PCMCIA interface card for coupling input devices such as barcode scanning engines to personal digital assistants and palmtop computers

• US 6,536,670 B1
• Filed: 03/15/2000
• Issued: 03/25/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 04/29/1994
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Datalogic Mobile Incorporated (Datalogic S.p.A.), Datalogic Scanning Incorporated (Datalogic S.p.A.), TPS Electronics
• Original Assignee: PSC Scanning, Inc. (Datalogic ADC Incorporated)
• Inventors: Fish, Ronald C., Postman, Joel R., Miller, George B.
• Primary Examiner(s): Frech, Karl D.
• Application Number:
  US09/526,710
• Time in Patent Office: 1,105 Days
• Field of Search: 235/462.01, 235/462.13, 235/462.45, 235/472.01, 235/487, 235/492, 235/380
• US Class Current: 235/487
• CPC Class Codes: G01D 2213/10 Drivers for gauges
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1626 with a single-body enclosure integrating a flat display, e.g. Personal Digital Assistants [PDAs]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1632 External expansion units, e.g. docking stations
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/00 Input arrangements for transferring data to be processed into a form capable of being handled by the computer; Output arrangements for transferring data from processing unit to output unit, e.g. interface arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/002 Specific input/output arrangements not covered by G06F3/01 - G06F3/16 other optical apparatus G02B27/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/023 Arrangements for converting discrete items of information into a coded form, e.g. arrangements for interpreting keyboard generated codes as alphanumeric codes, operand codes or instruction codes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/038 Control and interface arrangements therefor, e.g. drivers or device-embedded control circuitry
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0383 Signal control means within the pointing device

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.

Claims

1. A PC card removably insertable into a slot of a host computer, comprising

a PCMCIA bus;

a PCMCIA interface circuit coupled to said PCMCIA bus;

an input device physically integrated with or mounted on said PC card for obtaining information from an external source and generating an undecoded signal corresponding thereto;

a decoder circuit coupled to said PCMCIA interface circuit for decoding said undecoded signal received from said input device, said decoder functioning to receive said undecoded signals from said input device, decode them and generate alphanumeric characters as the result of said decoding;

an auxiliary memory on said PC card coupled to said decoder circuit for storing data decoded by said decoder circuit until it can be transferred to said host computer and acting as an expansion memory for said host computer accessible through said PCMCIA bus.

2. A barcode decoding system, comprising

a PCMCIA card having a PCMCIA bus;

a PCMCIA interface circuit on said PCMCIA card and coupled to said PCMCIA bus;

a barcode scanning engine coupled to said PCMCIA interface circuit for supplying undecoded barcode scan signals;

a palmtop or portable host computer having a PCMCIA slot and coupled to said PCMCIA card via said PCMCIA bus, said host computer controlled by a decoder program to retrieve data from said PCMCIA card and decode alphanumeric characters therefrom;

an auxiliary nonvolatile memory on said PCMCIA card coupled to said host computer through said PCMCIA bus and acting as an expansion memory for said host computer accessible through said PCMCIA bus.

3. A barcode decoding system, comprising:

a PCMCIA card having a PCMCIA bus;

a PCMCIA interface circuit on said PCMCIA card and coupled to said PCMCIA bus;

an input device coupled to said PCMCIA interface circuit and supplying serial format data thereto, said input device located off said PCMCIA card and coupled to an input of said PC card by a serial format data path via a cable;

a palmtop or portable host computer having a PCMCIA slot and coupled to said PCMCIA card via said PCMCIA bus, said host computer controlled by a decoder program to retrieve undecoded barcode scan data from said PCMCIA card and decode alphanumeric characters therefrom;

wherein said PCMCIA card includes nonvolatile memory coupled to said PCMCIA interface circuit and acting as expansion memory for said host computer accessible through said PCMCIA bus.

4. The system of claim 3 wherein said memory comprises nonvolatile flash EEPROM memory coupled to said PCMCIA interface circuit for storing configuration data for said PCMCIA interface circuit.

5. A barcode scanning system comprising:

a host computer having a system bus and a PCMCIA bus coupled to said system bus and controlled by a barcode decoding program to receive undecoded barcode sample data and decode alphanumeric data encoded therein;

a barcode scan engine of the laser or wand type mounted off said PC card and outputting undecoded signals encoding alphanumeric characters;

a PC card comprising;

a PCMCIA bus coupled to said PCMCIA bus of said host computer;

an input coupled to receive undecoded signals from said barcode scan engine;

a PCMCIA adapter chip coupled to said PCMCIA bus and coupled to said barcode scan engine via said input and functioning to receive said undecoded signals from said barcode scan engine and transfer said signals to a host computer through said PCMCIA bus;

nonvolatile memory accessible as expansion memory to said host computer through said PCMCIA bus.

6. A system comprising:

a PCMCIA card having a PCMCIA bus connector and an undecoded barcode scan engine integrated or mounted thereon which generates an undecoded barcode scan signal that encodes the light and dark patterns of a barcode and further having a sampling and PCMCIA interface adapter means coupled to receive said undecoded barcode scan signal and coupled to said PCMCIA bus connector, for generating compressed sample data of said undecoded barcode scan signal by determining a count value in a running count at the time of every transition of said undecoded barcode scan signal above or below a reference voltage level and storing said counts in a memory and generating an interrupt at predetermined times;

a host computer in the form of a palmtop or personal digital assistant having a PCMCIA slot having said PCMCIA card engaged therewith with the PCMCIA bus connector of said PCMCIA card in electrical contact with a PCMCIA bus connector in said PCMCIA slot, said host computer having a PCMCIA bus controller circuit coupled to said PCMCIA bus for receiving said interrupt signal from said PCMCIA card and putting an interrupt number assigned to said PCMCIA card on a host bus of said host computer and for reading data from a data bus which is part of said PCMCIA bus and making it available directly or indirectly to a barcode decoding process controlling execution by said host, said host computer programmed with software to control said host computer to detect the presence of said PCMCIA card and assign an interrupt number to said PCMCIA card and mapping said memory of said PCMCIA card into either the I/O space or memory space of said host computer, and for controlling said computer to execute a predetermined interrupt service routine when said interrupt of said PCMCIA card is detected, said interrupt service routine controlling said computer to read said memory of said PCMCIA card using either memory or I/O cycles and store the undecoded barcode scan signal data stored in said memory on said PCMCIA card in a memory of said host computer, said software of said host computer also structured to control said host computer to decode alphanumeric characters encoded in said undecoded barcode scan signal.

7. 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:

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.

8. A portable data reading system, comprising handheld computer having a display and an externally accessible card slot including a plug connector;

an interface module removably insertable into the card slot, said interface module including;

an end connector for connection into the plug connector of the handheld computer,

a module housing comprised of a first housing section and a second housing section,

an interface card being disposed within said first housing section and including an interface bus connected to the end connector and a nonvolatile memory serving as expansion memory to the handheld computer accessible through said interface bus, and

a laser scanner disposed within said second housing section, wherein the first and second housing sections are joined or permanently affixed together to form an integrated module housing,

wherein the laser scanner scans optical codes and produces an electrical signal corresponding thereto and the interface card includes circuitry for converting said electrical signal into a standard interface format for communication to the handheld computer.

9. A method of data reading comprising the steps of

forming a module housing to include an interface card section and a data input device section, the interface card section comprising a printed circuit board with (a) an end connector at one end thereof, and (b) nonvolatile memory;

providing a handheld computer with a card slot and a plug connector at one end of the card slot for accepting the end connector of the interface card section;

inserting the interface card section into the card slot for connecting the end connector with the electrical connector of the card slot;

using the data input device to obtain data from an object and producing an electrical signal corresponding to the data obtained;

sending the electrical signal to the interface card;

processing the signal in the interface card and converting the signal in circuitry on the interface card into a standardized format for transmission through the connectors from the interface card to the handheld computer;

the handheld computer accessing the nonvolatile memory on the interface card section as expansion memory.

10. A device for interfacing a barcode reader to a host such as a palmtop computer, personal digital assistant, or desktop computer including a PCMCIA slot having a PCMCIA bus connector and programmed by PCMCIA driver software to perform input/output cycles and/or memory cycles through said PCMCIA slot and said PCMCIA bus connector, said device comprising:

a PC card having

a PCMCIA interface circuit integrated thereon,

a PCMCIA bus and PCMCIA bus connector, and

a housing integrated thereon or attached thereto;

a barcode scanning device comprising a laser, scanning optics, a photodetector, and comparator circuitry coupled to receive analog output of said photodetector and convert said analog output to an undecoded digital signal, said laser, scanning optics, photodetector and comparator circuitry disposed in said housing;

and wherein said PCMCIA interface circuit comprises;

a nonvolatile memory coupled to said PCMCIA interface circuit and to said host through said PCMCIA bus for storing digital data and/or program data, and

decoding circuitry coupled to said comparator circuitry for receiving said undecoded digital signal and for decoding said undecoded digital signal into one or more characters and generating an interrupt to said host;

and wherein said PCMCIA interface circuitry cooperates with said PCMCIA driver software on said host to allow said host to retrieve decoded barcode characters from said PC card without blocking access by said host to any program or other data stored in said nonvolatile memory.

11. The device of claim 10 wherein said PCMCIA interface circuit further comprises:

a switch responsive to said decoding circuitry for cutting off power to said barcode scanning device after a successful decoding operation,

input/output circuitry coupled to said decoding circuitry for transferring said characters to said host through said PCMCIA bus connector of said PC card and the PCMCIA bus connector of the host in response to either an input/output cycle or a memory cycle carried out by said host.

12. The device of claim 10 further comprising a wireless or non-wireless local area network interface for transmitting said decoded alphanumeric characters to other computers coupled to said wireless local area network.

13. The device of claim 10 further comprising a serial and/or parallel interface circuit and an external peripheral port on said PC card for receiving decoded characters or undecoded signals from external peripheral devices, and wherein said interface circuitry includes input/output circuitry to transfer data received at said external peripheral port to said host.

14. A handheld computer with PCMCIA expansion memory card that can also read barcodes, comprising:

a PC card having;

a PCMCIA interface circuit integrated thereon,

a PCMCIA bus and PCMCIA bus connector, and

a housing integrated thereon or attached thereto;

a barcode scanning device disposed in said housing for scanning barcodes and outputting an undecoded signal representing a barcode;

and wherein said PCMCIA interface circuit comprises;

decoding circuitry coupled to said barcode scanning device and said PCMCIA bus connector, for receiving said undecoded signal and for decoding said undecoded signal into characters for use by the host;

an expansion memory coupled to said decoding circuitry and said PCMCIA interface circuit and coupled to said host through said PCMCIA bus for storing digital data and allowing access thereto by either said PCMCIA interface circuit or said decoder circuitry or said host via said PCMCIA bus;

and wherein said PCMCIA interface circuitry is structured to allow said host to have read and write access to said expansion memory through said PCMCIA bus under control of a PCMCIA socket driver; and

a portable host computer such as a palmtop computer, personal digital assistant or personal communicator, said host computer including a PCMCIA slot and a PCMCIA bus connector into which said PC card is plugged, said host programmed by replacement PCMCIA driver software controlling said host computer to perform input/output transactions through said PCMCIA slot and said PCMCIA bus connector with said expansion memory and PCMCIA adapter circuit such that data can be read from and written to said expansion memory through said PCMCIA bus and data can be read from and written to said PCMCIA adapter circuitry and/or said decoder circuitry to control barcode scanning operations by said PC card and receive data resulting therefrom.

15. The device of claim 14 wherein said characters decoded by said decoding circuitry are stored in said expansion memory, and wherein said expansion memory is nonvolatile memory, and further comprising means for notifying the host when one or more characters have been stored in said expansion memory.

16. A data reading system comprising:

a handheld host such as a palmtop computer or personal digital assistant including an externally-accessible slot or docking bay having a plug connector;

a small removable peripheral device which engages said slot or docking bay and is mechanically supported thereby, including;

a memory,

interface circuitry to implement an interface circuit to interface said peripheral device to said host and said memory,

an interface bus and a plug connector coupled to said interface circuit and said memory, for mating with said plug connector in said slot of said host, wherein said memory comprises expansion memory usable by said host via said interface bus,

a barcode scanning device for scanning a barcode and outputting an undecoded signal representing the barcode, and wherein said interface circuitry transfers said undecoded signal to said host via said memory and said interface bus,

a housing integrated on said small removable peripheral device or attached thereto enclosing and protecting said circuitry and said barcode scanning device.

17. The apparatus of claim 16 wherein said memory is nonvolatile, and further comprising client application software stored in said memory on said small removable peripheral device for execution by the host to receive said undecoded signal from said barcode scanning device via said interface bus and plug connector and decode said undecoded signal into one or more characters encoded in said barcode.

18. The apparatus of claim 16 wherein said interface circuitry on said small removable peripheral implements one or more additional memories wherein one of said additional memories is nonvolatile expansion memory for storing client application software that controls said host, and wherein said interface circuitry also implements a barcode decoder coupled to receive said undecoded signal representing the barcode from said barcode scanning device and functioning to decode said undecoded signal to derive one or more characters encoded in said barcode and store said characters in one of said memories, and wherein said host is programmed to execute said client application software directly from said nonvolatile memory on said small removable peripheral to control said barcode scanning device and retrieve said one or more characters decoded by said barcode scanning device from said memory in which said characters are stored via said interface bus and plug connector.

19. The apparatus of claim 16 wherein said interface circuitry implements one or more memories wherein one of said memories is nonvolatile and stores client application software, and wherein said interface circuitry implements a barcode decoder coupled to receive said undecoded signal representing the barcode from said barcode scanning device and functioning to decode said undecoded signal to derive one or more alphanumeric or other characters encoded in said barcode and transmit said one or more characters to said host through said interface bus and plug connector without interfering with execution by said host of application software stored in said nonvolatile memory through said interface bus or uploading of application software stored in said nonvolatile memory to said host through said interface bus or reading or writing by computer programs executing on said host of any digital data to one or more memories on said small removable peripheral through said interface bus.

20. A data reading system comprising:

a handheld host such as a palmtop computer or personal digital assistant including an externally-accessible slot or docking bay having an industry standard mechanical configuration which provides mechanical support at the edges of removable peripheral devices which engage said slot or docking bay, said slot or docking bay including an industry standard plug or bus connector, said host also having memory for storing computer programs to be executed by said host;

a small removable peripheral device which has a housing which has at least some dimensions that are established by industry standards so as to engage and be mechanically supported at the edges thereof by said slot or docking bay, and further comprising;

circuitry to implement an interface means for interfacing said peripheral device to said host, and for implementing at least one memory, at least one of said memories being nonvolatile and storing a client application computer program, and to implement a barcode decoder means for receiving undecoded barcode signals and decoding said signals to derive one or more characters encoded in said barcode and store said one or more characters in at least one of said memories,

an interface bus and a plug connector coupled to said interface means and one or more of said memories, and having an industry standard size and pinout suitable for mating with said plug or bus connector in said slot or docking bay of said host, said interface means for allowing digital data to be exchanged between said host and said one or more memories and other circuitry on said peripheral device via said interface bus and plug connector,

a barcode scanning device coupled to said barcode decoder means, for scanning a barcode and outputting to said barcode decoder means an undecoded signal representing the barcode,

and wherein said housing for said small removable peripheral device is attached thereto and functions to enclose and protect said circuitry and said barcode scanning device while allowing said barcode scanning device to scan barcodes,

and wherein said host is programmed to upload said client application computer program from a memory on said peripheral device into said memory on said host for execution by said host to control said barcode decoding means.

21. The apparatus of claim 20 wherein said circuitry on said peripheral device implements an external connector for receiving signals from an external barcode scanning device said external connector being coupled to said barcode scanning means through a multiplexer controlled by said client application computer program.

22. A peripheral device for a handheld host such as a palmtop computer or personal digital assistant which has an externally-accessible slot or docking bay having an industry standard mechanical configuration that supplies mechanical support along the edges of peripheral devices that engage said slot or bay, said slot or docking bay also having an industry standard plug or bus connector therein to make electrical contact with said peripheral device comprising:

a small removable peripheral device having a housing which is sized and shaped to engage said externally-accessible slot or docking bay and be mechanically supported thereby, said peripheral device including;

circuitry to implement an interface circuit to interface said peripheral device to said host and one or more memories,

an interface bus or plug connector coupled to said interface circuit and which has industry standard size and pinout suitable for mating with said industry standard plug or bus connector in said externally-accessible slot or docking bay of said host,

a barcode scanning device coupled to said interface circuit for scanning a barcode and outputting an undecoded signal representing the barcode,

a barcode decoding circuit coupled to receive said undecoded signal and decode it to derive one or more characters encoded in said scanned barcode,

wherein one of said memories comprises an expansion memory usable by said host,

and wherein said housing is attached to and encloses said small removable peripheral device to protect said interface circuitry and said barcode scanning device and barcode decoding circuitry while allowing said barcode scanning device to have access to light reflected from barcodes.

23. The apparatus of claim 22 wherein said interface circuitry implements one or more memories, at least one of which is a nonvolatile memory which stores a client application program which said host executes to control said peripheral device, and wherein said interface circuitry is configured to allow said host to execute said client application software from said nonvolatile memory on said peripheral device through said industry standard plug or bus connector without having to copy said client application software to memory on said host via said industry standard plug or bus connector.

24. The apparatus of claim 22 wherein said interface circuitry is configured to allow said host to read data including program data stored in one or more memories on said peripheral device and write data, including program data, to one or more memories on said peripheral device over said industry standard plug or bus connector so as to use said one or more memories as expansion memory for said host without interfering with or causing stoppage of barcode scanning or barcode decoding operations.

25. The apparatus of claim 22 wherein said interface circuitry implements one or more memories, and wherein said interface circuitry is configured to allow said host to download a client application that controls said peripheral device from memory on said host to a memory on said peripheral device and execute said client application software from said memory on said peripheral device through said industry standard plug or bus connector.

26. A data reading system comprising:

a handheld host such as a palmtop computer or personal digital assistant including an externally-accessible slot having a standard 68-pin connector and programmed by driver software to perform input/output transactions through the slot and the 68-pin connector;

client application software for operating the data reading system;

a removable peripheral device which engages said slot and is mechanically supported thereby and controlled by said client application software, including;

a printed circuit board having circuitry integrated thereon, including an interface circuit and memory usable by the host for running the client application software,

an interface bus and a 68-pin bus connector for mating with the standard 68-pin connector of said slot in said host,

a barcode scanning device for scanning a barcode and outputting an undecoded signal representing the barcode,

a housing integrated on said removable peripheral device or attached thereto enclosing and protecting the circuitry and the barcode scanning device.

27. The apparatus of claim 26 wherein said interface circuitry includes barcode decoder circuitry to receive said undecoded signal from said barcode scanning device and functioning to decode said undecoded signal and store the resulting data until said host retrieves said data.

28. The apparatus of claim 27 wherein said interface circuitry further functions to generate an interrupt to said host when data derived from decoding said undecoded signal has been stored and is ready to be read by said host, and wherein said host is controlled by an interrupt service routine associated with said interrupt generated by said interface circuitry to read said decoded data stored by said barcode decoder circuitry.

29. The apparatus of claim 27 wherein said host is controlled by said client application software to poll said removable peripheral device so as to read said decoded data stored by said barcode decoder circuitry.

30. The apparatus of claim 26 wherein said memory is nonvolatile and stores said client application software, and wherein said host executes said client application software directly from said nonvolatile memory on said peripheral device.

31. The apparatus of claim 26 wherein said memory is nonvolatile and stores said client application software, and wherein said host executes said client application software directly from said nonvolatile memory on said peripheral device, and wherein said interface circuitry includes circuitry to sample said undecoded signal from said barcode scanning device and send said samples to said host, and wherein said client application software controls said host to receive said samples and use said samples to decode said undecoded signal output by said barcode scanning device.

32. The apparatus of claim 26 wherein said memory is nonvolatile and stores said client application software, and wherein said host executes said client application software directly from said nonvolatile memory on said peripheral device, and wherein said interface circuitry includes circuitry to couple said undecoded signal from said barcode scanning device to said 68-pin connector, and wherein said client application software controls said host to sample said undecoded signal on said 68-pin connector from said barcode scanning device and use said samples to decode said undecoded signal to derive data encoded therein.

33. The system of claim 26 wherein said interface circuit includes a programmable barcode decoder, and wherein said memory stores decoding software which may be executed by said programmable barcode decoder.

34. The system of claim 26 wherein said circuitry in said peripheral device includes decoding circuitry and wherein said memory comprises nonvolatile memory accessible by the host without blocking input/output transactions or memory cycles carried out between said host via said interface bus and 68-pin connector and said decoding circuitry to read decoded barcode data or other data from memory on said peripheral device.

35. An expansion system for a handheld portable host computer to give said host computer barcode reading ability, comprising:

an expansion module configured to removably connect to and engage an expansion bay of a handheld, portable host computer and be electrically coupled to said host computer through an expansion bus in said expansion bay and interface circuitry on said expansion module, said expansion module having

(a) a barcode decoder,

(b) expansion memory accessible by the host computer, and

(c) an input external of said host computer for receiving undecoded barcode signals from a barcode scan engine external to said expansion module;

a barcode scan engine electrically tethered to said input by a cable which carries said undecoded barcode signals to said expansion module for decoding.