The present invention generally relates to portable electronic devices. In particular, the present invention relates to systems and methods for a rugged design for hand held mobile terminals.
Hand held mobile terminals, such as personal digital assistants (PDAs), have become widely accepted as personal and business organizational tools. Many users carry hand held mobile terminals on a daily basis. Accordingly, it is desired that housings for mobile terminals meet a number of criteria. A housing for a hand held mobile terminal should be aesthetically appealing. Moreover, the housing should be rugged to protect inner electronics from damage in the event of a drop. As mobile terminals become more and more powerful, a need for strength in the housing is at odds with a need to minimize volume occupied by the housing, and thus unavailable for packaging the electronics. Further, any latching mechanism used to hold the housing together should minimize any volume occupied and provide a secure latching system to prevent the disengagement of the housing parts.
Hand held mobile terminals are generally assembled by enclosing internal electrical components, such as a Central Processing Unit (CPU) board, display, keyboard, and internal wiring, within a housing made of plastic or another structural material. The enclosure is normally formed in two parts having an upper housing and a lower housing. The electronic components are mounted to one or both sides of the housing with or without a subframe. A subframe is employed to provide torsional rigidity to the structure. The display and sometimes the battery are also located within the enclosure. The display and the battery represent large masses that can impart undesirable impact loads to the CPU board during a drop event.
Additionally, the assembly of the components into the housing 100 requires several manufacturing processes. Before the housing 100 is fastened together, the CPU board, the display and other components must be assembled to a subframe, to the housing, or to some other subassembly. Such assembly steps are generally time consuming and expensive in manufacturing.
Further, the conventional housing assembly has poor torsional rigidity due to discontinuity of the housing surfaces at the mating band. Accordingly, stresses from deflections and impact loads during a drop are concentrated at the bosses 130. Housing failure is often attributed to boss failure caused by deflection and impact load stresses.
The following presents a simplified summary of the invention in order to provide a basic understanding of some aspects of the invention. This summary is not an extensive overview of the invention. It is intended to neither identify key or critical elements of the invention nor delineate the scope of the invention. Its sole purpose is to present some concepts of the invention in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detailed description that is presented later.
The present invention provides systems and methods for a rugged hand held mobile terminal design. The mobile terminal includes a monocoque enclosure and a rail system provided within the monocoque enclosure. The rail system has electronic components for operation of the mobile terminal mounted thereon. Since the monocoque enclosure is a substantially one-piece cavity, the need for bosses and/or fastening hardware is mitigated. The mobile terminal also includes a display and display bezel. The display bezel includes at least one latch mechanism which corresponds with at least one notch and/or aperture formed in the rail system. Accordingly, the display bezel and rail system effectively exert a downward force on a gasket positioned around the display, which forms an environmental seal. Compressive loads are transferred to a top surface of the monocoque enclosure. The rail system can be further secured to the enclosure via a fastening mechanism (e.g., screw). The present invention provides several advantages over the conventional mobile terminal housing, such as: better torsional rigidity, simplified assembly, improved volumetric efficiency, reduced need for shock absorbing materials, lighter overall weight, decoupling of impact loads, and mitigation of stress concentrations.
To the accomplishment of the foregoing and related ends, the invention then, comprises the features hereinafter fully described and particularly pointed out in the claims. The following description and the annexed drawings set forth in detail certain illustrative aspects of the invention. These aspects are indicative, however, of but a few of the various ways in which the principles of the invention may be employed and the present invention is intended to include all such aspects and their equivalents. Other objects, advantages and novel features of the invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention when considered in conjunction with the drawings.
The present invention relates to systems and methods for a rugged hand held mobile terminal design. The present invention will now be described with reference to the drawings, wherein like reference numerals are used to refer to like elements throughout. It is to be appreciated that the various drawings are not drawn to scale from one figure to another nor inside a given figure, and in particular that the size of the components are arbitrarily drawn for facilitating the reading of the drawings. In the following description, for purposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. It may be evident, however, that the present invention may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known structures and devices are shown in block form in order to facilitate describing the present invention.
Referring initially to
The monocoque enclosure 310 includes an open end 315 for receiving electronic components 325. The electronic components 325 include a PC board containing electronics and logic (e.g., memory, communication bus, and processor) for implementing computer system functionality. It is to be appreciated that although the open end 315 is illustrated as being located at a top portion of the monocoque enclosure 310, the open end 315 can also be located at any other portion of the monocoque enclosure 310, such as at a bottom portion or a side portion. Another opening 327 is included in the monocoque enclosure 310 for allowing access to a communication interface (not shown). For example, the communication interface can be a serial communication port and/or any other suitable communication standard and/or protocol, e.g., parallel, SCSI, Firewire (IEEE 1394), Ethernet, etc. Similarly, the communication interface opening can also be located anywhere on the enclosure and is contemplated as falling within the scope of the present invention. The monocoque enclosure 310 further includes at least one latch receiving aperture 317 for receiving a corresponding latch member, as will be described in more detail below.
The hand held mobile terminal 300 also includes a rail system 320 which acts as a subframe for internal components of the mobile terminal 300, as well as an assembly backbone for the mobile terminal 300. Circuitry 325 for the hand held mobile terminal 300, some of which can be implemented on a PC board, is coupled to the rail system 320. A processor, read only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), and bus can form a platform for the mobile terminal 300. For example, the circuitry 325 can include an address/data bus for communicating information, a central processor coupled with the bus for processing information and instructions, a volatile memory (e.g., random access memory RAM) coupled with the bus for storing information and instructions for the central processor and a nonvolatile memory (e.g., read only memory ROM) coupled with the bus for storing static information and instructions for the processor. The mobile terminal 300 can also include an optional data storage device (e.g., memory stick) coupled with the bus for storing information and instructions. The rail system 320 is secured to the enclosure 310 by screws 360, or any other suitable fastener, acting in tension from a bottom of the enclosure 310.
Also included in hand held mobile terminal 300 is a display 345 for displaying information to a user. The display 345 can be a touch screen and may employ capacitive, resistive touch, infrared, surface acoustic wave, or grounded acoustic wave technology. Further, the display 345 can be a liquid crystal device, cathode ray tube (CRT), field emission device (FED, also called flat panel CRT) or any other display device suitable for creating graphic images and alphanumeric characters recognizable to the user. The mobile terminal 300 can also include an optional alphanumeric input device (not shown). For instance, the input device can be a handwriting recognition pad (“digitizer”) which communicates information and command selections to a central processor. The terminal 300 can include an optional cursor control or directing device coupled to the bus for communicating user input information and command selections to the central processor.
The display 345 corresponds with an opening 350 in a bezel or cover 340. The bezel 340 also includes one or more openings 355 for a keyboard and/or programmable buttons for selecting information and causing the mobile terminal 300 to implement functions. At least one latch 335 is formed in the bezel 340 for securing the bezel 340 to the hand held mobile terminal 300. The latch 335 corresponds with at least one notch and/or aperture 330 formed in the rail system 320. For example, the latch 335 can be a substantially L-shaped member, and the notch and/or aperture 330 can be an open notch formed in a side portion of the rail system 320, as depicted in
When the bezel 340 is securely in place via the engagement between the latch(es) and the notch(es) and/or aperture(s), a downward force is exerted on a gasket (not shown), which provides a seal between the bezel 340 and the display 345. The gasket is provided about a perimeter of the display opening 350 of the bezel 340 and/or the display itself 345 and is operable to keep out contamination, which might otherwise enter the mobile terminal assembly from outside and thereby affect performance of the mobile terminal 300. The gasket can be of rubber, foam, or any other elastomer, operable to sufficiently seal the assembly of the mobile terminal 300. The seal mitigates dust and other contaminates from entering the clean environment of the mobile terminal 300.
Turning now to
The mobile terminal 300 can also include a window (not shown) in which a bar code reader is able to read a bar code label, or the like, presented to the mobile terminal 300. The mobile terminal 300 can include a LED (not shown) that is illuminated to reflect whether the bar code has been properly or improperly read. Alternatively, or additionally, a sound may be emitted from the speaker to alert the user that the bar code has been successfully imaged and decoded.
In view of the foregoing structural and functional features described above, methodologies in accordance with various aspects of the present invention will be better appreciated with reference to
Turning now to
It is to be appreciated that the rugged hand held mobile terminal design of the subject invention, as described herein, has wide applicability. The design can be employed for example in numerous types of commercial and industrial electronic devices (e.g., computers, personal digital assistants, cameras, electronic games . . . ). Moreover, the methodologies of the subject invention can be employed in connection with processes associated with fabricating rugged housings related to such devices. It is also to be appreciated that the scope of the present invention is intended to include any portable electronic device.
What has been described above includes exemplary implementations of the present invention. It is, of course, not possible to describe every conceivable combination of components or methodologies for purposes of describing the present invention, but one of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that many further combinations and permutations of the present invention are possible. Accordingly, the present invention is intended to embrace all such alterations, modifications and variations that fall within the spirit and scope of the appended claims.
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
5479479 | Braitberg et al. | Dec 1995 | A |
5777856 | Phillips et al. | Jul 1998 | A |
6052279 | Friend et al. | Apr 2000 | A |
6101403 | Masuda | Aug 2000 | A |
6118663 | Fan | Sep 2000 | A |
6207912 | Persson | Mar 2001 | B1 |
6246862 | Grivas et al. | Jun 2001 | B1 |
6282088 | Canova et al. | Aug 2001 | B1 |
6311896 | Mulla et al. | Nov 2001 | B1 |
6356443 | Jenks et al. | Mar 2002 | B2 |
6381126 | Yoshimoto et al. | Apr 2002 | B1 |
6388870 | Canova et al. | May 2002 | B1 |
6388877 | Canova et al. | May 2002 | B1 |
6483719 | Bachman | Nov 2002 | B1 |
6486862 | Jacobsen et al. | Nov 2002 | B1 |
6490439 | Croft et al. | Dec 2002 | B1 |
6532152 | White et al. | Mar 2003 | B1 |
6535199 | Canova et al. | Mar 2003 | B1 |
6625469 | Hwang et al. | Sep 2003 | B1 |
6690947 | Tom | Feb 2004 | B1 |
6707581 | Browning | Mar 2004 | B1 |
6711419 | Mori | Mar 2004 | B1 |
6718188 | Ohira et al. | Apr 2004 | B1 |
6724618 | Jenkins et al. | Apr 2004 | B1 |
6763576 | Watchko et al. | Jul 2004 | B2 |
6788285 | Paolucci et al. | Sep 2004 | B2 |
6870730 | Riddiford | Mar 2005 | B2 |
6968161 | Inomata et al. | Nov 2005 | B2 |
6978123 | Fuhrmann et al. | Dec 2005 | B2 |
7061762 | Canova et al. | Jun 2006 | B2 |
7072624 | Zheng et al. | Jul 2006 | B2 |
7099709 | Hsu et al. | Aug 2006 | B2 |
20020061736 | Boman et al. | May 2002 | A1 |
Number | Date | Country |
---|---|---|
29618043 UI | Dec 1996 | DE |
1209880 | May 2002 | EP |
Number | Date | Country | |
---|---|---|---|
20040127270 A1 | Jul 2004 | US |