Automatic data collection device that dynamically wedges data transmitted to data consumers

• US 6,488,209 B1
• Filed: 01/29/1999
• Issued: 12/03/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 01/29/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Intermec IP Corporation (Honeywell International Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Intermec IP Corporation (Honeywell International Inc.)
• Inventors: Katsandres, James T., Ogami, Kenneth Y., Ramberg, Jon R., Hunt, Jeffrey M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Tremblay, Mark
• Application Number:
  US09/240,425
• Time in Patent Office: 1,404 Days
• Field of Search: 235/462.07, 235/462.25, 235/462.15
• US Class Current: 235/462.15
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/63 Routing a service request depending on the request content or context
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]

Abstract

A method and system for dynamically wedging data received from one or more automatic data collection (“ADC”) devices on an ADC device platform into a destination application based upon wedging criteria. A dynamic wedge receives data from one or more ADC devices and automatically wedges the data into applications based upon user-provided data characteristics or a predetermined set of rules. Applicable wedging criteria used to route data include those that are user-composed and those that pertain to firmware or software characteristics. The dynamic wedge may comprise an ADC data server, ADC device handlers, ADC protocol handlers, and a wedging grid for retaining wedging directives. The ADC data server receives wedging directives from local and remote client applications and stores the wedging directives in the wedging grid. When data arrives from an ADC device, the ADC data server analyzes the data to determine its characteristics. The ADC data server compares the identified characteristics against the wedging directives stored in the wedging grid. The ADC data server then determines for which clients a match has been found. For those clients for which a match has been found, the ADC data server then performs the wedging directive in order to dispose properly of the received ADC data.

Claims

1. A method for routing data sets, comprising:

receiving at least one directive for at least one automatic data collection (“

ADC”

) device of a plurality of ADC devices from at least one client application of a plurality of client applications, wherein the at least one directive contains at least one condition under which a data set received from the at least one ADC device will be routed to the at least one client application;

storing the at least one directive in a dynamic wedge grid;

receiving an ADC data set having characteristics from the at least one ADC device;

identifying the characteristics of the ADC data set; and

comparing the characteristics of the ADC data set against the at least one condition of the directive for the at least one ADC device stored in the dynamic wedge grid to determine if the ADC data set will be routed to the at least one client application, wherein the data set is received by an ADC data server in an ADC device platform that also contains the at least one ADC device, wherein the ADC data server performs the comparison of the ADC data set against the at least one condition of the directive stored in the dynamic wedge grid.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising routing the ADC data set to the at least one client application if the directive indicates that the ADC data set should be routed to the at least one client application.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein a characteristic of the ADC data set characteristics is a data type characteristic that comprises one of bar code data, radio frequency (“

RF”

) tag data, resonator data, SmartCard data, magnetic stripe data, optical character recognition (“

OCR”

) data, text data, ASCII data, ECI data, two-dimensional data, dipole device data, and speech input data.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the characteristics of the ADC data set characteristics comprise at least one of a data set size, a data set value range, a number of data elements in the data set, and a data quality description.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least one condition of the directive comprises at least one of a data set size, a data set value range, a number of data elements in the data set, and a data quality description.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein identifying the characteristics of the ADC data set is performed when the received ADC data set from the least one ADC device does not include a client handle that identifies the a client application of the plurality of client applications.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a data reading instruction from the at least one client application for the at least one ADC device;

sending the data reading instruction to the at least one ADC device; and

reading the data reading instruction by the at least one ADC device that sends the ADC data set having characteristics to a data processor that identifies the characteristics of the data set.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving at least another directive containing at least another condition for the at least one ADC device of the plurality of ADC devices from at least another client application of the plurality of client applications;

storing the at least another directive in the dynamic wedge grid; and

comparing the characteristics of the ADC data set against the at least one condition of the at least another directive for the at least one ADC device stored in the dynamic wedge grid to determine if the ADC data set will be routed to the at least another client application.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving at least another directive containing at least another condition for the at least one ADC device of the plurality of ADC devices from at least another client application of the plurality of client applications;

storing the at least another directive in the dynamic wedge grid; and

comparing the characteristics of the ADC data set against the at least one condition of the at least another directive for the at least one ADC device stored in the dynamic wedge grid to determine if the ADC data set will be routed to the at least another client application, wherein the at least one client application resides in an ADC device platform that contains the at least one ADC device and the at least another client application resides on a remote computing system.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least one client application resides on a remote computing system and wherein the ADC device communicates with the remote computing system using one of the Transmission Control Protocol (“

TCP”

), the User Datagram Protocol (“

UDP”

), and the User Datagram Protocol Plus (“

UDP+”

).

15. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least one client application resides on a remote computing system and wherein communications between the at least one client application and the ADC device platform pass over at least one of an intranet, an internet, a local area network, a wide area network, or the World Wide Web.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving at least another directive containing at least another condition for the at least one ADC device of the plurality of ADC devices from at least another client application of the plurality of client applications;

storing the at least another directive in the dynamic wedge grid; and

comparing the characteristics of the ADC data set against the at least one condition of the at least another directive for the at least one ADC device stored in the dynamic wedge grid to determine if the ADC data set will be routed to the at least another client application, wherein the at least one ADC device resides in an ADC device platform, the at least one client application resides in a remote computing system, and the at least another client application resides in another remote computing system.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving at least another directive containing at least another condition for at least another ADC device of the plurality of ADC devices from the at least one client application of the plurality of client applications;

storing the at least another data directive in another dynamic wedge grid;

receiving another ADC data set having characteristics from the at least another ADC device;

identifying the characteristics of the another ADC data set; and

comparing the characteristics of the another ADC data set against the at least another condition of the at least another directive for the at least another ADC device stored in the another dynamic wedge grid to determine if the another ADC data set will be routed to the at least one client application.

18. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving at least another directive containing at least another condition for at least another ADC device of the plurality of ADC devices from the at least one client application of the plurality of client applications;

storing the at least another data directive in another dynamic wedge grid;

receiving another ADC data set having characteristics from the at least another ADC device;

identifying the characteristics of the another ADC data set; and

comparing the characteristics of the another ADC data set against the at least another condition of the at least another directive for the at least another ADC device stored in the another dynamic wedge grid to determine if the another ADC data set will be routed to the at least one client application, wherein the dynamic wedge grid and the another dynamic wedge grid share a common structure in a memory element.

28. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

an instruction receiver in the ADC device platform that receives a data reading instruction from at least one client of the plurality of clients for the at least one ADC device of the plurality of ADC devices;

an ADC device handler that receives the data reading instruction from the instruction receiver and translates the data reading into a native format for the at least one ADC device;

a data reading instruction router that routes the translated data reading instruction in the native format to the at least one ADC device that performs a data read after receiving the translated data reading instruction and routes the data set to the ADC data server; and

an ADC protocol handler that translates device-specific portions of the data reading instruction into a native format of the at least one ADC device for transmission by the data reading instruction router.

29. The system of claim 1 wherein the wedge interrogator identifies more than one client application of the plurality of client applications to receive the data set based upon examination of the dynamic wedge grid.

30. The system of claim 1 wherein the at least one client application resides on a remote computing system.

31. The system of claim 1 wherein the at least one client application resides on a remote computing system and the ADC device platform communicates with the remote computing system using one of the Transmission Control Protocol (“

TCP”

), the User Datagram Protocol (“

UDP”

), and the User Datagram Protocol Plus (“

UDP+”

).

32. The system of claim 1 wherein the at least one client application resides on a remote computing system and communications between at least one client application of the plurality of client applications and the ADC device platform pass over at least one of an intranet, an internet, a local area network, a wide area network, and the World Wide Web.

33. The system of claim 1 wherein the ADC data server, the plurality of ADC devices reside, and the at least one client application of the plurality of client applications reside in the ADC device platform.

4. A method for routing data sets, comprising:

receiving at least one directive for at least one automatic data collection (“

ADC”

) device of a plurality of ADC devices from at least one client application of a plurality of client applications, wherein the at least one directive contains at least one condition under which a data set received from the at least one ADC device will be routed to the at least one client application;

storing the at least one directive in a dynamic wedge grid;

receiving an ADC data set having characteristics from the at least one ADC device;

identifying the characteristics of the ADC data set; and

comparing the characteristics of the ADC data set against the at least one condition of the directive for the at least one ADC device stored in the dynamic wedge grid to determine if the ADC data set will be routed to the at least one client application, wherein a characteristic of the ADC data set characteristics is a data type characteristic that comprises one of bar code data, radio frequency (“

RF”

) tag data, resonator data, SmartCard data, magnetic stripe data, optical character recognition (“

OCR”

) data, text data, ASCII data, ECI data, two-dimensional data, dipole device data, and speech input data and wherein the at least one condition in the at least one directive states that the ADC data set will be routed to the at least one client application based upon the data type characteristic of the data set and upon another characteristic of the ADC data set characteristics.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the at least one ADC device is one of a bar code reader, a radio frequency (“

RF”

) tag reader, a resonator reader, a SmartCard reader, a magnetic stripe reader, an optical character recognition (“

OCR”

) reader, a two-dimensional data reader, a dipole device reader, and a speech input recognizing device.

10. A method for routing data sets, comprising:

receiving at least one directive for at least one automatic data collection (“

ADC”

) device of a plurality of ADC devices from at least one client application of a plurality of client applications, wherein the at least one directive contains at least one condition under which a data set received from the at least one ADC device will be routed to the at least one client application;

storing the at least one directive in a dynamic wedge grid;

receiving an ADC data set having characteristics from the at least one ADC device;

identifying the characteristics of the ADC data set;

comparing the characteristics of the ADC data set against the at least one condition of the directive for the at least one ADC device stored in the dynamic wedge grid to determine if the ADC data set will be routed to the at least one client application;

receiving a data reading instruction from the at least one client application for the at least one ADC device;

sending the data reading instruction to the at least one ADC device; and

reading the data reading instruction by the at least one ADC device that sends the ADC data set having characteristics to an ADC data server that identifies the characteristics of the data set, receives the data reading instruction from the at least one client application, and directs the translation of the data reading instruction into a native format of the at least one ADC device.

11. A method for routing data sets, comprising:

receiving at least one directive for at least one automatic data collection (“

ADC”

) device of a plurality of ADC devices from at least one client application of a plurality of client applications, wherein the at least one directive contains at least one condition under which a data set received from the at least one ADC device will be routed to the at least one client application;

storing the at least one directive in a dynamic wedge grid;

receiving an ADC data set having characteristics from the at least one ADC device;

identifying the characteristics of the ADC data set;

comparing the characteristics of the ADC data set against the at least one condition of the directive for the at least one ADC device stored in the dynamic wedge grid to determine if the ADC data set will be routed to the at least one client application;

receiving a data reading instruction from the at least one client application for the at least one ADC device;

sending the data reading instruction to the at least one ADC device; and

reading the data reading instruction by the at least one ADC device that sends the ADC data set having characteristics to a data processor that identifies the characteristics of the data set,

wherein the data processor is an ADC data server that receives the data reading instruction from the at least one client application and directs a protocol handler and a device handler to translate the data reading instruction into a native format of the at least one ADC device.

19. A system for routing a plurality of data sets, comprising:

an automatic data collection (“

ADC”

) data server that receives the plurality of data sets having data characteristics from a plurality of ADC devices and examines each data set of the plurality of data sets to determine the data characteristics of the data set;

a dynamic wedge grid that contains at least one directive for at least one ADC device of the plurality of ADC devices and at least one client application of a plurality of client applications, wherein the at least one directive contains at least one condition under which a data set received from the at least one ADC device will be routed to the at least one client application; and

a wedge interrogator that receives the data characteristics of the data set and examines the dynamic wedge grid to determine if the data characteristics of the data set match the at least one condition of the at least one directive.

20. The system of claim 19, further comprising a data router that routes each data set of the plurality of data sets to at least one identified client application of the plurality of client applications when the wedge interrogator has identified a match between the data characteristics of the data set and the at least one condition of the at least one directive.

21. The system of claim 19 wherein the dynamic wedge grid further comprises a data routing instruction for the data set based upon the ADC device that provided the data set and the identified characteristics of the data set.

22. The system of claim 19 where in the ADC data server resides in an ADC device platform that contains the plurality of ADC devices.

23. The system of claim 19 wherein the wedge interrogator resides within the ADC data server.

24. The system of claim 19 wherein each data set of the plurality of data sets comprises one of bar code data, radio frequency (“

RF”

) tag data, resonator data, SmartCard data, magnetic stripe data, optical character recognition (“

OCR”

) data, text data, two-dimensional data, dipole device data, and speech input data.

25. The system of claim 19 wherein at least one ADC device of the plurality of ADC devices is one of a bar code reader, a radio frequency (“

RF”

) tag reader, a resonator reader, a SmartCard reader, a magnetic stripe reader, an optical character recognition (“

OCR”

) reader, a two-dimensional data reader, a dipole device reader, and a speech input recognizing device.

26. The system of claim 19 wherein the characteristics of the data set of the plurality of data sets includes at least one of a data set size, a data set value range, a number of data elements in the data set, and a data quality description.

27. The system of claim 19, further comprising:

an instruction receiver in the ADC device platform that receives a data reading instruction from at least one client of the plurality of clients for the at least one ADC device of the plurality of ADC devices;

an ADC device handler that receives the data reading instruction from the instruction receiver and translates the data reading into a native format for the at least one ADC device; and

a data reading instruction router that routes the translated data reading instruction in the native format to the at least one ADC device that performs a data read after receiving the translated data reading instruction and routes the data set to the ADC data server.

34. An automatic data collection (“

ADC”

) network that routes data, comprising;

a plurality of ADC device platforms, such that at least one ADC device platform comprises;

at least one ADC device;

an ADC data server that receives a plurality of data sets having characteristics from the at least one ADC device;

a dynamic wedge grid that contains at least one directive for the at least one ADC device and at least one client application of a plurality of client applications, wherein the at least one directive contains at least one condition under which a data set of the plurality of data sets received from the at least one ADC device will be routed to the at least one client application; and

a dynamic wedge interrogator that identifies the data characteristics of each data set of the plurality of data sets and compares the identified data characteristics of each received data set against the directives in the dynamic wedge grid to determine if one or more client applications of plurality of client applications should receive a data set of the plurality of data sets.

35. The system of claim 34, wherein the at least one ADC device platform further comprises a data router that routes each data set of the plurality of data sets to client applications identified by the dynamic wedge interrogator.

36. The system of claim 34 wherein the dynamic wedge grid further comprises a directive for a client application based upon the ADC device that provided the data set and the identified characteristics of the data set.

37. The system of claim 34 wherein each data set of the plurality of data sets comprises one of bar code data, radio frequency (“

RF”

) tag data, resonator data, SmartCard data, magnetic stripe data, optical character recognition (“

OCR”

) data, text data, ASCII data, ECI data, two-dimensional data, dipole device data, and speech input data.

38. The system of claim 34 wherein the at least one ADC device is one of a bar code reader, a radio frequency (“

RF”

) tag reader, a resonator reader, a SmartCard reader, a magnetic stripe reader, an optical character recognition (“

OCR”

) reader, a two-dimensional data reader, a dipole device reader, and a speech input recognizing device.

39. The system of claim 34 wherein the characteristics of the data set includes at least one of a data set size, a data set value range, a number of data elements in the data set, and a data class specification.

40. The system of claim 34 wherein the at least one ADC device platform further comprises:

an instruction receiver that receives a data reading instruction from the at least one client application;

an ADC device handler that receives the data reading instruction from the instruction receiver and translates instructions for the at least one ADC device into a native format for the at least one ADC device; and

a data reading instruction router that routes instructions in the native format to the at least one ADC device that performs a data read and returns the data set to the ADC data server.

41. The system of claim 34, further comprising:

an instruction receiver that receives a data reading instruction from the at least one client application;

an ADC device handler that receives the data reading instruction from the instruction receiver and translates instructions for the at least one ADC device into a native format for the at least one ADC device;

a data reading instruction router that routes instructions in the native format to the at least one ADC device that performs a data read and returns the data set to the ADC data server; and

an ADC protocol handler that translates device-specific portions of the data reading instruction into a native formation of the at least one ADC device for transmission by the data reading instruction router.

42. The system of claim 34 wherein the dynamic wedge interrogator identifies more than one client application of the plurality of client applications to receive the data set based upon examination of the dynamic wedge grid.

43. The system of claim 34 wherein the at least one client application resides in the at least one ADC device platform and at least another client application resides on a remote computing system.

44. The system of claim 34 wherein the at least one ADC device platform communicates with a remote computing system using one of the Transmission Control Protocol (“

TCP”

), the User Datagram Protocol (“

UDP”

), and the User Datagram Protocol Plus (“

UDP+”

).

45. The system of claim 34 wherein communications between the at least one client application and the at least one ADC device platform pass over at least one of an intranet, an internet, a local area network, a wide area network, and the World Wide Web.