PCMIA interface card for coupling input devices such as barcode scanning engines to personal digital assistants and palmtop computers
First Claim
1. An interface circuit in the form factor of a PCMCIA defined PC card, said interface circuit for coupling between an input device that can generate electrical signals encoding alphanumeric characters and a host computer with a PCMCIA slot housing a PCMCIA bus connector, comprising:
- an input port for receiving said electrical signals from said input device;
a PCMCIA bus connector;
a decoder circuit coupled to said input port so as to receive said electrical signals, said decoder circuit for decoding said electrical signals to generate one or more alphanumeric characters and for notifying said host computer when at least one successful decoding operation has occurred and at least one alphanumeric character resulting from decoding operations is available on said PC card for access by said host computer; and
an interface circuit coupled to said decoder circuit and to said PCMCIA bus connector on said PC card, for facilitating coupling of said decoder circuit to said host computer via said PCMCIA bus connectors such that said notification of a successful decoding operation can be passed to said host computer via said PCMCIA bus connectors and so that said host computer can retrieve said one or more decoded alphanumeric characters from said PC card via said bus connectors.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A variety of PC card interfaces to interface from many different types of input devices to Personal Digital Assistants or palmtop computers through PCMCIA slots. The disclosed interfaces can receive data in undecoded format from laser based, wand based or CCD based barcode scanning engines, decode the data to alphanumeric characters and pass the decoded data to the PDA via the PCMCIA 68 pin bus. Other PC card based interfaces are also disclosed which can accept input data in the form of ASCII or EBCDIC characters from virtually any type of input device which a standard serial or parallel output or custom output bus and input that data to the PDA through the PCMCIA bus. Some embodiments use programmed general purpose microprocessors to decode undecoded barcode scan data on the PC card. Other embodiments use custom-programmed, commercially available barcode decoding chips to decode incoming undecoded barcode scan data. Some embodiments of PC card interfaces sample undecoded barcode scan signals and pass the samples to the host through the PCMCIA bus for decoding by a suitably programmed host computer.
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Citations
35 Claims
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1. An interface circuit in the form factor of a PCMCIA defined PC card, said interface circuit for coupling between an input device that can generate electrical signals encoding alphanumeric characters and a host computer with a PCMCIA slot housing a PCMCIA bus connector, comprising:
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an input port for receiving said electrical signals from said input device;
a PCMCIA bus connector;
a decoder circuit coupled to said input port so as to receive said electrical signals, said decoder circuit for decoding said electrical signals to generate one or more alphanumeric characters and for notifying said host computer when at least one successful decoding operation has occurred and at least one alphanumeric character resulting from decoding operations is available on said PC card for access by said host computer; and
an interface circuit coupled to said decoder circuit and to said PCMCIA bus connector on said PC card, for facilitating coupling of said decoder circuit to said host computer via said PCMCIA bus connectors such that said notification of a successful decoding operation can be passed to said host computer via said PCMCIA bus connectors and so that said host computer can retrieve said one or more decoded alphanumeric characters from said PC card via said bus connectors. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. An interface circuit in the form factor of a PCMCIA defined PC card, said interface circuit for coupling between an input device that can generate electrical signals encoding alphanumeric characters and a host computer with a PCMCIA slot housing a PCMCIA bus connector, comprising:
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nonvolatile memory for access by said host computer;
an input interface circuit for receiving electrical signals from said input device in whatever form they are sent and converting them to a useable form;
a PCMCIA bus connector;
a decoder circuit coupled to said input interface circuit so as to receive said electrical signals after conversion to a form useable by said decoder circuit, said decoder circuit for decoding said electrical signals to generate one or more alphanumeric characters encoded in said electrical signals and for notifying said host computer when at least one successful decoding operation has occurred and at least one alphanumeric character resulting from decoding operations is available on said PC card for access by said host computer; and
an interface circuit coupled to said decoder circuit and to said PCMCIA bus connector on said PC card, for facilitating coupling of said decoder circuit to said host computer via said PCMCIA bus connectors such that said notification of a successful decoding operation can be passed to said host computer via said PCMCIA bus connectors in the form of an interrupt and so that said host computer can retrieve said one or more decoded alphanumeric characters from said PC card via said PCMCIA bus connectors. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. An interface circuit in the form factor of a PCMCIA defined PC card, said interface circuit for coupling between an input device that can generate electrical signals encoding the spatial patterns of contrasting areas of an image or representing some other type of code which encodes alphanumeric information and a host computer with a PCMCIA slot housing a PCMCIA bus connector, comprising:
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an input port for receiving electrical signals from said input device;
a PCMCIA bus connector;
decoder means coupled to said input port so as to receive said electrical signals, for decoding said electrical signals to generate one or more alphanumeric characters encoded in said electrical signals and for notifying said host computer when at least one successful decoding operation has occurred and at least one alphanumeric character resulting from decoding operations is available on said PC card for access by said host computer; and
PCMCIA interface means coupled to said decoder circuit and to said PCMCIA bus connector on said PC card, for coupling said decoder circuit to said host computer via said PCMCIA bus connectors such that said notification of a successful decoding operation can be passed to said host computer via said PCMCIA bus connectors and so that said host computer can retrieve said one or more decoded alphanumeric characters from said PC card via said PCMCIA bus connectors. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19)
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20. An interface circuit in the form factor of a PCMCIA defined PC card, said interface circuit for coupling between a barcode scan engine that can generate electrical signals encoding the spatial patterns of contrasting areas of a barcode and a host computer with a PCMCIA slot housing a PCMCIA bus connector, comprising:
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a nonvolatile memory on said PC card for access by said host computer, and wherein said PC card can operate in I/O mode or memory mode;
a barcode scan engine physically attached to said PC card and coupled to supply to said input port electrical signals encoding the contrasting patterns of a barcode therein;
an input port for receiving electrical signals from said barcode scan engine resulting from scanning of a barcode;
a PCMCIA bus connector;
decoder means coupled to said input port so as to receive said electrical signals, for decoding said electrical signals to generate one or more alphanumeric characters encoded in the spatial patterns of said barcode and for notifying said host computer when at least one successful decoding operation has occurred and at least one alphanumeric character resulting from decoding operations is available on said PC card for access by said host computer; and
PCMCIA interface means coupled to said decoder circuit and to said PCMCIA bus connector on said PC card, for coupling said decoder circuit to said host computer via said PCMCIA bus connectors such that said notification of a successful decoding operation can be passed to said host computer via said PCMCIA bus connectors and so that said host computer can retrieve said one or more decoded alphanumeric characters from said PC card via said PCMCIA bus connectors, and wherein said, PCMCIA interface means includes means for providing access by said host computer both to said alphanumeric characters generated by said decoder means and data stored in said nonvolatile memory, access to said alphanumeric characters generated by said decoder being via I/O mode transactions and access to data stored in said nonvolatile memory via memory mode transactions. - View Dependent Claims (21)
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22. An interface circuit in the form factor of a PCMCIA defined PC card, said interface circuit for coupling between an input device that can generate electrical signals encoding alphanumeric characters and a host computer having a PCMCIA slot housing a PCMCIA bus connector, comprising:
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an input port for receiving electrical signals from said input device that can generate electrical signals encoding the spatial patterns of said image;
a PCMCIA bus connector for coupling to said PCMCIA bus connector of said host computer;
a PCMCIA interface adapter circuit coupled to receive said electrical signal from said input port, for converting said electrical signals into a plurality of digital sample values representing the amplitude of said electrical signals at various times and for coupling said sample values to said host computer through said PCMCIA bus connectors, said digital sample values for decoding into alphanumeric characters by said host computer. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24, 25)
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26. A process for decoding on a PC card alphanumeric characters from electrical signals generated by an input device encoding alphanumeric characters which are received by said PC card, comprising:
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receiving a signal that operation by said input device is desired;
sending a signal to said input device to cause operation of said input device to start generation of said electrical signals; and
decoding said electrical signals into alphanumeric characters on said PC card. - View Dependent Claims (27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34)
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35. A process for controlling a host computer to determine the base address for one or more registers mapped into the I/O space of a PCMCIA PC card and for determining the interrupt number of said PC card, comprising the steps of:
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controlling said host computer with card services, memory technology driver and socket services software routines so as to provide to barcode client applications with an interface for performing transactions with said PC card;
controlling said host computer to execute a barcode client application and register said barcode client application with a card services software layer as a client;
controlling said host computer using said card services software routine to assign an interrupt number to a PC card when a new PC card is inserted into a PCMCIA slot of said host computer, and to assign a base address in the I/O space of said PC card to one or more registers or memories on said PC card;
controlling said host computer using said memory technology driver software routine to retrieve from the card services layer and store the interrupt number and base address of the PC card assigned by said card services layer;
controlling said host computer using said barcode client application to interrogate said card services layer to obtain data regarding the first registered client in a list of clients registered with said card services routine and controlling said host computer using said barcode client application to pass to said card services routine a get client information command having a predetermined argument;
controlling said host computer using said card services routine to pass said get client information command and said predetermined argument to said first registered client;
controlling said host computer using said memory technology driver routine if said PC card is the first registered client so as to respond to the get client information command by generating a message having unique identification data at a first predetermined offset from the beginning of said message and having the interrupt number and the base address of the PC card at a second predetermined offset from the start of the message and to send said message to said card services routine;
controlling said host computer using said card services routine to receive a message returned from said first registered client in response to said get client information call and pass the returned message to said barcode client routine;
controlling said host computer using said barcode client software routine to examine the returned message from the first registered client to determine if the message contains unique signature data indicating said first register client is said PC card;
if the first registered client is not said PC card, repeating the above described process of interrogating the card services layer to determine the next registered client on the list of registered clients and sending a get client information command with said predetermined argument to said next registered client and examining the returned message to determine if the next registered client is the PC card and repeating this process of all registered clients until the PC card client is found;
after the PC card client is found, reading said interrupt and said base address from said second predetermined offset location in said message returned from said memory technology driver routine;
controlling said computer using said barcode client application to pass the interrupt number to an operating system of said host computer for storage in an interrupt vector table;
when an interrupt is received from said PC card, controlling said computer using said barcode client application and using said base address to control addressing in an I/O transaction carried out by said barcode client application with said PC card to retrieve data from said PC card.
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Specification