Patent Application
20120012446
The present invention relates to an illuminated keyboard and particularly to an illuminated keyboard that provides distinguishable key locations through varying luminosities.
In the technology information age today computers have been indispensable in people's life. Almost every line of business has to rely on computers to aid operation, either desktop computers or notebook computers. The application scope and time are extensive. They could be used in any environments. However, in a low luminosity or dark environment, not sufficient light often causes inaccurate keyboard strokes and results in erroneous signal output. To solve such a problem many types of illuminated keyboards have been developed, such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,179,432, 6,199,996, 6,284,988, 6,322,229 and 6,554,442. They all disclose an illuminated keyboard which mainly has a lighting sheet held in the keyboard to illuminate keycaps to facilitate user operation of the keyboard in a light-deficient or dark environment.
However, the aforesaid techniques mostly have an elastic element and a moving mechanism interposed between the lighting element and key caps. The keycaps, elastic element and moving mechanism are mostly made of a light-permeable material (some of the techniques have the keycaps made of an opaque material with the character portion made of the light-permeable material). When the entire lighting sheet emits light the keyboard is evenly illuminated in a backlit manner. Such an illuminated keyboard generally is used in a light-deficient or dark environment, such as in an airplane, vehicle or the like. But with the entire keyboard emitting light evenly the total luminosity is too strong that could affect people nearby. Moreover, in the lower luminosity environment user's visual capability on the keyboard is lower naturally, with the entire keyboard luminous evenly user is difficult to differentiate the character notation of each keycap. Even though the characters and symbols are made from opaque material, or the keycap is made from impermeable material while the character notation made from permeable material, light emitting from the gaps between the adjacent keycaps still make the use hard to recognize the characters. For a user who does not well memorize the positions of the characters the situation is particularly serious, and he may thus input wrong instructions.
An objection of the present invention is to solve the aforesaid problem by forming different luminosities between keys and gaps to distinguish the relevant locations of the keys.
To achieve the foregoing objection the present invention provides an illuminated keyboard that provides distinguishable key locations. It includes a keyboard portion and a luminous portion. The keyboard portion has a baseboard and a plurality of rows of keycaps located on the baseboard. The keycaps and the baseboard are bridged by a plurality of moving mechanisms. The keycaps are movable up and down against the baseboard through the moving mechanisms. The keycaps on neighboring rows are spaced by a first gap. The neighboring keycaps on each row are spaced by a second gap. The luminous portion is located between the keycaps and the baseboard and has a plurality of first lighting sections corresponding to the first gap and a plurality of second lighting sections corresponding to the second gap. The second lighting section has two ends connecting to two adjacent first lighting sections.
Through the first and second lighting sections the luminosities of the keycaps and the first and second gaps around the keycaps of the keyboard are different to facilitate distinguishing of the locations of the keycaps to improve keystroke accuracy.
The foregoing, as well as additional objects, features and advantages of the present invention will be more readily apparent from the following detailed description, which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings.
Please referring to
The luminous portion 20 is located between the keycaps 14 and the baseboard 11 above the circuit board 12. Hence the circuit board 12 is interposed between the baseboard 11 and luminous portion 20. The luminous portion 20 is a light conductive object 21 such as a light conductive panel, and has a plurality of first lighting sections 22 corresponding to the first gap 15 and a plurality of second lighting sections 23 corresponding to the second gap 16. The second lighting section 23 has two ends connecting to two adjacent first lighting sections 22. The first and second lighting sections 22 and 23 are formed integrally, and also form an opening 24 corresponding to the keycap 14 to hold the elastic element 132. Thus forms the main structure of the present invention.
Refer to
The present invention, aside from enhancing the luminosity of the first and second gaps 15 and 16 to distinguish the locations of the keycaps 14, can achieve the same result by enhancing the luminosity of keycaps 14. Refer to
As a conclusion, the present invention mainly provides a luminous portion 20 containing a first lighting section 22 and a second lighting sections 23 corresponding to the first and second gaps 15 and 16 around the keycaps 14. The second lighting section 23 has two ends connecting to two adjacent first lighting sections 22 so that the luminosities of the keycaps 14 and the first and second gaps 15 and 16 are different. Whether the luminosity of the keycaps 14 or the first and second gaps 15 and 16 is greater, the locations of the keycaps 14 can be distinguished easier by users to improve keystroke accuracy of the illuminated keyboard.
While the preferred embodiments of the present invention have been set forth for the purpose of disclosure, modifications of the disclosed embodiments of the present invention as well as other embodiments thereof may occur to those skilled in the art. Accordingly, the appended claims are intended to cover all embodiments which do not depart from the spirit and scope of the present invention.
