FORM 2
THE PATENTS ACT, 1970
(39 of 1970)
&
THE PATENTS RULES, 2003

COMPLETE SPECIFICATION
(See section 10, rule 13)

“Table driven interaction creation”

Tejas Networks Limited
No. 58, First Main Road, J.P Nagar,
3rd Phase, Bangalore – 560 078, Karnataka, India

The following specification particularly describes the invention and the manner in which it is to be performed.

Field of the Invention

The invention generally relates to computer aided automation and more particularly relates to a computer aided method and a system for automatic generation of interaction diagrams.

Background of the Invention

A schematic diagram generally represents the elements of a system using abstract, graphic symbols rather than realistic pictures. A schematic usually omits all details that are not relevant to the information the schematic is intended to convey, and may add unrealistic elements that aid comprehension. The schematic diagrams thus generated may be utilized to represent a sequence of occurrence of events or arrangements of components of an electronic circuit required to be present in the operation of a component. Schematic diagrams are used extensively in repair manuals to help users understand the relative position of parts and to provide graphical instruction to assist in taking apart and rebuilding mechanical assemblies. Many automotive and motorcycle repair manuals devote a significant number of pages to schematic diagrams.
Schematic diagrams and symbols are typically generated manually either by hand written diagrams or by utilizing standard Computer Assisted Design packages. The problem with these methods is that these are inherently prone to errors. In addition, reviewing the schematic diagrams and symbols could be even more complex, considering the general complexity involved in the schematic diagrams. Additionally, the generated diagrams and symbols might not be consistent when done by separate individuals. Graphical comparison of the schematic diagrams through parsing is difficult to achieve, time consuming and also computationally expensive.
Hence there is a need for a system and a method for generating interaction diagram and/or symbols which is less complex to operate and utilizes less time for generation and comparison.

Summary of the Invention
An aspect of the present invention is to address at least the above-mentioned problems and/or disadvantages and to provide at least the advantages described below.
Accordingly, an aspect of the present invention is to provide a table driven method for creating interaction drawings, the method comprising creating a table including a plurality of attributes, wherein the attributes includes component name, pin number, connection name or any other label, entering interaction information for the created attributes in the table, wherein the interaction information includes pin number, direction, load, power, speed or any other label, verifying the interaction information with the corresponding attributes and converting the table entry to generate a interaction drawings using a conversion utility.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention provide a A system for creating interaction drawings, comprising at least one memory and a processor coupled to the memory, wherein the processor including and configured to, an index module for creating an index of plurality of attributes thereby forming a table, wherein the attributes includes component name, pin number, connection name, load, power, speed or any other label, a receive module for receiving one or more interaction information for the created attributes in the table, wherein the interaction information including pin number, direction or any other label and an interaction generator module for generating the interaction diagram for each of the component and its inter-connection with other components within the drawing based on the attributes.
Other aspects, advantages, and salient features of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description, which, taken in conjunction with the annexed drawings, discloses exemplary embodiments of the invention.

Brief Description of Drawing
The above and other aspects, features, and advantages of certain exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be more apparent from the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:
Figure 1 shows a block diagram of a computing system for executing process steps, according to one aspect of the present invention.
Figure 2 shows the internal architecture of the computing system of Figure1, according to one aspect of the present invention.
Figure 3 shows a process flow diagram for creating interaction drawings, according to one embodiment of the invention.
Figure 4 shows an example table utilized for creating interaction s and interaction output for the given information, according to an example embodiment of the invention.
Persons skilled in the art will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and may have not been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figure may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of various exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure.

Throughout the drawings, it should be noted that like reference numbers are used to depict the same or similar elements, features, and structures.

Detailed Description of Invention

The following description with reference to the accompanying drawings is provided to assist in a comprehensive understanding of exemplary embodiments of the invention as defined by the claims and their equivalents. It includes various specific details to assist in that understanding but these are to be regarded as merely exemplary. Accordingly, those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that various changes and modifications of the embodiments described herein can be made without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention. In addition, descriptions of well-known functions and constructions are omitted for clarity and conciseness.

The terms and words used in the following description and claims are not limited to the bibliographical meanings, but, are merely used by the inventor to enable a clear and consistent understanding of the invention. Accordingly, it should be apparent to those skilled in the art that the following description of exemplary embodiments of the present invention are provided for illustration purpose only and not for the purpose of limiting the invention as defined by the appended claims and their equivalents.

It is to be understood that the singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the” include plural referents unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. Thus, for example, reference to “a component surface” includes reference to one or more of such surfaces.

By the term “substantially” it is meant that the recited characteristic, parameter, or value need not be achieved exactly, but that deviations or variations, including for example, tolerances, measurement error, measurement accuracy limitations and other factors known to those of skill in the art, may occur in amounts that do not preclude the effect the characteristic was intended to provide.

Figs. 1 through 4, discussed below, and the various embodiments used to describe the principles of the present disclosure in this patent document are by way of illustration only and should not be construed in any way that would limit the scope of the disclosure. Those skilled in the art will understand that the principles of the present disclosure may be implemented in any suitably arranged communications system. The terms used to describe various embodiments are exemplary. It should be understood that these are provided to merely aid the understanding of the description, and that their use and definitions in no way limit the scope of the invention. Terms first, second, and the like are used to differentiate between objects having the same terminology and are in no way intended to represent a chronological order, unless where explicitly stated otherwise. A set is defined as a non-empty set including at least one element.

To facilitate an understanding of the preferred embodiment, the general architecture and operation of a computing system will be described first. The specific process under the preferred embodiment will then be described with reference to the general architecture.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a computing system for executing computer executable process steps according to one aspect of the present invention. FIG. 1 includes a host computer 10 (computer 10) and a monitor 20. Monitor 20 may be a CRT type, a LCD type, or any other type of color or monochrome display.
Also provided with computer 10 are a keyboard 40 for entering data and user commands, and a pointing device (for example, a mouse) 50 for processing objects displayed on monitor 20.
Computer 10 includes a computer-readable memory storage device 60 for storing readable data. Besides other programs, storage device 60 can store application programs including web browsers and computer executable code, according to the present invention.
According to one aspect of the present invention, computer 10 can also use removable storage device 70 for storing data files, application program files, and computer executable process steps embodying the present invention (for example: floppy disk drive, memory stick, CD-ROM, or CD R/W (read/write) or other device).
A modem, an integrated services digital network (ISDN) connection, or the like also provide computer 10 with a Network connection 30 (for example: Internet) to the network of computers within a company or entity in the company (for example: Intranet). The network connection 30 allows computer 10 to download data files, application program files and computer-executable process steps embodying the present invention from the Internet.
FIG. 2 shows a top-level block diagram showing the internal functional architecture of a computing system 10 (host computer 10 or computer 10) that may be used to execute the computer-executable process steps, according to one aspect of the present invention. As detailed in FIG. 2, computing system 10 includes a central processing unit (CPU) 220 for executing computer-executable process steps and interfaces with a computer bus 210. The CPU may include one or more modules such as index module, a receive module , an interaction generator module etc (not shown in figure). The CPU may be configured to one or more such modules for processing various applications.
Computing system 10 includes an input/output interface 240 that operatively connects output display device such as monitors (20), input devices such as keyboards (40) and pointing device such as a mouse (50) to the computing system 10.
A storage device 270 (similar to storage device 60 as shown in figure 1) also interfaces to the computing system 10 through the computer bus 210. Storage device 270 may be disks, tapes, drums, integrated circuits, or the like, operative to hold data by any means, including magnetically, electrically, optically, and the like. Storage device 270 stores operating system program files, application program files, computer-executable process steps, web-browsers and other files. Some of these files are stored on storage device 270 using an installation program. For example, CPU 220 executes computer-executable process steps of an installation program so that CPU 220 can properly execute the application program.
Random access memory ("RAM") 250 also interfaces to computer bus 210 to provide CPU 220 with access to memory storage. When executing stored computer-executable process steps from storage device 270, CPU 220 stores and executes the process steps out of RAM 250.
Read only memory ("ROM") 260 is provided to store invariant instruction sequences such as start-up instruction sequences or basic input/output operating system (BIOS) sequences.
The computing system 10 can be connected to other computing systems through the network interface 230 using computer bus 210. The network interface 230 may be adapted to one or more of a wide variety of networks, including local area networks, storage area networks, wide area networks, the Internet, and the like.
In one aspect of the invention, a interaction generator module (not shown in figure) to generate interaction diagrams may be supplied on a removable storage device 70 of figure 1 (for example: CD-ROM or a floppy disk), or alternatively could be read from the network via the network interface 230. In yet another aspect of the invention, the computing system 10 can load the generator from other computer readable media such as magnetic tape, a ROM, integrated circuit, or a magneto-optical disk. Alternatively, generator module may be installed onto the storage device 270 of the computing system 10 using an installation program and is executed using the CPU 220. In yet another aspect, generator module or any other module as a part of a system may be implemented by using an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) that interfaces with computing system 10.
Figure 3 shows a process flow diagram for creating interaction drawings, according to one embodiment of the invention. The process begins at step 300. In step 310, creating a table including one or more attributes, where the attributes may be or may include component name, pin number, connection name or any other label. The user of tabular entry is for easy to review and check compared to any other format.
In Step 320, additional attributes may also be added to each entry by indicating the connection direction, Net attributes like Clock, Differential Pair, Routing requirements, etc, and/or Component attributes like Part Number, Ordering Details, Package Name, etc.
In step 330, the process verifies the connectivity information with the corresponding attributes entered in the created table. Verification of the entries in the table is to evaluate whether entries complies with regulations, specifications, or conditions imposed at the start of a development phase. The process further verifies that no connectivity is missing or entered incorrectly, the naming conventions are adhered to as required by the company guidelines (if any), no duplication pin numbers and/or labels in the entry and any other verification depends on complexity of such interaction diagrams.
In step 340, the process stores the table with the entries in a data store. The date store is capable of storing information about components include connectivity data. This data store may be a consolidated data store built based on a plurality of databases that store information about one or more components. The data store may include connectivity data, control data, collection data, and location data for the components.
In step 350, the process converts the table entry to generate a interaction drawing or symbol using a conversion utility. The tabular entry may be written in a spreadsheet (for e.g. in a Microsoft Excel Sheet) or any other form which is capable of making a tabular form. The conversion utility for converting the table entry in to a interaction drawing or symbol may be or may include an Application Program Interface (API) provided by the CAD tool or natively generate the files in the format required by the CAD tool.
In step 360, the process checks for a trigger character or a word in the table entry to identify as a next attribute. The trigger character may be or may include any symbol not limited to object, picture, or any particular mark that represents something by association, resemblance, or convention. The trigger character is a start character which is to indicate that the processing of the next attribute or component.
Although the process flowchart includes steps 300-360 that are arranged serially in the exemplary embodiments, other embodiments of the subject matter may execute two or more steps in parallel, using multiple processors or a single processor organized as two or more virtual machines or sub-processors. Moreover, still other embodiments may implement the steps as two or more specific interconnected hardware modules with related control and data signals communicated between and through the modules, or as portions of an application-specific integrated circuit. Thus, the exemplary process flow diagrams are applicable to software, firmware, and/or hardware implementations.
Figure 4 shows an example table utilized for creating interaction s and interaction output for the given information, according to an example embodiment of the invention. In this example embodiment, the table includes an interaction with two components: Comp1 and Comp2. These are detected by the conversion utility using the keyword “Component” in the first column.
The component attributes are indicated in the same line:
• Comp1 is the component to be used
• Part1 is the Part number
• Package1 is the PCB footprint information
The rows following this are the connections to be made to this component. The utility considers all the following lines as connectivity information till it either encounters the “Component” keyword or it detects end of the table.
The connectivity information contains:
• Pin number in Column 1
• Net name (Connection name) in Column 2
• Direction in Column 3
• Additional attributes in columns 4 and beyond
The table would result in an interaction as shown in figure after the conversion. This process of conversion of table entries into interaction diagrams will speed up the creation of complex interaction diagrams and interaction symbols. In addition, several verification steps could be performed to reduce the errors and thus increase productivity.
FIGS. 1-4 are merely representational and are not drawn to scale. Certain portions thereof may be exaggerated, while others may be minimized. FIGS. 1-4 illustrate various embodiments of the invention that can be understood and appropriately carried out by those of ordinary skill in the art.
In the foregoing detailed description of embodiments of the invention, various features are grouped together in a single embodiment for the purpose of streamlining the disclosure. This method of disclosure is not to be interpreted as reflecting an intention that the claimed embodiments of the invention require more features than are expressly recited in each claim. Rather, as the following claims reflect, inventive subject matter lies in less than all features of a single disclosed embodiment. Thus, the following claims are hereby incorporated into the detailed description of embodiments of the invention, with each claim standing on its own as a separate embodiment.
It is understood that the above description is intended to be illustrative, and not restrictive. It is intended to cover all alternatives, modifications and equivalents as may be included within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims. Many other embodiments will be apparent to those of skill in the art upon reviewing the above description. The scope of the invention should, therefore, be determined with reference to the appended claims, along with the full scope of equivalents to which such claims are entitled. In the appended claims, the terms “including” and “in which” are used as the plain-English equivalents of the respective terms “comprising” and “wherein,” respectively.

We Claim:

1. A table driven method for creating interaction drawings, the method comprising:
creating a table including a plurality of attributes, wherein the attributes includes component name, pin number, connection name or any other label;
entering interaction information for the created attributes in the table, wherein the interaction information includes pin number, direction, load, power, speed or any other label;
verifying the interaction information with the corresponding attributes; and
converting the table entry to generate a interaction drawings using a conversion utility.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of converting including:
identifying the component corresponding to the text written in the table.
3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:
checking for a trigger character or a word in the table to identify as a next attribute.
4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:
storing the table in a data storage.
5. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of verifying includes
determining attributes placement relationships according to a component rule set.
6. The method of claim 1, wherein the generating a interaction drawings includes presenting one or more components and their interaction with other components based on the attributes entered in the table.
7. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the conversion utility preferably employs application program interface provided by CAD tool.
8. A system for creating interaction drawings, comprising
at least one memory; and
a processor coupled to the memory, wherein the processor including and configured to,
an index module for creating an index of plurality of attributes thereby forming a table, wherein the attributes includes component name, pin number, connection name , load, power, speed or any other label;
a receive module for receiving one or more interaction information for the created attributes in the table, wherein the interaction information including pin number, direction or any other label; and
an interaction generator module for generating the interaction diagram for each of the component and its inter-connection with other components within the drawing based on the attributes.
9. A system of claim 8 further comprising:
an input device to receive the attributes for the drawing; and
a display device to display the generated interaction diagrams and a graphic viewer to view the same.
10. A method and a system for creating interaction drawings substantially as herewith with reference to the accompanying drawings.
Dated this the 22nd day of March, 2011
S Afsar
Agent for the Applicant
Of Krishna & Saurastri Associates