suite packages (of any combination).
The controller also can take an output from multiple, orthogonal chemical sensors (included in a chemical suite 504C) and determine whether to trigger an alarm (e.g., by sending an e-mail). The algorithm used by the microcontroller allows for weighting of each sensor, and thus can account for different sensitivities such as response time, accuracy, etc., to minimize false alarms. The system 500 can also accept the input from an additional RS-232, Ethernet or custom user interface.
In a preferred embodiment the SS 504 and the AO 506 are configured for specific applications, and the AaC 502 can be common to all applications, which can result in significant cost reduction and reduced system complexity.
A flow diagram illustrating the data flow process according to an embodiment of the present invention is shown in
In a reverse process, the communication device (e.g., a Blackberry) 606 receives a transmitted message and forwards the transmitted message to the microcontroller 604 in step 616. The Microcontroller 604 then processes the received transmitted message and one or more desired actions are taken (e.g., sensors are turned on/off, reset, parameters adjusted, etc. as desired) by sending appropriate commands to the sensors 602 in step 618. In alternative embodiments, data can be sent from the microcontroller 604 to a desired recipient (not shown) using a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) modem, an Ethernet modem, etc. Raw sensor data is then forwarded from the sensors 602 to the microcontroller 604 in step 620. The microcontroller 604 then processes and encodes the raw sensor data as described above, the binary ASCII data is then base64 encoded and a message is generated that details how to decode and assemble the data. The base64 encoded data is formed into a formatted sensor data e-mail and forwarded to the communication device 606 for transmission to a desired recipient in step 622.
A flowchart illustrating the process of collecting, analyzing, processing and transmitting data related to environmental conditions and receiving and processing according to an embodiment of the present invention is shown in
If it is determined that a trigger should be fired, then step 722 follows. Alternatively, if a determination is made in step 716 not to fire a trigger, then step 718 follows. In step 722 a triggered action (e.g., an appropriate action for the type of triggering event) is performed and an appropriate e-mail (dependent upon the triggering event) to desired recipients (which can also be dependent upon the triggering event, for example, if a biological sensor is triggered the system 700 can send an e-mail message to an appropriate agency such as the Centers for Disease Control (CDC)) is performed in step 724. In step 718, the system determines when the last e-mail was sent (via the Blackberry), and if it is determined that more than a preset amount of time (in this example 24 hours) has elapsed, a status e-mail is sent in step 726. Alternatively, if 24 hours has not elapsed since the last e-mail was sent in step 718, a determination is made as to whether there is any incoming new e-mail in step 720. If it is determined that there is an incoming new e-mail, the incoming new e-mail is processed in step 728. Alternatively, if it is determined in step 720 that there is no new e-mail, sensor data is read in step 712.
A table illustrating exemplary rules for reporting detections by SE instruments is shown in
The SE of the present invention can maintain an e-mail distribution list for alarm notifications. The SE can then selectively e-mail recipients and send e-mails to one or more recipients depending upon the type of triggering event. For example, if a radiation sensor triggers the SE, then the SE can send an e-mail to a nuclear response team and to other pre-determined recipients. Additionally, the SE can vary the repetition rate of e-mails and can send e-mails based on the level that sensors report. For example, if the SE detects low-level radiation, the SE would report it to municipal authorities but if the SE detects extremely high levels of radiation, then the SE would send the warning to a special response team. Additionally, depending upon the e-mail created, the SE can select different e-mail bodies.
For example, to change the communication device's e-mail distribution list for alarm notifications, then a user would send the following e-mail to a SE:
Subject: “email recipients”
Message body: “email=xxx@yyy.zzz”
The communication device can also reply to correctly received e-mails and reply to the sender a confirmation.
Another advantage of the present invention is that a user, e.g., the control station, etc., can “ping” the communication device. When pinged (via e-mail), the communication device can reply using an e-mail with the following subject and message body. Subject: “Ping Response”; Message body: “I′m alive.”
The e-mails sent to recipients by the communication device preferably include a script such as a pearl script which would enable the user to respond to the e-mail and/or effect changes to control the SE without having to open other editors, know a programming language, etc. For example, an e-mail including the following subject and body: Subject: Change Address List; Body:password<cr>; xxx@yyy.zzz<cr>xxx1@yyy.zzz . . . would enable the recipient to easily change the address of recipients on an e-mail list by providing a password and the e-mail addresses of one or more desired recipients and returning the e-mail to the sender. This would allow cross-platform functionality.
A perspective-view illustration of a sensor ensemble (SE) unit according to an embodiment of the present invention is shown in
A block diagram illustrating a stackable configuration of the present invention is shown in
It is envisioned that many components for realizing the present invention are commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) units and therefore are readily available at low cost. The Blackberry used throughout the present invention is a, for example, Blackberry 950 model manufactured by Research In Motion (RIM).
While the present invention has been described in detail according to an environmental monitoring system, the present invention can also be used for controlling conditions at selected sites. Moreover, the present invention can be used for command and control of various systems, e.g., such as heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) and other building systems. Furthermore, the present invention can be used for authentication of environmental threats.
While the above description contains many specifics, these specifics should not be construed as limitations of the invention, but merely as exemplifications of preferred embodiments thereof. Those skilled in the art will envision many other embodiments within the scope and spirit of the invention as defined by the claims appended hereto.
This application claims the benefit of prior filed U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/556,392, filed Mar. 25, 2004, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
This invention was made with Government support under Contract No. N00024-03-D-6606, awarded by the Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA). The Government has certain rights in the invention.
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