Datria Receives Two Additional Patents

ENGLEWOOD , CO - Datria has received two additional U.S. Patents that complement and extend the company's earlier patent in the areas of speech recognition, locational information, and spatial databases. The technologies described in the patents help companies manage assets more effectively while reducing maintenance costs.

 

Datria's original patent (US 6,272,457) was issued in August 2001. It combines locational information with speech recognition and time synchronization to quickly and accurately populate a spatial database. As an example, field technicians can identify necessary repairs simply by speaking. They might say, "Highway exit sign is illegible. Needs to be replaced." The system described in the patent captures the voice information, converts it to data, and stores it in a database.

At the same time, the system captures the technician's location, using GPS data or any other locational system. By synchronizing the time when the technician spoke with the locational data, the system can locate where the technician was when the information was spoken. Thus, the system can quickly build a spatial database which includes asset information ("The sign needs to be replaced") and precise data on where the asset is located. This technology has proven useful in locating assets and mapping and scheduling maintenance and repair operations.

The first of Datria's newly issued patents (US 6,711,535 issued in March 2004) simplifies the requirements of the original patent. The original patent implies the need for two voice statements to locate each identified asset. The newly issued patent allows for assets to be spatially located using only a single voice statement. This simplifies the process and reduces the cost of gathering asset and location information.

The second of Datria's newly issued patents (US 6,728,708 issued in April 2004) adds forms, which may consist of multiple fields, to the spatial database. This provides two distinct advantages. First, each field within the form can be voice activated to ask the technician about the asset. For instance, to record the condition of telephone poles, the system might ask, "Is there any evidence of termites? Has the wood decayed? Is there vegetation growing on the pole?" Technicians simply respond to the questions in natural language. This ensures that information about the asset is comprehensive and consistent. The second advantage is that the form can be associated with a specific asset. For example, a technician might say, "Now approaching telephone pole 387265B." The system automatically pulls up the form for that specific pole and prompts the technician for information that needs to be updated. This ensures that asset information is up to date.

 

Datria also announced a pending patent (application number 09/603,851) that further extends the company's intellectual property. Among other things, the pending patent provides for locational offsets, allowing the system to record locations that are not in precisely the same location as the observer. This is useful when mapping and describing assets which are close to other assets, such as poles alongside a roadway or rail bed. It is also useful in locating assets that are ambiguously identified - such as "the unit on the left" - thus saving time on future visits.

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