Remote monitoring system
First Claim
1. A method of communicating information in an environmental monitoring system, the environmental monitoring system comprising at least one computing device and a plurality of remote units located remote from the at least one computing device, each remote unit of the plurality of remote units comprising a sensor to sense an environmental parameter and a transceiver, the method comprising:
- in response to receiving a message at the at least one computing device from a remote unit of the plurality of remote units and determining that the message satisfies at least one condition, transmitting from the at least one computing device an acknowledgement to the remote unit from which the message was received, the acknowledgement indicating a scheduled time for the remote unit to transmit a second message to the at least one computing device; and
in response to determining, following the scheduled time indicated by the acknowledgement, that the second message has not been received, generating an alert.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A temperature monitoring service in which remote monitoring units are distributed to customers who then set up monitoring as desired at their facilities. The devices may be registered through a web site using the Internet. Monitoring information may be communicated using a publicly available, wireless network, such as a cellular telephone network. The service may be provided with a system, including a server, which can deliver high levels of monitoring functionality. The server may support streaming monitoring information to a customer for analysis or sending a command activating a device connected to a remote unit. Remote units associated with the same location may be in a pool, comprising one active unit and one or more spare units, in which the server automatically identifies the active unit. The server may support analyzing monitoring information according to an expected cycle pattern of a ventilation system at the monitored facility.
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Citations
19 Claims
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1. A method of communicating information in an environmental monitoring system, the environmental monitoring system comprising at least one computing device and a plurality of remote units located remote from the at least one computing device, each remote unit of the plurality of remote units comprising a sensor to sense an environmental parameter and a transceiver, the method comprising:
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in response to receiving a message at the at least one computing device from a remote unit of the plurality of remote units and determining that the message satisfies at least one condition, transmitting from the at least one computing device an acknowledgement to the remote unit from which the message was received, the acknowledgement indicating a scheduled time for the remote unit to transmit a second message to the at least one computing device; and in response to determining, following the scheduled time indicated by the acknowledgement, that the second message has not been received, generating an alert. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. An apparatus comprising:
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at least one processor; and at least one computer-readable storage medium having encoded thereon executable instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to carry out a method of communicating information in an environmental monitoring system, the environmental monitoring system comprising at least one computing device and a plurality of remote units located remote from the at least one computing device, each remote unit of the plurality of remote units comprising a sensor to sense an environmental parameter and a transceiver, the method comprising; in response to receiving a message at the at least one computing device from a remote unit of the plurality of remote units and determining that the message satisfies at least one condition, transmitting from the at least one computing device an acknowledgement to the remote unit from which the message was received, the acknowledgement indicating a scheduled time for the remote unit to transmit a second message to the at least one computing device wherein receiving the message comprises receiving a message comprising data regarding the environmental parameter sensed by the sensor of the remote unit and/or data regarding a state of the remote unit; and wherein receiving the message comprising data comprises receiving a message comprising; data formatted as one or more pairs of a command identifier and a data payload, the command identifier identifying a type of data to which the data payload relates; and a count of a number of the one or more pairs included in the message. - View Dependent Claims (14)
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15. A method of communicating information in an environmental monitoring system, the environmental monitoring system comprising at least one computing device and a plurality of remote units located remote from the at least one computing device, each remote unit of the plurality of remote units comprising a sensor to sense an environmental parameter, a transceiver, and a storage, the method comprising acts carried out by a remote unit of:
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detecting that a power state of the remote unit has changed; in response to detecting that the power state of the remote unit has changed, transmitting, to the at least one computing device, a message comprising data and error detection information, the data comprising data regarding the power state of the remote unit; in response to receiving from the at least one computing device, as a response to the transmitting, a negative acknowledgement, retransmitting the message; and in response to receiving from the at least one computing device, as a response to the transmitting, an acknowledgement indicating a scheduled time for the remote unit to transmit at least one second message to the at least one computing device, storing on the storage of the remote unit information indicating the scheduled time for remote unit to transmit the at least one second message. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18)
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19. A method of communicating information in an environmental monitoring system, the environmental monitoring system comprising at least one computing device and a plurality of remote units located remote from the at least one computing device, each remote unit of the plurality of remote units comprising a sensor to sense an environmental parameter and a transceiver, the method comprising:
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in response to receiving a message at the at least one computing device from a remote unite of the plurality of remote units, the message comprising data regarding the environmental parameter sensed by the sensor of the remote unit, and determining that the message satisfies at least one condition, transmitting from the at least one computing device an acknowledgement to the remote unit from which the message was received, the acknowledgement indicating a scheduled time for the remote unit to transmit a second message to the at least one computing device; and in response to determining that a value of the environmental parameter satisfies one or more alarm conditions, generating an alert regarding the environmental parameter; and calculating the scheduled time for the remote unit to transmit the second message, wherein calculating the scheduled time for the remote unit to transmit the second message comprises; calculating the scheduled time as a first offset from a current scheduled time when the value of the environmental parameter satisfies one or more of the one or more alarm conditions; and calculating the scheduled time as a second offset from the current scheduled time when the value of the environmental parameter does not satisfy the one or more alarm conditions, the second offset being greater than the first offset.
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Specification