Wireless bar code symbol driven portable data terminal (PDT) system adapted for single handed operation

• US 6,976,626 B2
• Filed: 01/12/2003
• Issued: 12/20/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 09/16/1997
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Metrologic Instruments Incorporated (Honeywell International Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Metrologic Instruments Incorporated (Honeywell International Inc.)
• Inventors: Ji, Kai, Zhu, Xiaoxun, Knowles, C. Harry, Au, Ka Man, Liu, Liang, Schmidt, Mark, Zhang, Wuqing, Russell, Garrett K., Xu, Congwei
• Primary Examiner(s): Le, Thien M.
• Application Number:
  US10/342,441
• Publication Number:
  US 20030222148A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,073 Days
• Field of Search: 23546201-46248, 235/472.01, 235/472.02, 235/472.03, 235/454, 235/455, 235/375, 235/383, 235/381, 235/380
• US Class Current: 235/462.01
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 17/0022 arrangements or provisious for transferring data to distant stations, e.g. from a sensing device "transfer between computer elements G06F13/00 "; data-transmission H04L
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10158 methods and means used by the interrogation device for reliably powering the wireless record carriers using an electromagnetic interrogation field
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10881 constructional details of hand-held scanners

Abstract

The wireless PDT of the present invention employs a “display-on bottom” design which places the unit perfectly centered in the hand of the operator, allowing for the best possible viewing as well as providing comfortable single-handed operation. The high-resolution LCD display allows the PCT to show sharp, clear bitmap images while supporting all Windows-recognized font types and sizes. With the auto back-lit feature, the brightness adjusts automatically making the screen easy to read in all light conditions. The PDT is designed for support within the download/charger cradle of a base station which interfaces with a host system using either USB or RS232 interface. Two standard ‘AA’ or rechargeable Li-Ion batteries provide more than 100 hours of operation. In addition, the PDT comes standard with 2 MB of RAM providing enough memory to store over 100,000 records. Applications for the PDT can be developed using a novel integrated development and deployment environment (IDE) which contains an easy-to-use Windows-based application generator and download utilities. For advanced programming, developers can choose to write software using an advanced application generator or ‘C’ programming application generator which provides the developer with simple programming and fast setup. Further enhancements available in the application generator include drag and drop icons, time/datestamp, battery level indicator and variable fonts, giving the developer the ability to create custom screen layouts.

Claims

1. A wireless portable data terminal (PDT) system for use and communication with a base station by way of a electromagnetic-based RF 2-way digital data communication link, said wireless PDT system comprising:

a hand-supportable housing having a bar-like geometry and a top surface, with a distal end disposed away from an operator when held in his or her hand, and a proximate end facing closest to the operator when said hand-supportable housing is held in his or her hand during operation;

a rechargeable battery power pack supported within a battery bay formed in said hand-supportable housing;

a data capture engine mounted within a data capture engine bay located at the distal end of said hand-supportable housing, for optically capturing data about objects optically encoded in information structures such as bar code symbols;

a LCD panel with having a backlighting structure which is automatically controlled in response to the brightness level of ambient light sensed by an ambient light sensor located on said hand-supportable housing adjacent said LCD panel;

a micro-computing platform mounted within said hand-supportable housing, and capable of

(i) running/executing application programs on a first kind of operating system (OS1) that is emulated on a virtual machine that is supported on a second kind of operating system (OS2) so that the application programs can be developed on developer computers running the first kind of operating system OS1, and

(ii) supporting a graphical user interface (GUI) on said LCD panel for graphically displaying and manipulating documents;

a user control console having a manual data-entry structure for manually entering data into said documents,

wherein said user console panel is disposed on the top surface of said hand-supportable housing and includes a multi-position cursor navigation control button, for controlling a cursor on said GUI by movement with the operator'"'"'s thumb, and having LEFT, RIGHT, UP, DOWN and IN movements, surrounded by at least four cursor navigational control function buttons for BACK-SPACE, ESCAPE, SPACE, and SYSTEM FUNCTION selection;

a first set of circuitry within said hand-supportable housing and said base station for enabling said electromagnetic-based 2-way digital data communication link between said wireless PDT and said base station;

a second set of circuitry within said base station for interfacing said base station with a host computer system or network by way of a standard digital communications interface.

2. The wireless PDT system of claim 1, wherein said LCD panel is mounted beneath said manual data-entry structure, and wherein said multi-position cursor navigational control button and said cursor navigational control function buttons are located away from said data capture engine, and closest towards the user, to provide an improved arrangement for a truly single-handed operation of said wireless PDT.

3. The wireless PDT system of claim 1, wherein said manual data-entry structure is a membrane alpha-alphanumeric keypad.

4. The wireless PDT system of claim 1, wherein said base station comprises:

a base housing;

means in the base housing for recharging the battery power pack aboard the PDT terminal;

means in the base housing for enabling said electromagnetic-based RF 2-way digital data communication link between hand-supportable housing and the base station (either while said hand-supportable housing is located outside of or inside a cradle portion of said base station); and

means in said base housing for implementing said digital data communications interface between said base station and said host computer system or network using either physical or electromagnetic-wave based (i.e. wireless) communication media.

5. The wireless PDT system of claim 1, wherein a rubberized membrane-switching structure is supported within said hand-supportable housing so that said multi-position cursor navigational control button is aligned with and is disposed under a central rubber button formed in said rubberized membrane structure.

6. The wireless PDT system of claim 1, wherein said base station comprises:

a data receiver circuit for realizing the base side of said electromagnetic-based wireless 2-way data communication link;

a data transmission subsystem including a communication control module; and

a base station controller for controlling the operations of said base station;

wherein said data transmission subsystem interfaces with said host system or network by way of the standard communication interfaces, and when taken together, realize said wireless electromagnetic 2-way digital data communication link employed by said wireless PDT.