Integration of Auditory & Chemical Processing into Compact, Distributed Sensing Nodes

在这项研究中，我们建议结合互补的听觉/嗅觉功能，其中听觉过程用于补充气味，以最大限度地减少虚假警报，并加强可疑的危险情况。由于这里提出的“听觉”和“嗅觉”传感节点的独特性质，“听觉”功能还允许听觉/嗅觉组合在比目前“嗅觉”节点单独运作的整体功率低得多的情况下运作。如果你认为你看到了什么，当你听到它时，你也不是很放心吗？如果你认为你听到了爆炸声，当你也闻到烟味时，你不会更焦虑吗？如果一只狗闻到了兔子的气味，它不是一看到兔子就追得更快吗？这些问题的答案当然是肯定的。不一定是因为给系统增加了信息，而是因为我们用一组信息补充了另一组信息，这证实了我们的结论并加强了我们的反应。这项提议的重点是使用微型化、低功率、无人值守的传感节点来集成“嗅觉”和“听觉”功能，这是独一无二的。所提出的工作的系统架构包括每个传感节点两个芯片、一个无线通信接口和一个远程基站。有关拟议研究的图示说明，请参阅主要提案正文中的图1。每个双重传感节点实现“听”和“闻”功能的组合。这些传感节点收集的信息的解释是由“基站”或远程计算机完成的。通过使用基于模拟VLSI的硬件处理体系结构在传感节点本身处压缩大量传入的听觉和感觉数据来实现对传感信息的实时处理。每个传感节点由两个定制集成电路(芯片1、芯片2)和一个外部微型麦克风组成。芯片1接收和处理来自麦克风的听觉信号，还包含从芯片2传输的经过预处理的化学传感器提取特征的电路。芯片2包含至少8个基于沉积在ChemFET结构上的聚合物薄膜的化学传感器阵列。芯片2还包含用于控制位于化学传感器本地的加热器的处理电路，以及用于降低每个传感器信号中的噪声的处理电路。每个传感节点的听觉处理部分始终通电，其设计必然是超低功耗和紧凑的。只有在相关刺激(如听觉处理检测到的)存在的情况下，化学传感器、化学传感器处理电路和与基站的链接才能通电。这种选择性操作不仅延长了电池寿命，而且通过限制化学传感器暴露在可能与传感器表面发生不可逆反应的气体中，延长了化学传感器的寿命。在这种组合方法中，“听到”和“嗅觉”不仅提供更有价值的、健壮的和连贯的感觉信息，而且它们还使整个系统能够更低的功率运行。

In this research, we propose to combine complementary hear/smell functions where the hearing process is used to complement smell for minimizing false alarms and reinforcing suspected dangerous situations. Because of the unique nature of the "hear" and "smell" sensing nodes proposed here, the "hear" function also allows the hear/smell combination to operate under much lower overall power than a "smell" node can currently operate alone. If you think you see something, are you not reassured when you hear it as well? If you think you hear an explosion, are you not more anxious when you also smell smoke? If a dog smells a rabbit, does it not chase faster upon seeing it as well?The answers to these questions are, of course, yes. Not necessarily because add information to the system, but because we complement one set of information with another set that confirms our conclusions and reinforces our reaction. The focus of this proposal on the integration of "smell" and "hear" functions using miniaturized, low-power, unattended sensing nodes is unique. The system architecture for the proposed work consists of two chips per sensing node, a wireless communication interface, and a remote base station. Please refer to Figure 1 in the main proposal text for a pictorial description of the proposed research. Each dual sensing node implements a com-bination of "hear" and "smell" functions. The interpretation of information gathered by these sensing nodes is done by a "base station" or remote computer. Real time processing of sensory information is enabled by compression of the large amount of incoming auditory and sensory data at the sensing node itself using analog VLSI based hard-ware processing architectures. Each sensing node consists of two custom integrated circuits (Chip 1, Chip 2), and an external miniaturized microphone. Chip 1 receives and processes an auditory signal from the microphone and also contains circuits to extract features from pre-processed chemical sensors transferred from Chip 2. Chip 2 con-tains an array of no less than eight chemical sensors based on polymer films deposited on ChemFET structures. Chip 2 also contains processing circuits for controlling the heaters which reside local to the chemical sensors and processing circuits for reducing noise in each sensor signal. The auditory processing section of each sensing node is always powered on; by necessity, its design is ultra low power and compact. Only in the presence of relevant stimuli (as detected by the auditory processing) are the chemical sensors, chemical sensor processing circuits and link to the base station powered on. This selective operation not only extends battery life but also extends the life-time of the chemical sensors by limiting their exposure to gases that can irreversibly react with the sensor surface. In this method of combination, "hear" and "smell" not only offer more valuable, robust, and coherent sensory information, they also enable lower power operation of the overall system.