1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an electronic device, and in particular, to an electronic device with a protected rotatable image capture device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Electronic devices, such as mobile phones or personal digital assistants, integrating image capture function have become popular. Image capture modules can be non-rotatable or rotatable.
Non-rotatable image capture modules do not provide self-capture and device-protection functions. The image capture module is easily fouled due to friction or touch during use.
Conventional rotatable image capture modules provide the self-capture capability, but still provide no protection against environmental foulness during use.
In view of this, the invention provides an electronic device with a protected rotatable image capture device.
Accordingly, the invention provides an electronic device comprising a body and an image capture module. The body comprises a first surface, a second surface and a sleeve. The second surface is opposite to the first surface. The image capture module comprises a rotary shaft and a charge-coupled device, and is disposed in the body in a manner such that the image capture module rotates among a first position, a second position, a third position, and a fourth position. When the image capture module is in the first position, the charge-coupled device is on the first surface of the body. When the image capture module is in the second position or the fourth position, the charge-coupled device is received inside the body. When the image capture module is located in the third position, the charge-coupled device is located on the second surface of the body. The rotary shaft is disposed in the sleeve in a manner such that the rotary shaft moves between a fifth position and a sixth position. When the rotary shaft moves between the fifth position and the sixth position, the image capture module rotates through the first position, the second position, the third position, and the fourth position.
In an embodiment, the image capture module further comprises a housing, an elastic member, a printed circuit board, and a first connector. The housing is connected to the rotary shaft. The elastic member is disposed between the housing and the sleeve. The printed circuit board is connected to the rotary shaft. The charge-coupled device is disposed on the printed circuit board. The first connector is electrically connected to the printed circuit board.
The body further comprises a second connector electrically connected to the first connector. The first connector is a brush type, and the second connector is a disc. Thus, the first connector continuously abuts the second connector when the image capture module rotates through the first position, the second position, the third position, and the fourth position.
In another embodiment, the sleeve has a plurality of first protrusions and a plurality of second protrusions, and the rotary shaft has a plurality of third protrusions. When the rotary shaft is in the fifth position, the third protrusions are between the first protrusions. When the rotary shaft is in the sixth position, the third protrusions are between the second protrusions.
Moreover, the first protrusions and the second protrusions are formed inside the sleeve in a staggered manner. Each first protrusion comprises a first inclined surface facing the second protrusion. Each second protrusion comprises a second inclined surface facing the first protrusion. Each third protrusion comprises a third inclined surface and a fourth inclined surface. When the rotary shaft moves to the sixth position from the fifth position, the fourth inclined surface abuts the second inclined surface. When the rotary shaft moves to the fifth position from the sixth position, the third inclined surface abuts the first inclined surface.
Additionally, there are four first protrusions, four second protrusions, and four third protrusions. An angle intersected by an axial direction of the sleeve and the first inclined surface is forty-five degrees. An angle intersected by an axial direction of the sleeve and the second inclined surface is forty-five degrees. An angle intersected by an axial direction of the rotary shaft and the third inclined surface is forty-five degrees. An angle intersected by an axial direction of the rotary shaft and the fourth inclined surface is forty-five degrees.
It is understood that the electronic device may be a mobile phone, a notebook computer, or a personal digital assistant.
In the invention, another electronic device is provided, comprising a body and an image capture module. The body comprises a sleeve. The image capture module comprises a rotary shaft, and is disposed in the body in a manner such that the image capture module rotates between an image capture position and at least one received position. The rotary shaft is disposed in the sleeve in a manner such that the rotary shaft moves between an initial position and a compressed position. When the rotary shaft moves between the initial position and the compressed position, the image capture module rotates between the image capture position and the received position.
The present invention can be more fully understood by reading the subsequent detailed description and examples with references made to the accompanying drawings, wherein:
a is a schematic view of an image capture module in
b is a partially enlarged view of a portion b in
c is a top view of a second connector in
a-3f are schematic views of a rotary shaft rotating relative to a sleeve in
a is a schematic view of the electronic device in
b is a schematic view of the electronic device in
a-5b are schematic views of an electronic device as disclosed in a second embodiment of the invention.
While the invention can be applied to electronic devices such as mobile phones or personal digital assistants, the following description is based on the mobile phone, for exemplary disposition.
The sleeve 13 is fixed in the body 10, and, as shown in
The image capture module 20 is disposed in the body 10 in a manner such that the image capture module 20 rotates among a first position, a second position, a third position, and a fourth position. As shown in
The rotary shaft 21 is disposed in the sleeve 13 of the body 10 in a manner such that the rotary shaft 21 moves between an initial position (shown in
The charge-coupled device 22 is electrically connected to the printed circuit board 25, enabling function of the image capture module 20. When the image capture module 20 is in the first position, the charge-coupled device 22 is on the first surface 11 of the body 10 for self-capture, as shown in
The housing 23 is connected to the rotary shaft 21, moving with the rotary shaft 21. The elastic member 24 is a compression spring, disposed between the housing 23 and the sleeve 13 of the body 10 to return the rotary shaft 21 to the fifth position via the housing 23. The printed circuit board 25 is connected to the rotary shaft 21 to be moved along with the rotary shaft 21, and is electrically connected to the charge-coupled device 22 to process signals from the charge-coupled device 22. The first connector 26 is a brush type as shown in
While in this description, the first connector 26 is a brush type and the second connector 14 is a disc, the invention is not limited thereto as long as contact is maintained throughout during the rotation of the image capture module 20.
In a normal situation, the rotary shaft 21 of the image capture module 20 is in the fifth position as shown in
According to this embodiment, when the image capture module 20 is pressed downward, it can rotate a predetermined distance clockwise. The rotating distance depends on the arrangement of the protrusions. For example, in this embodiment, each third protrusion 211 and each first protrusion 131 (or each second protrusion 132) are separated by ninety degrees in the circumferential orientation of the rotary shaft 21. Thus, every time the image capture module 20 is pressed downward, it can rotate ninety degrees. As a result, the image capture module can be rotated without touch and getting dirty.
Additionally, since there are four first protrusions, four second protrusions, and four third protrusion, the image capture module can be rotated in four steps, although the invention is not limited thereto. For example, the number of each of the first, second, third protrusions may be increased or decreased based on needs to change the rotation steps of the image capture module. For example, in a mobile phone without the self-image capture function, the number of each of the first, second, third protrusions can be three such that the image capture module can rotate among an image capture position and two received positions. The detail description thereof is in the following embodiment.
Moreover, while the description of the electronic device is based on a mobile phone, the invention is not limited thereto. For example, the electronic device may be a notebook computer or a personal digital assistant.
Furthermore, while the housing is rotated along with the rotary shaft in this embodiment, the invention is not limited thereto. The housing and the rotary shaft may be independent from each other. Also, while the image capture module is rotated by equal angles (90, 90, 90, and 90) in this embodiment, the invention is not limited thereto. For example, the image capture module may be rotated by non-equal angles, such as 80, 100, 80, and 100.
a-5b are schematic views of a mobile phone with a rotatable image capture device as disclosed in a second embodiment of the invention. The mobile phone comprises a sleeve 13′ and a rotary shaft 21′. It is noted that the components in this embodiment same as those in the first embodiment are presented by the same references, and their description is omitted.
The sleeve 13′ has three first protrusions 131′ and three second protrusions 132, although it is noted only two first protrusions 131′ and two second protrusions 132′ are shown in
Specifically, the image capture module is disposed in the body in a manner such that the image capture module rotates between a first received position, an image capture position, and a second received position. When the image capture module is in the first received position or the second received position, the charge-coupled device is inside the body. When the image capture module is in the image capture position, the charge-coupled device is on the second surface of the body during capture operation. After the image capture module in the first received position is pushed downward, it rotates ninety degrees counterclockwise to the image capture position. If the image capture module, in the image capture position, is pushed downward, it is rotated ninety degrees counterclockwise to the second received position. If the image capture module in the second received position is pushed downward, it is rotated 180 degrees counterclockwise to the first received position again.
It is noted that the first received position of this embodiment corresponds to the second position of the first embodiment, the image capture position of this embodiment corresponds to the third position of the first embodiment, and the second received position of this embodiment corresponds to the fourth position of the first embodiment.
It is understood that every time the image capture module is rotated, it may rotate in different angles. For example, the image capture module may rotate 80, 100, 180 degrees sequentially to complete the rotation each time.
As stated above, the number of each of the first, second, third protrusions may be increased or decreased. For example, the number of each of the first, second, third protrusions may be five, with an inclined angle of the inclined surface of each of the first, second, third protrusions of forty-five degrees. Thus, every time the image capture module is pushed downward, it rotates approximately 72 degrees. Since the rotating manner is the same as in the previous embodiment, description thereof is omitted.
While the invention has been described by way of example and in terms of the preferred embodiment, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiment. To the contrary, it is intended to cover various modifications and similar arrangements (as would be apparent to those skilled in the art). Therefore, the scope of the appended claims should be accorded the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and similar arrangements.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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93104554 A | Feb 2004 | TW | national |
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
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6141043 | Suzuki et al. | Oct 2000 | A |
6177950 | Robb | Jan 2001 | B1 |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20050185087 A1 | Aug 2005 | US |