Object monitoring and management system

• US 20030195904A1
• Filed: 04/10/2002
• Published: 10/16/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 04/10/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hotbutton Solutions, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Hotbutton Solutions, Inc.
• Inventors: Glendon, Jane, Chestnut, William
• Granted Patent: US 7,464,067 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/289 Object oriented databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6227 where protection concerns the structure of data, e.g. records, types, queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99931 Database or file accessing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99952 Coherency, e.g. same view to multiple users

Abstract

An object management system permits companies/organizations to grant access to third parties to partitioned subsets of a central database to enable completely paperless asset or process management. The central database can be used simultaneously by a plurality of companies/organizations, third party service providers and/or regulatory authorities, without compromise of data security. Data is partitioned on an Issuing Unit basis. Each Issuing Unit is enabled to autonomously generate primary keys. The relationship of Issuing Unit Group to managed objects is a may-to-many relationship to enable ultimate flexibility in data partitioning.

Claims

1. An object monitoring and management system, comprising:

a central database for storing information used to track objects, each object being identified by a unique computer-readable identifier, the central database being adapted to enable a plurality of authorized entities to retrieve, write and modify information about tracked objects that each authorized entity possesses;

means for permitting each authorized entity to create data access groups to permit selected third parties to access respective subsets of information in the database based on at least one selected attribute of objects owned by the entity; and

a portable unit for maintaining a portable database for storing a respective subset of the information, the portable unit being adapted to read the computer-readable identifier attached to the objects, and further adapted to permit a user to view, modify and create records in the portable database; and

means for synchronizing the subset of information in the portable database with a corresponding subset of information in the central database.

2. A system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the central database is connected to an open network and is accessible through the open network by a plurality of the entities and the third parties using a gateway that enables secure access to the central database governed by at least one attribute associated with each object.

3. A system as claimed in claim 2 wherein the central database comprises a plurality of tables having a standardized set of attributes, and each record in the respective tables is identified by a unique primary key that has the same format across all of the tables.

4. A system as claimed in claim 2 wherein the means for synchronizing the portable database with the central database comprises a link to the open network for transferring records to, or receiving records from, the central database.

5. A system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the portable unit comprises program code for flagging records that are created, deleted or modified in the portable database.

6. A system as claimed in claim 4 further comprising a server that provides database management and serves as the gateway to enable a secure interaction between the portable unit and the central database.

7. A system as claimed in claim 6 wherein the link is through a desktop computer that comprises conduit software for interacting with the portable unit, and conduit software for interacting with the server using the open network to synchronize the portable database with the central database by exchanging information between the portable unit and the server.

8. A system as claimed in claim 7 wherein the central database comprises a timestamp in each record in the central database that indicates when each record in the central database was last modified.

9. A system as claimed in claim 7 wherein the central database further comprises a table for storing a last download timestamp associated with each portable unit.

10. A system as claimed in claim 8 wherein the central database further comprises a table for storing registration information about each portable unit.

11. A system as claimed in claim 10 wherein the portable unit comprises program code for generating unique primary keys by concatenating an issuing unit code uniquely associated with the portable unit and a character string generated by the portable unit.

12. A system as claimed in claim 7 wherein the portable unit further comprises program code for initiating communications with the desktop computer whenever the portable unit is linked to the desktop computer, to synchronize the portable unit database with a corresponding subset of the central database.

13. A system as claimed in claim 12 wherein the portable unit further comprises conduit software for communicating with the desktop computer to synchronize the portable unit database with the corresponding subset of the central database.

14. A system as claimed in claim 13 wherein the desktop computer software is further comprises conduit software for communicating with the portable unit to synchronize the portable unit database with the corresponding subset of the central database.

15. A system as claimed in claim 14 wherein the server further comprises program instructions for synchronizing the subset of the central database with the portable database by comparing timestamps associated with modified records in the subset of the central database with the last download timestamp associated with the portable unit, to select modified records that require download to the portable unit.

16. A system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the computer-readable identifier comprises a chip or electronic tag that stores a unique serial number.

17. A system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the computer readable identifier comprises a printed bar code.

18. A system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the computer readable identifier comprises a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag.

19. A system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the portable unit comprises means for reading the unique serial number.

20. A system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the open network is the Internet.

21. A system as claimed in claim 12 wherein the portable unit and the desktop computer respectively comprise a serial port for interconnecting the portable unit and the desktop computer.

22. A method for enabling paperless management and tracking of physical assets or other objects in the possession of a plurality of operating entities, comprising, steps of:

providing secure access by each of the entities to a central database, the central database being structured to present to each entity only records in the database containing information related to the objects in the possession of that entity; and

providing a user interface that permits each entity to define data access groups for partitioning the records containing information related to the objects based on at least one selected attribute of objects owned by the entity, the data access groups respectively determining access to subsets of the records having the at least one selected attribute so that predetermined third parties can access a subset of the records containing information related to objects owned by more than one of the entities.

23. A method as claimed in claim 22 further comprising a step of providing secure access to the central database to a plurality of organizational entities respectively identified by an organization identifier used as an object attribute in the central database to present to users associated with the entity only records in the database containing information related to the objects in the possession of the entity.

24. A method as claimed in claim 22 further comprising a step of identifying each of the objects by affixing a computer readable identifier to the each of the respective objects.

25. A method as claimed in claim 22 further comprising a step of identifying each table in the central database using a unique primary key that is the same for each table.

26. A method as claimed in claim 25 further comprising a step of commissioning a plurality of issuing units, each issuing unit being enabled to independently and autonomously generate the unique primary keys.

27. A method as claimed in claim 26 further comprising a step of provisioning each issuing unit to generate the primary keys by concatenating a first character string uniquely associated with the issuing unit and a second character string generated by the issuing unit.

28. A method as claimed in claim 27 further comprising a step of providing members of at least one of the data access groups with portable units that have been commissioned as issuing units.

29. A method as claimed in claim 28 further comprising steps of:

operating a one of the portable units to read a computer readable identifier affixed to one of the objects;

executing program code in the portable unit to perform one of creating, writing and modifying a record that is associated with the object;

operating the portable unit to establish a connection with the central database; and

operating the portable unit to synchronize records in a database maintained by the portable unit with a corresponding subset of records in the central database.

31. A method as claimed in claim 29 wherein the step of executing program code further comprises a step of executing program code on the portable unit to generate the unique primary key.

32. A method as claimed in claim 22 wherein the step of providing secure access further comprises a step of provisioning a server to control access to the central database, the server being connected to a public network to permit the data access groups to access the database using the public network.

30. A method as claimed in clam 29 wherein the step of operating the portable unit to establish a connection with the central database further comprises a step of placing the portable unit in a docking station connected to a desktop computer that communicates with a server that maintains the central database to synchronizing the portable database with a subset of records in the central database.

33. A system for paperless management and tracking of physical assets or other objects in the possession of a plurality of operating entities, comprising:

a central database, the central database being structured to present to each entity only records in the database containing information related to the objects in the possession of that entity;

a computer adapted to display a user interface that permits each entity to define data access groups for partitioning the records containing information related to the objects based on at least one selected attribute of objects owned by the entity, the data access groups respectively determining access to subsets of the records having the at least one selected attribute so that predetermined third parties can access a subset of the records containing information related to objects owned by more than one of the entities;

at least one portable unit adapted to read an identifier tag affixed to the objects, create delete or modify records in a remote database supported by the portable unit, and

means for synchronizing the database of the portable unit with the central database.