Patent Application
20060126280
The present invention relates to electronic devices having dual adjustable press switches and its method, more particularly to an electronic device (such as a notebook computer) having at least one adjustable press switch disposed on each of both sides of at least one pivot on the electronic device for pivotally coupling a main system and a LCD screen of the electronic device, enabling a user to adjust back light of the LCD screen and set the electronic device to the power saving mode, or switch the screen on the current LCD screen into a minimized screen mode for preventing confidential information displayed on the screen from being viewed by others when the user is operating the electronic device, through rotating the LCD screen toward the main system in order to activate the press switch being set in a predetermined angle.
As science and technology advances day after day, all kinds of electronic devices are available to our expected standard. For example, various different models of notebook computers, mobile phones, and the like have more powerful functions and finer stylish designs; and the competition among manufacturers is getting severer than ever. Taking notebook computers for example, we know that the research and development of notebook computer chasses keeps adopting the all-in-one design, in addition to the trend of designing a notebook computer in a lighter, thinner, shorter and more compact manner. Therefore, the all-in-one model becomes another name of the current notebook computer, and its severe competition is beyond description, and thus every manufacturer has higher and higher demand for the quality of its products.
No matter which model of notebook computer, its basic architecture always comes with a main system and a liquid crystal display (LCD) screen, wherein the corresponding sides of the main system and the LCD screen are pivotally coupled by at least one pivot, such that if the LCD screen is not in use, a user can rotate the LCD screen about the pivotal connection to cover the LCD screen onto the main system; if it is necessary to use the LCD screen, a user just needs to turn over the LCD screen to an appropriate viewing angle for the required computer operations. Further, when the LCD screen is in use, its back light is on; and when the LCD screen is covered onto the main system, its back light is off and thus the internal hardware power supply system of the notebook computer is turned off at the same time to save power of the notebook computer. Therefore, traditional notebook computers can effectively save power and generally includes a “press switch” disposed at the corresponding sides of the main system and the LCD screen, such that if the LCD screen is shut to press the “press switch” (generally occurs when the LCD screen covers onto the main system; or in other words, the included angle between the surface of the LCD screen and the surface of the main system is approximately zero degree.). Therefore, the back light of the LCD screen is turned off for the power saving effect. However, if a user has to leave for some reason while operating the computer, the user usually shuts the LCD screen and thinks that the back light is off. In fact, the user leaves and shuts the LCD screen without actually pressing the “press switch”, and such negligence will cause a waste of electric power. Furthermore, while users are operating a computer, there may be people walking around. Users often worry about their confidential information displayed on the computer screen being viewed by other people. Since users usually will not shut the screen display to an included angle of zero degree at once, since it may make users psychologically feel and physically look suspicious of dong bad things at that time if they do so.
Thus, it seems that the power saving design of traditional notebook computers is not humanistic and perfect, and also causes lots of troubles and inconvenience to users, not mentioning its incapability of satisfying and complying with the current requirements. The foregoing factors drive manufactures to conduct research and development and come up with an innovative idea of a multifunctional dual adjustable press switches to provide better and more powerful functions to meet user's requirements.
From the description of the aforementioned prior arts, it is obvious that present notebook computers usually install a “press switch” disposed between the corresponding sides of the main system and the LCD screen to effectively save the power of the notebook computer. However, the design of the “press switch” is not humanistic and perfect, which causes lots of troubles and inconvenience to the use of computers. In view of the foregoing shortcomings and the actual requirements of the market and users, the inventor of the present invention based on years of experience in the related field to conduct extensive researches and developments and finally developed the electronic device having dual adjustable press switches in accordance with the present invention, in hope of satisfying users' requirements by this innovative idea.
The primary objective of the present invention is to provide an electronic device having dual adjustable press switches and its method; wherein a first adjustable press switch component and a second adjustable press switch component are disposed on each of both sides of at least one pivot on an electronic device for pivotally coupling the main system and the LCD screen of an electronic device, and the press switches are coupled to a power saving control unit in the main system through an electrically conductive wire. If the first press switch is adjusted to an angle (between 60 degrees and 0 degree) and pressed, then a power saving signal will be sent to the power saving control unit to turn off the back light of the LCD screen and set the electronic device to the power saving mode. If the second press switch is adjusted to an angle (between 80 degrees and 60 degrees) and pressed, then a screen switching signal will be sent to the screen control unit for switching the screen on the current LCD screen into the minimized screen mode. Therefore, the confidential information displayed on the screen will not be viewed by other people when a user is operating the electronic device.
Another objective of the present invention is to provide an electronic device having dual adjustable press switches and its method; wherein the functions of switching on/off the first and second press switches can be chosen by a user from an application program to provide timely services to the user.
The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description taken with the accompanying drawings.
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Further, the end of the shaft 32 not having a knob 31 is pivotally coupled to a fixed base 35 on the main system 10 as shown in
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Further, the end of the shaft 42 not having a knob 41 is pivotally coupled to a fixed base 45 mounted on the main system 10 as shown in
Therefore, when a user is using the electronic device (such as a notebook computer) having dual adjustable press switch components 30, 40 and has adjusted the second press switch 43 on the second adjustable press switch component 40 to a specific angle (such as an angle between 80 degrees to 60 degrees), the operation and processing depicted in
Firstly, when the LCD screen 20 is shut to press the second press switch 43 to a specific angle, the second press switch 43 will send a screen switching signal to the screen control unit 102 for switching the screen into a minimized screen mode; and after the screen control unit 102 receives the signal for switching the screen to a minimized screen mode, it will send a control signal to the LCD screen 20 to switch the current screen into a minimized screen mode. Therefore, the screen can be switched into a minimized screen to prevent other people viewing the confidential information displayed on the screen while the user is operating the electronic device.
Further, in this embodiment, when a user uses an electronic device 1 (which is a notebook computer) having dual adjustable press switch components 30, 40 and has adjusted the press switch 33 on the adjustable press switch component 30 to a specific angle (such as an angle between 60 degrees and 0 degree), the operation and processing depicted in
Firstly, when the LCD screen 20 is shut to press the press switch 33 to a specific angle, the press switch 33 will send a power saving signal to the power saving control unit 101 for turning off the back light of the LCD screen 20; and after the power saving control unit 101 has received the power saving signal for turning off the back light of the LCD screen 20, it will send an off signal to the LCD screen 20 to turn off the back light and set the LCD screen 20 to a power saving mode.
Further, the functions of switching on/off the first press switch 33 and the second press switch 34 is selected by users through an application program to effectively satisfy user's requirements.
While the invention has been described by means of specific embodiments, numerous modifications and variations could be made thereto by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention set forth in the claims.
