Intelligent Sensor System

Abstract

A sensor system and method of using the system synergistically to improve the accuracy and usefulness of measured results is described. The system is comprised of electronically linked components that act as markers to trigger events, producers that gather data from sensors and aggregators that combine the data from a plurality of producers using triggers from marker devices to select the data of interest. The system is shown to be applicable to selection of data regions of interest and to analysis of the data to improve accuracy. The analysis of the data of any particular sensor within the system makes use of extrinsic data, being data generated by other sensors and intrinsic data, that is data or data limits that are known to be true from nature, laws of physics or just the particular information the user wants to acquire. The system is demonstrated on the analysis of Doppler radar measurements of a thrown object.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A communication system and protocol for acquiring data related to a sport activity comprising:
 a) a marker device that includes an electronic sensor that detects an external event related to the sport activity said marker device sending a trigger signal when the sensor detects an external event,   b) a producer device that includes an electronic sensor that detects an external event related to the sport activity and said producer device records in an electronic memory a signal from the electronic sensor in the producer device and transmits the recorded signal,   c) an aggregator device that receives the trigger signal from the marker device and receives the transmitted recorded signal from the producer device and filters the transmitted recorded signal to include only data that corresponds to data recorded in a pre-selected time interval around the time of the trigger signal and displays the filtered data on an electronic display included in the aggregator device.   
     
     
         2 . The communication system and protocol of  claim 1  further including a plurality of producer devices each including an electronic sensor that detects an external event related to the sport activity and each recording in an electronic memory a signal from the electronic sensor in each of the plurality of producer devices and each transmitting the recorded signal. 
     
     
         3 . The communication system and protocol of  claim 1  further including a plurality of marker devices each including an electronic sensor that detects an external event related to the sport activity and each sending a trigger signal when the sensor in each of the plurality of marker devices detects an external event. 
     
     
         4 . The communication system and protocol of  claim 2  wherein the aggregator combines the data from the plurality of producer devices and displays the combined data on a display included in the aggregator device.