Remote anomaly diagnosis and reconfiguration of an automatic data collection device platform over a telecommunications network

• US 8,069,369 B2
• Filed: 09/03/2004
• Issued: 11/29/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 01/29/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intermec IP Corporation (Honeywell International Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Intermec IP Corporation (Honeywell International Inc.)
• Inventors: Katsandres, James T., Ramberg, Jon R., Shoeman, Paul D., Hunt, Jeffrey M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Iqbal; Nadeem
• Application Number:
  US10/934,064
• Publication Number:
  US 20050034029A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,643 Days
• Field of Search: 714/37, 714/44, 714/735, 235/435
• US Class Current: 714/25
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0709 in a distributed system consisting of a plurality of standalone computer nodes, e.g. clusters, client-server systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0748 in a remote unit communicating with a single-box computer node experiencing an error/fault remote testing G06F11/2294
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2294 by remote test

Abstract

The invention provides a system and method for remotely diagnosing and repairing a plurality of device platforms. A remote service technician utilizes a computing system having browsing software that communicates with a network of platform devices.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a computing system remote from a computing platform having a reportedly anomalous element, the computing system including;

a communications unit that receives performance data associated with the reportedly anomalous element of the computing platform;

a diagnostic analysis unit that analyzes the received performance data and identifies an anomaly associated with the reportedly anomalous element; and

a reconfiguration unit that provides reconfiguration instructions to the communications unit, wherein the communications unit sends reconfiguration instructions to the computing platform to resolve the anomaly, wherein the remotely located computing platform receives the reconfiguration instructions and implements the reconfiguration instructions to reconfigure the reportedly anomalous element of the remotely located computing platform;

a pre-diagnostic unit that analyzes a reported anomaly message from the computing platform and identifies a respective element of the plurality of elements of the computing platform associated with the reported anomaly message; and

an anomaly reporting subsystem on the computing platform that generates and sends the reported anomaly message to the pre-diagnostic unit.

2. A system, comprising:

a computing system remote from a computing platform having a reportedly anomalous element, the computing system including;

a communications unit that receives performance data associated with the reportedly anomalous element of the computing platform;

a diagnostic analysis unit that analyzes the received performance data and identifies an anomaly associated with the reportedly anomalous element;

a reconfiguration unit that provides reconfiguration instructions to the communications unit, wherein the communications unit sends reconfiguration instructions to the computing platform to resolve the anomaly, wherein the remotely located computing platform receives the reconfiguration instructions and implements the reconfiguration instructions to reconfigure the reportedly anomalous element of the remotely located computing platform; and

an anomaly reporting subsystem on the computing platform that alerts the communications unit of a reportedly anomalous element on the computing platform by sending the communications unit an electronic mail message that identifies a reported anomaly, wherein the electronic mail message identifies the reportedly anomalous element of the computing platform, and wherein the computing platform includes various elements in addition to the reportedly anomalous element, wherein for each of the various elements and the reportedly anomalous element the computing platform stores a respective electronic mail address, and wherein the electronic mail message that identifies the reported anomaly is sent to the electronic mail address for the reportedly anomalous element.

3. A method for reporting anomalies in an automatic data collection device platform having a plurality of elements to a remotely located computing system, comprising:

collecting at the automatic data collection device platform anomaly reporting data for a reportedly anomalous element of the plurality of elements of the automatic data collection device;

forwarding the anomaly reporting data as an anomaly report to a communications unit;

formatting at the automatic data collection device platform the anomaly report for transmission over a communications network;

sending over the communications network the formatted anomaly report from the automatic data collection device platform to the remote computing system;

selectively enabling and disabling log-on procedures at the automatic data collection device platform so as to selectively control access to the automatic data collection device platform by an entity remote to the automatic data collection device platform;

storing at the automatic data collection device a respective electronic mail address for each element of the plurality of elements of the automatic data collection device; and

sending over the communications network an electronic mail message having the formatted anomaly report to the electronic mail address for the reportedly anomalous element.