REMOTE MONITORING SYSTEM AND METHOD

• US 20100293493A1
• Filed: 05/17/2010
• Published: 11/18/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/15/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: InCheck Technologies, Inc.
• Original Assignee: InCheck Technologies, Inc.
• Inventors: Fridland, Alexander, Khazanov, Yuri
• Granted Patent: US 8,707,193 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/771
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2223/06 Remote monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 23/0264 Control of logging system, e.g. decision on which data to store; time-stamping measurements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/125 involving control of end-device applications over a network
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 40/18 Network protocols supporting networked applications, e.g. including control of end-device applications over a network

Abstract

A remote monitoring system including a sensor configured to take measurements of a physical parameter of an associated machine, a data acquisition module configured to gather machine data from the sensor, an application server in communication with the data acquisition module across a network, a database in communication with the application server and configured to receive and store the machine data from the data acquisition module across the network, and an interface configured to facilitate communication between a user and the machine data maintained in the database, wherein the machine data stored in the database is accessible to the user connected to the network in real-time.

Claims

1. A remote monitoring system, comprising:

a sensor configured to take measurements of a physical parameter of an associated machine;

a data acquisition module configured to gather machine data from said sensor;

an application server in communication with said data acquisition module across a network;

a database in communication with said application server and configured to receive and store said machine data from said data acquisition module across said network; and

an interface configured to facilitate communication between a user and said machine data maintained in said database, wherein said machine data stored in said database is accessible to the user connected to said network in real-time.

2. The remote monitoring system of claim 1 wherein said remote monitoring system includes a plurality of sensors and a plurality of data acquisition modules and further includes a gateway configured to facilitate communication between said data acquisition modules and said network.

3. The remote monitoring system of claim 1 wherein said network is one of or a combination of local area (LAN), wide area (WAN), or INTERNET networks.

4. The remote monitoring system of claim 1 wherein the application server is maintained in a first facility that is remote from a second facility in which said sensor and the associated machine is maintained.

5. The remote monitoring system of claim 1 wherein said application server includes a heap data structure configured for maintaining recent machine data received by said application server, said recent machine data being defined as data gathered within a time period defined by the user.

6. The remote monitoring system of claim 5 wherein said database is configured to maintain historical machine data received by said application server.

7. The remote monitoring system of claim 5 wherein said interface is a graphical user interface configured to display a comparison between said recent machine data and said historical machine data.

8. The remote monitoring system of claim 1 wherein said interface is a graphical user interface.

9. The remote monitoring system of claim 8 wherein said graphical user interface is embedded into a standard webpage.

10. The remote monitoring system of claim 8 wherein said graphical user interface is implemented using Adobe®

Flash®

software.

11. The remote monitoring system of claim 8 wherein said graphical user interface is configured to receive user requests for machine data calculations or analysis and which is configured to present results in real-time.

12. The remote monitoring system of claim 8 wherein said graphical user interface include a real-time status icons for the machine associated with said sensor.

13. The remote monitoring system of claim 1 wherein the sensor and data acquisition module are integrated into a single component.

14. A remote monitoring system having an application server, the application server comprising:

a data processing module configured to facilitate communication between a data acquisition module associated with a sensor, a database, and a user, wherein the data processing module is configured to receive machine data from the data acquisition module, send configurations to said data acquisition module, and send and receive machine data to and from the database; and

a graphical user interface configured to output machine data to a user and further configured to receive user requests to calculate or analyze the machine data in real-time.

15. The remote monitoring system of claim 14 wherein said data processing module further includes a communication server configured for facilitating communication with the data acquisition module and a digital signal processor configured for performing calculations or analysis on said machine data once said user request is received.

16. The remote monitoring system of claim 14 wherein said data processing module further includes a heap data structure wherein recent machine data received from said data processing module is stored, said recent machine data being defined as data gathered within a time period defined by the user.

17. The remote monitoring system of claim 14 wherein said database is configured to store historical machine data.

18. The remote monitoring system of claim 14 wherein said data processing module further comprises an alert notification engine configured such that when a parameter association with the machine data exceeds a predefined threshold value, an alert corresponding to the machine is output on said graphical user interface.

19. A method of remote monitoring, comprising the steps of:

using a data acquisition module gathering electric signal from a sensor associated with a machine;

the data acquisition module converting said sensor signal into the digital format and sending the machine data to an application server over a network;

the application server storing the machine data in a memory; and

a user retrieving machine data stored in the memory through a graphical user interface embedded into a standard webpage, wherein the user is remote from a facility housing the data acquisition module.

20. The method of claim 19 further comprising the steps of:

the user submitting a request to analyze or calculate the machine data via the graphical user interface; and

the graphical user interface displaying machine data based on the user'"'"'s requests in real-time.