Method and apparatus for remotely accessing files from a desktop
Contents
1. 14 selecting button 323 or return to the file info display by again selecting file info button 322 Alternatively had the user selected the Install button 320 of FIG 10C the package HeapShow pkg would have been downloaded and installed automatically on the remote computer While this invention has been described in terms of several preferred embodiments there are alterations permutations and equivalents which fall within the scope of this invention It should also be noted that there are many alternative ways of implementing the processes of the present invention For example much of the programming can be simplified by using the high level utilities and data structures mentioned in the preceding specification In particular the described frame database system is preferred for simplifying the programming tasks required by the computer implemented processes of the present invention but there are many other database and graphics systems which can be used to accomplish the same task It is therefore intended that the following appended claims be interpreted as including all such alterations permutations and equivalents as fall within the true spirit and scope of the present invention What is claimed 1 Amethod for transferring data from a desktop computer system running a server program under a first operating system to a stand alone pen based computer system running a control program under a second operating system t2. 242 Get Current Directory Path Get Directory Contents Display Directory Contents Figure 8 U S Patent Dec 1 1998 Sheet 9 of 12 5 845 282 User No Selection Action File Selected Folder Selected Get File Info Action On Selected File Send Name of Selected Folder to Desktop Cancel Action No Yes Figure 9A Implement Action U S Patent Dec 1 1998 Sheet 10 of 12 5 845 282 280 Send Get Info Command to Desktop 282 Display File Info File Closed 4 Yes 28 Figure 9B 5 845 282 Sheet 11 of 12 Dec 1 1998 U S Patent got enbiy FERE MOIS O Gyd moysdeay Q proganayil XOG 20 SMF sabeyped ase OFF o SEBS SIDE AANADCOR o EPOODISZI 3 452 55 6 LLE ole gersu o abexyJed e alas 006 SOION payyun E EUNS gZ Z YOL eunbiy SG Cs ape eves fe asi aly bungan AZZ kikote uonzouvo kol eat SON payun 71 UNS BAS 5 845 282 Sheet 12 of 12 Dec 1 1998 U S Patent aor aniy wd 22 6 56 51 3 P LHPOWN Sapi 218 LoL 4alLepsuy abexoeg YOJAaN Pury we byd moygdesH H 00E ZLE SSION pajyun EZI UNS GE 901 ni UOWABN CJ saj yodu c SYE UIS OO Bag sou deat D PPR RRA NOG AMO SERF OD sabeysed sye C NAMA O SPOR AAAI TP O EPODIZI CJ PLE SSION PSU 6 Espuns Gd Z 5 845 282 1
3. signals developed on line 80 to provide an analog signal on line 82 to drive loudspeaker 76 Of course more complex D A converters can also be used to provide higher quality sound output from loudspeaker 76 as will be apparent to those skilled in the art Suitable OP AMPS to be used as a D A converter 78 are readily available on the commercial market and the miniature loudspeaker is also readily available such as from Hosiden of Osaka Japan The PCMCIA connector 24 is coupled to the controller 28 by a dedicated data D bus 84 a dedicated address A bus 86 and a dedicated control C bus 88 The PCMCIA specifications for signals on the dedicated data address and control busses are industry standard and highly available as the PC Card or PCMCIA standard A variety of devices can fit in the PCMCIA slot 24 including memory expansion cards miniature hard disk drive cards modem cards and pager cards to name a few The serial I O system 26 includes a Serial Communica tions Controller SCC 90 an infrared IR transceiver 92 a serial port 94 and a line driver LD 96 The SCC 90 is coupled to the data bus D 30 by a bus 98 and to the controller 28 by a bus 100 A suitable SCC 90 can be purchased from Zilog Corporation of San Jose Calif as part number Z85C30 The Zilog Z85C30 has been available since at least the early 1980 s and supports a number of serial protocols The IR transceiver 92 is coupled to the SCC 9
4. 395 200 03 166 5 519 851 5 1996 Bender et al oe 395 500 5 561 446 10 1996 Montlick rrtrteereerereerrteenen 345 173 5 577 177 11 1996 Collins et al rrereeeeereereoeron 395 169 5 579 481 11 1996 Drerup 395 200 01 5 583 978 12 1996 Collins et al 395 170 5 592 657 1 1997 Johnson et al wees 395 200 5 630 168 5 1997 Rosebrugh et al 395 825 OTHER PUBLICATIONS Schilit et al The PARCTAB Mobile Computing System IEEE pp 34 39 Oct 1993 Christopher et al Overview of Nine Evaluations of Pen Based Computers PC Magazine v12 n17 printed pp 16 29 Oct 1993 John Rizzo Windows in a Mac World Mar 1993 MacUser Farallon Connect Your PC to a Macintosh Network 1993 Product Literature for Timbuktu for Windows Farallon Remote Control and File Transfer for Networks 1993 Product Literature for Timbuktu Pro for Macintosh Farallon Your AppleTalk Connect for DOS and Windows 1992 1994 Product Literature for PhoneNET PC 3 1 Farallon User s Manual to Timbuktu Remote 1991 Chap ter 5 pp 63 74 Primary Examiner Paul R Lintz Assistant Examiner Frantz Coby Attorney Agent or Firm Beyer amp Weaver LLP 57 ABSTRACT A method and apparatus for selecting and retrieving com puter data files from a remote computer includes an auto matic file translation mechanism In one embodiment the data being retrieved and the file translation mechanism are l
5. flow diagram further illustrating step 186 of FIG 5 FIGS 9A and 9B are computer flow diagrams illustrating step 188 of FIG 5 in greater detail FIGS 10A 10D illustrate an interface implementing the method of one embodiment of the present invention FIG 10A is an illustration demonstrating the interface with regards to forming a connection between a pen based com puter and a desktop computer FIG 10B illustrates the display of directories and files following the formation of a connection between a pen based computer and a desktop computer FIG 10C illustrates the selection of a file on the remote desktop computer FIG 10D is an illustration show ing the display of file information for the selected file shown in FIG 10C DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention is well suited for pointer or pen based computer systems such as the pen based pen aware mouse track ball and track pad controlled systems that are currently popular For the purposes of illustration the inven tion will be described in connection with a pen based system It will be appreciated that the invention employs various process steps involving data stored in computer systems These steps are those requiring physical manipulation of physical quantities Usually though not necessarily these quantities take the form of electrical or magnetic signals capable of being stored transferred combined compared and otherwise manip
6. not inherently related to any particular computer or other apparatus In particular various general purpose machines may be used with programs written in accordance with the teachings herein or it may be more convenient to construct a more specialized apparatus to perform the required method steps The required structure for a variety of these machines will appear from the descrip tion given below As shown in FIG 1 a block diagram 10 of the electronics of a pen based computer in accordance with the present invention includes a central processing unit CPU 12 a memory system 14 an input output I O dual function display system 16 a clock system 18 a power system 20 a sound system 22 a PCMCIA connector 24 and a serial I O system 26 The various components and systems of the computer 10 are coupled together by an I O controller 28 which serves as an interface between the CPU 12 and other components of the computer 10 More specifically the I O controller 28 is an application specific integrated circuit ASIC designed to handle memory peripherals and I O tasks as well as housekeeping functions such as providing system clocks controlling power usage etc The design manufacture and use of ASICs is well known to those skilled in the art The pen based computer 10 as illustrated is currently being manufactured and sold by Apple Computer Inc of Cupertino Calif as a Newton 120 Personal Digital Assistant PDA CPU 12 is pref
7. random accessed memory RAM can be substituted for flash memory 38 and a programmable read only memory PROM can be substituted for the ROM 40 The memory system 14 is coupled directly to the data D bus 30 and the address A bus 32 The memory system 14 is also coupled to a memory control bus 42 of controller 28 The CPU 12 and controller 28 cooperate to read and write data to the memory system 14 via the busses 30 32 and 42 The display system 16 serves as both an input device and an output device More particularly a tablet 44 multiplexer MUX 46 and analog to digital A D converter 48 convert the contact of a stylus see FIG 2 with the tablet 44 and its subsequent movement over the tablet into digital data that is input to the controller 28 The tablet 44 is preferably a four wire resistive membrane tablet and provides positional information on a bus 50 which is input into the MUX 46 The MUX 46 determines which of the four sides of the tablet is to be read Such tablets are widely available from a variety of sources including Nissha of Japan An output from the MUX 46 is input to A D converter 48 on a bus 52 An output from the A D converter 48 is input into the controller 28 The display system 16 further includes an ASIC 56 a dedicated SRAM 58 and an LCD screen 60 The ASIC 56 is an LCD controller coupled to the data D bus 30 the address A bus 32 and the memory control bus 42 The purpose of the ASIC 56 is to allow
8. the CPU 12 to write to the screen as if it were a RAM sitting on the memory bus 42 The SRAM 58 is coupled to the ASIC 56 by a dedicated bus 62 and the screen 60 is coupled to the ASIC 56 by a dedicated bus 64 The ASIC 56 serves as a controller for the screen 60 and uses the SRAM 58 as a frame buffer to store images to be displayed on the screen 60 The LCD screen 60 is preferably a standard super twist LCD matrix screen available from a number of sources including Seiko Epson of Japan The LCD screen preferably comprises a rectan gular array of picture elements or pixels as is well known to those skilled in the art The clock system 18 includes a main system clock 66 and a real time clock RTC crystal 68 The main system clock is a four terminal oscillator and is used to provide the master clock for the computer 10 In the present embodiment the main system clock 66 operates at 40 megahertz Oscillator clocks such as clock 66 can be commercially obtained from many sources including Seiko Epson of Japan This master clock may be divided down by the controller 28 for various timing purposes in the system and is coupled to the con troller 28 by a line 70 The RTC crystal 68 is tuned to 32 768 kilohertz which is evenly divisible by a power of 2 The RTC crystal 68 forms the basis of a crystal based oscillator that can provide a continuous precise uninterrupted signal at 1 hertz by divid ing down the 32 768 kilohertz crystal signal
9. the remote pen based computer and the desktop computer connection protocols are passed between the two machines at step 204 These protocols include the exchange of information such as the identities of the machines and the verification of passwords Again those of skill in the art of computer communication will appreciate that additional information may be exchanged at this stage At step 206 the user of the remote pen based computer may be offered a series of options for browsing and retrieving or loading files from the remote computer Additionally the user may at this point be pre sented with options for invoking actions at the desktop computer Optionally no options may be displayed to the user Instead the computer may simply initiate the browsing action 186 directly upon the establishment of the commu nications protocol between the remote and desktop comput ers In either case the sequence of operations terminates at step 208 The communications protocol established at step 204 includes the use of a data structure that is described in greater detail at 220 in FIG 7 One protocol useful in the present invention is described in co pending U S patent application Ser No 08 072 606 entitled Method for Syn chronizing and Achiving Information Between Computer Systems by Peter Alley and Walter Smith filed and assigned to the assignee of the present invention In one embodiment the communications protocol includes mes sages co
10. with a 10 bit divider The circuitry for performing this type of task is well known and form a part of controller 28 in this embodi ment The one hertz RTC signal increments a RTC counter also a part of the controller 28 to count of the total number 10 15 35 45 50 55 60 65 6 of seconds that has elapsed since midnight Jan 1 1904 an arbitrary start time The value in the RTC counter can be converted into time of day and date information by relatively straight forward calculations well known to those skilled in the art Since the RTC crystal 68 is coupled to the controller 28 by a dedicated two line bus 72 to provide the 32 768 kilohertz signal to the controller 28 The power system 20 provides power to the computer 10 and is coupled to the controller 28 by a dedicated bi directional bus 74 The bus 74 allows for the handling of fault detection signals e g low power switching on and off power to the PCMCIA connector etc The power system 20 preferably controls the power system 20 to conserve power at times of low usage of the pen based computer system The sound system 22 includes a small 18 mm diameter loudspeaker 76 and a D A converter 78 The D A converter 78 is coupled to the controller 28 by a line 80 and to the loudspeaker 76 by a line 82 In the present embodiment the D A converter 78 is a simple operational amplifier OP AMP which acts as an integrator to integrate pulse width modulation PWM
11. 0 by a line 102 for received IR signals and to the controller 28 for IR signals to be transmitted The IR transceiver includes an IR transmitter coupled to line 104 and an IR receiver coupled to line 102 and is available under license from Sharp Corporation of Japan The IR receiver includes a PIN type IR sensitive diode having an output coupled to an analog demodulator and an amplifier to create a signal on line 102 an IR LED coupled to line 104 to be directly driven by a high power switch of controller 28 The serial port 94 is a standard DIN 8 8 pin connector and is coupled to the line driver LD 96 by an eight bit bus 106 The LD 96 is coupled to the SCC 90 by a bus 107 Referring now to FIG 2 a pen based computer system 106 in accordance with the present invention includes the computer 108 and a pen or stylus 110 The computer 108 is enclosed within a generally flat rectangular case 112 having a front end 114 a back end 116 a left side 118 a right side 120 a top 122 and a bottom 124 The LCD 60 is positioned 5 845 282 7 along the top 122 of the case 112 and the clear membrane tablet 44 is positioned over the LCD 60 Also positioned beneath the tablet 44 along a lower edge 126 thereof is a printed strip of material 128 including a number of indicia 130 When the tip 132 of the stylus 110 is engaged with the membrane 44 over one of the indicia 130 the computer 108 can respond to the contact as if the indicia were a bu
12. METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR REMOTELY ACCESSING FILES FROM A DESKTOP COMPUTER USING A PERSONAL DIGITAL ASSISTANT BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates generally to computer sys tems and to communication between desktop and pen based computer systems More particularly the present invention provides a method and apparatus for transferring and trans lating files from a desktop computer to a remote pen based portable computer system Computers are becoming increasingly powerful lightweight and portable The computing power of comput ers that once filled entire rooms is now residing on a desktop Laptop notebook and sub notebook computers are virtually as powerful as their desktop counterparts Even smaller hand held computers are now capable of computing tasks that required much larger machines a few short years ago As a part of this trend computerized personal organizers are becoming increasingly popular with a large segment of the population Computerized personal organizers tend to be small lightweight relatively inexpensive and can perform such functions as keeping a calendar an address book a to do list etc While many of these functions can also be provided in conventional computer systems personal orga nizers are very well suited to the personal organization task due to their small size and portability Personal organizers are available from many companies including Sharp and Casio of Japan A relativel
13. Macintosh Volumes I VI by C Rose et al Addison Wesley Publish ing Company Inc July 1988 With such graphics software a line can be drawn by simply specifying the coordinates of the beginning and the end of the line and by specifying the width of the line Another preferred tool for implementing the system of the present invention is a view system Various types of view systems are well known to those skilled in the art In the present system the notepad application on the screen 60 can form a first or root layer with the status bar 160 for example positioned in a second layer over the root layer The various buttons 162 of the status bar 160 are positioned in a third layer over the second and root layers The view system automatically handles taps and other gestures of the stylus 110 on the screen 60 by returning information concerning the tap or gesture and any object to which it may be related U S patent application Ser No 07 976 970 filed Nov 16 1992 on behalf of Foster et al entitled Status Bar for Application Windows and assigned to the assignee of the present invention describes a preferred view system and how to make and use the status bar and is incorporated herein by reference The object oriented programming and view system soft ware makes the implementation of the processes of the present invention less cumbersome than traditional pro gramming techniques However the processes
14. United States Patent po Alley et al US005845282A 5 845 282 Dec 1 1998 11 Patent Number 45 Date of Patent 54 METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR REMOTELY ACCESSING FILES FROM A DESKTOP COMPUTER USING A PERSONAL DIGITAL ASSISTANT 75 Inventors Peter E Alley Saratoga Joseph G Ansanelli Palo Alto both of Calif 73 Assignee Apple Computer Inc Cupertino Calif Notice This patent issued on a continued pros ecution application filed under 37 CFR 1 53 d and is subject to the twenty year patent term provisions of 35 U S C 154 a 2 21 Appl No 511 978 22 Filed Aug 7 1995 SA Tk EKS O tra a qro a No GO6F 17 30 52 U S CI 707 10 707 104 395 200 62 58 Field of Search 395 200 03 650 395 200 500 169 170 400 601 616 610 615 604 200 01 825 200 62 382 69 364 200 708 345 173 178 19 380 25 707 10 104 56 References Cited U S PATENT DOCUMENTS 4 653 112 3 1987 Ouimette 382 69 4 686 332 8 1987 Greanias et al 178 19 4 774 655 9 1988 Kollin et al 364 200 5 007 085 4 1991 Greanias et al 380 25 5 175 854 12 1992 Cheung etal 395 650 5 224 060 6 1993 MA iii 364 708 5 309 564 5 1994 Bradley et al wn eee 395 200 5 313 578 5 1994 Handorf 395 200 5 329 619 7 1994 Page et al 395 200 5 471 318 11 1995 Ahuja et al 358 400 5 471 615 11 1995 Amatsu et al wee
15. an object can be queried as to its type and can return such data as the number of words that it contains what its bounding box BBOX is etc Objects can contain other objects of the same or of a different type Objects can also be used to project images on a screen according to their object type Example of object types used in the following description include paragraph line and word objects There are many well known texts which describe object oriented programming See for example Object Oriented Program ming for the Macintosh by Kurt J Schmucher Hayden Book Company 1986 In the present invention objects may be implemented as part of a frame system that comprises frame objects related by a semantic network A description of semantic networks can be found in A Fundamental Tradeoff in Knowledge Representation and Reasoning Readings in Knowledge Representation by Brachman and Leveseque Morgan Kaufman San Mateo 1985 It will be noted there is a liberal use of graphic elements in the present invention For example the header bars 152 and 158 include lines and other graphical elements Pro cesses for drawing lines on a computer screen are well known to those skilled in the art For example graphics 5 845 282 9 software such as QUICKDRAW from Apple Computer Inc of Cupertino Calif can be used to draw lines simple geometrical shapes etc A description of the QUICKDRAW graphics software is found in the book Inside
16. ation on the endpoint of the communication i e the status of the communication indicating information such as whether the path of communication between the computers is open or closed or busy and the identification of any programs currently communicating across the communica tion link and the like Also included in the API is a state function indicating how the browser was originally invoked so that control may return to the appropriate function once the file operation has been completed as described below A label for the button presented to the user along with the files to be selected in addition to a filter identifying which file types can be retrieved is also provided In the example where the desktop computer is running the Macintosh operating system the filter might include creator types and file types for the files to be retrieved from the desktop These creator 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 12 types and file types can be used to identify files such as software packages import files to be translated back up files extension files and the like Furthermore a call back function is provided so that control is returned to the process from which the browser was launched Once the appropriate files have been displayed to the user control moves to the sequence shown at 260 in FIGS 9A and 9B Beginning at step 262 of sequence 260 in FIG 9A which indicates step 188 of FIG 5 above the syste
17. e as indicated at 318 Selection of that file causes replacement of the first window of window 309 with a second window 317 which window indicates the highlighted selection in addition to the unselected files and the directory containing those files In addition window 317 provides three buttons a File Info button 322 for obtaining file information from the selected file an Install button 320 and a cancel button 323 which terminates the display selected Button 320 is displayed in response to selection of a file The text of the button is specified at step 186 of FIG 5 If the user was importing instead of installing the button would be labelled import rather than install Should the user chose button 322 the sequence of actions described above with respect to FIGS 9A and 9B leads to the display shown in FIG 10D As shown in the Figure window 317 is overlaid by a new window 324 which window displays the desktop file information for the file HeapShow pkg as shown generally at 326 The new win dow 324 further includes a cancel button 328 the selection of which will terminate the display of the information shown in window 324 Following termination of window 324 the user is returned to the display as illustrated in FIG 10C at which point the user may chose to install the package by selecting button 320 terminate the selection process by 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65
18. een desktop and pen based computers SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention alleviates the above described limi tations of pen based computers by providing facility for browsing and selecting files stored on a remote desktop computer from a pen based computer in an intuitive and efficient manner The present invention further provides for the transfer and optional translation of the selected files again in a manner that is both intuitive and efficient Thus it will be seen that the present invention addresses two major short comings of present pen based computers by providing users of these computers greater and more simplified access to the information stored on less mobile desktop systems In one aspect the present invention provides a method for transferring data from a first computer system running a server program under a first operating system to a second computer system running a control program under a second operating system the first and second computer systems being in communication through a communications medium In one embodiment a data transfer link from the control program on the second computer system to the server program on the first computer system is established The second computer system then displays a list of files available on the first computer system which are available for translation and transfer A file on the first computer system is then selected for transfer The file is then translated and trans
19. erably a commercially available single chip microprocessor While CPU 12 can be a complex instruction set computer CISC chip it is preferable that CPU 12 be one of the commercially available reduced instruction set computer RISC chips which are known to be of generally higher performance than CISC chips In the present embodiment the CPU 12 is preferably an ARM 610 RISC chip operating at 20 megahertz and is available from a variety of sources including VLSI Technology Inc of San Jose Calif and Plessey Semiconductor of England The present CPU 12 includes a 32 bit data D bus 30 a 32 bit address A bus 32 and an 8 bit control C bus 34 The memory system 14 includes static random access memory SRAM 36 non volatile read write flash memory 38 and read only memory ROM 40 The SRAM 36 serves as volatile scratch pad memory for the computer 5 845 282 5 system 10 and in the current system includes 512 kilobytes of memory The flash memory 38 is where user data is stored preferably includes about 2 megabytes of memory and is available as a standard product from Intel Corporation of Santa Clara Calif The ROM 40 stores the operating system and embedded application programs and currently comprises approximately 8 megabytes of memory Of course there are many equivalents for the SRAM 36 flash memory 38 and ROM 40 For example dynamic random access memory DRAM can be substituted for SRAM 36 battery backed
20. ferred to the second computer system In one embodiment the exchange of information and commands is performed using a data structure comprising a header a command block a length block and a data block The header comprises two blocks the first block holding information effective to identify the second computer system and the second block containing information effective to identify a communications program on the second computer system that is transferring data with the first computer system over the data link The command block and the length block each have a length of four bytes and the length of the data block is an even multiple of four In a second aspect the present invention provides a computer readable medium comprising program instructions for performing the above described steps of establishing a data link between the first and second computer systems displaying a list of available files on the second computer selecting a file for transfer and translating the selected file on the first computer system In a third aspect the present invention provides an appa ratus for selecting and receiving data stored on a remote computer system The apparatus of the invention comprises in one embodiment means for establishing a data transfer link with the remote computer system The means for 5 845 282 3 establishing a data link are coupled to a remote file browser that receives file information for data stored on the remote compu
21. he desktop computer system and the stand alone pen based computer system being in communication through a tem porary and exclusive communications medium the method comprising a establishing a one to one and temporary data transfer link from the control program on the stand alone pen based computer system to the server program on the desktop computer system through the communications medium where the pen based computer system and the first computer system are not interconnected by any type of shared network but are in communication through the one to one and temporary data transfer link to permit data transfer therebetween b displaying on the stand alone pen based computer system a list of files available on the desktop computer system which are available for translation and transfer c selecting on the stand alone pen based computer system a file from the list of files being displayed on the desktop computer system for transfer d translating the selected file on the desktop computer system using translators and e transferring the translated file from the desktop com puter system to the stand alone pen based computer system over the one to one and temporary data transfer link the stand alone pen based computer system hav ing the ability of processing the translated file without depending on the desktop computer system 2 The method of claim 1 wherein the step of establishing a data transfer link further includes exchangi
22. iles import files load software packages or to enter a password However many other commands such as commands effective to access the Newton database can also be used in place of the above described commands Such commands will be familiar to those of skill in the art of designing Newton software Following the command in block 226 the length of any data associated with the command is provided as a four byte word at 228 Finally block 230 comprises any data associated with the command in block 226 which data is padded to achieve a size having a modulus of four It will be appreciated by those having skill in the programming arts that other communications protocols may be employed without departing from the present invention Once the file browser has been invoked at step 186 of FIG 5 the sequence of operations illustrated at 240 in FIG 8 is begun Starting at step 242 the path of the current directory is retrieved from the desktop computer at step 244 and the contents of the current directory are obtained at step 246 These contents are displayed to the user at step 248 and the sequence terminates at step 250 These actions can be implemented using techniques well known to those having skill in the art of programming and especially those of skill in the art of programming Macintosh and Windows based computers In one embodiment the browser is invoked using an application programmer interface API which includes inform
23. ination is made at step 272 as to whether the file information file info option has been selected In one embodiment such information describes the type and size of the file the file s location creation and modification dates versions information comments memory settings for RAM allocation and a lock flag If the query at step 272 is negative then control again returns to step 264 whereupon the system 5 845 282 13 awaits another user input selection action However if the get file info option is selected at step 272 then control moves to step 280 which is described in FIG 9B As illustrated in that Figure invocation of the get info command causes a Get Info command to be sent to the desktop at step 280 which invokes the desktop manager to send the appropriate file information to the pen based computer for display to the user at step 282 At step 284 a determination is made as to whether the user has terminated the display of the file information If no termination is made then the file info is continued to be displayed However once the file informa tion has been closed control returns to step 264 as described above One embodiment of the present invention is illustrated with respect to FIGS 10A 10D FIG 10A at 300 shows a typical application running on a Newton 120 pen based computer system The application in the illustration is a note taking application in which a user can enter various notes that are organ
24. intosh operating system available from Apple Computer Inc of Cupertino Calif The pen based computer runs a control program capable of exchanging data and instructions with the server program on the desktop computer such as the above described Newton Connection Kit software The control program would run under an operating system adapted for the pen based computer such as the Newton operating system also available from Apple Computer At step 186 a browser function is invoked by the user of the remote pen based computer to select one or more files for transfer and optionally translation or to load a software package At step 188 the file to be transferred or loaded from the desktop computer to the remote pen based computer is selected and at step 190 the desired function is performed on the selected file The functions executed at step 190 can include but are not limited to file transfer file translation file loading file deletion file copying file printing and file moving Other suitable functions will be apparent to those of skill in the computer software arts At step 192 if all desired transactions have been completed the procedure is termi nated at step 194 Otherwise step 186 is invoked again and the above described sequence of steps 186 192 is repeated Step 184 of FIG 5 is illustrated in greater detail at 200 in FIG 6 Beginning with step 202 following the establish ment of a physical connection between
25. ized by the days of the week As seen in the Figure the user has invoked a connection between the Newton such as computer 108 shown in FIG 4 and a remote desktop computer such as shown at 166 in FIG 4 initiation of which connection is illustrated by the appear ance of a dialog box 302 indicating that a connection is being made The status of the connection is shown in a second dialog box 304 in which the progress of the connec tion establishment is indicated by a barber pole 306 Dialog box 304 includes a stop button 308 that can be used to terminate the connection prior to its establishment Following the establishment of the connection the list of files available from the desktop of the remote Macintosh is presented to the user in a dialog box 309 shown in FIG 10B This dialog box replaces dialog boxes 302 and 304 which are present only to describe to the user the status of the pending connection Dialog box 309 includes the name of the direc tory that is currently being accessed at 310 which directory includes various software packages files directories and aliases of files and directories such as those shown at 312 Huston alias Import files and HeapShow pkg in scrolling window 311 The files can be browsed using the arrow controls shown at 314 The dialog box may be terminated by selection of termination button 316 As shown in FIG 10C a user selection action of the file HeapShow pkg is mad
26. m waits for a user selection action to occur at step 264 When a selection action is detected a determination is made at step 266 as to whether a file has been selected If a file has been selected then at step 268 a determination is made as to whether an action is to be performed on the selected file However if no file is selected at step 266 then at step 270 a determination is made as to whether a folder has been selected If a folder has been selected the name of the selected folder is returned to the desktop at step 278 so that its contents may be retrieved as described above in FIG 8 If no folder is selected at step 270 then at step 274 a determination is made as to whether the user has invoked a cancel action If no cancel action is invoked at step 274 then the options for user input have been exhausted and control returns to step 264 where the system again waits for a user input action However if a cancel action has been invoked at step 274 then the action is implemented at step 276 Returning to step 268 if an action is selected for a selected file the action is implemented at step 276 Examples of possible actions that can be invoked on a file are described above In one embodiment the transfer of data files includes automatically any translation operations required to allow the user to access the file on the remote computer and the transfer of any packages automatically invokes the mechanisms necessary to install the do
27. merating is performed automatically in response to information asso ciated with the file to be transferred 10 The method of claim 9 wherein the information associated with the file is located in a resource fork associ ated with the file 11 A computer readable medium comprising program instructions for a establishing a one to one and temporary data transfer link from a control program on a stand alone pen based computer system to a server program on a desktop computer system through a temporary and exclusive communications medium where the stand alone pen based computer system and the desktop computer sys tem are not interconnected by any type of shared network but are in communication through the one to one and temporary data transfer link to permit data transfer therebetween b displaying on the pen based computer system a list of files available on the first computer system which are available for translation and transfer c selecting on the stand alone pen based computer system a file from the list of files being displayed on the desktop computer system for transfer d translating the selected file on the desktop computer system and e transferring the translated file from the desktop com puter system to the stand alone pen based computer system over the one to one and temporary data transfer link the stand alone pen based computer system hav ing the ability of processing the selected file without depending
28. mprising five blocks the first 4 blocks containing 5 845 282 11 4 bytes of information and the last block containing a variable amount of information The first two blocks 222 and 224 comprise a header the third block 226 comprises a command and the fourth block 228 comprises the length of data contained in the fifth block 230 Block 222 identifies the machine with which the desktop computer is in com munication In one embodiment the desktop computer is a computer running the Macintosh operating system available commercially from Apple Computer Inc Cupertino Calif which includes a desktop manager and the remote computer is the above described Newton 120 The operation of the Macintosh operating system and the desktop manager is described in the above cited Inside Macintosh In this embodiment the header comprises the four byte word NEWT identifying the remote machine in communication with the desktop as a Newton or Newton type computer The second block 224 indicates the software which is communicating with the desktop manager In the embodiment shown the software is the docking software of the Newton identified by the four bit word DOCK The docking software is available commercially from Apple Computer Inc Cupertino Calif The third block 226 can contain any command that can be executed by one of the communicating machines Such commands can include for example commands to backup files restore f
29. ng information and commands using a record type data structure including fields comprising a header a command block a length block and a data block 3 The method of claim 2 wherein the header comprises two blocks the first block holding information effective to identify the stand alone pen based computer system and the second block containing information effective to identify a control program on the stand alone pen based computer system that controls the transfer of data with the desktop computer system over the data transfer link 5 845 282 15 4 The method of claim 3 wherein the header blocks the command block and the length block each have a length of four bytes and the length of the data block is an even multiple of four 5 The method of claim 1 further including the step of 5 displaying user options after the data transfer link has been established 6 The method of claim 5 wherein the user options includes a file browser option to initiate a file browsing mechanism to view files stored on the desktop computer system 7 The method of claim 1 wherein displaying a list of files available further comprises the steps of obtaining and dis playing the path of the current directory from the desktop computer 8 The method of claim 1 wherein translating comprises enumerating on the desktop computer system at least one translation module and its acceptable input file type 9 The method of claim 8 wherein the step of enu
30. nverted into a second header bar 158 Addi tional text graphical and other data can then be entered into this second note area 156 The screen illustrated in FIG 3 is referred to as the notepad and is preferably an application program running under the operating system of the pen based computer system 10 In this preferred embodiment the notepad is a special or base application which is usually or normally available beneath higher level applications The notepad application like other applications run within a window which in this instance comprises the entire screen 60 Therefore as used herein a window is the entire screen or any portion of an entire screen which is dedicated to a particular application program A description of the opera tion and use of the notepad can be found in U S Pat No 5 398 310 assigned to the assignee of the present invention and incorporated herein by reference A status bar 160 is provided at the bottom of the notepad application The status bar 160 is provided with a number of active areas and a number of display areas which again are not particularly germane to the present invention and will therefore not be discussed in detail herein The term object will be used extensively in the follow ing discussions As is well known to software developers an object is a logical software unit comprising data and processes which give it capabilities and attributes For example
31. o the CPU 12 via the controller 28 Typically this information comprises the Cartesian i e x y coordinates of a pixel of the screen 60 over which the tip 132 of the stylus 110 is positioned The CPU 12 then processes the data under control of an oper ating system stored in ROM 40 and possibly an application program stored in the memory system 14 or elsewhere such as on a PCMCIA card engaged with PCMCIA connector 24 10 15 20 25 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 8 The CPU 12 next produces data which is transferred to the screen 60 via ASIC 56 to produce appropriate images on the screen Upon power up pen based computer system 106 displays on screen 60 an initial note area 151 including a header bar 152 and a number of guidelines 154 The header bar 152 preferably includes the date of creation of the note area 151 and a number of icons and soft buttons not particularly germane to the discussion of the present invention The guidelines 154 aid a user in entering text graphics and data into the pen based computer system 106 A text object T of the text Text Object and a graphic object G of a triangle are shown as being entered within note area 151 Additional note areas such as a second note area 156 can be formed by the user by drawing a substantially horizontal line across the tablet 44 with the stylus 110 The substan tially horizontal line is recognized by the computer system 106 and is co
32. ocated on the same computer The method of the invention includes establishing a data transfer link with the remote computer displaying the files available for retrieval from the remote computer selecting a file to be transferred and translating the file prior to transfer In one embodiment the apparatus includes a pen based computer and the remote computer is a desktop computer 19 Claims 12 Drawing Sheets 5 845 282 Sheet 1 of 12 Dec 1 1998 U S Patent TVISAHO 49019 JNLL T1VIFY pG OL ol bz 88 Mi Gi am 4 OULN O I EE ka mi tema am m 82 86 001 Q O a Q N O 2 U S Patent Dec 1 1998 Sheet 2 of 12 5 845 282 U S Patent Dec 1 1998 Sheet 3 of 12 5 845 282 yo e ZO ve as Figure 3 5 845 282 Sheet 4 of 12 Dec 1 1998 U S Patent y ounbl4 U S Patent Dec 1 1998 Sheet 5 of 12 5 845 282 182 we 180 184 Establish Connection 186 Invoke Browser 188 Figure 5 190 Perform Function On Selected File 192 U S Patent Dec 1 1998 Sheet 6 of 12 5 845 282 200 N 202 START 184 Pass Protocols Display User Options Figure 6 U S Patent Dec 1 1998 Sheet 7 of 12 5 845 282 LENGTH DATA Figure 7 5 c la IE LE IG O DOCK 220 U S Patent Dec 1 1998 Sheet 8 of 12 5 845 282 N 240
33. of the present invention can also be implemented in alternative fashions as will be well appreciated by those skilled in the art Communication between a pen based computer 108 and a desktop computer 166 is illustrated generally in FIG 4 Desktop computer 166 includes a central processor unit CPU in a housing 168 a monitor 170 keyboard 172 and optionally a mouse 174 as well known in the art In one embodiment of the present invention computer 108 includes the communications devices described above for use in communicating with desktop computer 166 e g through infrared or external connectors 92 and 94 Similarly desktop computer 166 further includes one or more additional com ponents for communication with remote pen based com puter 108 Such components include for example network connection hardware such as Ethernet or AppleTalk interfaces modems infrared interfaces and the like and can be located within housing 168 or coupled externally thereto Such components will be familiar to those of skill in the computing and telecommunications arts Contained on storage media coupled to desktop computer 166 are one or more files and or file directories such as represented by file icon 176 displayed on screen 178 These files can be stored on any media suitable for computer access and coupled to computer 166 such a hard disk CD ROM floppy disk tape drive or the like Using stylus 110 or other control means the user of rem
34. on the desktop computer system 12 The computer readable medium of claim 11 further comprising program instructions for displaying user options after the data transfer link has been established 13 The computer readable medium of claim 12 wherein the user options include a file browser option to initiate a file browsing mechanism for view files stored on the desktop computer system 14 The computer readable medium of claim 11 wherein the program instructions for displaying a list of files avail able further comprises program instructions for obtaining the path of the current directory from the desktop computer system and obtaining the contents of the directory from the desktop computer system 10 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 16 15 A stand alone pen based computer apparatus for reviewing selecting and receiving data stored on a remote computer system the apparatus comprising a means for establishing a one to one and temporary data transfer link with the remote computer system where said stand alone pen based computer apparatus and the remote computer system are not interconnected by any type of shared network but are in communica tion through the one to one and temporary data transfer link to permit data transfer therebetween b a remote file browser coupled to said means for establishing said remote file browser receives file information for data stored on the remote computer system and dis
35. ote pen based computer 106 initiates the transfer of file 176 from desktop computer 166 to computer 108 e g by initiating actions using indicia 130 on strip 128 which actions are described in greater detail below Following the file transfer and any translation if appropriate a copy of the file represented by icon 176 appears on screen 44 as indicated by icon 176 One implementation of the method of the invention is illustrated in FIG 5 at 180 Beginning at step 182 a connection is established between a remote pen based com puter and a desktop computer at 184 The connection 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 50 55 60 65 10 between the desktop and remote computer may be accom plished by any methods including but not limited to direct connection by cable connection over a network connection by modem or connection by infrared transmission The connection may further include the use of protocols such as MNP AppleTalk TCP IP or the like These and other methods of establishing a connection will be familiar to those skilled in the computer and telecommunications arts In one embodiment desktop computer 166 further includes a server program that communicates with software running on the remote pen based computer One example of such server software is that sold commercially as Newton Connection Kit by Apple Computer Inc of Cupertino Calif The server program runs under an operating system such as the Mac
36. plays the file information to a user of the stand alone pen based computer apparatus c a file selector coupled to said remote file browser said file selector allows the user to identify at least one file to be transferred from the remote computer system to the stand alone pen based computer apparatus the stand alone pen based computer apparatus having the ability of processing a transferred file without depend ing on the remote computer system d a translator including one or more translation modules coupled to said file selector said translator determines whether the selected file is to be translated in conjunc tion with the transfer of the file to the stand alone pen based computer apparatus 16 The computer apparatus of claim 15 wherein the means for establishing a data transfer link comprises a modem 17 The computer apparatus of claim 15 wherein the means for establishing a data transfer link comprises an infrared communications means 18 The computer apparatus of claim 15 wherein the browser is displayed automatically after the data transfer link has been established 19 A method of transferring data from a desktop com puter to a stand alone pen based computer where the desk top computer and the stand alone pen based computer are not related and can each operate independently of each other the method comprising invoking a file browser on the stand alone pen based computer to enable viewing of lists of files a
37. position and movement of the stylus it generates a corresponding image on the screen to create the illusion that the stylus is drawing the image directly upon the screen i e that the stylus is inking an image on the screen By ink it is meant that pixels on the screen are activated in such a manner that it appears that the stylus is leaving a trail of ink on the display assembly With suitable recognition software the ink can be recognized to input text numerics graphics and other recognized information into the pen based system 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 2 However the practical utility of both pen based and personal organizer devices has been limited by their inability to communicate efficiently with other computers especially desktop computers which hold information and software that would be useful if available on the pen based or personal organizer device at a remote location Such infor mation might include for example calendar and personal information manager PIM data in addition to informa tion contained in files such as word processor documents The exchange of such data and software between a pen based computer and a desktop computer has been hindered by the inability to provide a simple remote connection between the desktop and pen based computer in addition to the cumbersome interface software necessary for transfer ring and translating files betw
38. sed for use when the cover 134 is folded against the bottom 124 of the case 112 The remaining components and systems of the computer block diagram 10 of FIG 1 are enclosed within the case 112 of the computer system 108 It should be noted that the preceding discussion is of a preferred embodiment of the present invention and that there are many alternatives for the stylus 110 For example a fingernail or other pointed object could be used with the tablet 44 of the present invention Also there are other types of tablets available that utilize other types of styluses Other types of pointing devices can also be used in conjunction with the present invention While the method of the present invention is described in the context of a pen based system other pointing devices such as a computer mouse a track ball a track pad a tablet etc can be used to manipulate a pointer on a screen of a general purpose computer Therefore as used herein the terms pointer pointing device pointing apparatus pointing means and the like will refer to any mechanism device or system for designating to a particular location on a screen of a computer display With additional reference to FIG 3 information is input into the pen based computer system by writing on the tablet 44 with stylus 110 or the like Information concerning the location of the tip 132 of stylus 110 on the tablet 44 of the display system 16 is input int
39. ter system and displays the file information to a user of the apparatus The file browser is coupled to a file selector that allows the user to identify at least one file to be transferred from the remote computer system to the com puter apparatus A translator that determines whether the selected file is to be translated in conjunction with the transfer of the file to the computer apparatus is coupled to the selector These and other advantages of the present invention will become apparent upon reading the following detailed descriptions and studying the various figures of the draw ings BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG 1 is a block diagram of the electronics of a pen based computer system in accordance with the present invention FIG 2 is a perspective view of a complete pen based computer system including a housing display assembly and stylus where the electronics of FIG 1 are enclosed within the housing FIG 3 is a top plan view of the housing and display assembly of pen based computer system of FIG 2 FIG 4 is a schematic illustration of a communications link between a remote pen based computer and a desktop computer FIG 5 is a computer flow diagram of an embodiment of the method of the present invention FIG 6 is a computer flow diagram illustrating step 184 of FIG 5 in greater detail FIG 7 is a schematic illustration of a data structure in accordance with the present invention FIG 8 is a computer
40. tton Therefore as used herein a button can be an image seen through the tablet 44 either from the screen 60 or from printed material 128 or the like that can serve the function of an electro mechanical button or the like when the tablet 44 is activated over a button image Alid 134 is connected to the back end 116 of case 112 by hinge 136 When open as shown or folded back to contact the bottom 124 of case 112 the tablet 44 and screen 60 are available for use When the cover 134 is folded over the top 122 of case 112 it fully covers the tablet 44 to protect the delicate membrane material The lid 134 is provided with a latch member 138 which engages a latch member 140 when it is overlying the top 122 of the computer The latch member 138 is disengaged from the latch member 140 by a mechanical latch release 142 Also seen in FIG 2 is an on switch 144 a contrast adjustment 146 and a grille 148 for the speaker 76 The stylus 110 is of a collapsible design and can fit into an opening 150 along the right side 120 of case 112 Not seen in this figure along the right side 120 of the case 112 is an opening for a PCMCIA card which can engage PCMCIA connector 24 the DIN 8 port 94 and a power input jack Not seen along the bottom 124 of the case 112 is a battery access cover and a mechanical ejection button for a PCMCIA card engaged with the PCMCIA connector 24 The IR port 92 is provided along back 116 of the case 112 and is expo
41. ulated It is sometimes convenient 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 4 principally for reasons of common usage to refer to these signals as bits values elements variables characters data structures or the like It should be remembered however that all of these and similar terms are to be associated with the appropriate physical quantities and are merely conve nient labels applied to these quantities Further the manipulations performed are often referred to in terms such as identifying running or comparing In any of the operations described herein that form part of the present invention these operations are machine operations Useful machines for performing the operations of the present invention include general purpose digital computers or other similar devices In all cases there should be borne in mind the distinction between the method of operations in operating a computer and the method of computation itself The present invention relates to method steps for operating a computer in processing electrical or other physical signals to generate other desired physical signals The present invention also relates to an apparatus for performing these operations This apparatus may be spe cially constructed for the required purposes or it may be a general purpose computer selectively activated or reconfig ured by a computer program stored in the computer The processes presented herein are
42. vailable on the desktop computer for transfer determining what type of data is desired to be transferred determining whether the data should be translated using translators before being transferred facilitating access on the stand alone pen based computer determining whether the data should be loaded and installed on the stand alone pen based computer facili tating execution of the data on the stand alone pen based computer the stand alone pen based computer capable of processing data independently of any other computer including the desktop computer creating a new and one to one connection between the desktop computer and the stand alone pen based com puter and extinguishing the new connection once the data has been transferred between the stand alone pen based com puter and the desktop computer
43. wnloaded software onto the remote computer The implementation of such automatic translation and or loading will be familiar to those having skill in the art of programming and especially those of skill in the art of programming Newton comput ers In one embodiment the translation occurs in response to information associated with the file such as a header or a resource fork containing information identifying the file type and the application that created the file The latter embodi ment will be familiar to those of skill in programming for the Macintosh computer The translation is performed using translators e g translation modules that are located on the desktop computer Following translation the translated files are downloaded to the remote pen based computer It will be appreciated that such automatic features greatly facilitate the integration of portable pen based computers with desktop computers by freeing the user of the remote computer from burdensome file conversion operations and or installation procedures Alternatively the translation can be performed using translation modules that are selected by the user of the remote pen based computer In addition the translation can be done using translation modules that are located on the remote pen based computer the choice of translation mod ule being made automatically or in response to user selec tion If however no action is selected for a selected file then a determ
44. y new form of computer the pen based com puter system holds forth the promise of a marriage of the power of a general purpose desktop computer with the functionality and small size of a personal organizer An example of a pen based computer system is the Newton 120 pen based computer made and marketed by Apple Computer Inc of Cupertino Calif A pen based computer system is typically a small hand held computer where the primary method for inputting data includes a pen or stylus A pen based computer system is commonly housed in a generally rectangular enclosure and is provided with a dual function display assembly that can serve as both an input device and an output device When operating as an input device or tablet the display assem bly senses the position of the tip of a stylus on the viewing screen and provides this positional information to the com puter s central processing unit CPU Some display assem blies can also sense the pressure of the stylus on the screen to provide further information to the CPU When operating as an output device the display assembly presents computer generated images on the screen The dual function display assemblies of pen based com puter systems permit users to operate the computer as a computerized notepad among other functions For example graphical images can be input into the pen based computer by merely moving the stylus on the surface of the screen As the CPU senses the
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