Abstract: The present invention concerns a communication system between a portable unit, such as a watch, and a communication terminal (2) such as a personal computer or PC, characterized in that the communication terminal (2) includes at least means for transmitting an acoustic signal carrying, and in that the portable unit (1) includes at least processing means for processing data, and receiving and conversion means for picking up said acoustic signal and converting said acoustic signal into data intended to be processed by said processing means.

Abstract: The present invention concerns the use of a sound generator circuit (22) including a piezoelectric vibrator (P3) as an acoustic wave receiver. The invention also concerns an electronic converter (20) including a sound generator circuit (22) provided with a piezoelectric vibrator (P3) as well as means supplying a reference voltage, characterized in that it further includes comparison means which compare the reference voltage to the voltage generated by the piezoelectric vibrator (P3) when the latter picks up an acoustic wave, said comparison means generating a pseudo-digital signal when the voltage generated by said vibrator (P3) exceeds said reference voltage. Finally the invention concerns a timepiece provided with a converter circuit (20) as described above, as well as a two-directional communication method via acoustic waves between an emitter unit and a receiver unit.

Abstract: There is disclosed a method and a system for accessing information and/or data available on a wide area computer network (100), such as the Internet. A first modulated acoustic signal (A) is transmitted to a group of potential users each provided with a portable communication unit (1, 1*), this first modulated acoustic signal including at least one identifier (ID—1, ID—2, ID—3, . . . ) associated with a link to a determined site of the wide area computer network. These identifiers are stored in the portable communication unit then subsequently downloaded to a computer terminal (50, 51, 52) connected to the wide area computer network. After the downloaded identifier or identifiers have been compared with a determined list of identifiers (ID_A, ID_B, ID_C, . . . ), a list of links (Link_A, Link_B, Link_C, . . . ) to sites corresponding to the downloaded identifier or identifiers is generated by the computer terminal.