Title of Invention

METHOD FOR REMOTE MONITORING AND CONTROLLING OF LONG DURATION AUTOMATIC TEST SUITS THROUGH COMMUNICATION DEVICE

Abstract

The invention relates to remote handling of automatic test suits, using a communication device. According to the invention, a user initiates a test after which he/she may leave the test setup. If the device returns a failure to a particular test case, a separate dedicated task is created. This dedicated task reads and updates a global array with a failed test case 10, and a global string with an error message received from the failed test case. Thereafter, the task sends the error message to ~arrator software, which converts the message string into an audible sound file. Then the dedicated task sends the message to a fax modem. The modem dials a pre-configured communication device number of the user, over a PSTt-J line. After establishing a connection, the modem replays the audible sound file to the user, and waits until a pre-configured timeout for a reply from the user. Subsequently, the user may send a message to stop the test suit, restart it, or simply bypass it, if the failure does not affect any functionality.

Full Text

FIELD OF INVENTION This invention in general relates to remote monitoring of functionalities of testing of electronic devices. Particularly it is about the control of testing in Embedded System electronic devices that have PSTN line connectivity. More particularly specifically this invention relates to a method for remote monitoring and handling of long duration test suits through a communication device. The communication device includes but not limited to telephone, both landline, mobile etc. DESCRIPTION OF RELATED ART There are several testing tools available to test the different type of functionality on the electronic devices. Some of the test suits run for several hours on the device and verify each and every path of device driver that is developed for the devices. Electronic devices like MFP etc have a number of applications, which requires lot of automatic testing on device side as well as on the host side driver (Printer/Scanner driver). Therefore some standard testing like Windows Hardware Quality Lab (WHQL) is required to get Microsoft certified drivers. This driver prints or scans a number of pages and verifies the driver protocol. These types of testing are actually fully automatic and don't require any human intervention theoretically, but if some test gets fail then the later results also have no use full testing needs to execute once again. Because of this behavior one human resource is continuously required to watch the results even then no human intervention is required while running the test cases. The engineer needs to launch the test suits and select the driver to be tested. After selecting the driver engineer starts the test and see all the test case execution. While executing the test case if some test case gets failed then he/she has to stop testing and analyze the failure results. The major limitation is that the engineer needs to keep on watching the test results of each test case and if something gets fail then he needs to do further required processing. Some test suits required hours of time to get completed and in-between a single test case gets fails then full testing use to get waste. In this way one human resource always gets busy and itJs a tedious job for an engineer to see the results continuously for hours. Sometime the failed test case doesn't affect any functionality so the testing can continue with fail results. In relation with the prior art discussion US Patent No. 6,065,136 titled "System for Remote Diagnosis of Device Troubles", which describes a system and a method for remote diagnosis of device troubles using a central operation terminal, is incorporated herein by reference. This patent discloses a system for carrying out remote diagnosis between a maker of a device and its user.. The maker monitors a trouble-diagnosing computer, which can diagnose various troubles occurring in the device. These computers are connected by public telecommunication lines. In addition, the control computer has a diagnostic data memory for storage of diagnostic data. The diagnostic data is used for diagnosing troubles that occur in the device. Further, the trouble-diagnosing computer can read out and save electronic mail messages from the users control computer. The above referenced patent also does not disclose remote monitoring of the results and remote response to a test case failure of an automatic test suit, using atelephone. In the light of the foregoing the present invention proposes a method for remote monitoring and controlling of long duration automatic test suits througha communication device. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The primary object of this invention is therefore to save the time for those test suits which required no human intervention and human resource used only for just watching the test results. It is another object of the invention to provide a method for controlling the test suit remotely so that the engineer may not have to present near the device and he can control the same and get the results from his home itself. It is yet another object of the invention to report the error to the engineer through voice message and according to his instruction stop the test suit, restart it, or simply bypass it in case the failure does not affect any functionality. Accordingly, the present invention provides a method for remote monitoring and controlling of a long duration automatic test suit through a communication device to test the different type of functionality of an electronic device on which a series of test cases are scheduled to operate in tandem, the method comprising the steps of: a. creating a dedicated task in the event of failure of a test case so as to carry out the procedures for reporting the error; b. reading and updating a global array with the failed test case ID, and a global string with an error message received from a failed test; c. sending the error message to a narrator module to convert the message string into an audible sound file; d. sending a message to a fax modem to dial a pre-configured communication device number of a user, over a PSTN line; e. playing an audible sound file to the user after establishing a connection and waiting until a pre-configured timeout for a reply from the user; f. receiving and complying the message from the user to stop the test suit, restart it, or simply bypass in case the failure does not affect any functionality. Other advantages and features of the invention will become more clearly apparent from the following description of the embodiments of the invention given as non-restrictive example only and represented in the accompanying drawings. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE ACCOMPANYING DRAWINGS Figure 1 shows the block diagram for existing system for testing suit operation Figure 2 shows the flow chart of the method according to the invention. . DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The preferred embodiments of the present invention will now be explained with reference to the accompanying drawings. It should be understood however that the disclosed embodiments are merely exemplary of the invention, which may be embodied in various forms. The following description and drawings are not to be construed as limiting the invention and numerous specific details are described to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention, as the basis for the claims and as a basis for teaching one skilled in the art how to make and/or use the invention. However in certain instances, well-known or conventional details are not described in order not to unnecessarily obscure the present invention in detail. The invention provides a method for remotely control the test suits through using a communication device. It calls for modification in both Test Suits software and the device embedded software. Once the device returns some result to the test suit application the test suit application evaluates the same as per standard protocol and if the same is failure then the test suit application sends the message to the device in respect of the same. As per implementing this method the user needs to start test suits Ex WHQL test suits that internally loads the specified driver and start testing. If any test case say the nth test case fails the test suit sends a message for the test case ID and the message string to the device task T. The message will be the same string which test suit application use to write into their log file. The task receives the message and passes the same to narrator software, which converts the message into >wav audible sound file. After that the task send message to modem to dial the pre-configured communication device number and pass the .wav file to create the sound. Then the device dials the pre-configured communication device number of the engineer and play the Narrator software audible sound and waits till pre-configured timeout to get the back response from the engineer The user will get the message on the communication device and then the task T will wait for the user response. Once the user sends response on PSTN line task T it interprets the same. If the message is to STOP testing then the task will break the while loop for waiting and come to ideal state. If the message is for restart testing then the task will fill the global array with the test case ID and send response to test suit to restart testing. He can also send a message to make that particular test case pass (if case doesn't affect any functionality) so that testing can be continue and he/she can get all the results in one sort at the end of testing. In order to establish the communication between Test Suit, Devices and a communication device an user phone is used in this case. The method incorporates the following changes in the system. 1. Adds one separate task (T) which will handle the same functionality. 2. One global array which will hold the failed test case ID (uchTestCase [MAX_TEST_CASE]). 3. One global string hold the error message string received from Test Suit (uchErrorMsg [MAX_ERROR_SIZE]). 4. Narrator software to convert string into audible sound. 5. Audio driver with speaker and PSTN line connection (Fax machine already have the same). In abstract the followings steps are involved in the process. 1 User starts the test suits (Ex. WHQL test suits) and leaves the test setup as it is and proceeds for any other work. 2 Once some test case gets fail the test suit writes the test case ID followed with the error message on either parallel/USB port. 3 The dedicated task T for this method reads the same and update uchTestCase and uchErrorMsg for the same. 4 The Task sends a request to narrator software and passes the error message string to the same and waits for narrator software output. 5 After converting the error message into audible sound the task T sends a response to fax modem to dial the preconfigured number and waits for establishing the connection. 6 When the connection gets established the task T passes the audible file to pass the audible message to the engineer and waits till pre-configured timeout for engineer response is over. 7 On receiving the message he/she dials back to the device over PSTN line and passes the two types of message, one if for stop and other to record the failure and restart testing. According to the method User Interface is provided for enabling/disabling this feature while testing the same. Also Ul will be provided to configure the user phone number for sending the message. The foregoing description of illustrated embodiments of the present invention, including what is described in the Abstract, is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise forms disclosed herein. While specific embodiments of, and examples for, the invention are described herein for illustrative purposes only, various equivalent modifications are possible within the spirit and scope of the present invention, as those skilled in the relevant art will recognize and appreciate. As indicated, these modifications may be made to the present invention in light of the foregoing description of illustrated embodiments of the present invention and are to be included within the spirit and scope of the present invention. 2 Thus, while the present invention has been described herein with reference to particular embodiments thereof, a latitude of modification, various changes and substitutions are intended in the foregoing disclosures, and it will be appreciated that in some instances some features of embodiments of the invention will be employed without a corresponding use of other features without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention as set forth. Therefore, many modifications may be made to adapt a particular situation or material to the essential scope and spirit of the present invention. It is intended that the invention not be limited to the particular terms used in following claims and/or to the particular embodiment disclosed as the best mode contemplated for carrying out this invention, but that the invention will include any and all embodiments and equivalents falling within the scope of the appended claims. WE CLAIM 1. A method for remote monitoring and controlling of a long duration automatic test suit through a communication device to test the different type of functionality of an electronic device on which a series of test cases are scheduled to operate in tandem, the method comprising the steps of: a) creating a dedicated task in the event of failure of a test case so as to carry out the procedures for reporting the error; b) reading and updating a global array with the failed test case ID, and a global string with an error message received from a failed test; c) sending the error message to a narrator module to convert the message string into an audible sound file; d) sending a message to a fax modem to dial a pre-configured communication device number of a user, over a PSTN line; e) playing an audible sound file to the user after establishing a connection and waiting until a pre-configured timeout for a reply from the user; and f) receiving and complying the message from the user to stop the test suit, restart it, or simply bypass in case the failure does not affect any functionality. 2. The method as claimed in claiml wherein the dedicated task breaks the loop for waiting and comes to ideal state if the message from the user is to stop testing. 3. The method according to claiml wherein the dedicated task fills the global array with the test case ID and sends response to test suit to restart testing if the message from the user is to restart testing. 4. The method as claimed in claiml wherein the said global string is the same string that test suit application use to write into their log file. 5. The method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the said test suit writes the failed test case ID and the error message string to parallel port or USB port. 6. The method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the testing suit is WHQL (Windows Hardware Quality Lab). 7. The method as claimed in claim 6 the printer or scanner driver is internally loaded in the test suit to start testing. 8. The method for remote monitoring and controlling of a long duration automatic test suit through a communication device to test the different type of functionality of the electronic device on which a series of test cases are scheduled to operate in tandem, substantially as herein above described and illustrated with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Documents:

156-che-2005-abstract.pdf

156-che-2005-claims filed.pdf

156-che-2005-claims granted.pdf

156-che-2005-correspondnece-others.pdf

156-che-2005-correspondnece-po.pdf

156-che-2005-description(complete) filed.pdf

156-che-2005-description(complete) granted.pdf

156-che-2005-drawings.pdf

156-che-2005-form 1.pdf

156-che-2005-form 13.pdf

156-che-2005-form 18.pdf

156-che-2005-form 26.pdf

156-che-2005-form 5.pdf

156-che-2005-form 9.pdf