SELF-CONTAINED UNIT FOR CYCLIC DISPLAY OF IMAGES AND TEXT ON A VIDEOTEX TERMINAL.

Abstract

The device comprises an additional unit (AU) designed to be connected to the peripheral computer port (PCP) of the videotex terminal (TVX), and automatic broadcasting means for transmitting videotex pages to the terminal automatically and cyclically, targeting a local clientele. The operation of the additional unit (AU) is managed by a microcontroller powered internally. Information is stored permanently and permanently by being written to a PROM-type memory, either internal or external to the microcontroller.

Description

The invention relates to a Minitel peripheral unit designed for the continuous display of advertising pages. The invention applies to all videotex terminals, including but not limited to those known by the French name "Minitel". To display continuous web pages on a videotex terminal, two methods exist. Either via a telematics connection; the information is transmitted to the terminal using the telephone line. This solution is flexible but requires the telephone line to remain active, which incurs a certain cost for continuous use. Or, the information is stored entirely on the terminal's periphery, in an electronic device connected directly to the terminal via the rear port, also known as the Peffirinformatique port. Numerous electronic devices exist that allow information to be "downloaded" via the telephone line and displayed on the screen. These products offer the possibility of modifying this downloaded information in order to renew the ordering, the timing or the form of the advertising pages, but their manipulation may appear cumbersome and complicated for an uninitiated user clientele. The present invention aims to remedy this by providing an immediately functional solution, accessible to any user, when presented with this device and a videotex terminal. Another objective of the present invention is to provide advertisers and advertising agencies with a simple solution for animating their clients' agencies. Another objective of the present invention is to provide retailers with a simple solution for animating their shop windows. Another objective of the present invention is to provide companies with a telematics application accessible via the Transpac network with a clever and simple way to promote and attract a clientele often considered fickle and indecisive. Another objective of the present invention is to use a case and chassis already described in patent application no. 8816253, filed by the same company on December 9, 1988. Another objective of the present invention is to be able to make available to a very large population, in view of the cost of purchase of the product and the free provision by FRANCE TELECOM of the videotex terminal, a dynamic cyclic animation. Another objective of the present invention is finally to be able to put the videotex terminal in communication with the transmitting server center of the box when the passerby has pressed a key on the keyboard of said terminal. The invention relates to a portable, low-cost and very small-volume object capable of animating a videotex terminal, in an automated manner, for commercial or informational purposes. The invention also relates to a connection device on a server center, by numbering the videotex terminal, when the bearer presses the "SEND" key. The invention therefore relates to a device for scrolling videotex pages on the screen of a videotex terminal, further having a keyboard, a peripheral computer socket, an integrated dialer, a power supply, and this box comprising a powered microcontroller, dialogue means intended to cooperate with the terminal via this peripheral computer socket, and characterized in that the information intended for the screen is emitted cyclically, and is held in the box in a fixed manner. Because the microcontroller is powered internally, the unit is completely self-contained and can be used with any videotex terminal. However, for continuous or extended use, it is recommended to connect it to a powered terminal. It provides immediate operation without any further intervention as soon as the user connects it to the terminal's rear female connector. According to a first advantageous feature of the invention, the information intended for cyclic dissemination is maintained in a permanent memory element of the microcontroller, so that there is no downloading of said product before its operation. According to a second feature of the invention, pressing a specific key on the keyboard offers the user a connection summary, on which they can choose a server to which the terminal can connect and perform automatic dialing. According to another feature of the invention, the microcontroller of the case is programmed to detect the power-up of this terminal and / or exchange information or data between this terminal and another of its peripheral elements such as its keyboard. After mounting the various electronic components on the printed circuit board and powering on the microcontroller, it must be initialized by activating the "RESET" pin. This initialization is simply performed by applying sufficient voltage to pin 4 of the male DIN connector to blow the fusible resistor connected between the aforementioned pin on the microcontroller and the aforementioned pin on the male connector of the enclosure. This prevents any voltage subsequently applied, intentionally or accidentally, to the same pin on the male connector from inadvertently also being applied to the "RESET" pin of the microcontroller. According to another aspect of the invention, the housing comprises a printed circuit board disposed between two housing carcass elements and having the form of one U-shaped profile whose lateral branches extend perpendicularly to said carcass elements, the face of one of the branches opposite the central U-shaped branch supporting the connection lugs of at least one cell or battery element and those of the first external connection means of the housing while its other face supports the connection lugs of at least one other power supply element, and the outer face of the other lateral branch of the U supporting the connection lugs of second external connection means of the housing. Preferably the microcontroller is soldered to the inner face of the lateral arm of the U near a quartz element and the battery elements extend on either side of the central arm of the U, perpendicularly between the said frame elements, so that the best rigidity of the case is obtained. The attached drawings are given as non-limiting examples: Figure 1 is a block diagram of the system in which the device according to the invention is used. Figure 2 is a top view of the housing according to the invention when one of its frame elements has been removed. Figure 3 is a side view of the casing in Figure 2 after the corresponding wall has been removed. Figure 4 is a front view of the device once the corresponding wall has been removed. Figure 5 is a top view of the casing and its associated cap, Figure 6 is a side view of the casing and its associated cap, Figure 7A is an electrical diagram of the electrical and electronic circuits of the enclosure. Figure 7B schematically illustrates some specific connections between the sockets on the case and its microcontroller, Figure 8 is a flowchart that illustrates the management of microcontroller decision-making based on external events. The system incorporating and using the box-shaped device BA shown in Figure 1 essentially comprises a server SE connected via a telematics link LST, for example a telephone line, to a videotex terminal TVX, notably but not exclusively a "Minitel" terminal. In the remainder of this text, the expression "videotex terminal" will be replaced by the term "terminal". The TVX terminal typically includes an IL line interface, an EC screen, a CL keyboard, and a PPI peripheral port located downstream of the LST link. These TVS terminal components are managed, in a manner known in itself, by a switch management unit (MG) containing the TVX terminal protocol software. According to a particularly advantageous feature of the invention, the operation of the BA box is controlled by a microcontroller 1 see Figure 7A, adapted, in a way that will be described later, to manage its power supply from the power supply means PLi, PL2, Pu3, P4 internal to the BA box so that it has an autonomous power supply. The main components of the BA housing are shown in Figure 7k. The PT terminal of the standard DIN connector is adapted to be plugged into the PPI peripheral computer port of a recent type of TVX terminal, i.e., one whose PPI peripheral computer port is connected to internal power supplies within the terminal. TVX. This PT terminal is specifically connected to ground via a 2.2 microfarad capacitor C3 and to the corresponding TP terminal of a female DIN connector CF on the pluggable BA housing, for a purpose that will be described later, on the male connector CM of a second BA 1 housing. Terminal 2 of the connector The male DIN connector is connected to earth to provide the ground reference. The electrical circuit of the BA package shown in Figure 7A essentially comprises a microcontroller 1 clocked by a clock 14. The microcontroller 1 contains integrated storage resources consisting of a 256-byte RAM (random access memory) and a 16 KB ROM (read-only memory), which is programmable by mask during component manufacturing. The microcontroller 1 is preferably a microcontroller of the type available under reference 8OC154 from the Japanese company OKI. However, this reference is not exclusive, as many components currently on the market use the same instruction set and memory capacities. The clock frequency of quartz crystal 14 is 8 MHz, but this is not a limiting factor. This value was chosen to provide the entire circuit with low power consumption. Pins 14 and 15 of microcontroller 1 are connected to the pins of quartz crystal 14 and to ground, respectively, via two 33 picofarad capacitors, C1 and C2. Terminal 4 or "RESET" of the micro controller is connected via a fuse F to the PT terminal of the CM male and CF female connectors of the BA box. This arrangement allows (see also Figure 7B) the initialization or pre-startup of microcontroller 1 after it has been powered on. This initialization is performed by applying a 5-volt DC voltage to the PT pin of the CF or CM connector, with sufficient current to blow fuse F. The time interval during which this voltage is applied to the PT pin must be long enough to trigger the microcontroller's "RESET". This time interval is preferably equal to three operating cycles of microcontroller 1. This fuse-based arrangement prevents a subsequent voltage applied to the PT line from also triggering the "RESET" of microcontroller 1. According to a particularly advantageous feature of the invention, the internal power supply means of the case comprise rechargeable battery elements PLI, PL2, PL3, PL4, and the microcontroller 1 is accordingly programmed and associated with electronic means designed to interrupt its supply from said battery elements PLI to PLA and control the recharging of these power supply means up to their maximum charge level when the case BA is connected to a TVX terminal whose PPI peripheral port is connected to a power supply of this terminal. The microcontroller is also advantageously programmed to command the display on the EC screen of the TVS terminal of a formula of the type "Battery elements to recharge - Connect to a recent terminal" when it has detected the discharge of the PLi to PLA battery elements of the case. See Figure 1 in which PASS means BA box and Minitel means TERMINAL. The electronic circuit components of the BA unit, which enable the recognition of the power level of the microcontroller 1 (i.e., the charge state of the battery cells PL1 to PU) and the display of the need to connect the BA unit to a powered terminal, constitute the circuit elements identified by references 31 to 32 in the diagram of Figure 7A. Circuit element 31 includes, in particular, a 78L05 type voltage regulator 30. The 6V8 reference Zener diodes in the circuit of Figure 7A protect the microcontroller 1 from overvoltages accidentally applied to pins 1 and 3 of the DIN connector. Diodes D1 to D7 are LU4001 reference diodes. Capacitors C4 to C5 are ten nanofarad capacitors, resistance Ri is 200 mOhm, resistances R2 to R7 are 47 mOhm, and resistance R8 is 330 mOhm.The other components of the circuit are intended to make the levels compatible with the recommendations of. France Telecom. According to one of the advantageous features of the invention, the microcontroller 1 is programmed to, when the BA box is connected to the terminal TVX, detect the power-up of this TVX terminal and / or exchange information between this terminal and one of its other peripheral elements. The aforementioned detection is performed by one of the interrupts of microcontroller 1, which is adapted to detect a change in the logic states present on the TXD and PT pins. The states of these pins are as follows: the RXD and PT pins have a logic level 0 when the terminal is off; these pins have a logic level 1 when the terminal is on; the PT pin maintains its state 1 until an exchange of information begins between the terminal and another of its peripheral elements such as the CL keypad; and the RXD pin goes through states 0 when the enclosure or the peripheral element connected to the network transmits information. The detection of a transition from 0 to 1 on the PT pin therefore gives the box confirmation that it has just been connected to a live terminal. Conversely, detecting a change from 1 to 0 indicates that the device has just been disconnected from the terminal, or that the terminal has been powered off, or possibly that a peripheral device is exchanging information with the terminal. The RXD pin provides a second level of testing when the PT pin is at 0. It is necessary to distinguish between the two different states of the device to determine whether it is not connected to the terminal or if it is in a standby state on the line, meaning that the device is connected to a powered terminal but a peripheral device is exchanging information with it. If the RXD pin is continuously at 0, this means that the device can enter a "POWER DOWN" state, where its power supply and consumption are reduced to the minimum possible, until the next detection of a change in the PT pin's state. According to another advantageous feature of the invention, the microcontroller 1 of the BA box is programmed to perform automatic numbering of the numbers of the different SE server centers and to present on the EC screen of the TVX terminal, in sequential form, the different sections of the corresponding videotex services. To facilitate user navigation, a "summary" can be activated, stored in the BA unit's memory. This "summary" is automatically launched by simply pressing the "Summary" key on the terminal's keypad. Pressing the "Next" key on this keypad repeatedly lowers a light bar, so that when the correct selection appears below the light bar, pressing the "Send" key confirms it. The "Back" key on the CL keypad raises the light bar one notch if necessary. The "Cancel" key allows the user to return to the previous selection in case of an error. The initialization of BA packages conforming to the invention takes place during the assembly of the component at the factory, during manufacturing. The pages are then materialized by a series of coherent instructions, which, when sent to the TVX terminal, are interpreted and result in the display of graphics or text, with numerous visual effects then being able to be used. The advantages of the device conforming to the invention are numerous, including portability comparable to that of a USB drive, reduced manufacturing cost, and complete ease of use, in addition to full compatibility with all types of videotex terminals. This results in very easy dissemination of this means of communication, simply by mail. The applications of the BA housing according to the invention are numerous. The essential applications are: Cyclical animation of a terminal placed on the counter of a commercial agency, to attract customers and offer them a series of information. Cyclical animation of a terminal placed on the counter of a commercial agency, to encourage customers to connect to a given telematics server. Cyclical animation of a terminal placed in a shop window to offer shoppers a series of advertising or commercial information.

Claims

REVE.NDICATIONS:

1. Peripheral device of a videotex terminal equipped with a PPI peripheral computer socket, characterized in that the information intended for cyclic transmission on the screen of the terminal is stored in a fixed memory.

2. Device according to claim 1, characterized in that the information intended for cyclic display on the terminal screen is stored in a ROM or PROM type memory, internal to the microcontroller and / or stored in an external memory of the same type.

3. Device according to claims 1 and 2, characterized in that the power supply to the housing (BA) is provided by power supply means (PL1 to PL4) internal to the case (BA).

4. Device according to claim 3, characterized in that the power supply of the housing (BA) can be provided indifferently by cell or battery elements. 5 Device according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the micro controller (I) is programmed to, when the box (BA) is connected to the terminal (TVX) and the wearer has validated his choice on the keypad (CL) by pressing the "SEND" key, perform an automatic numbering of the numbers of the various server centers (SE).

6. Device according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that the microcontroller (1) is programmed and associated with electronic means (30, 31, 32) to interrupt its supply from said means of power supply (PL1 to PL4) and to control the recharging of these means of power supply, when these are of the rechargeable type up to their maximum charge level when the case (BA) is connected to a videotex terminal (TVX) whose peripheral computer socket (PPI) is connected to a power source of this terminal.

7. A device according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the microcontroller (1) is programmed to control the display, on the screen (EC) of the terminal (TVX), of a message such as "Battery cell to be recharged - Connect to a newer terminal" when it has detected the discharge of the battery cells (PL1 to PL4) in the housing (BA).

8. Device according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the microcontroller (1) is connected to first external connection means (CM), forming male plug of the housing (BA) designed to be directly plugged into the peripheral computer socket (PPI) of the terminal (TVX). '). Device according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the microcontroller (1) is programmed to, when the housing (BA) is connected to the terminal (TVX), detect the power-up of this terminal (TVX) and / or an exchange of information between this terminal and another of its peripheral elements.

10. Device according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the housing (BA) comprises a printed circuit board (11,12, 13) disposed between two frame elements (20a, 20b) of the housing and having the form of a U-shaped profile whose lateral branches (11 and 12) extend substantially perpendicularly to said frame elements, the face (lla) of one (11) supporting the first external connection elements (CF) of the housing (BA).

11. Device according to claim 10, characterized in that the microcontroller (1) is welded to the inner face of the central branch (13) of the U near a quartz forming element (14).

12. Device according to claim 10, characterized in that the battery elements (PL1 to PL4) extend on either side of the central arm (13) of the U, perpendicularly between said carcass elements (20a, 20b).

13. Device according to the preceding claims, characterized in that the reset of the micro controller is uniquely activated by a fusible resistor.