The present invention relates to electronic devices. More particularly, the present invention relates to electronic devices with full fold out keyboard and/or display.
A cellular telephone is designed to give the user maximum freedom of movement while using a telephone. A cellular telephone uses radio signals to communicate between the “cell phone” and a base station, via an antenna. The served area is divided into cells, something like a honeycomb, and an antenna is placed within each cell and connected by telephone lines to one exchange devoted to cellular-telephone calls. This exchange connects cellular telephones to one another and transfers the call to a regular exchange, public switched telephone network, if the call is between a cellular telephone and a non-cellular telephone. The special cellular exchange, through computer control, selects the antenna closest to the telephone when service is requested. As the telephone roams, the exchange automatically determines when to change the serving cell based on the power of the radio signal received simultaneously at adjacent sites. This change occurs without interrupting conversation. Practical power considerations limit the distance between the telephone and the nearest cellular antenna, and since cellular phones use radio signals, it is possible for unauthorized people to access communications carried out over cellular phones. One of the reasons why digital cell phones have gained in popularity, besides being able to access the Internet, is because their radio signals are harder to intercept and decode.
In order to input information into a cellular phone, it is desirable to have a keyboard. However, with the limited size of cellular phones, it is difficult to place a keyboard and number dial pad on a cellular phone. Additionally, should a user want to play video games using the cellular phone, adding a game pad along with the number dial pad in the cellular phone is even more difficult.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,337,346 issued to Uchikura describes an electronic device with a foldable keyboard. However, the keyboard is only used for inputting data to the device while in an electronic notebook mode. Uchikura does not allow data that is entered via the keyboard to be transmitted outside the device. Currently there are about 30 billion text messages sent every month via wireless phones. This number is expected to double in the future. As mobile phones and computers converge towards unified handheld communication and computing devices, text messaging is becoming one of many ways in which text entry on handheld devices will be employed. Text entry is an integral part of the way users interact with computers in general and the Internet in particular. Simple text entry is required to query search engines, to send email or instant messages and to enter commands. The inadequacy of currently used methods for entering text is the major obstacle inhibiting the growth of a wireless web and other applications, such as, Microsoft's Pocket Word and Pocket Excel. A numeric keypad will always be a poor device for entering strings of text data. A QWERTY-style keyboard on a mobile device is needed to provide an easy to use text entry solution. Such a device will help the mobile Internet achieve its full commercial potential.
Current gaming devices with handsets that fold bring the primary display on top of the control pad area. The result is that the primary design display is not visible when the device is folded. Other gaming devices do not have folding keyboard designs along with the gaming control pad or typically map 12-key buttons into gaming buttons rather than providing separate independent gaming controls.
Thus, there exists a need for an electronic device having a number pad for telephone functions, a full keyboard for input of text entries, and/or a game control keyboard to allow a user to play video games.
The present invention provides for a hand-held electronic device having a display screen, a number pad coupled to said display screen such that said display screen folds upward to reveal said display screen and said number pad, and a keyboard underneath said number pad such that said number pad folds out sideways to reveal said keyboard.
The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated into and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate one or more embodiments of the present invention and, together with the detailed description, serve to explain the principles and implementations of the invention.
In the drawings:
Embodiments of the present invention are described herein in the context of an electronic device with fold out display and keyboard. Those of ordinary skill in the art will realize that the following detailed description of the present invention is illustrative only and is not intended to be in any way limiting. Other embodiments of the present invention will readily suggest themselves to such skilled persons having the benefit of this disclosure. Reference will now be made in detail to implementations of the present invention as illustrated in the accompanying drawings. The same reference indicators will be used throughout the drawings and the following detailed description to refer to the same or like parts.
In the interest of clarity, not all of the routine features of the implementations described herein are shown and described. It will, of course, be appreciated that in the development of any such actual implementation, numerous implementation-specific decisions must be made in order to achieve the developer's specific goals, such as compliance with application- and business-related constraints, and that these specific goals will vary from one implementation to another and from one developer to another. Moreover, it will be appreciated that such a development effort might be complex and time-consuming, but would nevertheless be a routine undertaking of engineering for those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of this disclosure.
Embodiments of the present invention refer to an electronic device having a number pad for telephone functions, a full keyboard for input of text entries and/or a game control keyboard to allow a user to play games. The embodiments of the present invention may be used in cellular phones, cordless phones, and any portable telephone. Referring now to
Function keys 16a, 16b, 16c, 16n (where n is an integer) allow a user to control the basic functions of the telephone 10. Function keys 16a, 16b, 16c, 16n may allow a user to select options on a menu, activate various programs such as telephone and communication enabling programs. Examples of function keys may be “Talk”, “Menu”, “Cancel”, “End”, and/or arrow buttons. Although
The numeric dial pad 14 may be used as a traditional cellular or wire line telephone number pad. As illustrated, the number pad is a 12-key number dial pad with the numbers 0-9 on a 3×4 keypad matrix with the star symbol, zero, and pound symbol on the bottom row. The three or four letters represented on the 12-key numeric dial pad 14 on 0 and 2-9 may also be included for short text entries. The number dial pad 14 may be movably attached to the display screen 12 such that the display screen 12 may be folded upwards in the direction of arrow 26 to reveal the number dial pad 14. The number dial pad 14 may be movably attached to the display screen 12 by any means such as a hinge 24.
The telephone 10 may have a microphone 18 to accept voice data from the user. A speaker 20 provides audio output to the user. However, the number of microphones 18 and/or speakers 20 may vary in other embodiments of the present invention. For example, other embodiments of the present invention may utilize earphones and/or headsets for a “hands free” mode of operating. An antenna 22 may be used to provide for communication between the telephone 10 and a cellular telephone base station. A camera (not shown) may also be coupled to the telephone 10.
As illustrated in
The number dial pad may fold out sideways either to the right as illustrated in
As illustrated in
Wireless hardware and firmware capable of supporting wireless communications protocols such as CDMA, GSM, GPRS, 802.11b, Bluetooth, etc. may be included in the telephone as well as IrDa, USB, digital camera, memory expansion, and the like. Additionally, microprocessors and memory for running various software applications, wireless and web browsers, electronic mail client software, PDA software may be included in the telephone. However, to prevent obfuscation or confusion of the present invention, the hardware and software will not be further discussed as it is well known to those of ordinary skill in the art.
While embodiments and applications of this invention have been shown and described, it would be apparent to those skilled in the art having the benefit of this disclosure that many more modifications than mentioned above are possible without departing from the inventive concepts herein. The invention, therefore, is not to be restricted except in the spirit of the appended claims.