The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jun. 04, 1996
Filed:
Apr. 18, 1994
Daniel Fortune, Palo Alto, CA (US);
John E Ortiz, East Palo Alto, CA (US);
Hien N Tran, Santa Cruz, CA (US);
Zofcom Systems, Inc., Palo Alto, CA (US);
Abstract
A tongue activated communications controller for use by disabled or other persons to control a wide variety of devices, and which includes a dental appliance fitted to the user's palate, and a keyboard with a plurality of tongue activatable switches for generating a signal depending upon which switch has been selected, and upon the status of a battery voltage level. The communications controller includes a radio frequency transmitter which uses magnetic flux linkage for transmitting the signal. The communications controller further includes a receiver for converting the transmitted signal into digital form, and also includes a micro-processor based controller unit for processing the received data, and for communicating with the attached devices which the user wishes to control. Data is sent from the transmitter using a fixed transmission time, digital pulse code modulation technique to achieve ultra low power consumption in the transmitter. The controller unit processes the encoded data signal from the receiver by measuring and storing the intervals between level transitions, and then by processing these intervals in non-real time.