Open AccessSmartShelf{trademark}: Report of activities for fiscal year 1996
Author(s) -
Z Bell,
Rebecca Lawson,
Cary D. Long
Publication year - 1996
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Reports
DOI - 10.2172/446377
Subject(s) - container (type theory) , computer science , software , trademark , database transaction , download , operating system , embedded system , computer hardware , database , engineering , mechanical engineering
The SmartShelf{trademark} system is designated to maintain an up-to-the-minute inventory of containers or other assets. Through the use of Dallas Semiconductor touch memory devices affixed to containers and entrusted to authorized operators, the system can determine which operator added or removed which container and when the transaction occurred. Through the use of a PC-based data base system, reports of the current status of all containers and nodes can be generated in minutes. This report covers activities on the SmartShelf{trademark} project for the period 1 October 1995 through 30 September 1996. During this year, project team members have advanced the state of the hardware and software from rough prototypes to a working system ready for field trials.The project team has developed an intimate working knowledge of the hardware and software, and has become expert at implementations of Dallas Semiconductor touch memory devices. System hardware includes a desktop PC running LabView and Microsoft Access, and an STD-bus 8086 computer to monitor container storage locations (nodes). The STD-bus computer monitors up to 128 nodes, and responds to operator actions (adding or removing containers) within 10 seconds. The PC uses LabView software to query the STD-bus machine to obtain records of transactions, and to download configuration information. Microsoft Access is used to store the transactions and configuration data in a user-accessible form