Portable hand-supportable data terminal with automatically-activated laser scanning bar code symbol reader integrated therein
First Claim
1. A portable hand-supportable data terminal for allowing an operator to enter, collect, and display data, said portable hand-supportable data terminal comprising:
- (1) a hand-supportable housing having a light transmission aperture and being supportable within a hand of an operator;
(2) an automatically-activated bar code symbol reading subsystem, integrated with said hand-supportable housing, and programmed for reading bar code symbols encoded with information, and producing symbol character data representative of said information;
(3) a manually-actuated data entry device, integrated with said hand-supportable housing, for manually producing character data representative of information manually entered into said portable hand-supportable data terminal;
(4) a data storage device, disposed within said hand-supportable housing, for storing data collected by said portable hand-supportable data terminal;
said automatically-activated bar code symbol reading subsystem including (2)(a) a bar code symbol reading mechanism automatically and repeatedly reading a bar code symbol on an object within a predetermined time period, and each instant said bar code symbol is read within said predetermined time period, automatically producing a symbol character data string representative of said read bar code symbol, (2)(b) a data transmission circuit, disposed in said hand-supportable housing, for transmitting, when activated, a selected one of said produced symbol character data strings to either said data storage device or a host system arranged in operable communication with said portable hand-supportable data terminal, (2)(c) a manually-activatable data transmission switch, integrated with said hand-supportable housing, for generating a data transmission control activation signal in response to the activation of said manually-activatable data transmission switch within said predetermined time period, and (2)(d) a system controller for controlling said data transmission circuit so that the symbol character data string, produced at substantially the same time when said data transmission control activation signal is generated, is transmitted to either said data storage device or said host system;
a visual information display device, integrated with said hand-supportable housing, for visually displaying information collected by said portable hand-supportable data terminal; and
a computing platform, disposed in said hand-supportable housing, for executing a graphical user interface (GUI) based operating system (OS) program, and providing a graphical user interface for said operator on said visual information display device.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A portable hand-supportable data terminal for allowing an operator to enter, collect, and display data. The data terminal comprises a hand-supportable housing having a light transmission aperture and an automatically-activated bar code symbol reading subsystem integrated therewithin. The bar code symbol reading subsystem includes a bar code symbol reading mechanism. Each instant a bar code symbol is read within a predetermined time period, a symbol character data string representative of the read bar code symbol is automatically produced. A manually-activatable data transmission switch generates a data transmission control activation signal in response to the activation of the switch. A system controller controls a data transmission circuit so that the symbol character data string, produced at substantially the same time when the data transmission control activation signal is generated, is transmitted to a data storage device aboard the data terminal or to a host system in communication therewith.
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Citations
21 Claims
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1. A portable hand-supportable data terminal for allowing an operator to enter, collect, and display data, said portable hand-supportable data terminal comprising:
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(1) a hand-supportable housing having a light transmission aperture and being supportable within a hand of an operator;
(2) an automatically-activated bar code symbol reading subsystem, integrated with said hand-supportable housing, and programmed for reading bar code symbols encoded with information, and producing symbol character data representative of said information;
(3) a manually-actuated data entry device, integrated with said hand-supportable housing, for manually producing character data representative of information manually entered into said portable hand-supportable data terminal;
(4) a data storage device, disposed within said hand-supportable housing, for storing data collected by said portable hand-supportable data terminal;
said automatically-activated bar code symbol reading subsystem including (2)(a) a bar code symbol reading mechanism automatically and repeatedly reading a bar code symbol on an object within a predetermined time period, and each instant said bar code symbol is read within said predetermined time period, automatically producing a symbol character data string representative of said read bar code symbol, (2)(b) a data transmission circuit, disposed in said hand-supportable housing, for transmitting, when activated, a selected one of said produced symbol character data strings to either said data storage device or a host system arranged in operable communication with said portable hand-supportable data terminal, (2)(c) a manually-activatable data transmission switch, integrated with said hand-supportable housing, for generating a data transmission control activation signal in response to the activation of said manually-activatable data transmission switch within said predetermined time period, and (2)(d) a system controller for controlling said data transmission circuit so that the symbol character data string, produced at substantially the same time when said data transmission control activation signal is generated, is transmitted to either said data storage device or said host system;
a visual information display device, integrated with said hand-supportable housing, for visually displaying information collected by said portable hand-supportable data terminal; and
a computing platform, disposed in said hand-supportable housing, for executing a graphical user interface (GUI) based operating system (OS) program, and providing a graphical user interface for said operator on said visual information display device. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
a GUI-based World Wide Web (WWW) browser program executable by said computing platform, for enabling the access and reading of hypertext markup language (HTML) encoded documents.
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3. The portable hand-supportable data terminal of claim 1, wherein, in response to said automatically-activated laser scanning bar code symbol reading subsystem reading the bar code symbol encoded with said information, said graphical user interface (GUI) based World Wide Web (WWW) browser program automatically accesses a hypertext markup language (HTML) encoded document specified by said information, and automatically displays said accessed HTML-encoded document on said visual information display device for viewing by the operator.
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4. The portable hand-supportable data terminal of claim 1, which further comprises:
a radio-frequency (RF) transceiver, integrated with said hand-supportable housing and being operably connected to said computing platform, for enabling a wireless two-way telecommunication link between said computing platform and a base station operably connected to an information network.
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5. The portable hand-supportable data terminal of claim 4, wherein said radio-frequency (RF) transceiver comprises a modem card for enabling said wireless two-way telecommunication link between said computing platform and said base station.
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6. The portable hand-supportable data terminal of claim 5, wherein said base station is a device selected from the group consisting of a cellular base station operably connected to the Internet, and a satellite-base station operably connected to the Internet.
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7. The portable hand-supportable data terminal of claim 1, which further comprises an indicator, integrated with said hand-supportable housing, for indicating each instance of when a bar code symbol is read by said automatically-activated bar code symbol reading subsystem and a symbol character data string representative thereof is produced.
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8. The portable hand-supportable data terminal of claim 1, which further comprises an object detection subsystem disposed within said hand-supportable housing and including infrared (IR) signal transmission/receiving circuitry for automatically detecting said object within an object detection field definable relative to said hand-supportable housing.
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9. The portable hand-supportable data terminal of claim 1, which further comprises an object detection subsystem disposed within said hand-supportable housing, and including low-power non-visible laser beam signaling mechanism for automatically detecting said object within an object detection field definable relative to said hand-supportable housing.
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10. The portable hand-supportable data terminal of claim 1, which further comprises a base unit remotely situated from said hand-supportable housing and operably connected to said host system, and wherein said data transmission circuit employs a wireless data packet transmission scheme to transmit said symbol character data string to said host system, via said base unit.
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11. The portable hand-supportable data terminal of claim 1, wherein said manually-actuated data entry device comprises a keypad integrated with said hand-supportable housing.
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12. The portable hand-supportable data terminal of claim 1, wherein said visual information display device comprises a liquid crystal display (LCD) panel.
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13. The portable hand-supportable data terminal of claim 1, wherein said visual information display device comprises a liquid crystal display (LCD) panel, and said manually-actuated data entry device comprises a touch-sensitive keypad integrated with said LCD panel.
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14. The portable hand-supportable data terminal of claim 1, wherein said bar code symbol, encoded with said information, is a one-dimensional bar code symbol, and said bar code symbol reader is programmed to read said one-dimensional bar code symbol.
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15. The portable hand-supportable data terminal of claim 1, wherein said bar code symbol, encoded with said information, is a two-dimensional bar code symbol, and said bar code symbol reader is programmed to read said two-dimensional bar code symbol.
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16. The portable hand-supportable data terminal of claim 1, wherein said information is a Uniform Resources Locator (URL).
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17. The portable hand-supportable data terminal of claim 1, wherein said bar code symbol, encoded with said information, is a one-dimensional bar code symbol, and said bar code symbol reader is programmed to read said one-dimensional bar code symbol.
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18. The portable hand-supportable data terminal of claim 1, wherein said bar code symbol has first and second envelope borders, and said bar code symbol reading mechanism comprises a bar code symbol detector which detects said bar code symbol by detecting said first and second envelope borders.
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19. The portable hand-supportable data terminal of claim 1, wherein said bar code symbol reading mechanism comprises a laser diode for producing a visible laser beam that is used to project a visible laser scanning pattern through said light transmission aperture, and repeatedly scan said bar code symbol on said object.
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20. The portable hand-supportable data terminal of claim 1, wherein said hand-supportable housing comprises a head portion and handle portion.
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21. The portable hand-supportable data terminal of claim 20, wherein said bar code symbol reading mechanism is disposed in said head portion.
Specification