Patent Application
20070001074
Over time, mobile computing devices have become more heavily relied on by businesses and are being used in an increasing number of applications. Users of these devices often use them, in certain situations, while held in one or both hands and, in other situations, while resting the device on a table or a desk. When not in use, it is often desirable to store such a device in a holster or other holder on the user's body. These devices have increasingly been designed ergonomically to increase their ease, comfort and efficiency of use. However, the irregular shapes dictated by ergonomic concerns often cause these devices to rest unstably on flat surfaces.
The present invention is directed to an arrangement stabilizing a hand-held portable electronic device, wherein the device includes an integral support on which the device rests when placed on a work surface, the arrangement comprising a stabilizing member including a work surface contacting base and a coupling mechanism securing the stabilizing member to the device in a support configuration wherein, when in the support configuration, a width of the base is greater than that of the integral support, the coupling mechanism being releasable to allow the stabilizing member to move to a stowed configuration wherein, when in the stowed configuration, a profile of the device is reduced in comparison with that in the support configuration.
The present invention may be further understood with reference to the following description and the appended drawings, wherein like elements are referred to with the same reference numerals. The present invention will be described in regard to a stabilizing arrangement for a scanning device. However, those skilled in the art will understand that the securing arrangement according to the present invention is equally suited for any irregularly shaped mobile electronic device such as, for example, a personal digital assistant, a cellular telephone, blackberry, etc., which may be manipulated while hand-held and while resting on a flat surface.
As shown in
To minimize the volume of the scanner 10 and to facilitate insertion into and removal of the scanner 10 from a holster or other holder, the size of the projection 22 is often minimized so that a width of the projection 22 and the stabilizing surface 24 are only minimally greater than that required for the scanning engine, the light receiving apparatus and an optical path to and from a window 28. For this reason, a width w1 of the integral stabilizing surface 24 is often considerably less than a width w2 of the housing 12. Thus, when the scanner 10 is placed on a table or desk, use of the keyboard 14 often involves the application of force to portions of the scanner 10 outside the width w1 of the integral stabilizing surface. As would be understood by those skilled in art, this may cause the scanner 10 to roll or flip hindering data entry.
To address this tendency, the present invention is directed to a stabilizing arrangement including a stabilizing member 30 which can be selectively mounted on the stabilizer mounting holes 26 of the scanner 10 to increase the lateral stability of the scanner 10 when placed on a surface such as a table for “desk-top” operation. Those skilled in the art will understand that existing features of the housing 12 may be utilized as the stabilizer mounting holes 26. For example, the housings 12 of many such devices include holes which accommodate screws to couple front and back portions of the housing 12 to one another. These holes may be shaped and positioned to receive one or more mounting portions of a stabilizing member 30 thereby simplifying construction of the housing 12.
The stabilizing member 30 may be removed or moved to a stowed position to re-configure the scanner 10 for hand-held operation or for stowing in a holster or other holder, but the location of the stabilizer is carefully selected so as not to compromise or interfere with the ergonomics of the scanner 10. Those skilled in the art will understand that the stabilizing member 30 may be tethered to a hand strap (not shown) or other component of the scanner 10 to facilitate locating and attaching the stabilizing member 30 to the housing 12. According to this embodiment of the invention, the stabilizing member 30 includes a pair of mounting projections 32 which are sized and positioned to be frictionally received within the stabilizer mounting holes 26 of the scanner 10. When the mounting projections 32 are fully inserted into the stabilizer mounting holes 26, abutting surfaces 36 of the stabilizing member 30 contact a surface of the housing 12 of the scanner 10. Furthermore, the stabilizing member 30 includes a recess 34 which has a shape complimenting a shape of an outer surface of the projection 22 so that, when the mounting projections are fully inserted into the stabilizer mounting holes 26, an inner surface 38 of the stabilizing member 30 contacts the outer surface of the projection 22. The stabilizing member 10 includes two feet 40 separated by an indentation 42. When the mounting projections 32 are fully inserted into the stabilizer mounting holes 26, the feet 40 form a stable base on which the forward end of the scanner 10 may rest upon a table, desk or other surface. The stabilizing member 30 is preferably formed of a thermoplastic elastomer.
Those skilled in the art will understand that, although this embodiment shows the stabilizing member 30 extending substantially over the stabilizing surface 24 of the projection 22, the stabilizing member 30 may be mounted at any point on the forward end of the scanner 10 so long as a height “H” of the stabilizing member 30 (e.g., a height of the stabilizing member from an outer surface of the feet 40 to the abutting surfaces 36) is sufficient that, when the stabilizing member 30 is mounted on the scanner 10, the feet 40 raise the scanner 10 above a table or desk on which it is placed so that the conventional stabilizing surface 24 no longer contacts the table or desk. This height “H” is preferably chosen to achieve an angle of the keyboard 14 and the display 16 relative to the table or desk on which the scanner 10 is placed the same as or similar to that when the scanner 10 rests on the stabilizing surface 24. However, those skilled in the art will understand that the placement and/or the height “H” of the stabilizing member 30 may be altered to achieve any desired angle of the scanner 10 relative to a table or desk on which it is placed.
Furthermore, those skilled in the art will understand that, although the stabilizing member 30 is shown with two feet 40 which, when the stabilizing member 30 is mounted on the scanner 10, extend immediately outside ends of the stabilizing surface 24, the feet 40 may be located at any point beneath the scanner 10 so long as they extend further toward outer edges of the scanner 10 than the stabilizing surface 24 (i.e., a width “W” of the feet 40 is greater than a width “w1” of the stabilizing surface 24) and, when not in use for stabilizing the scanner 10, do not interfere with the ergonomics of the scanner 10. Any of a variety of modified arrangements of one or more feet 40 may be used to achieve the goals of the present invention. For example, a stabilizing member 30 may be made with a single foot 40 extending across an entire length thereof, or with an additional foot 40 extending from a center of the indentation 42. It is necessary only that the outer ends of the stabilizing member 40 support the scanner 10 to maximize the stability of the scanner 10 when it is rested on a table or desk.
In addition, as would be understood by those skilled in the art, the combination of the stabilizer mounting holes 26 and the mounting projections 32 may be replaced by any suitable coupling arrangement that allows the stabilizing member 30 to be quickly and securely secured in a deployed configuration and which may then be easily moved to a stowed configuration.
For example, as shown in
Furthermore, according to still further embodiments of the invention, as shown in
It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made in the structure and the methodology of the present invention, without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention. For example, those skilled in the art will understand that a stabilizing arrangement according to the present invention may include any number of stabilizing feet which may be attached to any portion of a housing a device to be stabilized so long as, in a stowed configuration, the stabilizing arrangement does not interfere with the ergonomic design of the device. Thus, it is intended that the present invention cover the modifications and variations of this invention provided they come within the scope of the appended claims and their equivalents.
