METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR INEXPENSIVELY MONITORING AND CONTROLLING REMOTELY DISTRIBUTED APPLIANCES
8 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A method and associated apparatus are described that enables unattended, remotely distributed appliances, such as vending machines, utility meters, thermostats and kitchen appliances (ovens, washing machines, refrigerators, etc.) to be connected inexpensively to each other and to a centrally located server. The apparatus 1) uses relatively simple “personality” modules to adapt the apparatus to the application in combination with a sophisticated core module that provides the intelligence needed to process data locally, to format that data and to transfer it to a remote server and 2) uses existing Internet-based communication links, thereby avoiding the costly proprietary links used with current state-of-the-art solutions.
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Citations
36 Claims
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1-14. -14. (canceled)
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15. A method for transmitting appliance data, comprising:
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generating data at the appliance; collecting the data generated at the appliance by a first communications device; formatting and storing lie collected data at the first communications device; transmitting the formatted data over a local area network (LAN); receiving the transmitted data at a second communications device; reformatting and storing the received data at the second communications device; retransmitting the reformatted data over a wide area network (WAN); receiving the retransmitted data at a server; reformatting the data at the server; and storing the data in a database. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36)
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Specification