JP2001065540A - Hinge mechanism and electronic device equipped with hinge mechanism - Google Patents

Abstract

[PROBLEMS] To reduce the size of a hinge mechanism 3 of a liquid crystal panel 2 in a recording / reproducing video camera 1 or the like provided with an electronic device, for example, a display device such as a liquid crystal panel 2 on one side. This provides a hinge mechanism that can make the entire video camera device compact. SOLUTION: A first rotation shaft 11 for turning the liquid crystal panel 2 upright and a second rotation shaft 12 for turning the liquid crystal panel 2 are orthogonal to each other. And the first and second rotating shafts 11, 12
The hinge mechanism 3 is configured such that the extension line of the hinge mechanism is closest to or different from the extension line of each axis.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a hinge mechanism and an electronic device equipped with the hinge mechanism, and more particularly, to a camera integrated type having a display device such as a liquid crystal panel on one side for recording and reproducing moving images and still images. A hinge mechanism for reducing the size of a recording / reproducing apparatus, for example, a hinge mechanism of a liquid crystal display panel of a video camera apparatus, so that the entire video camera apparatus can be made compact. It relates to a playback device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in this type of video camera device, as shown in FIGS. 8 and 9, a liquid crystal display panel as a display device is provided on one side of a video camera main body and hinged to the main body. The display device is turned upright by the mechanism, and the turning operation is further enabled.

FIG. 8 is a perspective view showing the appearance of a liquid crystal display panel of this conventional camera in a non-use state.
A liquid crystal display panel 61 is arranged on one side of the video camera main body indicated by reference numeral 0. The liquid crystal panel 61 is coupled to the video camera main body 60 by a hinge mechanism 62, and the video camera main body 6 has a panel display surface on the back side.
It is housed in a housing part 60a formed at zero. 63
Is an electronic viewfinder mounted on the video camera main unit 60.

[0004] The liquid crystal display panel 61 constructed as described above.
FIG. 9 is an external perspective view of the rotating state, as shown in FIG.
Video shooting can be performed while viewing the image shown in 1a.

Further, the liquid crystal display panel 61 can be turned 180 ° about the hinge mechanism 62 from the state shown in FIG. 9 and the panel display surface 61a faces the photographing side in this state. It is configured so that video shooting can be performed while showing the photographed image to the photographer.

[0006]

However, there is room for improvement in the hinge mechanism 62 for raising and lowering the liquid crystal display panel 61 and performing the reversing operation. The hinge mechanism 62 includes a first rotation mechanism for rotating the liquid crystal display panel 61 between the upright position and the storage position, and a second rotation mechanism for turning the liquid crystal display panel 61 in the upright position and turning. And a so-called biaxial hinge mechanism having a moving mechanism.

In this type of biaxial hinge mechanism, since the wiring of the liquid crystal panel passes through the hinge mechanism in the form of a wire or a flexible printed board along the second pivot mechanism for pivoting operation, The outer diameter of the rotating part cannot be made smaller than a certain degree. Also, since it constitutes a part that generates rotational torque in the thrust direction of the rotating shaft,
Similarly, the outer diameter of the rotating part is governed by the required torque and cannot be made smaller than a certain degree, so that the size of the biaxial hinge mechanism becomes large, and the width direction of the video camera device and the front of the liquid crystal panel (on the photographer side) are increased. There was a problem that the size was inevitably increased. In recent years, liquid crystal display panels have become thinner, and the thickness of the biaxial hinge mechanism has become thicker than the thickness of the liquid crystal display panel, which has been a problem in that the size of the video camera device has been hindered.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and the first and second rotation axes are arranged so as to be orthogonal to each other. It is an object of the present invention to reduce the size of the video camera device by configuring the hinge mechanism so that an extension line of the first rotation axis and the second rotation axis intersect each other in the extension of the axes. .

[0009]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, in the present invention, there is provided an electronic apparatus such as a hinge mechanism shown in any of the following items (1) to (7) or a video camera equipped with the hinge mechanism. Thus, the above object is achieved.

(1) A first rotation axis and a second rotation axis are arranged so as to be orthogonal to each other, and the first rotation axis and the second rotation axis
A hinge mechanism characterized in that an extension line with the rotation axis of each of the robots is closest to or intersects with the extension line of the other axis.

(2) The hinge mechanism according to the above (1), wherein the first rotation shaft support member and the second rotation shaft support member are formed integrally.

(3) The hinge mechanism according to the above (1), wherein the rotation angle of the first rotation axis is smaller than the rotation angle of the second rotation axis.

(4) The hinge mechanism according to the above item (1), wherein the first rotation shaft and the second rotation shaft are provided with a torque mechanism having a predetermined torque value.

(5) The hinge mechanism according to the item (3), wherein the torque value of the second rotation shaft is larger than the torque value of the first rotation shaft.

(6) The hinge mechanism according to the above (1), wherein the display device is provided on one surface of the electronic device main body, and the hinge for raising and turning the display device relative to the main body is provided. An electronic device characterized by being equipped with.

(7) At least one of the center of the first rotation axis and the center of the second rotation axis is arranged substantially flush with an outer wall surface of the display device or the main body. The electronic device according to the above (6).

[0017]

According to the structure of the present invention as described above, the size of the hinge mechanism can be reduced. By using the hinge mechanism for a liquid crystal display panel of a video camera, for example, the size of an electronic device such as a video camera can be reduced. be able to.

[0018]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment in which the embodiment of the present invention is applied to a video camera apparatus having a liquid crystal display panel will be described below as a typical example of electronic equipment.

[0019]

(Construction) FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the appearance of a video camera apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, in which a liquid crystal display panel is not used. In FIG. 1, a liquid crystal display panel 2 is arranged on one side of a video camera main body 1.
The liquid crystal display panel 2 is connected by a biaxial hinge mechanism 3, and is housed in a housing 1a formed in the video camera body 1 with the panel display surface 2a on the back side. Reference numeral 4 denotes a front lens of the camera mechanism, and reference numeral 5 denotes a battery as a power supply.

FIG. 2 is a front view of the video camera main body 1 and the liquid crystal display panel 2 as viewed from the photographer side when the display panel is upright when the display panel is upright and configured to be connected by the biaxial hinge mechanism 3. Is a side view of FIG. 2, and FIG.
3 is a perspective view of an assembled state of FIG.

First, the details of the biaxial hinge mechanism 3 will be described. The support plate 10 is supported on both the first rotating shaft 11 and the second rotating shaft 12 so as to be wound around the respective shafts 11 and 12. Reference numeral 13 denotes a mounting plate for the video camera body 1, which is rotatably wound around the first rotation shaft 11. Reference numeral 14 denotes a mounting plate for the liquid crystal display panel 2, which is similarly rotatably wound around the second rotation shaft 12. The material of the mounting plates 13 and 14 is, for example, stainless steel SUS30.
4, and generates torque during rotation between the rotating shaft 11 and the rotating shaft 12.

In this case, the first rotating shaft 11 and the second rotating shaft 12 are arranged so as to be orthogonal to each other, and to intersect with the central axis on an extension of each shaft. In the embodiment of the present invention, the two rotating shafts 11 and 12 have the same shaft diameter, that is, the two shafts are arranged on the same plane.

2 and 3, reference numeral 15 denotes a support plate cover,
Reference numeral 16 denotes a flexible printed board (hereinafter referred to as “FP”) for connecting the liquid crystal panel 2 to a substrate in the video camera body 1.
C "), 17 is an FPC cover,
17 is disposed between the support plate 10 and the support plate cover 15. The FPC cover 17 is rotatably provided below the liquid crystal display panel 2 and serves to cover the FPC 16 so that the FPC 16 cannot be seen from the outside. The attachment plate 13 to the video camera main body 1 is screwed to the video camera main body 1. The liquid crystal display panel 2 is screwed to the liquid crystal display panel mounting plate 14.

With the above configuration, the liquid crystal display panel 2 can rotate about the second rotation shaft 12. For the video camera body 1,
The support plate 10 and the liquid crystal display panel can rotate integrally about the first rotation shaft 11.

In FIG. 1, the center of the first rotating shaft 11 and the center of the second rotating shaft 12 are
Is arranged so as to coincide with the outer wall surface of the liquid crystal display panel 2 and the outer wall surface of the liquid crystal display panel 2, so that the protrusion of the hinge portion 3 only needs to be the radius of each rotating shaft diameter.

FIG. 5 shows a state in which the liquid crystal display panel 2 is turned upright to the upright position to enable video shooting while viewing an image projected on the panel display surface 2a. That is, it has been rotated 90 ° about the first rotation shaft 11 from the state of FIG. From the state of FIG. 1, the liquid crystal display panel 2 is opened by putting a finger on the liquid crystal display panel 2 from the concave portion 1 b provided in the video camera main body 1. At this time, the liquid crystal display panel 2
However, the rotation torque of the rotation shaft 12 is set to be larger than the torque of the rotation shaft 11 so as not to rotate around the second rotation shaft 12.

FIG. 6 shows a state in which the liquid crystal display panel 2 is rotated by 180 ° from an upright position to enable video shooting while showing an image projected on the panel display surface 2a to a subject. That is, it is in a state of being rotated by 180 ° about the second rotation shaft 12 from the state of FIG. Then F
The PC cover 17 rotates together with the liquid crystal display panel 2 and is exposed to the subject, but the FPC 16 remains invisible from the outside.

FIG. 7 shows a state in which the liquid crystal display panel 2 is rotated from the upright position (the state of FIG. 5) by 60 ° in a direction opposite to that of FIG. 6 to enable so-called high-angle video shooting. That is, it is a state in which it has been rotated by 60 ° from the state of FIG. 5 around the second rotation shaft 12 in the direction opposite to the state of FIG.

(Operation) As described above, according to the present invention, the first rotating shaft 11 and the second rotating shaft 12 are arranged so as to be orthogonal to each other, and the extension lines of the respective shafts are mutually aligned. Are configured to intersect closest on the extension of the axis of
Since the two shafts 11 and 12 are configured to be supported by one part of the support plate 10, the size of the biaxial hinge mechanism can be reduced, particularly, the thickness and the cost can be reduced. Also, by using the hinge mechanism of the embodiment of the present invention for a video camera, the thickness of the video camera device can be reduced.

(Other Embodiments) The present invention is not limited to the embodiment described above and shown in the drawings, but may be variously modified without departing from the gist thereof. Of course.

In the above embodiment of the present invention, an example was described in which the liquid crystal display panel 2 was mounted on the video camera main body 1 of the video camera device via a small two-axis hinge mechanism 3. Is, of course, not limited to a video camera, but can of course be widely applied to a two-axis hinge mechanism between an electronic device main body and a display body other than the video camera device.

[0032]

As described above, according to the hinge mechanism of the present invention, the size of the biaxial hinge mechanism can be made very small, and the electronic apparatus such as a video camera apparatus can be made thinner. There is an effect that the whole can be reduced in size.
Also, in the case of a video camera or the like, the liquid crystal display panel can be made thinner, which has the effect of increasing the degree of freedom in design. Further, there are various effects such as that the configuration of the biaxial hinge mechanism having a small number of parts can contribute to a reduction in cost.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an external perspective view of a non-use state of a liquid crystal display panel of a video camera device according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a front view of the biaxial hinge mechanism of FIG. 1 when the liquid crystal display panel is upright;

FIG. 3 is a side sectional view of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is an external perspective view of a biaxial hinge mechanism.

FIG. 5 is an external perspective view of the video camera device in use in which the liquid crystal display panel is rotated to an upright position.

FIG. 6 is an external perspective view of the video camera device in a used state where the display surface of the liquid crystal display panel is inverted.

FIG. 7 is an external perspective view of the video camera device in a high-angle shooting state.

FIG. 8 is an external perspective view of a non-use state of a liquid crystal display panel of an example of a conventional video camera device.

9 is an external perspective view of the liquid crystal display panel of the video camera device in FIG. 8 in a rotating state.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Video camera main body part 1a accommodation part 2 Liquid crystal display panel 2a Panel display surface 3 Two-axis hinge mechanism 10 Support plate 11 1st rotation axis 12 2nd rotation axis

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A first rotation axis and a second rotation axis are arranged so as to be orthogonal to each other, and an extension line of the first rotation axis and the second rotation axis is different from each other. A hinge mechanism which is closest to or intersects on the extension line of the hinge. 2. The hinge mechanism according to claim 1, wherein the first rotation shaft support member and the second rotation shaft support member are integrally formed. 3. The rotation angle of the first rotation axis is the second rotation axis.
2. The rotation angle of the rotation shaft is smaller than the rotation angle of the rotation shaft.
The described hinge mechanism. 4. The hinge mechanism according to claim 1, wherein the first rotation shaft and the second rotation shaft are provided with a torque mechanism having a predetermined torque value. 5. The hinge mechanism according to claim 3, wherein a torque value of the second rotation axis is larger than a torque value of the first rotation axis. 6. The hinge mechanism according to claim 1, wherein a display device is provided on one surface of the electronic device main body, and the hinge mechanism according to claim 1 is mounted on a hinge for raising and turning the display device relative to the main body. Electronic equipment characterized by the following. 7. The center of the first rotation axis or the second rotation axis.
7. The electronic apparatus according to claim 6, wherein at least one of the centers of the rotation shafts is disposed substantially flush with an outer wall surface of the display device or the main body.