Device for responding to state request on an open phone line
AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation
InventorsJerry Walter Malcolm, Nicholas James Noecker JR., Paul Stuart Williamson, Scott Lee Winters
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Provided is an apparatus and method for detecting a state of a device such as a meter or appliance and transmitting to a remote location a particular tone or tones corresponding to the detected state. The transmission is initiated either by a predetermined series of tones from the remote location to the apparatus or by changing conditions within the device. The claimed subject matter enables a service provider to detect a service outage, the scope of the outage and the resumption of service.
Claims28
A state detection and response apparatus, comprising:
- a communication interface for communicating via a communication link;
- a state detection unit for determining a state of a device coupled to the state detection and response apparatus;
- a tone detection unit for identifying a predetermined sequence of tones received via the communication interface;
- a logic unit coupled to the tone detection unit and the state detection unit for analyzing the state of the device and the predetermined sequence of tones;
- and
- a tone generation unit coupled to the logic unit for transmitting, via the communication interface, at least one tone of a plurality of tones, each tone corresponding to a particular analysis produced by the logic unit.
An electrical meter, comprising;
- a electrical service usage meter;
- and
- a state detection and response apparatus, the state detection and response apparatus comprising:
- a communication interface for communicating via a communication link;
- a state detection unit for determining a state of the electrical meter;
- a tone detection unit for identifying a predetermined sequence of tones received via the communication interface;
- a logic unit coupled to the tone detection unit and the state detection unit for analyzing the state of the electrical meter and the predetermined sequence of tones;
- and
- a tone generation unit coupled to the logic unit for transmitting, via the communication interface, at least one tone of a plurality of tones, each tone corresponding to a particular analysis produced by the logic unit.
A method of determining the state of a device, comprising the steps of:
- detecting a predetermined series of tones transmitted via a communication link;
- determining a state of a device in response to the detection of the predetermined series of tones;
- correlating the state of the device to at least one response tone;
- and
- transmitting, via the communication link, the at least one response tone.
A computer program product for determining the state of a device, comprising;
- means, stored on a recording medium, for detecting a predetermined series of tones transmitted via a communication link;
- means, stored on the recording medium, for determining a state of a device in response to the detection of the predetermined series of tones;
- means, stored on the recording medium, for correlating the state of the device to at least one response tone;
- and
- means, stored on the recording medium, for transmitting, via the communication link, the at least one response tone.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.