Patent ID: 8185343

Claim:
In a base station of a communications network, a method for detecting placement of an explosive device within a geographic area, comprising: receiving, by the base station, a signal from at least one sensor in the communications network, the signal including a characteristic that represents a detected activity within a location proximate to the at least one sensor; comparing, by the base station, the characteristic of the signal to a baseline characteristic to form a comparison result; and detecting, by the base station, (i) that the characteristic of the signal indicates placement of an explosive device within the geographic area, prior to detonation of the explosive device, when the comparison result has a first value and (ii) that the characteristic of the signal does not indicate placement of an explosive device within the geographic area when the comparison result has a second value; receiving comprises (i) receiving, by the base station, a first signal from a first sensor in the communications network, the first signal including a first location characteristic that represents a geographic location of the first sensor in the communications network and (ii) receiving, by the base station, a second signal from a second sensor in the communications network, the second signal including a second location characteristic that represents a geographic location of the second sensor in the communications network; comparing comprises further comparing, by the base station, the first location characteristic of the first sensor to second location characteristic of the second sensor to form the comparison result; comparing, by the base station, the first location characteristic of the first sensor to second location characteristic of the second sensor to form the comparison result comprises comparing, by the base station, the first location characteristic of the first sensor to second location characteristic of the second sensor to detect a level of movement of an object relative to the first sensor and the second sensor; and detecting, by the base station, (i) that the characteristic of the signal indicates placement of an explosive device within the geographic area when the comparison result has a first value and (ii) that the characteristic of the signal does not indicate placement of an explosive device within the geographic area when the comparison result has a second value comprises detecting, by the base station, (i) that the level of movement of the object relative to the first sensor and the second sensor indicates placement of an explosive device within the geographic area when the level of movement indicates movement in proximity to one of the first sensor and the second sensor and (ii) that the level of movement of the object relative to the first sensor and the second sensor does not indicate placement of an explosive device within the geographic area when the level of movement indicates movement in proximity to both of the first sensor and the second sensor.