WO2022084857A1 - Device for real time monitoring of environmental parameters with iot framework - Google Patents

Abstract

The low-cost and compact real-time condition monitoring device provides real-time simultaneous monitoring of data, over the local area network/ internet, of temperature, humidity, pressure, gases and other parameters at number of places such as homes, hospital OPDs offices, critical control room, etc. The device provides the parameters in form of graphical representation with appropriate values. The data is stored at centralized database at single interface, and can be accessed and used for analysis/processing/monitoring at later stages. The unit finds its usage for early measures in a timely manner before the occurrence of hazardous conditions with relevant efficient management, and management under emergency situation.

Description

DEVICE FOR REAL TIME MONITORING OF ENVIRONMENTAL PARAMETERS WITH IOT FRAMEWORK

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

[001] The present invention discusses about a low-cost, portable Real Time Monitoring of environmental parameters in multiple living room, OPD, etc. System can monitor humidity, pressure, temperature and gases such as carbon oxides. More particularly, the present invention discloses Integration of generalized monitoring parameter (Temp, Humidity and Pressure) with other required gases parameter which can be monitored graphically anywhere from remote location over the Local Area Network/ internet

BACKGROUND AND PRIOR ART

[002] The condition monitoring is a device for real-time monitoring of temperature, humidity, pressure, gases and other environmental parameters of rooms, specific places etc. The data is send over the local area network, internet which can be monitored and analyzed at remote locations. The device provides the parameters in form of graphical representation with appropriate values apart from showing the critical conditions of the rooms when the environment conditions crosses the specified values and therefore will assist for better understanding of the variations in the parameters in due course of time.

DEFECTS IN PRIOR ARTS

[003] Many of the available prototypes can only monitor the value in real time and displays it on LCD screen, but don’t have memory to store the values]. Other proposed prototypes are only limited to monitoring of parameters such as temperature and humidly only, where as other only focuses on environmental gases. Some of the devices only detects whether pollution level is below to the required threshold or not. They are not able to identify the gases causing air pollution.

[004] Though there are numerous Internet of Things based environmental monitoring devices available in the market, but some of the devices don’t support multiple rooms monitoring at single user interface. Some of the devices reported supports monitoring of multiple places from remote locations but doesn’t provide cost effective solution.

[005] Thus there is need of smart conditional monitoring device capable of monitoring multiple rooms, whose desired environmental parameters can be monitored graphically from any remote location. The collected data also needs to be stored for latter analysis, when required. Also the device should be customized according to the types of gases that need to be detected.

OBJECT OF THE INVENTION

[006] Accordingly, the primary object of the present invention is to provide a realtime monitoring of environmental parameters such as temperature, humidity, pressure, environmental gases such as Methane, CO2, NO_X, etc.

[007] Another object of the present invention is to provide user friendly dashboard for multiple rooms monitoring in a single window.

[008] Another object of the present invention is to provide centralized storage of database at single interface over the local area network, and can be accessed and used for analysis at later stages.

[009] Another object of the present invention is to make data monitoring possible from remote location also using internet, make it affordable and can be installed with minimal or no help of experts. [0010] Another object of the present invention is to make user aware about any abnormality, if observed during parameters monitoring. (We might add: Use of Al techniques for detecting outlier data using some statistical measures).

[0011] As per another object of the present invention, the Data collection and transmission can be carried out at a minimum 1 minutes of time span or other period selectable by user.

[0012] As per another object of the present invention, the Software provides ability to develop custom made on-demand report with capabilities to export data into pdf, csv and excel format.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0013] The condition monitoring device provides a real-time simultaneous monitoring of data such as temperature, humidity, pressure, gases and other parameters for a rooms, specific place or particular environment from remote locations using local area network or internet. The device displays the under observed parameters in the form of graphical representation at a user interface. The under observed parameters for multiple rooms is observed in single graphical windows. Whenever the environmental conditions cross the specified values, predefined by user as threshold, alarm gets generated and makes it notified to user either by email or SMS. The data is stored in centralized database using single interface, and can be accessed and used for analysis, processing, monitoring at later stages. The unit can be placed at number of places like homes, hospital OPDs, offices, etc. for real-time condition monitoring. The form factor of the device is small and sleek with outer facing sensors for measurement of the room environment parameters. This can be easily placed on the table top and or can be fixed on the wall using braces or positioned in the specific places for monitoring. The installation of the unit is easy and requires installation at one time. The future extension of unit is possible if the rooms are increased. [0014] The unit finds its usage for early measures in a timely manner before the occurrence of hazardous conditions with relevant efficient management, and management under emergency situation. Furthermore, the parameters can be extended for different requirement weather monitoring, industrial use, water quality, air quality/pollution, industrial gas etc.

[0015] Therefore such as herein described there is provided a device for real time monitoring of environmental parameters with loT framework configured for placement in or insertion into a conduit of a subject, comprising of a housing alongwith display; a plurality of sensor(s) coupled to the said housing; a transmitter coupled to the housing; an expandable element, inflatable element, stretched membrane or balloon coupled to the housing and configured to occlude at least a portion of the conduit; a power source attached to the housing; and a programmed processor and microcontroller coupled to the housing and operatively coupled to memory configured to perform the operations comprising; obtaining real time environmental information from a surrounding via the at least one sensor, wherein the physiological information comprises one or more of the following: temperature, humidity, pressure, gases such as CO2, NOx; and processing and analysing the information to provide a result.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE ACCOMPANYING DRAWINGS

[0016] The nature and scope of the present invention will be better understood from the accompanying drawings, which are by way of illustration of a preferred embodiment and not by way of any sort of limitation. In the accompanying drawings:

[0017] Figure 1 illustrates the block diagram of conditioning monitor sensor in accordance with the present invention;

[0018] Figure 2 illustrates the typical front view of the condition monitoring sensor in accordance with the present invention; [0019] Figure 3 illustrates the typical side view of the condition monitoring sensor in accordance with the present invention;

[0020] Figure 4 illustrates the Graphical User Interface in accordance with the present invention;

[0021 ] Figure 5 illustrates the Graphical Representation of the sensor/environment data in accordance with the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

[0022] Figure 1 is the block diagram of the condition monitoring device. The 1 shows the microcontroller unit which controls different sensors and collect data from them. 2, 3 and 4 shows the different sensors attached with the microcontroller. The number of sensors can be increased as per user requirement. 5 is the Wi-Fi module for connecting the microcontroller unit with the cloud server 6. The cloud server 6 is basically a combination of hardware and software platform to run as database storage and provide web services. The user can see the sensor data from 7.

[0023] Figure 2 shows the front view of condition monitoring system where 8 is the upper cover of the module. Point 9 is the ON/OFF switch. Currently 10 is pressure sensor point, 11 is temperature and humidity sensor, 12 and 13 are different gas sensor modules connected with the main controlling unit facing outward to sense the environment conditions.

[0024] Figure 3 shows the side view of the condition monitoring system. 14 is the upper side of the cabinet. 15 show the power ON/OFF switch. 16 show different sensor points. Point 17 is the USB type A connection to program the main controller unit. 18 is the 8 fin box connector for programming the Wi-Fi module.

[0025] Figure 4 describes different graphical user interface panels where 19 is the user login panel which can be open from any configured remote site. 20 show the login buton. 21 is the threshold seting panel. User can set their threshold values for different sensors. 22 is the panel/ user interface for report generation.

[0026] Figure 5 is the graphical representation of different sensor values. 23 shows a typical graph for temperature. 24 and 25 are the buttons to select other panels as described in the figure 4. Here total five graphs are seen which is equal to the number of condition monitoring parameters. If user adds more sensors in the device then this panel will also display the same.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0027] The present invention has been made in an effort to solve the above conventional problems, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a monitoring module having an embedded controller, a temperature and humidity sensor module and other sensors with an interface for mounting sensors. The goal is to provide a real time monitoring system that integrates basic monitoring modules and database systems with various sensor data.

[0028] The system for real-time monitoring of humidity, pressure, temperature and gases such as carbon oxides, based on an integrated loT sensor interface, the system comprising: different sensors, microcontroller unit, Wi-Fi modules, local area network/internet gateway, remote server with data storage, database and web application.

[0029] The loT integrated sensor interface-based real-time monitoring system for environment based on the present invention as described above includes a monitoring module having a temperature, an embedded controller, a temperature / humidity sensor module and an interface unit for mounting sensors, Integrate basic monitoring module and database system by integrating basic information system for real-time monitoring of information. [0030] The device provides real-time monitoring of temperature, humidity, pressure, gases such as CO2, NO_X, etc. for rooms, hospital OPD or other specific places. System collects environmental parameters from sensors and sends it to the local server for monitoring and storage. The device is connected to local server through Wi-Fi. The block diagram of proposed device block diagram is shown in the Figure 1.

[0031] The device provides the sensed value of observed parameters in form of graphical representation as shown in Figure 5. To provide security, login and password base authentication is provided at user interface. The data is stored at centralized database. Data for multiple sensors can be monitored at single graphical interface. Data can be accessed and used for analysis or processing at later stages also.

[0032] The minimum and maximum values of under observed parameters are set as threshold vales by user in order to identify alarming condition when observed parameter deviates from set threshold. The parameter values are stored in the device. Furthermore, the stored data is available for later analysis and processing. For a given parameter its stored data can be downloaded into tabular format. The proposed conditional monitoring device is shown in Figure 2.

DETAILS OF THE VARIOUS COMPONENTS AND METHEDOLOGY

DIFFERENT SENSORS

[0033] DHT11 temperature and humidity sensor specifications:

Operating Voltage: 3.5V to 5.5V.

Operating current: 0.3mA (measuring) 60uA (standby)

Output: Serial data. • Temperature Range: 0°C to 50°C.

• Humidity Range: 20% to 90%

• Resolution: Temperature and Humidity both are 16-bit.

• Accuracy: ±1°C and ±1%

[0034] BMP180 pressure sensor specifications:

• Supply Voltage: 1.8V to 3.6V.

• Low power consumption: 0.5uA at 1Hz.

• I2C interface.

• Max I2C Speed: 3.5 MHz.

• Very low noise: up to 0.02hPa (17cm)

• Pressure Range: 300hPa to 1 lOOhPa (+9000m to -500m)

[0035] MQ-4 gases parameter sensor specifications:

• Power requirements: VCC - 5V±0.1

• DO output: TTL digital 0 and 1 (0.1 and 5V)

• AO output: 0.1-0 .3 V (relative to pollution), the maximum concentration of a voltage of about 4V

• Detection Gas: Natural gas/Methane

• Detection Concentration: 200-10000ppm (Natural gas / Methane)

• Interface: 1 TTL compatible input (HSW), 1 TTL compatible output (ALR)

• Heater consumption: less than 750mw

• Sensing Resistance Rs: 10KQ- 60KQ (lOOOppm CH4)

• Standard Encapsulation Bakelite, Metal cap

[0036] MQ-135 gases parameter sensor specifications: • Wide detecting scope

• Fast response and High sensitivity

• Stable and long life

• Operating Voltage is +5V

• Detect/Measure NH3, NOx, alcohol, Benzene, smoke, CO2, etc.

• Analog output voltage: 0V to 5V

• Digital output voltage: 0V or 5V (TTL Logic)

• Preheat duration 20 seconds

• Can be used as a Digital or analog sensor

• The Sensitivity of Digital pin can be varied using the potentiometer

DATA COLLECTION

[0037] The device is capable of sensing the environment data and stores it remotely. The device is fitted with various sensors as discussed earlier and a microcontroller unit which gives commands and controls to the sensors and receives the data from sensors. The microcontroller units communicate with the Wi-Fi module and send the data to remote server over the local area network/ internet. The block diagram image in figure 1 also shows the basic connectivity between different sensors and microcontroller unit. The remote server stores and visualizes the data as per requirement.

REMOTE COMMUNICATION AND INTEGRATION MODULES WITH DATABASE STRUCTURES

[0038] As discussed the microcontroller collects data from different sensors. In figure 1 we can see the connectivity of the microcontroller unit with the Wi-Fi module. The Wi-Fi module is responsible for remote local area network/internet connectivity. ESP8255 connects with the cloud server which is in the remote site. The remote server is a PC/ server which have its own operating system and storage system. The PC/ server are configured with associated software for web services and database structures. The database structures are created as per requirement i.e. number of sensor/ parameters in the number of tables and columns for different device placed in various rooms/ locations etc. The microcontroller continuously sends the sensor data to the server via Wi-Fi module and is stored in this database. In this way the whole sensing and storing is integrated. Once the environment/ sensor data is stored it is accessed by the web application and visualizes it in the webpage. It has various features like graphical representation, alarming on critical point crossover and also for the report generation.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION OF THE PROPOSED DEVICE

[0039] Our Device Features:

• Real Time Monitoring

• Operating Voltage required: 5V

• USB/ batteries Power

• Multiple rooms can be monitored from single user friendly dashboard

• Can be monitored from remote location

• Customized according to requirement (In terms of gases detection)

• Compact and Portable

• In built Wi-Fi

• On screen Alarm in case of irregularity

• 5-minute installation

• Detectable Gases: Nitrous Oxide, NH3, Smoke, CO2, Propane, Methane etc.

• Range:

• Temp: 0°C to 50°C

• Humidity: 20% to 90%

• Pressure: 300 . . . 1100 hPa

ADVANTAGES [0040] The unit can be placed at homes/hospital OPDs/ staff rooms/ offices/ critical control room/ for real-time condition monitoring.

[0041 ] The device provides the parameters in form of graphical representation showing the critical conditions of the rooms when the environment conditions crosses the alarming values.

[0042] The device gives better understanding of the variations in the monitored parameters such as temp, humidity, gases concentration, etc. in due course of time thereby making it viable even in an unstable scenario.

[0043] The device can be installed at any place within short frame of time. The graphical dashboard is highly flexible hence can accommodate as many monitoring devices as required by user.

[0044] The system is quite economical (Rs. 1500) when compared with the existing monitoring devices. Hence the device can be recognized as a solution for all classes of users.

[0045] Furthermore, the monitoring parameters can be extended depending upon different requirement of weather monitoring, industrial use, air quality/pollution, industrial gas etc.

Table 1 shows the brief description of the materials and their usages

[0046] The foregoing is illustrative of the present invention and is not to be construed as limiting thereof. Although a few exemplary embodiments of this invention have been described, those skilled in the art will readily appreciate that many modifications are possible in the exemplary embodiments without materially departing from the teachings and advantages of this invention. Accordingly, all such modifications are intended to be included within the scope of this invention as defined in the claims. The invention is defined by the following claims, with equivalents of the claims to be included therein.

[0047] Those with ordinary skill in the art may appreciate that the elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and are not necessarily drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated, relative to other elements, in order to improve the understanding of the present invention. [0048] It will be appreciated that the various steps identified and described above may be varied, and that the order of steps may be adapted to particular applications of the techniques disclosed herein. All such variations and modifications are intended to fall within the scope of this disclosure. As such, the depiction and/or description of an order for various steps should not be understood to require a particular order of execution for those steps, unless required by a particular application, or explicitly stated or otherwise clear from the context.

[0049] While the invention has been disclosed in connection with the preferred embodiments shown and described in detail, various modifications and improvements thereon will become readily apparent to those skilled in the art. Accordingly, the spirit and scope of the present invention is not to be limited by the foregoing examples, but is to be understood in the broadest sense allowable by law.

Claims

CLAIMS I/We claim:

1. A device for real time monitoring of environmental parameters with loT framework configured for placement in or insertion into a conduit of a subject, comprising: a) a housing alongwith display; b) a plurality of sensor(s) coupled to the said housing; c) a transmitter coupled to the housing; d) an expandable element, inflatable element, stretched membrane or balloon coupled to the housing and configured to occlude at least a portion of the conduit; e) a power source attached to the housing; and f) a programmed processor and microcontroller coupled to the housing and operatively coupled to memory configured to perform the operations comprising; g) obtaining real time environmental information from a surrounding via the at least one sensor, wherein the physiological information comprises one or more of the following: temperature, humidity, pressure, gases such as CO2, NOx; and h) processing and analyzing the environmental information to provide a result.

2. The device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the said processor is Arduino Uno configured for performing digital signal processing of incoming signals from sensors. The device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the said Temp and Humidity sensor (DHT 11) is configured to sense temperature and humidity. The device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the said Pressure sensor (BMP-180 is configured to sense pressure of the surroundings. The device as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the said Gas Sensor:MQ-4 is configured to sense air quality. The device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the said Gas Sensor:MQ-135 is configured to sense concentration of gases. The device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the said transmitter further includes a Wi-Fi (ESP 8266), configured to transmit data to local server. The device as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the said device further includes on screen Alarm in case of irregularity The device as claimed in claim 6, wherein the said Detectable Gases include Nitrous Oxide, NH3, Smoke, CO2, Propane, Methane etc. The device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the said microcontroller unit communicate with the Wi-Fi module and send the data to remote server over the local area network/ internet and visualizes the data from the said display.