Patent Application
20070070591
Embodiments of the invention relate to a data processing system; and more specifically, to a desktop system having a detachable flat panel display (FPD).
Personal computers have been utilized in rural/sub-urban areas under poor power conditions and bad environments, such as, for example, less than 6 hours quality supply, frequent brownouts and black-outs, hot, dusty and high humidity. From cost perspective, CRT (cathode ray tube) monitor is normally less expensive and hence preferred by users in general. However, LCD (liquid crystal display) is superior, from a power saving perspective, as it, only uses 0.25% of the CRT monitor's total power consumption.
The computer systems in rural/sub-urban areas may be used for providing information services to customers in kiosk business models. Quite often, the operators will need to show their customers what they are doing during the service transactions. In addition, in rural/sub-urban areas, dust can easily get accumulated on the surface of display screen especially in a non-operating mode.
The current available desktop PC (personal computer) systems are designed either with separated or integrated display in the respective systems and hence lack the flexibility to allow various options. Further, traditional hinge design for desktop LCD requires a bigger round base to maintain its stability when LCD rotating. For instance, a typical stand alone LCD in the market will have an approximately 150 mm diameter round/oval base in order to support the LCD.
Embodiments of the invention may best be understood by referring to the following description and accompanying drawings that are used to illustrate embodiments of the invention. In the drawings:
A desktop system having a detachable flat panel display is described herein. In the following description, numerous details are set forth to provide a more thorough explanation of embodiments of the present invention. It will be apparent, however, to one skilled in the art, that embodiments of the present invention may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known structures and devices are shown in block diagram form, rather than in detail, in order to avoid obscuring embodiments of the present invention.
Reference in the specification to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment” means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the invention. The appearances of the phrase “in one embodiment” in various places in the specification do not necessarily all refer to the same embodiment.
Accordingly, certain embodiments of the invention include an integrated LCD that is not fixedly detached (e.g., detachable) from desktop chassis for CRT option, which caters the different users' needs on their display preferences. An embodiment of the invention provides an innovative combination of chassis and monitor for desktop systems, which properly addresses the specific needs of rural/sub-urban users, as shown in
Note that throughout this application, a LCD is used as an example as a flat panel display. It is not so limited; other types of the flat panel display devices may be utilized. Also note that some reference numbers referenced to similar components of the drawings may be maintained throughout this application by ways of illustration, not by way of limitations.
Referring to
In one embodiment, FPD 101 includes a base 105 and a hinge 103, where the display panel 106 may be rotated according to multiple axes with respect to the base 105, which will be described in details further below. Base 105 may be non-fixedly secured to surface 104 of the desktop chassis 102, for example, via a snap fitting, screw, screw lock mechanism, etc., and/or a combination of these mechanisms, as indicated by mechanisms 110A and 110A in
In addition, either monitor attached to a desktop chassis may be rotated for, multiple axes allowing multiple users to view the contents from various directions. According to one embodiment, an example of a desktop system provides a LCD display can be rotated in various degrees (e.g., approximately 270 degrees). This may allow the operators to turn and show the display screen to their customers sitting at any positions. Hence, the interactions between operator and customer may be further enhanced.
For example, FPD 101 may be rotated with respect to axis 401, such as tilted up and down with respect to a user facing a front panel of the desktop chassis 102, as shown in
In one embodiment, the FPD 101 may be rotated with respect to axis 402 until the screen of FPD 101 is facing a rear side of the desktop chassis 102. Thereafter, the rear facing FPD 101 may be rotated with respect to axis 401 to transition to a closed configuration or a non-operable configuration, as shown in
Referring
According to one embodiment, a LCD is attached to a desktop chassis with a bi-axial (e.g., multiple axels) mechanical hinge design. The hinge design may include a vertical hinge axle to provide the LCD rotation capability that may allow multiple users to view the screen. In addition, a horizontal axle may enable the LCD to be rotated at the different angles from a surface of the desktop chassis (e.g., top plane or surface). Hence, the LCD front screen may be rotated and locked or closed to the desktop chassis' top surface to prevent dust accumulation in the non-operating mode as shown in
When the LCD rotates along a relatively vertical axis (e.g., Y axis), for example, from 0 degree to 180 degree, the display may either face the operator or the customer who is in front of the operator. When the LCD rotates, for example, 180±90 degree, it may provide user ±90 view angle. This may allow the operator to turn and show the display screen to their customer sitting/standing at any position. Hence, the interactions between operator and customer may be further enhanced. When the LCD rotates along a relatively horizontal axis (e.g., X axis) of the hinge, for example, from 0 degree to 90 degree, the display may be in an open or closed position.
According to one embodiment, contrary to a conventional design, the hinge may not require such a large round base (e.g., a swivel base), because the torque of the hinge in X-axis may overcome the offset moment and maintain the stability. In addition, the above configurations may also be leveraged in the notebook PC or tablet PC design. Since these designs utilize less space, they may enable a slimmer notebook with better industrial design (ID). Embodiments of the invention may provide the operator greater flexibility in turning the LCD for sharing with multiple users and closing the LCD to at least protect the LCD from the environment.
In addition, according to one embodiment, the hinge system 800 may include a second rotatable member 808 coupled to the first rotatable member 807 via a second hinge 811. The hinge system 800 may further include one or more mounting brackets 809-810 to mount the second rotatable member 808 to a display panel, as shown in
In one embodiment, hinge 811 may be formed in a relatively tubular shape having an opening along therein. In this embodiment, a display cable may be run within the hinge 811 to couple with a display panel attached (not shown). The hinge system 800 may be implemented using materials that are relatively light and strong enough, such as, for example, similar to Mg—Al alloy material.
According to one embodiment, hinge 811 and/or hinges 805-806 may include a resilient mechanism (not shown) that provides counter forces to the movements of the first and second rotatable members 807-808. In addition, the resilient mechanism may provide counterbalance to the weight of the FPD. In one embodiment, the resilient mechanism may further include a spring, a washer, an annular friction ring, or the like to provide counterbalance forces. The counterbalance forces may be adjusted via the pressure provided by a bolt or nut screwed thereon.
As shown in
Typically, the I/O devices 1110 may be coupled to the system through input/output controllers 1109. The volatile RAM 1105 may be implemented as dynamic RAM (DRAM) which may require power continuously in order to refresh or maintain the data in the memory. The non-volatile memory 1106 may be a magnetic hard drive, a magnetic optical drive, an optical drive, or a DVD RAM or other type of memory system which may maintain data even after power is removed from the system. Typically the non-volatile memory will also be a random access memory, although this is not required. While
The bus 1102 may include one or more buses connected to each other through various bridges, controllers, and/or adapters, as is well-known in the art. In one embodiment, the I/O controller 1109 may include, but not limited to, the IEEE 802.5 standard, IEEE std. 802.5-1992, published Jun. 12, 1992. Other components and/or standards may also be implemented.
Thus, a desktop system having a detachable flat panel display is described herein. Some portions of the preceding detailed descriptions have been presented in terms of algorithms and symbolic representations of operations on data bits within a computer memory. These algorithmic descriptions and representations are the ways used by those skilled in the data processing arts to most effectively convey the substance of their work to others skilled in the art. An algorithm is herein, and generally, conceived to be a self-consistent sequence of operations leading to a desired result. The operations are those requiring physical manipulations of physical quantities. Usually, though not necessarily, these quantities take the form of electrical or magnetic signals capable of being stored, transferred, combined, compared, and otherwise manipulated. It has proven convenient at times, principally for reasons of common usage, to refer to these signals as bits, values, elements, symbols, characters, terms, numbers, or the like.
It should be borne in mind, however, that all of these and similar terms are to be associated with the appropriate physical quantities and are merely convenient labels applied to these quantities. Unless specifically stated otherwise as apparent from the above discussion, it is appreciated that throughout the description, discussions utilizing terms such as “processing” or “computing” or “calculating” or “determining” or “displaying” or the like, refer to the action and processes of a computer system, or similar electronic computing device, that manipulates and transforms data represented as physical (electronic) quantities within the computer system's registers and memories into other data similarly represented as physical quantities within the computer system memories or registers or other such information storage, transmission or display devices.
Furthermore, embodiments of the present invention may relate to an apparatus for performing the operations herein. This apparatus may be specially constructed for the required purposes, or it may comprise a general-purpose computer selectively activated or reconfigured by a computer program stored in the computer. Such a computer program may be stored in a computer readable storage medium, such as, but is not limited to, any type of disk including floppy disks, optical disks, CD-ROMs, and magnetic-optical disks, read-only memories (ROMs), random access memories (RAMs), erasable programmable ROMs (EPROMs), electrically erasable programmable ROMs (EEPROMs), magnetic or optical cards, or any type of media suitable for storing electronic instructions, and each coupled to a computer system bus.
The algorithms and displays presented herein are not inherently related to any particular computer or other apparatus. Various general-purpose systems may be used with programs in accordance with the teachings herein, or it may prove convenient to construct more specialized apparatus to perform the required method operations. The required structure for a variety of these systems will appear from the description below. In addition, embodiments of the present invention are not described with reference to any particular programming language. It will be appreciated that a variety of programming languages may be used to implement the teachings of embodiments of the invention as described herein.
A machine-readable medium may include any mechanism for storing or transmitting information in a form readable by a machine (e.g., a computer). For example, a machine-readable medium includes read only memory (“ROM”); random access memory (“RAM”); magnetic disk storage media; optical storage media; flash memory devices; electrical, optical, acoustical or other form of propagated signals (e.g., carrier waves, infrared signals, digital signals, etc.); etc.
In the foregoing specification, embodiments of the invention have been described with reference to specific exemplary embodiments thereof. It will be evident that various modifications may be made thereto without departing from the broader spirit and scope of embodiments of the invention as set forth in the following claims. The specification and drawings are, accordingly, to be regarded in an illustrative sense rather than a restrictive sense.
