SYSTEMS, METHODS AND DEVICES FOR CONTROLLING HUMIDITY IN A CLOSED ENVIRONMENT WITH AUTOMATIC AND PREDICTIVE IDENTIFICATION, PURCHASE AND REPLACEMENT OF OPTIMAL HUMIDITY CONTROLLER

• US 20160358244A1
• Filed: 06/05/2015
• Published: 12/08/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 06/05/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Boveda Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Boveda Incorporated
• Inventors: Schmitz, Jason L., Knutsen, Sean A., Esse, Robert L.
• Granted Patent: US 10,055,781 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/20 Administration of product repair or maintenance
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0631 Item recommendations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0635 Processing of requisition or of purchase orders

Abstract

The invention relates to systems and methods for monitoring and providing humidity control for an asset within a closed environment such as a storage container, with transmission of sensed humidity levels to at least one server that stores current and historical humidity levels and comprises a processor and stored executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, may recommend an optimal humidity controller to use for the asset, determine when the recommended humidity controller requires replacement and predictively recommend an optimal replacement humidity controller based on at least historical humidity data and trending thereof, execution of a sales transaction, that may be pre-scheduled based on asset type, asset size and/or historical data, for the optimal replacement humidity controller, and providing the proper replacement humidity controller to the user.

Claims

1. An apparatus for automatically replacing a user'"'"'s humidity controller used to maintain humidity levels within a closed environment housing an asset, comprising:

a controller configured to execute computer executable instructions; and

a database storing, as non-transitory computer readable media, user address information and computer executable instructions for;

determining the humidity controller is nearing the end of its useful life by, at least in part, sensing a humidity condition within the closed environment via a humidity sensor;

retrieving the stored user address information;

automatically identifying the optimal replacement humidity controller for the housed asset;

initiating a purchase transaction for the optimal replacement humidity controller; and

notifying the user of the initiated transaction by sending a notification to a user device.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein identifying the optimal replacement humidity controller comprises:

tracking the humidity levels sensed by the humidity sensor over a duration;

retrieving asset identifying information stored in the database;

retrieving humidity controller information stored in the database, the humidity controller information comprising;

total number of humidity controllers in use;

identity of each humidity controller in use; and

installation date of each humidity controller in use;

retrieving asset location information stored in the database;

determining the optimal replacement humidity controller for the housed asset based on the tracked humidity levels, the retrieved asset identity, the retrieved humidity controller information, and the retrieved asset location information; and

sending a recommendation of the determined optimal replacement humidity controller for purchase.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein initiating the purchase transaction further comprises providing the user an ability to change the purchase.

4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein initiating the purchase transaction comprises providing the user a purchasing option selected from the group consisting of the recommended optimal replacement humidity controller and the retrieved humidity controller information.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein initiating the purchase transaction comprises the user selecting a payment method comprising one of a previously provided payment method and a new payment method.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

establishing a frequency for purchasing and replacing the user'"'"'s humidity controller; and

automatically identifying, purchasing, replacing and delivering an optimal replacement humidity controller to the user address in accordance with the established frequency.

19. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising delivering the replacement humidity controller to the user address.

7. A system for monitoring and controlling humidity levels within a container that houses an asset owned or operated by a user, comprising:

a humidity sensor located within the container and/or within the asset housed within the container, wherein the humidity sensor periodically senses the humidity experienced by the asset, and wherein the humidity sensor is in operative wireless communication with at least one server located remotely from the humidity sensor, and wherein the at least one server is capable of receiving and storing sensed humidity data transmitted from the humidity sensor;

an optimal humidity controller located within the container and/or within the asset housed within the container and capable of controlling the monitored humidity to predetermined levels and further comprising a predicted useful life with the container and the asset;

a computing device capable of wirelessly operatively communicating with the server and/or the humidity sensor to enable the user to view the stored sensed humidity data; and

the at least one server further configured to, before the end of the optimal humidity controller'"'"'s predicted useful life;

automatically determine an optimal replacement humidity controller based at least in part on the stored sensed humidity data; and

initiate a transaction to purchase the determined optimal replacement humidity controller with notification to the user'"'"'s computing device.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the asset comprises a stringed instrument or tobacco products.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the humidity controller controls the relative humidity in the container and/or asset housed within the container in the general range of 40% to 60%, the device comprising:

(a) a pouch formed of a thin-walled polymeric material permeable to water vapor but not to liquid solutions;

(b) a humidity control solution comprising saturated aqueous salt solution containing an amount of alkali metal formate selected from sodium formate, potassium formate, sodium or potassium lactate and combinations thereof sealed in said pouch wherein said salt solution contains from about 30% to 90% salt; and

(c) wherein the water vapor permeability of the pouch is such that the moisture transfer capacity of the pouch transmits at least from about 1% to about 50% by weight of the initial pouch contents when exposed to an atmosphere of less than 10% relative humidity and absorbs at least from about 1% to about 50% by weight of the initial pouch content when exposed to an atmosphere having greater than 85% relative humidity.

20. The system of claim 7, wherein the at least one server is further configured to, before the end of the optimal humidity controller'"'"'s predicted useful life, initiate delivery of the purchased optimal replacement humidity controller to the user.

10. A server, comprising:

a processor configured to control at least some operations of the server;

a memory in operative communication with the processor and storing;

computer executable instructions;

user addresses associated with an asset that is remotely located and stored within a container; and

a look-up table listing more than one humidity controller arranged by humidity control capacity and/or useful life under known humidity conditions, and a plurality of asset types associated with at least one of the listed humidity controllers, wherein the associated listed humidity controllers are optimized for controlling the humidity of the associated asset type; and

the computer executable instructions configured to be executed by the processor that, when executed cause the server to;

receive data from a humidity sensor arranged within the container, the data comprising a sensed humidity condition within the container;

look up the asset located at a remote location and the at least one associated humidity controller in the look-up table;

select the humidity controller that is optimal for the asset;

in response to selecting the optimal humidity controller for the asset, retrieve a user address associated with the asset;

transmits the optimal humidity controller selection to the user address;

initiate and execute a transaction to purchase the optimal humidity controller for delivery to the user; and

determine the selected humidity controller'"'"'s end of useful life based on the look-up table and the sensed humidity condition within the container.

11. The server of claim 10, further comprising the server'"'"'s computer executable instructions being configured to, upon execution by the processor, cause the server to:

identify an optimal humidity controller replacement;

automatically initiate and execute a transaction to purchase the optimal humidity controller replacement before the determined end of useful life; and

deliver the optimal humidity controller replacement to the user before the determined end of useful life.

12. The server of claim 11, further comprising the server'"'"'s computer executable instructions being configured to, upon execution by the processor, cause the server to:

establish an optimal humidity controller replacement frequency based on asset type and the determined end of useful life of the selected humidity controller;

automatically initiate and execute at least one transaction to purchase a first optimal humidity controller replacement before the selected humidity controller'"'"'s determined end of useful life; and

deliver the first optimal humidity controller replacement to the user before the selected humidity controller'"'"'s determined end of useful life.

13. The server of claim 11, further comprising the server'"'"'s computer executable instructions being configured to, upon execution by the processor, cause the server to:

automatically initiate and execute at least one transaction to purchase a second optimal humidity controller replacement based on the established optimal humidity controller replacement frequency; and

deliver the purchased second optimal humidity controller replacement to the user before the first optimal humidity controller replacement'"'"'s end of useful life.

14. The server of claim 10, wherein the asset comprises a stringed instrument.

15. The server of claim 10, wherein the asset comprises tobacco products.

16. A method of controlling humidity in a closed environment, comprising:

providing a closed environment housing an asset;

providing a humidity sensor within the closed environment and/or asset and configured to sense humidity levels within the closed environment and/or asset;

providing a humidity controller within the closed environment and/or asset, selected to maintain the humidity levels within the closed environment and/or asset within a predetermined range;

providing a remotely located server at a location remote from the closed environment, the server comprising;

a processor in the remotely located server configured to control at least some operations of the server; and

a memory in operative communication with the processor and storing computer executable instructions, user addresses associated with the asset, and a look-up table listing more than one humidity controller arranged by humidity control capacity and/or useful life under known humidity conditions and a plurality of asset types associated with an optimal humidity controller of the listed humidity controllers; and

executing the computer executable instructions to enable;

receiving data from a humidity sensor arranged within the container, the data comprising a sensed humidity condition within the container;

looking up the asset located at a remote location and the at least one associated humidity controller in the look-up table;

selecting the humidity controller that is optimal for the asset;

in response to selecting the optimal humidity controller for the asset, retrieving user addresses associated with the asset;

transmitting the selected optimal humidity controller selection to the user addresses;

initiating and executing a transaction to purchase the selected optimal humidity controller for delivery to the user; and

determining the selected humidity controller'"'"'s end of useful life based on the look-up table and the sensed humidity condition within the container.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

determining the selected humidity controller'"'"'s end of useful life;

establishing a recommended optimal humidity controller replacement;

automatically initiating and executing a transaction to purchase the optimal humidity controller replacement before the determined end of useful life; and

delivering the optimal humidity controller replacement to the user before the determined end of useful life.

18. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

the humidity controller controlling the relative humidity in the closed environment within the general range of 40% to 60%; and

providing a humidity controller comprising;

(a) a pouch formed of a thin-walled polymeric material permeable to water vapor but not to liquid solutions;

(b) a humidity control solution comprising saturated aqueous salt solution containing an amount of alkali metal formate selected from sodium formate, potassium formate, sodium or potassium lactate and combinations thereof sealed in said pouch wherein said salt solution contains from about 30% to 90% salt; and

(c) wherein the water vapor permeability of the pouch is such that the moisture transfer capacity of the pouch transmits at least from about 1% to about 50% by weight of the initial pouch contents when exposed to an atmosphere of less than 10% relative humidity and absorbs at least from about 1% to about 50% by weight of the initial pouch content when exposed to an atmosphere having greater than 85% relative humidity.