Compact hand-held RF data terminal
First Claim
1. A compact, hand-held data terminal adapted to communicate data in any of at least two communication modes, the terminal comprising:
- a housing at least in part of a material penetrable by RF signals;
means for manually entering data and a display means communicatively coupled and disposed in a front face of said housing;
data transfer means having external access and communicatively coupling the data terminal to an adjacent externally located peripheral device upon insertion of the data terminal into a data cradle for transferring data in first local data transfer communication mode between the terminal and externally located peripheral devices;
a transceiver disposed within said housing;
a control circuit including means for storing control sequence instructions, means for storing data and means for selectively communicating data between said data storage means, said transceiver and said data transfer means; and
antenna means located within said housing, said antenna means comprising at least one antenna element coupled to the transceiver and disposed along the side of and within the housing and spaced from the control circuit and the transceiver, whereby the antenna element becomes disposed away from radiation shielding surfaces of the control circuit and the transceiver and remains within the confines of the housing to facilitate the insertion of the data terminal into a data cradle of a peripheral device for communication therewith in the first mode while being capable of communicating via the transceiver and the antenna means in a second, RF communication mode with a further external peripheral device.
11 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A compact, hand-held data terminal includes a data display and an alpha-numeric keyboard and a bar code reader provision for manual data entry. The data terminal further includes an RS 232-C data interface for downloading accumulated data into a central computer. The data terminal further includes a transceiver module which provides for an RF communications link to a central computer. An antenna for the transceiver module is contained within the a lower portion of the housing of the data terminal along side walls of a battery compartment. In operation, the data terminal may be inserted into a data transfer cradle coupled to data processing equipment, thereby coupling the data processing equipment via the RF link to the central computer.
88 Citations
14 Claims
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1. A compact, hand-held data terminal adapted to communicate data in any of at least two communication modes, the terminal comprising:
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a housing at least in part of a material penetrable by RF signals; means for manually entering data and a display means communicatively coupled and disposed in a front face of said housing; data transfer means having external access and communicatively coupling the data terminal to an adjacent externally located peripheral device upon insertion of the data terminal into a data cradle for transferring data in first local data transfer communication mode between the terminal and externally located peripheral devices; a transceiver disposed within said housing; a control circuit including means for storing control sequence instructions, means for storing data and means for selectively communicating data between said data storage means, said transceiver and said data transfer means; and antenna means located within said housing, said antenna means comprising at least one antenna element coupled to the transceiver and disposed along the side of and within the housing and spaced from the control circuit and the transceiver, whereby the antenna element becomes disposed away from radiation shielding surfaces of the control circuit and the transceiver and remains within the confines of the housing to facilitate the insertion of the data terminal into a data cradle of a peripheral device for communication therewith in the first mode while being capable of communicating via the transceiver and the antenna means in a second, RF communication mode with a further external peripheral device. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
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6. A compact, hand-held data terminal of the type having a housing, a keyboard and a display disposed in a face of the housing, input-output data coupler terminations having first externally accessible coupler elements for communicatively coupling the data terminal to adjacent data interfaces of data handling equipment, data processing and control circuit means located within the housing for receiving data from the input-output coupler terminations and from the keyboard and for storing and transferring data to the coupler terminations, and self-contained power means located within a power compartment formed as part of the housing of the data terminal and coupled to the control circuit means for providing operating power to the control circuit means;
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a transceiver including an antenna located within the housing, the antenna having at least one radiating element located along at least one edge of the housing of the data terminal, such that the data terminal may be inserted without hindrance from an antenna into a data cradle of a peripheral communication device, the data cradle upon insertion of the data terminal therein establishing data communication between the data terminal and a corresponding peripheral communication device, and circuit means for coupling bar code data to the data processing circuits of the data terminal when the data terminal is operated externally of the data cradle. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A compact, hand-held data terminal comprising:
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a hand-portable housing, a keyboard and a display disposed in a face of the housing, the housing fitting into a data cradle of a first external peripheral device; data processing and control circuits disposed within the housing and having coupler terminations with data coupler elements accessible externally of the housing, the data coupler elements coupling the data processing and control circuits through the data cradle to the external peripheral data device for data communication therewith; a transceiver disposed within the housing and communicatively and electrically coupled to the data processing and control circuits; a power source for providing electrical power to the data processing and control circuits and the transceiver; and an antenna disposed within the housing and coupled to the transceiver, the antenna including at least one radiating element disposed within the confines of the housing and capable of RF signal communication with a second peripheral data device outside of the housing, whereby the data terminal is capable of being inserted into the data cradle without interference by the data cradle to communicate with the first and second peripheral data devices. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14)
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Specification