Wind-powered computing buoy

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10583898-B2
Application number	US-201916256764-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 24, 2019
Priority date	Jan 27, 2018
Publication date	Mar 10, 2020
Grant date	Mar 10, 2020

Abstract

Disclosed is a novel type of computing apparatus which is integrated within a buoy that obtains the energy required to power its computing operations from winds that travel across the surface of the body of water on which the buoy floats. Additionally, these self-powered computing buoys utilize their close proximity to a body of water in order to significantly lower the cost and complexity of cooling their computing circuits. Computing tasks of an arbitrary nature are supported, as is the incorporation and/or utilization of computing circuits specialized for the execution of specific types of computing tasks. And, each buoy's receipt of a computational task, and its return of a computational result, may be accomplished through the transmission of data across satellite links, fiber optic cables, LAN cables, radio, modulated light, microwaves, and/or any other channel, link, connection, and/or network.

First claim

We claim:

1. A buoyant computing apparatus, comprising:
a buoyant member;
a wind-to-electrical energy converter mounted on the buoyant member;
a computing device powered by the wind-to-electrical energy converter for generating status information of the buoyant computing apparatus and communicating the status information to a remote receiver;
a plurality of computing circuits mounted on the buoyant member, said plurality of computing circuits energized by the wind-to-electrical energy converter and configured to perform programming tasks unrelated to the status information.

2. The buoyant computing apparatus of claim 1 , wherein computing circuits are disposed below a mean waterline of the buoyant computing apparatus.

3. The buoyant computing apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of computing circuits includes at least 100 central processing units (CPUs).

4. The buoyant computing apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of computing circuits includes at least 100 application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs).

5. The buoyant computing apparatus of claim 1 , wherein at least 50% of the electrical power generated by the wind-to-electrical energy converter is consumed by the plurality of computing circuits.

6. The buoyant computing apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the wind-to-electrical energy converter includes a horizontal-axis wind turbine.

7. The buoyant computing apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising a propulsion system.

8. The buoyant computing apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the propulsion system generates thrust using a propeller.

9. The buoyant computing apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the propulsion system generates thrust using a rigid sail.

10. The buoyant computing apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the propulsion system generates thrust using a ducted fan.

11. The buoyant computing apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the propulsion system generates thrust using a Flettner rotor.

12. The buoyant computing apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of computing circuits include application-specific integrated circuits configured for calculating part of a blockchain block header.

13. The buoyant computing apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of computing circuits are configured for training of a neural network.

14. The buoyant computing apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of computing circuits are configured for brain simulation.

15. The buoyant computing apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising a satellite, and wherein programs to be executed are received from a first remote computer via the satellite.

16. The buoyant computing apparatus of claim 15 , wherein results of executed programs are transmitted to a second remote computer via the satellite.

17. The buoyant computing apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising a compartment mounted on the buoyant member and housing an immersion liquid having boiling point lower than that of water, and wherein the plurality of computing circuits warms the immersion liquid to dissipate heat.

18. The buoyant computing apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising an activation system, and wherein computing circuits are turned on by the activation system in response to an increase in the amount of available electrical power.

19. The buoyant computing apparatus of claim 1 wherein a first computing circuit executes a program encrypted with a first encryption key a second computing circuit executes a program encrypted with a second encryption key different from the first encryption key.

20. The buoyant computing apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising a data communication system.

21. The buoyant computing apparatus of claim 20 , wherein the data communication system includes a phased array antenna.

22. The buoyant computing apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising an energy storage mechanism selected from a group comprising a battery, a capacitor, an accumulator, a fuel cell, and a hydrogen generator.

23. The buoyant computing apparatus of claim 22 , further comprising a submerged electrical cable and connector adapted for coupling with a submerged vessel.

24. The buoyant computing apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising a submerged data transmission cable and connector adapted for coupling with a submerged vessel.

25. The buoyant computing apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising a submerged speaker adapted for transmitting acoustic signals to a submerged vessel.

26. The buoyant computing apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising a sensor selected from the group consisting of a camera, a radar, an antenna, and a microphone, wherein the sensor is adapted to detect aircraft flying over the buoyant computing apparatus.

27. The buoyant computing apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising an electromagnetic radiation detector adapted to detect electromagnetic emissions proximate to the buoyant computing apparatus.

28. The buoyant computing apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising a submerged hydrophone adapted to detect submerged vessels passing near the buoyant computing apparatus.

29. The buoyant computing apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising a submerged heat exchanger for dissipating heat from the plurality of computing circuits to a body of water.

30. The buoyant computing apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising a heat exchanger disposed above a mean waterline of the buoyant computing apparatus for dissipating heat from the plurality of computing circuits to wind.

Assignees

• Lone Gull Holdings Ltd

Inventors

• Moffat Brian Lee
• Sheldon-Coulson Garth Alexander

Classifications

• B63B35/44 Primary

  Floating buildings, stores, drilling platforms, or workshops, e.g. carrying water-oil separating devices {(construction methods for floating offshore platforms B63B75/00)} · CPC title

• B63B2035/446

  for converting wind energy into electric energy · CPC title

• G06N3/08

  Learning methods · CPC title

• B63B22/00 Primary

  Buoys ({floating decoys, e.g. for waterfowl A01M31/06;} means for indicating the location of underwater objects B63C7/26; life-buoys, e.g. rings B63C9/08; {mountings of acoustic transducer in underwater equipment, e.g. sonobuoys G10K11/006; electric cables supported on or from floats H02G9/12}) · CPC title

• H04L9/3239

  involving non-keyed hash functions, e.g. modification detection codes [MDCs], MD5, SHA or RIPEMD · CPC title