JPH10215494A - Remote supervisory system for automatic analyzer - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To allow the user to easily confirm an operating state of an automatic analyzer at a remote place. SOLUTION: A message generating section 31 and a data conversion section 32 convert an operating state and analysis result data of an analysis section 10 into a text. A mail generating section 33 generates an electronic mail communication text from the text and generates an electronic mail of a routine form by using an address of a recipient registered in advance in a registration section 34 as a transmission destination. The electronic mail is sent to a transmission line 40 from a transmission section 35. Thus, information is confirmed by a terminal equipment on market without restriction of location and time.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a remote monitoring system for monitoring or confirming various kinds of information such as the operation status of an automatic analyzer at a place remote from the analyzer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In the field of analysis such as chromatography, the time required for measurement and analysis of one sample is relatively long in many cases, for example, it may take from tens of minutes to several hours. In recent years, the automation of analyzers has been further advanced. For example, the exchange / introduction of multiple samples has been performed automatically. The results are starting to get. Therefore, during the measurement over a long period of time, the measurer can perform another operation at another place away from the analyzer or return home.

[0003]

However, in practice, the analysis may be interrupted during the automatic analysis due to a failure of the analyzer or various troubles during the automatic analysis, and the subsequent analysis may not be continued. Further, there is a case where the operator wants to start another analysis promptly after a series of analysis is completed, or to promptly perform the analysis using the previous analysis result. To this end, it is desirable that the system be configured so that the measurer can confirm the operation status of the analyzer such as the end of the analysis or the occurrence of an abnormality as quickly as possible.

[0004] The easiest way to check the operating condition of the analyzer is to have the measurer himself go to the place where the analyzer is installed and directly check it. Sometimes it is physically impossible at night or in remote areas.

[0005] Therefore, the operator operates the analyzer by performing a predetermined operation using a terminal device such as a personal computer (hereinafter referred to as "PC") existing on a dedicated network connected to the controller of the analyzer. A system has also been constructed so that the situation can be checked. However, such a system is convenient for use within a range where a dedicated network is provided, such as in a company, for example, but is used at the home of a measurer who is out of the range of the dedicated network or on the go. It is impossible.

On the other hand, observation data and the like of weather and earthquake observation devices installed in remote places such as remote islands are transmitted to a centralized management device such as a host computer using a general public telephone line (both wired and wireless). A system has been built to do this. In such a system, since a public line is used as a communication line for data transmission, the installation place on the observation device side is not limited, and there is no time limit. However, in general, the device on the data receiving side becomes large-scale, and it is necessary to prepare a dedicated device or to install a predetermined relatively large-scale software even if the hardware is a general computer. . Further, for example, in a configuration in which the transmitting device is accessed by operating the receiving device to monitor the operation status of the transmitting device, it is necessary to perform processing online through a telephone line, so that the line use cost is high. It tends to be.

The present invention has been made to solve such a problem, and an object of the present invention is to perform automatic analysis at any time and place using a general personal computer or information terminal device. Another object of the present invention is to provide a remote monitoring system for an automatic analyzer that can obtain information on the analyzer.

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention provides a remote monitoring of an automatic analyzer for monitoring various information relating to automatic analysis at a remote place through a wired or wireless transmission line. In the system, the transmitting apparatus includes: a) information generating means for generating transmission information in the automatic analysis; b) registration means for registering identification information of the receiver in advance; c) communication contents using the transmission information. Creating means for creating a mail in a predetermined format with the identification information registered in the registering means as a destination, and d) sending means for sending the mail created by the creating means to a transmission line. Features.

[0009]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS In a remote monitoring system according to the present invention, identification information such as an identification number of a recipient who wants to receive various types of information for analysis is registered in a registration means in advance. During the automatic analysis, the creating unit inserts various information such as information indicating the operation status generated by the information generating unit and the analysis result data into a message part of the mail in a predetermined format, and also registers the registered recipient. Is inserted into the destination to complete the mail. Processing such as data conversion and extraction may be performed on various types of information in advance so that the information can be included in a message in a mail. In addition, an appropriate message may be selected from a plurality of messages prepared in advance according to various types of information and used as a message. Then, the transmitting means performs a predetermined conversion process on the digital data constituting the created mail, and sends the digital data to the transmission line.

[0010] Specifically, for example, the transmission line is a public telephone line, and the predetermined format is a format of a so-called commercial online service or an electronic mail service handled by a provider or the like. In this case, the recipient reads the mail by the same operation as receiving a general electronic mail. That is, the mail transmitted from the transmitting device is temporarily stored in an external memory of a computer (server) owned by the commercial online service or the like. The recipient checks the incoming mail using a terminal device such as a personal computer at hand, reads out the mail stored in the server, and confirms the communication contents.

[0011]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of a remote monitoring system for an automatic analyzer according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram of an embodiment in which the remote monitoring system of the present invention is applied to a liquid chromatograph analyzer. On the analyzer side,
An analyzer 10 for measuring a sample and collecting data necessary for analysis, and a data processor 2 for performing predetermined waveform processing and arithmetic processing on the collected data to derive an analysis result.
And a transmission control unit 30 that receives the operation status signal from the analysis unit 10 and the analysis result data from the data processing unit 20 and sends the information to the transmission line.

The analyzer 10 includes a mobile phase solution tank 11, a sample changer 12, an auto injector 13, and a separation column 1.
4, an analysis control unit 16 for controlling the operation of each unit. The transmission control unit 30 includes a message creation unit 31, a data conversion unit 32, and a mail creation unit 3.
3, a registration unit 34 and a transmission unit 35. The analysis control unit 16, the data processing unit 20, and the transmission control unit 30
Is actually configured around a personal computer or a workstation, and the processing of each unit is realized by executing software installed on the personal computer or the like.

On the other hand, the transmission line 40 such as a telephone line is provided with a transmitting station controller 50 and a receiving station controller 54, and the station controllers 50 and 54 have mailboxes 52 and 56, respectively.
Is connected. Further, a terminal device 60 such as a general-purpose personal computer is connected to the transmission line 40 via the receiving station controller 54. Needless to say, the distinction between the transmitting side and the receiving side of the station controller is for convenience of explanation, and actually both have both transmitting and receiving functions.

In the system having the above configuration, the transmission control unit 30
One or a plurality of e-mail addresses for identifying a measurer or the like desiring reception are registered in the registration section 34 in advance. When the analysis is started in the analysis unit 10, the mobile phase solution tank 11
The mobile phase sucked from the separation column 1 has a constant flow rate.
Flowed to 4. The sample is selected in the sample changer 12 in a predetermined order, and the selected sample is
At 3, it is injected into the mobile phase and sent to the separation column 14. Each sample component separated when passing through the separation column 14 is detected by the detector 15, and the detection signal is sent to the data processing unit 20. The operation of each unit is controlled by the analysis control unit 16, and information indicating a predetermined operation state is sent from the analysis control unit 16 to the message creation unit 31 of the transmission control unit 30 along with the analysis. For example, every time the measurement of one sample exchanged by the sample changer 12 is completed, “measurement of sample a”, “measurement of sample b”. . . Is sent. In addition, for example, when an analysis abnormality such as the mobile phase solution runs out during the analysis or a failure occurs in the auto injector 13 occurs, information on the fact of the abnormality occurrence and the cause thereof is sent.

On the other hand, the data processing unit 20 creates a chromatogram based on the detected signal, and performs qualitative analysis and quantitative analysis based on the chromatogram. The original data of these chromatograms and the component names and numerical data of the analysis results are stored in the data conversion unit 32 of the transmission control unit 30.
Is input to

In the transmission control unit 30, the message preparation unit 31 prepares a message explaining the operation status according to the operation status signal input from the analysis control unit 16. For example, when "out of mobile phase solution" is received as an operation status signal, a message "analysis has been interrupted due to running out of mobile phase solution on month o day x hour o minutes" is created. Such a message may be selected from a plurality of messages stored in a memory in advance. On the other hand, the data conversion unit 32 extracts only necessary data from the analysis result data input from the data processing unit 20 and converts the data into an appropriate format as a text text of a mail.
For example, when receiving data including the components obtained by the qualitative and quantitative analysis and the concentration of each component, the data is arranged in a table format without ruled lines so that the data can be easily viewed.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a standard mail form. The mail creation unit 33 receives the message and the text sent from the message creation unit 31 and the data conversion unit 32, respectively, and puts them in the message column of the fixed form of the email. Further, the mail address of the recipient registered in the registration unit 34 is read out, and is transcribed in the transmission destination column of the above-mentioned fixed form. Further, other items such as the transmission date and time are written to complete the mail. 3 and 4 are schematic diagrams showing an example of the created mail. Sending unit 3
5 converts the digital data constituting the mail according to a predetermined rule and sends out the converted data to the transmission line 40. Sending unit 35
For example, a modem device or the like for connecting a personal computer to a telephone line can be used.

The mail sent in this manner is temporarily stored in the mailbox 52 of the transmitting station controller 50. Then, the transmitting-side station controller 50 is immediately sent from the receiving-side station controller 5.
4 and transmitted via the transmission line 40 and stored in the mailbox 56 of the receiving station controller 54.
The recipient registered as the mail address of the transmission destination operates the terminal device 60 at hand to inquire of the receiving station controller 54 whether or not a mail has arrived. If there is an incoming mail addressed to the recipient, a signal indicating the incoming call is sent from the receiving station controller 54 to the terminal device 60. In response, the recipient performs a predetermined operation to enter the mailbox 56.
Then, the mail is drawn out, stored in a memory in the terminal device 60, displayed on a display, or printed out.

Of course, the terminal device 60 periodically (for example, every 10 minutes) inquires of the receiving station controller 54 whether or not there is an incoming call. The mail is transferred to the memory of the terminal device 60, and the recipient
The user may be able to read the e-mail immediately when he operates.

Further, in a configuration in which the terminal device 60 is always connected to the transmission line 40 and stands by so as to be able to receive mail, the terminal device 60 is directly connected without passing through the transmitting station controller 50 and the receiving station controller 54. It is also possible to send an e-mail to the memory of. In particular, when the remote monitoring system of the present invention is used in a transmission network closed in a relatively narrow range, for example, in an intranet or the like, it may be configured without providing a specific station controller.

In any case, the receiver can confirm various information sent from the analyzer only by performing an operation of reading a normal mail. Therefore, it is not necessary to go back to the transmission line from the terminal device side and enter the analysis device side to perform any operation in order to obtain information related to the analysis. In the configuration of FIG. Is a one-way transmission from the former to the latter. For this reason, it is possible to take measures to prevent any intrusion from the outside at the exit of the sending unit 35, so that even when a public telephone line is used as a transmission line, undesired intrusion from outside can be ensured. Can be prevented.

Although the above embodiment has been described with reference to the case where the analyzer is a liquid chromatograph, it is apparent that the present invention can be applied to various analyzers. Furthermore,
The above embodiment is merely an example, and it is apparent that modifications and modifications can be made as appropriate within the scope of the present invention.

[0023]

According to the analysis and monitoring system of the present invention, information relating to analysis is sent by e-mail to a pre-registered transmission destination, so that the receiver has a terminal device capable of receiving the e-mail. Anyone can get information about the analysis at any time and anywhere. Therefore, the receiving side can use commercially available hardware and software, so that the cost can be extremely low. In addition, since the communication cost is only related to the transmission and reception of the mail, the cost can be reduced. Further, even when using an existing e-mail service or the like, information can be sent without receiving external access, so that a highly secure system that prevents unwanted intrusion from the outside can be constructed. .

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing an embodiment of a remote monitoring system for an automatic analyzer according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a standard mail form in the remote monitoring system.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a mail created in the remote monitoring system.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a mail created in the remote monitoring system.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Analysis part 20 ... Data processing part 30 ... Transmission control part 31 ... Message creation part 32 ... Data conversion part 33 ... Mail creation part 34 ... Registration part 35 ... Transmission part 50, 54 ... Station controller 52, 56 ... Mail box 60 … Terminal device

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A remote monitoring system of an automatic analyzer for monitoring various kinds of information relating to automatic analysis at a remote place through a wired or wireless transmission line, wherein: a) a transmitting device generates transmission information in automatic analysis; Information generation means, b) registration means for registering the identification information of the receiver in advance, c) the transmission information as communication content and the identification information registered in the registration means as a transmission destination in a predetermined format A remote monitoring system for an automatic analyzer, comprising: a creating unit that creates a mail; and d) a sending unit that sends out the mail created by the creating unit to a transmission line.