This application claims the priority of Republic of China Patent Application No. 110142651 filed on Nov. 16, 2021, in the State Intellectual Property Office of the R.O.C., the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
The invention relates to an electronic label keyboard provided with a display unit at the content area of each keyboard keyswitch to achieve the customization of key indication content.
Commercial tablets can be operated via handwriting or touch screen inputs, and provided the advantage of portability by eliminating the need of a physical keyboard. However, a physical keyboard is still the smoothest and most precise way to operate computers for the general public.
A common keyboard has approximately 100 keyswitchs, and has different keyswitch combinations depending on the region. The label contents on the keyboard are not possible to change after the manufacturing process. Most English keyboards do not have ZhuYin or CangJie symbols printed on the keyboards for Traditional Chinese users in Taiwan, which causes great inconveniences for consumers in Taiwan. Users often need to purchase extra stickers to glue on the keyswitchs on the keyboard. However, this solution not only consumes time, but also causes damage to the appearance or cleanliness of the keyswitchs when gluing. Additionally, because some users in Taiwan may only use the ZhuYin system during Chinese typing, the CangJie symbols on the keyboard appear to be superfluous.
In addition, some users often set up hotkeys or shortcut keys for their commonly used software, many gaming keyboards go so far as coloring different function keys. Therefore, users may have to purchase multiple keyboards to fit different conditions because the current keyboards cannot flexible to automatically be switched between different keyswitch label contents.
Based on the above-mentioned problems, there is a topic that is of urgently concerned to those skilled in the art is to provide a computer keyboard, which provides key labeling content in different situations for different usage needs, so as to increase operable convenience and flexibility of keyboard operation.
Given the shortcomings of the above-mentioned prior art, the present invention provides an electronic label keyboard, wired or wireless connected to an external device, comprising: a plurality of keyswitchs, each of the plurality of keyswitch has a content area respectively; a plurality of display units, respectively disposed on the content areas of the keyswitchs, at least one of the plurality of display units outputting according to a keyswitch display signal, so that the keyswitch located on the at least one display unit displays a marked content; and a keyswitch display content setting unit, including: a microprocessor having a storage module for saving file parsing software; a keyswitch content input module for receiving and reading at least one keyswitch content file provided by the external device, and saving the at least one keyswitch content file in the storage module of the microprocessor; and a keyswitch content output module, when the microprocessor is activated from a shutdown mode or a hibernate mode, the microprocessor reads the file analysis software to analyze a keyswitch label content file saved in the storage module and outputs a plurality of the keyswitch display signals, so that the keyswitch content output module controls the plurality of display units according to the plurality of keyswitch display signals to output label contents corresponding to the plurality of keyswitch display signals.
Preferably, the electronic label keyboard said above, the storage module of the electronic label keyboard saves a file list having a plurality of keyswitch label content file and a list reading software. The plurality of keyswitches have a plurality of file selecting keyswitches and a setting keyswitch. When the setting keyswitch is triggered, the microprocessor reads the list reading software saved in the storage module to output a plurality of file selecting signals according to the file list, and allows the keyswitch content output module to control the display unit disposed on the content area of each of the plurality of file selecting keyswitches according to the plurality of file selecting signals to output the keyswitch display content setting names corresponding to each of the plurality of file selection signals. The display content setting name is set for the user to view and conveniently select the keyswitch label content for setting. After the user selects and triggers a file selecting keyswitch of the plurality of file selecting keyswitch, the microprocessor reads the file parsing software saved in the storage module to output the plurality of keyswitch display signals corresponding to a default keyswitch label content file according to the selected file selecting keyswitch, so as to make the keyswitch content output module control the plural display units according to the plural keyswitch display signals to output the display content corresponding to the keyswitch display signals.
Preferably, the electronic label keyboard said above, the external device is a computer host, the computer host has a detecting software, so that when the user executes different operating systems on the computer host to switch the display of the computer host to different pages, the label contents of the plurality of keyswitches are further switched accordingly. In detail, the detecting software identifies the operating system executed by the computer host to identify the identification information of the operating system in execution, and inputs the identification information through the keyswitch content input module of the electronic label keyboard. The microprocessor reads the file parsing software saved in the storage module to select the default keyswitch label content file corresponding to the identification information, and the file parsing software outputs a plurality of the keyswitch display signals according to the default keyswitch label content file corresponding to the identification information, so that the keyswitch content output module controls the plurality of display units to output the label content corresponding to the keyswitch display signal according to the plurality of the keyswitch display signals, so as to achieve the switching processing of the label content displayed by the plurality of keyswitches.
Preferably, the electronic label keyboard said above, the external device is a computer host, the electronic label keyboard further includes a signal splitter connected with each of the plurality of keyswitches and the microprocessor and with the computer host. One of the plurality of keyswitches has a switch keyswitch, and the switch keyswitch is used for the user to input a keyswitch display content switch signal. After the signal splitter receives the keyswitch display content switch signal, the microprocessor reads and parses the keyswitch label content file corresponding to the keyswitch display content switch signal saved in the storage module to output a plurality of keyswitch display signals, so that, the keyswitch content output module controls the plurality of display units to output the label content corresponding to the keyswitch display content switch signal according to the plurality of keyswitch display signals. On the other hand, the signal splitter notifies the computer host to execute the corresponding keyswitch display content switching process according to the keyswitch display content switch signal.
In view of the above-mentioned shortcomings of conventional art, the present invention provides an electronic label keyboard, the original input signal and label content of each keyswitch on the keyboard can be changed according to the user's needs, that is, the user can set the input signal to the desired keyswitch position on the keyboard according to the desired input signal to be operated. Further, the keyswitch set with the input signal will display the symbol mark represented by the input signal for the user to find or hint. Therefore, the present invention can provide a customized keyboard.
The above and other aspects, features and other advantages of the present invention will be more clearly understood from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:
Embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. The invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as being limited to the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art.
The electronic label keyboard of the present invention can change the display content of the keyboard keyswitches according to user requirements, that is, it provides a customized keyswitch display content, so as to solve the limitation of the single display content in the existing keyboard such as Chinese keyboard, the British keyboard or the American keyboard.
Firstly, referring to
The keyswitch display content setting unit 2 includes a microprocessor 20, a keyswitch content input module 21, and a keyswitch content output module 22. The microprocessor 20 has a storage module 200 for saving file parsing software. The keyswitch content input module 21 is used for connecting with an external device (not shown here) in a wired or wireless manner to receive and read at least one keyswitch label content file provided by the external device, and save the at least one keyswitch label content file in the storage module 200 of the microprocessor 20. The keyswitch content input module 21 can be a USB interface, a PS/2 interface, or a wired connection interface of a memory slot, or the keyswitch content input module 21 may be a wireless connection interface using Bluetooth communication. The keyswitch content input module receives the keyswitch label content file provided by the external device through the wireless connection interface or the wired connection interface. When the microprocessor 20 is activated from a shutdown mode or a hibernate mode, the microprocessor 20 reads the file analysis software to analyze a keyswitch label content file saved in the storage module 200 and outputs a plurality of the keyswitch display signals, so that the keyswitch content output module 22 controls the plurality of display units 11 according to the plurality of keyswitch display signals to output label contents corresponding to the plurality of keyswitch display signals. For example, when there are dozens of keyswitches on the keyboard, and the user only needs the keyswitches of four directions, up, down, left and right, the electronic label keyboard of the present invention can be applied to allow the keyswitches that only display the label content of four directions, up, down, left, and right, and the display units of the rest keyswitch will not display any label content. Therefore, the present invention can succinctly display the keyswitch symbols that the user desired to use, so that the user can quickly find the keyswitch on the keyboard and make the input operation smoother.
In the above-mentioned embodiment, the plurality of keyswitches 10 further provided with an activation keyswitch (not shown in the figure). After the the activation keyswitch is clicked by the user, the microprocessor 20 is activated from a shutdown mode or a hibernate mode, the microprocessor 20 reads the file analysis software to analyze a keyswitch label content file saved in the storage module 200 and outputs a plurality of the keyswitch display signals, so that the keyswitch content output module 22 controls the plurality of display units 11 according to the plurality of keyswitch display signals to output label contents corresponding to the plurality of keyswitch display signals.
Further, the above-mentioned external device can be a computer host, moreover, can be an electronic device that can provide users with keyboard input, such as a mobile phone or a TV with the function of connecting to the Internet. The electronic label keyboard of the present invention reads and saves the keyswitch label content file provided by the external device, not only as the display content of the keyswitches, but also as the communication interface between the electronic label keyboard of the present invention and different external devices.
Further, referring to
After the user completes the selection of the above-mentioned keyswitch display content, the microprocessor instructs the storage module to save the default keyswitch label content file selected by the user from the file list when the keyswitch content output module controls the plurality of display units to output the label content corresponding to the keyswitch display signals according to the plurality of keyswitch display signals. Referring to
It should be noted that, for the embodiments described above in
Further, referring to
Moreover, referring to
In addition, with the above-mentioned structure of
It can be observed by the above structure of
The examples above are only illustrative to explain principles and effects of the invention, but not to limit the invention. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that modifications and variations can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Therefore, the protection range of the rights of the invention should be as defined by the appended claims
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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110142651 | Nov 2021 | TW | national |
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
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20080001787 | Smith | Jan 2008 | A1 |
20130342467 | Cresp | Dec 2013 | A1 |
20190042048 | Chandrasekhara | Feb 2019 | A1 |
Number | Date | Country |
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104951088 | Sep 2015 | CN |
20170056846 | May 2017 | KR |
200840212 | Oct 2008 | TW |
201508620 | Mar 2015 | TW |
201508620 | Mar 2015 | TW |
Entry |
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Official Action issued by Taiwan Intellectual Property Office dated Nov. 17, 2022. |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20230152904 A1 | May 2023 | US |