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

在本研究中，我们建议将互补的听觉/嗅觉功能结合起来，其中听觉过程用于补充嗅觉，以最大限度地减少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”感知节点的独特性，“听觉”功能还允许听觉/嗅觉组合在比“嗅觉”节点目前单独运行的低得多的总功率下运行。如果你认为你看到了什么，那么当你听到的时候，你也不放心吗？如果你认为你听到了爆炸声，那么当你闻到烟味时，你会不会更焦虑呢？如果狗闻到了兔子的气味，它不是也会在看到兔子后更快地追赶吗？这些问题的答案当然是肯定的。不一定是因为向系统中添加了信息，而是因为我们用一组信息补充了另一组信息，从而证实了我们的结论并强化了我们的反应。该提案的重点是使用小型化，低功耗，无人值守的传感节点集成“嗅觉”和“听觉”功能，这是独一无二的。提出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。有关建议研究的图片描述，请参阅建议正文中的图1。每个双传感节点实现了“听”和“闻”功能的组合。对这些传感节点收集的信息的解释由“基站”或远程计算机完成。传感信息的实时处理是通过使用基于模拟VLSI的硬件处理架构压缩传感节点本身的大量传入听觉和传感数据来实现的。每个传感节点由两个定制集成电路（Chip 1, Chip 2）和一个外部微型麦克风组成。芯片1接收并处理来自麦克风的听觉信号，还包含从芯片2传输的预处理化学传感器中提取特征的电路。芯片2包含一个不少于8个化学传感器的阵列，该阵列基于沉积在ChemFET结构上的聚合物薄膜。芯片2还包含用于控制位于化学传感器局部的加热器的处理电路和用于降低每个传感器信号中的噪声的处理电路。各感知节点的听觉处理部分始终通电；根据需要，它的设计是超低功耗和紧凑的。只有在相关刺激存在的情况下（如听觉处理检测到的），化学传感器、化学传感器处理电路和与基站的连接才会启动。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于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使用寿命。在这种组合方法中，“听觉”和“嗅觉”不仅提供了更有价值、更强大、更连贯的感官信息，而且还使整个系统的运行功耗更低。

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.