A miniature, low-power, intelligent sensor node for persistent acoustic surveillance

The desire for persistent, long term surveillance and covertness places severe constraints on the power consumption of a sensor node. To achieve the desired endurance while minimizing the size of the node, it is imperative to use application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) that deliver the required performance with maximal power efficiency while minimizing the amount of communication bandwidth needed. This paper reviews our ongoing effort to integrate several micropower devices for low-power wake-up detection, blind source separation and localization and pattern classification, and demonstrate the utility of the system in relevant surveillance applications. The capabilities of each module are presented in detail along with performance statistics measured during recent experiments.