Patent ID: 7779575

Claim:
An electric pulse counter employing a field server, the field server comprising: an environment measuring unit for measuring environmental factors in an agricultural region; an interface unit for interfacing with the environment measuring unit; a central controller comprising a microcomputer for reading measurements from the environment measuring unit via the interface unit; a storage unit for storing the measurements; a Web server for communication with an administrative computer; a wireless LAN transceiver utilized for the communication between the Web server and the administrative computer; and a solar cell or commercial power supply input terminal utilized for supplying power to each component of the field server; wherein the electric pulse counter comprises: an insect electrocutor having electrodes to which a high voltage is applied and adapted to be provided in an agricultural region for attracting insects present in the agricultural region between the electrodes, and for killing the insects with sparks generated by electrical discharge between the electrodes when the insects enter a gap between the electrodes; an electromagnetic detection coil disposed near the insect electrocutor for detecting an electromagnetic field radiated by the spark produced from electrical discharge; and an AC signal converter circuit connected to a lead wire of the electromagnetic detection coil for amplifying a high-frequency voltage produced by excitation in the electromagnetic field detection coil, producing a count pulse by converting the high-frequency voltage to a digital signal and filtering noise therefrom, and outputting the count pulse to the interface unit of the field server; and wherein the central controller comprises: count pulse number storing means for reading an output signal from the AC signal converter circuit converted to the count pulse via the interface unit beginning from a prescribed accumulation start time and recording the number of count pulses within a prescribed interval in the storage unit for each interval; count pulse data transmitting means for transmitting an accumulated value of count pulses and starting and ending times of the prescribed interval stored in the storage unit when a count pulse transmission request command is received from the administrative computer via the Web server in the field server; and count pulse resetting means for resetting the accumulated value of count pulses stored in the storage unit to zero and recording a new accumulation start time in the storage unit when a count pulse reset command is received from the administrative computer.