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:
May. 05, 1998
Filed:
Jan. 17, 1997
Victor Shiff, Wolcott, CT (US);
Neil S Fishman, Bothell, WA (US);
Philip Brzezinski, Middlebury, CT (US);
Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA (US);
Abstract
A system and method is provided for remotely and optically programming a portable information device, such as a programmable watch, using a visual display device, such as a CRT monitor. The monitor displays a sequence of changing optical patterns used to optically transmit a serial stream of data. The optically programmable watch has an optical sensor which detects the sequence of optical patterns to optically receive the data stream. The optical patterns transmit machine-readable information that can be detected by the optical sensor, but no meaningful information to a user. The visual display device therefore also displays a human-readable image that explains to a user the sequence of optical patterns being used to transmit the data stream. The human-readable image is displayed in a manner that renders it undetectable by the optical sensor of the programmable watch.