Data processing: measuring – calibrating – or testing – Measurement system – Time duration or rate
Patent
1996-12-16
1999-05-11
Barlow, John
Data processing: measuring, calibrating, or testing
Measurement system
Time duration or rate
702182, 36446815, 36452831, G06F7/00
Patent
active
059038560
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
DESCRIPTION
The present invention relates to the area of monitoring the transit time of transported articles.
So-called transit time testing devices are typically used to check the transit time of mail consignments; these devices are shipped along with the mail consignments to be transported, and include apparatuses that register the course of movement of the consignments. The known apparatuses of this type include a movement sensor that registers the movement over the entire shipping time of the consignment. Forces that occur during transport act on the sensor, whose measured values are stored in a movement-time diagram. If the consignment is not moving, that is, no transport is taking place, no recording is effected, either. With these apparatuses, it can be determined whether, following transport lasting several hours, for example, the consignment has not moved at all in several days in an unacceptable manner.
The movement-time diagram recorded by the transit time testing device can be evaluated in a central location, and it is possible to localize possible stops in the delivery or shipping by using a nominal/actual comparison, because the transport paths and transit times are known for a standard case. A transit time monitoring device is also already known which has a memory for collecting the measured values, and evaluation electronics, and in which the movement sensor, the memory for the measured values and the evaluation electronics are disposed on a partially-flexible base and corresponding in thickness to the standard letter thickness, .mu. 5 mm. This transit time monitoring device is configured such that it can be processed in letter-sorting machines and is not rejected in the processing machines in the post offices.
A method and apparatus for monitoring the impact stress of transported of Mar. 9, 1979, pages 60-62. This apparatus has an acceleration sensor, whose measured values are supplied in stored form to an evaluation device. In the process, the signals of the three components x, y and z are integrated. The integrated values are stored in a memory. The auxiliary values are digitized.
The known apparatuses have the drawback that they only permit detection of the status of movement and rest, without offering a more precise distinction between the types of movement or transport means used that actually occur in a state of movement.
It is the object of the invention to disclose an apparatus and a method for monitoring the transit time of transported articles, with which apparatus and method the transport means, transport events and types of movement occurring during shipping time can be identified.
In accordance with the invention, this object is accomplished by the features of claims 1 and 14. Advantageous embodiments of the invention ensue from the description and the dependent claims.
In accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention, in a monitoring device having a movement sensor whose measured values are stored and supplied to an evaluation device, measured values of the sensor are each digitized with a predetermined cycle length T, and a predetermined number k of frequency spectra are determined from a predetermined number of N measured values, whereupon an integration of the k frequency spectra is effected and the integrated frequency spectra are stored in a memory.
The invention can also be embodied to include the use of a narrow-band band-pass filter for determining the frequency spectra.
In particular, the invention permits an energy-saving and memory-space-saving evaluation of the measured sensor values.
An adaptation of the sensitivity of the method to the movement energy is made possible in that the number k of frequency spectra over which integration takes place is reduced with increasing movement energy.
In a preferred embodiment of the invention, a frequency spectrum is only calculated if the movement energy is greater than a predetermined minimum movement energy s.sub.m, which can be effected in a particularly energy-saving manner.
An especially simple measure for th
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patent: 5065322 (1991-11-01), Mazur et al.
patent: 5502656 (1996-03-01), Fulcher et al.
"Begleitschutz fur wertvolle Guter". In: Markt & Technik, No. 10, Mar. 9, 1979.
Barlow John
Bui Bryan
Siemens Aktiengesellschaft
Spencer George H
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