Networked personal weather devices and related methods for providing weather information

Abstract

The formation of dynamic, micro-climate groups consisting of passive and active weather collecting devices is provided. Such devices may collect weather information in real-time. The collected information may be distributed weather information and or forecasts to individuals in a particular geographical area or to other subscribers.

We claim: 
     
         1 . A weather-information collection system, the system comprising:
 a central computing device operable to,
 form or re-form one or more configurable, micro-climate collection groups, one or more of the groups comprising a plurality of first devices for passively collecting weather-related information and one or more second devices for passively and actively collecting weather-related information each of the second devices communicatively paired with at least one of the first devices; 
 determine a path of one of the first or second devices within the formed or re-formed configurable, micro-climate collection group based on geo-spatial information and time information; and 
 provide a current or historical weather-related condition for a geospatial position in the path based upon the collected weather-related information from the first and second devices. 
   
     
     
         2 . The system as in  claim 1  wherein the central computing device is further operable to:
 compare the received passively collected or passively and actively collected weather-related information from each first or second device within each group to (i) weather-related information received from other first and second devices within the same group or associated with substantially the same geospatial information in real-time, or (ii) to historical weather-related information to determine the reliability of the received information. 
 
     
     
         3 . The system as in  claim 2  wherein the central computing device is further operable to provide the current or historical weather-related information to the devices that are a part of the one or more configurable, micro-climate collection groups or to devices that not a part of the one or more configurable, micro-climate collection groups. 
     
     
         4 . The system as in  claim 2  wherein the current and historical weather information comprise forecasts, and the one or more computing devices are further operable to provide the forecasts to an authenticated individual. 
     
     
         5 . The system as in  claim 2  wherein the central computing device is further operable to:
 receive the geospatial information from paired first and second devices and one or more unpaired devices, and form or re-form a configurable, micro-climate collection group of paired and unpaired devices, wherein each member of the group has a same or substantially the same, geospatial information, and 
 remove a paired or unpaired device from an existing configurable, micro-climate collection group upon determining that the device has geo-spatial information that is substantially different from the geo-spatial information of the other members of the existing group. 
 
     
     
         6 . The system as in  claim 5  wherein the geo-spatial information comprises a variable size of a geographical area, elevation and topology. 
     
     
         7 . The system as in  claim 6  wherein the central computing device is further operable to form or re-form the configurable, micro-climate collection group comprising a minimum or maximum number of paired and unpaired devices that currently are associated with the same or substantially the same received, geospatial information. 
     
     
         8 . The system as in  claim 1  wherein one or more of the first devices comprises an umbrella. 
     
     
         9 . The system as in  claim 1  wherein one or more of second devices comprises a smartphone, personal digital assistant, wireless phone, laptop, tablet, or other mobile computing device.