U.S. patent application number 11/980755 was filed with the patent office on 2008-10-23 for mobile telephone devices.
Invention is credited to Richard V. Jessop.
Application Number | 20080261661 11/980755 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 34798429 |
Filed Date | 2008-10-23 |
United States Patent
Application |
20080261661 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Jessop; Richard V. |
October 23, 2008 |
Mobile telephone devices
Abstract
An electronic device such as a mobile telephone device
incorporates a flexible keyboard within its casing, said keyboard
incorporating a plurality of switches or sensors distributed over
said keyboard area which detect finger pressure, or which
alternatively detect the presence of a finger adjacent to said
switch means, where said keyboard can be rolled-up around a central
roller located within the housing of said electronic device when
not in use, and can at least partially extracted from within said
electronic device when required, and laid flat for use as a
keyboard. The mobile telephone may also incorporates facilities to
modulate properties of light and/or sound which are emitted by
facilities incorporated within said phone to announce or signal to
a user an incoming call, where the particular properties of said
light and/or sound emitted are determined by a pre-programmed
relationship to properties of ambient sound and/or ambient light
detected by sensors incorporated within said phone.
Inventors: |
Jessop; Richard V.; (New
York, NY) |
Correspondence
Address: |
Pearl Cohen Zedek Latzer, LLP
1500 Broadway, 12th Floor
New York
NY
10036
US
|
Family ID: |
34798429 |
Appl. No.: |
11/980755 |
Filed: |
October 31, 2007 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
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11130432 |
May 16, 2005 |
7310080 |
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11980755 |
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09803445 |
Mar 9, 2001 |
6924792 |
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11130432 |
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60188474 |
Mar 10, 2000 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
455/567 ;
345/169 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G02B 26/004
20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
455/567 ;
345/169 |
International
Class: |
H04B 1/38 20060101
H04B001/38; G06F 3/02 20060101 G06F003/02 |
Claims
1. A flexible keyboard which is accommodated within the casing or
housing of a portable electronic device such as a mobile phone, or
other mobile wireless communication devices, personal organizers,
and the like; where said keyboard incorporates a plurality of
switches or sensors distributed over said keyboard area which
detect finger pressure, or which alternatively detect the presence
of a finger adjacent to said switch means; where said keyboard can
be rolled-up or scrolled-up around a central roller located within
the housing of said electronic device when not in use, and can be
unrolled or un-scrolled, and at least partially extracted from
within said electronic device when required, and laid flat for use
as a keyboard.
2. The flexible keyboard of claim 1, where said keyboard is not
incorporated within an electronic device when not in use, but is
instead attachable to, and detachable from, such a portable
electronic device, and where said keyboard can be scrolled up
around a central roller, and un-scrolled when required for use.
3. The flexible keyboard of claim 1, where said keyboard is not
incorporated within an electronic device when not in use; where
said keyboard can be scrolled up around a central roller, and
un-scrolled when required for use; and where said keyboard
communicates with said portable electronic device by means of a
wireless radio, optical or electromagnetic communications link
between said keyboard and said portable electronic device.
4. The flexible keyboard of claim 1, where said keyboard is not
incorporated within an electronic device when not in use; where
said keyboard can be scrolled up around a central roller, and
un-scrolled when required for use; and where capacitive sensing is
used as a switch means to detect the presence of a finger on one or
more keys of said keyboard.
5. A mobile or cellular phone which incorporates facilities to
modulate properties of light and/or sound which are emitted by
facilities incorporated within said phone to announce or signal to
a user an incoming call; where the particular properties of said
light and/or sound emitted by said phone for said purpose is
determined by a pre-programmed relationship to properties of
ambient sound and/or ambient light detected by sensors incorporated
within said phone.
6. The mobile phone of claim 5, where any of the following
properties of sound--amplitude, pitch, frequency or sequence of
pitches or frequencies or tones--generated by facilities
incorporated within said phone are modulated based upon a
pre-determined relationship between properties of ambient sound
detected by a microphone incorporated within said phone and
properties of sound generated by facilities incorporated within
said phone.
7. The mobile phone of claim 5, where the brightness or amplitude
of light emitted by light-generating facilities incorporated within
said phone is modulated in a pre-determined relationship to
properties of light detected by light-sensing sensors incorporated
within said phone.
8. The mobile phone of claim 5, where in addition, the time at
which said incoming call takes place is added to the factors
determining the particular properties of light and/or sound which
are generated.
9. The mobile phone of claim 5, where in addition, information
relating to properties of sound which is generated by
sound-generating facilities incorporated within said phone and is
monitored by a microphone incorporated within said phone is used as
the basis upon which properties light or sound generated by
facilities incorporated within said sound are modulated, calibrated
or determined.
Description
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
[0001] This application is a continuation of U.S. patent
application Ser. No. 11/130,432, filed May 16, 2005, which is a
continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/803,445, filed
Mar. 9, 2001, which claimed priority to U.S. Patent Application No.
60/188,474, filed Mar. 10, 2000, all of which applications are
incorporated by reference.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
[0002] The invention relates to flexible electronic keyboards or
keypads for portable electronic devices.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0003] There are various well-known electronic display means
enabling someone holding a stylus to `draw` or `write` on said
display means, and to see what they have drawn appear on, for
example, a colour LCD screen.
[0004] To accomplish the above, it is also known that a suitable
electrical charge at an electrode adjacent to an oil droplet, where
said droplet is located within a suitable electrolyte, and where
said droplet is separated from said electrode by a hydrophobic
polymer layer, can induce a change in the shape of an oil droplet,
thus changing the colour of a pixel on a screen.
[0005] It is similarly known that, in a similar system, a polar
liquid droplet may replace an oil droplet. The polar liquid droplet
may be moved when arranged with an insulating liquid surrounding
it, with a ground plane within proximity to the droplet/ insulating
liquid reservoir, and with a hydrophobic polymer insulating layer
located in between the droplet and more than one
separately-addressable adjacent electrodes. This can be
accomplished by charging, one by one, a number of electrodes
adjacent to said droplet so as to cause the hydrophobic property of
the local polymer surface to become hydrophilic, and causing the
droplet to be attracted successively to first one and then another
charged electrode-proximate location.
[0006] Arrangements for achieving these effects are described in
existing prior art.
[0007] To date, however, there are few if any colour display means
which are electronically `writeable` with a stylus, as well as
being electronically `erasable`, and which are low-cost to
manufacture.
[0008] Therefore, there is a need for a low-cost electronic display
means which can display in colour what is drawn or written on its
display area, and can later electronically erase the same displayed
items. Further, there is a need for low-cost colour display means
which do not employ, or which do not require, a stylus to achieve
satisfactory addressing. The purpose of some of the following
inventions is to exploit such approaches for a new application,
that of directing light onto, or through, differently-coloured
light filters so as to provide various different and innovative
display means.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0009] The invention provides a rolled-up keyboard which is
integral to, or which optionally is attachable to, small-sized
electronic devices, and which may be unrolled from its unused
position wrapped around a roller system when it is to be used as a
keypad or keyboard. By this means, a keyboard of larger size than
the physical dimensions of any one face of such aforesaid small
electronic devices can be conveniently stored in a small space when
not required, and quickly unrolled for use when a keypad is
required.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0010] FIG. 1 is a side view of an embodiment of the invention in
use as a flexible keyboard.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
[0011] Scrolling retractable keyboard for telephones, computers,
electronic organisers and the like. One of the problems with
electronic organisers, small computers of very small physical size
mobile telephones and suchlike small-sized electronic processing or
communicating devices, is that due to their small physical size, it
is often not easy to operate the small keyboards that are usually
integral to such units.
[0012] Whilst a mobile phone's numeric keyboard, for example, may
be quite adequate in size for dialing numbers, or even tapping in
very short sentences for text messages, it is certainly less
convenient and easy to use than, say, a PC's standard-sized
keyboard.
[0013] My invention (see diagram below) is a rolled-up keyboard
which is integral to, or which optionally is attachable to, such
small-sized electronic devices, and which may be unrolled from its
unused position wrapped around a roller system when it is to be
used as a keypad or keyboard. By this means, a keyboard of larger
size than the physical dimensions of any one face of such aforesaid
small electronic devices can be conveniently stored in a small
space when not required, and quickly unrolled for use when a keypad
is required.
[0014] FIG. 29 illustrates this idea: in a design approach in
essence similar to that of a retractable tape measure, a keypad of
suitable design so as to render it extremely thin and flexible, is
stored on a roller-type device which is optionally spring-loaded so
as to retract (or, optionally, extend) automatically when an
appropriately-located release means to achieve this is activated by
the user.
[0015] The keyboard may be made of any suitable flexible material
which may be rolled up on a roller within the storage facility
integral to, or attached to, the electronic device.
[0016] The keyboard may, optionally, be composed of a number of
flexible substrates with appropriately-positioned electrically
conductive, and insulating, elements integral to the design (in one
possible design approach similar, for example, to a conventional
membrane keypad), wherein pressure (or the presence of a finger
detected by any suitable sensor means) is applied at pre-designated
and, preferably, labelled locations on the key pad and thereby
causes two or more electrically conductive elements to touch, or
any other switch means to be connected, and thereby to make an
electrical circuit. The conductive elements will move to separate
from each other again when the pressure is released. Such a design
approach to a keypad is well-established.
[0017] Alternatively, the keyboard could be designed and made on
the basis of any suitable and practicable switch means, whereby the
pressure of, or presence of, a finger (for example) activates a
switch means, which then causes an electrical circuit to be made or
broken. As an example of a switch means where an electrical contact
is not physically made, a capacitive keypad could optionally be
used.
[0018] The keyboard may be electrically linked to the aforesaid
small electronic device by any suitable means. Alternatively, the
keypad may communicate with the small electronic device via any
suitable remote communication device--e.g., optical, R/F,
electromagnetic, capacitive, inductive, etc.
[0019] Optionally, the extendable, `roll-out` keypad may duplicate
some, or all, of the functions of a separate keypad which may be
integral to the aforesaid electronic device.
[0020] The invention has numerous applications in a multitude of
applications. While the invention has been described with reference
to preferred embodiments, it will be understood by those skilled in
the art that various changes may be made and equivalents may be
substituted for elements thereof without departing from the scope
of the invention.
[0021] In addition, many modifications may be made to adapt a
particular situation to the teachings of the invention without
departing from the essential scope thereof. Therefore, it is
intended that the invention not be limited to the particular
embodiment disclosed as the best mode contemplated for carrying out
this invention, but that the invention will include all embodiments
falling within the scope of the appended claims.
* * * * *