Electronic apparatus and electronic apparatus information display method

• US 20030020999A1
• Filed: 04/02/2002
• Published: 01/30/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 04/04/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Lenovo Singapore Pte Limited (Lenovo Group Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Suzuki, Hiroshi, Miwa, Koichi, Tsujimura, Takatoshi
• Granted Patent: US 6,661,564 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 359/245
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1616 with folding flat displays, e.g. laptop computers or notebooks having a clamshell configuration, with body parts pivoting to an open position around an axis parallel to the plane they define in closed position
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1637 Details related to the display arrangement, including those related to the mounting of the display in the housing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1649 the additional display being independently orientable, e.g. for presenting information to a second user
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/169 the I/O peripheral being an integrated pointing device, e.g. trackball in the palm rest area, mini-joystick integrated between keyboard keys, touch pads or touch stripes G06F1/1643 takes precedence; constructional details of pointing devices G06F3/033
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0238 Programmable keyboards key guide holders G06F3/0224

Abstract

An electrophoretic display is mounted on the surface of the housing of a notebook type personal computer. When an event that requires the user to operate a member occurs, the member and operation information corresponding to that event are searched for, and the searched-for operation information is displayed in a region of the electrophoretic display in the vicinity of the searched-for member. For example, when a termination switch is in a corner of the exterior surface of the cover, for a system termination event, information indicating that the termination switch should be operated is displayed in a region of the electrophoretic display in the vicinity of the termination switch.

Claims

1. An electronic apparatus comprising:

a housing that accommodates an electronic element internally;

an electrophoretic display arranged on a surface of said housing; and

a display controller for displaying, on said electrophoretic display, an operation guide for a user.

2. The electronic apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a main display being capable of displaying information faster than said electrophoretic display; and

a member that is operated by a user;

wherein said electrophoretic display is arranged at a location closer to said member than said main display; and

said display controller displays an icon which represents the function of said member on said electrophoretic display.

3. The electronic apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said display controller displays on said electrophoretic display, a guide for informing a user of a member operated by said user.

4. The electronic apparatus according to claim 3, comprising:

an event detector for detecting an event that requests predetermined operation of a member by the user; and

member search logic for searching for a member to be operated by the user in response to said event when said event is detected;

wherein said display controller displays in a region of said electrophoretic display in a vicinity of a searched member that said searched member should be operated by the user.

5. The electronic apparatus according to claim 4, further comprising:

message search logic for searching a predetermined database for a message to be displayed in said region of said electrophoretic display in response to said event when said event is detected;

wherein said display controller displays searched message information in said region.

6. An electronic apparatus comprising:

a housing that accommodates an electronic element internally;

an electrophoretic display arranged on a surface of said housing; and

a display controller for displaying on said electrophoretic display an electrical status of at least one of said electronic apparatus and said electronic element.

7. The electronic apparatus according to claim 6, wherein said electrical status of includes at least one of the status of a power supply of said electronic apparatus status of a CPU as said electronic element.

8. The electronic apparatus according to claim 6, wherein said display controller displays on said electrophoretic display a color corresponding to said electrical status.

9. An electronic apparatus comprising:

at least one member to be operated by a user;

an electrophoretic display arranged on at least one of a top surface and a side surface of said member; and

a display controller for displaying on said electrophoretic display an icon representing the function of said member, said electrophoretic display being capable of displaying another icon representing another function of said member in response to an operation mode of said electronic apparatus.

10. The electronic apparatus according to claim 9, wherein said apparatus has a plurality of members, and said members are a plurality of character input keys for inputting character code data corresponding to a particular character input mode;

and

said display controller displays on said electrophoretic display an input character valid for operation of said individual character input key in the current character input mode.

11. The electronic apparatus according to claim 10, wherein

said electrophoretic display is provided with top-surface electrodes having shapes of key-top characters corresponding to each character input mode on each character key;

each top-surface electrode for a same set of characters is connected to a common voltage pulse application line; and

said display controller, when the input mode is switched, supplies a display character erasure voltage pulse to a pulse application line corresponding to the character before switching, and also supplies a display character display voltage pulse to a pulse application line corresponding to the character after switching.

12. The electronic apparatus according to claim 9, wherein

said members are a plurality of function keys;

and

said display controller displays on said electrophoretic display an icon in accordance with the current operation mode of said apparatus.

13. The electronic apparatus according to claim 12, comprising:

a selector for selecting a language used for operating said apparatus in accordance with the operation mode of said apparatus;

wherein

said display controller displays on said electrophoretic display an icon corresponding to said selected language.

14. A method of displaying information in an apparatus, the method comprising the steps of:

searching information from a storage device accessible by said apparatus in accordance with a status of said apparatus; and

displaying searched information on an electrophoretic display arranged on at least part of a surface of a housing that accommodates an electronic element internally.

15. The method of claim 14 further comprising the step of:

detecting an electrical status of at least one of said apparatus and a predetermined electronic element provided therein;

wherein said searching is performed based on said electrical status.