Computing device for processing environmental sensed conditions

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016337789-A1
Application number	US-201615217816-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jul 22, 2016
Priority date	Nov 18, 2006
Publication date	Nov 17, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A method includes a computing device transmitting a radio frequency (RF) signal to a passive wireless sensor. The RF signal includes a carrier frequency signal and a modulated sense request signal. The method further includes, in response to the modulated sense request signal, receiving, by the computing device, a response RF signal that includes the carrier frequency signal and a coded sense response signal from the passive wireless sensor. The coded sense response signal is representative of a sensed environmental condition by the passive wireless sensor. The method further includes generating, by the computing device, an environmental condition value based on the coded sense response signal and an environmental conversion information.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method comprises:
transmitting, by a computing device, a radio frequency (RF) signal to a passive wireless sensor, wherein the RF signal includes a carrier frequency signal and a modulated sense request signal; in response to the modulated sense request signal, receiving, by the computing device, a response RF signal that includes the carrier frequency signal and a coded sense response signal from the passive wireless sensor, wherein the coded sense response signal is representative of a sensed environmental condition by the passive wireless sensor; and generating, by the computing device, an environmental condition value based on the coded sense response signal and an environmental conversion information.

2 . The method of claim 1 further comprises:
prior to receiving the response RF signal, receiving, by the computing device, another response RF signal that includes the carrier frequency and a received power level indication signal that is representative of received signal strength of the RF signal;
determining, by the computing device, whether the received signal strength of the RF signal is at a desired level for enabling the wireless sensor to generate an accurate coded sense response signal;
when the received signal strength of the RF signal is not at the desired level:
adjusting, by the computing device, transmit power of the RF signal; and
transmitting, by the computing device, the RF signal at an adjusted transmit power level.

3 . The method of claim 1 further comprises:
receiving, by the computing device, another response RF signal that includes the carrier frequency and a received power level indication signal that is representative of received signal strength of the RF signal;
determining, by the computing device, a coded value error factor based on the received signal strength of the RF signal and a desired received signal strength;
adjusting, by the computing device, a coded value of the coded sensed response signal based on the coded value error factor to produce an adjusted coded value; and
generating, by the computing device, the environmental condition value based on the adjusted coded value and the environmental conversion information.

4 . The method of claim 1 further comprises:
generating, by the passive wireless sensor, a power supply voltage from the carrier frequency signal;
down converting, by the passive wireless sensor, the RF signal to recover the sense request signal;
measuring, by the passive wireless sensor, an operational parameter of a front-end of the passive wireless sensor, wherein the front-end includes a sensing element for sensing an environmental condition and wherein the sensing of the environmental condition by the sensing element alters the operational parameter;
determining, by the passive wireless sensor, a change to the operational parameter as result of the sensing; and
generating, by the passive wireless sensor, the coded sense response signal as a representation of the change to the operational parameter.

5 . The method of claim 4 , wherein the generating the environmental condition value comprises:
determining a type of environmental condition being sensed by the passive wireless sensor; selecting, as the environmental conversion information, one of a plurality of environmental conversion databases based on the type of environmental condition; recovering a coded value from the coded sense response signal; and utilizing the coded value as an operand to the one of the plurality of environmental conversion databases to generate the environmental condition value.

6 . The method of claim 1 further comprises:
configuring, by the computing device, a software define transceiver for communicating with the passive wireless sensor.

7 . The method of claim 1 further comprises:
initiating, by the computing device, a calibration process with the passive wireless sensor, wherein the passive wireless sensor is subjected to a known environmental condition;
receiving, by the computing device, a response calibration RF signal that includes the carrier frequency signal and a coded calibration signal from the passive wireless sensor, wherein the coded calibration signal is representative of the known environmental condition by the passive wireless sensor;
generating, by the computing device, a calibration reference environmental condition value based on the coded calibration signal and the environmental conversion information;
comparing, by the computing device, the calibration reference environmental condition value with the known environmental condition;
when the calibration reference environmental condition value compares unfavorably with the known environmental condition:
adjusting, by the computing device, the environmental conversion information based on a difference between the calibration reference environmental condition value and the known environmental condition; or
sending, by the computing device, a calibration offset to the passive wireless sensor, wherein the passive wireless sensor utilizes the calibration offset when generating the coded sense response signal such that the coded sense response signal is a more accurate representation of the sensed environmental condition.

8 . The method of claim 1 further comprises:
transmitting, by the computing device, a second RF signal to a second passive wireless sensor, wherein the second RF signal includes the carrier frequency signal and a second modulated sense request signal;
in response to the second modulated sense request signal, receiving, by the computing device, a second response RF signal that includes the carrier frequency signal and a second coded sense response signal from the second passive wireless sensor, wherein the coded sense response signal is representative of a second sensed environmental condition by the second passive wireless sensor; and
generating, by the computing device, a second environmental condition value based on the second coded sense response signal and second environmental conversion information.

9 . The method of claim 1 further comprises:
transmitting, by the computing device, the RF signal to the passive wireless sensor using a frequency hopping scheme, wherein the RF signal includes, for a first hop of the frequency hopping scheme, a first carrier frequency signal of a plurality of carrier frequency signals and the modulated sense request signal and includes, for a second hop of the frequency hopping scheme, a second carrier frequency signal of the plurality of carrier frequency signals and the modulated sense request signal;
in response to the modulated sense request signal:
receiving, by the computing device, a first response RF signal that includes the first carrier frequency signal and a first coded sense response signal from the passive wireless sensor, wherein the first coded sense response signal is a first representative of the sensed environmental condition by the passive wireless sensor;
receiving, by the computing device, a second response RF signal that includes the second carrier frequency signal and a second coded sense response signal from the passive wireless sensor, wherein the second coded sense response signal is a second representative of the sensed environmental condition by the passive wireless sensor; and
generating, by the computing device, the environmental condition value based on the first and second coded sense response signal, the environmental conversion information, the first carrier frequency signal, and the second carrier frequency signal.

10 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the environmental condition value is a measure of one of:
temperature; moistur

Assignees

• Rfmicron Inc

Inventors

• Rokhsaz Shahriar

Classifications

• H03J2200/10

  Tuning of a resonator by means of digitally controlled capacitor bank · CPC title

• H04B1/713 Primary

  using frequency hopping · CPC title

• H04W4/80

  Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication · CPC title

• H04B17/318

  Received signal strength · CPC title

• H04W4/008 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic