Patent Grant
9335787
1. Technical Field
The present disclosure generally relates to information handling systems (IHS) and in particular to positional stability of information handling systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the value and use of information continue to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes, thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
With the increasing popularity of touch screen interaction devices, an increasing number of operating systems are being developed and released as touch screen solutions. For example, Windows™ 8 is becoming a prominent OS utilized in portable IHSes, such as laptops and ultrabooks. Windows™ 8 provides a touch screen solution to the OS, which is expected to become the preferred solution in upcoming user devices. One drawback to the use of touch screen interfaces with laptops and ultrabooks is that while the other functional components of the devices are trending towards being smaller and lighter for greater portability and other benefits, display screen, which is manufactured with glass remains comparatively heavy. Usability studies indicate that some laptops tilt backwards during touch interaction with the display screen due to the weight imbalance attributable to the weight of the glass display screen. As a result, laptop designers are challenged to resolve this serious usability issue associated with the transition of these portable IHSes to an OS touch screen system/solution.
Disclosed is a base support structure that eliminates tilting of laptops. The base support structure comprises at least one back foot and at least one front foot. The front foot/feet and the back foot/feet are attached to a base housing of a base segment of the laptop and are separated from each other by a relative spacing pre-determined to enable enhanced stability of the laptop. The base segment is connected by one or more hinges to the top segment which includes a display of the laptop. The at least one front foot is constructed using a first material bonded to a second material. The first material has at least one cavity and the at least one front foot is designed to provide a contact mechanism designed to withstand an impact of a touch screen interaction force and/or a radial force when opening or accessing the display. The contact mechanism secures the laptop to a solid surface on which the laptop is placed.
According to a second aspect of the disclosure, a front foot for the base support structure is designed by molding into the first material at least one cavity, with each cavity configured to be a particular size and located at specific respective locations distributed within the first material in order to support a front foot design that can provide at least a pre-determined amount of suction/adhesive force placed on the solid surface with at least a first amount of force. In addition, the second material is bonded to the first material using an injection molding procedure, and the second material has a specific level of “softness” and/or pliability which provides enhanced surface area contact with the solid surface when a downward force is applied to the enhanced front foot.
Additional aspects of the disclosure provide an information handling system that includes the base support structure and a method for designing and/or manufacturing the base support structure and/or an information handling system that includes the base support structure.
The above summary contains simplifications, generalizations and omissions of detail and is not intended as a comprehensive description of the claimed subject matter but, rather, is intended to provide a brief overview of some of the functionality associated therewith. Other systems, methods, functionality, features and advantages of the claimed subject matter will be or will become apparent to one with skill in the art upon examination of the following figures and detailed written description.
The description of the illustrative embodiments can be read in conjunction with the accompanying figures. It will be appreciated that for simplicity and clarity of illustration, elements illustrated in the figures have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements are exaggerated relative to other elements. Embodiments incorporating teachings of the present disclosure are shown and described with respect to the figures presented herein, in which:
The illustrative embodiments provide a base support structure that eliminates tilting of laptops and similar user devices. The base support structure comprises at least one back foot and at least one front foot. The front foot/feet and the back foot/feet are attached to a base housing of a base segment of the laptop and separated by a relative spacing pre-determined to enable enhanced stability of the laptop. The at least one front foot is constructed using a first material bonded to a second material. The first material has at least one cavity and is designed to provide a contact mechanism designed to withstand an impact of a touch screen interaction force and/or a radial force when opening or accessing the display. The contact mechanism secures the laptop to a solid surface on which the laptop is placed.
In the following detailed description of exemplary embodiments of the disclosure, exemplary embodiments in which the various aspects of the disclosure may be practiced are described in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice the invention, and it is to be understood that other embodiments may be utilized and that logical, architectural, programmatic, mechanical, electrical and other changes may be made without departing from the spirit or scope of the present disclosure. The following detailed description is, therefore, not to be taken in a limiting sense.
References within the specification to “one embodiment,” “an embodiment,” “embodiments”, or “one or more embodiments” are intended to indicate that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the present disclosure. The appearance of such phrases in various places within the specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment, nor are separate or alternative embodiments mutually exclusive of other embodiments. Further, various features are described which may be exhibited by some embodiments and not by others. Similarly, various requirements are described which may be requirements for some embodiments but not other embodiments.
It is understood that the use of specific component, device and/or parameter names and/or corresponding acronyms thereof, such as those of the executing utility, logic, and/or firmware described herein, are for example only and not meant to imply any limitations on the described embodiments. The embodiments may thus be described with different nomenclature and/or terminology utilized to describe the components, devices, parameters, methods and/or functions herein, without limitation. References to any specific protocol or proprietary name in describing one or more elements, features or concepts of the embodiments are provided solely as examples of one implementation, and such references do not limit the extension of the claimed embodiments to embodiments in which different element, feature, protocol, or concept names are utilized. Thus, each term utilized herein is to be given its broadest interpretation given the context in which that term is utilized.
Referring specifically to
The contact mechanism provides at least one of an adhesive force and a suction force of a pre-determined minimum value, which enables the at least one front foot 110 of the IHS 100 to remain in contact with the solid surface. The amount of force also enables IHS 100 to withstand an impact of at least one of (a) a touch interaction force applied to a surface of the display and (b) a radial force (e.g., radial force 606 of
With specific reference now to
The at least one front foot 110 is positioned within close proximity of the front border 214 and away from the one or more hinges. In one embodiment, the front feet 110 comprises a first front foot and a second front foot which are positioned within close proximity of the first side border 208 and the second side border 212, respectively, and within a pre-determined close proximity of the front border 214. The second front foot is substantially identically constructed as the first front foot. Each of the front feet 108 are designed to respectively provide a first suction force or a first adhesive force with the solid surface that is, in at least one embodiment, greater than a second suction force or a second adhesive force corresponding to the at least one back foot 108. The back feet 108 are positioned within close proximity of the back border 206 and away from the front border 214.
Construction of the front foot is performed by using a manufacturing process to inject a first material used to construct the front foot into a mold. The mold shapes the first material and creates one of a single large scale cavity and multiple molded micro-cavities 302 within the shaped first material (i.e., mold 300), according to the pre-determined front foot design.
Similar to the process used to provide mold 300 described in
In another embodiment, the second material is a tactile polymer that coats the first material and provides an adhesive surface that has a pre-determined level of “softness” and/or pliability to enable contact with the solid surface using a specific minimum surface area to support enhanced adhesion when a downward force is applied to the enhanced front foot. The tactile polymer can, in one embodiment, be implemented using polymer brushes. The tactile polymer enables the corresponding front foot to attain at least a pre-determined minimum adhesive force with a solid surface upon which IHS 100 is placed. Front foot 110 is designed having an overall size and weight to enable front foot 110 to attain at least the pre-determined minimum suction or adhesive force with the solid surface.
At “stage 1” 502, pressing force “F1” 504 is applied to front foot 110 in order to trigger a suction force that secures front foot 110 to solid surface 508. Pressing force F1 504 is large enough to reduce the volume of the large scale cavity to a minimum cavity volume Vmin 506 which is maintained by a corresponding suction force provided by the enhanced design of front foot 110.
At “stage 2” 512, “peel off” or pulling force “F” 510 is applied to front foot 110 in order to detach front foot 110 from solid surface 508. Pulling force F 510 is large enough to increase the volume of the large scale cavity to a larger or maximum cavity volume V0 516 which approaches the volume of the cavity that can be achieved when the pulling force F 510 equals the (maximum) suction force provided by the enhanced design of front foot 110.
Pulling force F 510 or maximum suction force provided by the enhanced design of front foot 110 can be calculated using Equation 1 which is:
“F=P(1−Vmin/V0)*A”,
where P is the pressure of the air/fluid within the cavity associated with the application of pressing force f1, Vmin is the minimum cavity volume, V0 is the maximum cavity volume, and A is the area of the base of front foot 110.
The moment (i.e., a force multiplied by a perpendicular distance from a pivot) can be calculated for each of the forces associated with either stabilizing or de-stabilizing IHS 100 to determine a level of suction force or adhesive force that is required to maintain device stability and prevent IHS 100 from tilting. In particular, F2 612 represents the de-stabilizing force, and F2 units of force*180 mm is equal to the corresponding net anti-clockwise moment about the pivot at “normal” foot 108. On the other hand, “W” (at G.C 608), F1 610 and Fs 614 represent respective stabilizing forces. W*150+F1*240+Fs*300 is equal to the corresponding net clockwise moment about the pivot at “normal” foot 108. IHS 100 does not tilt as long as the net clockwise moment is not exceeded by the net anti-clockwise moment. For IHS 100, “W” is known. An average, average range, and/or an average maximum for each of forces F2 and F1 can be empirically determined. Thus, given these known values and/or range of values for the associated forces, in the example of
During and/or as a result of touch screen interaction by a user, another radial force can be provided at the display of top segment 102. This touch screen interaction force may be substantially smaller than the radial force used to rotate top segment 102 away from base segment 106. In most instances in which a touch screen interaction force is being applied, force F1 610 is not applied by the user (and F1 is set to “0” in the above equation) when or while the touch screen interaction force is being applied. In this case, Fs can be similarly calculated by substituting an empirically determined value for F2 112. In this case, F2 112 results from a second type of radial force provided by touch screen interaction force instead of from a radial force (e.g., radial force 606) that is intended to rotate top segment 102 about hinges 112.
Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the hardware and basic configuration thereof depicted in
Method 1000 begins at the start block and proceeds to block 1002 where a manufacturing process involves determining a design of a front foot (for an IHS) that provides a pre-determined minimum suction force or adhesive force that secures the IHS onto a solid surface upon which the IHS can be placed. Using an injection mold of the design of the front foot, a manufacturing process injects a first material used to construct the front foot into a mold which shapes the first material and creates one of (i) a single large scale cavity or (ii) multiple micro-cavities within the shaped first material, according to the pre-determined front foot design (block 1004). In particular, the manufacturing process creates within the first material at least one cavity. Each cavity is configured to be a particular size and at specific respective locations distributed within the first material in order to support a front foot design that can provide at least the pre-determined minimum amount of suction/adhesive force with the solid surface. The manufacturing process applies heat treatment to a first (outer) segment of the molded first material which is designed to interface with housing 204 of IHS 100 to harden the first segment (block 1006). The manufacturing process, using the injection mold, coats a second segment (i.e., where the one or more cavities are located) of the molded first material with a softer, second material to increase surface area contact (block 1008). The manufacturing process respectively affixes the constructed front foot/feet and at least one back foot to IHS 100 while separating the front feet from the back feet by a relative spacing pre-determined to enable enhanced stability of the laptop. The front feet and the back feet arranged using the relative spacing which is pre-determined to provide the base support structure that minimizes tilting of IHS 100 (block 1010). The process then ends at end block.
In the above described flow charts, one or more of the methods may be embodied in a computer readable device containing computer readable code such that a series of functional processes are performed when the computer readable code is executed on a computing device. In some implementations, certain steps of the methods are combined, performed simultaneously or in a different order, or perhaps omitted, without deviating from the scope of the disclosure. Thus, while the method blocks are described and illustrated in a particular sequence, use of a specific sequence of functional processes represented by the blocks is not meant to imply any limitations on the disclosure. Changes may be made with regards to the sequence of processes without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. Use of a particular sequence is therefore, not to be taken in a limiting sense, and the scope of the present disclosure is defined only by the appended claims.
Aspects of the present disclosure are described above with reference to flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus (systems) and computer program products according to embodiments of the disclosure. It will be understood that each block of the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, and combinations of blocks in the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, can be implemented by computer program instructions. Computer program code for carrying out operations for aspects of the present disclosure may be written in any combination of one or more programming languages, including an object oriented programming language, without limitation. These computer program instructions may be provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, such as a service processor, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, performs the method for implementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.
As will be further appreciated, the processes in embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented using any combination of software, firmware or hardware. Accordingly, aspects of the present disclosure may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment or an embodiment combining software (including firmware, resident software, micro-code, etc.) and hardware aspects that may all generally be referred to herein as a “circuit,” “module,” or “system.” Furthermore, aspects of the present disclosure may take the form of a computer program product embodied in one or more computer readable storage device(s) having computer readable program code embodied thereon. Any combination of one or more computer readable storage device(s) may be utilized. The computer readable storage device may be, for example, but not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. More specific examples (a non-exhaustive list) of the computer readable storage device would include the following: an electrical connection having one or more wires, a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory), an optical fiber, a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. In the context of this document, a computer readable storage device may be any tangible medium that can contain, or store a program for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device.
While the disclosure has been described with reference to exemplary embodiments, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes may be made and equivalents may be substituted for elements thereof without departing from the scope of the disclosure. In addition, many modifications may be made to adapt a particular system, device or component thereof to the teachings of the disclosure without departing from the essential scope thereof. Therefore, it is intended that the disclosure not be limited to the particular embodiments disclosed for carrying out this disclosure, but that the disclosure will include all embodiments falling within the scope of the appended claims. Moreover, the use of the terms first, second, etc. do not denote any order or importance, but rather the terms first, second, etc. are used to distinguish one element from another.
The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the disclosure. As used herein, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises” and/or “comprising,” when used in this specification, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof.
The description of the present disclosure has been presented for purposes of illustration and description, but is not intended to be exhaustive or limited to the disclosure in the form disclosed. Many modifications and variations will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art without departing from the scope of the disclosure. The described embodiments were chosen and described in order to best explain the principles of the disclosure and the practical application, and to enable others of ordinary skill in the art to understand the disclosure for various embodiments with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated.
| Number | Name | Date | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7450373 | Lee et al. | Nov 2008 | B2 |
| 20100002379 | Hadad et al. | Jan 2010 | A1 |
| Number | Date | Country |
|---|---|---|
| 201827607 | May 2011 | CN |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20150036289 A1 | Feb 2015 | US |
