Communication system with wireless electronic mail or messaging integrated and/or associated with application program residing on remote computing device

• US 6,938,099 B2
• Filed: 07/31/2001
• Issued: 08/30/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 07/31/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: XRS Corporation (Solera Holdings Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Motient Communications, Inc. (Terrestar Corporation)
• Inventors: Brown, William T., Morton, James W.
• Primary Examiner(s): Najjar, Saleh
• Application Number:
  US09/917,937
• Publication Number:
  US 20020032018A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,491 Days
• Field of Search: 709/206, 709/225, 709/226, 709/227, 709/229, 709/246
• US Class Current: 709/246
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08 Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08355 Routing methods
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/066 Format adaptation, e.g. format conversion or compression
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/42 Mailbox-related aspects, e.g. synchronisation of mailboxes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/58 Message adaptation for wireless communication

Abstract

A wireless communications system is provided that enables a user to send data pertaining to the shipment and/or delivery of goods, preferably from a handheld device, to at least one data file associated with at least one respective application program residing on a remote computing device. The application program rapidly receives the sent data and integrates the data into at least one data file associated therewith, thereby enabling more timely and efficient business operations. In a preferred embodiment, user input is minimized by using a macro feature, and users can input data fields in any order without affecting the performance or reliability of the system.

Claims

1. A wireless communications system for use in the transportation industry, comprising:

at least one data transmission device comprising a wireless messaging device having a first identifier associated with said at least one network, and including a user interface providing a user functionality to enter into said at least one data transmission device at least one predefined data field and data associated with the at least predefined data field, the at least one predefined data field and the data associated therewith formatted in accordance with a standard format including at least one first standard format for the at least one predefined data field and at least one second standard format for the data, and the data including at least one of economic and logistical data relating to at least one of shipment, delivery and receipt of shipped goods;

at least one remote computing device, operatively connectable to said at least one data transmission device, said at least one remote computing device comprising an e-mail server storing messages for at least one e-mail account, each e-mail account having a second identifier associated therewith, wherein the at least one data transmission device and the at least one remote computing device transmit signals to each other via said networks in accordance with predetermined criteria including respective identifiers associated with each of the at least one data transmission device and the at least one remote computing device, and receiving each of the at least one predefined data field and the data transmitted by said at least one data transmission device, and processing the at least one first standard format for the at least one predefined data field and the at least one second standard format for the data responsive to the standard format using at least one application program stored on said at least one remote computing device configured to receive the standard format comprising the at least one first standard format for the at least one predefined data field and the at least one second standard format for the data; and

at least one network operatively connectable to each of said at least one data transmission device and each of said at least one remote computing device, and transmitting the at least one first standard format for the at least one predefined data field and the at least one second standard format for the data responsive to the standard format to said at least one remote computing device and receiving the at least one first standard format for the at least one predefined data field and the at least one second standard format for the data responsive to the standard format from said at least one data transmission device.

2. The wireless communications system as recited in claim 1, wherein each standard format comprises a bill of lading, a weight, a shipper zip, a consignee zip, a number of pieces slipped, a delivery date, a name of an individual who signed a delivery receipt, a product number, an indication that the goods are delivered, an indication that the goods are picked up, an estimated time of arrival, a comment, an indication that a trailer is being dropped off, an indication that a trailer is being picked up, a drop/hook indication, and an indication that the goods are at least one of over, short and damaged.

3. The wireless communications system an recited in claim 1, wherein each of the at least one predefined data field comprises a user-entered pre-defined representation corresponding to at least one of a word and phrase and facilitates utilization of at least a portion of the transmitted data with at least one of the data file and the data file format associated with at least application program residing on said at least one remote computing device.

4. The wireless communications system as recited in claim 3, wherein each of the at least one predefined data field comprises a user-entered pre-defined representation corresponding to at least one of a word and phrase comprising a bill of lading, a weight, a shipper zip, a consignee zip, a number of pieces shipped, a delivery date, a name of an individual who signed a delivery receipt, a product number, an indication that the goods are delivered, an indication that the goods are picked up, an estimated time of arrival, a comment, an indication that a trailer is being dropped off, an indication that a trailer is being picked up, a drop/hook indication, and an indication that the goods are over, short or damaged.

5. The wireless communications system as recited in claim 1, wherein each of the at least one data transmission device is a portable device.

6. The wireless communications system as recited in claim 1, wherein each of the at least one data transmission device verifies that the user has entered a valid predefined data field prior to transmission.

7. The wireless communications system as recited in claim 1, wherein each of the at least one remote computing device verifies that a valid data field has been received prior to utilizing the transmitted data.

8. The wireless communications system as recited in claim 1, wherein each of the at least one networks comprise:

a scheduler determining which of the at least one data transmission devices are active;

a device action manager receiving notification from said scheduler and monitoring which of said at least one transmission devices have requested to download a message from the at least one remote computing device;

a download manager receiving notification via said scheduler at which time messages associated with each of the at least one data transmission device are to be downloaded;

a message lookup manager determining an identifier associated with each message associated with each of the at least one transmission device and selecting those messages that have not been downloaded from the at least one remote computing device to the respective first communications device; and

a message processor for retrieving messages from the remote computing device and transmitting the messages to the respective data transmission device as determined by a selection system.

9. The system according to claim 1, wherein said signals comprise at least one of an electronic mail message, an electronic page, and a paging message.

10. The system according to claim 8 wherein said download manager downloads messages subsequent to receiving an indication from said scheduler and said lookup manager.

11. The system according to claim 8 wherein said message processor converts the message format of the at least one second communications device to a message format of the at least one data transmission device.

12. The system according to claim 8 wherein said lookup manager deletes a message record when a corresponding message is transmitted to the at least one data transmission device.

13. The system according to claim 8 wherein said scheduler further determines the time at which each of the at least one data transmission devices are to receive a message.

14. The system according to claim 1 wherein each of said at least one data transmission device have a common domain name associated therewith.

15. The system according to claim 8, wherein said scheduler accesses subscriber information from the selection system to determine user specified download times.

16. A method for standardizing data communications, pertaining to economic and/or logistical data relating to the shipment, delivery and/or receipt of goods, between at least one data transmission device and at least one remote computing device, comprising the steps of:

a) entering into at least one data transmission device a predefined data field and associated data, wherein the predefined data field and the associated data comprise a standard format and the at least one data transmission device is a wireless messaging device having a first identifier associated with at least one network;

b) transmitting the predefined data field said the associated data to at least one remote computing device comprising an e-mail server storing messages for at least one e-mail account in accordance with predetermined criteria, the predetermined criteria comprising respective identifiers associated with each of the at least one data transmission device and the at least one remote computing device;

c) associating a second identifier with each e-mail account;

d) receiving by the at least one remote computing device the redefined data field and associated data; and

e) utilizing at least a portion of the data received in step d) with at least one of a data file and a data format associated with at least one application program residing on the at least one remote computing device.

17. The method according to claim 16, wherein each of the at least one predefined data field comprises a user-entered pre-defined representation corresponding to a word or phrase pertaining to at least one of a bill of lading, a weight, a shipper zip, a consignee zip, a number of pieces shipped, a delivery date, a name of an individual who signed a delivery receipt, a product number, an indication that the goods are delivered, an indication that the goods are picked up, an estimated time of arrival, a comment, an indication that a trailer is being dropped off, an indication that a trailer is being picked up, a drop/hook indication, and an indication that the goods are over, short or damaged.

18. The method according to claim 16, wherein each of the at least one remote computing device verifies that a valid data field has been received prior to utilizing the transmitted data.

19. The method according to claim 16, wherein each of the at least one data transmission device is a portable device.

20. The method according to claim 16, wherein each of the at least one data transmission device verifies that the user has entered a valid predefined data field prior to transmission.

21. The method according to claim 16, further comprising the steps of:

determining which of the at least one data transmission devices are active;

receiving notification and monitoring which of said at least one transmission devices have requested to download a message from the at least one remote computing device;

receiving notification at which time messages associated with each of the at least one data transmission device are to be downloaded;

determining an identifier associated with each message associated with each of the at least one transmission device and selecting those messages that have not been downloaded from the at least one remote computing device to the respective first communications device; and

retrieving messages from the remote computing device and transmitting the messages to the respective data transmission device.