Patent Application
20080182669
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to electronic devices characterized by a display and, more particularly, to handheld electronic devices, on which an application on a memory cartridge can be run.
2. Description of the Related Art
Handheld and transportable electronic devices with visual or audiovisual displays are commercially available in many formats, including such dedicated handheld devices as the Nintendo Gameboy, Nintendo color Gameboy, Sony Playstation PSP, as well as Windows CE handhelds and compatibles, such as those from Sony, NEC, Hewlett Packard, and Palm Pilot, Motorola, SamSung, Nikon, Kodak, Sony, and Cannon. The user of such devices must typically navigate through a sequence of menus and configuration screens before the actual game or video application. For example, in an action game, or role playing game, or sports game, or whatever game or video, the user must elect whether he or she will be playing in accordance with one set of game rules for a single player stand-alone mode, wherein the only opponent is the computer, or with a different set of game rules in the multiple player networked player game mode, where each of the user's interactions causes responses in accordance with a fixed set of defined rules. In either case, the user's conduct and results are visceral, that is, he wins, he loses, he gains or loses a physical possession such as a sword or power pill, and he uses up some amount of time, energy, points, etc. in the process of playing the game, which ultimately determines how long he is allowed to play the game.
It would be desirable to have an electronic apparatus based on a visual display which is capable of launching applications which are completely non-interactive, that is, not characterized by the notion of winning or losing but, rather, adapted to define, without any preliminary configuration or other input on the part of the user—an interface which is driven either solely by user input or, to the extent the display is based upon a preset initialization screen, by a set of rules known to the user and not pre-specified by the application itself.
Some cell phones have on-board content such as games or video clips. However, the applications are limited to what the cell phone manufacturer has loaded on the cell phone. Furthermore, some cell-phones also allow applications to be downloaded. However, this feature uses and is limited by the on-board memory space.
The aforementioned deficiency is addressed, and an advance is made in the art, by a display electronic device system comprising a housing, a flat panel display, and a plug-in memory storage module or cartridge for storing data representative of an entertainment application such as a video or game that causes—without any preliminary configuration or other input on the part of the user—the electronic device to display a user interface that changes solely in response to user input. For example, the memory storage module or cartridge may store an Etch-A-Sketch application in which an image is “drawn” upon the display in response to user input. By way of further example, the memory storage module or cartridge may store a board game application the display may constitute a preset initialization screen representative of the board game (e.g., “Monopoly”) with no further changes made to the initial display except those responsive to input by the user, the input being governed by a set of rules known to the user and not pre-specified by the application itself. By way of further example, the storage module or cartridge may store a video so that the screen would display a video (e.g. “Cartoons or a Feature Film) controlled by the input by the user—Play, Pause, Stop, Forward, Reverse, FF, FR, Esc.—upon insertion of the storage module or cartridge.
The device further includes a user input interface operable to cause the application program to initiate changes on the flat panel display. The device itself may be realized in a variety of forms such, for example, as a Sony PSP, a Nintendo Game Boy, a mobile telephone with suitable display, a digital camera, and the like. An especially preferred configuration includes a small, flat housing having a width of no more than 5 inches, a height of no more than 6 inches, and a thickness of less than one inch. The flat panel display is preferably a LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) in color and 3 inches by 3 inches. The plug-in memory module is preferably a solid-state ROM (Read Only Memory) which contains a single game or video application. It is plugged into the device and replaced to play another game or video. The device has user operated buttons, or touch screen buttons, with which the user plays the game or controls the video.
The processor of the device may be set at one of a plurality of different clock speeds based on, for example, commands from the game or video program stored on the removable cartridge. A higher clock speed improves performance when color games or videos are used. A lower clock speed may be used for the color display of monochrome games or videos to, for example, improve battery life.
Other objects and features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. It is to be understood, however, that the drawings are designed solely for purposes of illustration and not as a definition of the limits of the invention, for which reference should be made to the appended claims. It should be further understood that the drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale and that, unless otherwise indicated, they are merely intended to conceptually illustrate the structures and procedures described herein.
The various features and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the detailed description of embodiments made hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
With initial reference to
As best seen in
Turning now to
Memory storage unit 19 serves to store the single game or video application which, in accordance with an illustrative embodiment of the present invention, is received and stored as an encoded data file with microprocessor 56 being configured with appropriate software to function as a file decoder. In accordance with a first embodiment of the invention, the single game or video application is a non-interactive application. By this, it is meant that the application is not characterized by the notion of winning or losing but, rather, merely adapted to define—without any preliminary configuration or other input on the part of the user—a display that is solely defined and altered and or controlled by user input. That it, the device automatically displays an interface related to the single game or video application. For example, in an Etch-A-Sketch adaptation of the invention, the device initializes when the cartridge s inserted by displaying a single blinking cursor at the center of the screen. A manipulandum, as for example, in the form of rocker switches 16′ and 17′ (
In accordance with another embodiment of the present invention, insertion of the single game or video application stored on memory storage unit 19 into an interface port on the device causes device 10 to display a preset initialization screen which is subsequently altered only as a response to external user directions in accordance with a set of rules known to the user and not pre-specified by the application itself. By way of illustrative example, a board game application is implemented by displaying the board and playing pieces at an initial location. Thereafter, all movements are governed strictly by external events and directions input by the user. Playing a monopoly game, for example, requires rolling a dice and moving the piece to a selected location. The rolling of the dice may be done via either an actual set of dice or a digital simulation executed by the game. In that regard, it is the user (and not the game) which by appropriate input advances a displayed player piece by the number of positions corresponding to the value of the actual or simulated dice roll.
In each of the above embodiment, the memory storage unit 19 includes a programmed coded and formatted request to display the video or game interface. The request is recognized by the device 10 upon insertion of the memory storage device 19 in an interface or upon turning on the device if the cartridge is already in the interface. The device 10 also recognizes through programmed code and format on the memory storage unit 19 that the user control interface of the device can be utilized to manipulate the content of the cartridge. Accordingly, the device 10 changes a current display mode of operation and displays the contents of the game cartridge once the device recognizes the request on the game cartridge. This allows the cell-phone or camera device to be used as an entertainment device for playing the application associated with the cartridge.
The electronic processing system of the illustrative embodiments of
The display device 10 is powered from the power unit 62 that comprises one or more rechargeable batteries and power and charging circuits. These power and charging circuits control and distribute battery power or converted AC line power, control the charging of the internal battery or batteries when the device 10 is connected to an external AC adapter/charger device via the AC adapter/charger jack 66 and controls switchover between battery power and external AC line power when the AC power is available via the AC adapter/charger device. The rechargeable battery comprises a lithium ion battery, a nickel hydride (NiMH) battery or the like. To use the system of the present invention, the user actuates an on/off switch 15 which powers up the device. This action automatically applies power to the unit and displays the initial application display screen in accordance with the single game or video cartridge embodiments described above.
In the embodiments of
Turning now to
With reference now to
Preferably the device will automatically shut down, to conserve power, if a game is not played for 1-5 minutes, or with a video it would shut down after being paused for 3-5 minutes.
Thus, while there have shown and described and pointed out fundamental novel features of the invention as applied to a preferred embodiment thereof, it will be understood that various omissions and substitutions and changes in the form and details of the devices illustrated, and in their operation, 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.
