GB2345609A

GB2345609A - Data handling system

Info

Publication number: GB2345609A
Application number: GB9900367A
Authority: GB
Inventors: William Henry Player
Original assignee: HENDON PETER
Current assignee: HENDON PETER
Priority date: 1999-01-11
Filing date: 1999-01-11
Publication date: 2000-07-12
Also published as: GB9900367D0

Abstract

A data handling system comprises a multiplicity of digital data processors; a multiplicity of terminals; and data transmission means by way of which communication paths may be established between any one of said terminals and any one of said processors. Each terminal comprises first data input means 11, e.g. a bar-code reader second data input means, e.g. a data entry keyboard 13; data storage means adapted to store data sensed by said first input means; controller means 15 connected to outputs from said associated sensor means and keyboard; and, a modem. A software package, being a software package operative in response to data, including processor address-data, read from the data storage means of said terminal, or entered at the key-board thereof, serves to analyse said data and to establish the appropriate communication path by way of a modem, to a data processor so addressed, and to procure the transmission to the data processor so addressed, of data to be processed.

Description

DATA HANDLING SYSTEMS This invention relates to data handling systems and is particularly, though not exclusively, concerned with data handling systems incorporating document scanning apparatus for use, in conjunction with a so-called intelligent telephone for local control, processing and data transmission purposes.

Documents to be scanned may be business cards, company letterheads, price lists, credit cards. The information contained in documents to be scanned may comprise bar-codes, alphanumeric printed characters, magnetically encoded data, signatures, and may, among others, represent telephone numbers, Fax addresses, e-mail addresses, item codes for ordering purposes, and names and addresses.

According to the invention, a data handling system comprises: . a multiplicity of digital data processors; . a multiplicity of terminals, and, . data transmission means by way of which communication paths may be established between any one of said terminals and any one of said processors; and in which, . each said terminal comprises: .. first data input means, being one of a multiplicity of individual sensor means respectively associated with the several terminals; .. second data input means, being one of a multiplicity of individual data entry keyboards respectively associated with the several terminals; .. data storage means, being one of a multiplicity of data storage means respectively associated with the several terminals and being adapted to store data sensed by said first input means; .. controller means connected to outputs from said associated sensor means and keyboard; and, .. a modem ; and, associated with said each terminal, . a software package, being a software package operative in response to data, including processor address-data, read from the data storage means of said terminal, or entered at the keyboard thereof, to analyse said data and to establish the appropriate communication path by way of a modem, to a data processor so addressed, and to procure the transmission to the data processor so addressed, of data to be processed.

The foregoing and other aspects of the invention are hereinafter described with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Fig. l is a schematic diagram of a first data handling system; Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of a second data handling system; and, Fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of a third data handling system.

The data handling system depicted, schematically, in the several figures, comprises a digital data processor (not shown), being one of a multiplicity of digital data processors; and a multiplicity of terminals each of which incorporates first and second data input means 11,13, respectively ; controller means 15; digital data storage means, and a modem 17.

In the arrangement shown in Fig. l, the first data input means 11 comprises a bar-code scanner means, the second data input means 13, a keyboard.

The controller means 15, in which is incorporated said digital data storage means, has inputs connected to outputs from the bar-code scanner 11 and the keyboard 13.

The controller means 15, acting under control of executive software, is operative in response to data, including processor address-data derived from said bar-code scanner means 11 and said keyboard 13, or either of them, and stored in said data storage means and read-in from said data storage means 11 or 13, to analyse said data and to establish an appropriate communication path by way of the modem 17, to the data processor addressed, and thereafter, to procure the transmission to the selected data processor of data to be processed by said processor.

The terminal of Fig. l is mounted within a light-weight housing represented, in the diagram, by an endless broken line H. The terminal of Fig. l is shown connected to a transmission path 19. Other terminals of the data handling system are similarly linked, through their respective modems, as 17, to other transmission paths, being, in the examples, conventional telephone communication channels ; and a telephone 21 is shown connected to said transmission path 19, a switch 23 serving to isolate the telephone when the terminal is in use transmitting data to a data processor.

In the arrangement of Fig. 2, the typical hardware for the terminal is shown to comprise a first and second housings 25, 27, respectively.

The housing 25 holds the bar-code scanner means 11, the controller means 15, and the modem 17, whilst the housing 27 holds the key-board 13 and buttons 29 for the telephone electronics 31. The housing 27 is constituted by the base unit of the telephone, the hand-set 33 and hook-switch 35 of which shown as constituting part of the housing 27. The key-board 13 has, however, a connection 37 to the controller means 15 held in the first housing 23. Furthermore, the hand-set 33 and the modem 17 share a common data transmission path, being a transmission path through a telephone switching network, to the several data processors of the system.

In the arrangement of Fig. 3, the terminal is held at a common unitary housing 39, the controller means 15 receiving inputs from the key-board 13, the telephone hook-switch 35, the bar-code scanner means 11, and various control buttons 37. A first output 41 from the controller means 15 serves to actuate line switch means 43 operable to connect second and third outputs 45,47, respectively, from the controller means 15 to a common data transmission path, a data transmission path through the telephone switching network by which the terminal may be selectively linked to the several data processors of the system.

Whilst, in the embodiments of the invention hereinbefore referred to, the sensor means 11 is stated to be constituted by bar-code scanner means, data to be read from documents being in the form of bar-codes, other forms of data to be sensed may be employed. The data might be alpha-numeric ; it might be magnetically-encoded; it might even be audible data, the sensor then incorporating some form of audio-sensor.

The data being sensed might take any one of a variety of forms. It might, for examples, comprise signatures, telephone numbers, Fax addresses, e-mail addresses, printed names and addresses and item codes for ordering purposes.

The user would commence the scanning process by placing the sensor means in proximity to the data to be sensed and pressing a button. Information would then be analysed at the terminal 30 and uses appropriately. For example, telephone numbers might be sensed from a directory, from business cards, or from letter heads, and employed in automatic telephone dialling of the numbers. Order codes on price lists can be sensed, as by barcode scanning, and stored locally in the terminal. Multiples of a quantity to be ordered could be entered by repeated scans or by depression of a multiplier button. A list of orders having been sensed and stored in local data storage means at the terminal, automatic data transmission of the list of items ensues, uploading the order to the vendor's data processor, the modem link at the terminal being set-up for this purpose, and the address of the data processor being automatically dialled.

The initiation of this process might be by means of a code keyed into the key-board, or, more simply, by placing the scanning or other sensor over a predesignated part of a document, marked, for example, by the message SEND, being a message containing control information recognizable by the system.

Claims

CLAIMS 1. A data handling system which comprises; . a multiplicity of digital data processors; a multiplicity of terminals, and, . data transmission means by way of which communication paths may be established between any one of said terminals and any one of said processors; and in which, . each said terminal comprises: .. first data input means, being one of a multiplicity of individual sensor means respectively associated with the several terminals; .. second data input means, being one of a multiplicity of individual data entry keyboards respectively associated with the several terminals; .. data storage means, being one of a multiplicity of data storage means respectively associated with the several terminals; .. controller means connected to outputs from said associated sensor means and keyboard; and, a a modem ; and, associated with said each terminal, . a software package, being a software package operative in response to data, including processor address-data, read from the data storage means of said terminal, or entered at the key-board thereof, to analyse said data and to establish the appropriate communication path by way of a modem, to a data processor so addressed, and to procure the transmission to the data processor so addressed, of data to be processed.
2. A data handling system as claimed in claim 1 in which: said sensor means comprises a bar-code scanning device.
3. A data handling system as claimed in claim 2 in which, in respect of at least one terminal, said bar-code scanning device is incorporated in the hand-set of a telephone; and said data entry key-board, said controller means, and said data storage means are all incorporated in the base of said telephone; and which comprises line switch means which, in one switch state, connects the telephone for speech transmission and in another switch state connects the telephone for sensed data transmission to an addressed data processor.
4. A data handling system as claimed in claim 2 in which associated with at least one said terminal, there is a telephone, and line switch means is provided, said line switch means being operative in one switch state to connect the telephone hand-set for speech transmission and in another to connect the other to an addressed data processor.
5. A data handling system substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to Fig. l, Fig. 2, or Fig. 3 of the accompanying drawings.

5. A terminal for a data handling system, being a terminal substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to Fig. l, Fig. 2, or Fig. 3 of the accompanying drawings.