WO2007118355A1

WO2007118355A1 - An electronic device whose appearance can be set by a user and a method for setting appearance thereof

Info

Publication number: WO2007118355A1
Application number: PCT/CN2006/000697
Authority: WO
Inventors: Chuan Xu
Original assignee: Benq (Shanghai) Co., Ltd
Priority date: 2006-04-17
Filing date: 2006-04-17
Publication date: 2007-10-25

Abstract

An electronic device whose appearance can be set by a user and a method for setting appearance thereof. The said electronic device includes: a shell made-up with electronic paper material; a user interface which orders appearance information and rules for changing appearance; a control module communicating with the said user interface to receive appearance information ordered by the user and rules for changing appearance the said control module includes many controlling pin electrically connected with said shell and connects with the power supply of the electronic device, thus supplies to said shell and transmits data. The user can set the external surface of electronic device by oneself using the electronic device and method of the present invention.

Description

User can set the appearance of the electronic device and its appearance setting method

The present invention relates to an electronic device in which a user can set an appearance and a method of setting the appearance thereof. Background technique

In recent years, electronic devices such as mobile phones and personal digital assistants have become more and more popular. Users need not only functionally high-quality electronic devices, but also attractive electronic devices that are attractive in appearance, such as light weight, small size, and beautiful appearance. In the case of mobile phones, there are many well-designed and interesting mobile phones on the market, such as clamshell phones, slider phones, and candy bars. But most designs focus on the shape and function of mobile phones, such as cameras, digital cameras,

MP3 performance, etc. Users usually can't set the appearance of their mobile phone or change the appearance by changing the outer casing of the mobile phone. The user's ability to set the appearance of the mobile phone may be most attractive to the user, because the personalized setting is the consumer product. A more popular pursuit in the market.

No solution has been found to solve this specific problem. However, there are some similarities. For example, some Nokia products can change the shell of a phone, but only to statically change the casing of the phone. Currently, materials such as OLED (Organic Light Emitting Display) and Electronic Ink (E-ink) are used only for changes in mobile phone display screens and are not used for appearance changes.

In order to solve the above problems and meet market demands, the present invention provides an electronic device that allows a user to set the appearance and a method for setting the appearance thereof, so that the user can personally set the pattern and color of the electronic device. Summary of the invention

An object of the present invention is to provide an electronic device that can be set by a user and a method for determining the appearance thereof, so that the surface of the electronic device can have different appearances according to the needs of the user. The surface includes a side, a front part, a rear and a movable part (such as a battery Cover, keyboard or slider) colors, textures and images.

The present invention provides the user with the possibility to set the surface of their electronic device. The user can change the outer surface according to his own taste. This performance is very attractive because the user has previously chosen only the electronic device set by the manufacturer, and with the solution of the present invention, the user can choose to personalize the surface of the electronic device.

According to the present invention, an electronic device is provided in which a user can set the appearance by himself, including:

a housing made of an electronic paper material;

A user interface for customizing appearance information and appearance change rules;

a control module, the control module is coupled to the user interface to receive customized appearance information and appearance change rules, and the control module further includes a plurality of control pins, the control pin and the housing Connected to provide power to the housing of the electronic device and transmit data;

The control module processes the appearance information according to the received appearance change rule by using an algorithm that is internally provided, and transmits the processed appearance information to the housing through a control pin, and the housing receives The processed appearance information is displayed on the surface of the casing. And when the control module is in the power-on state, the surface of the housing can change the appearance information displayed on the surface of the housing according to the customized appearance information and the appearance change rule of the user. When the control module is in the power-off state, The housing surface is still capable of maintaining the appearance information.

Preferably, the electronic paper material is a soft and thin bendable, angled material. According to the invention, the casing is made of a reinforcing material, and the electronic paper material is placed on the surface of the casing

The electronic paper material of the present invention may be an electronic ink, an organic light-emitting device, a bistable cholesteric liquid crystal material or a rotating ball material, and may of course be other suitable materials.

According to the invention, the control module further includes an update module that controls the electronic device housing to update its displayed appearance information in accordance with a triggering event.

The housing includes a front side, a back side, a side and a movable part, and each part is At least one of the pins is electrically connected.

Preferably, the electronic device is a mobile phone, wherein the movable component refers to a component that can be frequently removed from the electronic device, such as a battery cover, a keyboard or a slide cover, and the like.

According to the present invention, the control module further includes an update module to control the electronic device housing to update the appearance information according to a trigger event.

According to the present invention, the control module further includes:

An automatic detection module that detects current appearance information of the movable component; and a synchronization module that controls appearance information of the movable component to be consistent with other portions of the electronic device housing, wherein when the automatic detection module detects activity When the current appearance information of the component does not match the appearance information of the other component, the synchronization module acquires the appearance information of the other component, and transmits the processed appearance information to the movable component through the control pin, and the movable component receives and The surface of the housing is synchronously displayed after processing the processing letter it

Preferably, the electronic device further includes an environmental sampling sensor that can sense external environmental information, wherein the environmental sampling sensor transmits the acquired external environment information to the control module, and the control module changes according to a customized appearance of the user. The rule uses the internal algorithm to process the environment information to obtain the processed appearance information, and transmits the processed appearance information to the shell through the control pin, so that the shell surface displays the processed appearance. information.

The appearance information may be picture information, may be a preset color change information preset by the user, and may be weather color change information preset by the user.

According to another aspect of the present invention, a method for a user to set an appearance of an electronic device is provided, characterized in that the method comprises the following steps:

(1) The user customizes the appearance information and the appearance change rule of the electronic device made of an electronic paper material through a user interface;

(2) a control module receives customized appearance information and appearance change rules from the user interface, wherein the control module includes a plurality of control pins electrically connected to the housing and is connected to a power source of the electronic device, thereby Powering the housing and transmitting data;

(3) the control module adopts its internal self according to the received appearance change rule The tape algorithm processes the appearance information, and then transmits the processed appearance information to the casing through the control pin;

(4) The housing receives and displays the processed appearance information on a surface of the housing thereof. Preferably, the method further includes the step of updating the appearance information, wherein an update module included in the control module controls the outer casing of the electronic device to update its displayed appearance information according to a trigger event.

The method can also include a synchronization step that includes the following steps:

(1) An automatic detection module in the control module detects whether the current appearance information of a movable component of the electronic device is consistent with other components of the outer casing of the electronic device,

(2) when the automatic detection module finds inconsistency, the synchronization module acquires appearance information of the other components, and transmits the processed appearance information to the movable component through the control pin, and the movable component receives and The surface of the housing simultaneously displays the processed appearance information.

According to the present invention, the method further includes an external sampling step, which includes the following steps: (1) an environmental sampling sensor on the electronic device that can sense external environmental information samples the surrounding environment to obtain corresponding external environmental information. ;

(2) the environmental sampling sensor transmits the acquired external environment information to the control module;

(3) The control module processes the external environment information to obtain the processed appearance information according to the user-applied appearance change rule, and transmits the processed appearance information to the Housing

(4) The housing displays the processed appearance information on the surface of the housing.

According to the present invention, the user can select an image, a color, a texture, and the like on the outer surface of the electronic device. The image may be an image captured by a camera on an electronic device from a surrounding environment, or may be an image already in an electronic device, or downloaded from a network.

By means of the invention, the user can set the outer surface of the electronic device by himself, thus having great market potential and having great development and application value. DRAWINGS The specific embodiments of the present invention are described in further detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the figure:

1 is a schematic diagram of electrical connection and communication between a control module of an electronic device of the present invention and a housing and a power source;

2 is a flow chart for customizing the appearance of an electronic device using the method of the present invention. detailed description

The gist of the present invention is the material of the variable electronic device housing. The selection of electronic equipment casing materials requires the following conditions:

(1) Flexible and thin: The casing has bends, angles, etc., so the material should be soft and thin to fit the shape of the phone. Alternatively, it can be attached to the electronics housing by gluing or other means.

(2) Low energy consumption: This is crucial for electronic devices. It is best to use a semi-static image so that you only need to supply power when setting the image. Once the electronic device is in normal use or shut down, these colors remain the same and do not incur additional energy. Preferably, the electronic device can update the color after being turned on.

(3) Digital content with a high resolution and a high resolution is allowed to be displayed thereon.

The present invention manufactures the outer casing of the electronic device using an electronic paper material that satisfies the above conditions, and changes its appearance display through a control module inside the electronic device. The electronic paper material refers to a material that can be repeatedly read and written electronically. There are a number of possible material solutions available to achieve the objectives of the present invention. E.g:

(1) Electronic ink (Eink)

It is based on electromechanical principles. Microcurrent is used to arrange electrically sensitive, pixel-like microspheres into images. These particles are immobilized until they are rearranged by another charge. The material is reflective so that the user can see through the natural light reflected on it without the need for background light. They can be made of molded plastic or even foldable plastic.

(2) OLED display

OLED displays include thousands of sub-pixel size bulbs placed on thin film transistors (and the like for backplanes for liquid crystal displays). However, unlike liquid crystal displays (LCDs) that require backlighting, each diode on the OLED display itself can To illuminate. This makes the display brighter and easier to view from a wider viewing angle. More advantageously, OLED displays can be lighter, thinner, and more power efficient than LCDs due to the lack of backlighting. The OLED display can also be folded at a limited angle.

(3) Steady-state cholesteric liquid crystal

The cholesteric liquid crystal is oriented parallel in the absence of an electric field. It selects the color light for reflection by adapting to the helical pitch of the liquid crystal; in the case of a weak electric field, it becomes a focal conic orientation, and maintains its state by light transmission; if the electric field is externally strengthened, Return to the parallel orientation. With this change in the field, you can control both display and non-display. It is also possible to implement RGB three-layer overlay for color display.

The cholesteric liquid crystal has a bistable characteristic, that is, the image remains unchanged after the power is turned off.

(4) Rotating Ball (Gyricon)

The basic principle of the rotating ball technology is: It consists of a piece of transparent plastic, which contains millions of tiny two-color chromatic particle spheres. Each half of the chromatic particle spheres are coated with white and black spherical particles, which are placed. In a small bag filled with oil. When passing current, these chromatic particle spheres are rotated in response to electrical pulses to display black, white, or gray shading.

In addition to the above-mentioned several major electronic paper technologies, electronic paper technology also includes more than 10 emerging technologies such as toner display panels, two-color display liquid crystals, and electroluminescence. Initially, these electronic paper materials were used for display purposes of electronic devices rather than for the appearance of electronic devices. The use of this material for the appearance change of an electronic device is an invention of the present invention.

According to the present invention, the electronic device may be various existing devices such as a mobile phone, a PDA, and the like. Due to the flexibility and thinness of the materials selected, conventional reinforcement materials can be used to increase the strength of the electronics housing.

In order for the invention to be practiced, it is also necessary to describe how these materials are connected to other parts of the electronic device. This mechanical design is also part of the invention. Cover and side. The control module can separately control the display on these areas. Since the display areas on these components are different, the user can control the display to have the appropriate content.

In addition to the material and mechanical solutions, there are still the following questions when combining material solutions with mobile phones. Question: Since these materials require current to change themselves, how do you connect the external surface to the power supply? From a mechanical point of view, this problem can be solved by extending the electrodes on the power circuit on the phone to the outer surface.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Figure 1 is a schematic illustration of the electrical connection and communication of a control module of the present invention with a housing and a power source. In order to realize the setting of the appearance of the electronic device, the electronic device is not only provided with a casing 17 made of an electronic paper material, but also a user is provided inside the electronic device to customize the appearance information and the appearance change rule. a user interface 11; and a control module 13 coupled to the user interface to receive customized appearance information and appearance change rules, the control module 13 includes a plurality of control pins electrically connected to the housing 17 For example, the pin 1 154 and the pin n 152 are connected, and the positive electrode 151 and the negative electrode 153 of the control module are respectively connected to the positive and negative terminals of the power source 19 of the electronic device. Thus, the control module 13 supplies power to the housing 17 and transmits data through the plurality of control pins. It is first selected by the user interface 11 for the appearance information and appearance change rules of the housing 17 of the electronic device made of an electronic paper material. The control module 13 disposed inside the electronic device then receives the customized appearance information and the appearance change rule from the user interface 11 and processes the appearance information according to the received appearance change rule using its internal algorithm, and then the control module 13 The processed appearance information is transmitted to the housing 17 through the control pin; the housing 17 receives and displays the processed appearance information on the surface of the housing.

For the keyboard and hole on the phone, you can use the same material on the keyboard as the outer surface, and control the keyboard surface of the phone with the same principle as the above solution; or take no measures on the keyboard, so there is no dynamic change on the keyboard. . For holes, it can also be treated in a similar way.

The battery cover, keyboard or slider is a special part because it can be removed from the surface and is a movable part, but this is not a big problem. Materials like electronic inks require current only when changing the digital content on them, and no additional power is required after the change. This means that even when the user removes the battery compartment cover from the electronic device, the digital content will remain on the battery compartment cover. It is possible that a user changes the electronic device after removing the battery compartment cover. In the case of the outer surface, the present invention is further provided with an automatic detecting module 131 for detecting the current appearance information of the movable component in the control module; and an appearance device for controlling the movable component and the electronic device housing. The other part maintains a consistent synchronization module 132.

Whenever the movable component is reinstalled back to the electronic device, the automatic detection module 131 in the control module 13 detects whether the current appearance information of the movable component is consistent with other components of the outer casing of the electronic device, and if consistent, remains The current appearance information of the movable component, when the automatic detection module 131 finds inconsistency, the synchronization module 132 acquires the appearance information of the other component, and transmits the processed appearance information to the movable component through the control pin. The movable component receives and simultaneously displays the processed appearance information on its housing surface. Example 1: User customized content based on photographic content

The user takes a picture with the electronic device camera at the seaside, and then selects the captured picture through the user interface 11 and transmits it to the control module 13. The picture information at this time may not be directly displayed on the electronic device due to its size and the like. On the outer casing. After obtaining the selected picture, the control module 13 adopts its own internal image processing according to a preset appearance change rule (the rule is a picture size, a timing change rule, a display rule information that is freely set by a user such as displaying specific information). The algorithm processes the image, such as resizing the image to be displayable on the electronic device housing, and projecting the dimensional image onto the three-dimensional housing. After the processing ends, the control module 13 assigns the processed picture data to the respective control pins; each control pin transmits the assigned picture data to the electronic paper material of the housing 17 and displays it on the outer surface of the electronic device.

Similarly, the user can take a picture of himself and display the photo on the outer surface of the electronic device. Example 2: The user customizes according to the existing pictures of the electronic device.

The user can download a picture through the network, such as a tiger picture, or generate a picture through other specific tools (such as drawing software), and then select the picture through the user interface 11; after the control module 13 obtains the customized picture of the user, according to the preset Appearance change gauge Then processing the picture by using its own image processing algorithm, and then assigning the processed picture data to each control pin; each control pin transmits the assigned picture data to the outer surface of the housing 17. The electronic paper material is displayed on the outer surface of the electronic device. Example 3: Chameleon situation

In this mode, the electronic device can change its outer surface by itself. In order to achieve the above functions, an environmental sampling sensor capable of sensing external environment information is disposed in the electronic device, wherein the environmental sampling sensor transmits the acquired external environment information to the control module, and the control module 13 is configured according to the user. The customized appearance change rule processes the environmental information by using an image processing algorithm provided therein to obtain the processed appearance information, and transmits the processed appearance information to the casing 17 through the control pin to make the casing surface The processed appearance information is displayed. For example, if a user places an electronic device on a grass, the electronic device turns green; if the user places the electronic device on a snowy mountain, the electronic device turns white. The user can set specific rules for changes in the appearance of the electronic device through the user interface. Example 4: Timing Discoloration

The user can set the rules for the electronic device to change color according to time. For example, when you are at leisure, the color mix is brighter and the work time is silver. The control module 13 transmits the processed corresponding appearance information to be displayed to each control pin according to a preset color change rule preset by the user; each control pin further transmits the appearance information to the housing to make the surface of the housing 17 electronic The paper material displays corresponding appearance information at different times. Example 5: Updating the appearance of an electronic device based on a triggering event

In order to realize that the electronic device automatically updates its appearance according to a triggering event, for example, the electronic device is powered on, an update module 133 is further disposed in the control module 13. When the control module 13 receives the trigger event information, the update The module 1 33 controls the electronic device housing 17 to update its displayed appearance information in accordance with a predetermined change rule.

For example, the electronic device can receive important information such as a weather forecast from a remote server every day, and when the information arrives at the electronic device, the update module 133 is based on rules customized by the user. Assigning information content to be displayed to each control pin; each control pin transmits the assigned data to the electronic paper material on the outer surface of the housing 17 and displays corresponding information on the outer surface of the electronic device

With the electronic device and method of the present invention, the user can set the outer surface of the electronic device by himself, thus having great market potential and having great development and application value.

Claims

Rights request

An electronic device that can be set by a user, the electronic device comprising: a housing made of an electronic paper material;

The control module processes the appearance information according to the received appearance change rule by using an algorithm that is internally provided, and transmits the processed appearance information to the casing through the control pin, The housing receives and displays processed appearance information on the surface of the housing.

2. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein, when the control module is in an energized state, the housing surface can change appearance information displayed on the surface of the housing according to user-customized appearance information and appearance change rules. The housing surface maintains the appearance information when the control module is in a power off state.

3. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the electronic paper material is a soft and thin bendable, foldable material.

4. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the casing is made of a reinforcing material, and the electronic paper material is disposed on a surface of the casing.

5. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the electronic paper material is electronic ink.

6. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the electronic paper material is an organic electroluminescence display material.

7. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the electronic paper material is a bistable cholester liquid crystal material.

8. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the electronic paper material is Rotate the ball material.

9. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the housing further comprises a front side, a back side, a side surface, and a movable component, and each component is electrically connected to at least one control pin of the control module.

10. The electronic device according to claim 9, wherein the electronic device is a mobile phone.

11. The electronic device according to claim 10, wherein the movable component is a battery cover, a keyboard or a slide cover.

12. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the control module further comprises an update module to control the electronic device housing to update the appearance information according to a triggering event.

13. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the control module further comprises: an automatic detection module to automatically detect current appearance information of the movable component;

a synchronization module to keep the appearance information of the movable component consistent with other components of the electronic device housing;

When the automatic detection module detects that the current appearance information of the movable component is inconsistent with the appearance information of the other component, the synchronization module acquires the appearance information of the other component, and transmits the processed appearance information to the control pin through the control pin. A moveable component that receives and simultaneously displays processed appearance information on its housing surface.

The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the electronic device further comprises an environmental sampling sensor that can sense external environmental information, wherein the environmental sampling sensor transmits the acquired external environmental information to the control module The control module processes the external environment information to obtain the processed appearance information according to the user-applied appearance change rule, and transmits the processed appearance information to the shell through the control pin. The processed surface information is displayed on the surface of the casing.

The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the appearance information is picture information.

16. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the appearance information is a user Pre-set timing color change information.

The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the appearance information is weather color change information set in advance by a user.

18. A method for a user to set the appearance of an electronic device, wherein the method comprises the following steps:

(3) the control module processes the appearance information according to the received appearance change rule by using its internal algorithm, and then transmits the processed appearance information to the casing through the control pin;

(4) The housing receives and displays the processed appearance information on a surface of the housing thereof.

19. The method according to claim 18, wherein the method further comprises a step of updating the appearance information, wherein an update module included in the control module controls the outer casing of the electronic device to update its according to a trigger event The appearance information displayed.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the method further comprises a synchronization step comprising the steps of:

21. The method of claim 18, wherein the method further comprises an external sampling step comprising the steps of:

(1) an environmental sampling sensor on the electronic device that can sense external environmental information samples the surrounding environment to obtain corresponding external environmental information; (2) the environmental sampling sensor transmits the acquired external environment information to the control module;

(3) The control module processes the external environment information to obtain the processed appearance information according to the user-defined appearance change rule, and transmits the processed appearance information to the shell through the control pin. Body

(4) The casing displays the processed appearance information on the surface of the casing.