Terminal and method for efficient use and identification of peripherals having audio lines

• US 20040059579A1
• Filed: 09/23/2003
• Published: 03/25/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 06/27/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Vocollect, Inc. (Honeywell International Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Vocollect, Inc. (Honeywell International Inc.)
• Inventors: Logan, James Randall, Zatezalo, Douglas Mark, Byford, Roger Graham, Sweeney, Lawrence R., Murawski, Mark David, Zoschg, Ryan Anthony
• Granted Patent: US 7,734,361 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/270
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/163 Wearable computers, e.g. on a belt

Abstract

A communication system comprises a terminal configured for being able to communicate with a computer and to operate according to at least one operational parameter. A peripheral device for use with the terminal has a characterizing parameter associated therewith. The terminal is operable for reading the characterizing parameter from the peripheral device when the device is coupled to the terminal. The terminal is further operable for configuring itself to operate according to an operational parameter associated with the characterizing parameter of the peripheral device.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

a terminal;

a peripheral device for coupling to the terminal and having at least one line for directing audio signals to the terminal;

the peripheral device configured to forward a characterizing signal on the at least one line to the terminal.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the terminal is configured for associating an operational parameter for the terminal with the characterizing signal of the peripheral device.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the characterizing signal is associated with at least one of use, user, use group and location.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the characterizing signal is reflective of an ID of the peripheral device.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the characterizing signal is an audio signal.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the terminal includes frequency analysis circuitry for processing the characterizing signal.

7. The apparatus of claim 6 wherein the frequency analysis circuitry includes speech recognition circuitry.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the characterizing signal is one of a DTMF tone and a PWM stream.

9. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the peripheral device is a headset having a microphone and a microphone line, the characterizing signal being forwarded on the microphone line.

10. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the peripheral device includes a tone generator for generating audio tones to form the characterizing signal.

11. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the peripheral device is configured to automatically forward the characterizing signal to the terminal when it is coupled to the terminal.

12. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the peripheral device has an input, the peripheral device forwarding the characterizing signal to the terminal when the input is engaged.

13. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the peripheral device includes circuitry for generating the characterizing signal, the circuitry being powered by the terminal.

14. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the peripheral device includes circuitry for generating the characterizing signal, the circuitry being powered by a battery source in the peripheral device.

15. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein operational parameters for the terminal are stored in memory, the terminal operable for accessing the memory using the characterizing signal.

16. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the operational parameters are in a menu, the terminal operable for accessing the menu based upon the characterizing parameter.

17. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the operational parameters include at least one from the group of voice templates, volume preferences, and text-to-speech preferences.

18. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said terminal is configured for coupling with multiple different peripheral devices, the terminal being configurable to operate with multiple operational parameters associated with the peripheral device characterizing signals of the peripheral devices.

19. A terminal for communicating with a peripheral device which has a line for sending audio signals, the terminal comprising:

circuitry operable for reading a characterizing signal from the audio signal line of a peripheral device.

20. The terminal of claim 19 further comprising circuitry operable for configuring the terminal to operate according to at least one operational parameter associated with the characterizing signal.

21. The terminal of claim 20 wherein the operational parameter for the terminal is stored in memory which is accessed according to the characterizing signal.

22. The terminal of claim 19 wherein the characterizing signal is reflective of an ID of the peripheral device.

23. The terminal of claim 19 including frequency analysis circuitry operable for processing the characterizing signal.

24. The terminal of claim 23 wherein the frequency analysis circuitry includes speech recognition circuitry.

25. The terminal of claim 19 wherein the characterizing signal is one of a DTMF tone and a PWM stream.

26. The terminal of claim 19 wherein the peripheral device is a headset having a microphone and a microphone line, the characterizing signal being forwarded on the microphone line.

27. The terminal of claim 19 wherein the circuitry is configured to automatically read the characterizing signal from a peripheral device upon coupling the peripheral device to the terminal.

28. The terminal of claim 19 wherein the characterizing signal is associated with at least one of use, user, user group, and location.

29. A peripheral device for use with a terminal comprising:

circuitry and at least one line for directing audio signals to the terminal;

the circuitry configured to forward a characterizing signal on the at least one line to the terminal for configuring the operation of the terminal.

30. The peripheral device of claim 29 wherein the characterizing signal is reflective of an ID of the peripheral device.

31. The peripheral device of claim 29 wherein the characterizing signal is an audio signal.

32. The peripheral device of claim 29 wherein the characterizing signal is one of a DTMF tone and a PWM stream.

33. The peripheral device of claim 29 wherein the peripheral device is a headset having a microphone and a microphone line, the characterizing signal being forwarded on the microphone line.

34. The peripheral device of claim 29 wherein the peripheral device includes a tone generator for generating audio tones to form the characterizing signal.

35. The peripheral device of claim 29 wherein the peripheral device is operable to automatically forward the characterizing signal to the terminal when it is coupled to the terminal.

36. The peripheral device of claim 29 wherein the peripheral device has an input, the peripheral device forwarding the characterizing signal to the terminal when the input is engaged.

37. The peripheral device of claim 29 wherein the circuitry is powered by the terminal.

38. The peripheral device of claim 29 wherein the circuitry is powered by a battery source in the peripheral device.

39. The peripheral device of claim 29 wherein the characterizing signal is associated with at least one of use, user, user group and location.

40. A method for interfacing between a peripheral device and a terminal comprising:

with a peripheral device having at least one line for directing audio signals to the terminal, forwarding a characterizing signal to the terminal on the at least one line.

41. The method of claim 40 wherein the characterizing signal is associated with at least one of use, user, user group and location.

42. The method of claim 40 wherein the terminal is configured for associating an operational parameter of the terminal with the characterizing signal.

43. The method of claim 42 further comprising configuring the terminal to operate according to at least one operational parameter associated with the characterizing parameter of the peripheral device.

44. The method of claim 40 wherein the characterizing signal is reflective of an ID of the peripheral device.

45. The method of claim 40 wherein the characterizing signal is an audio signal.

46. The method of claim 40 wherein the terminal includes frequency analysis circuitry operable for processing the characterizing signal.

47. The method of claim 46 wherein the frequency analysis circuitry includes speech recognition circuitry.

48. The method of claim 40 wherein the characterizing signal is one of a DTMF tone and a PWM stream.

49. The method of claim 40 wherein the peripheral device is a headset having a microphone and a microphone line and further comprising forwarding the characterizing signal on the microphone line.

50. The method of claim 40 further comprising generating audio tones with a tone generator to form the characterizing signal.

51. The method of claim 40 further comprising automatically forwarding the characterizing signal to the terminal when the peripheral it is coupled to the terminal.

52. The method of claim 40 wherein the peripheral device has an input, the method further comprising forwarding the characterizing signal to the terminal when the input is engaged.

53. The method of claim 42 wherein operational parameters for the terminal are stored in memory, further comprising accessing the memory using the characterizing signal.

54. The method of claim 42 wherein the operational parameters are in a menu, further comprising accessing the menu based upon the characterizing parameter.

55. The method of claim 40 wherein the operational parameters include at least one from the group of voice templates, volume preferences, and text-to-speech preferences.

56. A method for interfacing between a peripheral device and a terminal comprising:

with a terminal, reading a characterizing signal from the audio signal line of a peripheral device.

57. The method of claim 56 wherein the characterizing signal is associated with at least one of use, user, user group and location.

58. The method of claim 56 further comprising configuring the terminal to operate according to at least one operational parameter associated with the characterizing signal.

59. The method of claim 56 wherein the characterizing signal is one of a DTMF tone and a PWM stream.

60. The method of claim 56 further comprising automatically reading the characterizing signal from a peripheral device upon coupling the peripheral device to the terminal.

61. The method of claim 56 wherein the peripheral device is a headset having a microphone and a microphone line, the method comprising reading the characterizing signal from the microphone line.

62. The method of claim 56 further comprising analyzing audio tones to read the characterizing signal.

63. A terminal for communicating with a computer, comprising:

circuitry for controlling the operation of the terminal, the circuitry configured to read a characterizing parameter from a peripheral device coupled to the terminal;

the circuitry further configured to make the terminal operate according to at least one operational parameter associated with the characterizing parameter of the peripheral device.

64. The terminal of claim 63 wherein said circuitry includes an RFID reader for reading a characterizing parameter in the form of an RFID signal.

65. The terminal of claim 63 wherein said circuitry is configured for receiving a bar code from a bar code reader peripheral device the bar code providing said characterizing parameter.

66. The terminal of claim 63 wherein the characterizing parameter is associated with at least one of use, user, user group and location.