Wireless diagnostic system for characterizing a vehicle's exhaust emissions

A method for characterizing a vehicle's emissions, comprising the steps of:

• wirelessly receiving data from a wireless network, the data representative of the vehicle's emissions as measured by at least one sensor disposed within the vehicle;
• analyzing the data with a computer to characterize the vehicle's emissions;
• displaying the results from the analysis on a web page on the World Wide Web or the Internet;
• wherein the vehicle is remote from any vehicle service center and any vehicle emissions test center;
• and
• wherein the displayed results from the analysis constitute the results of an emissions test defined by a regulatory body or government agency.

A method for characterizing a vehicle's emissions, comprising the steps of:

• generating data representative of the vehicle's emissions with at least one sensor disposed within the vehicle;
• transferring the data to a data collector/router disposed within the vehicle and comprising a wireless transmitter configured to transmit data over a wireless communications network;
• and
• wirelessly transmitting, with the wireless transmitter, to a host computer system, the data representing the vehicle's emissions, the host computer system configured to receive the data representing the vehicle's emissions, and to analyze the received data by comparing the data, or one or more parameters generated by processing the data, with at least one predetermined parameter.

A programmed apparatus, programmed to execute a method comprising the steps of:

• wirelessly receiving data from a wireless network, the data representative of a vehicle's emissions as measured by at least one sensor disposed within the vehicle;
• analyzing the data with a computer to characterize the vehicle's emissions;
• displaying the results from the analysis on a web page on the World Wide Web or the Internet;
• wherein the vehicle is remote from any vehicle service center and any vehicle emissions test center;
• and
• wherein the displayed results from the analysis constitute the results of an emissions test defined by a regulatory body or government agency.

A programmed apparatus, programmed to execute a method comprising the steps of:

• generating data representative of a vehicle's emissions with at least one sensor disposed within the vehicle;
• transferring the data to a data collector/router disposed within the vehicle and comprising a wireless transmitter configured to transmit data over a wireless communications network;
• wirelessly transmitting the data representing the vehicle's emissions with the wireless transmitter to a host computer system configured to analyze the data to determine the vehicle's emissions status;
• and
• wirelessly receiving, from the host computer system, information describing the vehicle's emissions status.

A machine-readable memory medium, containing program code, which when executed by a programmable apparatus, causes that apparatus to execute a method comprising the steps of:

• wirelessly receiving data from a wireless network, the data representative of a vehicle's emissions as measured by at least one sensor disposed within the vehicle;
• analyzing the data with a computer to characterize the vehicle's emissions;
• displaying the results from the analysis on a web page on the World Wide Web or the Internet;
• wherein the vehicle is remote from any vehicle service center and any vehicle emissions test center;
• and
• wherein the displayed results from the analysis constitute the results of an emissions test defined by a regulatory body or government agency.