Patent Application
20090059511
This application claims the priority benefit of Taiwan application serial no. 96131679, filed on Aug. 27, 2007. All disclosure of the Taiwan application is incorporated herein by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a dock station and a mini-projector, and more particularly, to a dock station and a mini-projector being mutually integrated.
2. Description of Related Art
Along with the progress in science and technology, various electronic apparatuses are being developed following the latest trend of high-speed, high-efficiency and light-slim-short-small appearance design. In such a market direction, diverse portable electronic apparatuses have gradually played a major role in the mainstream electronic product market, which are, for example, handset, notebook PC and personal digital assistant (PDA). In order to further compact a portable electronic apparatus for portability, usually, a portable electronic apparatus is designed to cut out some functions in comparison with a regular-sized apparatus. To fill the function gap as mentioned above, a design employing a dock station has emerged recently.
A dock station commonly means a hardware architecture and a set of interfaces for electrical connection. A portable electronic apparatus is able to expand various usages by using a dock station to link other peripheral equipments. However, in terms of available dock stations on the market today, the so-called dock station is mostly limited to charging, connecting a computer and/or sound playing functions, where no projection function is integrated therewith.
In addition, along with the miniature trend and low pricing policy for a projector today, a reasonable development is to integrate a mini-projector into a dock station, which is helpful to share AV data and gain usage convenience.
Accordingly, the present invention is related to a dock station to add a projection function to a portable electronic apparatus.
The present invention is also related to a mini-projector suitable to be placed at the above-mentioned dock station so as to expand the usages of the dock station with projection function.
The present invention provides a dock station, which includes a dock station body, a projector interface and a power management unit. The dock station body is employed for connecting at least an electronic apparatus; the projector interface is employed for connecting a mini-projector and the dock station body; the power management unit is disposed in the dock station body, wherein the dock station uses the mini-projector to play audio/video (AV) data in the electronic apparatus.
The present invention provides a mini-projector suitable to be placed on the dock station, and the mini-projector includes a projector body and a rechargeable battery, wherein the projector body is employed for connecting at least an electronic apparatus through the above-mentioned dock station, while the rechargeable battery is disposed in the projector body for providing the projector body with an operation power. The electronic apparatus may be employed to play AV signals by means of the projector body.
By additionally employing a projector interface and a power management unit disposed in the dock station, the present invention makes the dock station have projection function. After linking the dock station with the mini-projector through the projector interface, on one hand, the power management unit is utilized to provide a required operation power; and on the other hand, a user is allowed to conduct projection while recharging the mini-projector for lengthening projection duration. Besides, by additionally disposing a rechargeable battery at the mini-projector, the mini-projector provided by the present invention gains a carriage convenience for conducting a short-coverage projection. Therefore, the present invention provides a great convenience to a user frequently conducting projections without going to a special projection site equipped with projection equipments to do projection jobs.
The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the invention, and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification. The drawings illustrate embodiments of the invention and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention.
Reference will now be made in detail to the present preferred embodiments of the invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers are used in the drawings and the description to refer to the same or like parts.
The dock station body 110 is suitable to connect various electronic apparatuses, and after the dock station body 110 receives AV data in the electronic apparatus, the AV data is delivered by the projector interface 120 to the mini-projector for playing.
There are various connection interfaces with an electronic apparatus, for example, composite video baseband signal (CVBS) interface, video graphic array (VGA) interface, universal serial bus (USB), mini universal serial bus (MINIUSB) or YPbPr interface. In order to suit the above-mentioned connection interfaces of an electronic apparatus for connecting to the dock station 100, the connection interface unit 111 in the dock station body 110 includes computer link interface, AV interface, handset interface and sound interface for connecting the above-mentioned various electronic apparatuses. The computer link interface is employed for linking computer or notebook PC to transmit data in the computer or the notebook PC.
The AV interface is employed for connecting digital video camera, digital camera or multimedia entertainment device (for example, video game machine) and is suitable for transmitting video data in the digital video camera, digital camera or multimedia entertainment device. The handset interface is for connecting mobile phone and suitable to transmit AV data in the mobile phone to the mini-projector for playing. The sound interface is employed for connecting music player (for example, MP3 player) and is suitable for transmitting AV data stored in the music player. In the present embodiment, a computer link interface can be USB; an AV interface can be composite video baseband signal interface, VGA interface, USB interface, MINIUSB or YPbPr interface, while a sound interface can be USB.
The control unit 112 is coupled between the connection interface unit 111 and the projector interface 120 for processing the operations with regard to transmitting and playing AV data in the electronic apparatus, that is to say after the electronic apparatus is connected to the connection interface unit 111, the AV data stored in the electronic apparatus would be proceeded by the control unit 112 to be converted into signals ready to be played, following by transmitting the above-mentioned signals to the mini-projector through the projector interface 120 for playing, wherein the control unit 112 may be a microprocessor.
The sound playing unit 113 is coupled to the control unit 112 for playing audio data and may be a micro speaker or a loudspeaker. The memory connection interface 114 is coupled with the control unit 112 for linking a memory device, for example, portable hard disk or memory card, while the above-mentioned memory connection interface 114 is, for example, memory card interface or USB. After the AV data stored in the memory device processed by the control unit 112, the AV data is transmitted to the mini-projector for playing through the projector interface 120.
The wireless receiving unit 115 is coupled to the control unit 112 for receiving remote signals emitted by a wireless remoter, and after the remote signal is processed by the control unit 112, a corresponding action would be executed. In this way, a user is able to deliver instructions to the dock station 100 by a remoter, and the electronic apparatus or the mini-projector connected to the dock station 100 would be operated, wherein the wireless receiving unit 115 may include an infrared receiver or a bluetooth module.
In the present embodiment, the dock station 100 further includes a housing cavity 210 embedded therein, in which the projector interface 120 is disposed. As shown by
Besides, the present invention provides a mini-projector suitable to be placed at the above-mentioned dock station 100, as shown by
The mini-projector 300 is able to be directly connected to the electronic apparatus or integrated into the electronic apparatus, for example, integrated into a handset or other portable electronic apparatuses. When the mini-projector 300 is an independent electronic apparatus, as shown by
In the present embodiment, since the mini-projector 300, the dock station 100 and the electronic apparatus are allowed to be wired in any manner, thus, a user can be provided with a great convenience to manipulate. For a user to conduct projection in a short duration of time any place, the user may carry the mini-projector 300 there to project AV data in the electronic apparatus; for a user to conduct projection in a long duration of time, the user may carry the mini-projector 300 and the dock station 100 to project AV data for a longer time. Besides, the mini-projector 300 may be implemented by using liquid crystal on silicon (LCOS) panel technology for miniaturization purpose.
In summary, the dock station and mini-projector mutually integrated of the present invention has at least following advantages:
(1) By disposing a projector interface in the dock station and connecting the mini-projector to the dock station, the dock station would have the projection function.
(2) By disposing a power management unit in the dock station and connecting the mini-projector to the dock station, the power management unit is able to provide a required operation power and recharge the mini-projector so as to lengthen projection duration.
(3) By disposing a rechargeable battery in the mini-projector, a great convenience for short time projection is achieved.
(4) The dock station and the mini-projector can be conveniently carried, therefore, a user need not necessarily go any special site equipped with projection equipments to conduct projection.
It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made to the structure of the present invention without departing from the scope or spirit of the invention. In view of the foregoing, it is intended that the present invention cover modifications and variations of this invention provided they fall within the scope of the following claims and their equivalents.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 96131679 | Aug 2007 | TW | national |
