The invention provides a method and device for characterizing a vehicle's emissions.
These systems feature the steps of generating a data set from the vehicle that
includes at least one of the following: diagnostic trouble codes, status of a MIL,
and data relating to I/M readiness flags; and then transferring the data set to
a wireless appliance that features a microprocessor and a wireless transmitter
in electrical contact with the microprocessor. The wireless appliance then transmits
a data packet comprising the data set (or a version of the data set) with the wireless
transmitter over an airlink to a wireless communication system. Here, 'a version
of the data set' means a representation (e.g., a binary representation) of data
in the data set, or data calculated or related to data in the data set.
