APPARATUS AND METHODS FOR MONITORING ONE OR MORE PORTABLE DATA TERMINALS

• US 20150261643A1
• Filed: 05/29/2015
• Published: 09/17/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/01/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hand Held Products Incorporated (Honeywell International Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hand Held Products Incorporated (Honeywell International Inc.)
• Inventors: Caballero, Aldo M., French, Daniel Brant, Hinson, Douglas M., Kosecki, James C., Mangicaro, David, Reynolds, Scott, Yeakley, Daniel Duane
• Granted Patent: US 10,019,334 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0742 in a data processing system embedded in a mobile device, e.g. mobile phones, handheld devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0766 Error or fault reporting or storing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3013 where the computing system is an embedded system, i.e. a combination of hardware and software dedicated to perform a certain function in mobile devices, printers, automotive or aircraft systems testing or monitoring of control systems or parts thereof G05B23/02
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3058 Monitoring arrangements for monitoring environmental properties or parameters of the computing system or of the computing system component, e.g. monitoring of power, currents, temperature, humidity, position, vibrations thermal management in cooling arrangements of a computing system G06F1/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3093 Configuration details thereof, e.g. installation, enabling, spatial arrangement of the probes

Abstract

A portable data terminal generally includes a housing supporting: a data collection device: a keypad: and a touch screen. One or more PDTs are provided with a monitoring system that records occurrences experienced by the portable data terminal. The record of occurrences may be analyzed to identify errors and/or failure prone parts of the PDT along with behaviors likely to lead to errors or failures. Additionally, the record of events may be analyzed to predict errors and/or failures for any given PDT.

Claims

1. A portable data terminal, comprising:

a data collection device for reading bar codes, RF encoded data from a passive RFID tag, and/or data from a card;

a processor; and

a monitoring system, comprising monitoring software that, when executed by the processor, monitors occurrences experienced by the portable data terminal, the occurrences comprising level of ambient light, battery insertion, moisture, water leakage, stylus insertion, stylus removal, location, number of times docked, key presses, trigger usage, touch screen usage, battery usage, and/or number of scans.

2. The portable data terminal of claim 1, wherein the monitoring software, when executed by the processor, records occurrence data describing the monitored occurrences experienced by the portable data terminal.

3. The portable data terminal of claim 1, wherein the monitoring software, when executed by the processor, summarizes the occurrences.

4. The portable data terminal of claim 1, wherein the monitoring software, when executed by the processor, records occurrence data describing the monitored occurrences experienced by the portable data terminal, wherein the occurrence data comprises a list of events generated by a component of the portable data terminal based upon the occurrences.

5. The portable data terminal of claim 1, wherein the monitoring software, when executed by the processor, records occurrence data describing the monitored occurrences experienced by the portable data terminal, wherein the occurrence data comprises a list of occurrences that have associated values that exceed a user defined threshold for that occurrence.

6. The portable data terminal of claim 1, wherein the monitoring software, when executed by the processor, records occurrence data describing the monitored occurrences experienced by the portable data terminal, wherein the monitoring system records the occurrence data into a circular buffer.

7. A portable data terminal, comprising:

a data collection device for reading bar codes, RF encoded data from a passive RFID tag, and/or data from a card;

a processor; and

a monitoring system, comprising monitoring software that, when executed by the processor, monitors occurrences experienced by the portable data terminal, the occurrences comprising moisture, water leakage, location, number of times docked, key presses, trigger usage, touch screen usage, battery usage, and/or number of scans.

8. The portable data terminal of claim 7, wherein the monitoring software, when executed by the processor, records occurrence data describing the monitored occurrences experienced by the portable data terminal.

9. The portable data terminal of claim 7, wherein the monitoring software, when executed by the processor, summarizes the occurrences.

10. The portable data terminal of claim 7, wherein the monitoring software, when executed by the processor, records occurrence data describing the monitored occurrences experienced by the portable data terminal, wherein the occurrence data comprises a list of events generated by a component of the portable data terminal based upon the occurrences.

11. The portable data terminal of claim 7, wherein the monitoring software, when executed by the processor, records occurrence data describing the monitored occurrences experienced by the portable data terminal, wherein the occurrence data comprises a list of occurrences that have associated values that exceed a user defined threshold for that occurrence.

12. The portable data terminal of claim 7, wherein the monitoring software, when executed by the processor, records occurrence data describing the monitored occurrences experienced by the portable data terminal, wherein the occurrence data comprises a list of changes over time in values associated with occurrences.

13. The portable data terminal of claim 7, wherein the monitoring software, when executed by the processor, records occurrence data describing the monitored occurrences experienced by the portable data terminal, wherein the monitoring system records the occurrence data into a circular buffer.

14. A portable data terminal, comprising:

a data collection device for reading bar codes, RF encoded data from a passive RFID tag, and/or data from a card;

a processor; and

a monitoring system, comprising monitoring software that, when executed by the processor, monitors occurrences experienced by the portable data terminal, the occurrences comprising moisture, location, key presses, trigger usage, touch screen usage, battery usage, and/or number of scans.

15. The portable data terminal of claim 14, wherein the monitoring software, when executed by the processor, records occurrence data describing the monitored occurrences experienced by the portable data terminal.

16. The portable data terminal of claim 14, wherein the monitoring software, when executed by the processor, summarizes the occurrences.

17. The portable data terminal of claim 14, wherein the monitoring software, when executed by the processor, records occurrence data describing the monitored occurrences experienced by the portable data terminal, wherein the occurrence data comprises a list of events generated by a component of the portable data terminal based upon the occurrences.

18. The portable data terminal of claim 14, wherein the monitoring software, when executed by the processor, records occurrence data describing the monitored occurrences experienced by the portable data terminal, wherein the occurrence data comprises a list of occurrences that have associated values that exceed a user defined threshold for that occurrence.

19. The portable data terminal of claim 14, wherein the monitoring software, when executed by the processor, records occurrence data describing the monitored occurrences experienced by the portable data terminal, wherein the occurrence data comprises a list of changes over time in values associated with occurrences.

20. The portable data terminal of claim 14, wherein the monitoring software, when executed by the processor, records occurrence data describing the monitored occurrences experienced by the portable data terminal, wherein the monitoring system records the occurrence data into a circular buffer.