RU2776434C1 - Aerosol delivery method and apparatus for transmitting information of the aerosol delivery apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

FIELD: data transmission.

SUBSTANCE: described result is achieved by the method including storing the information on recording of the characteristics of use of the aerosol delivery apparatus in the storage apparatus of the aerosol delivery apparatus while using the aerosol delivery apparatus; without establishing a connection, creating a status declaration package from the storage apparatus using the wireless communication interface of the aerosol delivery apparatus, said package including identification-related information, declaration of the status of the aerosol delivery apparatus, and a first set of information on recording of the characteristics of use of the aerosol delivery apparatus; and transmitting the declaration package via the wireless communication interface.

EFFECT: possibility of transmitting information on the use of an aerosol delivery apparatus without establishing a connection.

13 cl, 9 dwg

Description

State of the art

The present disclosure relates to data communication, and in particular, but not exclusively, to a method and apparatus for transmitting data from an aerosol delivery device using connectionless packet transmission.

When using aerosol delivery devices, such as electronic nicotine delivery devices (sometimes referred to as electronic cigarettes), the device may collect information related to the state of the device. This information may be information that is useful to the user of an aerosol delivery device, such as an electronic nicotine delivery device ("END"), such as information such as battery level, or information related to the level of remaining nicotine source, such as a puff count. and/or the value of the total puff duration. In addition, information such as error codes may be generated by the device. In addition, there may be information useful to the user in order to manage his or her dependence on nicotine. Such information may also be useful in some form to the administrator, such as information to record the number and types of errors that occur. The inventors have developed approaches for accessing such information in an energy efficient and unobtrusive manner.

Communication methods using low energy communication protocols such as Bluetooth™ or Bluetooth Low Energy (BTLE), also known as Bluetooth Smart, often involve establishing a shared, ad hoc, pairing, or other connection-based channel between two objects to facilitate the transfer of information over this protocol.

US20161/84635 describes a method and apparatus for transmitting and receiving data using Bluetooth.

US2013/065584 describes low power beacon coding.

Document TW201513524A describes a system for monitoring physiological information using the Bluetooth low energy protocol.

US2015319555 describes a method and apparatus for Bluetooth-based Wi-Fi synchronization.

Document US2015/172391 describes a method, apparatus and computer software product for network discovery.

US2016/029149 describes a short range, low power wireless communication system.

Document WO16/037012A describes the measurement of health and fitness data using proximity sensors and mobile technologies.

US20168021448 describes communication range control using Bluetooth low energy.

US2015/312858 describes a method and apparatus for generating a Bluetooth low energy data packet containing a payload in the form of an audio.

US2016/037566 describes a method and system for optimized Bluetooth low energy communications.

US2011/021142 describes a method and system for a dual-mode Bluetooth low energy device.

US2013/178160 describes systems for facilitating wireless communication and related methods.

Document WO16/108646A describes a method and apparatus for controlling a device using Bluetooth low energy technology.

Document WO16/017909A describes a method and apparatus for controlling an electronic device in a wireless communication system supporting Bluetooth communication.

Document CN104664605A describes an "intelligent" electronic cigarette with Bluetooth low energy wireless functionality.

Disclosure of the essence of the invention

Specific aspects and embodiments of the invention are set forth in the appended independent and dependent claims.

On the one hand, a method and apparatus for transmitting data from an electronic nicotine delivery device using connectionless packet transmission may be provided.

More specifically, a method for an aerosol delivery device may be provided. The method may comprise storing, during use of the aerosol delivery device, in a memory device of the aerosol delivery device recorded information about the usage characteristics of the device. The method may also comprise generating, from a connectionless storage device using the wireless communication interface of the aerosol delivery device, a state announcement packet that includes identification related information, an aerosol delivery device status announcement, and a first set of recorded performance information. using an aerosol delivery device; and transmitting the announcement packet via the wireless communication interface. The method may further comprise: receiving, without establishing a connection, a status request packet from a remote wireless device via a wireless communication interface; and generating from the connectionless storage device, in response to receiving the request packet using the wireless communication interface, a status response packet that includes a second set of recorded information about the usage characteristics of the aerosol delivery device. Thus, an aerosol delivery device capable of interacting with a data collection or recording entity to enable the collection and use of usage information, for example, for proactive and/or predictive interaction with the device or user where problems may have occurred or are expected, can be provided. . Other analytical purposes are also possible.

In some example, the aerosol delivery device is an electronic nicotine delivery device. Thus, the electronic nicotine delivery device and the user can benefit from the methods described herein.

In some examples, the wireless communication interface uses a wireless communication protocol based on IEEE802.11 (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Committee on Standards for Local and Metropolitan Area Networks) or IEEE802.15. In one example, the wireless communication interface is a Bluetooth or BTLE interface. Thus, the approach can use standardized interfaces and communication modules to provide the methods described in this document using commonly used communication technologies.

In some examples, a connectionless state announcement packet contains a payload that includes a first set of recorded usage behavior information, wherein the first set of recorded usage behavior information contains a value of one or more parameters selected from the group consisting of includes: battery properties, aerosol generation properties, aerosol environment properties, aerosol generation event properties, and erroneous or anomalous behavior properties. Thus, the present approach can be used as a basis for data recording, reporting and/or predictive activities on specific measurable and indicative properties of a particular aerosol delivery device.

In some examples, a connectionless status response packet contains a payload that includes a second set of recorded usage behavior information, wherein the second set of recorded usage behavior information contains a value of one or more parameters selected from the group consisting of includes: battery properties, aerosol generation properties, aerosol environment properties, aerosol generation event properties, and erroneous or anomalous behavior properties. Thus, the present approach can be used as a basis for data recording, reporting and/or predictive activities on specific measurable and indicative properties of a particular aerosol delivery device.

In some examples, the connectionless status response packet further includes information related to the identification of the aerosol delivery device. Thus, registration, reporting and/or prediction can be individualized for a particular device.

In some examples, at least one set of the first set of recorded usage behavior information and the second set of recorded usage behavior information is arranged in the payload according to a predetermined scheme that determines the order and size of the values included in the payload. Thus, the present approach can communicate in a standardized manner that facilitates efficient data exchange with minimal overhead.

In another particular approach, an aerosol delivery device may be provided, comprising: a storage device configured to store, during use of the aerosol delivery device, recorded information about the usage characteristics of the aerosol delivery device; and a wireless communication interface configured to transmit from the storage device, connectionless, the announcement state packet, which includes information related to the identification, the announcement of the status of the aerosol delivery device, and the first set of recorded information about the usage characteristics of the aerosol delivery device. The wireless communication interface may further be configured to receive, connectionless, a status request packet from a remote wireless device; and transmitting from the storage device, without establishing a connection, a status response packet that includes a second set of recorded information about the usage characteristics of the aerosol delivery device. Thus, an aerosol delivery device capable of interacting with a data collection or recording entity to enable the collection and use of usage information, for example, for proactive and/or predictive interaction with the device or user where problems may have occurred or are expected, can be provided. . Other analytical purposes are also possible.

Such a device may include elements or configuration that enable operation in accordance with the various example methods described above.

In a further specific approach, a system may be provided comprising: an aerosol delivery device as described above; and a remote wireless device. The remote wireless device may comprise: a wireless communication interface configured to receive, connectionless, a status announcement packet from the aerosol delivery device, transmit, connectionless, a status request packet, and receive, connectionless, a status response packet.

Brief description of the drawings

The following will describe embodiments of the present invention, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

fig. 1 schematically illustrates the announcement protocol;

fig. 2 schematically illustrates an example device environment;

fig. 3 schematically illustrates communications between devices;

fig. 4 schematically illustrates the message;

fig. 5 schematically illustrates the message payload;

fig. 6a schematically illustrates the layout of the first message;

fig. 6b schematically illustrates the layout of the second message;

fig. 7 schematically illustrates an aerosol delivery device; and

fig. 8 schematically illustrates a recording device.

While the approach currently described is subject to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments of the invention are shown by way of example in the drawings and are described in detail herein. However, it should be appreciated that the drawings and their detailed description are not intended to limit the scope of the invention to the specific form disclosed, but rather, the scope of the invention covers all modifications, equivalents and alternatives consistent with the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.

Implementation of the invention

The present disclosure relates to a modified form of wireless communication behavior. In accordance with the present invention, a device may be configured to use BTLE or a BTLE-like communication protocol to enable connectionless sharing of information related to the status and/or use of the electronic nicotine delivery device.

In the present examples, aerosol delivery devices use BTLE, but other Bluetooth or Bluetooth-like protocols may take advantage of the present invention. Bluetooth is a wireless technology standard for short distance communication between suitably connected devices. BTLE is a variant of the original Bluetooth system designed to reduce power consumption during use, to extend battery life and/or for smaller batteries. Both Bluetooth and BTLE operate in the industry-science-medicine (ISM) ultra-high frequency band of 2.4-2.485 GHz and are designed to create so-called wireless personal area networks (PANs) to connect devices over short distances. BTLE uses a modified version of the Bluetooth stack for communication such that a BTLE device and a traditional Bluetooth device are not directly compatible unless one device implements both protocols. The Bluetooth and BTLE standards are supported by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG). The present disclosure is provided in the context of a BTLE implementation using the BTLE part of the Bluetooth v4 specification. However, one of skill in the art will appreciate that the present invention may apply to other Bluetooth approaches, such as the so-called classic Bluetooth definitions, which are also set forth in the Bluetooth v4 specification. In addition, it should be appreciated that the present invention may be used with technologies that do not conform to the full Bluetooth specification, but which nonetheless behave similarly to Bluetooth.

For example, non-Bluetooth systems that nevertheless use the BTLE General Access Profile (GAP) advertisement setting and thus have an advertisement structure essentially as shown in FIG. 1 could use the methods presented in the present description. In FIG. 1 shows an announcement structure whereby a peripheral (or slave, or remote, or secondary) device announces its availability as a peripheral (or slave, or remote, or secondary) during an announcement period, with announcement periods separated by an announcement interval. . The advertisement may include data to transmit, an indication that there is data to transmit, or it may have no data at all. To receive an announcement, the central (or main or master) device scans the announcements during the scanning time window. Multiple scan time windows are separated by a scan interval. The relative duration of scan and announcement intervals is changed either by specifying that the interval in one type of device is constant while the other is changing, or by specifying that both of these intervals are changing, this definition can be established by a standard or a set of rules for implementation of the announcement protocol. By providing this relative change in the scan and announcement intervals, it is ensured that even in the case where the initial announcement period does not overlap with the initial scan time window, after a number of announcement and scan intervals, an announcement period will occur that overlaps with the scan time window, thus that a connection can be established between the central and peripheral device.

A first example of a device environment 10 in which the present methods can be used is shown in FIG. 2. In this example, the aerosol delivery device 12 is configured to communicate with the recording device 16 via the communication channel 14. In addition, in some examples, the recording device 16 may be configured to communicate via a communication channel 18 with a remote network service 20.

As discussed above, aerosol delivery device 12 may be an electronic nicotine delivery device. Recorder 16 may be any suitable device that is compatible with wireless channel 14. As shown in FIG. 2, the recording device 16 may, for example, comprise one or more communication access stations, such as a base station or the like, for the wireless communication channel 14. Recorder 16 may also or alternatively comprise a computing device such as a tablet computer, smartphone, laptop, desktop computer, server, or other multifunctional computing device, including or connected to an interface for wireless communication channel 14.

In the present example, the wireless communication channel 14 is a BTLE or BTLE-like channel that transfers data packets between the aerosol delivery device 12 and the recording device 16 using a connectionless state of a communication protocol or a connectionless communication protocol.

Communication channel 18 between recorder 16 and remote network service 20 may be a wired and/or wireless channel and may use the same or different network protocols as wireless communication channel 14. In the present examples, communication channel 18 may be a conventional data network connection such as WI-FI (IEEE802.11x) or an Ethernet-based connection such as using conventional network transport and data protocols such as TCP/IP, Fiberchannel and Infiniband.

The remote network service 20 may be accessed via a public or private network such as a WAN (wide area network) or the Internet. The remote network service 20 may be provided on dedicated or shared network resources as a public or private cloud service.

Using the structure shown in Fig. 2, aerosol delivery device 12 may provide various device usage and/or status data to one or more recording devices 16 using a connectionless transmission device, that is, without a formal connection, pairing, or other connection establishment process. This may facilitate the simple and unobtrusive collection of data from the aerosol delivery device 12. Therefore, the aerosol delivery device may be able to automatically collect and correlate usage/status data and then transmit it to the recording device, which can identify and extract the data from the aerosol delivery device and, if necessary, convert this data into an information format for use in registration and/or or data analysis. The data from the aerosol delivery device can then be transmitted/uploaded to a remote network service for centralized processing of the information transmitted via the data.

An approach for sending and receiving data packets between the elements shown in FIG. 2 is illustrated in FIG. 3. In FIG. 3 shows that the aerosol delivery device 12 sends an announcement packet, denoted as ADV_IND in FIG. 3 (in BTLE terminology, the device listening for announcement packets is called a "peripheral" device). The ADV_IND packet is not directed to a specific other device, but can be received and read by any device within transmission range that listens for announcement packets (in BTLE terminology, the device that listens for announcement packets is called the "central" device). This packet provides an advertisement function for the sending device, establishing sufficient identification information about the sending device so that the receiving device can create a response packet that identifies the sending device in such a way that the sending device understands that it is the intended recipient of the response packet. The ADV_IND packet can also be bridging, in the sense that it can be used as the first step in a connection establishment process (such as direct connection or pairing) between a sending device and a receiving device. However, in the present example, this connectivity is not used to provide communication of the status/use of the aerosol delivery device.

The registration device 16, upon receiving the ADV_IND packet from the aerosol delivery device 12, uses the identification information from the ADV_IND packet to send a response to the aerosol delivery device 12 in the form of a request packet, denoted as SCAN_REQ in FIG. 3. This packet requests additional information from the aerosol delivery device.

When the aerosol delivery device 12 receives a SCAN_REQ packet, it generates and transmits a response packet, denoted as SCAN_RSP in FIG. 3 directed at the recording device 16. From the point of view of the aerosol delivery device 12, the recording device 16 can be considered as a remote wireless device, because the aerosol delivery device 12 may not depend on the exact nature of any other device with which it exchanges announcement packets. If necessary, the recorder 16 may subsequently transmit the status/usage data received from the aerosol delivery device. This subsequent transmission may be directed to the remote network service 20 and is illustrated as [upload] in FIG. 3.

Once the SCAN_RSP packet is received by the recording device 16, the exchange of packets between the aerosol delivery device 12 and the recording device 16 is completed. It is possible for this process to end at this time because the present methods actually provide the aerosol delivery device usage/status data in the ADV_IND and SCAN_RSP packets.

In the present example, each of the ADV_IND and SCAN_RSP packets has a packet structure that includes space for payload information. This payload information space is used by the present methods to communicate the usage/status of the aerosol delivery device. Detailed examples of packet structures will be further described with reference to BTLE packets, although it should be appreciated that another transfer protocol or stack may also be used that provides a similar sequence of announcement packets with the ability to place payloads in announcement and response packets to provide the results of the present invention. .

The package structure used by the ADV_IND and SCAN_RSP packages discussed above with reference to FIG. 3 includes a preamble, an access address, a packet data unit, and an error checking code. A typical exemplary structure is shown in FIG. 4. According to the normal BTLE packet structures, the preamble is 1 byte in size and is used to control the internal protocol. The access address has a size of 4 bytes and is set as a fixed predefined value for announcement packets. A Packet Data Unit (PDU) is a payload space that can be used to carry additional information and has a size in the range of 2-39 bytes. An error check code (ECC) is used as an error check coding and is usually based on a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) computed from the other bits of the packet.

The packet data block structure is illustrated in FIG. 5. As shown in the figure, the packet data block header and payload are provided. The packet data block header is 2 bytes long and includes details of the packet type (ie, in the examples shown, the packet type identifiers ADV_IND, SCAN_REQ, and SCAN_RSP are used). The header may also include details about the length of the payload, since the payload may be of variable length.

The actual payload data is then included in the payload, which can be up to 37 bytes in size. The payload includes the address of the sending device (the aerosol delivery device 12 in the case of ADV_IND and SCAN_RSP packets). This takes 6 bytes of the maximum payload size. The payload may also include the destination address where applicable (for example, in SCAN_RSP the address of the registerer 16 that sent the SCAN_REQ request), this is also expected to take up 6 bytes of the maximum payload size.

The remaining payload space bytes (maximum 31 bytes, since the remaining 6 bytes of the maximum packet data block size are used for the address of the sending device) in the ADV_IND packet can usually be used to store advertisement data about the advertiser node, such as advertisement service data and a suitable device name. In the present approaches, the remaining payload space is used instead of advertiser node advertisement data to carry data collected from the device in use that describes the usage and/or status of the aerosol delivery device. Thus, this usage/status information can be transmitted without the need to establish a formal connection (such as a direct link or pairing connection) between the aerosol delivery device and the recording device. Both ADV_IND and SCAN_RSP payload can be controlled in this way.

Various examples of data fields about the aerosol delivery device 12, such as an electronic nicotine delivery device, that may be useful in controlling or receiving reports from the aerosol delivery device 12 via the recording device 16 and/or the remote network service 20 are as follows:

- number of puffs (the number of aerosol delivery operations performed by the device is defined as the total number of operations for the device or operations since the change event, such as the insertion of a new aerosol content cartridge);

- puff duration (average duration or total cumulative duration of aerosol delivery operations, typically over a period of the same duration as the number of puffs);

- battery charging (number of battery charge/discharge cycles performed on the device);

- average percentage of battery charge before charging (an indicator of the average value of the percentage of charge at the time the charge was started);

- overheating protection (number of overheating protection activations in the device);

- error codes (any error codes that are currently displayed by the device, and / or the history of the occurrence of error codes in the device);

puff too short (a measure of aerosol delivery operations that stop below a threshold duration to ensure that the aerosol content is actually being delivered);

- used cartomizer (indicator of the aerosol cartridge currently installed in the device);

puffs per power profile (number of aerosol delivery operations for each of several different power profiles, eg high, medium and low);

- current power settings (a measure of the current power settings currently set for use in the next aerosol delivery operation);

- duration of the charged state (an indicator of the time during which the device held a charge sufficient for aerosol delivery operations);

- battery charge threshold before charging (a measure of the remaining battery charge, expressed as a percentage, hours of waiting and / or number of aerosol delivery operations at current power settings, etc.);

- loading/functioning time (an indicator of the number of switching cycles and / or the duration of the switched on state);

- product type (device product type identifier);

- batch number (identifier of the batch number of the device);

- serial number (device serial number identifier);

- length of time the device is on (an indicator of the duration of the power on state);

- length of time the device is off (an indicator of the duration of the power off state);

- device/coil temperature (a measure of the current and/or past temperature of the device and/or the temperature of the heater coil used to generate the aerosol).

It should be appreciated that a wide variety of such fields relating to current and past device usage/status may be created and used, depending on the requirements of the aerosol delivery device, recording device, and/or remote network service. For example, in a package where an application provided on a registrar and/or a remote network service is concerned with the successful operation of the device and providing error feedback to the user or administrator, fields related to error codes, physical state (temperature, battery , operating time, etc.) and device identification (product number, lot number, serial number, etc.). In a configuration where an application provided on a recording device and/or a remote network service is concerned with analyzing usage statistics, fields related to aerosol delivery activity (number of puffs, duration of puffs, puffs per power profile, duration of charge, etc.) may be important. d.). However, in order to enable applications with a wide range of interests and emphases to successfully operate with an aerosol delivery device without introducing a requirement for detailed data requests of the type that may encourage or require establishing a connection with the aerosol delivery device, the aerosol delivery device can be pre-configured. (e.g., when manufactured, sold, or after-sales with a user interface provided by an application that connects via device connection-based installation information exchange) to provide any or all possible data fields when declared using the ADV_IND and when responding to a SCAN_REQ packet with a SCAN_RSP packet.

Thus, the present invention also contemplates that such fields should be transmitted in a combination of ADV_IND and SCAN_RSP packets. Examples of one possible scheme for including device status/usage fields in the payload of ADV_IND and SCAN_RSP packets are shown in FIG. 6a and 6b. In FIG. 6a, the content of the ADV_IND payload starts with a UUID (universally unique identifier). Each device subscribing to a communication protocol (BTLE in the present examples) has an identifier that identifies that device as distinct from any other. In the present examples (as defined in BTLE), the UUID is 128 bits long - this creates a maximum group of ^2,128 possible unique devices. The payload of the ADV_IND packet in this case includes 7 fields up to 2 bytes each. In one example, they can be assigned as follows: A - product/batch ID, B - number of puffs, C - error codes, D - high power puffs, E - medium power puffs, and G - low power puffs.

In FIG. 6b, the content of the SCAN_RSP payload includes an additional 7 fields, which are illustrated as having different lengths. In one example, they can be assigned as follows: H is the total number of battery charges, I is the average battery percentage before charging, J is the time since the last charge, K is the time since the last power cycle, L is the duration of the puff, M is time spent on charging, N is the total number of overheating events. In addition, some space is indicated as reserved (that is, not used in this exemplary scheme), but which can be used in an alternative scheme.

By predefining the field delivery scheme in the ADV_IND and SCAN_RSP packets, the receiving registrar can interpret the value of the data according to the position of the data in the packet's payload. This makes it possible to use the limited data space in the packets with high efficiency. The schema may be fixed for the lifetime of the device, or may be changed either by the system designer or the user.

It will be appreciated that the present approach involves transmitting data from an aerosol delivery device 12 to a recording device 16. Therefore, to illustrate suitable devices for enabling such data transfer, an example of an aerosol delivery device and an example of a recording device are shown in FIG. 7 and 8, respectively.

An example of an aerosol delivery device 12 is schematically illustrated in FIG. 7. As shown in the figure, the aerosol delivery device 12 is a device that contains elements related to generating an aerosol, such as an aerosol medium container or cartridge 30 (in the case of an electronic nicotine delivery device, the aerosol medium container or cartridge 30 will contain nicotine or a nicotine-containing composition), an aerosol generating chamber 31 and an outlet 32 through which the generated aerosol can be discharged. A battery 33 may be provided to power a heat generator element (such as a heating coil 34) in the aerosol generating chamber 31 . Battery 33 may also power processor/controller 35, which may serve device usage purposes such as activating the aerosol generating device in response to an activation trigger, and device status monitoring and reporting purposes. The processor/controller 35 may have access to a storage device 36 in which data collected or determined by the processor/controller may be stored pending transmission. Memory 36 may be internal to the processor/controller or may be provided as an additional separate physical element. To perform the transmission of data stored in the memory 36, the processor/controller 35 is provided by the element 37 of the transmitter/receiver. In the present example, this is a BTLE interface element including a radio antenna for wireless communication.

As shown in the figure, the processor 35 may be connected to, for example, the aerosol medium container or cartridge 30, the aerosol generation chamber 31, and the battery 33. This connection may be an interface connection or connection to a terminal of one of the components and/or may be a sensor located on or inside one of the components. These connections may allow the processor to access the properties of the respective components. For example, a connection to a battery may provide a display of the current charge level of the battery 33. By measuring the charge level of the battery over time, the controller/processor 35 may determine and store values for any or all of the data fields, such as the current (i.e., most recent) level. battery level, average minimum charge level reached before the recharge event, low battery condition, and total number of recharge events. As another example, a connection to an aerosol container or cartridge may allow the controller/processor 35 to determine and store values for any or all of the data fields, such as when the container or cartridge is replaced, the ID of the installed the current container or cartridge, and the current level of the remaining aerosol medium. As a further example, the connection to the aerosol generating chamber may allow the controller/processor 35 to determine and store values for any or all of the data fields, including coil overheating events, coil activation events (representing puff events), coil activation duration (representing the puff duration), etc. In addition, the processor/controller 35 may use an internal or external clock to refer to events in time and thus determine and store data fields related to measurements in time and/or determine and store data fields related to the duration of individual events. , and compare these durations with a threshold to detect aerosol production with insufficient or excessive duration. In addition, the processor/controller 35 may already be aware of the device ID, serial number, etc., and may store this information, as well as information about the current power level settings to be applied for aerosol generation events. Processor/controller 35 may also be aware of the currently assigned data transfer scheme, whereby it may package the data into structures for transfer. Thus, the aerosol delivery device 12 in the present examples can determine and store various data related to the current and past use of the aerosol delivery device, and then package this data in accordance with a predefined data payload scheme, and include such packaged data in announcement messages and response messages that allow this data to be transmitted to the recording device 16.

An example of a recording device 16 is schematically illustrated in FIG. 8. As shown in the figure, the recording device 16 includes a receiver/transmitter element 40 for receiving announcement packets and response packets from the aerosol delivery device and for sending request packets to the aerosol delivery device. In the example where the aerosol delivery device uses a BTLE transmitter/receiver element, the receiver/transmitter element 40 of the recording device 16 is also a BTLE element or compatible with it. The receiver/transmitter element 40 is connected to a processor or controller 41 that can receive and process data received from the aerosol delivery device. The processor or controller 41 has access to a storage device 42 which may be used to store program information and/or data. Recorder 16 may be a specialized recorder designed for the primary purpose of receiving and recording data from aerosol delivery devices, thus it may be referred to as a packet sniffer or the like. In such an example, any program instructions for the processor or controller 41 may be associated solely with the execution of the registration/analysis functions and any subsequent transfer or transmission functions. Alternatively, the recording device 16 may be a base station or similar device for the wireless communication channel 14, in which case the program instruction may refer to a recording/analysis function and a base station function. In other alternatives, recording device 16 may be a general purpose computing device such as a tablet computer, smartphone, laptop, desktop computer, server, or other multifunctional computing device, in which case the application instructions for processor or controller 41 may be operating system instructions. general purpose or instructions for other applications installed on the device, while the registration/analysis function is provided as an application that can be executed by the device in addition to other programmed functions.

The recording device 16 may include an additional data interface 43. This interface may provide one or more interface functionality, for example, for a wired connection such as Ethernet, Infiniband, or Fiberchannel, and/or for a wireless connection, such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or ZigBee, and/or they may all be compatible. with channel 18 communication. This interface may be used when a particular implementation requires the ability to forward the data received from the aerosol delivery device 12 to the remote network service 20. The recording device may also include user interface elements such as an output device 44 (which may include one or more of screen, audio output, and tactile output devices) and/or an input device 45 (which may include one or more of buttons, keys, touch display elements, or a mouse/touchpad).

The remote network service 20, if implemented, will include an interface capable of receiving data over the selected communication channel 18 . The remote network service 20 may include one or more computing resources and one or more storage resources, using which the remote network service can process data on the status/usage of one or more aerosol delivery devices to provide reports and/or manage the status of the aerosol delivery devices. For example, the network service may provide a centralized record of the types, frequencies, and sums of error codes encountered by multiple aerosol delivery devices of a number of different product types and/or batches.

Processing of the data received from the aerosol delivery device may be performed either at the recording device 16 or at the remote network service 20, or both. Such processing may provide user level and/or administrator level information related to one or more aerosol delivery devices. Such information may be provided to the user and/or administrator using a suitable user interface, such as a graphical user interface, which may be displayed on a display device. User-level information may be used to provide feedback to the user on their personal usage habits, including the number of aerosol generating events that have occurred in a given period of time and/or at each of a number of power levels, and/or which aerosol is being used. Wednesday. Such information may be useful to a user who wishes to regulate their consumption of the aerosol medium in order to meet (or exceed, or not exceed) the user's personal target setting or goal. Such information may also provide the user of the aerosol generating device with more information about its use than previously available. Admin-level information can be used to provide product quality/reliability reports, allowing comparison of different products or batches of the same product with undesirable usage behavior such as overheating conditions or other error indicators. Such information can be used as feedback during the product design process to optimize the reliability of future devices. The administrator level information can also be used to determine market information or market trends, such as usage patterns of different aerosol media containers or cartridges in aerosol delivery devices sold in different markets.

It can be seen from the present examples that the information provided by the aerosol delivery device containing usage/status information can be transmitted in the clear (ie without special encryption). However, it should also be noted that the information is anonymous in the sense that the only identifying information (UUID, product ID, serial number, batch number, etc.) is related to the device and not to the user. In addition, the scheme for data transmission does not require that field labels be included in data packets, so in practice, packet data may contain only one or more values for each field, resulting in nothing more than a random sequence of bits for a casual observer. data. In addition, since in some examples the schema may change in the relationship between the user and his device, each user may have a custom schema, which prevents knowledge of the default schema from being able to identify the value of the data in the packets. Thus, it is clear that the transmission of announcement packets and response packets is in fact secure, despite the fact that it does not necessarily include specific traditional security techniques such as encryption.

However, it is possible to implement the system of the present examples using data encryption (for example, if the scheme has been changed to include data that the user of the aerosol device wished to keep secure, such as the user's personal identifying data). To do this, the aerosol delivery device and the registrar may establish a connection that can be used to exchange suitable encryption keys for the aerosol delivery device to use in preparing payload information for announcement packets and response packets. Then, even after such a connection has been terminated, the aerosol delivery device may use such encryption keys to encrypt the data in the payload, while including in the payload an identifier (in the form of a session key or similar) that identifies receipt from information about the encryption used by the registrar so that the registrar can use the correct decryption key in order to gain access to the transmitted data.

Thus, a complete solution has been described for collecting and providing information about the status and/or usage of an aerosol delivery device to a recording device via connectionless data packet exchange, in which information is transmitted using announcement packets and response packets sent from the aerosol delivery device. .

It has been described above that the technology used to realize connectionless transmission of data packets is carried out using BTLE ADV_IND and SCAN_RSP packets in a BTLE communication environment. It is also possible to use alternative technologies to provide a similar connectionless transmission of usage/status data of the aerosol delivery device. It should be appreciated that BTLE is a subset of the Bluetooth specifications that were originally defined under IEEE802.15. Other IEEE802.15 compliant or derived technologies (sometimes referred to as personal area networks or PAN technologies), such as (non-BTLE) Bluetooth (including Bluetooth 5, which no longer uses the "LE" designation), Zigbee, or Z-Wave may be used to provide connectionless communication of usage/status data. In addition, other wireless technologies such as Wi-FI (IEEE802.11n) or similar may be used to provide connectionless usage/state communication.

As will be appreciated from the above discussion, both the aerosol delivery device 12 and the recording device 16 may require data relating to different usage/state fields to be stored in the storage device of the respective device. In one implementation, this is done by defining a static structure for using a storage device in which particular field values are stored at certain predefined storage locations or at certain predefined locations in the data file format. Such a structure may also include a label or identifier for each field in the structure. In alternative embodiments, one or both of the data stores in the aerosol delivery device 12 and the recording device 16 may be configured to store data in accordance with a dynamic allocation structure. This will avoid using storage space for certain fields that are not in use at any given time, but will require the use of a label or identifier for each field in the dynamic storage structure.

Therefore, the present methods provide an approach for collecting and providing data corresponding to a set of metrics representing the use or condition of an aerosol delivery device. This is done without the need for pairing or direct connection of the device, whereby the user does not need to provide pre-configuration or constant interaction with the aerosol delivery device. The use of connectionless communication further eliminates the need for prior user configuration or constant interaction with the aerosol delivery device. At the same time, custom configuration can be provided in specific implementations if needed.

The various embodiments of the invention described herein are presented only to aid in understanding and learning the claimed features. These embodiments of the invention are presented only as a typical example of embodiments and are not exhaustive and/or exclusive. It should be appreciated that the advantages, embodiments, examples, functions, features, structures and/or other aspects described herein should not be construed as limitations on the scope of protection of the disclosure defined by the claims or limitations on the equivalents of the claims, and that may other embodiments may be used and modifications may be made without departing from the scope and/or spirit of the claims.

Claims (24)

1. A method for transmitting information implemented by an aerosol delivery device, comprising the steps of: creating, using the wireless communication interface of the aerosol delivery device, from the memory of the aerosol delivery device, a connectionless announcement state packet including information related to identifying and announcing the status of the aerosol delivery device and a first set of recording information of usage characteristics of the aerosol delivery device; transmitting the announcement packet through the wireless interface; and the connectionless state announcement packet contains a payload including the first set of usage characteristics record information. 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first set of usage characteristics record information is placed in the payload according to a predetermined scheme that determines the order and size of the values to be included in the payload. 3. The method of claim 1 or 2, wherein the connectionless state announcement packet contains error checking code. 4. The method according to any one of paragraphs. 1-3, in which the state announcement packet contains a header to indicate the size of the payload. 5. The method according to any one of paragraphs. 1-4, in which the payload is larger than 37 bytes. 6. The method according to any one of paragraphs. 1-5, wherein the aerosol delivery device is an electronic nicotine delivery device. 7. The method according to any one of paragraphs. 1-6, in which the wireless communication interface uses a wireless communication protocol based on IEEE802.11 or IEEE802.15. 8. The method of claim 7, wherein the wireless communication interface is a Bluetooth or BTLE interface. 9. The method according to any one of paragraphs. 1-8, wherein the first set of usage characteristic record information contains a value of one or more parameters selected from the group including: battery properties, aerosol generation properties, aerosol environment properties, aerosol generation event properties, and erroneous or abnormal behavior properties. 10. The method according to any one of paragraphs. 1-9, further comprising the step of receive an announcement packet at the recording device. 11. The method of claim 10 wherein the recording device comprises any of a tablet computer, smartphone, laptop computer, desktop computer, and server. 12. An aerosol delivery device for transmitting information, comprising: a storage device configured to store, during use of the aerosol delivery device, recording information of usage characteristics of the aerosol delivery device; a wireless communication interface capable of transmitting, from the connectionless storage device, a state announcement packet including identification related information, an announcement of the status of the aerosol delivery device, and a first set of recording information of usage characteristics of the aerosol delivery device; wherein the connectionless state announcement packet contains a payload including the first set of usage characteristics record information. 13. An information transmission system, comprising: the aerosol delivery device according to claim 12; and a remote wireless device containing: a wireless communication interface configured to: receiving a connectionless, status announcement packet from the aerosol delivery device.

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