Mobile terminal with integrated host application software

(21) Appl. No.: 09/570,961

(22) Filed: May 15, 2000

Related U.S. Application Data

(62) Division of application No. 09/520,929, filed on Mar. 8, 2000, now Pat. No. 6,507,864, which is a continuation of application No. 08/916,605, filed on Aug. 22, 1997, now abandoned, which is a continuation of application No. 08/691,263, filed on Aug. 2, 1996, now abandoned.

(60) Provisional application No. 60/006,872, filed on Nov. 17, 1995.

(51) Int. CI.7 G06F 15/16; G06F 13/12

(52) U.S. CI 709/219; 709/201; 710/73

(58) Field of Search 709/201, 219;

710/73, 5, 10; 345/168; 348/76

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FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS

EP 0744856 11/1996

* cited by examiner

Primary Examiner—Krisna Lim

(74) Attorney, Agent, or Firm—Amin & Turocy, LLP

(57) ABSTRACT

A method of integrating host application software with data collection devices (e.g., bar code scanners) located on remote, wireless terminals. A data collection object executes on the host computer, using a predetermined interface between the host application software and the data collection object. That interface, and the communications between the host application software and the data collection object, are configured so that to the host application software the data collection device appears to be local hardware on the host computer. The data collection object creates and executes threads of execution for controlling operation of the data collection device, with the threads communicating with the remote terminals via a host computer transport layer, the wireless link, and a remote computer transport layer at the remote terminals. A data collection device driver on the remote terminal receives communications from the data collection object, and returns information to the data collection object, over the remote computer transport layer, wireless link, and host computer transport layer.

35 Claims, 14 Drawing Sheets