Electronic message delivery system utilizable in the monitoring of remote equipment and method of same

A system for monitoring remote equipment, comprising:

• a sensor in local communication with a piece of remote equipment, said sensor detecting a state of at least one parameter of the piece of remote equipment;
• an interface unit, locally connected to said sensor, said interface unit having a message generating mechanism;
• and
• a computer server in remote communication with said interface unit, said server adapted to receive messages generated by said interface unit, said computer server having a user interface, a user being capable of remotely accessing said computer server via said user interface to remotely configure a user-defined message profile containing outgoing message routing instructions,
• wherein when said sensor detects an exception condition in the piece of remote equipment, said interface unit generates an incoming exception message indicative of the exception condition and forwards said message to said server,
• and wherein said server forwards at least one outgoing exception message to at least one predetermined user-defined remote communication device based on said incoming exception message as specified in said user-defined message profile.

A method for monitoring remote equipment comprising the steps of:

• a) determining a state of at least one parameter of at least one piece of the remote equipment;
• b) communicating a message indicative of the state to a computer server as an incoming message, the incoming message having a respective incoming format;
• c) normalizing the incoming message to form a corresponding normalized message having a predetermined uniform format;
• d) storing the normalized message in a normalized message database on the computer server;
• e) determining from the incoming message whether at least one exception message related to the incoming message is to be sent to at least one remote communication device specified by a plurality of message profiles stored at the computer server;
• f) if it is determined in step e) that at least one exception message related to the incoming message is to be sent, deriving the at least one exception message from the stored normalized message corresponding to the related incoming message and the message profiles, the at least one exception message derived thereby having a respective format suitable for reception by the at least one remote communication device to which the at least one exception message is to be sent;
• and
• g) sending the at least one exception message derived in step f) to the at least one remote communication device specified by the message profiles,
• wherein the message profiles may be created or modified at least in part by a user by remote access of the computer server.

A system for monitoring remote equipment, comprising:

• a sensor in communication with a piece of the remote equipment for detecting the state of at least one parameter thereof;
• an interface unit, coupled to said sensor, said interface unit having a message generating mechanism for generating messages indicative of the state of the at least one parameter of the piece of the remote equipment;
• and
• a computer server in communication with said interface unit, said server comprising:
• a message interface for receiving messages generated by said interface unit;
• a message normalizer for normalizing each one of the messages received from the interface unit to form corresponding normalized messages having a predetermined uniform format;
• a normalized message database for storing normalized messages, including normalized messages from the message normalizer;
• a message profile database for storing a plurality of message profiles;
• a message processor for determining from each one of the messages received from the interface unit whether at least one exception message related to the received message is to be sent to at least one remote communication device specified by the message profiles;
• an exception message generator for deriving the at least one exception message determined to be sent by the message processor to the at least one remote communication device, the at least one exception message being derived from a normalized message corresponding to the related message received from the interface unit and the message profiles, the at least one exception message derived thereby having at least one respective format suitable for reception by the at least one remote communication device to which the at least one exception message is to be sent;
• a message interface for sending the at least one exception message derived by the exception message generator to the at least one remote communication device specified by the message profiles;
• and
• a user interface for enabling a user at a remote location to create or modify at least a portion of the message profiles in the message profile database,
• wherein when said sensor detects an exception condition in the piece of remote equipment, said interface unit generates an incoming message indicative of the exception condition and forwards said message to said server.