US 6,983,418 B1
Devices and methods for interfacing human users with electronic devices
Neil G. Scott, Half Moon Bay, Calif. (US)
Assigned to The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior Varsity, Stanford, Calif. (US)
Filed on May 30, 2000, as Appl. No. 9/579,125.
Application 09/579125 is a continuation of application No. 09/107807, filed on Jun. 30, 1998.
Application 09/107807 is a continuation in part of application No. 08/409409, filed on Mar. 24, 1995, abandoned.
This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.
Int. Cl. G06F 17/00 (2006.01)
U.S. Cl. 715—700 16 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method of controlling a target device using a communication system including an accessor total access port, an accessor device connected to said accessor total access port, a target total access port connected to said target device which is an unmodified electronic device, and a total access link between the accessor total access port and the target total access port, the method comprising:
converting, by said accessor device, user actions intended to control the target device into data of a device-dependent form specific to said accessor device, said data of the device-dependent form specific to the accessor device representing control of the target device, wherein the accessor device is a human user interface device that accepts intentions from the user in whatever form the user expresses them;
sending the data of the device-dependent form specific to the accessor device from the accessor device to the accessor total access port;
translating, by said accessor total access port, the data sent from the accessor device of the device-dependent form specific to the accessor device into data of a device-independent form containing a user-functional representation of the data sent from the accessor device;
transmitting the translated data of the device-independent form over the total access link from the accessor total access port to the target total access port;
translating, by said target total access port, the data sent from the accessor total access port of the device-independent form into data of a device-dependent form specific to the target device; and
sending the data of the device-dependent form specific to the target device from the target total access port to the target device,
wherein the target device is controlled by the data of the device-dependent form specific to the target device sent from the target total access port.