System for collecting and presenting real-time weather information on multiple media

Claim 1

A system for detecting weather conditions at multiple sites and reporting those conditions in real time via multiple interactive voice messages comprising: a. multiple weather stations, each comprising: (1) one or more weather instruments, each capable of sensing a particular weather parameter, and converting said sensed weather parameter into an analog electrical signal; (2) converters for converting the analog signal from each said instrument into a series of digital electrical signals corresponding to the values of the sensed weather parameter over time; b. one or more base computers programmed to (1) receive digital signals in real time encoding weather data collected at a particular weather station; (2) store and retrieve said digital signals to and from local data storage; (3) communicate weather data with a centralized server database; c. a server database computer programmed to (1) receive digital data from said base computers in real-time encoding weather data collected at a particular weather station; (2) store and retrieve said digital signals to and from data storage; (3) transmit selected real-time weather data in response to requests received over a network; d. a telephone driver unit for (1) retrieving real-time weather data for selected weather station sites from one of said base computer's local storage; (2) presenting voice menu options to a telephone user; (3) encoding said real-time data into voice messages and playing said voice message to callers in response to caller input.

Claim 2

A system for detecting weather conditions at multiple sites and reporting those conditions in real time via multiple interactive voice messages comprising: a. multiple weather stations, each comprising: (1) one or more weather instruments, each capable of sensing a particular weather parameter, and converting said sensed weather parameter into an analog electrical signal; (2) converters for converting the analog signal from each said instrument into a series of digital electrical signals corresponding to the values of the sensed weather parameter over time; b. one or more base computers programmed to (1) receive digital signals in real time encoding weather data collected at a particular weather station; (2) store and retrieve said digital signals to and from local data storage; (3) communicate weather data with a centralized server database; c. a server database computer programmed to (1) receive digital data from said base computers in real-time encoding weather data collected at a particular weather station; (2) store and retrieve said digital signals to and from data storage; (3) transmit selected real-time weather data in response to requests received over a network; d. a telephone driver unit for (1) retrieving real-time weather data for selected weather station sites from one of said base computer's local storage; (2) presenting voice menu options to a telephone user; (3) encoding said real-time data into voice messages and playing said voice message to callers in response to caller input.

Claim 9

A system for collecting real-time weather information from a plurality of sites and making said information available to a plurality of users in a plurality of different formats comprising: a plurality of remote weather stations, each of said remote weather stations capable of collecting weather data from a plurality of weather-sensing devices and of communicating said weather data to a weather center module in real time; a plurality of weather center module computers capable of communicating with said remote weather stations for receiving real-time weather data collected by said weather stations and capable of communicating with one or more presentation modules for presenting said weather data to a user, said weather center modules transmitting summary data, on a real-time basis to a remote weather server database for use by other weather center modules and capable of retrieving data from said weather server database for remote weather sites when requested by a presentation module; a database server computer capable of receiving weather data from said base station computers and compiling said data into a real-time multisite multivariable database; and a presentation module computer capable of communicating with said database server through a weather center module and capable of presenting real-time data from said multisite multivariable real-time database in response to specific user requests as a series of voice messages.

Claim 10

A system for collecting real-time weather information from a plurality of sites and making said information available to a plurality of users in a plurality of different formats comprising: a plurality of remote weather stations, each of said remote weather stations capable of collecting weather data from a plurality of weather-sensing devices and of communicating said weather data to a weather center module in real time; a plurality of weather center module computers capable of communicating with said remote weather stations for receiving real-time weather data collected by said weather stations and capable of communicating with one or more presentation modules for presenting said weather data to a user, said weather center modules transmitting summary data, on a real-time basis to a remote weather server database for use by other weather center modules and capable of retrieving data from said weather server database for remote weather sites when requested by a presentation module; a database server computer capable of receiving weather data from said base station computers and compiling said data into a real-time multisite multivariable database; and a presentation module computer capable of communicating with said database server through a weather center module and capable of presenting real-time data from said multisite multivariable real-time database in response to specific user requests as a series of voice messages.

Claim 13

A system for presenting real-time weather conditions from multiple sites to users via multiple interactive voice messages comprising: a controller; a local database of real-time weather data collected from automated weather stations, said stations located at at least two geographically separate sites; and a telephone unit for: (1) presenting voice menu options to a telephone user; (2) retrieving real-time weather data from said local database in response to user input; and (3) encoding said real-time data into voice messages and playing said voice message to callers in response to caller input.

Claim 14

A system for presenting real-time weather conditions from multiple sites to users via multiple interactive voice messages comprising: a controller; a local database of real-time weather data collected from automated weather stations, said stations located at at least two geographically separate sites; and a telephone unit for: (1) presenting voice menu options to a telephone user; (2) retrieving real-time weather data from said local database in response to user input; and (3) encoding said real-time data into voice messages and playing said voice message to callers in response to caller input.

Claim 18

A method for collecting and presenting weather data comprising collecting weather data at a plurality of remote weather station sites; transferring said weather data to a plurality of station base computers capable of compiling, indexing, and storing said weather data into a multisite database; sending weather data from said plurality of station base computers to a central real-time weather database computer capable of accepting said data; accessing said station base computers with a plurality of independent presentation drivers, said drivers able to present weather data in a variety of different formats.

Claim 19

A method for collecting and presenting weather data comprising collecting weather data at a plurality of remote weather station sites; transferring said weather data to a plurality of station base computers capable of compiling, indexing, and storing said weather data into a multisite database; sending weather data from said plurality of station base computers to a central real-time weather database computer capable of accepting said data; accessing said station base computers with a plurality of independent presentation drivers, said drivers able to present weather data in a variety of different formats.