Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput – Remote data accessing – Accessing a remote server
Reexamination Certificate
2000-03-07
2004-02-17
Heckler, Thomas M. (Department: 2185)
Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput
Remote data accessing
Accessing a remote server
Reexamination Certificate
active
06694359
ABSTRACT:
AUTHORIZATION PURSUANT TO 37 CFR 1.71(D) AND (E)
A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a data capture system
10
illustrated in
FIG. 1
for entering data at a plurality of remote locations using means such as a plurality of portable data collection terminals
12
a
, b - - - n. The data capture system
10
is applicable to receive and collect a wide variety of data and has found particular application in warehouses or retail store where a data capture system
10
would be used to keep an up to date record of the products to be marketed. Typically, the system
10
would be capable of updating on a real time basis the inventory count of products, and to use stock locator data to identify where each product of the remaining inventory is stored, when a product is moved from one place to another, and which employee has current charge of that product. In addition, when a product is sold, the price and sales person who sold the product are recorded.
Such data may be inputted into a terminal
12
by means of its keyboard
13
. For example, a terminal user could count the number of one type of product and enter that number via the terminal's keyboard
13
. Alternatively, data could be entered to the terminal
10
via a CCD bar code scanner
22
, which is electrically coupled by a cable
20
to its terminal
12
. In an illustrative embodiment of this invention, the scanner as illustratively identified in
FIG. 1
by the numeral
22
a
and its terminal
12
a
could take the form of that modular scanner/terminal described in PCT international application WO90/16033 published Dec. 27, 1990. Differing types of scanners
22
b
and
22
n
could also be used with the terminals
12
and may illustratively take the form of those scanners described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,970,379 of Danstrom, 4,882,476 of White, 4,894,523 of Chadima, 4,877,949 of Danielson et al., 5,019,669 of Adams et al. and 4,924,462 of Sojka; International Application No. PCT/US90/03282 of Koenck et al.; and European Patent Publication No. 0 353 759 of Mahany et al.
The data capture system
10
utilizes illustratively RF transmission to bilaterally transmit data between each of the plurality of terminals
12
a
, b - - - n and a base radio transceiver
14
. By way of example, the base radio transceiver may illustratively take the form of that model RB3000 base radio transceiver manufactured by Norand Corporation, Cedar Rapids of Iowa. In turn, the base radio transceiver
14
is connected via a communications multiplexer
16
a
or a communications controller
16
b
to a host computer
18
. Illustratively, the multiplexer
16
a
could take the form of that model RM3200 as manufactured by Norand Corporation and the controller
16
b
could take the form of that controller identified as model RC2250 of Norand Corporation. The host computer
18
may illustratively be an International Business Machines Corporation PC of AT class or higher. As illustrated in
FIG. 1
, the host computer
18
includes a keyboard
28
, a display
24
and a system unit
26
.
Each of the portable data collection terminals
12
a
, b - - - n includes a transceiver (not shown in
FIG. 1
) for transmitting RF messages to and from the base radio transceiver
14
. A transmitted message comprises an initialization sequence, an address indicative of the particular terminal
12
a
, b- or n from or to which the message is directed, a message identifier and system information, the message data and/or control commands, error control, and an end of message indication. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,910,794; 4,924,462; and 4,940,974, each assigned to the assignee of this invention and incorporated herein by reference, provide further information on RF data collection terminals and systems.
In a RF data capture system similar to that shown in
FIG. 1
known as the RT1200 system of Norand Corporation, controlled RF transmission between a plurality of terminals and a radio base is established using a communications multiplexer similar to that of the multiplexer
16
a
shown in
FIG. 1
to provide access to a particular one of the terminals
12
a
, b - - - n. The RT1200 system utilizes time division multiplexing on a single frequency channel. The RT1200 communications protocol is based on a sequential polling method that transmits a query addressed to each portable terminal in succession, and allows a specified amount of time for the addressed terminal to respond when the addressed terminal has a data message ready for transmission. U.S. Pat. No. 4,940,974 describes an improved, adaptive data communications system wherein the base radio transceiver
14
transmits a multi-terminal polling signal to each of its terminals
12
a
, b - - - n. That multi-terminal polling signal defines a series of successive response time slots in which the terminals
12
may randomly select to respond. A terminal
12
having a message to be transmitted to the host computer
18
via the base radio transceiver
14
transmits a brief response burst in the selected time slot giving its own unique identification address. After receiving the responses from the ready terminals
12
, the base radio transceiver
14
polls each of the responding terminals
12
, ignoring those terminals without messages to be transmitted. This system is adaptive in that the number of time slots may be changed depending upon the number of active terminals ready to transmit data messages.
The present invention is particularly related to adapting such data capture system
10
as shown in
FIG. 1
to employ distributed processing concepts. Each of the portable data collection terminals
12
has a computer processing capability in the illustrative form of a microprocessor, whereby the entire system's processing capability may be distributed between the host computer
18
and the portable terminals
12
. The system
10
is structured in accordance with a client/server architecture whereby the host computer
18
acts as a server to each of the plurality of client terminals
12
, whereby programs may be dynamically loaded across that RF (or any serial) data link established between the host computer
18
and its terminals
12
.
The use of distributed processing is enhanced by relational database technology and the use of Structured Query Language (SQL) developed by the International Business Machines Company to provide access to relational databases. The use of relational database technology depends on organizing data in tables (or relations); each row of the table represents a record and each column represents an attribute. Various operations may be performed on these relations and, since the mathematics of these operations is very well understood, the results are predictable. An example of these operations is the “join”, where two or more relations may be put together based on some common attribute. The advantage of this organization is that data may be easily retrieved in a form not envisioned by the designers; that is, ad hoc retrievals are quite easy to perform.
A further concept of distributed processing is to partition the system so that data is available to all network users but the data physically resides where it is most likely to be processed. This provides universal access without incurring severe communication overhead penalties. In the context of the data capture system
10
illustrated in
FIG. 1
, data is made available to each of the terminals
12
and to the host computer
18
by the use of the RF transmission between each of terminals
12
and the base radio transceiver
14
. However, employing the concept of distributed processing would direct that more data and application programs be stored within each of the terminals
12
, where s
Morris Michael D.
Zumbach Lyle L.
Heckler Thomas M.
Kinney & Lange , P.A.
Unova, Inc.
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