Communications: electrical – Condition responsive indicating system – Specific condition
Reexamination Certificate
2001-09-12
2004-11-09
Swarthout, Brent A. (Department: 2632)
Communications: electrical
Condition responsive indicating system
Specific condition
C340S500000, C340S815400, C348S231100, C348S231990
Reexamination Certificate
active
06816071
ABSTRACT:
1. TECHNICAL FIELD
This disclosure relates to information display devices and, more particularly, to an information display device including a status indicator to indicate a percentage of available resources remaining as the resources are used.
2. BACKGROUND
In products that use consumable resources, it is helpful to indicate the status of the resources to the product user. For instance, virtually every automobile includes a fuel gauge in its instrument cluster to indicate to the driver how much fuel is in the fuel tank. Knowing the fuel level allows the driver to take appropriate action at the right time, such as by putting more gas in the car before the gas tank is empty.
Consumer devices also use consumable resources. For example, a portable videotape camera uses both videotape and battery power in creating a video movie. However, unlike the fuel gauge, no real conventions exist to best provide feedback of the status of consumable resources in these devices. Some manufactures use tape counters, while others use flashing icons to denote that the tape is soon ending. Some video camera manufacturers provide no feedback of these resources to the user at all—when the tape stops moving, the user knows that the videotape is completely used or the battery is dead. Providing a status indicator of a consumable resource in a consumer device that is intuitive, informational, accurate and attractive remains an elusive goal.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5481303 (1996-01-01), Uehara
patent: 5633976 (1997-05-01), Ogino
patent: 5905528 (1999-05-01), Kodama
patent: 6122411 (2000-09-01), Shen et al.
patent: 6147703 (2000-11-01), Miller et al.
patent: 6195513 (2003-02-01), Nihei et al.
patent: 6429896 (2003-08-01), Aruga et al.
Intel Corporation
Marger & Johnson & McCollom, P.C.
Swarthout Brent A.
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