This application is related to co-pending U.S. patent Applications (Attorney Docket No. US22822 and US22823), entitled “KEY ASSEMBLY AND PORTABLE ELECTRONIC DEVICE USING THE SAME”, by Mu-Wen Yang et al. Such application has the same assignee as the present application and has been concurrently filed herewith. The above-identified application is incorporated herein by reference.
1. Technical Field
The exemplary disclosure generally relates to key assemblies, and particularly to key assemblies used in portable electronic devices.
2. Description of Related Art
With the development of smaller and lighter electronic devices for portable use, key assemblies become more compact with individual keys more tightly spaced. Unfortunately, users of these portable electronics sometimes experience difficulty in activating keys that are close together; multiple and/or erroneous keys may be activated at the same time. This drawback exists not only in cellular telephones, but other portable electronic devices with key assemblies. Also, keys of the key assemblies can be too crowded to allow quick, accurate activation.
Many aspects of the embodiments can be better understood with references to the following drawings. The components in the drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale, the emphasis instead being placed upon clearly illustrating the principles of the exemplary key assembly and portable electronic device using key assembly. Moreover, in the drawings like reference numerals designate corresponding parts throughout the several views. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers are used throughout the drawings to refer to the same or like elements of an embodiment.
Referring to
The key assembly 40 includes a base plate 20 and a key 10 rotatably mounted to the base plate 20. The base plate 20 may be a portion of the housing of the portable electronic device 100 or may be a separate element mounted to the housing of the portable electronic device 100. In this embodiment, the base plate 10 is a portion of the housing of the portable electronic device 100.
Referring to
The operating surface 13 has a trough 132 transversely defined in a center thereof, the contacting surface 14 has a shaft portion 142 opposite to the trough 132 of the operating surface 13, thus the key 10 is divided into a first key section 16 located one side of the trough 132 and a second key section 18 located another side of the trough 132. The role of the trough 132 is to facilitate the first key section 16 bending relative to the second key section 18, thus the contact sensation of the key 10 is improved. The shaft portion 142 has a first shaft 1422 and a second shaft 1424 respectively protruding from two opposite ends thereof. The first shaft 1422 and the second shaft 1424 are coaxial. The first shaft 1422 and the second shaft 1424 are rotatably assembled to the base plate 20.
The key 10 has two contacting members 144 protruding from the contacting surface 14. One contacting member 144 is located on the first key section 16 adjacent to the first end 11, another contacting member 144 is located on the second key section 18 adjacent to the second end 12. The contacting members 144 may be substantially V-shaped, however, other shapes may be substituted. In this embodiment, the contacting members 144 are substantially V-shaped, and the V-shaped openings of the contacting members 144 face each other. Each contacting member 144 has a contacting portion 1442 protruding from a distal end thereof and parallel to the first key section 16 and the second key section 18. The contacting portions 1442 extend from respective contacting member 144 toward each other. The contacting portions 1442 are configured for triggering the first switch 32 and the second switch 34, respectively. The contacting portions 1442 may be constructed from injection-molded thermoplastic elastomer and configured to produce a point contact sensation in a user's fingertip to provide tactile feedback when a user presses the key 10.
The operating surface 13 has two indicia 134 correspondingly defined in the first key section 16 and the second key section 18, to indicate the function of the first key section 16 and the second key section 18. The indicia 134 of the first key section 16 may be a “+”, to indicate the function of the first key section 16 is increasing volume. The indicia 134 of the second key section 18 may be a “−”, to indicate the function of the second key section 18 is decreasing volume.
The base plate 20 includes a peripheral wall 22 and a bottom wall 24 substantially perpendicularly connected to the peripheral wall 22. The peripheral wall 22 has a hole 222 defined therein corresponding to the key 10. The hole 222 is sized and configured to be engaged with the key 10. The peripheral wall 22 has a first inner wall 2221 and a second inner wall 2222 opposite to the first inner wall 2221, both of which are defined in the hole 222. The first inner wall 2221 is parallel to the bottom wall 24 and the second inner wall 2222 is level with the bottom wall 24.
The peripheral wall 22 further has a protrusion 224 protruding from an inner surface thereof and located adjacent to the first inner wall 2221. The protrusion 224 has a surface 2242 facing the bottom wall 24 and level with first inner wall 2221. The protrusion 224 has a mating space 2244 (see
The protrusion 224 has two expanding portions 2249 (Seen
The bottom wall 24 has a circular second rotating aperture 242 (see in
Referring to
Referring further to
Simultaneously, the second key section 18 reversely rotates about the first shaft 1422 and the second shaft 1424, thus the contacting portion 1442 of the second key section 18 move away from the second contact 342 in a direction reverse to the direction that the contacting portion 1442 of the first key section 16 moves. Additionally, the contacting member 144 of the second key section 18 is partially accommodated in the notch, and the contacting member 144 of the second key section 18 is resisted against the bottom portion in the corresponding notch 226 to prevent the second key 10 from detaching from the peripheral wall 22.
When the first key section 16 is pressed to trigger the first switch 32, the contacting portion 1442 of the second key section 18 moves away from the second switch 34, such that a user's fingertip touches only one key section at a time, thus removing the possibility of hitting two keys simultaneously. Additionally, the direction of the contacting portions 1442 which trigger the first contact 322 and the second contact 342 is correspondingly perpendicular to the direction of pressing the first key section 16 and the second key section 18, effectively avoiding two keys being activated at once, even if greater force is used to press the key 10.
It is to be understood, however, that even though numerous characteristics and advantages of the exemplary disclosure have been set forth in the foregoing description, together with details of the structure and function of the disclosure, the disclosure is illustrative only, and changes may be made in detail, especially in matters of shape, size, and arrangement of parts within the principles of the disclosure to the full extent indicated by the broad general meaning of the terms in which the appended claims are expressed.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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200810304217.6 | Aug 2008 | CN | national |