Ergonomic auxiliary screen and display subsystem for portable handheld devices
First Claim
1. A display subsystem for a portable handheld device comprising:
- a main display screen configured for fixed mounting to a housing of a portable handheld device;
an auxiliary display screen configured for movable mounting to the housing; and
a display screen drive mechanism including a dual-screen video memory, and an interface between said memory and said main screen and between said memory and said auxiliary display screen, said interface adapted to enable pixel data from a first segment of said video memory to be presented on said main display screen and to enable pixel data from a second segment of said video memory to be presented concurrently on said auxiliary display screen.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A portable hand-held device having a main display is provided with an auxiliary display that effectively doubles the useful viewing area. An auxiliary display video memory is allocated in memory and managed by a microprocessor within the device. The auxiliary display is either pivotally or slidingly mounted to a body portion of the device, preferably adjacent an outside edge of the main display to provide concurrent dual-display viewing and optional contiguity of displayed subject matter. A video memory management mechanism for managing the dual-display video memory in memory and for enabling pixel data to one or both of the displays may be hardware assisted, as by use of a high-speed video replay and/or rendering hardware mechanism. When not deployed for viewing, the auxiliary display folds or slides within the general confines of the body of the hand-held portable device, which may be a personal digital assistant (PDA), pocket personal computer (PC) or personal digital assistant (PDA).
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Citations
30 Claims
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1. A display subsystem for a portable handheld device comprising:
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a main display screen configured for fixed mounting to a housing of a portable handheld device;
an auxiliary display screen configured for movable mounting to the housing; and
a display screen drive mechanism including a dual-screen video memory, and an interface between said memory and said main screen and between said memory and said auxiliary display screen, said interface adapted to enable pixel data from a first segment of said video memory to be presented on said main display screen and to enable pixel data from a second segment of said video memory to be presented concurrently on said auxiliary display screen. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 28, 29, 30)
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15. A portable handheld device comprising:
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a housing configured as a part of a body of the handheld device;
a main display fixedly mounted within the body of the device;
an auxiliary display movably mounted to the body of the device, the auxiliary display manually selectively deployable for viewing;
a processor contained within the housing to manage a screen video memory;
a screen video memory contained within the housing, the memory operatively connected to said processor, the memory including a screen image video memory to store pixel data for said main display and a screen image video memory to store pixel data for said auxiliary display; and
a keyboard operatively connected to said processor, said keyboard mounted on an exterior face of the housing, the keyboard configured for key entry to effect pixel image displays on one or more of said main display and said auxiliary display.
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27. A method of augmenting the effective capacity of a display subsystem integral with a portable handheld device having a display video memory and a main display, the method comprising:
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augmenting the display video memory to provide an auxiliary display video memory;
providing an auxiliary display integrally connected with the device and operatively coupled with the auxiliary display video memory; and
providing the device with a dual-display video memory management mechanism to concurrently route pixel data from the main and auxiliary display video memories to the main and auxiliary displays.
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Specification