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

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.