Patent ID: 6807469
Filing Date: 2004-10-19
Classification: G07C

Abstract:
A vehicle monitoring and maintenance device capable of being connected to a diagnostic port of a vehicle, the monitoring and maintenance device comprisinga hand holdable data acquisition and transfer device including (a) a first data link connectable to a diagnostic port of a vehicle for retrieving diagnostic data from the vehicle; (b) a second data link connectable to a global computer network communicable device; and (c) a processor and memory unit capable of retrieving unprocessed diagnostic data containing error codes from the vehicle via the first data link, storing the unproccessed diagnostic data for a time period, and transferring the unprocessed data to the global computer network communicable device, through the second data link wherein the global computer network communicable device is capable of communicating, over a global computer network, with a server containing a processor and a database for processing the unprocessed diagnostic data into natural language diagnostic information, and wherein the hand holdable data acquisition and transfer device lacks sufficient data processing capability to fully process the unprocessed diagnostic data into human-useable diagnostic information.