Event management systems and methods for the distribution of motion control commands

• US 7,031,798 B2
• Filed: 02/11/2002
• Issued: 04/18/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 02/09/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ROY-G-BIV Corporation
• Original Assignee: ROY-G-BIV Corporation
• Inventors: Brown, David W., Stein, Skylar
• Primary Examiner(s): Von Buhr, Maria N.
• Application Number:
  US10/074,577
• Publication Number:
  US 20020165627A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,527 Days
• Field of Search: 700 8- 10, 700 17- 20, 700 28- 31, 700/44, 700/45, 700/47, 700/83, 700/159, 700/169, 700173-180, 700/195, 700/245, 700250-257, 700/264, 700/170
• US Class Current: 700/174
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/408 characterised by data handling or data format, e.g. reading, buffering or conversion of data
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/34263 OLE object linking and embedding, OPC ole for process control
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/36035 Special language, task programming, oop object oriented programming
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/36037 Application programming interface associates component code with driver function
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/542 Event management; Broadcasting; Multicasting; Notifications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/131 Protocols for games, networked simulations or virtual reality
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/133 Protocols for remote procedure calls [RPC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/561 Adding application-functional data or data for application control, e.g. adding metadata
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/564 Enhancement of application control based on intercepted application data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols

Abstract

A motion control system for controlling a target device to perform a desired motion operation. The motion control system comprises at least one motion event provider, a motion event manager, and a motion control component. The motion event provider is configured to generate at least one event token upon the occurrence of at least one predetermined event. The event token is associated with at least one motion command. The motion event manager receives the at least one event token. The motion control component is adapted to transmit to the target device a control command based on the at least one motion command associated with the event token received by the motion event manager.

Claims

1. A motion control system for controlling a selected target device from a group of supported target devices to perform a desired motion operation from a set of supported motion operations that can be performed by the supported target devices, comprising:

a motion event configuration interface for associating source dependent events with source independent event tokens, where

each event token is associated with at least one hardware independent motion command, and

each hardware independent motion command is associated with at least one of the desired motion operations;

at least one motion event provider configured to generate at least one event token upon the occurrence of at least one event;

a motion event manager for receiving the at least one event token generated by the at least one motion event provider; and

a motion control component adapted to

generate device-specific control commands for the selected target device based on the at least one hardware independent motion command associated with the at least one event token received by the motion event manager, and

transmit the device-specific control commands to the selected target device to cause the selected target device to perform the desired motion operation.

2. A motion control system as recited in claim 1, in which the motion event configuration interface further comprises an event provider configuration control for identifying the at least one event associated with each event token.

3. A motion control system as recited in claim 1, in which the motion event configuration interface further comprises a media view control for associating event tokens with hardware independent motion commands.

4. A motion control system as recited in claim 1, in which:

the hardware independent motion command is a media command; and

the motion control component generates at least one device-specific control command based on the media command.

5. A motion control system as recited in claim 1, in which:

the hardware independent motion command associated with the event token corresponds to at least one of a media command and a device-specific control command; and

the motion control component further operates in a pass-through mode in which the motion control device transmits at least one device-specific control command defined by the event token to the selected target device.

6. A motion control system as recited in claim 1, in which the motion event configuration interface further comprises:

an event provider configuration control for identifying the at least one predetermined event associated with each event token; and

a media view control for associating event tokens with hardware independent motion commands.

7. A motion control system as recited in claim 1, in which:

the event token further comprises a text message; and

the motion event manager further parses the event token to extract the text message, where the text message identifies the hardware independent motion command associated with the event token.

8. A motion control system as recited in claim 1, in which the at least one event is the receipt of a message by a receiving application of a peer-to-peer communications system.

9. A motion control system as recited in claim 1, in which:

the motion control component determines a status of the selected target device; and

the motion event manager queries the motion control component to determine the status of the selected target device and sends to the at least one motion event provider a status message based on the status of the selected target device.

10. A motion control system as recited in claim 1, in which the motion event manager stores associations between at least some of the event tokens and at least some of the hardware independent motion commands and sends to the motion control component the hardware independent motion command associated with at least some of the event tokens received by the motion event manager.

11. A motion control system as recited in claim 1, further comprising a system registry, where associations of source dependent events and source independent event tokens are persisted in the system registry.

12. A motion control system as recited in claim 1, in which the event provider configuration control allows configuration of associations of source dependent events and source independent event tokens.

13. A motion control system as recited in claim 1, in which the event provider configuration control allows parameters associated with associations of source dependent events and source independent event tokens to be altered.

14. A motion control system as recited in claim 1, in which each source dependent event is associated with an event provider, and the event provider configuration control allows selection of at least one event provider.

15. A motion control system for controlling a selected target device from a group of supported target devices to perform a desired motion operation from a set of supported motion operations that can be performed by the supported target devices, comprising:

at least one event provider for generating at least one event associated with the desired motion operation;

a motion event configuration interface for associating events with event tokens where the motion event configuration interface allows selection of the at least one event provider;

at least one motion event provider configured to generate at least one event token upon the occurrence of at least one event; and

a motion event manager for receiving the at least one event token generated by the at least one motion event provider; and

a motion control component adapted to

generate device-specific control commands for the selected target device based on the at least one event token received by the motion event manager, and

transmit the device-specific control commands to the selected target device to cause the selected target device to perform the desired motion operation.

16. A motion control system for controlling a selected target device from a group of supported target devices to perform a desired motion operation from a set of supported motion operations that can be performed by the supported target devices, comprising:

at least one event provider, where each event provider generates at least one event and each event is associated with an event token;

a motion event configuration interface for selecting at least one event provider;

at least one motion event provider configured to generate at least one event token upon the occurrence of at least one event; and

a motion event manager for receiving the at least one event token generated by the at least one motion event provider; and

a motion control component adapted to

generate device-specific control commands for the selected target device based on the at least one event token received by the motion event manager, and

transmit the device-specific control commands to the selected target device to cause the selected target device to perform the desired motion operation.