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:
Jan. 30, 2001
Filed:
Jun. 01, 1999
James A. Meek, Palatine, IL (US);
Navigation Technologies Corporation, Rosemont, IL (US);
Abstract
An improved remote control unit for an in-vehicle navigation system and methods for use thereof. The improved remote control unit includes a re-writable data storage memory and a data reception interface through which data from an external computing device can be transmitted to the remote control unit and stored in the re-writable data storage memory. The remote control unit also includes appropriate programming that provides for receiving data from an external computing device, storing the data in the re-writable data storage memory, and then transmitting the stored data from the re-writable data storage memory to the in-vehicle navigation system from a data transmission interface of the improved remote control unit. The improved remote control unit can also be used to transfer data from the in-vehicle navigation system to an external computing device. In one embodiment, the data reception interface is implemented by replacing the uni-directional infrared transmitter of a conventional remote control unit with a bi-directional infrared interface capable of both transmitting and receiving data.