Electronic apparatus with variable keyboard

270 559 T3

DESCRIPTION

Electronic device with variable keyboard.

The present invention refers to an electronic apparatus having a main face provided with means for linking with a user, such as a keypad and a screen.

Portable mobile electronic devices can be held on hand, such as calculators, call receivers, organizers, and other calculating or communication devices such as cell phones or cordless phones. Such devices are getting smaller and lighter and the functions and services they provide are increasing. It is therefore possible to associate several devices. However, the downsizing of today's mobile phones is particularly limited by some components that are not easy to downsize, such as the keyboard or the screen. It is possible to use a device with a sliding or tilting keyboard, but in the open position the keys on the sliding or tilted part are not easy to manipulate: the hand only supports the main part and there is no solid support for pressing each key on the aileron swiped or tilted that supports keyboard keys.

In particular, from patent application EP-A-0 472 361, a portable workstation composed of a personal computer and a mobile phone, in a single and single structure, is known. This apparatus comprises a pivoting keyboard part that makes it possible to switch from a mobile telephone keyboard to a personal computer keyboard, a change that is accompanied by the switch from a small screen to a large screen. During this movement, however, the dimension of the apparatus increases remarkably and the keys of the mobile telephone keypad remain accessible, unprotected and can be manipulated without realizing it.

Document X0000455841 "Personal Communicator configurations" from IBM describes an electronic device comprising a screen, a keyboard movable in relation to said screen and intended to be manipulated between a first position and a second position in which said electronic device remains the same size, said keyboard hiding a part of said screen in said second position and uncovering said screen in said first position. The screen is a touch screen.

Patent document US 5661641 describes an electronic apparatus (a portable telephone) comprising a screen, a mobile keyboard and intended to be manipulated between a first position and a second position in which said electronic apparatus remains the same size.

According to the invention, the drawbacks of the prior art are mitigated or eliminated thanks to the fact that the electronic apparatus indicated in the first paragraph stands out because a first part of the keyboard is fixed and a second part, permanently attached to said apparatus, comprises positioning means to be able to be manipulated between two operative positions for which said apparatus maintains invariable dimensions, a first position according to which said keyboard is reduced and a second position according to which said keyboard extends, in such a way that the passage from one position to another makes the keyboard keys available to the user in the arrival position and makes the keyboard keys are inaccessible in the starting position.

In this way, the transition from an electronic device to a device with another configuration but with the same dimensions, is complete and exclusive and a correct support of the keyboard keys is guaranteed for both configurations.

Preferably, in the second position with the keyboard extended, the maneuverable part of the keyboard hides a part of said screen. Thus, the move from an extended keyboard to a reduced keyboard is accompanied by an increase in the screen.

A preferred embodiment of the invention stands out because said maneuverable part of the keyboard comprises pivoting means to be able to pivot from one position to another, around a hinge arranged, on said main face, between an edge of the screen and an edge of the first fixed part of the keyboard and because this maneuverable part of the keyboard comprises a configuration of keys on each of its main faces, as well as means of connection with electronic elements arranged inside the housing of the apparatus.

Advantageously, these connection means are constituted by a layer of conductive wires that pass through the main face of the device through a slit made at the level of said hinge. An apparatus thus made, according to the invention, is well adapted to constitute, in particular, a mobile telephone in its first extended keyboard position and an organizer in its reduced keyboard position. The combination of a mobile phone with another device, especially an organizer, is interesting because, for example, the organizer makes it possible to immediately record information obtained by telephone.

The description that follows with reference to the attached drawings, all given by way of non-limiting example, will help to understand how the invention can be carried out.

Figure 1 represents in A front view and in B profile view, an apparatus according to the invention in its second position; in C seen from the front and in D seen in profile, the same apparatus in its first position.

Figure 2 schematically represents in A front view and in B profile view, the fixed main part of the apparatus of Figure 1; in C seen from the front and in D seen in profile, the second maneuverable part of the keyboard of the apparatus of figure 1.

Figure 3 represents in A profile view and in B front view the detail of immobilization means of the second maneuverable part of the keyboard as well as means of establishing an electrical contact.

Figure 4 shows in profile a preferred embodiment of the second maneuverable part of the keyboard.

The apparatus represented by 10 in Figures 1A and 1C has the appearance and functionalities of a traditional mobile telephone. On a main face, figure 1A, it comprises an antenna 1 and means for linking with a user, such as a loudspeaker 2, a microphone 3, a keypad made up of two parts 4 and 5 and a screen 6 which is preferably a device liquid crystal display, called LCD. In a known way, a first part 5 of the keyboard, which is, in this case, the lower part, is fixed and preferably comprises, in the form of keys 5A, the part reserved for numbering, that is to say the ten digits as well as the keys of asterisk and pound sign. The second part 4 of the keyboard is mobile, according to the invention. In the embodiment of figure 1 and as shown

ES 2 270 559 T3 represents in Figures 1A and 1B, part 4 has been maneuvered, by pivoting around a hinge 7, so that it occupies a raised position, called the second position, in which it presents the keys 4A and which allows get a large keyboard, called an extended keyboard. The dimensions of parts 4 and 5 of the keyboard are substantially square and equal. This is necessary and is due to the fact that in their first position represented in Figures 1C and 1D, the keys 4A and 5A are located in front, almost in contact with each other, thus being inaccessible and protected.

For use as a mobile phone, the number of keys 4A can be reduced to about 6, which together with the 12 keys 5A constitutes a sufficient number. It will be noted, however, that the keys 4A could amount to a number of 12, as for the keys 5A, which makes it possible to transform the apparatus of Figures 1A and 1B into a pocket calculator, by means of an appropriate complementary programming of the apparatus thus as an electrical commutation, for example by means of a key 8 suitable to occupy two lateral positions between the keys 4A, to be able to switch from mobile to calculator, and vice versa, these two improvements being within the reach of the person skilled in the art. It will be noted that, in Figures 1A and 1B, the mobile keyboard 4 hides the larger lower part of the screen 6 whose upper part 6A, the only one visible in these figures, is only conceived to be inscribable during operation of the apparatus. as a mobile or as a calculator. If the miniaturization of the apparatus is very marked, the number of keys 5A or 4A is reduced to a maximum of 9 and it becomes difficult, if not impossible, to transform the apparatus into a calculator in its configuration of Figures 1A and 1B.

In Figures 1C and 1D, the apparatus described above is represented with its second mobile part 4 of the keyboard in its first position, that is, in its lower position according to which it hides the keys 5A and presents the keys 4C whose number is equal to or substantially the same as that of keys 4A or 5A. It is therefore a reduced keyboard compared to the keyboard of Figures 1A and 1B which is called extended. In the embodiment of figure 1, the passage from the second to the first position is achieved by pivoting the part 4 of the keyboard 180 degrees around the hinge 7. It will be observed that at the end of this maneuver the keys 4A and 5A of the extended keyboard, which were the only accessible ones, are all inaccessible and replaced, as a keyboard, by the keys 4C which, in the embodiment of Figure 1A and 1B, were inaccessible, located on the main face of the movable part 4, opposite to the main face that supports the keys 4A. It will also be noted that the maneuver indicated above has not altered the dimensions of the apparatus. The apparatus of Figures 1C and 1D may be the same apparatus as that of Figures 1a and 1B, essentially a mobile telephone, advantageously, or another apparatus, advantageously a personal organizer. If it is a mobile phone in both configurations, no electrical switching is necessary at the time of transition from configuration 1A to configuration 1C. In this case, the apparatus having a reduced keyboard and a particularly large screen since the keyboard is not hidden by the moving part, can be advantageously used to move through the menu for informational or modification purposes, a large screen being useful for this. and being able to reduce a keyboard since it does not need keys for the digits (being in any case an incoming call during this use).

The apparatus of figures 1C and 1D can also advantageously be a personal organizer, the change of functionalities being obtained automatically, by any known means, during the aforementioned maneuvering of the mobile part 4, either manually by means of a key 4C (not shown) analogous to key 8 of figure 1A. This last option is interesting because it allows operation either as a mobile phone, as described above, or as an organizer in its configuration with a reduced keyboard. If the apparatus is a personal organizer, in configuration 1C, the display screen 6 may be provided with sensitive areas that allow the user to enter information by touching the screen, and the keys 4C may comprise a rotating ball-type pointing element 11 (or Trackball in English).

In order to make the necessary electrical connection between the mobile part 4 of the keyboard and a printed circuit (not shown) inside the housing of the apparatus 10, connection means are provided which, in the embodiment of figure 1, are constituted by a layer of conductive wires 12, called flat connection, which pass through the main face of the apparatus through a slit 13 at the level of the hinge (see figure 1).

Figure 2 represents, in C and D, the mobile part of the keyboard 4 separated from the rest of the device, with reference 20, which allows a better appreciation of the constitution of the hinge 7 that joins these two elements (keys 4A, 5A and 4C they have not been represented so as not to overload the drawings). In figure 2, neither the microphone nor the loudspeaker have been represented and the antenna 1 is represented in broken lines, all this to indicate that the device 20 could not be a mobile phone or even a communication device, but rather another type of device. electronic apparatus such as a pocket calculator, for example in its configuration whereby the keyboard is in its second, extended position.

The embodiment of figure 2 comprises means for immobilizing the maneuverable part 4 of the keyboard in the first or second position. These means consist of a magnet 21 fixed to part 4 of the keyboard, and a magnetic part 22, respectively 23, fixed correspondingly on the main face of the apparatus 20. It is also possible to replace the magnetic parts 22 and 23 with magnets and the magnet 21 by a corresponding magnetic piece.

As indicated above, the establishment of an electrical contact in the apparatus may be necessary when the passage from one position to another of the part 4 of the keyboard is accompanied by a modification of the functionalities of the apparatus. The establishment of this contact could be carried out (not shown) at the level of the hinge 7, taking advantage of the 180 degree movement made during the movement of the part 4. Advantageously, this contact can also be established at the level of the immobilization means 21, 22, 23 of the maneuverable part 4 as described below with reference to FIG. 3.

Figure 3 represents a fraction of the part 4 of the keyboard equipped with a magnet 21. In front of it is the magnetic part 22 or 23 of the device 20

ES 2 270 559 T3 which is broken down into two terminals 25 and 26 each associated with an electrical conductor 27, 28 inside the apparatus. When the magnet 21 comes into contact with the terminals 25 and 26, it guarantees the desired mechanical blocking and at the same time makes the electrical connection between the conductors 27 and 28, which induces in the device 20 a polarization or the passage of an electric current which in turn leads to a change in the type of operation of the device.

During the positioning of the mobile part 4 of the keyboard in its first or in its second position, it must be ensured that the keys 4A or 4C do not come into contact with parts of the main face of the device 10 or 20, that is to say with the screen 6 or with the 5A keys. For this, an advantageous embodiment of the invention consists in giving each face of part 4 a slightly recessed profile, as shown in figure 4, and the same measure can be taken with respect to part 5 of the fixed keyboard or display screen 6. Thus, although protruding, the keys remain slightly retracted with respect to the perimeter of the parts of the keyboard that support them and the contacts of the main face with part 4 are made at the level of these perimeters, which at the same time provides a good support for keys in use and good protection for hidden keys, not accessible.