Automatic data collection device that receives data output instruction from data consumer

• US 6,356,949 B1
• Filed: 01/29/1999
• Issued: 03/12/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 01/29/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Intermec IP Corporation (Honeywell International Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Intermec IP Corporation (Honeywell International Inc.)
• Inventors: Shoeman, Paul David, Ho, Chau Minh, Katsandres, James T., Hunt, Jeffrey M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Geckil, Mehmet B.
• Application Number:
  US09/240,303
• Time in Patent Office: 1,138 Days
• Field of Search: 709/238, 709/201, 709/203, 709/217, 709/218, 709/219, 370/351, 370/401, 370/409, 370/911, 235/462.07, 455/445
• US Class Current: 709/238
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/547 Remote procedure calls [RPC]; Web services

Abstract

A method and system for receiving a client'"'"'s instructions with regard to specifying an output mechanism and a data type for data received from an automatic data collection (“ADC”) device on an ADC device platform. The method and system allows client applications to register their ADC data requests in a grid that is referenced during the processing of received ADC data. Clients, residing either on the ADC device platform or on a remote computing system, register with a data transfer mechanism to receive data via a particular output mechanism. Following registration of a client'"'"'s preferred output mechanism, the data transfer mechanism forwards all data received for the client by the ADC device platform to the client'"'"'s specified output mechanism. Using the data transfer mechanism, the same set of input data, destined for more than one application, may be simultaneously transmitted over different output mechanisms. The invention may utilize data output mechanisms such as pipes, remote procedure calls (“RPC”), sockets, stream files, NetBIOS, mail slots, NetDDE, and shared memory. The invention further allows the updating of existing data output grids or the addition of new information in data grids in association with a newly added ADC device, a newly added output condition, or a newly added client.

Claims

1. A method for routing a data set having characteristics, comprising:

receiving a data routing instruction for the at least one automatic data collection (“

ADC”

) device from at least one client application;

analyzing the data routing instruction to determine if the data routing instruction specifies a data routing mechanism; and

storing the data routing instruction in an output mechanism grid if the data routing instruction specifies a data output mechanism.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving the data set from the at least one ADC device for routing to the at least one client application; and

examining the output mechanism grid to identify the data output mechanism for routing data from the at least one ADC device to the at least one client application.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving the data set from the at least one ADC device for routing to the at least one client application;

examining the output mechanism grid to identify the data output mechanism for routing data from the at least one ADC device to the at least one client application; and

selecting a default output mechanism if the output mechanism grid does not identify an output mechanism for routing data from the at least one ADC device to the at least one client application.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving the data set from the at least one ADC device for routing to the at least one client application;

examining the output mechanism grid to identify the data output mechanism for routing data from the at least one ADC device to the at least one client application; and

routing the data set to the at least one client application using the identified data output mechanism.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving the data set from the at least one ADC device for routing to the at least one client application; and

examining the output mechanism grid to identify the data output mechanism for routing data from the at least one ADC device to the at least one client application, wherein the output mechanism grid for routing data from the at least one ADC device to the at least one client application includes as data output mechanisms at least one of pipes, remote procedure calls (“

RPC”

), sockets, network Basic Input/Output System (“

NetBIOS”

), mail slots, network Dynamic Data Exchange (“

NetDDE”

), and shared memory.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving the data set from the at least one ADC device for routing to the at least one client application; and

examining the output mechanism grid to identify the data output mechanism for routing data from the at least one ADC device to the at least one client application, wherein the data set is received by an ADC data server in an ADC device platform that contains the at least one ADC device, wherein the ADC data server also receives the data routing instruction for the at least one ADC device from the at least one client application.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving the data set from the at least one ADC device for routing to the at least one client application; and

examining the output mechanism grid to identify the data output mechanism for routing data from the at least one ADC device to the at least one client application, wherein the data set comprises one of bar code data, radio frequency (“

RF”

) tag data, resonator data, SmartCard data, magnetic stripe data, optical character recognition (“

OCR”

) data, text data, ASCII data, AIMI-ECI data, two-dimensional data, dipole device data, and speech input data.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

analyzing the data routing instruction to determine if the data routing instruction identifies a data type that may be received by the at least one client application from the at least one ADC device; and

storing the data routing instruction in an ADC data grid if the data routing instruction identifies a data type that may be received by the at least one client application.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

analyzing the data routing instruction to determine if the data routing instruction identifies a data type that may be received by the at least one client application from the at least one ADC device;

storing the data routing instruction in an ADC data grid if the data routing instruction identifies a data type that may be received by the at least one client application;

receiving the data set having characteristics from the at least one ADC device;

identifying the characteristics of the data set; and

examining the ADC data grid to determine if the at least one client application should receive the data set by comparing the data routing instructions stored for the at least one client application in the ADC data grid with the identified characteristics of the data set.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

analyzing the data routing instruction to determine if the data routing instruction identifies a data type that may be received by the at least one client application from the at least one ADC device;

storing the data routing instruction in an ADC data grid if the data routing instruction identifies a data type that may be received by the at least one client application; and

routing the data set to the at least one client application.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

analyzing the data routing instruction to determine if the data routing instruction identifies a data type that may be received by the at least one client application from the at least one ADC device;

storing the data routing instruction in an ADC data grid if the data routing instruction identifies a data type that may be received by the at least one client application; and

identifying at least another client application to receive the data set using the identified characteristics.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

analyzing the data routing instruction to determine if the data routing instruction identifies a data type that may be received by the at least one client application from the at least one ADC device;

storing the data routing instruction in an ADC data grid if the data routing instruction identifies a data type that may be received by the at least one client application; and

identifying at least another client application to receive the data set using the identified characteristics, wherein the at least one client application resides in an ADC device platform that contains the at least one ADC device and the at least another client application resides on a remote computing system.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

analyzing the data routing instruction to determine if the data routing instruction identifies a data type that may be received by the at least one client application from the at least one ADC device;

storing the data routing instruction in an ADC data grid if the data routing instruction identifies a data type that may be received by the at least one client application; and

identifying at least another client application to receive the data set using the identified characteristics, wherein the at least one ADC device resides in an ADC device platform, the at least one client application resides on a remote computing system, and the at least another client application resides on another remote computing system.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least one client application resides on a remote computing system, the method further comprising communicating with the remote computing system using one of the Transmission Control Protocol (“

TCP”

), the User Datagram Protocol (“

UDP”

), and the User Datagram Protocol Plus (“

UDP+”

).

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising communicating with the at least one client application over at least one of an intranet, an internet, a local area network, a wide area network, and the World Wide Web.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least one ADC device is one of a bar code reader, a radio frequency (“

RF”

) tag reader, a resonator reader, a SmartCard reader, a magnetic stripe reader, an optical character recognition (“

OCR”

) reader, a two-dimensional data reader, a dipole device reader, and a speech input recognizing device.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a data reading instruction from the at least one client application for the at least one ADC device;

sending the data reading instruction to the at least one ADC device; and

receiving the data set from the at least one ADC device that performs the data reading instruction.

18. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a data reading instruction from the at least one client application for the at least one ADC device;

sending the data reading instruction to the at least one ADC device; and

receiving the data set from the at least one ADC device that performs the data reading instruction, wherein the data set is received by an ADC data server that also receives the data reading instruction from the at least one client application and directs the translation of the data reading instruction into a native format of the at least one ADC device.

19. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a data reading instruction from the at least one client application for the at least one ADC device;

sending the data reading instruction to the at least one ADC device; and

receiving the data set from the at least one ADC device that performs the data reading instruction, wherein the data set is received by an ADC data server that also receives the data reading instruction from the at least one client application and wherein the ADC data server directs a protocol handler and a device handler to translate the data reading instruction into a native format of the at least one ADC device.

20. A system for routing a plurality of data sets, comprising:

an automatic data collection (“

ADC”

) data server that receives data sets having data characteristics from a plurality of ADC devices;

an output mechanism grid that contains routing mechanism instructions for at least one client application of a plurality of client applications; and

an output method organizer that attempts to locate a routing mechanism instruction for each client application of the plurality of client applications that will receive a data set of the plurality of data sets from the ADC data server.

21. The system of claim 20, further comprising a data router that routes at least one data set of the plurality of data sets to at least one client application of the plurality of client applications using an output mechanism located in a routing mechanism instruction in the output mechanism grid.

22. The system of claim 20, further comprising a data router that routes at least one data set of the plurality of data sets to at least one client application of the plurality of client applications using an output mechanism located in a routing mechanism instruction in the output mechanism grid and wherein the output mechanism is one of pipes, remote procedure calls (“

RPC”

), sockets, mail slots, network Basic Input/Output System (“

NetBIOS”

), network Dynamic Data Exchange (“

NetDDE”

), and shared memory.

23. The system of claim 20 wherein the ADC data server resides in an ADC device platform that contains the plurality of ADC devices.

24. The system of claim 20 wherein each data set of the plurality of data sets comprises one of bar code data, radio frequency (“

RF”

) tag data, resonator data, SmartCard data, magnetic stripe data, optical character recognition (“

OCR”

) data, text data, ASCII data, AIMI-ECI data, two-dimensional data, dipole device data, and speech input data.

25. The system of claim 20 wherein at least one ADC device of the plurality of ADC devices is one of-a bar code reader, a radio frequency (“

RF”

) tag reader, a resonator reader, a SmartCard reader, a magnetic stripe reader, an optical character recognition (“

OCR”

) reader, a two-dimensional data reader, a dipole device reader, and a speech input recognizing device.

26. The system of claim 20, further comprising:

an ADC data grid that contains data type requests for the plurality of client applications; and

an ADC grid data matcher that identifies the data type of each data set of the plurality of data sets and matches the identified data type against the data type requests for each client application of the plurality of client applications in the ADC data grid to determine if one or more than one client application should receive the data set.

27. The system of claim 20, further comprising:

an ADC data grid that contains data type requests for the plurality of client applications;

an ADC grid data matcher that identifies the data type of each data set of the plurality of data sets and matches the identified data type against the data type requests for each client application of the plurality of client applications in the ADC data grid to determine if one or more than one client application should receive the data set; and

a data router that routes a data set of the plurality of data sets to at least one client application using an output mechanism located for the at least one client application in the output mechanism grid.

28. The system of claim 20, further comprising:

an ADC data grid that contains data type requests for the plurality of client applications;

an ADC grid data matcher that identifies the data type of each data set of the plurality of data sets and matches the identified data type against the data type requests for each client application of the plurality of client applications in the ADC data grid to determine if one or more than one client application should receive the data set; and

a data router that routes a data set of the plurality of data sets to at least one client application using an output mechanism located for the at least one client application in the output mechanism grid, wherein the output mechanism for routing the data set to the at least one client application is one of pipes, remote procedure calls (“

RPC”

), sockets, mail slots, network basic input/output system (“

NetBIOS”

), network dynamic data exchange (“

NetDDE”

), and shared memory.

29. The system of claim 20, further comprising:

an ADC data grid that contains data type requests for the plurality of client applications; and

an ADC grid data matcher that identifies the data type of each data set of the plurality of data sets and matches the identified data type against the data type requests for each client application of the plurality of client applications in the ADC data grid to determine if one or more than one client application should receive the data set, wherein the grid data matcher identifies more than one client application of the plurality of client applications to receive the data set based upon examination of the ADC data grid.

30. The system of claim 20 wherein at least one client application to receive the data set resides in an ADC device platform that contains the at least one ADC device and at least another client application to receive the data set resides on a remote computing system.

31. The system of claim 20 wherein the ADC data server and the plurality of ADC devices reside in an ADC device platform, at least one client application to receive the data set resides on a remote computing system, and at least another client application to receive the data set resides in another remote computing system.

32. The system of claim 20 wherein the ADC data server and the plurality of ADC devices reside in an ADC device platform, and the at least one client application to receive the data set resides on a remote computing system, and the ADC device platform communicates with the remote computing system using one of the Transmission Control Protocol (“

TCP”

), the User Datagram Protocol (“

UDP”

), and the User Datagram Protocol Plus (“

UDP+”

).

33. The system of claim 20 wherein the ADC data server and the plurality of ADC devices reside in an ADC device platform, and the at least one client application to receive the data set resides on a remote computing system, and communications between the at least one client application and the ADC device platform pass over at least one of an intranet, an internet, a local area network, a wide area network, and the World Wide Web.

34. An automatic data collection (“

ADC”

) network that routes data, comprising;

a plurality of ADC device platforms, such that at least one ADC device platform comprises;

at least one ADC device;

an ADC data server that receives a plurality of data sets having characteristics from the at least one ADC device;

an output mechanism grid that contains routing mechanism instructions for a plurality of client applications; and

an output method organizer that attempts to locate a routing mechanism instruction for each client application that will receive a data set of the plurality of data sets from the ADC data server.

35. The system of claim 34, further comprising a data router in the at least one ADC device platform that routes a data set of the plurality of data sets to a client application of the plurality of client applications using an output mechanism located in a routing mechanism instruction in the output mechanism grid of the at least one ADC device platform.

36. The system of claim 34 wherein the output mechanism for routing a data set to at least one client application is one of pipes, remote procedure calls (“

RPC”

), sockets, mail slots, network basic input/output system (“

NetBIOS”

), network dynamic data exchange (“

NetDDE”

), and shared memory.

37. The system of claim 34 wherein at least one data set of the plurality of data sets comprises one of bar code data, radio frequency (“

RF”

) tag data, resonator data, SmartCard data, magnetic stripe data, optical character recognition (“

OCR”

) data, text data, ASCII data, AIMI-ECI data, two-dimensional data, dipole device data, and speech input data.

38. The system of claim 34 wherein the at least one ADC device of at least one ADC device platform is one of a bar code reader, a radio frequency (“

RF”

) tag reader, a resonator reader, a SmartCard reader, a magnetic stripe reader, an optical character recognition (“

OCR”

) reader, a two-dimensional data reader, a dipole device reader, and a speech input recognizing device.

39. The system of claim 34 wherein the at least one ADC device platform further comprises:

an ADC data grid that contains data type requests for the plurality of client applications; and

an ADC grid data matcher that identifies the data type of each data set received from the ADC device and matches the identified data types against the data type requests for each client application of the plurality of client applications in the ADC data grid to determine if one or more than one client application should receive the data set.

40. The system of claim 34 wherein the at least one ADC device platform further comprises:

an ADC data grid that contains data type requests for the plurality of client applications;

an ADC grid data matcher that identifies the data type of each data set received from the ADC device and matches the identified data types against the data type requests for each client application of the plurality of client applications in the ADC data grid to determine if one or more than one client application should receive the data set; and

a data router that routes a data set of the data sets to at least one client application using an output mechanism located for the at least one client application in the output mechanism grid.

41. The system of claim 34 wherein the at least one ADC device platform further comprises:

an ADC data grid that contains data type requests for the plurality of client applications;

an ADC grid data matcher that identifies the data type of each data set received from the ADC device and matches the identified data types against the data type requests for each client application of the plurality of client applications in the ADC data grid to determine if one or more than one client application should receive the data set; and

a data router that routes a data set of the data sets to at least one client application using an output mechanism located for the at least one client application in the output mechanism grid, wherein the output mechanism for routing the data set to the at least one client application is one of pipes, remote procedure calls (“

RPC”

), sockets, mail slots, network basic input/output system (“

NetBIOS”

), network dynamic data exchange (“

NetDDE”

), and shared memory.

42. The system of claim 34 wherein the at least one ADC device platform further comprises:

an ADC data grid that contains data type requests for the plurality of client applications; and

an ADC grid data matcher that identifies the data type of each data set received from the ADC device and matches the identified data types against the data type requests for each client application of the plurality of client applications in the ADC data grid to determine if one or more than one client application should receive the data set, wherein the grid data matcher identifies more than one client application of the plurality of client applications to receive a data set based upon examination of the ADC data grid.

43. The system of claim 34 wherein at least one ADC data device platform further comprises:

an ADC data grid that contains data type requests for the plurality of client applications; and

an ADC grid data matcher that identifies the data type of each data set received from the ADC device and matches the identified data types against the data type requests for each client application of the plurality of client applications in the ADC data grid to determine if one or more than one client application should receive the data set, wherein the grid data matcher identifies more than one client application of the plurality of client applications to receive a data set based upon examination of the ADC data grid, and wherein at least one identified client application resides in the ADC device platform and at least another identified client application resides on a remote computing system.

44. The system of claim 34 wherein at least one ADC device platform further comprises:

an ADC data grid that contains data type requests for the plurality of client applications; and

an ADC grid data matcher that identifies the data type of each data set received from the ADC device and matches the identified data types against the data type requests for each client application of the plurality of client applications in the ADC data grid to determine if one or more than one client application should receive the data set,

wherein the grid data matcher identifies more than one client application of the plurality of client applications to receive a data set based upon examination of the ADC data grid and wherein the at least one identified client application resides on a remote computing system and at least another identified client application resides in another remote computing system.

45. The system of claim 34 wherein the at least one ADC device platform further comprises:

an ADC data grid that contains data type requests for the plurality of client applications; and

an ADC grid data matcher that identifies the data type of each data set received from the ADC device and matches the identified data types against the data type requests for each client application of the plurality of client applications in the ADC data grid to determine if one or more than one client application should receive the data set,

wherein the the at least one identified client application resides on a remote computing system and the ADC device platform communicates with the remote computing system using one of the Transmission Control Protocol (“

TCP”

), the User Datagram Protocol (“

UDP”

), and the User Datagram Protocol Plus (“

UDP+”

).

46. The system of claim 34 wherein the at least one ADC device platform further comprises:

an ADC data grid that contains data type requests for the plurality of client applications; and

an ADC grid data matcher that identifies the data type of each data set received from the ADC device and matches the identified data types against the data type requests for each client application of the plurality of client applications in the ADC data grid to determine if one or more than one client application should receive the data set, wherein the at least one identified client application resides on a remote computing system and communications between the at least one identified client application and the ADC device platform pass over at least one of an intranet, an internet, a local area network, a wide area network, and the World Wide Web.