GB2123588A - >Electronic data checking systems and devices therefor - Google Patents

Abstract

A central computer is coupled through a telephone data link to a local unit. Up to sixteen plug-in units 12 can be engaged with the local unit to receive data and have respective batteries charged. A list of e.g. wanted vehicle numbers held by the computer is transferred to a local memory of the local unit. When one or more plug-in units 12 are plugged in, the local unit can write the list into a random access memory in each plug-in unit 12. A plug-in unit 12 thus loaded is then engaged with a hand-held unit which contains a processing module 18 having a keyboard 21 through which e.g. a vehicle number can be entered for comparison with the numbers in the list. Match or no match is indicated by a light emitting diode 29. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Electronic data checking system and devices therefor This invention relates to electronic data checking systems and devices therefor.

Electronic data checking systems are now being used in a limited fashion by police authorities and banking organisations for checking data items such as car registration numbers and cash account card codes against lists of such data items compiled on the basis of offences committed or withdrawal of credit facilities.

In police work, an officer on patrol must use his radio to communicate with staff operating a central computer whenever he wishes to check whether a vehicle has a registration number appearing on a police list on the computer. Several minutes may be required to check a single registration number in this way, and possibly even longer since there are far fewer computer terminals than officers on patrol.

Checking is also carried out entirely manually in shops and at bank counters when a credit card or a bankers card is presented, the shop or bank employee visually scanning a written list of data items against which to compare the presented card number. With most of these known checking systems there is consequently a risk of human error in the comparison process, and in the case of automatic cash dispensing machines, the terminal at the machine must be permanently connected to a central computer at which the comparison can be carried out. In particular in the systems involving visual comparison, it is essential that the list of data items hold at the counter or cash register be short.

It is accordingly an object of the present invention to avoid the use of visual comparison of data items and to enable a system to be established which can operate with lists containing, for example, a thousand data items, and which is accessible to a user through a portable unit.

According to one aspect of the present invention there is provided an electronic data checking system comprising a central computer holding a list of data items, at least one local unit adapted for communication with the central computer to receive the list of data items therefrom, a plurality of random access memory units each adapted to be coupled to the local unit to acquire the list of data items, and a plurality of processing units each adapted to be coupled to a respective random access memory unit and such as to allow further data items to be entered manually into the processing unit and to compare any such entered data item with one or more of the data items of the list, comparisons being effected by the processing unit all one of the listed items matches the entered item or all of the listed items have been compared with the entered item, the processing unit producing a signal indicative of whether or not the compared items match, and each combination of a processing unit with a respective random access memory unit forming a portable unit.

According to another aspect of the invention there is provided a combined data storage and power supply device comprising a housing containing an integrated circuit random access memory and a re-chargeable electricity source, the housing being adapted to provide mechanical and electrical coupling means for coupling the memory and said source to respective sources of data and power and alternatively to respective data processing means and load circuitry.

According to a further aspect of the present invention there is provided a data storage device having a random access memory and a data input port through which data can be entered manually into the device, the device being adapted to compare a data item entered manually with one or more of a list of data items stored in the random access memory, and to have the list stored in the random access memory updated or replaced when the device is coupled to a data source through a manually engageable and disengageable mechanical connection and including a data comparator, means for applying individual manually entered data items to the comparator, and means for sequentially reading individual ones of the stored data items from the random access memory to the comparator for comparison with a manually entered data item applied thereto, until one of the read data item matches the applied manually entered data item or all of the said stored data items have been read out without matching, the comparator being such as to produce an output signal indicative of whether or not the compared data items match.

In an embodiment of the invention applied to police work, the central computer stores a list of approximately 1,000 stolen cars each data item in the list consisting of the registration number of a car. This list is transferred on demand to any of a number of local units. The local unit is equipped with means for fast charging of the battery of a plug-in wait which contains a random access memory in addition to the battery. Preferably each local unit is capable of re-programming and recharging up to 16 plug-in units at once within about ten minutes. Each police officer at the station containing a local unit is issued with a plug-in unit and a hand held processing unit. The plug-in units each contain an up-to-date list of stolen cars and a charged battery and are inserted into the respective hand held unit.On suspecting a sighted car to be stolen, a police officer enters the registration number of the sighted car into the hand held unit by using a keyboard provided for the purpose on the unit. On completion of entry of the registration number, the processing unit sequentially searches through the list held in the random access memory and compares each data item of the list against the entered registration number until there is a match or the list is exhausted. The hand held unit is provided with a light emitting diode (LED) which emits red or green light on completion of the comparison process, green indicating no matching of data items and red indicating matching. Such an operation can be effected in less than half a second. If the LED shows red, the police officer can check by radio with personnel at the central computer to obtain further information and instructions.

In another embodiment of the invention applied to credit checking in a department store, the store may have its low local unit or be allowed to make use of one sited at, for example, the local police station. The department store staff are equipped with hand held units with respective plug-in units as in the previous example but the data items listed would be cheque card numbers, credit card numbers and/or names compiled for identification of customers to whom credit cannot be given.

In both the above examples, the plug-in units could be up-dated at least once daily.

Other embodiments can be used wherever one item must be identified in a long list and full time access to a central computer is not possible in practice. For example, the invention can be applied to suitable stock holding checking operations in commerce and industry.

The invention will now be described in more detail, solely by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Fig. 1 is a block diagram illustrating data transfer from a central computer in an embodiment of the invention, Fig. 2 is a block diagram of a local unit with random access units applied for updating and recharging in an embodiment of the invention, Fig. 3 is a block diagram of a data storage device in accordance with the invention, and Fig. 4 is a block diagram of part of another data storage device in accordance with the present invention.

In Fig. 1, there is shown a central computer 10 coupled by a telephone data link to a local unit 1 1 to which two plug-in units 12 are coupled. The local unit 11 is similar to certain commercially available peripheral units but is adapted to engage up to sixteen plug-in units 12 to write data into these units and charge batteries incorporated in the units 1 2. Fig. 2 illustrates the structure of the local unit 1 1 which has an acoustic coupler 13 which enables the local unit 11 to receive data from the telephone data link indicated in Fig. 1, a local memory 14 coupled to the acoustic coupler 13 through interface circuits 15, a memory duplication circuit 16 also coupled through the interface circuits 15 to the local memory 15, and a fast battery charger 1 7. Any other suitable form of modem can be used instead of the acoustic coupler 13, if desired.

A data list held in the central computer 10 and transferred through the telephone data link to the local unit 1 1 is stored in the local memory 14 of the local unit 11. When one or more plug-in units are connected into the local unit 11 as indicated in Fig. 2, the local unit 11 can be actuated to write the contents of its local memory 14 into a random access memory in each plug-in unit 12 and at the same time to fast charge a respective battery in each plug-in unit 12 from the fast battery charger 17. Each plug-in unit 12 has a housing constructed to enable the plug-in unit to be manually engaged with the local unit 11 so as to establish a secure mechanical connection and the appropriate electrical connections to the memory duplication circuit 16 and the fast battery charger 1 7.The processes of writing the contents of the local memory 14 into the plug-in units 12 and charging the batteries of the plug-in units 12 it will be referred to as a copy and charge operation. It will be appreciated that the memory duplication circuit 16 is designed to allow a plurality, in this case up to sixteen, random access memories, each held in the respective plug-in unit 12, to have the contents of the local memory 14 written in at the same time.

After undergoing a copy and charge operation, each plug-in unit is manually engaged with a hand held unit which contains a processing module 18.

the elements of which are shown in Fig. 3 which also shows the random access memory 19 and battery 20 of a plugin unit 12 coupled thereto.

As shown in Fig. 3, the random access memory 19 in this embodiment is a 64 K RAM. For simplicity, the data bus and address bus of the processing module 18 are not shown in Fig. 3, only input and output connections thereto being indicated at the random access memory 19 and various elements of the processing module 1 8.

The processing module 18 is equipped with a keyboard 21 to allow entry of individual data items, for example, a car registration number. The keyboard 21 is coupled through a keyboard encoder 22 to the data bus. Data is entered at the keyboard 21 by successive depression of eight character keys. The keyboard encoder 22 applies 8 bits to the data bus at each depression of a character key of the keyboard 21. The keyboard encoder 22 is also coupled to a system controller and sequencer 23 which serves as the programmed control unit for the processing module 18. The system controller and sequencer 23 is connected to the read-write input control terminal R/W of the random access memory 19.

The first 64 bits of the random access memory are reserved for data entered through the keyboard 21. The keyboard encoder 22 indicates to the system controller and sequencer 23 that data is being entered and accordingly the system controller and sequencer 23 sets the random access memory in the write mode. The addresses of data stored in the random access memory are determined by an address counter 24 driven by a system clock 25 and controlled by the system controller and sequencer 23 and a keyboard decoder 26 coupled to the data bus. The keyboard decoder 26 ensures that the address counter 24 increments the random access memory address by the appropriate amount for each character key of the keyboard 21 depressed.Thus if the random access memory 19 is organised as a 64 K bit by 1 memory, the address counter 24 is incremented by 8 for each character, whereas if the memory 19 is organised as an 8 K words by 8 bits memory, the keyboard decoder 26 enables the address counter 24 to increment by 1 for each character.

When eight characters have been entered and stored in the memory 19, the keyboard decoder 26 generates a start signal which is supplied to the system controller and sequencer 23 which thereupon initiates a search and comparision process.

In this mode, the system controller and sequencer 23 applies a read command to the memory 19 and initially causes the first 64 bits read out, which corresponds to the data item entered at the keyboard 21, to be stored in a shift registers and latches unit 27. Further data, which is the list of data items stored in the memory 19 at the immediately preceding copy and charge operation, is now read out from the memory 1 9 in 64 bit increments starting from bit 65. This data is read to the shift registers and latches unit 27 where each 64 bit increment is stored successively along side the 64 bits of entered data initially stored there. When the system controller and sequencer 23 senses that 64 bits of the list have read out, it instructs the shift registers and latches unit 27 to apply both sets of stored 64 bits to a comparator 28.The comparator 28 may be in the form of an open collector block of 64 exclusive-OR gates. The comparator 28 produces an output signal indicative of wheter or not the two sets of 64 bits applied thereto by the shift registers and latches unit 27 are identical, i.e.

whether or not they match. This output signal is supplied to an LED output unit 29 which produces green light if the two sets of 64 bits are not identical and all data locations in the RAM have been interrogated, and a red light if they are identical. In the above description of the reading out of data from the memory 19 it has been assumed that the memory is organised as a 64 K bit by 1 memory.If the memory 19 were organised as an 8 K word by 8 bit memory, two sets of 8 bits, one from the first 64 bits in the memory and the other from the next or a subsequent set of 64 bits in the memory, would be read into the shift registers and latches unit 27 and compared by the comparator 28, and a further seven sets of 8 bits from the two groups of 64 would be read and compared in order to compare the data item entered with the first data item in the list, and the corresponding operation would be required in order to compare the data item entered with each of the remaining data items in the list stored in the memory 19.

If the data item entered is found to match the first data item of the list, the sytem controller and sequencer 23 stops operations and automatically turns off after 3 seconds to conserve battery power. If no match is found with the first data item of the list, an internal comparator in the system controller and sequencer 23 senses that more locations are available to be read in the memory 19 and a further 64 bits are read to the shift register and latches unit 27 and compared with the entered data item and so on until either data item in the list is found which matches the entered data item or no match is found. If no match is found, when the list has been exhausted, the system controller and sequencer 23 stops operations. If a match is found, the system controller and sequencer 23 turns off after 3 seconds.The internal comparator of the system controller and sequencer 23 receives the necessary data regarding the availability of locations to be read in the memory 19 from the address counter 24.

The system controller and sequencer 23 in the present example is constructed as a dedicated circuit of logical gates. However, in other embodiments, the system controller and sequencer 23 and most of the other units of the processing module 18 of Fig. 3 can be replaced by a combination of a microprocessor and a PROM.

Such an example is illustrated in Fig. 4 in which the processing module 1 8' consists of a keyboard 21 coupled through a keyboard/display interface 30 to a microprocessor 31 equipped with a read only memory 32 in the form of a PROM. A display 33 is coupled to the keyboard/display interface 30 to enable data items entered through the keyboard 21 and signals indicating the progress of processing in the processing module 18' to be visibly displayed. The read only memory 32 holds a program by which the microprocessor 31 is adapted to carry out the operations of the items 22 to 28 of the processing module 18 of Fig. 3.

The data bus of the processing module 18 or the processing module 1 8' is a single wire data bus where the memory 19 is organised as a 64 K bit by 1 memory. However, if the memory 19 is a 8 K work by a 8 bit memory, the data bus must be an 8 wire data bus. The structure of the shift registers and latches unit 27 of Fig. 3 is also dependent upon the type of memory 19 used, as indicated above.

In use, the various units forming the processing module 18 or 18' are powered by the battery 20 of the plug-in unit 12. The turning on of power in the processing module 18 causes an automatic reset to zero of the system controller and sequencer 23, which is thus made ready for a keyboard entry. Resetting the system controller and sequencer 23 can accordingly be achieved at any time by turning the power of the processing module 18 off and then on again.

The system controller and sequencer 23 does not immediately start the search and comparison process after being switched on but waits until the keyboard decoder 26 generates a start signal.

Consequently, old data in the first 64 bits of the random access memory 19 is cleared by overwriting with the new data entered through the keyboard 21. The battery 20 is of course permanently coupled to the random access memory 19 to keep the data therein alive. Old list data in the random access memory 19 is cleared by over-writing with new list data at each copy and charge operation.

The various electronic elements of the processing module 18 are preferably made in the form of a single integrated circuit so that the size of the module can be kept to a minimum. Similarly the random access memory 19 of the plug-in unit 12 is a single integrated circuit.

The keyboard 21 can be kept small by giving some of say 30, keys a dual function, the first twenty-six serving for alphabetic characters and, of these, the first ten serving also for numerals 0, 1,... to 9, two of the last four of the 30 keys being selectors to enable selection between the alphabetic and numeric functions of the first ten keys. The keyboard 21 is also preferably provided with an entry display in the manner of a pocket automatic digital calculator so that the user can see what characters he has entered into the device.

Claims (10)

1. An electronic data checking system comprising a central computer adapted to hold a list of data items, at least one local unit adapted for communication with the central computer to receive the list of data items therefrom, a plurality of random access memory units each adapted to be coupled to a local unit to acquire the list of data items, and a plurality of processing units each adapted to be coupled to a respective random access memory unit and such as to allow further data items to be entered manually into the processing unit and to compare any such entered data item with one or more of the data items of the list, comparisons being effected by the processing unit until one of the listed items matches the entered item or all of the listed items have been compared with the entered item, the processing unit producing a signal indicative of whether or not the compared items match, and each combination of a processing unit with a respective random access memory unit forming a portable unit.

2. An electronic data checking system according to claim 1, wherein the or each local unit is equipped with means for fast charging of one or more electric storage cells included in each random access memory unit.

3. An electronic data checking system according to claim 1 or claim 2, wherein each processing unit is provided with a light emitting diode arranged to provide a visible indication of the said signal.

4. An electronic data checking system according to any preceding claim, wherein there is a plurality of local units and each local unit is installed in a police station.

5. An electronic data checking system according to claim 1 or 2 or 3, where there is a plurality of local units and each local unit is installed in a bank building.

6. A combined data storage and power supply device comprising a housing containing an integrated circuit random access memory and a re-chargeable electricity source, the housing being adapted to provide mechanical and electrical coupling means for coupling the memory and said source to respective sources of data and power and alternatively to respective data processing means and load circuitry.

7. A data storage device having a random access memory and a data input port through which data can be entered manually into the device, the device being adapted to compare a data item entered manually with one or more of a list of data items stored in the random access memory, and to have the list stored in the random access memory up-dated or replaced when the device is coupled to a data source through a manually engageable and disengageable mechanical connection and including a data comparator, means for applying individual manually entered data items to the comparator, and means for sequentially reading individual ones of the stored data items from the random access memory to the comparator for comparison with a manually entered data item applied thereto, until one of the read data items matches the applied manually entered data item or all of the said stored data items have been read out without matching, the comparator being such as to produce an output signal indicative of whether or not the compared data items match.

8. A data storage device according to claim 7, wherein the device includes a programmable read only memory containing a control program adapting the device to carry out its operations.

9. An electronic data checking system substantially as described hereinbefore with reference to Figs. 1, 2 and 3 or 4 of the accompanying drawings.

10. A combined data storage and power supply device substantially as described hereinbefore with reference to Fig. 3 or 4 of the accompanying drawings.