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:
Sep. 13, 2005
Filed:
Feb. 19, 1999
William Woollcott Ellington, Jr., Raleigh, NC (US);
Francis Edward Noel, Jr., Durham, NC (US);
William Woollcott Ellington, Jr., Raleigh, NC (US);
Francis Edward Noel, Jr., Durham, NC (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
Vehicles such as airliners or trains can be equipped with a form of local area network in which individual network connections are made to individual passenger seats using standard telephony connectors. Passengers having computers can connect to the network using their own conventional telephone cables. Wireless communications technology is used to link the vehicle network to external ground stations or satellite systems. To meet the DC power requirements of mobile computer users, the vehicle includes a DC power source. A normally unused wire-pair in the telephony connectors brings the DC power to each seatback. A slightly modified connector is used to transfer the DC power to the computer's DC power subsystem.