Method and system for detecting changes in sensor sample streams

摘要

A method detects a change in a stream of samples acquired by a sensor. A stream of samples acquired by a sensor over time is stored sequentially in a buffer in which an oldest samples is discarded and a newest sample is stored when the buffer is full, such that the buffer forms a window of samples sliding forward in time. For each new sample, the buffer is partitioned into all possible pairs of contiguous sub-windows of samples including a first sub-window and a second sub-window such that the newest sample is stored in the second sub-window of the pair. A difference is determined between the first and second sub-window of each pair of the contiguous sub-windows of samples, and a maximum difference is assigned as a merit score. A change in the stream of samples is signaled if the merit score is greater than a predetermine threshold. The change can be abrupt or gradual.