Patent ID: 7562123

Claim:
A method of using sensor networks to detect a phenomenon, comprising: establishing a first collaborative group of sensor nodes in a sensor network when a phenomenon is detected; electing a leader sensor node based on broadcast of a message from each sensor node corresponding to a moment the detected phenomenon occurred; and changing the membership of the first collaborative group by adding additional sensor nodes to the first collaborative group as the additional sensor nodes detect changes in the phenomenon over time, while suppressing the creation of a second collaborative group as the additional sensor nodes detect changes in the phenomenon over time, wherein a message from each sensor node with a detection includes a time stamp corresponding to a moment the phenomenon was detected, and a likelihood ratio p(z i |H1)/p(z i |H0) indicating a confidence level that the phenomenon was detected, H0 being a hypothesis that a target is not present in a detection range, H1 being a hypothesis that the target is present in the detection range, and z i being sound energy computed from a sound waveform received by the each sensor node with a detection.