Patent Application
20070273641
Specific embodiments of the invention will be described with reference to the accompanying figure in which:
One embodiment of the invention is shown in
The front face of the phone is shown in
The moveable display 20 is moveable and has a central zero movement position. It can be moved in eight directions from this central position. There are four orthogonal positions (which can be considered to be the four principal directions of a compass i.e. “north”, “east”, “south”, “west”) and four additional directions equally angularly spaced between the four orthogonal positions (“north-east”, “south-east”, “south-west”, “north-west”). It will be appreciated that the directions are not necessarily points of a compass and are used for illustration only.
The display 20 is slideably moveable in a plane parallel to the front face of the phone 100. In other embodiments, the display may be arranged to be alternatively or additionally tilted with respect to a plane parallel to the front face of the phone 100. Movement of the display 20 is associated with one or more user commands.
User commands are indicated on the display 20 around the perimeter of the display 20. It will be appreciated that the actual user commands indicated on the display varies according to position in the menu structure of user interface software of the phone 100. In
The phone 100 is arranged such that the association of movement of the display 20 with user commands can be turned off. Thus, accidental initiation of a user command will be preventable. In this off/idle mode, the moveable display 20 may indicate one or more of time, date, missed calls. The static display 30 (which could be the main display of the device/phone 100) could also be arranged to be in an idle state in which it is in a low power consumption state. Rather than indicating the time, date, missed calls etc on the main display 30, this information is indicated on the comparatively small moveable display 20. This could provide advantages including reduced power consumption in the phone 100. The moveable display 20 can be considered to be the secondary display of the phone 100.
Movement of the display 20 can be detected by many mechanisms including the use of one or more of electrical, mechanical, and/or electromechanical sensors.
A user of the device of
It will be appreciated that many modifications can be made to the invention without departing from the scope thereof. For example, the moveable display 20 could be provided on the rear face of the device, and the moveable display 20 may not be rectangular. There may be one or more electronic components of the display 20 which are not moveable. The unexposed portion may be hidden beneath the exposed portion. The unexposed portion may be housed within the housing of the phone 100. More than one moveable display 20 may be provided on an electronic device. The moveable display 20 may be a main display of the device. The device may not have any other display than the moveable display 20.
While there have been shown and described and pointed out fundamental novel features of the invention as applied to preferred embodiments thereof, it will be understood that various omissions and substitutions and changes in the form and details of the devices and methods described may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the invention. For example, it is expressly intended that all combinations of those elements and/or method steps which perform substantially the same function in substantially the same way to achieve the same results are within the scope of the invention. Moreover, it should be recognized that structures and/or elements and/or method steps shown and/or described in connection with any disclosed form or embodiment of the invention may be incorporated in any other disclosed or described or suggested form or embodiment as a general matter of design choice. It is the intention, therefore, to be limited only as indicated by the scope of the claims appended hereto. Furthermore, in the claims means-plus-function clauses are intended to cover the structures described herein as performing the recited function and not only structural equivalents, but also equivalent structures. Thus although a nail and a screw may not be structural equivalents in that a nail employs a cylindrical surface to secure wooden parts together, whereas a screw employs a helical surface, in the environment of fastening wooden parts, a nail and a screw may be equivalent structures.
