Patent ID: 7899070

Claim:
A system that controls operational parameters and/or monitors one or more characteristics of a process (hereinafter referred to as “process control”) employed in a factory and/or facility (hereinafter referred to as a “plant”) by the manufacturing, service, environmental or other industry, comprising A. a plurality of control/sensing devices that monitor and/or control a plant process, B. a server digital data processor that is coupled to the plurality of control/sensing devices and that provides an interface for communicating with them, C. a digital data processor coupled to the plurality of control/sensing devices via the server digital data processor, the digital data processor executing a program that configures the digital data processor as a controller for the plant process for monitoring and/or controlling the one or more control/sensing devices, the program comprising any of (i) a JAVA applet, (ii) an intermediate language program, (iii) a byte code program, (iv) a downloaded program that executes in a virtual machine environment, (v) a program that executes in a web browser, D. the server digital data processor responding to a request for a data value that controls and/or reflects the status of at least one of the plurality of control/sensing devices by transmitting to the digital data processor a keyword followed by that data value, and transmitting one or more subsequent changes thereto.