Information
-
Patent Grant
-
6823222
-
Patent Number
6,823,222
-
Date Filed
Wednesday, May 30, 200123 years ago
-
Date Issued
Tuesday, November 23, 200419 years ago
-
Inventors
-
Original Assignees
-
Examiners
- Knight; Anthony
- Hartman, Jr.; Ronald D
Agents
-
CPC
-
US Classifications
Field of Search
US
- 700 17
- 700 83
- 345 156
- 345 184
-
International Classifications
-
Abstract
A portable processor-based system may include a display that is controlled by a scroll wheel. The scroll wheel extends completely through the display housing so that it can be manipulated between the thumb and forefinger of the user. This scrolling operation may be done at the same time the display itself is held in the user's hand.
Description
BACKGROUND
This invention relates generally to processor-based systems and particularly to so-called portable or battery-powered processor-based systems.
A web tablet is a portable processor-based system that enables wireless access to the Internet. The web tablet can be moved about a building, such as a house, to enable web interaction at locations not typically occupied by processor-based systems such as desktop computers. For example, a user may access the Internet from a kitchen or a living room through the web tablet.
The web tablet may include a wireless link, such as a radio frequency link, to a base station that may be, for example, a desktop computer. The user can view information at essentially any location reasonably proximate to the base station. For example, web tablets may be used to view information from the Internet, to accomplish instant messaging or chat sessions or even desk top functions to mention a few examples. The web tablet may interact with other appliances such as televisions. For example, a television program may have an associated Internet web page and that page may be viewed at the same time the television program is being watched. Also, the web tablet may be used like a remote control to control appliances.
Since web tablets generally have either no keyboards or only a limited keyboard, it is important that other controls be highly functional. Thus, there is a need for better ways to control the display of information on portable processor-based systems such as web tablets.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1
is a front view of one embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 2
is a back view of the embodiment shown in
FIG. 1
;
FIG. 3
is a right side view of the embodiment shown in
FIG. 1
;
FIG. 4
is a cross-sectional view taken generally along the line
4
—
4
in
FIG. 1
;
FIG. 5
is a perspective view of the embodiment shown in
FIG. 1
in use; and
FIG. 6
is a block depiction of one embodiment of the present invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
Referring to
FIG. 1
, a portable processor-based system
10
may include a housing
12
, a display screen
14
and plurality of fast-on buttons
16
. In one embodiment of the present invention, the portable processor-based system
10
is a web tablet that enables wireless access to the Internet through a base station (not shown in FIG.
1
). The housing
12
may be generally book-shaped and may be dominated by the display screen
14
and a peripheral housing portion
12
including control devices such as an instant print button
17
, a forward and backward rocker
26
and a vertical scroll wheel
18
.
The vertical scroll wheel
18
is essentially a roller wheel that may be rotated to move the displayed information up and down on the display screen
14
. This is particularly useful when an entire web page can only be shown in part on the display screen
14
. In such case, the web page must be scrolled in order to view all the information.
The fast-on button
16
allows the system
10
to be immediately activated to a start page that is selectably programmable by the user. Thus, a variety of different web pages may be selected through any of the buttons
16
.
Similarly, the button
17
allows the currently displayed screen display to be printed. The rocker switch
26
allows the user to rock the switch to the left or right to go forward to the next page or backward to the previous web page being viewed.
Referring next to
FIG. 2
, the backside of the housing
12
may include a stylus
24
mounted magnetically on the housing
12
. The wheel roller
18
extends through a depression
22
on the backside of the housing
12
. The same wheel
18
extends through the depression
20
on the front side of the housing
12
, as shown in FIG.
1
.
The stylus
24
may be utilized to handwrite on the display screen
14
. Handwriting analysis technology may be utilized to receive the handwriting as an input signal to the system
10
.
As shown in
FIG. 3
, the scroll wheel
18
extends through the depressions
20
and
22
on opposite sides of the housing
12
. Thus, the wheel
18
may be manipulated between the user's thumb and forefinger from both sides of the housing
12
around the rightmost edge of the housing as depicted in FIG.
5
. As shown in
FIG. 4
, the wheel
18
extends completely through the housing
12
.
Thus, as shown in
FIG. 5
, the user may grasp the right side of the device
10
with the user's thumb over the wheel
18
on the display side of the housing
12
and the user's forefinger over the wheel
18
on the backside of the housing
12
. In this way, the user can skillfully manipulate the display up and down by the coordinated movement between the user's thumb and forefinger. No extra effort is required because the user must hold the system
10
in the user's hand A in substantially this position in any case.
Referring to
FIG. 6
, the system
10
may include a controller or other processor-based device
30
. The controller
30
may be coupled to the fast-on buttons
16
, the print button
17
, the scroll wheel
18
, a display
14
, a touch screen input device
15
and the forward and reverse rocker
26
. In addition, the controller
30
may be coupled to a wireless interface
32
. A battery
34
may be provided. The wireless interface
32
allows the system
10
to communicate with a base station
36
which may be another processor-based system such as a desktop computer, a set-top box, a processor-based appliance or any other processor-based system. The communication may be by a suitable radio frequency protocol including a cellular telephone link, a Bluetooth link (see Bluetooth Specification, Version 1, Dec. 1, 1999), an 802.11 Wireless LAN Standard (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, 1999, New York, N.Y.) link, or other wireless protocols. In addition, an infrared communication protocol may be used as well.
In some embodiments, the system
10
may also interact with an appliance such as a television. Infrared ports (not shown) on the system
10
may be used to remotely control appliances. Also the system
10
may include a microphone and speaker (not shown) to act as a telephone as well.
While the present invention has been described with respect to a limited number of embodiments, those skilled in the art will appreciate numerous modifications and variations therefrom. It is intended that the appended claims cover all such modifications and variations as fall within the true spirit and scope of this present invention.
Claims
- 1. A portable processor-based system comprising:a housing having top and bottom sides; a display formed in said housing; and a scroll wheel to control said display, said wheel extending through the top and bottom sides of said housing.
- 2. The system of claim 1 wherein said system is a web tablet.
- 3. The system of claim 2 wherein said web tablet is a wireless web tablet.
- 4. The system of claim 1, said scroll wheel to scroll said display up and down.
- 5. The system of claim 1 wherein said housing has edges around said opposed top and bottom sides, said wheel is positioned near an the edge of said housing such that said scroll wheel may be manipulated between a user's thumb and forefinger.
- 6. The system of claim 5 wherein said scroll wheel is positioned so that the scroll wheel may be manipulated by the user's thumb and forefinger at the same time that the user's hand holds the system.
- 7. A method comprising:providing a housing having top and bottom sides; providing a display in said housing; and providing a scroll wheel that extends completely through the top and bottom sides to be manipulated between a user's thumb and forefinger at the same time the housing is held in a user's hand.
- 8. The method of claim 7 including providing an Internet connection.
- 9. The method of claim 7 including scrolling said scroll wheel between the user's thumb and forefinger to adjust the display vertically.
US Referenced Citations (8)