Patent ID: 8031068
Filing Date: 2011-10-04
Classification: G01V

Abstract:
1. A system for detecting placement of an explosive device within a geographic area, the system comprising: a set of sensors forming a communications network, each sensor being configured to detect activity within a location proximate to the sensor and to generate a local reporting signal indicating a characteristic of the locally detected activity and each sensor having a transceiver configured to (i) receive a remote reporting signal from other sensors of the network, the remote reporting signal indicating a characteristic of the remotely detected activity and (ii) transmit at least one of the local reporting signal and the remote reporting signal to other sensors of the network; a base station configured to receive at least one of the local reporting signal and the remote reporting signal from the communications network and generate a reporting output based upon the characteristic of the detected activity as indicated by the received reporting signal when the characteristic of the detected activity is indicative of an activity associated with placement of the explosive device within the geographic area; and a signal repeater configured to receive at least one of the local reporting signal and the remote reporting signal from a first sensor in the communications network and transmit the at least one of the local reporting signal and the remote reporting signal to one of a second sensor in the communications network and the base station; wherein the signal repeater is operable to selectively transmit at least one of the local reporting signal and the remote reporting signal to selected sensors within the communications network to provide communication load balancing among the sensors within the communications network; wherein each sensor is operable to transmit at least one of the local reporting signal and the remote reporting signal to a subset of sensors within the communications network, the subset of sensors being fewer than the set of sensors forming the communications network.