System and method providing automated welding notification
The present invention relates to a system and method that provide for automated notification to entities (e.g., individuals, groups of individuals, computers, systems . . . ) of welding system related information. The invention provides for determination of events and/or conditions that warrant automatic notification thereof to relevant entities. The notifications are conveyed via a most appropriate subset of available communication modes available. The system identifies most appropriate entities to receive the notification about the event, and optionally determines or infers state of the entities and conveys the notification via a communication mode (e.g., text, audio, graphical, video, combination thereof . . . ) and modality (e.g., wireless, Ethernet, cable, optical, telephone, e-mail, voicemail, pager, ghosting, instant messaging . . . ) that is most suitable given context/state of the event and entities.
1. A welding and network notification system, comprising:
a receiving component that receives event information relating to a welding system;
an analysis component that analyzes the received information and determines if a notification should be sent regarding the welding system; and
a notification component that conveys the notification to a subset of a plurality of entities available to receive the notification, the subset determined based in part on the analyzed information and being most suitable to receive the notification or respond to the notification; and
an artificial intelligence (AI) component that performs utility-based analyses in connection with determining entities and manner to convey notifications where the cost associated with respective processes in connection with a notification is weighed against the benefit of the notification.
2. The system of claim 1 , the notification component identifies a subset of a plurality of communication modes to employ in connection with conveying the notification.
3. The system of claim 1 , the notification component identifies a subset of a plurality of communication modalities to employ in connection with conveying the notification.
4. The system of claim 1 , the AI component infers a most appropriate entity to send the notification.
5. The system of claim 4 , the AI component further determining or inferring state of the entities.
6. The system of claim 1 , the AI component infers what communications mode to employ in connection with conveying the notification.
7. The system of claim 1 , the AI component infers what recipient device to employ in connection with conveying the notification.
8. The system of claim 1 , farther comprising a context component that determines or infers context associated with a welding-related event.
9. The system of claim 1 , the notification component sending a group of entities an e-mail notification relating to the welding event.
10. The system of claim 9 , the notification component sending another group of entities an audio notification relating to the welding event.
11. The system of claim 1 , the notification sending the notification in at least one of the following forms: e-mail, audio, video, text, graphics, instant message, a file, a document, an image or voice-mail.
12. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a mapping component that facilitates matching entities to welding events.
13. The system of claim 1 further comprising a configurable address book.
14. The system of claim 13 , each entry in the address book comprises an e-mail address and configuration information for determining when to send a recipient an e-mail.
15. The system of claim 13 , the address book is stored in non-volatile memory.
16. The system of claim 1 , wherein a welder further monitors for events, and categorizes subsets of the events.
17. The system of claim 16 , wherein the welder time stamps the events.
18. The system of claim 1 , the notification component conveys an e-mail, the subject and body of the e-mail is a function of the event.
19. The system of claim 18 , the e-mail comprises an attachments related to the event.
20. The system of claim 19 , the file attachments are sent using multipurpose Internet mail extensions (MIME).
21. The system of claim 18 , the e-mail is sent to a simple mail transfer protocol (SMTP) server.
22. The system of claim 1 , the notification component is an e-mail delivery system.
23. A computer executable method for conveying welding alerts, comprising:
determining nature of an event;
determining or inferring entities most suitable to receive information or respond to information in connection with the event;
determining or inferring best manner in which to convey the notification; and
analyzing cost associated with respective processes in connection with a notification, weighed against the benefit of the notification.
24. The method of claim 23 further comprising determining or inferring state of the entities.
25. The method of claim 23 further comprising sending notifications to the selected entities via most suitable modes and modalities of communication available.
26. A computer readable medium having stored on instructions executable by a computer for performing the method of claim 23 .
27. A system for conveying welding alerts, comprising:
means for determining nature of an event;
means for inferring entities most suitable to receive information or respond to information in connection with the event;
means for analyzing cost associated with respective processes in connection with a information, weighed against the benefit of the information; and
means for inferring best manner in which to convey the information.
28. A welding system adapted for sending notifications, comprising:
at least one welder having a network interface to communicate with a local or remote network system;
a configurable address book associated with the network interface to identify most suitable recipients to receive a notification or respond to a notification;
an event component to trigger the notification;
a notification component to transmit the notification across the local or remote network system; and
an artificial intelligence (AI) component that performs utility-based analyses in connection with determining entities and manner to convey notifications where the cost associated with respective processes in connection with a notification is weighed against the benefit of the notification.
29. The system of claim 28 , the configurable address book includes e-mail addresses and associated configuration information to determine when to send the notification.
30. The system of claim 28 , at least one entry in the configurable address book is reserved as a support address.
31. The system of claim 28 , the configurable address book is stored in non-volatile memory.
32. The system of claim 28 , the event component manages one or more events that are categorized into one or more groups.
33. The system of claim 32 , the groups are associated with a subset of recipients on the configurable address book.
34. The system of claim 32 , further comprising a real time clock for time-stamping the events.