Self-contained portable computing unit

• US 6,129,449 A
• Filed: 02/14/1995
• Issued: 10/10/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 10/27/1988
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Texas Instruments, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Texas Instruments, Inc.
• Inventors: McCain, Joseph H., Webb, E. R., Lueders, William R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Donaghue, Larry D.
• Application Number:
  US08/389,087
• Time in Patent Office: 2,065 Days
• Field of Search: 395/800, 395/775, 340/310, 340/712-721, 340/310.6, 364/708-711, 364/479.14, 365/800, 235/380, 235/382, 235/462, 235/472, 399/80, 399/79, 713/185, 712/1, 361/636, 361/679, 361/684, 361/690, 361/681, 345/23, 345/116, 345/197, 345/173, 705/28, 708/134, 708/163
• US Class Current: 700/244
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/4063 Monitoring general control system G05B19/4062 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/4184 characterised by fault tolerance, reliability of production system
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/4185 characterised by the network communication
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/33207 Physical means, radio, infra red, ultrasonic, inductive link
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/36159 Detachable or portable programming unit, display, pc, pda
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/36168 Touchscreen
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2294 by remote test
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/02 Total factory control, e.g. smart factories, flexible manufacturing systems [FMS] or integrated manufacturing systems [IMS]

Abstract

A data and communication system including a hand-held unit (17) and an infrared communication satellite (10) is used to provide for the interchange of data between a host computer (13), individual personal computers (15), the hand-held computing unit (17) and factory machinery, including process controllers.

Claims

1. A self-contained portable handheld computing unit, comprising:

a processor unit to process data for the self-contained portable handheld computing unit;

a boot ROM having data to boot the self-contained portable handheld computing unit;

an input/output ROM to input and output data for the self-contained portable handheld computing unit;

at least one input/output port to input and output data;

a communication interface to interface with the self-contained portable handheld computing unit;

a RAM memory;

a display to display data for said self-contained portable handheld computing unit;

a display touch scanner to input data for said self-contained portable handheld computing unit; and

an optical disk interface to interface with stored data for the self-contained portable handheld computing unit,

wherein the communication interface is an infrared communication interface.

2. The self-contained portable handheld computing unit as in claim 1, including a compact disk system.

3. The self-contained portable handheld computing unit as in claim 1, including additional ROM memory structured as a ROM disk memory, with the characteristics of a standard disk memory.

4. The self-contained portable handheld computing unit as in claim 1, including additional interfaces to interface with bar code readers and digital read-out equipment.

5. The self-contained portable handheld computing unit as in claim 1, including a host development interface, to interface the self-contained portable handheld computing unit with other self-contained portable handheld computing units having disk drives therein, and communicating with the disk drives in the other self-contained portable handheld computing units from the self-contained portable handheld computing unit.

6. The self-contained portable handheld computing unit as in claim 2, wherein the optical disk interface is removable from the computing unit.

7. The self-contained portable handheld computing unit as in claim 2, wherein the optical disk is a 600 Megabyte compact disk read only memory.

8. The self-contained portable handheld computing unit as in claim 1, wherein the display is a liquid crystal display and is programmable to have touch sensitive areas on the screen for input to the self-contained portable handheld computing unit.

9. The self-contained portable handheld computing unit as in claim 1, wherein the infrared communications interface, includes infrared transmit and received circuits to provide infrared communications to and from the self-contained portable handheld computing unit.

10. The self-contained portable handheld computing unit as in claim 1, wherein the communication interface is addressable and is capable of automatically receiving communications addressed to the self-contained portable handheld computing unit via the communication interface.

11. The self-contained portable handheld computing unit as in claim 1, including at least one serial input/output port, an optical disk port, and at least one parallel interface port.

12. The self-contained portable handheld computing unit as in claim 1, including a rechargeable battery power supply and a circuit for induction recharging of the batteries in the self-contained portable handheld computing unit.

13. The self-contained portable handheld computing unit as in claim 8, wherein the display is operable in a split screen mode to provide both graphics and text displays simultaneously.

14. The self-contained portable handheld computing unit as in claim 8, wherein the touch input is programmable to provide a matrix keypad and graphics icon input.

15. The self-contained portable handheld computing unit as in claim 8, including first and second processor units for independently programming each half of the display screen for text and graphic display.

16. The self-contained portable handheld computing unit as in claim 1, wherein the screen is programmable to display multiple menus, including touch sensitive areas on each menu to provide for item selection from the menu.

17. The self-contained portable handheld computing unit as in claim 16, wherein highlighted words or highlighted displayed graphic figures may be touched to display additional information.

18. A self-contained portable handheld unit, comprising:

a processor unit to process data for the self-contained portable handheld computing unit;

a boot ROM including programming for initialization of the self-contained portable handheld computing unit;

an input/output ROM to input and output data for a self-contained portable handheld unit;

at least one input/output port coupled to input/output ROM;

a communication interface for automatic addressing and communication with the self-contained portable handheld unit from a remote source;

a RAM memory to store data for said self-contained portable handheld computing unit;

a display to display data from said self-contained portable handheld unit;

a display touch scanner to input data to said self-contained portable handheld unit; and

an optical disk interface to store data for said self-contained portable handheld unit,

wherein the communication interface is an infrared communication interface.

19. The self-contained portable handheld unit as in claim 18, including an optical disk interface and an optical disk system.

20. The self-contained portable handheld unit as in claim 19, wherein the optical disk interface is removable from self-contained portable handheld unit.

21. Self-contained portable handheld unit as in claim 19, wherein the optical disk is a 600 Megabyte compact disk read only memory.

22. The self-contained portable handheld unit as in claim 18, wherein the display is a liquid crystal display and is programmable to have touch sensitive areas on the screen for input to the self-contained portable handheld unit.

23. The self-contained portable handheld unit as in claim 18, wherein the infrared communications interface, includes infrared transmit and receive circuits to provide infrared communications to and from the self-contained portable handheld unit.

24. The self-contained portable handheld unit as in claim 18, wherein the communication interface is addressable and is capable of automatically receiving communications addressed to the computing unit via the circuit communication interface.

25. The self-contained portable handheld unit as in claim 18, including at least one serial input/output port, an optical disk port, and at least one parallel interface port.

26. The self-contained portable handheld unit as in claim 18, including a rechargeable battery power supply and a circuit for induction recharging of the batteries in the self-contained portable handheld unit.

27. The self-contained portable handheld unit as in claim 22, wherein the display is operable in split screen mode to provide both graphics and text displays.

28. The self-contained portable handheld unit as in claim 22, wherein the screen is programmable to provide a matrix keypad.

29. The self-contained portable handheld unit as in claim 22, wherein the screen is programmable to provide graphic icon input.

30. The self-contained portable handheld unit as in claim 22, including first and second processor units for independently programming each half of the display screen for text and graphic display.

31. The self-contained portable handheld unit as in claim 18, wherein the screen is programmable to display multiple menus, including touch sensitive areas on each menu to provide for item selection from the menu.

32. A self-contained portable handheld unit, comprising, a processor unit to process data for self-contained portable handheld computing unit, a boot ROM including programming for initialization of the self-contained portable handheld computing unit, an input/output ROM in input and output data for the self-contained portable handheld computing unit, at least one input/output port coupled to the self-contained portable handheld computing unit, a RAM memory, an infrared communication interface for automatic addressing and communication with the self-contained portable handheld computing unit from a remote source, a display for the self-contained portable handheld computing unit, said display being programmable to display multiple menus, including touch sensitive areas on each of said multiple menus to provide for item selection from the menus, a split screen circuit to provide both simultaneous text and graphic screen on said display, and a display touch scanner to scan said touch sensitive areas.