Dynamic wireless information transmission

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12108318-B2
Application number	US-202218081996-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 15, 2022
Priority date	Nov 1, 2019
Publication date	Oct 1, 2024
Grant date	Oct 1, 2024

Abstract

An embodiment provides a method for transferring information from at least one instrument to an application, including: establishing a central protocol structure, wherein the central protocol structure defines a format for information transmitted utilizing the central protocol structure; transmitting over a short-range wireless communication channel information from the at least one device to the application, wherein the information is formatted in a broadcast packet in view of the central protocol structure; receiving, at the application, information from the at least one device; and performing, within the application, an action with respect to the information within the application, wherein the performing comprises deciphering the information contained in view of the central protocol structure.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system comprising:
a sensor device including:
a sensor configured to collect environmental data; and
a transmitter configured to:
encode the collected environmental data;
format the encoded environmental data using a central protocol structure which is a customized wire protocol that has been set up by a user in advance, the wire protocol defining how many bytes can be included, how data packets are divided and defined, and the user has customized the wire protocol to identify what information each of the data packets and/or bytes transmitted using the wire protocol correspond to;
include the formatted environmental data in a broadcast packet along with identifying information identifying a format of broadcasted data including at least a part of the formatted environmental data;
broadcast, over a short-range wireless communication channel, a broadcast packet including identifying information identifying a format of broadcasted data including at least a part of the environmental data which is formatted using a central protocol structure; and

a monitoring device including:
a receiver configured to receive the broadcast packet from the sensor device over the short-range wireless communication channel; and
a processor configured to:
acquire the identifying information of the sensor device from the broadcast packet, using the central protocol structure.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the monitoring device includes a display configured to display the environmental data.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the sensor device is selected from a water quality measurement device, a personal activity tracker, a smartwatch, a medical diagnostic device, a material sensing device, a laboratory testing device, a patient monitoring device, an environmental sensing device, and a location sensing device.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the short-range wireless communication channel uses UHF radio waves.

5. The system of claim 4 , wherein the wireless communication channel comprises a Bluetooth® communication channel and the broadcast packet comprises an advertising packet.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the transmitter is configured to transmit a plurality of broadcast packets, the receiver is configured to receive the plurality of the broadcast packets, and the processor is configured to update the environmental data upon receipt of each of the plurality of the broadcast packets.

7. The system of claim 6 , wherein the monitoring device includes a display configured to display the updated environmental data.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the monitoring device does not transmit data to the sensor device.

9. The system of claim 1 , further comprising:
a plurality of sensor devices each of which corresponds to the sensor device,
wherein the receiver is configured to receive a plurality of broadcast packets from the plurality of the sensor devices, and the processor is configured to combine the identifying information acquired from the plurality of the sensor devices into a combined data file.

10. The system of claim 9 , wherein the monitoring device is configured to transfer the combined data file via a network to a server remote from the plurality of the sensor devices.

11. The system of claim 9 , wherein the processor is configured to:
compare the information from the plurality of the sensor devices; and
take an action based on the comparison.

12. The system of claim 1 , wherein the monitoring device is a laboratory testing device.

13. The system of claim 1 , wherein the broadcast packet comprises an alert and the monitoring device is configured to send a notification for a user to take an urgent action.

14. The system of claim 1 , wherein the central protocol structure comprises an encrypted protocol buffer that encrypts information transmitted utilizing the central protocol structure, and the acquiring comprises decrypting the information.

15. The system of claim 1 , further comprising:
a plurality of sensor devices each of which corresponds to the sensor device,
wherein the monitoring device is configured to receive a plurality of broadcast packets from a number of the plurality of the sensor devices, and the number of sensor devices the monitoring device can receive information from at a single time is greater than 20 devices.

16. The system of claim 1 , wherein the broadcast packet comprises at least one of: a device identifier; measurement data obtained by the sensor device; information about data accuracy or error of measurement data obtained by the sensor device; timestamp information; location information of the sensor device; calibration data of the sensor device; a warning signal; and a parameter of the sensor device.

17. The system of claim 1 , wherein:
the monitoring device is a mobile device used by a user, with an application running on the mobile device, and the central protocol structure is known to both the sensor device and the application running on the mobile device,
the mobile device is simultaneously connected to a plurality of sensor devices each of which corresponds to the sensor device, and
the mobile device receives respective measurement data from each of the plurality of sensor devices in parallel, and combines and compares the respective measurement data before taking an action on the measurement data.

Assignees

• Hach Co

Inventors

• Harmon Brian Alan
• Lipinski Gregory James
• Williams Joseph Rockstan
• Mooney Theophilus Brian
• Higgins Timothy A
• Kroll Dan Jonathan
• Rajasekharan Vishnu
• Salzer Corey Alan

Classifications

• H04W12/033

  of the user plane, e.g. user's traffic · CPC title

• H04W4/38

  for collecting sensor information · CPC title

• H04W84/18

  Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks · CPC title

• H04W8/005

  Discovery of network devices, e.g. terminals · CPC title

• H04W76/14

  Direct-mode setup · CPC title