PCMCIA interface card coupling input devices such as barcode scanning engines to personal digital assistants and palmtop computers
First Claim
1. An interface circuit, said interface circuit for coupling an input device that can generate electrical signals encoding alphanumeric characters to a host computer with a PCMCIA slot housing a PCMCIA bus connector which is coupled to a system bus of said host computer via a PC card having a PCMCIA bus connector which mates with the PCMCIA bus connector of said host computer, 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 having hardware and software components on both said PC card and within said host computer, and coupled to said decoder circuit on said PC card and to said PCMCIA bus connector on said PC card and coupled to said PCMCIA connector of said host computer, said interface circuit for facilitating 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 for controlling operations of said host computer to retrieve said one or more decoded alphanumeric characters from said PC card via said PCMCIA bus connectors in response to receiving notification of a successful decoding operation.
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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
25 Claims
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1. An interface circuit, said interface circuit for coupling an input device that can generate electrical signals encoding alphanumeric characters to a host computer with a PCMCIA slot housing a PCMCIA bus connector which is coupled to a system bus of said host computer via a PC card having a PCMCIA bus connector which mates with the PCMCIA bus connector of said host computer, comprising:
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on a PC card; 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 having hardware and software components on both said PC card and within said host computer, and coupled to said decoder circuit on said PC card and to said PCMCIA bus connector on said PC card and coupled to said PCMCIA connector of said host computer, said interface circuit for facilitating 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 for controlling operations of said host computer to retrieve said one or more decoded alphanumeric characters from said PC card via said PCMCIA bus connectors in response to receiving notification of a successful decoding operation. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. An interface circuit, 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 coupled to a system bus of said host computer, comprising:
on a PC card having a form factor defined by a PCMCIA specification as it existed as of the time of this patent application; 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 by said input interlace circuit 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 generating data indicative of a successful decoding operation 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 having hardware and software components on both said PC card and within said host computer, and coupled to said decoder circuit and to said PCMCIA bus connector on said PC card and to said PCMCIA bus connector of said host computer, for facilitating coupling of said decoder circuit to said host computer via said PCMCIA bus connectors on said host computer and said PC card such that said notification of a successful decoding operation can be implemented by signals passing between said host computer and said PC card 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 interface circuit includes means for providing access to said nonvolatile memory on said PC card by said host computer either before or after data transfers between said host computer and said decoder circuit on said PC card without rebooting said host computer. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. An interface circuit, said interface circuit for coupling an input device that can generate electrical signals representing alphanumeric characters encoded in spatial patterns of contrasting areas of an image or representing some other type of code which encodes alphanumeric information to a host computer with a PCMCIA slot housing a PCMCIA bus connector, comprising:
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on a PC card having a form factor defined by PCMCIA standards as they existed at the time this patent application was filed; 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 means and to said PCMCIA bus connector on said PC card, for coupling said decoder means 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, said interface circuit for coupling between a barcode scan engine that can generate electrical signals encoding alphanumeric encoded within 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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on a PC card being in the form factor defined by any PCMCIA standard as the PCMCIA standards existed at the time of filing of this patent application; a nonvolatile memory on said PC card for access by said host computer; a barcode scan engine physically attached to said PC card and coupled to supply electrical signals encoding said alphanumeric characters encoded within contrasting patterns of a barcode scanned by said barcode scan engine; an input port for receiving electrical signals from said barcode scan engine resulting from scanning of a barcode; a PCMCIA bus connector; decoder 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 a PCMCIA interface coupled to said decoder circuit and to said PCMCIA bus connectors on said PC card and on said host computer, 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 for controlling said host computer 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 controlling said host computer so as to be able to access both to said alphanumeric characters generated by said decoder and data stored in said nonvolatile memory without rebooting said host computer. - View Dependent Claims (21)
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22. An interface circuit, said interface circuit for coupling between an input device that can generate electrical signals encoding alphanumeric characters to a host computer having a PCMCIA slot housing a PCMCIA bus connector via a PC card, comprising:
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an input port for receiving electrical signals from said input device that can generate electrical signals encoding said alphanumeric characters said electrical signals having a varying amplitude; 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 sample 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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Specification