Patent Application
20220109782
Individuals frequently utilize cameras on their information handling devices (“devices”), for example laptop computers, clamshell-style smart phones, other type of convertible devices, and the like, to capture images and/or videos. For example, a user may utilize a front-facing camera to capture a self-image or, alternatively, may utilize a world-facing camera to capture a world view image.
In summary, one aspect provides a convertible device, comprising: a first cover, the first cover comprising a camera system including at least one world-facing camera; and a second cover movable relative to the first cover between at least a first position and a second position, the second cover including a visibility portion defining a pathway for light transmission to the camera system in the second position.
Another aspect provides a base portion of a convertible device, comprising: a user input interface located on a top side of the base portion; and a visibility portion, positioned at a different location than the user input interface, defining a pathway for light transmission through the top side and a bottom side of the base portion.
Yet a further aspect provides a foldable electronic device, comprising: a front side, the front side comprising: a camera system including a front-facing camera; and a user input portion; a back side, the back side comprising another camera system including a world-facing camera; and a visibility portion defining a pathway for light transmission, through the foldable electronic device, to the another camera system when the foldable electronic device is situated in a folded orientation
The foregoing is a summary and thus may contain 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.
For a better understanding of the embodiments, together with other and further features and advantages thereof, reference is made to the following description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. The scope of the invention will be pointed out in the appended claims.
It will be readily understood that the components of the embodiments, as generally described and illustrated in the figures herein, may be arranged and designed in a wide variety of different configurations in addition to the described example embodiments. Thus, the following more detailed description of the example embodiments, as represented in the figures, is not intended to limit the scope of the embodiments, as claimed, but is merely representative of example embodiments.
Reference throughout this specification to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment” (or the like) means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment. Thus, the appearance of the phrases “in one embodiment” or “in an embodiment” or the like in various places throughout this specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment.
Furthermore, the described features, structures, or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments. In the following description, numerous specific details are provided to give a thorough understanding of embodiments. One skilled in the relevant art will recognize, however, that the various embodiments can be practiced without one or more of the specific details, or with other methods, components, materials, et cetera. In other instances, well known structures, materials, or operations are not shown or described in detail to avoid obfuscation.
Conventional convertible laptop devices (“convertible devices”) are generally equipped with only a single front-facing camera. Users may utilize this camera to take self-images and/or videos (colloquially known as “selfies”), participate in video chats with other users, participate in virtual meetings, etc. World-facing cameras, however, are often omitted from convertible devices for a variety of reasons. For instance, the sensor stack for the world-facing camera is expensive to implement into the device (e.g., into the A-cover of the device, etc.). Additionally, as another example, the size of the world-facing camera sensor stack prevents it from neatly fitting into traditional AB cover designs. Furthermore, the lack of world-facing applications in the PC software ecosystem does not drive demand for such a configuration.
Although capable of providing some utility, the front-facing camera sensor configuration severely limits a user's capability of performing a variety of different functions when the device is in tablet or clamshell mode. More particularly, the lack of a world-facing camera on convertible devices prevents users from capturing high quality world facing pictures and/or videos, developing various augmented reality and/or mixed reality applications, performing high-level facial recognition and object detection processes, and other like functions.
The convertible devices that are equipped with a world-facing camera (e.g., on the A-cover or C-cover of the convertible device) have their own issues and restrict usage in certain modes. For example, a camera positioned on the C-cover of a device that is situated in laptop mode may simply face up towards the ceilings, effectively making it useless. Similarly, a single world-facing camera cannot be situated on the A-cover of a conventional convertible device because it's usage in tablet mode would be restricted (i.e., the camera would be blocked by the D-cover).
Accordingly, a convertible device is provided that contains a world-facing sensor stack in the A-cover as well as a visibility portion in the C/D cover. In an embodiment, the visibility portion may be associated with a cutout in the C/D cover (e.g., a cutout hole, a cutout portion, etc.). In another embodiment, the visibility portion may be associated with an optically clear lens on the C/D cover. In yet another embodiment, the visibility portion may be associated with at least a partially detachable portion of the C/D cover. In yet another embodiment, the visibility portion may be associated with a foldable portion of the C/D cover. In yet another embodiment, the visibility portion may be associated with a piece of electrochromic glass. All of the aforementioned visibility portions will be described in greater depth herein and may allow a user to effectively utilize a world-facing camera in all positional usage modes of a convertible device.
The illustrated example embodiments will be best understood by reference to the figures. The following description is intended only by way of example, and simply illustrates certain example embodiments.
While various other circuits, circuitry or components may be utilized in information handling devices, with regard to smart phone and/or tablet circuitry 100, an example illustrated in
There are power management chip(s) 130, e.g., a battery management unit, BMU, which manage power as supplied, for example, via a rechargeable battery 140, which may be recharged by a connection to a power source (not shown). In at least one design, a single chip, such as 110, is used to supply BIOS like functionality and DRAM memory.
System 100 typically includes one or more of a WWAN transceiver 150 and a WLAN transceiver 160 for connecting to various networks, such as telecommunications networks and wireless Internet devices, e.g., access points. Additionally, devices 120 are commonly included, e.g., an image sensor such as a camera, audio capture device such as a microphone, etc. System 100 often includes one or more touch screens 170 for data input and display/rendering. System 100 also typically includes various memory devices, for example flash memory 180 and SDRAM 190.
The example of
In
In
The system, upon power on, may be configured to execute boot code 290 for the BIOS 268, as stored within the SPI Flash 266, and thereafter processes data under the control of one or more operating systems and application software (for example, stored in system memory 240). An operating system may be stored in any of a variety of locations and accessed, for example, according to instructions of the BIOS 268. As described herein, a device may include fewer or more features than shown in the system of
Information handling device circuitry, as for example outlined in
In the context of this application, it should be understood that a convertible device may be defined as any electronic device that has two covers, i.e., a first cover and a second cover, that are attached together and that may be movable with respect to each other. The first cover may contain, inter alia, a display portion whereas the second cover may contain, inter alia, a user input portion (e.g., physical or virtual keyboard, touch input portion, etc.). Each of these covers has a front and back side that is identified by a conventional cover designation as known in the art (e.g., A-cover, B-cover, C-cover, D-cover, AB-cover, and/or C/D-cover). More particularly, an A-cover may refer to a front side of the first cover, a B-cover may refer to a back side of the first cover (i.e., the side of a clamshell device conventionally containing a display screen), a C-cover may refer to a front side of the second cover (i.e., the side of a clamshell device conventionally containing a user input portion).
Additionally, different types of “visibility portions” are further described herein. These visibility portions provide a way for light to travel through a C/D-cover of a convertible device and reach a sensor stack associated with a worldview camera (e.g., positioned on an A-cover of the convertible device) when the convertible device is adjusted from a clamshell configuration to a tablet configuration (i.e., where the A-cover faces, is parallel to, and/or physically touches the D-cover). Physical and/or dimensional aspects (e.g., size, shape, position, functionality, etc.) of the different types of visibility portions may be configured to accommodate corresponding physical and/or dimensional aspects of the sensor stack associated with the worldview camera.
Referring now to
As a non-limiting example of the foregoing, the cutout hole 30 in
While in clamshell mode, the presence of the worldview camera on the A-cover allows a user to naturally leverage world-facing camera functionality. Additionally, when the convertible device is rotated into tablet mode, the cutout hole allows users to still leverage the functionality of world-facing camera. More particularly, the cutout hole prevents the C/D-cover of the convertible device from obstructing a field of view of the world-facing camera while in tablet mode.
Referring now to
The presence of the cutout hole and/or the cutout portion enables designers to leverage larger optics/lenses in the cutouts. Additionally, camera capabilities can be enhanced with various “inserts”, similar to how a camera can attach different types of lenses such as telephoto, wide angle, macro, etc. More particularly, these inserts can snugly fit into the cutout hole or overhang through the cutout portion when the convertible device is folded closed. Referring now to
Referring now to
In an embodiment, the optically clear lens may be electrochromic glass, a.k.a., “smart glass” or “switchable glass”. In this situation, the light transmission properties of the optically clear lens may be altered when voltage, light, or heat is applied to it. More particularly, as a non-limiting example, the optically clear lens may be opaque while the convertible device is oriented in clamshell mode and thereafter adjusted to be translucent when in tablet mode. This adjustment may be facilitated by the method described below.
Turning now to
Responsive to not detecting any indication, at 701, to adjust the opacity of the optically clear lens, an embodiment may, at 702, take no additional action. Conversely, responsive to detecting an indication, at 701, to adjust the opacity of the optically clear lens, an embodiment may, at 703, facilitate opacity adjustment. In an embodiment, a voltage controller may be resident within the convertible device that is responsible for transmitting a burst of electricity to the optically clear lens. The electricity burst may be transmitted by the voltage controller in response to receiving a communication from the system that the indication to adjust the opacity of the optically clear lens has been detected. Upon receiving the electric burst, the opacity of the optically clear lens may be adjusted between two stages (e.g., from substantially translucent to substantially opaque, and vice versa). Once the opacity has been adjusted, a continued electric charge is not required. Stated differently, an embodiment may remain in the adjusted state until a subsequent burst of electricity is detected.
Referring now to
In an embodiment, the attachment and/or detachment of the detachable portion may provide an indication to the system to perform a predetermined function with respect to the world-facing camera. For example, referring now to
Although the embodiments listed above were described with reference to a convertible device (i.e., a device consisting of two primary sections or parts, e.g., a base section and a display section), such a designation is not limiting. More particularly, the concepts described throughout this application may also be implemented on a single-bodied device (e.g., a smart phone or tablet, etc.). Such a device may be a foldable device having a touch-sensitive display screen that may fold over itself (e.g., horizontally in half, vertically in half, etc.).
Referring now to
The various embodiments described herein thus represent a technical improvement to conventional world-facing camera configurations on various types of electronic devices (e.g., convertible devices, foldable devices, etc.). Using the embodiments described herein, users can effectively utilize a world-facing camera on a convertible device in laptop mode or tablet mode. Additionally, the embodiments described herein further negate the need to add two or more world-facing cameras onto multiple covers in order to allow a user to leverage world-facing camera functionality between modes.
As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, various aspects may be embodied as a system, method or device program product. Accordingly, aspects may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment or an embodiment including software that may all generally be referred to herein as a “circuit,” “module” or “system.” Furthermore, aspects may take the form of a device program product embodied in one or more device readable medium(s) having device readable program code embodied therewith.
It should be noted that the various functions described herein may be implemented using instructions stored on a device readable storage medium such as a non-signal storage device that are executed by a processor. A storage device may be, for example, a system, apparatus, or device (e.g., an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device) or any suitable combination of the foregoing. More specific examples of a storage device/medium include the following: a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory), an optical fiber, a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. In the context of this document, a storage device is not a signal and “non-transitory” includes all media except signal media.
Program code embodied on a storage medium may be transmitted using any appropriate medium, including but not limited to wireless, wireline, optical fiber cable, RF, et cetera, or any suitable combination of the foregoing.
Program code for carrying out operations may be written in any combination of one or more programming languages. The program code may execute entirely on a single device, partly on a single device, as a stand-alone software package, partly on single device and partly on another device, or entirely on the other device. In some cases, the devices may be connected through any type of connection or network, including a local area network (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN), or the connection may be made through other devices (for example, through the Internet using an Internet Service Provider), through wireless connections, e.g., near-field communication, or through a hard wire connection, such as over a USB connection.
Example embodiments are described herein with reference to the figures, which illustrate example methods, devices and program products according to various example embodiments. It will be understood that the actions and functionality may be implemented at least in part by program instructions. These program instructions may be provided to a processor of a device, a special purpose information handling device, or other programmable data processing device to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via a processor of the device implement the functions/acts specified.
It is worth noting that while specific blocks are used in the figures, and a particular ordering of blocks has been illustrated, these are non-limiting examples. In certain contexts, two or more blocks may be combined, a block may be split into two or more blocks, or certain blocks may be re-ordered or re-organized as appropriate, as the explicit illustrated examples are used only for descriptive purposes and are not to be construed as limiting.
As used herein, the singular “a” and “an” may be construed as including the plural “one or more” unless clearly indicated otherwise.
This disclosure has been presented for purposes of illustration and description but is not intended to be exhaustive or limiting. Many modifications and variations will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art. The example embodiments were chosen and described in order to explain principles and practical application, and to enable others of ordinary skill in the art to understand the disclosure for various embodiments with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated.
Thus, although illustrative example embodiments have been described herein with reference to the accompanying figures, it is to be understood that this description is not limiting and that various other changes and modifications may be affected therein by one skilled in the art without departing from the scope or spirit of the disclosure.
