System for utilizing object oriented approach in a portable pen-based data acquisition system by passing digitized data by data type to hierarchically arranged program objects

Claim 1

An object oriented database data acquisition means comprising: a housing having a substantially planar video screen suitable for displaying images of at least electrical signals input through said video screen; a pen having power means for generating said electrical signals; a digitizer positioned substantially coextensively under said video screen for receiving said input signals from said pen to generate images substantially coextensive with the position of said pen on said video screen, and said digitizer converting said input signals into digitized data; a first microprocessor for controlling said data acquisition means; a second microprocessor connected to said digitizer and said first microprocessor for scanning said digitizer; a third microprocessor connected to said video screen for controlling said screen images; a power manager means connected to said first microprocessor, said power manager means including a power source and controller for supplying power to said data acquisition means; program storage mmeans for storing computer code for controlling said microprocessors; said program storage means comprising data storage means including a plurality of object mailboxes for storing said digitized data according to data type; at least one program from said object oriented database stored in said program storage means for controlling said first microprocessor for characterizing said digitized data according to data type such that said digitized data is passed to hierarchically arranged program objects and accepted or rejected by one of said objects dependent on said data type; and wherein said accepted digitized data is stored in at least one said object mailbox associated with said data type.