PORTABLE DEVICE INVENTORY TRACKING

• US 20120262292A1
• Filed: 04/14/2011
• Published: 10/18/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 04/14/2011
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: MOSER, MARTIN
• Application Number:
  US13/086,432
• Publication Number:
  US 20120262292A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/540
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders

Abstract

Various embodiments of systems and methods for portable device inventory tracking are described herein. In various embodiments, a mother device scans a vicinity to register and track one or more satellite devices. During registration process, the mother device assigns an owner identifier value and an item identifier value to the satellite device and a user can save which satellite device to register. One or more rules can be configured to determine when a reachability request is to be sent to the one or more satellite devices. A method of an embodiment ensures that if a satellite device does not respond to the reachability request, an alert message can be generated on the mother device. The alert message can be prioritized and can consist of a log entry with detailed information about the alert or a time stamp and location of the last reachability request acknowledgement sent from the satellite device.

Claims

1. An article of manufacture including a tangible computer readable storage medium to physically store instructions, which when executed by a computer, cause the computer to:

scan a vicinity of a mother device for one or more satellite devices to be registered on the mother device;

receive an acknowledgement from the one or more satellite devices;

present the one or more satellite devices on the mother device;

register the one or more satellite devices with the mother device;

test for reachability of the one or more satellite devices registered on the mother device; and

generate an alert message if at least one of the one or more satellite devices do not respond to a reachability request.

2. The article of manufacture of claim 1, wherein receiving an acknowledgement from the plurality of satellite devices comprises:

assigning an owner identifier value to the one or more satellite devices; and

assigning an item identifier value to the one or more satellite devices.

3. The article of manufacture of claim 1, wherein registering the one or more satellite devices comprises saving a list of at least one owner identifier value and at least one item identifier value.

4. The article of manufacture of claim 1, wherein testing for reachability further comprises sending a reachability request to be acknowledged by the one or more satellite devices registered on the mother device.

5. The article of manufacture of claim 4, further comprising sending the reachability request according to at least one rule configured on the mother device.

6. The article of manufacture of claim 4, further comprising receiving a reachability request acknowledgement comprising a time stamp and a location.

7. The article of manufacture of claim 6, further comprising displaying a set of directions in conjunction with the location of the one or more satellite devices registered on the mother device.

8. A computer implemented method for mobile inventory tracking, the method comprising:

scanning a vicinity of a mother device for one or more satellite devices to be registered on the mother device;

receiving an acknowledgement from the one or more satellite devices;

presenting the one or more satellite devices on the mother device;

registering the one or more satellite devices on the mother device;

testing for reachability of the one or more satellite devices registered on the mother device; and

generating an alert message if at least one of the one or more satellite devices do not respond to a reachability request.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein receiving an acknowledgement from the plurality of satellite devices item further comprises:

assigning an owner identifier value to the one or more satellite devices; and

assigning an item identifier value to the one or more satellite devices.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein registering the one or more satellite devices comprises saving a list of at least one owner identifier value and at least one item identifier value.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein testing for reachability comprises sending a reachability request to be acknowledged by the one or more satellite devices registered on the mother device.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising configuring at least one rule for when to send the reachability request.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising receiving a reachability request acknowledgement, wherein the reachability request acknowledgement containing a time stamp and a location.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising displaying a set of directions in conjunction with the location of the one or more satellite devices registered on the mother device.

15. A computer system device network comprising:

a mother device configured to;

scan its vicinity for one or more satellite devices to be registered on the mother device;

send a reachability request from the mother device to test reachability of the one or more satellite devices; and

generate an alert message if at least one of the one or more satellite devices do not respond to the reachability request by sending a reachability request acknowledgement; and

the one or more satellite devices configured to;

self register on the mother device by responding to the scan by the mother device; and

send the acknowledgement in response to receiving the reachability request by the mother device.

16. The computer system of claim 15, wherein the mother device is further configured to receive a time stamp and a location of a last received reachability request acknowledgement of the one or more satellite devices.

17. The computer system of claim 15, wherein the mother device is configured to assign an owner identifier value and an item identifier value to initiate a registration process.

18. The computer system of claim 16, wherein the mother device is configured to display a set of directions in conjunction with the location of the satellite device registered on the mother device.

19. The computer system of claim 15, wherein the mother device comprises a portable device with an electronic signals transceiver to establish a communication channel.

20. The computer system of claim 15, wherein the satellite device comprises a portable device with a electronic signals transceiver to establish a communication channel.