Wireless Deployment and Execution of a Graphical Program to a Measurement Device

• US 20080034121A1
• Filed: 09/11/2007
• Published: 02/07/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 08/14/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: National Instruments Corporation (Emerson Electric Company)
• Original Assignee: National Instruments Corporation (Emerson Electric Company)
• Inventors: Shah, Darshan, Andrade, Hugo, Dove, Andrew
• Granted Patent: US 7,765,278 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/249
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/34 Graphical or visual programming
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/61 Installation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/125 involving control of end-device applications over a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/24 Arrangements for testing
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72406 by software upgrading or downloading

Abstract

A system and method for deploying one or more graphical programs on a personal digital assistant (PDA). One or more selected graphical programs may be programmatically converted to an executable format that can be executed by the portable computing device. For example, the graphical programs may be initially represented as a plurality of data structures that define or specify the operation of the respective graphical programs, and conversion software program may operate to access these data structures from memory and convert the data structures to an executable format suitable for the portable computing device. The executable may be transferred to the portable computing device for execution.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for performing a measurement function, the method comprising:

transmitting at least a portion of a graphical program to a first device over a network, wherein the graphical program comprises a plurality of interconnected nodes that visually indicate functionality of the graphical program;

the first device executing the at least a portion of the graphical program;

the first device sending one or more commands to a measurement device via wireless means in accordance with a wireless communication protocol in response to said executing;

the measurement device performing the measurement function in response to said one or more commands, thereby generating resultant data; and

the first device receiving and storing the resultant data from the measurement device via wireless means.

2. The method of claim 1,

wherein the graphical program comprises a graphical data flow program.

3. The method of claim 1,

wherein said performing the measurement function includes the measurement device measuring a physical phenomenon to acquire data.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving the resultant data from the first device.

5. The method of claim 1,

wherein said transmitting at least a portion of a graphical program to a first device over a network comprises:

generating a machine-executable program based on the at least a portion of the graphical program; and

transmitting the machine-executable program to the first device; and

wherein said first device executing the at least a portion of the graphical program comprises;

the first device executing the machine-executable program.

6. The method of claim 1,

wherein the graphical program comprises a block diagram portion and a user interface portion, wherein the block diagram portion comprises the plurality of interconnected nodes;

wherein the first device executing the at least a portion of the graphical program comprises the first device executing the block diagram portion, wherein said executing further comprises executing the user interface portion to display a user interface on a display of the first device.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

transmitting a graphical program execution engine to the first device over the network;

wherein the first device executes the user interface portion using the graphical program execution engine.

8. The method of claim 6,

wherein said transmitting at least the portion of a graphical program to the first device comprises transmitting an executable which includes additional software components;

wherein said executing the user interface portion comprises the first device executing the executable to execute the additional software components to display the user interface.

9. The method of claim 1,

wherein the measurement device is a wireless data acquisition device;

and

wherein the measurement device can connect to a sensor.

10. The method of claim 1,

wherein said transmitting at least a portion of the graphical program to the first device over the network comprises wireless transmission.

11. A system for executing graphical programs, the system comprising:

a computer system which stores a graphical program in a memory, wherein the graphical program comprises a plurality of interconnected nodes that visually indicate functionality of the graphical program;

an external device coupled to the computer system; and

at least one measurement device;

wherein the external device is operable to communicate with the at least one measurement device in a wireless fashion;

wherein the computer system is operable to provide the at least a portion of the graphical program to the external device;

wherein the external device is operable to;

execute the at least a portion of the graphical program; and

send commands to the at least one measurement device in a wireless fashion in accordance with said executing;

wherein the at least one measurement device is operable to execute the commands to perform a function.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the external device is coupled to the computer system over a wired network.

13. The system of claim 11,

wherein the measurement device is operable receive and execute the commands to acquire data from an external phenomenon;

and

wherein the at least one measurement device is operable to provide the acquired data to the external device in a wireless fashion.

14. The system of claim 13,

wherein the external device is operable to analyze the acquired data.

15. The system of claim 13,

wherein the external device is operable to provide the acquired data to the computer system;

and

wherein the computer system is operable to analyze the acquired data.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein, in executing the graphical program the external device is operable to execute a graphical program execution engine.

17. The system of claim 11,

wherein, in providing the graphical program to the external device, the computer system is operable to:

generate a machine-executable program based on the graphical program; and

communicate the machine-executable program to the external device; and

wherein, in executing the graphical program, the external device is operable to;

execute the machine-executable program.

18. The system of claim 11,

wherein the graphical program comprises a block diagram portion and a user interface portion, wherein the block diagram portion comprises the plurality of interconnected nodes;

wherein the external device executing the at least a portion of the graphical program comprises the external device executing the block diagram portion; and

wherein the external device executing the at least a portion of the graphical program further comprises executing the user interface portion to display a user interface on a display of the external device.

19. The system of claim 11:

wherein the computer system is further operable to provide a graphical program execution engine to the external device over the network;

wherein the external device is operable to execute the user interface portion using the graphical program execution engine.