MOBILE SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR CAPTURING AND MANAGING INFORMATION PERTAINING TO ASSETS AND INVENTORY

• US 20150009013A1
• Filed: 03/24/2014
• Published: 01/08/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 07/03/2013
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Edifice Technologies Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Edifice Technologies Incorporated
• Inventors: Cartwright, Kathryn, Cartwright, Robert, Kelly, Craig, Joyce, Daniel, Greenwood-Greer, Todd
• Application Number:
  US14/223,372
• Publication Number:
  US 20150009013A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/10.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/284 Relational databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10297 arrangements for handling protocols designed for non-contact record carriers such as RFIDs NFCs, e.g. ISO/IEC 14443 and 18092 cryptographic protocols H04L9/00; network security protocols H04L63/00; real-time communication protocols in data switching networks H04L65/00; network protocols for data switching network services H04L67/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders

Abstract

The present disclosure describes mobile systems and methods for capturing, auditing, and transferring inventory information in contexts such as large data centers. In some cases, a mobile device is configured to manage inventory information in a data center. The mobile device may include a number of pre-configured workflows for capturing inventory information, receiving new inventory, auditing existing inventory, and/or transferring inventory from one place to another.

Claims

1. A system and method for the mobile capturing and auditing assets, their information, location and support entities according to an industry specific manner, the system comprising:

a relational database; and

a mobile device including a user interface device comprising a touch screen user input device and a display device, the mobile device further including a processor in data communication with the database and the user interface device, the processor configured to;

integrate location based information with physical asset component data and asset disposition data and rack data; and

permitting inventory management, displaying and analysis of asset information on a single user interface.

receive relationship and dependency information between asset enclosures, rooms, racks, assets, and support entities for an organization from the user interface device;

receive attributes with associated measurements for the asset enclosures, rooms, racks, assets, and support entities for the organization from the user interface device, wherein the attributes with associated measurements are formatted according the specific industry of the organization; and

store the relationship and dependency information and the attributes with associated measurements into the relational database.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a plurality of data transmission devices, each of the plurality of data transmission devices configured to be associated with one of the asset enclosures, rooms, racks, assets, and support entities for the organization, wherein the plurality of data transmission devices comprises data of the associated one of the asset enclosures, rooms, racks, assets, and support entities; and

a plurality of data collection devices in signal communication with the processor and the plurality of data transmission devices, the plurality of data collection devices configured to retrieve the data from the plurality of data transmission devices,

wherein the data transmission devices and data collection devices comprise at least one of radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, readers or scanners,

wherein the processor enters the data received from the data collection devices into the relational database,

wherein the processor is further configured to execute a plurality of data Application Program Interfaces (APIs), the executed APIs integrate data received from the data collection devices into a comprehensive summary view of the asset enclosures, rooms, racks, assets, and support entities based on the relational database.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the mobile device communicates with the plurality of data transmission devices via either passive or active Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), to capture and monitor asset information.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the mobile device is further configured to allow an operator to uniquely identify a location of an asset and physical orientation based on data received using a radio frequency identification system.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the mobile device wirelessly connected to either a private or public network, to provide real-time, bi-directional transfer of asset data between the mobile device and a central asset management database.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the mobile device is further configured to allow an operator to:

modify records of the asset enclosures, rooms, racks, assets, and support entities;

display values of the attributes; and

edit the values of the attributes within the relational database.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the mobile device provides a series of pre-built, pre-configured workflows designed to optimize inventory and audit processes associated with assets and enclosures within rooms and their inter-relationships, wherein the workflows are provided by the mobile device via the user interface.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the series of workflows includes an asset tagging workflow, pre-configured for a first pass tagging and inventory audit of assets and enclosures within rooms and their inter-relationships.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the series of workflows includes an inventory location tagging workflow pre-configured for subsequent inventory audits and management of assets and enclosures within rooms and their inter-relationships.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein the series of workflows includes an inventory snapshot audit workflow pre-configured for subsequent inventory audits and management of specific assets and enclosures within rooms and their inter-relationships.

11. The system of claim 7, wherein the series of workflows includes a receive workflow pre-configured for receipt of assets into a location and the subsequent management of said assets to their ultimate rack and room location.

12. The system of claim 7, wherein the series of workflows includes a transfer workflow pre-configured for transfer of assets from one location to another and the subsequent management of said assets in their ultimate rack and room location.

13. The system of claim 7, wherein the series of workflows includes:

a tagging workflow for an initial inventory of assets;

an inventory location tagging workflow for subsequent inventory audits of the assets;

a snapshot audit workflow for subsequent inventory audits of a specific location at which a subset of the assets are present;

a receive workflow for receipt of assets into a location; and

a transfer workflow for transferring assets from one location to another.

14. The system of claim 13 wherein the snapshot audit workflow is configured to:

wirelessly receive radio frequency identifiers associated with assets in a rack;

compare the received identifiers to asset information corresponding to the rack received from the relational database;

when the asset information includes identifiers that do not match the received identifiers, cause the operator of the mobile device to visually verify that assets are missing from the rack; and

when the received identifiers include identifiers are not present in the asset information, cause the operator of the mobile device to visually verify that extra assets are present in the rack.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein the mobile device is further configured to allow an operator to uniquely identify asset identifiers to associate, capture, monitor and timestamp, data with other data pertaining to the asset within the system.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein the mobile device is further configured to synchronize with the relational database information captured via Bluetooth RFID scanners for each asset, such that changes to the status or location of an asset is captured by the system and visible to an operator through the user interface.

17. The system of claim 1, wherein the mobile device is further configured to integrate and manage wireless Bluetooth RFID scanners/readers for synchronizing information for each asset tag, being captured by the system and visible to an operator through the user interface.

18. The system of claim 1, wherein the mobile device is further configured to provide pre-audit status of about at least one of the assets, rack and room and their inter-relationships.

19. The system of claim 1, wherein the user interface allows an operator to perform operations including browse, find, create, update and delete information associated with the asset enclosures, rooms, racks, assets, and support entities, and the relationship information.