EP0748080A1 Expired / Lapsed EP ⏱️ 0.0 years remaining

Asset tracking data reduction and dissemination service

Assignee: General Electric Co

•

Filing: 1996-05-29

•

Granted: —

•

Expires: 2016-05-29

📄 Original PDF 🌐 Google Patents 🔄 Sync Now

Abstract

Abstract A data reduction, processing and dissemination system provides selected data collected from tracked assets to customers according to specified requirements. The location of a tracked asset is determined using a GPS receiver and a satellite transceiver in tracking units affixed to the assets being tracked. The tracking units are formed into a local area network of tracking units. Each tracking unit is identified by a unique identification (ID) and includes various sensors which monitor environmental conditions. Within the network, one tracking unit is selected to act as a master and the remaining tracking units function as slaves. The slave tracking units periodically transmit their respective IDs together with sensor data and battery condition to the master tracking unit. The master tracking unit, in turn, maintains a list of IDs of the slave tracking units in the network and collects the data transmitted to it by the slave tracking units. Periodically, the master tracking unit transmits to a central station a frame of data identifying all tracking units in its network together with environmental and battery data collected from the tracking units. All the data are collected and processed at the central station. The data are processed for specific customers and may take the form of textual reports, exception reporting, graphical display, etc. Data are disseminated via various telecommunications carriers, as specified by the customers.

Inventors

👤 Kenneth Brakeley Welles Ii
👤 John Erik Hershey

Bibliographic Details

Application Number —

Jurisdiction EP

Data Source google_patents

Last Synchronized 2026-11-02 23:32

CPC Classifications

G; G08; G08G; G08G1/00; G08G1/123; G08G1/127; G01; G01S; G01S19/00; G01S19/01; G01S19/13; G01S19/14; G01S5/00; G01S5/0009; G01S5/0018; G01S5/0027; G06; G06Q; G06Q10/00; G06Q10/08; G06Q10/087; G06Q10/0877

Claims Analysis

Total Claims: 4

Claim 1

Independent Claim 191 words

A tracking system for assets subject to movement, said system including a central station and comprising: a plurality of tracking units, each of said tracking units being affixed to a respective asset to be tracked and adapted to communicate identification (ID), location and condition data to said central station; a data processing facility at said central station for receiving ID, location and condition data from each of said tracking units, and for maintaining a first database of said ID, location and condition data; requirements input means for receiving from each of a plurality of customers tracking data, report format and timing, and telecommunication service for reporting data specified by each of the customers, said data processing facility being adapted to maintain a second database defining a customer profile with the requirements data specific for each of the customers and to use said second database to select data from said first database and to format the selected data for transmission to the customers; and a telecommunications system for receiving formatted data from said data processing facility and responsive to said data processing facility for transmitting formatted data to each of said customers.

Claim 2

Dependent Claim 51 words

The asset tracking system of claim 1 and further comprising a satellite communication link for relaying communications between said tracking units and the data processing facility at said central station, said data processing facility being adapted to calculate satellite orbital dynamics data which are correlated to data in said first database.

Claim 3

Independent Claim 207 words

A method of collecting, reducing, processing, and disseminating asset tracking data to customers in an asset tracking system, comprising the steps of: affixing a tracking unit to a respect one of assets to be tracked, each of said tracking units being adapted to sense location and environmental conditions and to transmit data including tracking unit identification (ID), location and environmental conditions to a central station; receiving, at the central station, the ID, location and environment conditions data transmitted by the tracking units of the asset tracking system; maintaining in a data processing facility a first database of received data from the tracking units; receiving from each of a plurality of customers, tracking data, report format and timing, and telecommunication service for reporting data specified by said each of a plurality of the customers; maintaining in said data processing facility a second database defining a customer profile with the requirements for each of the customers; using said second database to select data from said first database and to format the selected data for transmission to the customers by the data processing facility; and receiving formatted data from said data processing facility and transmitting said formatted data to each of said customers according to a prescribed time or condition.

Claim 4

Dependent Claim 72 words

The method of collecting, reducing, processing, and disseminating asset tracking data to customers in an asset tracking system as recited in claim 3 and further comprising the steps of: relaying communications between each of said tracking units and the data processing facility at said central station through a satellite communication link; and calculating at said data processing facility, satellite orbital dynamics data which are correlated to data stored in said first database.

References Cited (Backward Citations)

US4750197A Cited

US4897642A Cited

US5355511A Cited

WO1994015413A1 Cited

EP0697670A1 Cited

USPTO Annuity & Maintenance Windows

Maintenance schedule is calculated for granted US utility patents.

Assigned Categories & Tags

No categories assigned to this patent yet.

Assign Category Tag

Select Category

Notes (Optional)