Systems and methods for detecting physical asset locations

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016341813-A1
Application number	US-201514720148-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	May 22, 2015
Priority date	May 22, 2015
Publication date	Nov 24, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

According to one aspect, a system for determining a location of a device is provided. According to one embodiment, the system comprises a management component, a plurality of microphones including a first microphone and a second microphone, at least one receiving component, the at least one receiving component coupled to the plurality of microphones and configured to receive signals from the plurality of microphones related to an acoustic signal detected by the plurality of microphones, determine a first timestamp of the acoustic signal using the signals received from the first microphone, determine a second timestamp of the acoustic signal using the signals received from the second microphone, and send the first timestamp and the second timestamp to the management component, the management component being configured to receive the first timestamp and the second timestamp and calculate the location of the device using the first timestamp and the second timestamp.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A system for determining a location of a device, the system comprising:
a management component; a plurality of microphones including a first microphone and a second microphone; at least one receiving component, the at least one receiving component coupled to the plurality of microphones and configured to:
receive signals from the plurality of microphones related to an acoustic signal detected by the plurality of microphones;
determine a first timestamp of the acoustic signal using the signals received from the first microphone;
determine a second timestamp of the acoustic signal using the signals received from the second microphone; and
send the first timestamp and the second timestamp to the management component, the management component being configured to:
receive the first timestamp and the second timestamp; and
calculate the location of the device using the first timestamp and the second timestamp.

2 . The system according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one receiving component includes a plurality of receiving components, a first receiving component of the plurality of receiving components is coupled to the first microphone, and a second receiving component of the plurality of receiving components is coupled to the second microphone.

3 . The system according to claim 2 , wherein the first receiving component further comprises a first clock and the second receiving component further comprises a second clock, wherein the first receiving component and the second receiving component are further configured to synchronize the first clock with the second clock.

4 . The system according to claim 1 , wherein the management component is in data communication with the device and configured to send a message to the device to generate the acoustic signal.

5 . The system according to claim 1 , wherein the first timestamp is at least one of a first start timestamp and a first end timestamp and the second timestamp is at least one of a second start timestamp and a second end timestamp.

6 . The system according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one receiving component is further configured to:
calculate a first period of the acoustic signal using the signals received from the first microphone; and calculate a second period of the acoustic signal using the signals received from the second microphone.

7 . The system according to claim 6 , wherein the at least one receiving component is further configured to:
determine a first synthetic zero using the signals received from the first microphone; determine a second synthetic zero using the signals received from the second microphone; calculate a first set of zero crossing times for the signals with reference to the first synthetic zero; calculate a second set of zero crossing times for the signals with reference to the second synthetic zero; calculate the first period using the first set of zero crossing times; and calculate the second period using the second set of zero crossing times.

8 . The system according to claim 1 , wherein the management component is further configured to receive information descriptive of a height of a rack and a number of unit spaces in the rack and use the information to calculate a unit space of the device.

9 . The system according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one receiving component is further configured to filter the acoustic signal using a band-pass filter.

10 . The system according to claim 1 , wherein the management component is further configured to provide a representation of a rack including at least one representation of the location of the device in the rack.

11 . A method for determining a location of a device, the method comprising:
receiving, by a plurality of microphones, an acoustic signal from a device; receiving, by at least one receiving component, signals from the plurality of microphones related to the acoustic signal; determining a first timestamp of the acoustic signal using the signals received from a first microphone of the plurality of microphones; determining a second timestamp of the acoustic signal using the signals received from a second microphone of the plurality of microphones;
sending the first timestamp and the second timestamp to a management component;
receiving, by the management component, the first timestamp and the second timestamp; and
calculating, by the management component, the location of the device using the first timestamp and the second timestamp.

12 . The method according to claim 11 , further comprising synchronizing a first clock of the at least one receiving component with at least one second clock of the at least one receiving component.

13 . The method according to claim 11 , further comprising calculating a first period of the acoustic signal using the first set of samples and calculating a second period of the acoustic signal using the second set of samples.

14 . The method according to 13 , further comprising:
determining a first synthetic zero using the signals received from the first microphone; determining a second synthetic zero using the signals received from the second microphone; calculating a first set of zero crossing times for the signals received from the first microphone; calculating a second set of zero crossing times for the signals received from the first microphone; and calculating the first period using the first set of zero crossing times; and calculating the second period using the second set of zero crossing times.

15 . The method according to claim 11 , wherein the first timestamp is at least one of a first start timestamp and a first end timestamp and the second timestamp is at least one of a second start timestamp and a second end timestamp.

16 . The method according to claim 11 , further comprising sending a message to the device to generate the acoustic signal.

17 . The method according to claim 11 , further comprising receiving information descriptive of a height of the rack and a number of unit spaces in the rack and using the information in calculating the location of the device.

18 . The method according to claim 11 , further comprising filtering the acoustic signal using a band-pass filter around a range of expected frequencies.

19 . The method according to claim 11 , further comprising presenting a representation of a rack including at least one representation of the location of the device in the rack.

20 . A system for determining a location of a device, the system comprising:
a plurality of microphones; and means for determining the location at least in part by calculating a difference between times at which an acoustic signal generated by the device is received by each microphone of the plurality of microphones disposed at predefined positions relative to one another in a data center.

Assignees

• Schneider Electric It Corp

Inventors

• Ware Gary R

Classifications

• G01S5/22 Primary

  Position of source determined by co-ordinating a plurality of position lines defined by path-difference measurements (G01S5/28 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G01S5/30

  Determining absolute distances from a plurality of spaced points of known location · CPC title

• G01S11/14

  using ultrasonic, sonic or infrasonic waves · CPC title

• G01S5/0036

  of measured values, i.e. measurement on mobile and position calculation on base station · CPC title

• G01S5/0081

  Transmission between base stations · CPC title