MULTI-FUNCTIONAL MOBILE COMPUTING DEVICE UTILIZING A REMOVABLE PROCESSOR MODULE

• US 20100001076A1
• Filed: 07/24/2008
• Published: 01/07/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 07/01/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Symbol Technologies, LLC (Zebra Technologies Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Symbol Technologies, Inc. (Zebra Technologies Corporation)
• Inventors: Wulff, Thomas E.
• Granted Patent: US 7,959,084 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 235/472.02
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 17/0022 arrangements or provisions for transferring data to distant stations, e.g. from a sensing device "transfer between computer elements G06F13/00 "; data-transmission H04L

Abstract

A system and techniques for reading product indicia is disclosed. The system includes a mobile computing headset and a wearable data-capture accessory. The mobile computing headset preferably includes a removable processing module shaped and sized to be attachable to the wearable data-capture accessory and one or more communication modules to communicate information between the data-capture accessory and existing infrastructure devices. The data-capture accessory includes a product indicia reader and a communication module for transmitting information to and from the mobile headset.

Claims

1. A system for reading product indicia comprising:

a data-capture accessory comprising a product indicia reader and a first communication module capable of receiving and sending radio communications; and

a support device comprising a removably coupled processing module shaped and sized for attachment to said data-capture accessory, said processing module including a second communication module capable of receiving and sending radio communications to said first communication module.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein said product indicia reader comprises a 2D imager for barcode reading.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein said product indicia reader comprises a UHF EPC reader.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein said support device is a mobile headset.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein said data-capture accessory comprises a user interface selected from the group consisting essentially of a display window, buttons, light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and combinations thereof.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein said processing module comprises a CPU and memory selected from the group consisting essentially of random access memory and flash memory.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein said memory comprises a mobile computing operating system configured to execute on said data-capture accessory.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein said mobile computing operating system is transported to said data-capture accessory.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein said data-capture accessory is at least one of a finger mount device, wrist mounted device, hand-held device, and a fixed-mounted device.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein said processing module comprises a third communication module for communication with an Internet-based network infrastructure using an Internet based protocol.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein said processing module comprises a removable chargeable battery.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein said data-capture accessory comprises a chargeable battery pack.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein said processing module comprises voice recognition software to translate voice commands to electronic instructions for execution by said data-capture accessory.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein said processing module further comprises a noise canceling audio module to enhance voice command translation.