Patent Application
20160027331
The present invention relates to a method for providing a mobile device with report data of a measurement apparatus, and in particular to a training method for providing a mobile device of a lecturer with report data of a measurement apparatus operated by a technician to be trained by the lecturer.
As the complexity of measurement apparatuses increases, it becomes difficult to check the performance of the measurement apparatus or measurement devices during operation and/or the performance of technicians handling the measurement apparatuses. For instance, in a production line comprising a plurality of measurement devices handled by different technicians, it is difficult for a supervising person to check the performance of the measurement devices. For such a supervising person, it is difficult to allocate the measurement devices within the production facility and to associate received report data with measurement apparatuses in the production facility. The supervising technician has first to find a measurement apparatus within the location of the production facility, read measurement data results, and forward the read-out measurement results via an interface of the measurement apparatus. The supervisory technician has to locate the measurement apparatus and to set up a data connection for loading measurement results or report data from the identified measurement apparatus. This is very cumbersome for the supervisory technician and prone to faults, because the supervisory technician may confuse measurement devices when reading a plurality of measurement devices within a production facility.
Since the complexity of measurement devices increases and requires training, technicians or users working in a production facility or research laboratory undergo training by a trainer or lecturer in a training facility or in a laboratory. For training purposes, the measurement apparatus is connected to a measurement setup and the technician to be trained operates the measurement apparatus via a user interface to perform test measurements. The test measurement generates test measurement results such as signal diagrams or tables of measurement parameters. Accordingly, the lecturer or trainer gets a report from the trained technician showing his measurement results in a text document. This conventional way of teaching trainees is also cumbersome for the lecturer and does not allow report data provided by different technicians to be compared with each other automatically. Furthermore, it is difficult for the lecturer to identify, whether each technician has provided him with a specific report text document.
Consequently, there is a need to provide a more comfortable but nevertheless reliable way for providing a supervising person with report data of a measurement apparatus.
The present invention provides a method and apparatus for supplying a mobile device with report data, in particular a training system for training technicians to handle a measurement apparatus.
Specifically, according to a first aspect of the present invention, a stationary measurement apparatus is provided for providing a mobile device with report data transmitted automatically via at least one wireless link from the measurement apparatus to the mobile device, if it is detected that the mobile device is in the vicinity of the stationary measurement apparatus.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, a mobile device is provided, said mobile device comprising a wireless transceiver adapted to receive via at least one wireless link report data transmitted automatically by a stationary measurement apparatus to the mobile device upon detection of the presence of the mobile device in the vicinity of the measurement apparatus.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, a method, in particular a training method, for providing a mobile device with report data of a measurement apparatus is provided, the method comprising: detecting the presence of the mobile device within the vicinity of the stationary measurement apparatus, and transmitting automatically report data via at least one wireless link from the stationary measurement apparatus to the mobile device upon detection of the presence of the mobile device within a predetermined radius.
According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, a training system for training technicians to handle a measurement apparatus is provided, wherein each technician has an associated measurement apparatus to perform measurements during training, wherein said measurement apparatus is configured to trigger a wireless transceiver of the measurement apparatus to transmit automatically report data related to the performed training via at least one wireless link to the mobile device of a lecturer if the presence of the lecturer's mobile device in the vicinity of the measurement apparatus is detected.
According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, a computer readable program product is provided, the computer readable program product comprising instructions which, when executed on a programmable circuit, detect the presence of a mobile device within the vicinity of a stationary measurement apparatus and transmit automatically report data via at least one wireless link from the stationary measurement apparatus to the mobile device upon detection of the presence of the mobile device within the vicinity of the measurement apparatus. In one embodiment, the computer readable program product includes one or more non-transitory computer readable media on which the instructions are stored.
An idea underlying the present invention is the use of a simple mobile device such as a smartphone to receive automatically report data from a complex stationary measurement apparatus of measurement equipment such as an oscilloscope, a signal generator, a signal analyzer, a network analyzer and/or a testing device. With the present invention, it is possible to facilitate the evaluation of report data received from a plurality of measurement devices within a production facility and/or research facility to improve the training of technicians handling these measurement devices in such a facility.
Specific embodiments of the different aspects of the present invention are set forth in the dependent claims.
These and other aspects of the present invention will be apparent from and elucidated with reference to the embodiments described hereinafter.
For a more complete understanding of the present invention and advantages thereof, reference is now made to the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. Different aspects of the present invention are explained in more detail below using exemplary embodiments which are specified in the schematic figures in which:
In the figures, the drawing elements, features and signals which are the same or at least have the same functionality have been provided with the same reference symbols, unless explicitly stated otherwise.
The stationary measurement apparatus 2 comprises in a possible embodiment proximity detection unit 5 which can be integrated in a wireless transceiver 6 of the measurement apparatus 2 as illustrated in
In a possible embodiment, the measurement apparatus 2 can also comprise a WiFi proximity detection unit and/or a WiFi wireless transceiver. The received bidirectional wireless link 9 between the wireless transceiver 7 of the mobile device 1 and the wireless transceiver 6 of the measurement apparatus 2 can in a possible embodiment be symmetrically providing similar bandwidth in both directions. In a possible embodiment, the bidirectional wireless link 9 between the wireless transceiver 7 and the wireless transceiver 6 of the measurement apparatus is asymmetric providing more bandwidth for transmitting data from the measurement apparatus 2 to the mobile device 1 than for transmitting data from the mobile device 1 to the measurement apparatus 2. This embodiment has the advantage that extensive report data stored in the data memory 8 can be transmitted with a high bandwidth from the wireless transceiver 6 to the measurement apparatus 2 to the wireless transceiver 7 of the mobile device 1 while only a small bandwidth is required for transmitting signals such as a request signal sent from the wireless transceiver 7 via the wireless link 9 to the wireless transceiver 6 of the measurement apparatus 2. In a possible embodiment, the mobile device 1 has a master Bluetooth device which can communicate with seven slave devices formed by a measurement apparatus 2 in a piconet. In a possible embodiment, the master Bluetooth device can choose each slave to address. In a possible embodiment, the master Bluetooth device can switch from one slave device to another slave device in a round-robin fashion.
The presence of a wireless communication can be detected in different ways. In a possible embodiment, the proximity detection unit 5 is adapted to process various complex modulation schemes which are used by the different wireless standards to determine a WiFi device or Bluetooth device being in the vicinity of the proximity detection unit 5. In this embodiment, the proximity detection unit 5 is adapted to distinguish between the presence of a WiFi device and the presence of a Bluetooth device, even though they reside in the same frequency band.
In an alternative embodiment, the proximity detection unit 5 filters the signals in a predetermined frequency spectrum range and measures the power received by its antenna. If the received power is above a threshold value, the proximity detection unit 5 detects that there is some type of wireless communication going on in the respective frequency band. In this embodiment, the proximity detection unit 5 cannot distinguish between WiFi, Bluetooth or any other wireless communication. However, this embodiment has the advantage that the processing delay times are minimized. In a possible embodiment, the proximity detection unit 5 comprises a separate antenna connected to a band-pass filter BPF filtering signals in a predetermined frequency range, for instance in the 2.45 Gigahertz range, wherein the filtered signal is provided to a low-noise amplifier LNA which supplies the amplified signal to a power signal detector of the proximity detection unit 5.
The presence of the mobile device 1 in the vicinity of the measurement apparatus 2 can be detected by the proximity detection unit 5 in different ways. In a possible embodiment, the presence of the mobile device 1 is detected by evaluating a radio signal strength RSS of a specific radio signal received by the proximity detection unit 5 of the measurement apparatus 2 from the mobile device 1. This radio signal strength RSS technique is based on the propagation decay of a transmitted radio signal. The radio signal decays as it propagates through a medium.
In an alternative embodiment, the presence of the mobile device 1 in the vicinity of the measurement apparatus 2 is detected by evaluating a time of arrival TOA of a specific radio signal received by the proximity detection unit 5 of the measurement apparatus 2 from the mobile device 1. The TOA technique can be used when the transmitter and receiver time is synchronized. A sending time can be stamped on the same signal or an auxiliary signal transmitted at the same time. In this embodiment, when the mobile device 1 and the measurement apparatus 2 are synchronized, the propagation time of the signal can be calculated by subtracting the sending time of the signal from the arrival time.
In a still further possible alternative embodiment, the presence of the mobile device 1 is detected by evaluating a round trip time of flight of a specific radio signal transmitted by the proximity detection unit 5 of the measurement apparatus 2 and returned back to the proximity detection unit 5 of the measurement apparatus 2. In this embodiment, the transmitting device emits a signal to get it back from the other transceiver.
In a possible embodiment, the mobile device 1 of the lecturer L is not only able to receive report data RD from the different measurement apparatuses 2-i, but also to provide measurement apparatus initial settings for the measurement setup to simulate a specific test situation. For instance, the lecturer L can set a measurement parameter of the measurement apparatus 2 in an unallowed parameter range to see, whether the technician T can handle this problem. The measurements can be performed in a training session which can be influenced in a possible embodiment by the lecturer L by changing the training situation and/or test setup 3.
In a first step S1, the presence of the mobile device 1 within the vicinity of the stationary measurement apparatus 2 can be detected, for instance by a proximity detection unit 5 of the measurement apparatus 2.
In a further step S2, report data RD is automatically transmitted via at least one wireless link from the stationary measurement apparatus 2 to the mobile device 1 upon detection of the presence of the mobile device 1 within the vicinity of the measurement apparatus 2.
In a further possible embodiment, after proximity detection, the measurement apparatus 2 further waits to receive a request signal REQ from the mobile device 1 before pushing report data RD via at least one wireless link 9 to the mobile device 1. Further, the mobile device 1 can return in the shown embodiment an acknowledgement signal ACK after successful transmission of the report data RD. In the embodiment shown in
In an alternative embodiment, the measurement apparatus 2 does not receive an explicit request signal, but detects a request on the basis of a specific detected tracked movement of the mobile device 1. In a possible embodiment, the proximity detection unit 5 of the measurement apparatus 2 is configured to track a movement of the mobile device 1 upon detection of its presence in the vicinity of the measurement apparatus 2. In this embodiment, the proximity detection unit 5 can detect a specific movement of the mobile device 1 to recognize that transmission of the report data RD is requested by the user of the mobile device 1. For example, the user of the mobile device 1 can turn his mobile device 1 around 360° so that the rotation of the mobile device 1 is recognized by the proximity detection unit 5 tracking the movement of the mobile device 1 so that the recognized movement pattern triggers automatically the transmission of the stored report data RD to the mobile device 1. In another possible embodiment, the mobile device 1 may comprise a sensor which is adapted to recognize a specific movement of the mobile device 1 to generate a corresponding request signal which is transmitted by a transceiver of the mobile device 1 to the transceiver of the measurement apparatus 2 triggering the transmission of the report data RD. In these embodiments, the user of the mobile device 1 such as a professor or lecturer L does not have to input any data into the user interface of the mobile device 1 for getting the report data RD from the measurement apparatus 2. In this embodiment, the lecturer L carries his mobile device 1 into the vicinity of the measurement apparatus 2 so that the presence of the mobile device 1 is detected and then performs a predetermined movement or movement pattern of the mobile device 1 which can be recognized by the measurement apparatus 2 to trigger the automatic transmission of the report data RD to the mobile device 1.
In a possible embodiment of the method according to the present invention, the measurement apparatus 2 comprises an encryption unit encrypting the report data RD for transmitting the report data to the mobile device 1. In this embodiment, the mobile device 1 comprises a decryption unit decrypting the received encrypted report data and then storing the received report data and/or processing the received decrypted report data.
In a possible embodiment, the detection range of the proximity detection unit 5 of the measurement apparatus 2 can be adjusted. In a possible embodiment, the detection range of the proximity detection unit 5 is less than 20 cm. After having detected the presence of the mobile device 1, for instance by NFC communication, a switchover to another wireless transmission protocol can be performed having a higher range such as Bluetooth with a transmission range of about 100 m. In this embodiment, a lecturer L after having tapped on the NFC device of the proximity detection unit 5 to indicate the presence of his mobile device 1 may walk on to the next technician T and receive report data of the first technician during walking to the next measurement apparatus 2 of the next technician to be trained. Accordingly, the supervisory person such as the lecturer L does not have to wait in the vicinity of the measurement apparatus 2 after the proximity detection has been accomplished but receives the report data RD because of the increased transmission range over a wireless communication protocol having a higher range. NFC has a lower transfer rate than Bluetooth. By using NFC instead of performing manual configurations to identify devices, the connection between two NFC devices is automatically established in less than tenths of a second. A maximum data transfer rate of NFC (724 kbps) is however slower than that of Bluetooth, e.g. 2.1 Mbps. With a maximum working distance of less than 20 cm, NFC has a shorter range which reduces the likelihood of unwanted interception.
The transmission of report data via RD the wireless link 9 can be performed in different ways. In a possible embodiment, the report data RD is transmitted in data packets according to a predetermined wireless transmission protocol. In an alternative embodiment, the report data can also be transferred in predetermined time slots. In a possible embodiment, the proximity detection unit 5 is configured to track the movement of the mobile device 1, i.e. whether it is moving away from the measurement apparatus 2 or comes closer or standing idle. When the distance is deemed within a certain radius R as well as being constant for a predetermined time frame, the measurement apparatus 2 can automatically push the report data RD preconfigured on the measurement apparatus 2 such as an instrument setup, measurement results or more comprehensive reports to be transmitted over to the wireless transceiver 7 of the mobile device 1. In a possible embodiment, the report data RD is pushed by the measurement apparatus 2 to the mobile device 1. In an alternative embodiment, the report data can also be pulled by the mobile device 1 from the measurement apparatus 2.
In the foregoing specification, the invention has been described with reference to specific examples of the embodiments of the invention. It will, however, be evident that various notifications and changes may be made therein without departing from the broader spirit and scope of the present invention as set forth in the appended claims. For example, the connections may be a type of connections suitable to transfer signals from or to the respective nodes, units or devices, for example via intermediate devices. Accordingly, unless implied or stated otherwise, the connections may be for example be direct connections or indirect connections.
For the devices implemented in the present invention are for the most part composed of electronic components and circuits known for those skilled in the art, details of the circuitry and its components will not be explained in any greater extent than that considered necessary as illustrated above, for the understanding and appreciation of the underlying concept of the present invention and in order not to obfuscate or distract from the teachings of the present invention.
Moreover, the present invention is not limited to physical devices or units implemented in non-programmable hardware but can also be applied in programmable devices or units able to perform the desired device functions or operating in accordance with suitable program code. Furthermore, the devices may be physically distributed over a number of apparatuses, or they are functionally operating as a single device. Devices and functions forming separate devices may be integrated in a single physical device.
In the description, any reference signs shall not be construed as limiting the claims. The term “comprising” does not exclude the presence of other elements or steps listed in the claim. Furthermore, the terms “a” or “an” as used herein are defined as one or more than one. Also, the use of introductory phrases such as “at least one” and “one or more” in the claims should not be construed to imply that the introduction of another claim element by the indefinite articles “a” or “an” limiting any particular claim containing such introduced claim element to inventions containing only one such element. The same holds true for the use of definite articles. Unless stated otherwise, terms such as “first” and “second” are used to arbitrarily distinguish between the elements such terms describe. The mere fact that certain measures are recited in different claims does not indicate that a combination of these measures cannot be used to advantage. The order of method steps presented in a claim does not prejudice the order in which the steps can actually be carried out, unless specifically recited in the claim.
The skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily drawn to scale. For example, the chosen elements are only used to help to improve the understanding of the functionality and the arrangements of these elements in various embodiments of the present invention. Also, common but well-understood elements that are useful or necessary in a commercial and feasible embodiment are mostly not depicted in order to facilitate a less abstracted view of these various embodiments of the present invention.
