DATA DOWNLOAD SYSTEM AND METHOD

• US 20080036619A1
• Filed: 08/01/2007
• Published: 02/14/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 08/11/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fisher & Paykel Appliances Limited (Fisher & Paykel Appliances Holdings Limited)
• Original Assignee: Fisher & Paykel Appliances Limited (Fisher & Paykel Appliances Holdings Limited)
• Inventors: RHODES, DAVID CHARLES, LAIRD, CHRISTOPHER KIMBERLEY
• Granted Patent: US 8,204,189 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/825
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/4278 using an embedded synchronisation

Abstract

An appliance having a diagnostic capability includes a tone generator, a controller, a data collection function, memory for storing the collected data, and a transmitter. The transmiter transmits a stream of data derived from the stored data using a carrier signal. The carrier signal is switched on and off according to bits in a stream of data derived from the stored data. The transmission also includes interleaving each bit for transmission with an off period of the carrier. Each off period of the carrier has a duration of at least 100 milliseconds.

Claims

1. An appliance having a diagnostic capability, said appliance comprising:

a tone generator,

a controller,

a data collection function and memory for storing said collected data, and

a transmitter for transmitting a stream of data derived from said stored data, using a carrier having a transmission frequency, wherein said transmission includes;

switching the carrier on and off according to bits in the stream of data derived from said stored data,

interleaving each bit for transmission with an off period of the carrier, wherein each off period of said carrier has a duration of at least 100 ms.

2. An appliance as claimed in claim 1, wherein said transmission frequency is a frequency within the frequency band of telephone systems.

3. An appliance as claimed in claim 1, wherein said transmission bit has a duration less than 1000 ms.

4. An appliance as claimed in claim 1, wherein said controller is programmed to activate said tone generator for user interface functions.

5. An appliance as claimed in claim 1, wherein said transmission frequency is between 300 Hz and 4000 Hz.

6. An appliance as claimed in claim 1, wherein said transmission frequency is between 250 Hz and 3000 Hz.

7. An appliance as claimed in claim 1, wherein said transmitter causes said tone generator to generate additional sound, in said off periods of said carrier that is outside the frequency band of the telephone system, but is audible to humans.

8. An appliance as claimed in claim 7, wherein said additional sound is below 250 Hz.

9. An appliance as claimed in claim 7, wherein said additional sound may be continuous or intermittent, and may have a constant or varying frequency.

10. An appliance as claimed in claim 1, wherein said transmitter is adapted to transmit said data stream as a formatted packet, and to transmit data identifying a data format applicable to said data packet.

11. An appliance as claimed in claim 10, wherein said identifying data comprises a header preceding the packet.

12. An appliance as claimed in claim 11, wherein said transmitter transmits said header using a carrier frequency distinct from the carrier frequency used for transmitting said data packet.

13. An appliance for use in conjunction with an appliance having a diagnostic capability, said computer executing the steps of:

executing a program to receive a signal, generating a digital representation of said signal, processing said digital representation to find the centre frequency of said signal, processing said digital representation with a filter at said centre frequency, generating a temporal bit map according to said centre frequency based on an expected sequence of data-bits interleaved with off periods having duration of at least 200 ms, and aligning said temporal bit map with said filtered digital representation to extract the data bits.

14. An appliance as claimed in claim 13, wherein said digital representation is a standard audio file.

15. An appliance as claimed in claim 13, wherein said program finds said centre frequency by performing a Fast Fourier Transform on said digital representation and identifying the frequency at which the peak magnitude appears in the spectrum.

16. An appliance as claimed in claim 13, wherein said temporal bit map has a bit period according to the bit width chosen for transmission,

17. An appliance as claimed in claim 16, wherein said bit period is determined in a transmission preamble.

18. An appliance as claimed in claim 13, wherein said temporal bit map is a square wave.

19. An appliance as claimed in claim 18, wherein said program shifts said temporal bit map relative to said filtered digital representation to find a point of maximum product, said point of maximum product corresponding to said temporal bit map aligning with bit boundaries of the filtered signal.

20. An appliance as claimed in claim 19, wherein said program sets a zero -one amplitude threshold for said digital representation.