System and method for article monitoring

A system for monitoring a condition of an article comprises a controller; at least one sensor for detecting a characteristic of the article; a signal processor for processing signals from the at least one sensor; a feature extractor that can extract at least one of a range of article conditions from the output from the signal processor and that can evaluate at least one of a range of article conditions, the feature extractor providing feature extractor output to the controller; an operation detector receiving data of detected features of the elements being monitored, the operation detector providing output to the controller; a central system storing historical data about the condition of an article, the off-line processor providing output to the controller. Wherein the controller analyzes the output from the feature extractor, the operation detector, and the central system can provide a system output of the condition of the article.