Environmental sensing

• US 20070203650A1
• Filed: 02/28/2007
• Published: 08/30/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 02/28/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Copeland Cold Chain LP
• Original Assignee: PakSense Incorporated (Emerson Electric Company)
• Inventors: Spencer, James J., Larson, Eric R., Bates, Allen M., Jensen, Thomas P., Lawler, Casimir E.
• Granted Patent: US 7,675,409 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 702/3
• CPC Class Codes: G01K 1/024 for remote indication
• CPC Class Codes: G01K 3/04 in respect of time
• CPC Class Codes: G09F 3/0291 Labels or tickets undergoing a change under particular conditions, e.g. heat, radiation, passage of time

Abstract

One apparatus embodiment includes an electronics assembly including an environmental sensor, memory that provides data storage, a logic circuit, an indicator component, and a power source for providing power to at least one of the logic circuit and the memory. The logic circuit can be designed to perform a time measurement, perform an environmental measurement with the environmental sensor, and/or initiate an alarm status when a calculated alarm event time occurs based upon the environmental measurement. The indicator component can be connected to the logic circuit for displaying the alarm status.

Claims

1. An electronics assembly, comprising:

an environmental sensor;

memory that provides data storage;

a logic circuit to;

perform a time measurement;

perform an environmental measurement with the environmental sensor; and

initiate an alarm status when a calculated alarm event time occurs based upon the environmental measurement;

an indicator component connected to the logic circuit for displaying the alarm status; and

a power source for providing power to at least one of the logic circuit and the memory.

2. The assembly of claim 1, wherein the logic circuit is a control circuit having a number of executable instructions stored therein.

3. The assembly of claim 2, wherein the executable instructions are software embedded on the assembly.

4. The assembly of claim 2, wherein the assembly includes separate memory containing the number of instructions executable by the control circuit and memory providing data storage.

5. The assembly of claim 1, wherein the indicator component is a display for providing a number of indicator elements thereon.

6. The assembly of claim 1, wherein the indicator component is an electro-chemical indicator component.

7. The assembly of claim 1, wherein the indicator component is a graphical display.

8. The assembly of claim 1, wherein the indicator component displays a graph.

9. The assembly of claim 8, wherein the graph is formed by an electro-chemical indicator component.

10. The assembly of claim 1, wherein the assembly includes a means for activating the assembly.

11. The assembly of claim 10, wherein the means for activating includes a tab, that when bent, opens an electrical circuit.

12. The assembly of claim 10, wherein the means for activating includes a tab, that when broken, opens an electrical circuit.

13. The assembly of claim 10, wherein the means for activating is accomplished via a wireless signal.

14. The assembly of claim 1, wherein the assembly includes above threshold, below threshold, and within thresholds indicator components.

15. The assembly of claim 1, wherein the assembly includes instructions executable to retrieve data from the memory.

16. The assembly of claim 1, wherein the assembly includes an inner portion including the environmental sensor, memory, logic circuit, indicator component, and the power source and an outer portion including an encapsulating material that encapsulates the inner portion.

17. The assembly of claim 16, wherein the outer portion is fabricated from a material that meets a food safety standard for contact with food.

18. The assembly of claim 16, wherein the outer portion is fabricated from a plastic material.

19. The assembly of claim 16, wherein the outer portion is fabricated from a vinyl material.

20. The assembly of claim 16, wherein the outer portion is fabricated from a paper material.

21. The assembly of claim 16, wherein the outer portion is fabricated from a polystyrene material.

22. The assembly of claim 1, wherein the assembly includes a wireless communication link.

23. The assembly of claim 22, wherein the executable instructions can be modified via the wireless communication link.

24. The assembly of claim 1, wherein data can be stored in the memory of the assembly.

25. The assembly of claim 24, wherein the data can be modified via a wireless communication link.

26. The assembly of claim 25, wherein the data is consumer specific information.

27. An environmental sensing assembly, comprising:

an environmental sensing component;

a logic circuit that receives environmental sensing information from the environmental sensing component and determines whether an action should be taken based upon the received sensing information;

a wireless communication link for transmitting the environmental sensing information from the assembly to a remote device.

28. The assembly of claim 27, wherein the environmental sensing information is transmitted to a remote device via the wireless communication link.

29. The assembly of claim 27, wherein the assembly includes a memory for storing at least a portion of the environmental sensing information until a wireless communication via the wireless transmitter can be completed.

30. The assembly of claim 27, wherein the assembly includes a power source for providing power to at least one of the components of the assembly.

31. The assembly of claim 27, wherein the assembly includes one or more indicators for indicating a condition based upon the environmental sensing information.

32. The assembly of claim 31, wherein the one or more indicators have an off state and at least two frequencies indicating different activation states.

33. The assembly of claim 27, wherein the environmental sensing component includes one or more sensing elements selected from the group including:

a humidity sensor, a sensor that detects physical orientation, a proximity sensor, an acceleration sensor, a sensor of atmospheric pressure, a sensor of molecular compounds, a sensor for detecting a chemical change, a shock sensor, a vibration sensor, a light sensor, and combinations thereof.

34. The assembly of claim 27, wherein the assembly includes a contact pad for making an electrical connection for transferring the environmental sensing information from the assembly to a remote device.

35. The assembly of claim 27, wherein the assembly includes a communication port for transmitting the environmental sensing information from the assembly to a remote device.

36. The assembly of claim 27, wherein the assembly includes a pouch surrounding the environmental sensing component, the logic circuit, and the wireless transmitter.

37. The assembly of claim 27, wherein the assembly includes executable instructions received via the wireless communication link.

38. The assembly of claim 27, wherein the assembly includes executable instructions for receiving data having customer specific information via the wireless communication link.

39. The assembly of claim 27, wherein the assembly includes executable instructions that are executable by the logic circuit to take an environmental measurement at a predetermined time interval.

40. The assembly of claim 27, wherein the executable instructions that are executable by the logic circuit include instructions to take an average of a number of environmental measurements.

41. The assembly of claim 27, wherein the assembly includes executable instructions that are executable by the logic circuit to store one or more averages calculated with a number of sets of environmental measurements.

42. The assembly of claim 27, wherein the assembly includes executable instructions that are executable by the logic circuit to store an environmental measurement if it is within a predetermined range of values.

43. The assembly of claim 27, wherein the assembly includes executable instructions that are executable by the logic circuit to store an environmental measurement if it is outside a predetermined range of value variations.

44. The assembly of claim 27, wherein the pouch meets a food safety standard such that it can be used in monitoring food safety.

45. A method, comprising:

forming an environmental sensing component on a label material;

forming a logic circuit that receives environmental sensing information from the environmental sensing component and determines whether an action should be taken based upon the received sensing information on the label material; and

providing a power source on the label material to provide power to at least one of the sensing component and the logic circuit.

46. The method of claim 45, wherein the method includes activating the label when a first portion of the label is placed in contact with a second portion of the label.

47. The method of claim 45, wherein forming the environmental sensing component is accomplished by forming the environmental sensing component via a printing process.

48. The method of claim 45, wherein forming the logic circuit is accomplished by forming the logic circuit via a printing process.

49. The method of claim 45, wherein providing the power source is accomplished by forming the power source on the label material via a printing process.

50. The method of claim 45, wherein providing the power source is accomplished by attaching the power source to the label material.

51. A method, comprising:

forming an environmental sensing component;

forming a logic circuit that receives environmental sensing information from the environmental sensing component and determines whether an action should be taken based upon the received sensing information;

providing a power source to provide power to at least one of the sensing component and the logic circuit;

encapsulating the environmental sensing component, the logic circuit, and the power source to form an environmental sensing assembly with an encapsulating material; and

adding a customer specific item to the environmental sensing assembly.

52. The method of claim 51, wherein adding a customer specific item to the environmental sensing assembly is accomplished by printing a customer specific item on an outer surface of the encapsulating material.

53. The method of claim 51, wherein adding a customer specific item to the environmental sensing assembly is accomplished by providing an item of data.

54. The method of claim 53, wherein providing an item of data includes data to be used by the logic circuit in determining whether an action should be taken based upon the received sensing information.

55. The method of claim 51, wherein adding a customer specific item to the environmental sensing assembly is accomplished by configuring the logic circuit with an customer specific configuration to be used in determining whether an action should be taken based upon the received sensing information.