A sensor node of the invention includes: a first to nth (n is an integer equal to or greater than two) environmental sensors which are configured to acquire ambient environmental information; a transmitter that is configured to regularly issue ambient environmental information acquired by at least one of the second to nth environmental sensors at a predetermined cycle and is configured to irregularly issue ambient environmental information acquired by the first environmental sensor and ambient environmental information acquired by at least one of the second to nth environmental sensors; a detector that is configured to detect a change value of ambient environmental information acquired by the first environmental sensor greater than a first threshold value; and a transmission interval controller that is configured to control a timing at which the transmitter regularly and irregularly issues the ambient environmental information.

A wireless sensor system includes a sensor tag configured to include a radio frequency tag and a communication device configured to wirelessly communicate with one or more sensor tags. Each of the sensor tags is configured to receive a measurement signal from one or more sensor circuits and stores identification information capable of being distinguished from other sensor tags. The communication device includes a transmission means configured to transmit a command signal to the one or more sensor tags and the command signal includes designation information for designating a sensor target serving as an object. Each of the sensor tags generates measurement data on the basis of the measurement signal if the designation information included in the command signal received from the communication device matches its own stored identification information and starts transmission of a response signal including the generated measurement data when a predetermined response start condition is satisfied.

The present invention achieves, using simple circuits, timing synchronization among ECUs of an electronic control device which is configured from a driver ECU, a sensor ECU, and an integrated ECU which are connected over a network. This electronic control device is provided with a driver ECU for driving various loads for vehicular control, a sensor ECU for sampling various sensor signals, and an integrated ECU which is connected to the driver ECU and sensor ECU over a network and calculates command values to the various loads in accordance with various sensor data, the electronic control device being characterized in that the driver ECU has timer D for generating internal timing, the sensor ECU has timer S for generating internal timing, and the integrated ECU has timer M serving as a reference for timer D and timer S.

The invention introduces a method for data synchronization between a sensor hub and an application processor, which contains at least the following steps: generating and adding a plurality of absolute time stamps in a sensor-data stream; and generating and adding a plurality of pieces of sensor data and a plurality of relative time stamps in the sensor-data stream between the moments of generating each two adjacent absolute time stamps, wherein each relative time stamp is associated with one piece of sensor data.

A sensor may determine, based on two or more synchronization signals provided by a control device, an expected time for receiving an upcoming synchronization signal. The sensor may perform a measurement of a sensor signal at a point in time such that sensor data, corresponding to the measurement of the sensor signal at the point in time, is available at a selectable time interval prior to reception of the upcoming synchronization signal.

The present invention relates to a method and system for gathering data along points of travel using common portable electronic devices that are typically used for other functions. More specifically, the data gathered by these portable electronic devices may be accessed, processed, validated, and used in conjunction with, or alone, to produce, augment, and/or validate other data sets across wide ranges of science and technology.

A multi-sensing system (20) includes multiple sensor units (28) that include respective sensors (44), (ii) are connected to one another in a cascade using serial data lines (32), and (iii) are connected to a common clock line (36) and to a common alignment line (40). The sensor units are configured to selectably communicate in accordance with first and second different serial communication protocols using the same serial data lines, clock line and alignment line. A host (24) is configured to communicate with the sensor units, including reading the sensors and instructing the sensor units to switch between the first and second serial communication protocols.

The invention relates to a system comprising a plurality of boards, each of which comprises a sensor and a control processor. The boards are connected together by a serial bus. One of the boards acts as master and the others as slaves. The master board is suitable for accessing the measurements of the plurality of boards and for sending these measurements, via a UART connection, to a host processor. The acquisition of the measurements takes place according to a specific synchronization method.

To provide a control device and control system capable of implementing time synchronization of sensor data, even in a case of using a common sensor interface device. A control device that receives information related to sensor values from a sensor interface device includes: a timing signal generation unit that generates a timing signal, an additional information generation unit that generates additional information synchronized with the timing signal, and an output unit that outputs the timing signal and additional information to the sensor interface device.

A method for synchronizing sensors. A ratio of a first data rate of the first sensor to the second data rate of the second sensor is 2.sup.n, where n is an element from the set of natural numbers. A central timer is started. A first countdown timer is generated based on the central timer and the first data rate, and a second countdown timer is generated based on the central timer and the second data rate. The first countdown timer and the second countdown timer are started periodically. The measurement by the first sensor begins at the latest when a first latency equals the value of the first countdown timer, and the measurement by the second sensor begins at the latest when the second latency equals the value of the second countdown timer.