Patent ID: 8117894

Claim:
A method of operating a sensor system comprising: setting the sensor system to a sleep mode for a first time period; sampling a gas sensor at time intervals to ascertain a presence of a gas, wherein the gas sensor is operated at a reduced accuracy in the sleep mode; waking up the sensor system after the first time period; pulsing a heater to affect an accuracy of the gas sensor; returning to a sleep mode for a second time period; taking a measurement for determining a concentration of the gas and parameters for compensating the measurement of the concentration of the gas after the second time period; indicating a compensated level of gas concentration if the gas is detected; classify the gas as to its hazard level; using an adaptive detection algorithm to set a sleep mode if the gas is not detected and to set an activity mode in response to the hazard level if the gas is detected; and varying the heater pulse rate in response to the level of the gas concentration and the hazard level.