Fault-tolerant breath alcohol calibration station and method
AssigneeConsumer Safety Technology, LLC
InventorsDouglas Edward DeVries, Scott Ruland
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A breath alcohol device calibration system includes a computerized calibration module operable to calibrate a breath alcohol device, and an interface operable to couple the breath alcohol device to a remote server. The interface uses a connection employing a cryptographic function such that data stored on the breath alcohol device can be securely transferred from the breath alcohol device to the remote server using the calibration system. The interface is further operable to transfer data stored on the breath alcohol device from the breath alcohol device to the remote server directly without storing the data in nonvolatile storage on the calibration station.
Claims19
A method of operating a breath alcohol calibration system, comprising:
- connecting the breath alcohol calibration system to a breath alcohol device for calibration;
- downloading data stored on the breath alcohol device to a remote server through a connection between the remote server and the breath alcohol device using the calibration system;
- before calibrating the breath alcohol device, installing calibration firmware on the breath alcohol device;
- executing a calibration procedure comprising calibrating the breath alcohol device;
- after calibrating the breath alcohol device, installing operational firmware on the breath alcohol device;
- wherein the operational firmware is configured to determine a breath alcohol concentration of a user's breath sample and the determination of blood alcohol concentration allows a vehicle connected to the breath alcohol device to start if the breath alcohol concentration of the user is below a threshold;
- wherein the calibration firmware is configured to perform functions specific to calibrating an alcohol-sensing element of the breath alcohol device;
- and
- wherein the calibration firmware is not configured make the determination of blood alcohol concentration that allows the vehicle connected to the breath alcohol device to start if the breath alcohol concentration of the user is below the threshold.
A breath alcohol calibration system, comprising:
- a computerized calibration module comprising a controller, the calibration module operable to execute a calibration procedure to calibrate a breath alcohol device;
- an interface for a breath alcohol device to couple the breath alcohol device to the breath alcohol calibration system;
- wherein the calibration system is configured to:
- download data stored on the breath alcohol device to a remote server through a connection between the remote server and the breath alcohol device using the calibration system;
- before calibrating the breath alcohol device, install calibration firmware on the breath alcohol device;
- execute a calibration procedure comprising calibrating the breath alcohol device;
- and
- after calibrating the breath alcohol device, install operational firmware on the breath alcohol device;
- wherein the operational firmware is configured to determine a breath alcohol concentration of a user's breath sample and the determination of breath alcohol concentration allows a vehicle connected to the breath alcohol device to start if the breath alcohol concentration of the user's breath sample is below a threshold;
- wherein the calibration firmware is configured to perform functions specific to calibrating an ethanol-sensing element of the breath alcohol device;
- and
- wherein the calibration firmware is not configured make the determination of blood alcohol concentration to allow the vehicle connected to the breath alcohol device to start if the breath alcohol concentration of the user's breath sample is below the threshold.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.