WO2011067845A1 - Electronic device - Google Patents

Abstract

Provided is an electronic device having a display screen for displaying an image. An operation part for scrolling the image displayed on the display screen with a good operability is provided. The electronic device has a casing having a circular depression portion on a surface thereof, which is formed of such a curved surface as to be largely depressed toward the center of the circle, a first sensor which is disposed on the back side of the depression portion in the casing and detects an operation of drawing and tracing a circular path on the depression portion, the display screen for displaying the image, and a control unit for scrolling the image on the display screen on the basis of a detection result obtained by the first sensor.

Description

Electronics

This case concerns electronic equipment.

Conventionally, a desktop personal computer generally uses a pointing device called a mouse to move a cursor on a display screen. Some mice also have a function to scroll the image on the display screen. A notebook personal computer (hereinafter, abbreviated as "notebook PC"), but can be used to attach a mouse, even if the notebook PC, it replaces the mouse, a pointing device such as a touch pad is equipped with There are many. In order that the user can recognize the area of the touch pad at a glance or just touching it with a finger, the area of the touch pad is depressed by one step from the surrounding area. This touch pad is mainly responsible for moving the cursor on the display screen, but there is also a touch pad that realizes a scroll function by tracing the right edge of the touch pad up and down. However, if the touch pad is not only moved by the cursor but also scrolled, the area used for moving the cursor is narrowed, and if the finger moves to the area set for scrolling, the cursor is inadvertently scrolled. In addition, the operation range of the finger for scrolling is limited by the vertical dimension of the touchpad, and in order to scroll greatly, it is necessary to trace it many times while releasing the finger each time.

Also, with regard to scrolling, it has been proposed to perform scrolling by detecting the movement of a finger on a rotary input device such as a circular touchpad so as to draw a circular locus.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-3162 JP 2000-47821 A JP 2005-507112 A

The problem with the electronic device disclosed herein is to propose an operator for scrolling with good operability.

The electronic device disclosed herein has a housing, a first sensor, a display screen, and a control unit.

The housing has a hollow portion formed on a surface thereof, which is circular and has a curved surface that is greatly depressed toward the center side of the circle.

The first sensor is a sensor that is disposed inside the housing on the back side of the recess and detects an operation of tracing the recess by drawing a circular locus.

The display screen displays images.

The control unit scrolls the image on the display screen based on the detection result by the first sensor.

According to the electronic device of the present disclosure, on the surface of the housing, a hollow portion that is circular and is formed with a curved surface that is greatly depressed toward the center side of the circle is formed, and the hollow portion is traced so as to draw a circular locus. With the configuration in which the scrolling is performed, the operability is improved as compared with the case where the plane is the same plane as the surroundings or the case where the plane is one step lower than the surroundings.

It is a perspective view of the open state of notebook PC as an example of the electronic device of this case. It is a perspective view of the open state which shows the left side surface of the notebook PC shown in FIG. It is a perspective view of the open state which shows the right side surface of the notebook PC shown in FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the notebook PC in the closed state shown in FIG. 1 to FIG. FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing a bottom surface of the main unit when the notebook PC shown in FIGS. 1 to 4 is in a closed state. It is a disassembled perspective view of the bottom face of a main unit. It is the figure which showed the inner surface of the lid | cover which closes the accommodating part in which HDD is accommodated. It is the perspective view which showed HDD as the surface which turned to the bottom face side of a main body unit up. It is the perspective view which turned up and showed the surface which faces the upper surface side of the main body unit of HDD. It is the figure which showed HDD of the state before connector coupling | bonding accommodated in the accommodating part of the main body unit. It is the figure which showed the final accommodation state of HDD. It is the figure which showed the state which removed both the lid | cover which closes the accommodating part which accommodates HDD, and the lid | cover which further closes a memory substrate accommodating part. It is the figure which showed the state which removed both the lid | cover which closes the accommodating part which accommodates HDD, and the lid | cover which further closes a memory substrate accommodating part. It is the figure which showed the state which extracted the memory substrate further from the state shown in FIG. It is the figure which showed the board | substrate extended in a main body unit housing | casing. It is a bottom view of the main unit. FIG. 17 is a cross-sectional view of the main unit along the arrow AA shown in FIG. It is the expansion perspective view which showed a part of main body unit upper surface of notebook PC10 shown in FIG. It is the perspective view which showed the inner surface of the upper cover which comprises the housing | casing of a main body unit. It is an expansion perspective view of a part of the upper cover. It is the figure which showed the sensor surface of the sensor board | substrate.

Hereinafter, the embodiment of the present invention will be described with an example of a notebook PC.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an open state of a notebook PC as an example of the electronic apparatus of the present case. 2 and 3 are perspective views of the notebook PC shown in FIG. 1 in the open state, showing the left side and the right side, respectively. FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the notebook PC in the closed state shown in FIGS. 1 to 3 in the closed state.

This notebook PC 10 has a main unit 20 and a display unit 50. The display unit 50 is hinged to the main unit 20 and opens and closes between an open state shown in FIGS. 1 to 3 and a closed state shown in FIG.

The casing 21 of the main unit 20 of the notebook PC 10 has a top cover 211 and a bottom cover 212. On the upper surface of the main unit 20, a power button 22, a plurality of indicator lamps 23, a keyboard 24, a touch pad 25, two left and right push buttons 26, and a plurality of indicator lamps 27 are arranged. When the touch pad 25 is traced with a finger, a cursor on the display screen of the display unit 50 to be described later moves in a direction corresponding to the movement of the finger on the touch pad 25. The left and right push buttons 26 correspond to left and right push buttons of a mouse, which is a general-purpose pointing device.

Further, a recess 28 is formed on the upper surface 12 of the upper cover 211 of the housing 21 of the main unit 20 on the right side of the touch pad 25. The hollow portion 28 is circular in a plan view from the upper surface side, and is formed with a curved surface that is concave toward the bottom surface side toward the center side of the circle, for example, typically a curved surface forming a part of a sphere. When a finger is placed in the depression 28 and traced with a finger so as to draw a circular locus along its outer shape, the image displayed on the display screen scrolls up or down in accordance with the tracing direction.

Also, a card slot 29 for inserting a memory card, a speaker sound outlet (not shown), and a microphone / headphone jack (not shown) are arranged on the front end surface of the main unit 20 of the notebook PC 10.

Further, the main unit 20 left side of the notebook PC 10, as shown in FIG. 2, the bottom cover 212, are formed security lock hole 31 and the intake port 32, further, within each opening in the bottom cover 212 In addition, two USB connectors 33 and a mini USB connector 34 are arranged.

In the right side surface of the main unit 20 of the notebook PC 10, as shown in FIG. 3, USB connector 35, an exhaust port 36 provided in the bottom cover 212, LAN connector 37, CRT connector 38 and DC power jack, 39 is arranged.

In the display unit 50, a display screen 521 of an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) 52 appears from a frame-shaped front cover 511 constituting the casing 51. The back surface of the LCD 52 is covered with a rear cover 512 (see FIG. 4) constituting the housing 51. The LCD is an example of a display module, and may be another type of PDP (plasma display unit) or the like, and the type thereof is not limited.

Further, provided on the main unit 20, various indicator lights, various connectors and the number of openings, the type, shape and installation position is not limited to this embodiment, it is appropriately changed in accordance with the specification requirements for the electronic device .

(HDD fixed structure)
FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing the bottom surface of the main unit when the notebook PC shown in FIGS. 1 to 4 is in a closed state. FIG. 6 is an exploded perspective view of the bottom surface of the main unit.

As shown in FIG. 6, the main body unit 20 is provided with a housing portion 41 in which the HDD 60 is housed. The housing portion 41 is attached to the bottom cover 212 that constitutes the housing 21 of the main body unit 20. An opening 214 that opens to the bottom surface side is provided. 5 shows, on the bottom of the main unit 20, and appeared lid 213 for closing the opening 214, in FIG. 6, the lid 213 and the HDD60 has been shown while being decomposed.

The mounting bracket 61 extending along one of the left and right side surfaces is fixed to the HDD 60. The HDD 60 is fixed in the housing 21 through the mounting bracket 61. Details will be described later.

Further, the bottom cover 212 of the main unit 20 is formed with an opening for the memory substrate housing portion, and FIGS. 5 and 6 also show a lid 215 for closing the opening.

FIG. 7 is a view showing the inner surface of the lid that closes the housing portion in which the HDD is housed.

The lid 213 has a plate-like main body 213a that forms the bottom surface of the main unit 20 together with the bottom cover 212 (see FIGS. 5 and 6), and a metal plate 213b fixed to the inner surface of the main body 213a. The metal plate 213b serves as a shield of a circuit shield inside the main unit 20. Further, a part of the metal plate 213b is bent in a direction away from the inner surface of the substrate 213a, and an elastic piece 213c that presses the HDD 60 is formed.

FIG. 8 is a perspective view showing the HDD with the surface facing the bottom side of the main unit 20 facing upward. FIG. 9 is a perspective view of the HDD with the surface facing the upper surface of the main unit 20 facing upward.

On the surface of the HDD 60 facing the upper surface side of the main unit 20 (the surface shown in FIG. 9), the control board 62 for the HDD 60 extends. The control board 62 is provided with a round hole 621, and the bottom surface 601 of the motor is viewed through the round hole 621. This motor is a motor that rotates a hard disk (HD) that is a disk-shaped storage medium built in the HDD 60. As described above, the HDD 60 is a storage device that has a mechanical movable portion and accesses information with a mechanical operation.

Further, as shown in FIG. 9, the HDD 60 is provided with a connector 63 at its front end for transmitting / receiving data between the HDD 60 and the outside and receiving power supply from the outside.

Further, as shown in FIG. 8, this HDD 60, mounting bracket 61 extending back and forth along one of the longitudinal direction of the first side is a side of its both side surfaces, a first side of the HDD 60 It is screwed to. The mounting bracket 61 has a fixing hole 611 for fixing the HDD 60 accommodated in the accommodating portion 41 (see FIG. 6) of the main unit 20 to the main unit 20 with a screw at one location on the front end side of the HDD 60. One is provided. The HDD 60 is screwed into the main unit 20 only at this one location.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing the HDD accommodated in the housing unit of the main unit before connector connection. FIG. 11 shows the final storage state of the HDD.

The HDD 60 is accommodated in the accommodating portion 41 as shown in FIG. 10, and then is slid forward (in the direction of the connector 71 on the main board) so that the connector 63 at the front end of the HDD 60 is combined with the connector 71 on the main board. The Then, both the connectors 63 and 71 are assembled, and the fixing hole 611 of the mounting bracket 61 overlaps with the screw hole 721 formed at the center of the boss 72 provided in the member fixed to the housing 21 of the main unit 20. . In this state, using the fixing holes 611 and the screw holes 721, the mounting bracket 61 is fixed with screws as shown in FIG.

FIGS. 12 and 13 are views showing a state in which both the lid that closes the housing portion that houses the HDD and the lid that closes the memory substrate housing portion are removed. However, FIG. 12 shows a state in which the HDD is accommodated, and FIG. 13 shows a state in which the HDD is further removed.

As shown in FIGS. 12 and 13, when the cover 215 (see FIGS. 6, 10, and 11) that closes the opening 216 of the memory substrate housing portion 42 is removed, the memory substrate housing portion in which the memory substrate 73 is housed. 42 appears. A memory chip is mounted on the memory board 73, and can be replaced with a memory board on which memory chips having different storage capacities are mounted as necessary.

Further, as shown in FIG. 13, a rubber plate 411 that receives the surface of the HDD shown in FIG. 9 is disposed in the housing portion 41 that houses the HDD, so that transmission of vibrations to the HDD is mitigated. .

FIG. 14 is a view showing a state in which the memory substrate is further extracted from the state shown in FIG. Further, FIG. 15 is a diagram showing a substrate extending in the housing of the main unit. FIG. 15 shows the board in the back by removing the top cover and the keyboard of the main unit casing with the main unit casing in the state shown in FIG.

The memory board 73 shown in FIG. 13 is arranged so as to overlap the main board 70, and when the memory board 70 is removed, a part of the main board can be seen behind the memory board. As shown in FIG. 15, the main board 70 is widely spread in the main unit housing. The main board 70 is mounted with a circuit element such as a CPU that controls arithmetic processing and image display on the display screen 521 (see FIG. 1). A connector 71 is mounted on the main board 70 so as to protrude from the housing portion 41 that houses the HDD. The connector 71 is a connector combined with the connector 63 of the HDD 60 as shown in FIG.

Further, two switches 79 are mounted on the main board 70. Each of these switches 79 is a switch that is turned on in response to a pressing operation of each of the two push buttons 26 shown in FIG. Each switch 79 detects a pressing operation of each push button 26.

FIG. 16 is a bottom view of the main unit, and FIG. 17 is a cross-sectional view of the main unit along the arrow AA shown in FIG.

The HDD 60 is accommodated in the accommodating portion 41 provided in the main unit 20, and the mounting bracket 61 along the first side surface is screwed in the main unit 20 (see FIGS. 10 and 11).

Further, a metal plate 213b (see FIG. 7) is fixed to the inner surface of a lid 213 that is provided on the bottom cover 212 and detachably closes the opening 214 of the accommodating portion 41, and a part of the metal plate 213b. Is bent inward to form an elastic piece 213c. In the HDD 60, the elastic piece 213c presses the vicinity of the second side surface of the HDD 60 facing the opening 214 side away from the first side surface screwed through the mounting bracket 61. As a result, the second side surface side of the HDD 60 is sandwiched between the rubber plate 411 and the elastic piece 213c placed in the housing portion 41.

Thus, in the present embodiment, only the first side surface of the first side surface and the second side surface of the HDD 60 is fixed via the mounting bracket 61. The second side face accommodates the HDD 60 by bending a metal plate 213b for shielding originally provided on the inner surface of the lid 213 without using a mounting bracket to form an elastic piece 213c and pressing the elastic piece 213c. It is stably held in the portion 41. Since the mounting bracket 61 is only on the first side surface side, the accommodating portion 41 can be made smaller by that amount, the number of assembling steps can be reduced, and the overall weight of the notebook PC 10 can be reduced.

In the present embodiment, the mounting bracket 51 has a structure that extends along the side surface of the first side surface of the HDD 60. However, the mounting bracket 51 is attached to each of the front end portion and the rear end portion of the first side surface to fix the first side surface of the HDD 60. It is good also as a component structure. In this case, each component may be fixed to the main unit 20 individually.

The rubber plate 411 in the present embodiment is not a small piece as shown in FIG. 14 but may have a length that substantially coincides with the second side surface that extends back and forth along the length direction of the second side surface of the HDD 60. Further, the rubber plate 411 may be replaced with a sheet that covers the entire surface of the accommodating portion 41.

In the present embodiment, the HDD is exemplified as the electronic component to be fixed. However, other types of electronic components such as SSD (Solid State Drive) may be used.

(Scroll pad structure)
FIG. 18 is an enlarged perspective view showing a part of the upper surface of the main unit of the notebook PC 10 shown in FIG.

As described above with reference to FIG. 1 and the like, a touch pad 25 and two left and right push buttons 26 are provided on the front side of the upper surface of the main unit 20. Further, the upper surface of the upper cover 211 constituting the housing 21 of the main unit 20 has a circular shape in a plan view from the upper surface side, adjacent to the right side of the touch pad 25, and the larger the center side of the circular shape, the lower the bottom side. A recess 28 is formed which is recessed in the shape of a part of a sphere.

The depression 28 is used as an operator for scrolling the image displayed on the display screen 521 (see FIG. 1).

FIG. 19 is a perspective view showing the inner surface of the upper cover constituting the housing of the main unit.

FIG. 20 is an enlarged perspective view of a part of the upper cover.

A metal plate 217 serving as a support for the keyboard 24 and a shield for the internal circuit extends on the inner surface of the upper cover 212. A sensor substrate 80 is fixed to the inner surface of the upper cover 212. The sensor substrate 80, the touch pad 25 and the recess 28 has a (see FIG. 18) wide across the region provided that has spread to the rear surface of both the touch pad 25 and the recessed portion 28.

Further, the inner surfaces of the left and right push buttons 26 shown in FIG. 18 are also shown here. A projection 261 is provided on the back surface of each push button 26. When each pushbutton 26 is depressed, by their respective projections 261, each switch 79 mounted on the main substrate 70 (see FIG. 15) is pressed, it is detected that the respective push button 26 is depressed The

FIG. 21 is a diagram showing the sensor surface of the sensor substrate.

This sensor surface is the back surface of the sensor substrate 80 with respect to the surfaces shown in FIGS. A large number of electrostatic sensors are arranged on the sensor surface. The first region 801 has a plurality of rectangular electrostatic sensors arranged two-dimensionally. The second region 802 includes a plurality of electrostatic sensors arranged in a circle.

The sensor substrate 80 has the inner surface of the upper cover 211 so that the area 801 is located on the back surface of the touch pad 25 and the area 802 is located on the back surface of the recess 28 with the sensor surface of FIG. Fixed to. When the finger touches or approaches the touch pad 25 or the depression 28, the sensor substrate 80 detects a change in capacitance due to the contact or approach.

In the sensor substrate 80, the traced direction when the touchpad 25 is traced in an arbitrary direction with a finger is detected by the electrostatic sensor in the region 801. Further, in this sensor substrate 80, the trace direction when the circular portion is traced with the finger by the electrostatic sensor in the region 802 is detected.

The sensor substrate 80 is connected to the main substrate 70 (see FIG. 15) via a flat cable 81 (see FIGS. 19 and 20). The detection result on the sensor board 80 is transmitted to the main board 70 via the flat cable 80. The main board 70 also serves as a control unit that controls display of images and cursors on the display screen 521 of the display unit 50. The main board 70 controls an image and a cursor on the display screen 521 based on the detection result on the sensor board 80. Specifically, the main board 70 moves the cursor on the display screen 521 in a direction corresponding to the movement of the finger on the touch pad 25 when the touch pad 25 is traced. Further, the main substrate 70 scrolls the image on the display screen 521 in a direction according to the direction of the traced circular locus when the depression 28 is traced so as to draw a circular locus.

The above recessed portion 28, as described above, since it has a gently recessed as a part of a sphere, the operability is improved in operating to draw a circular trajectory with a finger. In addition, it has an excellent design.

In the present embodiment, the recess 28 is formed on the right side of the touch pad 25, but may be formed on the left side of the touch pad 25 or other positions where the keyboard operation is not hindered.

Here, a notebook PC has been described as an example, but this case is not limited to a notebook PC and can be widely applied to various electronic devices.

10 Notebook PC
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 20 Main body unit 21,51 Case 24 Keyboard 25 Touchpad 26 Push button 28 Depression part 36 Exhaust port 41 Accommodating part 50 Display unit 52 LCD (liquid crystal display device)
60 HDD
61 Mounting bracket 62 Control board 63, 71 Connector 70 Main board 72 Boss 73 Memory board 79 Switch 80 Sensor board 81 Flat cable 211 Upper cover 212 Bottom cover 213 Lid 213a Substrate 213b Metal plate 213c Elastic piece 214 Opening 261 Projection 411 Rubber plate 512 Rear cover 521 Display screen 611 Fixing hole 721 Screw hole

Claims (8)

In electronic equipment,
On the surface, a housing having a hollow portion that is circular and formed with a curved surface that is greatly depressed toward the center side of the circle;
A first sensor that is disposed on the back side of the hollow portion inside the housing and detects an operation of tracing the hollow portion while drawing a circular locus;
A display screen for displaying images;
An electronic apparatus comprising: a control unit that scrolls an image on the display screen based on a detection result by the first sensor. The first sensor is a sensor that detects a direction of an operation of tracing the hollow portion while drawing a circular locus,
The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the control unit controls a scroll direction according to an operation direction detected by the first sensor. 3. The electronic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the first sensor is an electrostatic sensor that detects a change in capacitance due to a finger touching or approaching the depression. The electronic device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the hollow portion is formed on an upper surface of the housing. 5. The electronic apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a keyboard mounted on the upper surface of the housing. In a region adjacent to the depression, a touch pad that receives an operation of tracing in any direction with a finger is provided, and a second sensor that detects the direction of tracing on the touch pad is provided along the back surface of the touch pad. And
The control unit scrolls the image on the display screen based on the detection result by the first sensor, and moves the cursor on the display screen on the touch pad based on the detection result by the second sensor. The electronic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the electronic apparatus is moved in a direction corresponding to the movement of a finger. The electronic apparatus according to claim 6, wherein both the first sensor and the second sensor are mounted on a single substrate. The display screen, the different from the housing, any one electronic according of claims 1 to 7, wherein it is one that is mounted on the second housing hingedly connected to the housing machine.

Images