Portable work station and data collection terminal including switchable multi purpose touch screen display

• US 5,617,343 A
• Filed: 12/18/1995
• Issued: 04/01/1997
• Est. Priority Date: 05/02/1989
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Avago Technologies General IP PTE Limited (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Norand Corporation (Baker Hughes Company)
• Inventors: Danielson, Arvin D., Schultz, Darald R., Boatwright, Darrell L., Austin, Rickey G., Alt, Daniel E., Silva, Dennis
• Primary Examiner(s): Malzahn, David H.
• Application Number:
  US08/573,974
• Time in Patent Office: 470 Days
• Field of Search: 364/707, 364/708.1, 395/750
• US Class Current: 709/245
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 11/02 for radio sets, television sets, telephones, or the like; Arrangement of controls thereof
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 11/0241 for telephones
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 16/0231 Circuits relating to the driving or the functioning of the vehicle monitoring tyres B60C23/00; indicating overspeed B60K31/00; for dash boards B60K37/00, B60Q3/10; for indicating emergencies B60Q1/52; brake control systems B60T; registering or indicating the working of vehicles G07C5/00; measuring distance G01C, e.g. combinations of speed and distance G01C23/00; engine indicators G01L; measuring speed or acceleration G01P
• CPC Class Codes: B60R 16/0315 using multiplexing techniques multiplexing for transmission of signals G08C15/00; multiplexing for electrical communication in general H04J
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1626 with a single-body enclosure integrating a flat display, e.g. Personal Digital Assistants [PDAs]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1632 External expansion units, e.g. docking stations
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1656 Details related to functional adaptations of the enclosure, e.g. to provide protection against EMI, shock, water, or to host detachable peripherals like a mouse or removable expansions units like PCMCIA cards, or to provide access to internal components for maintenance or to removable storage supports like CDs or DVDs, or to mechanically mount accessories mounting of accessories to a computer display G06F1/1607; display hoods G06F1/1603; cooling arrangements for portable computers G06F1/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/28 Supervision thereof, e.g. detecting power-supply failure by out of limits supervision
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3203 Power management, i.e. event-based initiation of a power-saving mode
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3228 Monitoring task completion, e.g. by use of idle timers, stop commands or wait commands
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3293 by switching to a less power-consuming processor, e.g. sub-CPU
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/0225 User interface arrangements, e.g. keyboard, display; Interfaces to other computer systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2200/1632 Pen holder integrated in the computer
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2200/1633 Protecting arrangement for the entire housing of the computer
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0231 Cordless keyboards
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4418 Suspend and resume; Hibernate and awake
• 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 7/10574 Multiple sources
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10584 Source control
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10702 Particularities of propagating elements, e.g. lenses, mirrors G06K7/10831 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10722 : Photodetector array or CCD scanning
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10732 : Light sources
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10811 : Focalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10841 : Particularities of the light-sensitive elements semiconductor devices H01L
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10851 : Circuits for pulse shaping, amplifying, eliminating noise signals, checking the function of the sensing device basic electronic circuitry H03
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10881 : constructional details of hand-held scanners
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/12 : using a selected wavelength, e.g. to sense red marks and ignore blue marks
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/0808 : Diagnosing performance data testing of vehicles G01M17/00; testing of electrical installation on vehicles G01R31/005
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/0858 : wherein the data carrier is removable
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 1/2258 : used with computer equipment
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 1/2266 : disposed inside the computer
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 2001/3894 : Waterproofing of transmission device
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0025 : Transmission of mode-switching indication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/0032 : Without explicit signalling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1671 : the supervisory signal being transmitted together with control information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1685 : the supervisory signal being transmitted in response to a specific request, e.g. to a polling signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/006 : Networks other than PSTN/ISDN providing telephone service, e.g. Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) , including next generation networks with a packet-switched transport layer H04L65/00 takes precedence; aspects not specific to the type of network H04M3/00; special services in those networks H04M3/42
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/02 : Terminal devices
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 : Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 : in wireless communication networks

Abstract

A portable data collection terminal has an elongate housing with a hand grip conforming rear surface. A front surface features a numerical keyboard adjacent a lower end of the housing and an LCD screen adjacent the keyboard toward an upper end of the housing. The display screen is of elongate rectangular shape, its length extending longitudinally of the housing of the data terminal. The active area of the display screen is covered by a touch sensitive overlay screen which is configured in one mode of operation of the data terminal into an alphabetical keyboard. The orientation of the display is switchable between orientations in which the line direction of the displayed data extends across or longitudinally of the data terminal. The keys of the numerical keyboard are identified by indicia disposed on a template. The orientation of the template may be sensed to switch the orientation of the displayed data and touch sensitive key identifiers to correspond to the orientation of the indicia on the template. As a further embodiment an electromagnetic activation by a pen may be used to enter data into a data terminal. Power saving shutdown extends the battery life of the data terminal. A shutdown mode permits resumption of operations by depression of a key.

Claims

1. A portable data collection terminal comprising:

a) a housing including a non-volatile memory and a memory card door having a locked configuration;

b) a power management circuit means having means for saving electrical states, including input and output device states, to said non-volatile memory wherein said means for saving electrical states includes means for trapping input-output instructions and for shadow writing such trapped input-output instructions to said non-volatile memory during normal operations of the portable data collection terminal; and

c) means for signaling said power management circuit means as to movement of said memory card door from said locked configuration.

2. The portable data collection terminal according to claim 1, comprising further:

(1) said housing having a display screen; and

(2) a handgrip extension pod for holding a selected accessory device of the data collection terminal, said handgrip extension pod having a width less than a width of said housing and being disposed on an underside of said housing such that said display screen is protected from accidental contact by a user holding said handgrip extension pod.

3. The portable data collection terminal according to claim 2, wherein said accessory device is a scanner adapted to read indicia disposed on a surface external and separate from the portable data collection terminal such that the portable data collection terminal does not operably contact such surface.

4. The portable data collection terminal according to claim 1, further including a recessed pen gripping holder molded into an end of said housing wherein said pen gripping holder comprises a pair of opposing stylus clips in combination with a stylus cavity.

5. The portable data collection terminal according to claim 1, wherein said housing further includes co-molded shock protection that provides a somewhat homogeneously linked boundary region between an earlier injection molded part and a subsequently molded part.

6. A portable data collection terminal comprising a housing including a display screen and a keyboard having a plurality of keys disposed in a frontal side of said housing wherein:

a) said display screen includes graphic data input means disposed coincident with a screen area of said display screen,

b) said keyboard and said graphic data input means are structured to operate independently of each other such that operation of the portable data collection terminal may instantaneously switch between said keyboard and said graphic data input means; and

c) control means for saving electrical states including input and output device states, for trapping input-output instructions, and for shadow writing such trapped input-output instructions during normal operations of the portable data collection terminal such that the terminal is enabled to subsequently complete an operation in progress at the time the terminal is shut down.

7. The portable data collection terminal according to claim 6, comprising further a handgrip extension pod for holding a selected accessory device of the data collection terminal, said handgrip extension pod having a width less than a width of said housing and being disposed on an underside of said housing and beneath said frontal side of said housing such that said display screen is protected from accidental contact by a user holding said handgrip extension pod.

8. The portable data collection terminal according to claim 6 wherein said graphic data input means is a touch sensitive screen.

9. A portable data collection terminal comprising:

a housing including non-volatile memory, and a display screen and a keyboard disposed in a frontal side of the housing, the display screen including graphic data input means disposed coincident with a screen area of the display screen; and

a power management circuit means including shadowing circuit means for shadowing input and output device states of the terminal, and storing means for saving microprocessor register states to the non-volatile memory as the terminal is being shut down such that the terminal is enabled to subsequently complete an operation in progress at the time of the shut down.