Patent ID: 7340379
Filing Date: 2008-03-04
Classification: G06Q

Abstract:
1. A scalable monitoring system for monitoring at least one receptacle array that includes a plurality of receptacles, the system comprising: a scalable acquisition platform communicatively coupled with the plurality of receptacles, the acquisition platform having a configurable architecture comprising: a plurality of sensors of at least one type, each sensor configured to monitor at least a presence of selectively-definable subject material within a corresponding at least one of the plurality of receptacles, wherein the plurality of sensors communicate with the scalable acquisition platform via the secondary node set; a system database that maintains database records of information related to each receptacle of the plurality of receptacles including at least state information of the presence of the subject material; and a dynamic system configuration definition that associates at least one of the plurality of sensors with at least one of the database records, and that associates the at least one primary node of the at least one primary communication channel with a selected at least one secondary node of the at least one secondary communication channel; wherein the scalable acquisition platform utilizes the dynamic system configuration definition to enable the scalable monitoring system to be selectively configured to accommodate a variety of receptacle array configurations with addition or removal of sensors, with addition or removal of communication channels, with adjustment of communication channel node associations or sensor-communication node associations, or with adjustment of sensor-database record associations.