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US 11,635,420 B2Granted
Signal-based medium analysis
AssigneeBlue Lab Solutions, LLC
InventorSarah E. Pluta
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A solution for evaluating a medium using electrical signals is described. A plurality of electrical signals having different frequencies are transmitted through the medium and signal data corresponding to the electrical signals after having traveled through the medium is acquired. A complex impedance and a complex permittivity and/or complex conductivity can be calculated for the medium. A set of characteristics of the medium can be computed using mixing models and/or known information of the medium. A level of one or more attributes of the medium can be determined from the characteristics using nonparametric Bayesian inference. One particular application is directed to determining a nitrate level of soil.
Claims20
A system comprising:
- an electrode component including a conducting electrode and a probe electrode;
- and
- a computer system including a processor configured for evaluating a medium, the evaluating including the processor:
- operating the electrode component to emit, from the conducting electrode, each of a plurality of electrical signals into the medium, each of the plurality of electrical signals having a different frequency of a plurality of frequencies extending over a range of frequencies;
- operating the electrode component to acquire, from the probe electrode, signal data for the medium after each of the plurality of electrical signals has traveled through the medium;
- measuring a complex impedance of the medium using the signal data;
- computing a complex permittivity and/or a complex conductivity, using the complex impedance and an electrode model corresponding to a configuration of electrodes used to acquire the signal data, wherein the electrode model removes an effect of an arrangement for the electrode configuration from the complex impedance;
- computing a set of characteristics of the medium using the complex permittivity and/or the complex conductivity, and a set of mixing models, wherein each characteristic in the set of characteristics has at least one corresponding mixing model in the set of mixing models;
- and
- providing the set of characteristics for use in evaluating the medium.
7 more elements
A method of evaluating a medium, the method comprising:
- obtaining, on a computer system, signal data acquired for the medium, wherein the signal data includes signal data acquired when one of each of a plurality of electrical signals traveled through the medium, each of the plurality of electrical signals having a different frequency of a plurality of frequencies extending over a range of frequencies;
- the computer system measuring a complex impedance of the medium using the signal data;
- the computer system computing a complex permittivity and/or a complex conductivity, using the complex impedance and an electrode model corresponding to a configuration of electrodes used to acquire the signal data, wherein the electrode model removes an effect of an arrangement for an electrode configuration used to acquire the signal data from the complex impedance;
- the computer system computing a set of characteristics of the medium using the complex permittivity and/or the complex conductivity, and a set of mixing models, wherein each characteristic in the set of characteristics has at least one corresponding mixing model in the set of mixing models;
- and
- the computer system providing the set of characteristics for use in evaluating the medium.
3 more elements
A soil evaluation system comprising:
- a computer system including a processor configured for evaluating the soil, the evaluating including the processor:
- computing a complex permittivity and/or a complex conductivity from signal data acquired for the soil, wherein the signal data includes signal data acquired when one of each of a plurality of electrical signals traveled through the soil, each of the plurality of electrical signals having a different frequency of a plurality of frequencies, wherein the computing uses an electrode model corresponding to an electrode configuration used to acquire the signal data to remove an effect of an arrangement for the electrode configuration when computing the complex permittivity and/or the complex conductivity;
- computing a set of characteristics of the medium using the complex permittivity and/or the complex conductivity, and a set of mixing models, wherein each characteristic in the set of characteristics has at least one corresponding mixing model in the set of mixing models;
- determining at least one attribute level in the soil using known information of the soil and at least one of the set of characteristics for the soil;
- and
- providing the at least one attribute level for use in evaluating the soil.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.