Patent ID: 7917914

Claim:
An event notification system for a network of devices, each of which is configured to perform a process related to a cycle of operation in an appliance and to communicate with other devices, the system comprising: a controller in at least one of the devices on the network, having software for performing the process; a memory in communication with the controller; a memory heap resident in the memory, and generated dynamically by the software, the memory heap comprising a plurality of event structures related to events in the process, wherein the events include at least one each of a pointer into memory external to the event structures to a location of a variable data value associated with the process, an operator associated with the variable data value on the network, and an argument associated with the operator; and a data acquisition engine in the software configured to look into the memory heap, evaluate event conditions as true or false based on the at least one each of the pointers, operators, and arguments, and to generate a notification message when a true condition is found, whereby the notification message exposes events over the network to facilitate performance of the process.