Systems, methods and devices for controlling humidity in a closed environment with automatic and predictive identification, purchase and replacement of optimal humidity controller

• US 10,055,781 B2
• Filed: 06/05/2015
• Issued: 08/21/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 06/05/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Boveda Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Boveda Incorporated
• Inventors: Schmitz, Jason L., Esse, Robert L., Knutsen, Sean A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Shui, Ming
• Application Number:
  US14/732,079
• Publication Number:
  US 20160358244A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,173 Days
• Field of Search: 705 261- 272
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/20 Administration of product repair or maintenance
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0631 Item recommendations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0635 Processing of requisition or of purchase orders

Abstract

The invention relates to systems and methods for monitoring and providing humidity control for an asset within a closed environment such as a storage container, with transmission of sensed humidity levels to at least one server that stores current and historical humidity levels and comprises a processor and stored executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, may recommend an optimal humidity controller to use for the asset, determine when the recommended humidity controller requires replacement and predictively recommend an optimal replacement humidity controller based on at least historical humidity data and trending thereof, execution of a sales transaction, that may be pre-scheduled based on asset type, asset size and/or historical data, for the optimal replacement humidity controller, and providing the proper replacement humidity controller to the user.

Claims

1. A system for automatically providing a replacement humidity controller to replace a user'"'"'s humidity controller used to maintain humidity levels within a closed environment housing an asset, the system comprising:

a humidity controller controlling the relative humidity within the closed environment in the general range of 30%-95%, the humidity controller comprising;

a pouch formed of a thin-walled polymeric material permeable to water vapor but not to liquid solutions; and

a humidity control material comprising at least one of;

a salt, sugar, sugar alcohol, polybasic acid, and salt of a polybasic acid;

wherein the water vapor permeability of the pouch is such that the moisture transfer capacity of the pouch transmits at least from about 1% to about 50% by weight of the initial pouch contents when exposed to an atmosphere of less than 10% relative humidity and absorbs at least from about 1% to about 50% by weight of the initial pouch content when exposed to an atmosphere having greater than 85% relative humidity;

a humidity sensor located within the container, wherein the humidity sensor senses the humidity level within the closed environment;

a server located remotely from the humidity sensor, the server in operative wireless communication with the humidity sensor; and

a database storing, as non-transitory computer readable media, user address information, asset identifying information, humidity controller information, and a lookup table listing a plurality of humidity controllers and a plurality of asset types, each asset type associated with at least one of the listed humidity controllers, wherein the associated listed humidity controllers are optimized for controlling the humidity of the associated asset type, the database further storing computer executable instructions for;

receiving a sensed humidity condition from the humidity sensor and tracking the sensed humidity condition over a duration;

comparing the sensed humidity condition to a controlled humidity range for the asset and, if the sensed humidity condition is outside of the controlled humidity range, determining the humidity controller is nearing the end of its useful life;

based, at least in part, on the sensed humidity condition tracked over a duration, stored lookup table, stored asset identifying information, and stored humidity controller information, forming a recommendation of an optimal replacement humidity controller for the housed asset, wherein the recommendation comprises a type of controller and number of controllers; and

sending the recommendation of the optimal replacement humidity controller to a user device.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the stored humidity controller information comprises:

total number of humidity controllers in use;

identity of each humidity controller in use; and

installation date of each humidity controller in use.

3. The system of claim 1, the database further storing computer executable instructions for retrieving the stored user address information and initiating a purchase transaction for the optimal replacement humidity controller.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein initiating the purchase transaction comprises providing the user an ability to change the purchase.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein initiating the purchase transaction further comprises providing the user a purchasing option selected from the group consisting of the recommended optimal replacement humidity controller and the stored humidity controller information.

6. The system of claim 3, wherein initiating the purchase transaction comprises the user selecting a payment method comprising one of a previously provided payment method and a new payment method.

7. The system of claim 1, the database further storing computer executable instructions for:

establishing a frequency for purchasing and replacing the user'"'"'s humidity controller; and

automatically identifying, purchasing, initiating delivery of an optimal replacement humidity controller to the user address in accordance with the established frequency.

8. The system of claim 1, further comprising computer executable instructions for initiating delivery of the replacement humidity controller to the user address.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the humidity controller controls the relative humidity within the closed environment in the general range of 40%-75%.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the recommended optimal humidity controller is different from the humidity controller within the enclosed environment.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the recommended optimal humidity controller comprises a plurality of controllers.

12. A system for monitoring and controlling humidity levels within a container that houses an asset owned or operated by a user, the system comprising:

a humidity sensor located within the container, wherein the humidity sensor periodically senses the humidity experienced by the asset;

a remote server in operative wireless communication with the humidity sensor, wherein the server receives and stores sensed humidity data transmitted from the humidity sensor;

a humidity controller controlling the relative humidity within the closed environment in the general range of 30%-95%, the humidity controller comprising;

a pouch formed of a thin-walled polymeric material permeable to water vapor but not to liquid solutions; and

a humidity control material comprising at least one of;

a salt, sugar, sugar alcohol, polybasic acid, and salt of a polybasic acid;

wherein the water vapor permeability of the pouch is such that the moisture transfer capacity of the pouch transmits at least from about 1% to about 50% by weight of the initial pouch contents when exposed to an atmosphere of less than 10% relative humidity and absorbs at least from about 1% to about 50% by weight of the initial pouch content when exposed to an atmosphere having greater than 85% relative humidity;

a remote computing device in wireless operable communication with at least one of the server and the humidity sensor to enable the user to view the stored sensed humidity data; and

the at least one server further configured to;

based on the stored sensed humidity data, predict an end of the humidity controller'"'"'s useful life;

before the end of the humidity controller'"'"'s predicted useful life, automatically form a recommendation of an optimal replacement humidity controller based at least in part on the stored sensed humidity data and identifying information for the asset and the humidity controller, the recommendation comprising a type of controller and number of controllers; and

send the recommendation of the optimal replacement humidity controller to the remote computing device.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the asset comprises a stringed instrument or tobacco products.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the humidity control material comprises a saturated aqueous salt solution containing an amount of alkali metal formate selected from sodium formate, potassium formate, sodium or potassium lactate and combinations thereof sealed in said pouch wherein said salt solution contains from about 30% to about 90% salt.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein the at least one server is further configured to, before the end of the optimal humidity controller'"'"'s predicted useful life, initiate a transaction to purchase the determined optimal replacement humidity controller with notification to the user'"'"'s computing device.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the at least one server is further configured to, before the end of the optimal humidity controller'"'"'s predicted useful life, initiate delivery of the purchased optimal replacement humidity controller to the user.

17. The system of claim 12, wherein the humidity controller controls the relative humidity within the closed environment in the general range of 40%-75%.

18. A method of controlling humidity in a closed environment, the method comprising:

providing a closed environment housing an asset;

providing a humidity sensor within the closed environment and configured to sense humidity levels within the closed environment;

providing a humidity controller within the closed environment, selected to maintain the humidity levels within the closed environment in the general range of 30%-95%, the humidity controller comprising;

a pouch formed of a thin-walled polymeric material permeable to water vapor but not to liquid solutions; and

a humidity control material comprising at least one of;

a salt, sugar, sugar alcohol, polybasic acid, and salt of a polybasic acid;

wherein the water vapor permeability of the pouch is such that the moisture transfer capacity of the pouch transmits at least from about 1% to about 50% by weight of the initial pouch contents when exposed to an atmosphere of less than 10% relative humidity and absorbs at least from about 1% to about 50% by weight of the initial pouch content when exposed to an atmosphere having greater than 85% relative humidity;

providing a remotely located server at a location remote from the closed environment, the server comprising;

a processor in the remotely located server configured to control at least some operations of the server; and

a memory in operative communication with the processor and storing computer executable instructions, user addresses associated with the asset, asset identifying information, humidity controller information, and a look-up table listing a plurality of humidity controllers and a plurality of asset types, each asset type associated with at least one of the listed humidity controllers, wherein the associated listed humidity controllers are optimized for controlling the humidity of the associated asset type; and

executing the computer executable instructions to enable;

receiving data from a humidity sensor arranged within the container, the data comprising a sensed humidity condition within the container, and tracking the sensed humidity condition over a duration;

comparing the sensed humidity condition to a controlled humidity range for the asset and, if the sensed humidity condition is outside of the controlled humidity range, determining the humidity controller is nearing the end of its useful life;

using the stored asset identifying information, looking up the asset and the at least one associated humidity controller in the look-up table;

based, at least in part, on the sensed humidity condition tracked over a duration and the stored humidity controller information, forming a recommendation of an optimal humidity controller for the asset;

retrieving user addresses associated with the asset;

transmitting the recommendation of an optimal humidity controller to the user addresses; and

determining the selected humidity controller'"'"'s end of useful life based on the sensed humidity condition within the container.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

establishing a recommended optimal humidity controller replacement;

automatically initiating and executing a transaction to purchase the optimal humidity controller replacement before the determined end of useful life; and

initiating delivery of the optimal humidity controller replacement to the user before the determined end of useful life.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the humidity control material comprises a saturated aqueous salt solution containing an amount of alkali metal formate selected from sodium formate, potassium formate, sodium or potassium lactate and combinations thereof sealed in said pouch wherein said salt solution contains from about 30% to about 90% salt.

21. The method of claim 18, wherein the humidity controller within the closed environment and/or asset is selected to maintain the humidity levels within the closed environment and/or asset in the general range of 40%-75%.