Patent ID: 8150465

Claim:
A system for monitoring various environmental conditions and situations, the system comprising: a plurality of mobile sensor devices, each including at least one environmental sensor for detecting external environmental conditions such as potential biological or chemical attack, road and traffic conditions, air quality, weather conditions, and the like, said plurality of mobile sensor devices being mounted to respective sensor carriers deployed in a region of interest and roaming throughout said region of interest; and a knowledge server in communication with said plurality of mobile sensor devices over a distributed wireless communication network, said knowledge server receiving sensor data developed by said plurality of mobile sensor devices over said distributed wireless communication network; wherein at least one of said plurality of mobile sensor devices is mounted to a vehicle; and wherein said plurality of mobile sensor devices report said sensor data to said knowledge server via a plurality of wireless local area networks (WLANS), said plurality of mobile sensor devices handling non-crucial information by transmitting sensor data to the knowledge server via a home based WLAN of the respective mobile sensor device when it returns to its home WLAN and handling crucial information by transmitting sensor data to the knowledge server via an available WLAN to which the respective mobile sensor device connects.