System for portable sensing

• US 6,978,212 B1
• Filed: 10/31/2000
• Issued: 12/20/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 11/01/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Smiths Detection (Smiths Group International Holdings Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Smiths Detection (Smiths Group International Holdings Ltd.)
• Inventors: Sunshine, Steven A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Tsai, Carol S. W.
• Application Number:
  US09/703,498
• Time in Patent Office: 1,876 Days
• Field of Search: 702/19, 702/20, 702/188, 702/24, 702 30- 32, 702/120, 703/11, 422/50, 422/66.1, 422/83, 73/290.1, 73/232.1, 73/233.4, 73/310.5, 340/603, 340/632
• US Class Current: 702/30
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/63 for local operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/20 for computer-aided diagnosis, e.g. based on medical expert systems

Abstract

A system for capturing and transmitting analyte data pertaining to an unknown analyte. The system includes a device manager (102) and a processor manager (202). The device manager (102) is coupled to a number of module including a data capture module (104), a data formatting module (106) and a first input/output (I/O) module (108). The data capture module (104) is coupled to the device manager (102) for capturing the data for the unknown analyte at a first geographic location. The first data formatting module (106) is coupled to the device manager (102) for formatting or encoding the captured analyte data into a transmissible format before the captured analyte data are transmitted. The first I/O module (106) is coupled to the device manager for transmitting the captured analyte data via a computer network to a processor at a second geographic location. The processor manager (202) is also coupled to a number of modules including a data acquisition process (204), a second data formatting module (206), an analysis module (208), a second I/O module (210) and a database interface module (210). The data acquisition module (204) is coupled to the processor manager (202) for receiving encoded analyte data from the device manager (102). The second data formatting module (206) is coupled to the processor manager (202) for decoding the encoded analyte data received by the data acquisition module (204) so as to permit analysis to be performed. The database interface module (212) is coupled to the processor manager (202) for retrieving data of known analytes from an electronic library before the decoded captured analyte data are analyzed. In addition, the database interface module (212) can be used for updating the electronic library with the decoded captured analyte data. The analysis module (208) is coupled to the processor manager (202) for performing analysis on the decoded captured analyte data using data from the electronic library and generating an analysis result. The second I/O module (210) is coupled to the processor manager (202) for managing communications between the processor manager (202) and other entities such as the device manager (102) and the electronic library. Depending upon the embodiment, other modules can also exist.

Claims

1. A system for detecting and transferring data pertaining to an unknown analyte, the system comprising:

a device manager;

a data capture module coupled to the device manager for capturing data pertaining to the unknown analyte at a first geographic location;

a first data formatting module coupled to the device manager for formatting data captured by the data capture module into a transmissible format;

a first input/output (I/O) module coupled to the device manager for transmitting data formatted by the first data formatting module to a processor at a second geographic location via a computer network;

a processor manager;

a data acquisition module coupled to the processor manager for receiving formatted data from the device manager;

a second data formatting module coupled to the processor manager for decoding data received by the data acquisition module;

a database interface module coupled to the processor manager for retrieving data of known analytes from an electronic library;

an analysis module coupled to the processor manager for performing analysis on data decoded by the second data formatting module and generating an analysis result; and

a second I/O module coupled to the processor manager for managing communications between the processor manager and other entities,

wherein said device manager resides in a first device; and

wherein said processor manager and said electronic library reside in a second device, and

wherein said second device corresponds to a server connectable to said first device via the computer network.

2. A system according to claim 1, wherein the database interface module can also update the electronic library with data received by the data acquisition module.

3. A system according to claim 1, wherein the first I/O module is coupled to the computer network.

4. A system according to claim 1, wherein the computer network is selected from a member from a group consisting of a worldwide computer network, an internet, the Internet, a wide area network, a local area network, and an intranet.

5. A system according to claim 1, wherein the data capture module performs a step including:

capturing the data pertaining to the unknown analyte in an analog format.

6. A system according to claim 5, wherein the first data formatting module performs steps including:

converting data captured by the data capture module into a digital format;

encoding the captured data in digital format into an analysis format;

encoding the captured data in analysis format into TCP/IP format; and

encoding the captured data in TCP/IP format into a network-specific data format.

7. A system according to claim 1, wherein the second I/O module performs a step including:

displaying the analysis result on a web page.

8. A system according to claim 1, wherein the transmission of the data formatted by the first data formatting module is conducted via wireless communications.

9. A system according to claim 8, wherein said wireless communications are implemented using communications technologies selected from a member of a group consisting of infrared technology, satellite technology, microwave technology and radio wave technology.

10. A system according to claim 1, wherein the transmission of the data formatted by the first data formatting module is conducted via wired communications.

11. A system according to claim 1, wherein the data captured by the data capture module is olfaction data.

12. A system according to claim 1, wherein the system is used in an application selected from a group consisting of hospital/medical applications, fire safety monitoring, environmental toxicology, remediation, biomedicine, material quality control, food monitoring, agricultural monitoring, heavy industrial manufacturing, ambient air monitoring, worker protection, emissions control, product quality testing, oil/gas petrochemical applications, combustible gas detection, H₂S monitoring, hazardous leak detection, emergency response and law enforcement applications, explosives detection, utility and power applications, food/beverage/agriculture applications, freshness detection, fruit ripening control, fermentation process monitoring and control, flavor composition and identification, product quality and identification, refrigerant and fumigant detection, cosmetic/perfume applications, fragrance formulation, chemical/plastics/pharmaceuticals applications, fugitive emission identification, solvent recovery effectiveness, anesthesia and sterilization gas detection, infectious disease detection, breath analysis and body fluids analysis.