Remotely monitoring field assets

• US 8,487,744 B2
• Filed: 08/16/2012
• Issued: 07/16/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 01/14/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Vendwatch Telematics LLC
• Original Assignee: Vendwatch Telematics LLC
• Inventors: Barragan Trevino, Alfonso Javier, Rose, Herbert
• Primary Examiner(s): Zimmerman, Brian
• Assistant Examiner(s): Alizada, Omeed
• Application Number:
  US13/587,329
• Publication Number:
  US 20120311149A1
• Time in Patent Office: 334 Days
• Field of Search: 340/10.1, 340/572.1, 235/385, 705/22, 705 28- 29, 700215-229
• US Class Current: 340/5.92
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/025 for remote control or remote monitoring of applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/005 Discovery of network devices, e.g. terminals

Abstract

Disclosed methods, systems, and apparatuses remotely monitor a plurality of field assets. Device discovery is conducted to find a communication path through a master controller to an operations center. A plurality of states are monitored for individual field assets of the plurality of field assets. In response to trigger events, monitored states are selectively included in data sets that may be parsed, compressed, encrypted, and forwarded through a mesh network to an operations center.

Claims

1. At least one non-transitory machine readable medium comprising instructions that when executed on a computing device cause the computing device to perform a method comprising:

conducting device discovery to find a communication path through a master controller, included among two or more potential master controllers, to an operations center and assigning master controller duties to the master controller;

communicating a trigger event, through the master controller, to field assets;

monitoring a plurality of states for individual field assets of the field assets;

encoding and compressing a portion of the plurality of monitored states; and

responsive to the trigger event, transmitting through the communication path the encoded and compressed portion of the plurality of monitored states.

2. The at least one medium of claim 1, wherein the master controller is in direct communication with at least one of the field assets.

3. The at least one medium of claim 1, wherein the trigger event is from the master controller.

4. The at least one medium of claim 1, wherein the communication path includes the field assets.

5. The at least one medium of claim 1, wherein the master controller communicates through a transceiver using one or more mobile telephone protocols.

6. The at least one medium of claim 1, wherein the master controller is associated with a subscriber identity module.

7. The at least one medium of claim 1, wherein the trigger event is an alarm state.

8. The at least one medium of claim 1, wherein the trigger event is a scheduled report interval.

9. The at least one medium of claim 1, wherein the plurality of states include product inventory data.

10. The at least one medium of claim 1, wherein the plurality of states include currency inventory data.

11. The at least one medium of claim 1, wherein the plurality of states include alarm data.

12. The at least one medium of claim 1, wherein the plurality of states includes temperature data.

13. The at least one medium of claim 1, wherein the trigger event is a request to receive information.

14. The at least one medium of claim 1, wherein the trigger event is sent from a central data server and the method comprises encoding and compressing only the portion of the plurality of monitored states.

15. At least one non-transitory machine readable medium comprising instructions that when executed on a computing device cause the computing device to perform a method comprising:

contributing product inventory information to a data set via a detection system;

communicatively coupling a controller, included in the computing device, to the detection system;

via a transmitter, (a) transmitting a compressed portion of the data set in response to at least one trigger event, and (b) communicatively coupling the transmitter to the controller and at least two field assets; and

via the controller discovering a path, through the computing device and the at least two field assets, to a master controller included among two or more potential master controllers and assigning master controller duties to the master controller based on strength of signal information from the computing device and the at least two field assets.

16. The at least one medium of claim 15, the method comprising, via a report generator, extracting data from the data set individually for each field asset;

wherein the master controller includes one of the at least two field assets.

17. The at least one medium of claim 15, wherein the data set includes an industry standard format and the method comprises assigning master controller duties to the master controller based on votes from the computing device and the at least two field assets.

18. The at least one medium of claim 15, the method comprising determining the controller is the master controller based on a determination that the controller has a favorable communication link to the operations center;

wherein the at least one non-transitory machine readable medium is included in at least one of the computing device and at least two field assets.

19. The at least one medium of claim 15, the method comprising the transmitter timing transmissions to avoid collisions with transmissions from other transmitters.

20. At least one non-transitory machine readable medium comprising instructions that when executed on a computing device having at least one processor cause the computing device to perform a method comprising:

conducting device discovery to find a communication path through a master controller, included among two or more potential master controllers, to an operations center and assigning master controller duties to the master controller;

monitoring a plurality of states for at least one individual field asset;

encoding and compressing a portion of the plurality of monitored states; and

responsive to a trigger event, transmitting through the communication path the encoded and compressed portion of the plurality of monitored states;

wherein the trigger event is communicated through the master controller.

21. The at least one medium of claim 20, wherein the trigger event includes a request to receive information.

22. The at least one medium of claim 20, wherein the trigger event is communicated from the master controller to the computing device.

23. The at least one medium of claim 20, wherein the at least one individual field asset includes the computing device.

24. The at least one medium of claim 20, wherein the trigger event is sent from a central data server to the computing device and the method comprises encoding and compressing only the portion of the plurality of monitored states.