The present invention relates to a system and an electronic device designed to inform the gas distributors when gas cylinders from their consumers are at a certain reserve level, thus providing the condition required for planning the optimum gas commercialization route and, therefore, improving the selling efficiency of its product with a substantial decrease in costs.

Currently, the gas distribution process occurs basically in two ways: by means of trucks which travel along the town streets within previously established routes offering their products indiscriminately to all consumers, or by means of home delivery, attending to orders made directly to gas distributors by consumers.

With respect to devices for metering the amount of gas in gas cylinders, e.g., the Brazilian patent PI0203217-1 is known which relates to a pressure gauge system to regulate the pressure and indicate the amount of gas consumed. However, the production costs of this kind of system makes its commercial and residential use unfeasible, since it is neither cost-effective to consumers nor distributors. Also known is the Brazilian patent PI9705941-2, which relates to a device which indicates the gas pressure in GLP cylinders in order to ascertain the amount of gas still present in the cylinder by means of visual inspection. Another filled Brazilian patent PI0402813-9, relates to a heat- sensitive rubberized magnetized tape, which is intended to visually indicate the level of gas inside the cylinder to the consumer. However, the devices shown above do not include any system able to inform the gas distributors when the gas cylinder of their consumers is at a reserve level.

The present invention was developed with a view to provide a new gas commercialization scheme, through which the distributor is informed automatically by means of a new computer-aided electronic system when the gas cylinder is at a reserve level, being able to identify the source of the signal and plan out an optimum gas commercialization route.

This new system affords the following advantages:

This process allows distributors to identify when the gas cylinder of their consumers is at a reserve level, thus being able to offer their products before their competitors;

Reduced costs thanks to the optimized logistics of the gas commercialization, reduced fleet, and better inventory management, resulting from the improved demand estimation;

Competitive advantage for the distributor by obtaining consumption information from its consumers;

Improved customer loyalty and, hence, increased market share of the distributor;

Also, many advantages in terms of convenience, practicality, quality e service safety are offered to final consumers. The invention will be better understood with reference to the following detailed description, in connection with the enclosed drawings, wherein:

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIGURE 1 shows a block diagram of the Transmitting device;

FIGURE 2 shows a block diagram of the Receiving device;

FIGURE 3 shows a block diagram of the Web Server; and

FIGURE 4 shows a flow chart of the process.

With respect to FIGURE 1, represented by a block diagram, temperature sensors (1) in contact with the outer surface of the gas cylinder sensing the temperature variation between the sensors at predefined time intervals are shown. This temperature variation is sent to the signal amplifier (2) where the temperature curve will be corrected for. Thereafter, this corrected information is sent to the microcontroller (3) which will convert it from analog into digital by means of a software resident within the microcontroller which will check if is there any temperature difference higher than I ⁰ C between the sensors. As gas is consumed from the gas cylinder, the internal pressure within the gas cylinder changes, giving rise to a temperature difference between the portions of the cylinder which are in contact with the gas in liquid and gaseous state. When this temperature variation between sensors occurs, the microcontroller (3) sends a digital signal to the radio frequency transmitter (4). This transmitter modulates the frequency and transmits a signal to the radio frequency receiver (6) by means of an antenna (5). This circuit is supplied by a battery.

With reference to FIGURE 2, a radio frequency receiver (6) which receives and filters the specific frequency of the signal sent by the radio frequency transmitter (4) is shown. Upon receiving the signal, it is forwarded to a detection/demodulation circuit (7) which, by means of an equal-frequency oscillator, recovers the sent signal and transmits it to the microcontroller (8). This microcontroller sets up the protocol code of its pair, since each transmitter (4) will have only one receiver (6), and verifies, by means of a phone detector circuit (9), if the telephone line (13) is available, if the telephone (14) rests on the hook or not and if there is a phone line signal, if not, the microcontroller sets the GPRS modem (15) for the transmission of the SMS code. If the phone line is available, the microcontroller (8) activates the line, sends the digital code of the protocol to the DTMF generation system (10) which decodes and initiates its transmission to the DTMF decoder board (17) installed on the remote Web server (18). In the case that the phone line is unabled to be used, the device is provided with a GPRS modem (15) which sends a SMS code directly to another GPRS modem installed on the serial port of the computer of the gas distributor. The microcontroller (8) preferably uses the phone line (13). The phone detector (9) is a circuit which is responsible for monitoring the use of the phone line so that when the telephone (14) is lifted off of the hook, the transmission of DTMFs is immediately interrupted and resumed only when the line becomes available again. This procedure is not intended to impair the quality when using the telephone line. The power supply system of the circuit schematically shown in FIGURE 2 also consists of a battery, and in parallel could use electric power and the telephone line voltage itself, according to the limits established by ANATEL (Agenda National de Telecormmicaςdes).

With reference to FIGURE 3, represented by a block diagram, a commercially available DTMF decoder board (17) is shown. This board is connected to the telephone line (16) and receives the DTMF sent by the DTMF generator (10). Upon receiving the code, the board (17) returns a DTMF as a protocol to the DTMF detector (11) which will be informed that the information was successfully received and does not need to be retransmitted. After reception, the board converts the DTMF signal into a digital form and sends it to the Web server (18). In the server, the digital code is added into the web database to be used by the optimization software. When using a GPRS system, there are modems available on the market which are able to receive the sent SMS and add it into the software.

FIGURE 4 shows generally the process. Firstly, the gas distributor installs the devices shown in FIGURE 1-2 on gas cylinders from consumers and on the telephone line (13), respectively, registering each installed device (19) into the web database. As the gas is consumed, temperature sensors located on the outer surface of the gas cylinder are monitoring (20) the temperature variation and transmitting (22) this information to the receiver (23) when a temperature variation higher than I ⁰ C occurs. Upon reaching a minimum gas level inside the gas cylinder (21), a temperature difference occurs between the sensors and the receiver then sends the DTMF or SMS code to the Web Server (24) by means of the GPRS modem (27). On the server, the DTMF decoder board receives the code (25), returns the receiving protocol (26), and adds the DTMF converted into digital form into the Web Database (28) through a software (27). Having this information added into the Database (28), said software matches the information from consumers' devices already registered into the database and creates a optimum route (29) for commercialization of gas (31).

EXAMPLES

The present invention will be better described by way of example as shown below, however, such example embodiment is in any way intended to be limiting as to the scope of the present invention.

Similarly, many variations and modifications which shall become apparent from the present description will be included within the scope defined in the claims.

Example: Operation arrangement of the telemetry electronic system With respect to FIGURE 3, the system of the present invention comprises the following structure:

- a specification data set;

- a registration data set;

- a monitoring data set;

- a reserve gas amount data set;

- a transmission data set;

- a verification data set;

- receiving means;

- transmitting means;

- decoding means;

- decoded code handling means;

- monitoring means; and

- operation means.

Wherein:

the specification data set respectively defines the identification and location of the consumer and the gas cylinder by telemetry;

the registration data set defines a consumer identification condition;

the monitoring data set defines a gas consumption monitoring condition from temperature sensors;

the reserve gas amount data set defines a minimum gas level warning condition; the transmission data set defines a minimum gas level warning transmission condition;

the verification data set defines a data transmission path verification condition;

the receiving means comprise a RX receiver installed on a telephone line;

the transmitting means comprise a dialing device;

the decoding means comprise a decoder electronic circuit board;

the decoded code handling means comprise the ordering of the decoded code in the database;

the data from RX receiver comprise a SMS protocol; and

the operation means define a remote operation query condition and define a operation strategy.