Patent ID: 7613842
Filing Date: 2009-11-03
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. A method comprising steps of: providing a default mapping between actuatable inputs of a computer peripheral device and functions of a computer before establishing a communicative link between the computer peripheral device and a modular tag, the computer peripheral device being a separable device with respect to the computer, wherein the default mapping is configured to: establishing the communicative link between the modular tag and the computer peripheral device; receiving, at the computer, data from the modular tag via the computer peripheral device, wherein the received data including instructions for the computer to change the mapping between the actuatable inputs of the computer peripheral device and the functions of the computer; configuring the computer in response to the received data to change the mapping between the actuatable inputs of the computer peripheral device and the functions of the computer while the communicative link is active such that a particular one of the actuatable inputs is mapped to the particular function of the computer instead of the corresponding default function, thereby changing the function to be performed by the computer in response to actuation of the particular one of the actuatable inputs, and allowing the particular function to be performed without invoking the sequence or combination of user-invoked operations; and in response to termination of the communicative link, reconfiguring the computer to change the mapping back to the default mapping such that the actuatable inputs are mapped, respectively, to the corresponding default functions of the computer, thereby reconfiguring the computer to perform the corresponding default function in response to actuation of the particular one of the actuatable inputs instead of the particular function, wherein the modular tag is couplable to and decouplable from the computer peripheral device, the modular tag being coupled to the computer peripheral device to establish the communicative link, the modular tag being decoupled from the computer peripheral device to terminate the communicative link, wherein an application program operating on the computer is configured to receive user input based on actuation of the particular one of the actuatable inputs, wherein the application program processes the user input to provide different outputs based on whether the modular tag is coupled to or decoupled from the computer peripheral device, respectively, and wherein the modular tag is a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag, and the computer peripheral device includes a RFID reader for establishing the communicative link with the modular tag.