Patent Application
20140368993
Embodiments of the present disclosure relate generally to mobile devices and, more particularly, to exterior housing designs of mobile devices.
Mobile computing devices, such as smart phones, tablet computers, Internet/webpage viewers, electronic books, digital photo frames, electronic game consoles, PDAs, media viewers/players and the like have gained increasing popularity. The portability of the mobile devices allows users to carry them almost anywhere. Typically mobile devices are equipped with flat panel display screens that have limited viewing angles, e.g. near vertical, and thus often need to be positioned within a certain angle range in order to achieve an optimal view angle for a user.
Most of the mobile devices are designed to be handheld and lack a built-in supporting mechanism that could retain the device in an optimal view angle. Without using an external positioning mechanism, mobile devices usually can only be placed on a near horizontal surface, forcing the user to lower his or her head to view. Handholding mobile devices and/or viewing the screen with the neck bent for extended periods of time is neither ergonomic nor convenient.
A conventional solution to this problem is to use a peripheral attachment to prop a mobile device in a near vertical angle. A typical design employs a flap element mounted at the back of a protection case of the mobile device. The disadvantages accompanying this approach are multifaceted. The mobile devices together with the case can only be placed on a counter top surface. The usage is limited to circumstances where a supporting countertop surface is available. In addition, the cases add significant volume and weight for a user to carry around. Also the mobile device is usually not secured to the surface.
Although the underlying adhesive mechanisms have not been fully understood, geckos are renowned for their phenomenal capability of rapidly climbing and adhering to vertical surfaces of many different types. The gecko toes have a special adaptation that allows them to adhere to most surfaces without the use of liquids or surface tension. It is hypothesized that the numerous setae split into nanoscale spatulae at the end, making it sufficient for Van der Waals forces alone to provide the resultant adhesive strength. In addition, it has been observed that gecko setae is capable of self-cleaning and becomes cleaner with repeated use. The common contaminants, such as sand, dust, leaf litter and pollen, hardly impact the gecko setae adhesion, unlike the other adhesives.
Synthetic setae that emulates the setae found on the toes of geckos has been researched and fabricated. Similar with the gecko setae, when pressure is applied to marry the synthetic setae contact with an opposing surface, a strong attraction force can be formed between the setae and the opposing surface when the synthetic setae is subject to a compressive pressure against the opposing surface. The setae can be readily removed from the surface when subject to a separating force. The degree of bonding may be influenced by the amount of pressure which is used to apply the adhesive to the surface. Principals of gecko setae adhesion and fabrications of gecko-like setae adhesive are disclosed in U.S. patent publication No. US20030208888, by Fearing et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 7,335,271 by Autumn et al, both of which are incorporated by reference herein.
Therefore, it would be advantageous to provide a reusable bonding mechanism that allows a user to conveniently secure a mobile device to various sturdy surfaces that are commonly encountered in everyday life, regardless of the orientation and material of the surfaces. Embodiments of the present disclosure exploit a synthetic setae array coupled to the exterior housing of a mobile computing device to bind the mobile device to various supporting surfaces temporarily once a pressure is applied thereon. The synthetic setae are characteristic of strong adhesion which can hold the mobile device against the weight of the mobile device. The mobile device can be detached from the supporting surface without damaging or leaving residue on the external surface whenever sufficient force is applied to separate the synthetic setae from the surface. Thereby, a user can easily find a receptive surface to secure the mobile device thereon, including a vertical or horizontal surface, and advantageously view the display panel in desired angles with hands free.
In one embodiment of present disclosure, a mobile computing device comprises a processor, a memory, a bus, a display panel, and an exterior housing. The exterior housing comprises a synthetic setae member array operable to selectively secure the exterior housing to an extrinsic surface by adhesive force. The exterior housing is configured to contain the processor, the memory, the bus and secure the display panel. The exterior housing may be released from the extrinsic surface when a mechanical force is applied to disengage the adhesive force. The extrinsic force may be a solid surface of an area of a door, a wall, a desk, a window, or a cardboard. The synthetic setae member array is reusable for selectively securing a plurality of types of extrinsic surfaces.
In another embodiment of present disclosure, an apparatus operable to adhesively attach a mobile computing device to various external solid surfaces comprises a fabricated setae component comprising a plurality of elongated protractions and a substrate supporting the protrusions. The protrusions are operable to adhere to the various external solid surfaces by intermolecular van der Waals forces. The apparatus further comprises a base component supporting the setae member and operable to be coupled with a housing of the mobile computing device. The apparatus may be a detachable accessory to the mobile device. The external solid surfaces may comprise a glass surface, a wall paint surface, a wooden surface, a metal surface, a tile surface, a brick surface, a concrete surface, a plastic surface, or a combination thereof.
In another embodiment of present disclosure, a mobile computing device comprises a processor, a display panel, a memory, a bus, an exterior housing, and a reusable dry adhesive member coupled to the housing. The reusable dry adhesive member is operable to adhere the housing onto various external supporting surfaces. The adhesive member comprises a plurality of fibriliar protrusions and a substrate supporting the protrusions. When engaged, the fibriliar protrusions are operable to adhere to various supporting surfaces via van der Waals forces. The mobile device may further comprises control circuitry coupled to the adhesive member, and a GUI configured to instruct the control circuit to selectively activate or deactivate the reusable dry adhesive member in response to a user request. The exterior housing may comprise a slide cover operable to cover adhesive member to isolate it from various external supporting surfaces.
The foregoing is a summary and thus contains, by necessity, simplifications, generalizations and omissions of detail; consequently, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the summary is illustrative only and is not intended to be in any way limiting. Other aspects, inventive features, and advantages of the present invention, as defined solely by the claims, will become apparent in the non-limiting detailed description set forth below.
Embodiments of the present invention will be better understood from a reading of the following detailed description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawing figures in which like reference characters designate like elements and in which:
Reference will now be made in detail to the preferred embodiments of the present invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. While the invention will be described in conjunction with the preferred embodiments, it will be understood that they are not intended to limit the invention to these embodiments. On the contrary, the invention is intended to cover alternatives, modifications and equivalents, which may be included within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims. Furthermore, in the following detailed description of embodiments of the present invention, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. However, it will be recognized by one of ordinary skill in the art that the present invention may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known methods, procedures, components, and circuits have not been described in detail so as not to unnecessarily obscure aspects of the embodiments of the present invention. The drawings showing embodiments of the invention are semi-diagrammatic and not to scale and, particularly, some of the dimensions are for the clarity of presentation and are shown exaggerated in the drawing Figures. Similarly, although the views in the drawings for the ease of description generally show similar orientations, this depiction in the Figures is arbitrary for the most part. Generally, the invention can be operated in any orientation.
It should be borne in mind, however, that all of these and similar terms are to be associated with the appropriate physical quantities and are merely convenient labels applied to these quantities. Unless specifically stated otherwise as apparent from the following discussions, it is appreciated that throughout the present invention, discussions utilizing terms such as “processing” or “accessing” or “executing” or “storing” or “rendering” or the like, refer to the action and processes of a computer system, or similar electronic computing device, that manipulates and transforms data represented as physical (electronic) quantities within the computer system's registers and memories and other computer readable media into other data similarly represented as physical quantities within the computer system memories or registers or other such information storage, transmission or display devices. When a component appears in several embodiments, the use of the same reference numeral signifies that the component is the same component as illustrated in the original embodiment.
As used therein synthetic setae may include a dry adhesive material comprising nanoscale hairs extending from a substrate capable of conforming to and adhering to an opposing surface.
When a user applies a force to separate synthetic setae member 103 from the extrinsic solid surface, the synthetic setae member 103 along with the mobile computing device can be lifted off from the surface without damaging or leaving residue. The synthetic setae member 103 is reusable for securing the mobile device to a variety of different surfaces. In some embodiments, the synthetic setae member 103 is capable of self-cleaning and becomes cleaner with repeated use.
According to the illustrated example, the exemplary setae member 103 is in a square shape. However, the present disclosure is not limited by the physical attributes of the synthetic setae member or member array, including sizes, shapes, arrangement pattern, locations and quantity. For example, the mobile computing device may comprise four round shape setae members located in the corners of the device respectively. In some embodiments, the foregoing physical attributes can be configured based on the weight and shape of the mobile device during the design process.
The synthetic setae member or member array may be an integral and fixed part of the mobile device housing. The synthetic setae member may be fastened to the mobile device housing any feasible means. In some other embodiments, a synthetic setae member may be a component of a peripheral accessory, for instance a protection case, that can be attached to and detached from the mobile device at a user's will.
In some embodiments, a setae member associated with a mobile computing device can create adequate attraction force to hold the device against its gravity. That is, the mobile device can be hung on a vertical sturdy surface merely by virtue of the attraction forces.
Synthetic setae member 103 can adhere to a variety of surfaces commonly encountered in a user's everyday life, including the surfaces of a wall, furniture, a window, cardboard, etc. The surfaces can be made of a wide range of solid material, such as glass, wall paint, wood, metal, tile, bricks, concrete, plastic, or a combination thereof. Thus, a user can easily find such a solid surface to secure the mobile device and use it hands-free in a desired orientation.
The present disclosure is not limited to any particular fabrication method, material composition and specific microstructure of the setae member or member array. For example, in some embodiments, a setae member can be made of polymers, either hydrophobic or hydrophilic, like polyimide, polystyrene, parylene, polyurethane, polydimethyl siloxane, polypropylene, and/or combinations thereof. In some other embodiments, a setae member may be made of cyclodextrins, crown ethers, polyhedral oligometric silsequioxanes, or combinations thereof. In still some other embodiments, a setae member can be made of carbon nanotubes. Fabrication may include processes by one or more of photolithography/electron beam lithography, plasma etching, deep reactive ion etching (DRIE), chemical vapor deposition (CVD), and micro-moulding, etc.
Typically synthetic setae material comprises a substrate and a plurality of adhesive hairs arising from the substrate that mimic the spatula of gecko setae. In some embodiments, each hair may provide an adhesive force between about 60 to 2000 nano-Newtons. For instance, a plurality of adhesive hairs may have a surface density of approximately 500 hairs per square millimeter. The substrate may be flexible or rigid.
As shown in
Despite the convenience afforded by synthesis setae adhesive, it may be desirable that the adhesion forces can only be engaged when a user so intends.
The method of using synthetic setae as reusable adhesive can be employed in association with any type of mobile computing device in accordance with the present disclosure. For example, the mobile computing device can be smart phones, laptops, personal digital assistances, media players, touch pads, or alike.
According to the illustrated embodiment in
The main processor 621 can be implemented as one or more integrated circuits and can control the operation of mobile computing device 600. In some embodiments, the main processor 621 can execute a variety of operating systems and software programs and can maintain multiple concurrently executing programs or processes. The storage device 624 can store user data and application programs to be executed by main processor 621, such as the live audio effect GUI programs, video game programs, personal information data, media play back programs. The storage device 624 can be implemented using disk, flash memory, or any other non-volatile storage medium.
Network or communication interface 634 can provide voice and/or data communication capability for mobile computing devices. In some embodiments, network interface can include radio frequency (RF) transceiver components for accessing wireless voice and/or data networks or other mobile communication technologies, GPS receiver components, or combination thereof. In some embodiments, network interface 634 can provide wired network connectivity instead of or in addition to a wireless interface. Network interface 634 can be implemented using a combination of hardware, e.g. antennas, modulators/demodulators, encoders/decoders, and other analog/digital signal processing circuits, and software components.
I/O interfaces 625 can provide communication and control between the mobile computing device 600 and a touch screen panel and other external I/O devices (not shown), e.g. a computer, an external speaker dock or media playback station, a digital camera, a separate display device, a card reader, a disc drive, in-car entertainment system, a storage device, user input devices or the like. The processor 621 can then execute pertinent GUI instructions, such as the live audio effect GUI as in
Although certain preferred embodiments and methods have been disclosed herein, it will be apparent from the foregoing disclosure to those skilled in the art that variations and modifications of such embodiments and methods may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. It is intended that the invention shall be limited only to the extent required by the appended claims and the rules and principles of applicable law.
