Patent ID: 8495000

Claim:
A data integration apparatus having a data processor, the data integration apparatus comprising: an information receiving unit, operating on the data processor, the information receiving unit receiving sensing information from each of a plurality of sensing devices, the sensing information comprising a value indicating the existence of signals and a confidence estimated parameter indicating the degree of confidence for the value indicating the existence of signals; a weight reflecting unit, operating on the data processor, the weight reflecting unit generating a weighting factor based on the confidence estimated for each of the plurality of sensing devices; and a confidence producing unit, operating on the data processor, the confidence producing unit producing a characteristic value for each of the plurality of sensing devices, wherein the characteristic value indicates the degree of confidence of the sensing information transmitted from a sensing device and is produced using the value indicating the existence of signals and the weighting factor, and wherein the total sum of the characteristic values produced from the sensing devices is compared with a previously set threshold value in order to finally determine whether the signals exist.