Control and communications panel for a computer system
First Claim
1. In a computer system, a subsystem comprising:
- a control and communications panel, the control and communications panel including a plurality of controls that each correspond to a computing task; and
a control handling mechanism that receives state data from a selected control, and based on the state data performs an action related to the computing task to which the selected control corresponds.
3 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A control and communications panel that provides users with an easy way to perform computing tasks. The panel may be located in any convenient location, such as in a location that the user can easily see and reach. The control and communications panel provides various controls such as buttons corresponding to computing tasks, including program-related and communications-related tasks. When operated, each control notifies the operating system (or other program) of a state change, and control handling logic processes the state data to take an appropriate action. Indicators such as LEDs related to the controls convey state information to users. USB ports and/or media drives or storage media may be included in the control and communications panel.
158 Citations
57 Claims
-
1. In a computer system, a subsystem comprising:
-
a control and communications panel, the control and communications panel including a plurality of controls that each correspond to a computing task; and
a control handling mechanism that receives state data from a selected control, and based on the state data performs an action related to the computing task to which the selected control corresponds. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27)
-
-
28. In a computer system, a method comprising:
-
providing, on a control panel, a plurality of controls and indicators that are each associated with to a computing task;
receiving state data corresponding to a selected control;
interpreting the state data to perform an action related to the computing task to which the selected control is associated; and
controlling an indicator to convey information about the state of the computing task to which the selected control is associated. - View Dependent Claims (29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49)
-
-
50. In a computer system, a subsystem comprising:
-
means for receiving state data corresponding to a selected control of a plurality of controls arranged on a control panel;
means for interpreting the state data; and
means for performing an action according to the interpretation of the state data with respect to a current context of a computing task. - View Dependent Claims (51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57)
-
Specification