Intermec IP Corporation

Intermec, Inc.

Jon R Ramberg

Jeffrey Mark Hunt

James T Katsandres

Paul David Shoeman

Kenneth Y Ogami

Charles E McCall

Paul A Bolme

Walt Moldskred

Ken Ogami

Jeff Hunt

The invention provides a system and method for remotely diagnosing and repairing a plurality of device platforms. A remote service technician utilizes a computing system having browsing software that communicates with a network of platform devices.

Remote anomaly diagnosis and reconfiguration of an automatic data collection device platform over a telecommunications network

The invention provides a system and method for remotely diagnosing and repairing a plurality of Automatic Data Collection ('ADC') device platforms. A remote service technician utilizes a computing system having browsing software that communicates with a network of ADC platform devices. Diagnostic queries for particular ADC devices may be retrieved by the browsing software from a diagnostic server that sends Hypertext Mark-Up Language ('HTML') documents, Dynamic Hypertext Mark-Up Language (&#x201c;DHTML&#x201d;) documents, and/or Extensible Mark-Up Language (&#x201c;XML&#x201d;) documents containing appropriate diagnostic applets. The remote technician sends diagnostic queries to a Simple Network Management Protocol (&#x201c;SNMP&#x201d;) master agent at the ADC device platform, and a translator translates the diagnostic queries sent to the ADC device platform into a format suitable for reception by its ADC devices in order to effect anomaly diagnosis and functionality restoration. Another translator translates data received from the ADC device into the SNMP format for transmission to the remote service technician in order for the remote service technician to perform diagnostic analysis. The SNMP master agent communicates with the remote computing system using the Transmission Control Protocol (&#x201c;TCP&#x201d;), the User Datagram Protocol/Internet Protocol (&#x201c;UDP/IP&#x201d;), and/or the User Datagram Plus Protocol (&#x201c;UDP+&#x201d;). The ADC platform device may also utilize a wireless communication system for communicating with the remote service technician.

The invention provides a system and method for controlling a plurality of automatic data collection (ADC) device platforms. In the invention, a remote computing system having browsing software adapted for receiving and sending Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) documents, Dynamic Hypertext Mark-Up Language (DHTML) documents, and Exstensible Mark Up Language (XML) documents over the World Wide Web communicates with a network of ADC platform devices. A Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) master agent at the ADC device platform communicates with the remote computing system and a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) server sends HTML documents, DHTML documents, and XML documents to the remote computing system over the World Wide Web. A translator translates SNMP-formatted data sent to the attached ADC devices into a format suitable for reception by each ADC device. Another translator translates data received from the ADC devices into the SNMP format. The SNMP master agent communicates with the remote computing system using the TCP protocol, the UDP/IP protocol, and the UDP&plus; protocol. The ADC platform device may utilize a wireless communications system for communicating with the remote computing system.

Automatic data collection device having a network communications capability

A method and system for dynamically wedging data received from one or more automatic data collection (&ldquo;ADC&rdquo;) devices on an ADC device platform into a destination application based upon wedging criteria. A dynamic wedge receives data from one or more ADC devices and automatically wedges the data into applications based upon user-provided data characteristics or a predetermined set of rules. Applicable wedging criteria used to route data include those that are user-composed and those that pertain to firmware or software characteristics. The dynamic wedge may comprise an ADC data server, ADC device handlers, ADC protocol handlers, and a wedging grid for retaining wedging directives. The ADC data server receives wedging directives from local and remote client applications and stores the wedging directives in the wedging grid. When data arrives from an ADC device, the ADC data server analyzes the data to determine its characteristics. The ADC data server compares the identified characteristics against the wedging directives stored in the wedging grid. The ADC data server then determines for which clients a match has been found. For those clients for which a match has been found, the ADC data server then performs the wedging directive in order to dispose properly of the received ADC data.

Automatic data collection device that dynamically wedges data transmitted to data consumers

A method and system for intelligently routing data received from an automatic data collection (&ldquo;ADC&rdquo;) device in an ADC device platform based on its type. A data routing mechanism operates on the data-receiving side of an ADC data server. After identifying the characteristics of the input data, the data routing mechanism determines the destination for the data based on the characteristics, then routes the data to the selected destination. For some types of data, the selected destination may be an intermediate destination where the data undergoes additional processing before being transmitted to another location, while for other types of data the selected destination may be the application that ultimately processes the data. For example, the data routing mechanism may receive a set of input data, analyze the data to determine that the data is voice data, and then route the data to a speech recognition module that processes voice data. ADC devices accommodated by the system include bar code readers, speech recognition systems, RF tag readers, resonator readers, and two-dimensional symbol readers optical character recognition (&ldquo;OCR&rdquo;) systems. The invention finds application within a network of ADC device platforms that receive requests for input data from both local and remote applications. Data may be communicated to remote users using any data protocol, including the Transmission Control Protocol (&ldquo;TCP&rdquo;), the User Datagram/Internet Protocol (&ldquo;UDP/IP&rdquo;) or the User Datagram Plus Protocol (&ldquo;UDP&plus;&rdquo;).

Automatic data collection device that intelligently switches data based on data type

A method and apparatus for processing the information in a sequence of bar code symbols. The information contained in one symbol can be decoded and processed while the information in the next symbol is being gathered. A pulse width counter, under control of a microprocessor, accumulates counts representing the widths of the elements of a bar code symbol and the accumulated counts are latched into a separate latch buffer which is then transferred into the microprocessor memory by a direct memory access controller. A program in the microprocessor operates on the information stored in the microprocessor memory to decode, process and output the data and/or commands contained within a given symbol as the pulse width counter is accumulating the counts that represent the next symbol to be read. If the input device is an automated scanner, the scanner's Start-of-Scan signal is used by the microprocessor to specify the beginning and end of each scan. If the input device is a wand, the microprocessor interprets an overflow of the pulse width counter as signifying the end of the wand scan.

Method and apparatus for scanning symbols

A method and system for the data entry of bar code data into computer programs that are designed to accept bar code data (reader application programs) and for the data entry of bar code data into computer programs that are not designed to accept bar code data (non-reader application programs) is provided. The bar code data is entered as a contiguous stream of characters, rather than one character at a time, so that lengthy bar code data strings will not be corrupted. Additionally, the method and system of the present invention provide for two-way communication between bar code-reading and processing services and a reader application program so that the reader application program may, among other things, reconfigure the bar code-reading reading and processing services.

Growing community of inventors

Lynnwood, WA, United States of America

Jon R Ramberg