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:
Nov. 05, 2002
Filed:
Nov. 30, 2000
Jerry G. Aguren, Tomball, TX (US);
Edward M. Flynn, Westboro, MA (US);
Compaq Information Technologies Group, L.P., Houston, TX (US);
Abstract
A media meter mounts to a surface of a removable storage media or other product, and provides a visual indication of one or more parameters of the storage media or other product. The media meter includes circuitry that detects status signals transmitted by rf transmissions or directly connected by wires between an auxiliary memory device mounted on the storage media or product, or receives status signals via rf transmissions directly from the auxiliary memory. As another alternative, the media meter may be integrated with the auxiliary memory to receive status signals directly from the auxiliary memory. The status signals indicate the capacity of the storage media, the number of read and/or write errors that have occurred during back-up and retrieval, the number of times the storage media has been loaded with data or other information, and other dynamically-varying parameters. The media meter selects appropriate parameters to display, or may perform other analysis to determine other parameters of the storage media, such as the viability of the storage media. The media meter includes a parasitic power source that uses the rf communications to power the circuitry. The media meter includes a display device capable of maintaining a display of the selected parameter for extended periods.