Handheld portable data terminal having an integrated code reader for data entry and an event-driven touch-screen enabled graphical user interface

• US 20020035637A1
• Filed: 03/29/2001
• Published: 03/21/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 02/14/1994
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Metrologic Instruments Incorporated (Honeywell International Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Metrologic Instruments Incorporated (Honeywell International Inc.)
• Inventors: Donahue, Brett, Simmon, Arnulf
• Application Number:
  US09/821,761
• Publication Number:
  US 20020035637A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/234
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/387 for adaptation of different data processing systems to different peripheral devices, e.g. protocol converters for incompatible systems, open system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2213/3814 Wireless link with a computer system port
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/20 for electronic clinical trials or questionnaires
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/60 for patient-specific data, e.g. for electronic patient records

Abstract

A handheld portable data terminal having an integrated code reader (for example, optical bar-code reader) for data entry and a touch-screen enabled graphical user interface (which may include virtual rolling keys, a scroll bar, virtual key pad, and the like) for interacting with a user to enter user-supplied information. In addition, the data terminal preferably includes a wireless communication interface for data communication with a remote computing device over a wireless communication channel. The data read by the integrated code reader (and possibly communicated to the remote computing device over the wireless communication interface) preferably includes product information, information identifying a medical patient, or information related a medical patient (such as personal information gathered upon admittance for care, information related to past medical history of the medical patient, and information related to vital statistics of the medical patient).

Claims

2. A handheld portable data terminal having an integrated code reader for data entry and a graphical user interface for interacting with a user to enter user-supplied information, wherein the graphical user interface includes:

multiple virtual regions displayed on a display screen, wherein each virtual region corresponds to an event identifier;

a touch screen for sensing location of user contact; and

an event handler for identifying one of the virtual regions that corresponds to the location of user contact, determining a specific event identifier corresponding to the identified virtual region, and processing a predetermined sequence for the specific event identifier.

3. The handheld portable data terminal of claim 2, further comprising a wireless communication interface for communication with a remote computing device over a wireless communication channel.

4. The handheld portable data terminal of claim 2, wherein the code reader comprises an optical bar code reader.

5. The handheld portable data terminal of claim 2, wherein the data comprises product information.

6. The handheld portable data terminal of claim 2, wherein the data comprises information identifying a medical patient.

7. The handheld portable data terminal of claim 2, wherein the data comprises information related a medical patient.

8. The handheld portable data terminal of claim 7, wherein the data comprises one of personal information gathered upon admittance for care, information related to past medical history of the medical patient, and information related to vital statistics of the medical patient.

9. The handheld portable data terminal of claim 8, wherein the vital statistics include one of systolic, diastolic, pulse, temperature and respiratory information.

10. The handheld portable data terminal of claim 2, further comprising a wireless communication interface, that operably couples the data terminal to a remote computer and associated information database via a wireless communication channel.

11. The handheld portable data terminal of claim 10, further comprising local memory storing information loaded from the information database via the wireless communication interface.

12. The handheld portable data terminal of claim 10, wherein the user-supplied information is communicated to the remote computer over the wireless communication interface for storage in the information database.

13. The handheld portable data terminal of claim 10, further comprising a message notification mechanism that notifies the user of receipt of message from the other computing device over the wireless communication channel.

14. The handheld portable data terminal of claim 13, wherein the message notification mechanism generates one of an audio signal, video signal and vibration signal.

15. The handheld portable data terminal of claim 2, wherein the graphical user interface further comprises a virtual keypad displayed on the display screen for entering symbols associated with keys of the keypad.

16. The handheld portable data terminal of claim 2, wherein the graphical user interface further comprises at least one scroll bar displayed on the display screen.

17. The handheld portable data terminal of claim 2, wherein the graphical user interface further comprises at least one scroll bar format and a rolling key format.

18. The handheld portable data terminal of claim 2, wherein the graphical user interface further comprises a menu screen and a graphing screen, wherein each selection from the menu screen corresponds to a virtual region and an associated processing sequence.

19. The handheld portable data terminal of claim 2, wherein each virtual region of the graphical user interface corresponds to a predefined processing sequence which is initiated by the user by contacting the associated virtual region.

20. The handheld portable data terminal of claim 19, wherein the predefined processing sequence involves one of a data entry operation, a data transmit operation that communicates data stored thereto to another computing device, and a code scan operation for data entry.

21. The handheld portable data terminal of claim 15, wherein the graphical user interface further comprises a display screen displaying multiple icons.

22. The handheld portable data terminal of claim 2, wherein the graphical user interface comprises a text input mechanism that enables the user to enter at least a portion of a desired text data, that automatically searches data stored in memory to retrieve text data closest to the portion of desired text data entered, and displays the retrieved text data on the display screen.