Patent Application
20090036162
1. Field of Invention
The invention relates to a mobile communication device, and in particular to a combinational mobile communication device realized through combining swappable function expansion components with a communication device main-body.
2. Related Art
In the early stage of the development and application of mobile phone technology, the mobile phone is only designed for dialing/receiving telephone calls, as such, the design of handset is very much primitive and simplified. Usually, a mobile phone handset merely includes the necessary communication elements, circuitry, telephone press keys, earphone, speaker phone, and display screen as required, and the frequency of clock pulses carried by a microprocessor internal of the mobile phone handset is relatively low. However, with the progress and development of mobile calculation and manipulation capabilities, the functions of mobile phone handset are not limited to dialing/receiving phone calls, upon incorporating the microprocessor capable of carrying higher frequency clock pulses and a plurality of specific function expansion modules. By way of example, the embedded camera/video module is incorporated for taking pictures, the embedded satellite navigation module is incorporated for transportation navigation, and the imbedded Blue Tooth wireless communication module is incorporated for transmitting electronic files. As such, increasing numbers of practical and convenient functions are incorporated into mobile phone handset.
However, as the functions of mobile phone become more and more diversified and complete, the number of embedded functional components is increasing, so that the volume of mobile phone handset is getting increasingly large, thus it becomes not suitable for the user to carry. Usually, not all the functions provided in a mobile phone handset are required by a particular user. For example, for the occasions and locations where electronic devices having picture-taking functions are not allowed, then the mobile phone handset having built-in digital camera capability could constitute a limit and inconvenience. In addition, some of the users are required to replace the old and purchase the new mobile phone handset just for one or two newly added functions, thus the phenomenon that the whole handset has to be replaced just for such a small scale functional expansion or upgrade is not economic at all. Presently, the solution to the above-mentioned problem that some of the built-in functions are not required by the user or not suitable for some occasions, and that the whole handset has to be replaced just for small scale expansion or upgrade, is to realize the functional expansion or upgrade through the outside-attached modules. Therefore, when these functions are required by a user, then the outside attachable modules (such as the camera module or satellite navigation module) are attached to the mobile phone handset. However, this kind of outside attachable module has its shortcomings and limitations. The reason for this is that, the volume of a mobile phone handset is getting larger, and its overall outer appearance lacks consistency; moreover, the number of outer connection ports of a handset tends to limit the number of modules that can be outside-attached to a handset at the same time.
In view of the above-mentioned drawbacks and shortcomings of the conventional mobile phone handset that the outside-attached function expansion module occupies too much space, inconvenient to carry, and that a small scale expansion or upgrade would require to replace the entire handset, the objective of the invention is to provide a combinational mobile communication device, such that the number of functional accessories of such a mobile communication device can be increased or decreased depending on the actual requirements, yet the volume of the mobile communication device will not increase significantly.
To achieve the above-mentioned objectives, the combinational mobile communication device of the invention is composed of at least a swappable function expansion component and a communication device main-body. According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, such a swappable function expansion component includes a function expansion module and a shell. Wherein, the function expansion module is used to provide at least an added or expanded function for the selection and utilization of the combinational mobile communication device; while the shell is used to carry such a function expansion module to form the afore-mentioned swappable function expansion component. It is worth mentioning that, this shell is a part of a larger shell that forms as a part of this combinational mobile communication device. For example, in a preferred embodiment of the invention, the shell of the combinational mobile communication device is realized through combining at least one (or more) shell(s) of the swappable function expansion component with a communication device main-body.
As mentioned above, the multiple additional functions of the invention are realized through a plurality of swappable function expansion components, and these swappable function expansion components are interconnected through a plurality of connection interfaces, thus realizing a mobile communication device. In expanding or replacing the functions of a mobile communication device, the swappable function expansion components to be replaced are plugged off, and the swappable function expansion components to be required are plugged on, thus achieving the expansion or upgrade of the mobile communication device.
Further scope of applicability of the invention will become apparent from the detailed description given hereinafter. However, it should be understood that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating preferred embodiments of the invention, are given by way of illustration only, since various changes and modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this detailed description.
The invention will become more fully understood from the detailed description given hereinbelow for illustration only, and thus are not limitative of the present invention, and wherein:
The purpose, construction, features, and functions of the invention can be appreciated and understood more thoroughly through the following detailed description with reference to the attached drawings.
The combinational mobile communication device of the invention is composed of two parts: a swappable function expansion component and a communication device main-body. The communication device main-body may select at least a specific swappable function expansion component, and combine with it to form a mobile communication device. Thus, through assembling a swappable function expansion component with a communication device main-body, the number of swappable function expansion components attached can be increased or decreased depending actual requirements. As such, the attached swappable function expansion component (s) is actually an integral part of a mobile communication device, thus the attaching and detaching of various swappable function expansion components will not affect or increase the overall volume of a mobile communication device significantly.
In the following, the combinational mobile communication device and swappable function expansion component of the invention will be described in detail.
Firstly, the swappable function expansion component of the invention is described. Refer to
As mentioned above, some of the insertion pins of the swappable function expansion component are each provided with at least a metal plate. One end of the metal plate is connected electrically to a function expansion module 110 and a controller 120, while the other end of the metal plate is exposed to air at the bottom of an insertion pin, and is used to connect electrically a swappable function expansion component to a communication device main-body, when the swappable function expansion component is inserted into the communication device main-body, hereby obtaining the power required for the operation of the swappable function expansion component, and also receiving a control signal transmitted from communication device main-body. In the present invention, the swappable function expansion component is provided with three insertion pins 140, the center insertion pin is provided with two metal plates 142, thus power and control signals are transmitted through metal wires connected to a function expansion module 110 and a controller 120 respectively.
In some of the embodiments, shell 130 may include a connection port, such as a USB port or a 1394 connection port, that is connected to a communication device main-body for transmitting data. Depending on the function characteristics, the swappable function expansion component may be classified as: telephone keyboard module, pressure sensor control key module, touch screen module, fingerprint identification module, music broadcaster module, camera back cover module, clock module, and memory expansion back cover module. In some of the embodiments, the swappable function expansion component may be provided with a plurality of function expansion modules inside. For example, the camera, video device, wireless Blue Tooth and WiFi function expansion modules can be integrated into a single swappable function expansion component, and that can be used to take pictures or films, and then transmit the pictures or films taken to a computer through Blue Tooth or WiFi function expansion modules.
Incidentally, the above-mentioned shell is merely an integral part of a mobile communication device, it can be a frontal outer shell/shell cover, a back outer shell/shell cover or a side outer shell/shell cover. Through the utilization of connection interfaces, these shells are combined and integrated with communication device main-body, hereby realizing the objective of providing user with rapid increase/decrease of expanded functions depending on the actual requirements, and in attaching the swappable function expansion components for increasing the functions of a mobile communication device, its overall volume will not increase significantly.
Subsequently, the communication device main-body of a mobile communication device of the invention is described. Refer to
In the present embodiment, the main-body 210 further includes a RF module 240, a battery 250, and a memory 260. Upon receiving incoming call signals utilizing RF module 240, microprocessor 220 will send out control signals, hereby controlling swappable function expansion component in temporarily to stop executing a particular attached function. By way of example, in case that the swappable function expansion component concerned is a music broadcast module, then on receiving incoming call signals, the microprocessor will send out control signals to terminate the broadcast of music until the completion and termination of the incoming call. Then, the microprocessor will issue another control signal to resume the broadcast of music. In addition, the memory 260 in main-body 210 may be used to store the data received by the swappable function expansion component, and when a particular swappable function expansion component is removed, the memory may selectively remove the data received previously. For example, in case that the swappable function expansion component attached is for setting the subject scene of a mobile phone handset, then the attached swappable function expansion component is used to input a subject scene, for example, a scene of a movie as a table cloth for the screen of the handset, or set the accompanying music of a movie as the ring and sound effect for the incoming calls of the handset. When this particular swappable function expansion component is detached, a user may choose to keep the input data (namely, storing the subject scene in a memory), or remove that subject scene and resume the original settings of the mobile communication device.
Moreover, refer to
Furthermore, refer to
Summing up the above, the combinational mobile communication device of the invention can be divided into two separate portions of a swappable function expansion components and a communication device main-body respectively, as such, various additional functions required can be added and realized through the related swappable function expansion components. In this manner, various swappable function expansion components can be attached/detached as required, and thus are combined and integrated with a communication device main-body into an integral mobile communication device. As such, the present invention realizing the expanded functions of the mobile communication device as required by a user through the exchange of different operation interfaces. The advantages of the combinational mobile communication device of the invention can be summarized as follows:
1. Upon changing or expanding the functions of mobile phone handset, the overall outer appearance of the mobile phone handset tends to remain consistent, and the volume of a handset will not increase due to the function expansion of the handset;
2. Various swappable function expansion components can be attached/detached simultaneously, and that is quite an improvement over the prior art that a mobile phone handset function expansion is achieved through an outside attached module inserted into an expansion connection port, and only a single module can be outside attached at one time; and
3. A user may choose the ordinarily utilized swappable function expansion components, attaching or detaching such swappable function expansion components, thus adding or removing specific functions to or from a mobile communication device depending on the requirements of the existing environment of a user.
The invention being thus described, it will be obvious that the same may be varied in many ways. Such variations are not to be regarded as a departure from the spirit and scope of the invention, and all such modifications as would be obvious to one skilled in the art are intended to be included within the scope of the following claims.
