Patent ID: 7325080

Claim:
A data collection system comprising: a controller that receives a bit string including a plurality of individual data of one or more input units; a transfer apparatus that receives target bit strings including the individual data from corresponding input/output units, creates the bit string from the target bit strings received, and transmits the bit string to the controller; and a plurality of the input/output units, each of which sends an input state to the transfer apparatus, the input state being included in the individual data, wherein the transfer apparatus includes a buffering unit that stores the bit string to be sent to the controller as data fragments; a creating unit that creates the data fragments without performing bit shift operation, by performing logical operations on the target bit strings received from the input/output units, and a transmitting unit that transmits the target bit strings received from the input/output units to the creating unit, and transmits template information to the respective input/output units, wherein the template information indicates an area where the individual data relative to the corresponding input/output unit is to be stored in the data fragments, and wherein each of the input/output units include a storing unit that stores the template information received from the transfer apparatus; and a generating unit that generates the target bit strings including the individual data corresponding to the input/output unit to be transmitted to the transfer apparatus, based on the input state and the template information stored.