USB autorun device

Abstract

A portable, application-specific USB autorun device, following connection to a computer terminal, automatically initialises or presents itself as a known type of device and then automatically sends to the terminal a sequence of data complying with a standard protocol, that sequence of data automatically causing content to be accessed or a task to be initiated. The device (i) includes a standardised USB module that includes a USB microcontroller, the standardised module being designed to be attached to or embedded in multiple types of different, application specific packages but (ii) excludes mass memory storage for applications or end-user data.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 12 / 517,842, filed Sep. 30, 2010, which claims the priority of PCT / GB2007 / 004731, filed on Dec. 10, 2007, which claims priority to Great Britain Application No. 0624582.3, filed Dec. 8, 2006 and Great Britain Application No. 0700207.4, filed Jan. 5, 2007, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated in total by referenceBACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]1. Field of the Invention[0003]The field of the invention is Universal Serial Bus (USB) Autorun devices.[0004]2. Technical Background[0005]USB is a serial bus standard; devices connecting using the USB standard must have a physical connector that conforms to the standard: there are currently many applicable plug designs (e.g. Series A, Series B, Mini A, Mini B); the USB standard also evolves to cover new plug designs.[0006]The term ‘USB autorun device’ refers to a USB human interface device (HID) Keyboard autorun device,...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0040]An implementation of the invention brings a number of important benefits to the user:1. The user has a physically descriptive object that represents the single, specific task or process that is initiated or implemented by the HID keycodes.2. The user no longer needs to remember or learn the complex actions that need to be performed in order to navigate to and run the content or carry out the task / process—he simply connects the device to the PC.3. The user can initiate or access the task / process from any personal computer terminal running common Operating System software, since the device does not require unique software or drivers because it autoruns.

[0041]Because the device has no costly mass memory, it is far cheaper to manufacture than, for example, conventional USB based memory keys, which typically have between 64 MB to 1 GB of Flash memory. Because a single module can be used for a large variety of different applications, that also means that unit costs can be far lower than if the module were custom designed for a specific application.

[0042]Furthermore, where HID keyboard emulation is used, there is no risk of the operating system blocking operation, as may happen with conventional USB devices that emulate CDs.

Problems solved by technology

These navigations and interactions can be complex and lengthy, making them hard to remember; and they are often an abstract set of user actions that have no direct representational relationship to the task or content.

The typical options for accessing tasks or content on a PC using the Graphical User Interface (GUI) of the OS, as described above, present several problems to the user; certain tasks are hard to remember, non-descriptive and non-portable.

The user faces increased difficulty when using a PC he is not familiar with, such as a friend's computer or one set up for multiple users, such as a computer in a public place, for example an airport.

Further, a non-computer-literate user (for example a child, an old person, or a technophobe) cannot be expected to manage complex interactions to get to a task, such as navigating to a URL, but may be quite happy to interact once they are there—they understand the value in the task, not the complicated process to get to it.

A user is unable to access their web-mail easily, particularly a new subscriber, because they have to remember a long sequence of actions, such as the correct website URL, their username and password.

A secondary problem that has been identified is that most interactive peripheral hardware such as application-specific input devices usually requires a second step after physically connecting to a computer, such as installing a driver or software.

So in cases where application-specific input devices have been created, they are often complicated to set up and are not very portable—being unable to operate with computers that do not have the required drivers or software.

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