Portable information terminal device

• US 20050140574A1
• Filed: 12/10/2004
• Published: 06/30/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 12/10/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Socionext Inc.
• Original Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Tamura, Sou
• Granted Patent: US 7,460,108 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/9
• 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 1/162 changing, e.g. reversing, the face orientation of the screen with a two degrees of freedom mechanism, e.g. for folding into tablet PC like position or orienting towards the direction opposite to the user to show to a second user
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1624 with sliding enclosures, e.g. sliding keyboard or display
• 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 1/1647 including at least an additional display G06F1/1692 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1677 for detecting open or closed state or particular intermediate positions assumed by movable parts of the enclosure, e.g. detection of display lid position with respect to main body in a laptop, detection of opening of the cover of battery compartment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1431 using a single graphics controller
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/14 Solving problems related to the presentation of information to be displayed

Abstract

In the portable information terminal device 1a, when a second display portion 9 is flipped over to the front of the portable information terminal device 1a, a first display portion 3 and the second display portion 9 are visible from a user at the same time. The display layouts of the first display portion 3 and the second display portion 9 are switched automatically in accordance with the visibility status of the respective display screens. The display layouts are also switched automatically in response to a change in information to be displayed. Therefore, a plurality of information items can be displayed in an appropriate layout that is easy to grasp to the user.

Claims

1. A portable information terminal device for receiving and displaying a plurality of information items, comprising:

a receiving portion for receiving the plurality of information items,

a first display portion for displaying at least one received information item using its display screen,

a second display portion for displaying at least one received information item using a display screen different from the display screen of the first display portion, and

a video control portion for setting a layout in which the information items are displayed in the first display portion and the second display portion, based on a condition by which the information items received by the receiving portion are allocated to the first display portion or the second display portion.

2. The portable information terminal device according to claim 1, wherein the video control portion performs setting in such a manner that:

when a single information item is allocated to either one of the first display portion and the second display portion, a single display layout is set in which only the information item is displayed exclusively on the entire display screen of the either one of the first display portion and the second display portion, and

when a plurality of information items are allocated to either one of the first display portion and the second display portion, a plural display layout is set in which the information items are displayed by sharing the display screen of the either one of the first display portion and the second display portion.

3. The portable information terminal device according to claim 1, wherein a predetermined operation can change between a first state in which the display screen of the first display portion and the display screen of the second display portion are visible at the same time from the same direction, and a second state in which only the display screen of the first display portion is visible from that direction.

4. The portable information terminal device according to claim 3, wherein

the display screen of the first display portion is provided on a surface of a housing in the first state and the second state,

the display screen of the second display portion is provided on the surface of the housing in the first state and is provided facing a back face side of the housing by closing a support member for supporting the display screen to the back face side of the housing in the second state.

5. The portable information terminal device according to claim 3, wherein

the display screen of the first display portion is provided on a surface of a housing in the first state and the second state,

the display screen of the second display portion is provided on the surface of the housing in the first state and is provided facing a back face side of the housing by turning over a support member for supporting the display screen about a predetermined rotation shaft and then moving the support member to the back face side of the housing in the second state.

6. The portable information terminal device according to claim 3, further comprising a display state determining portion for determining whether the first display portion and the second display portion are in the first state or the second state,

wherein the video control portion performs setting in such a manner that:

when the display state determining portion determines that the first display portion and the second display portion are in the first state, a layout is set in which the information items received by the receiving portion are allocated to and displayed in the first display portion and the second display portion, based on the condition, and

when the display state determining portion determines that the first display portion and the second display portion are in the second state, a layout is set in which all of the information items received by the receiving portion are displayed in the first display portion.

7. The portable information terminal device according to claim 6, further comprising a storing portion for storing a display information list describing an instruction to allocate the information items that can be received by the receiving portion to the first display portion or the second display portion for each information item as the condition,

wherein the video control portion sets a layout in which the information items received by the receiving portion are allocated to and displayed in the first display portion and the second display portion, based on the instruction described in the display information list stored in the storing portion, when the display state determining portion determines that the first display portion and the second display portion are in the first state.

8. The portable information terminal device according to claim 1, further comprising an information change detecting portion for detecting an increase or a decrease of the information items received by the receiving portion,

wherein the video control portion sets a layout in which the information items received by the receiving portion are allocated to and displayed in the first display portion and the second display portion, based on the condition, in response to detection of an increase or a decrease of the information items in the information change detecting portion.

9. The portable information terminal device according to claim 8, further comprising a storing portion for storing a display information list describing an instruction to allocate the information items that can be received by the receiving portion to the first display portion or the second display portion for each information item as the condition,

wherein the video control portion sets a layout in which the information items received by the receiving portion are allocated to and displayed in the first display portion and the second display portion, based on the instruction described in the display information list stored by the storing portion, in response to detection of an increase or a decrease of the information items in the information change detecting portion.

10. The portable information terminal device according to claim 9, further comprising an operating portion for outputting an operation signal in response to an operation of a user,

wherein the instruction described in the display information list stored in the storing portion is changed, based on the operation signal that is output from the operating portion by a user performing a predetermined operation.

11. The portable information terminal device according to claim 9, wherein

in the display information list stored in the storing portion, an instruction for exclusive display is further described for an information item that is to be displayed exclusively on the entire display screen of the first display portion or the second display portion of the information items that can be received by the receiving portion, and

when an information item for which the instruction for exclusive display is described is included in the information items received by the receiving portion in the display information list, the video control portion sets a single display layout in which only the information item is displayed exclusively on the entire display screen of either one of the first display portion and the second display portion.

12. The portable information terminal device according to claim 11, wherein the video control portion further sets a plural display layout in which the display screen of the other one of the first display portion and the second display portion is shared by other information items.

13. The portable information terminal device according to claim 8, wherein

when the receiving portion has received an information item programmed to be received at a time at which a user programmed the information to be received, the information change detecting portion detects an increase of the information item.

14. The portable information terminal device according to claim 8, wherein

when the receiving portion has received an emergency warming system, the information change detecting portion detects an increase of the information item.

15. The portable information terminal device according to claim 8, wherein

when the receiving portion has received text captions data, the information change detecting portion detects an increase of the information item.

16. The portable information terminal device according to claim 8, further comprising a transmitting and receiving portion having a telephone function, wherein

when a call is received through the telephone function in the transmitting and receiving portion, the information change detecting portion detects an increase of the information item.

17. The portable information terminal device according to claim 8, further comprising a transmitting and receiving portion having a mail function, wherein

when a mail is received through the mail function in the transmitting and receiving portion, the information change detecting portion detects an increase of the information item.

18. The portable information terminal device according to claim 8, wherein

when a predetermined time has passed, the information change detecting portion detects an increase of an information item indicating that the time has passed.

19. The portable information terminal device according to claim 1, further comprising a priority storing portion for storing a priority for each information item that can be received by the receiving portion as the condition, wherein

the video control portion sets in a single display layout in which only an information item having a highest priority stored in the priority storing portion of the information items received by the receiving portion is displayed exclusively on the entire display screen of either one of the first display portion and the second display portion.

20. The portable information terminal device according to claim 19, wherein

the video control portion sets a layout of simple display in which a content of an information item having a priority that is a threshold or less stored in the priority storing portion of the information items received by the receiving portion is displayed in a simple manner.

21. The portable information terminal device according to claim 19, wherein

when there are a plurality of information items having a highest priority stored in the priority storing portion of the information items received by the receiving portion, the video control portion sets in a plural display layout in which only the plurality of information items having a highest priority are displayed by sharing the display screen of either one of the first display portion and the second display portion.

22. The portable information terminal device according to claim 1, wherein the information items received by the receiving portion include at least broadcasting data including at least one of video signals, audio signals, and text information,

the portable information terminal device further comprising an input/output control portion for outputting the video signals and the text information from the broadcasting data received by the receiving portion to the video control portion,

wherein the video control portion sets a layout in which at least the video signals and the text information that are output from the input/output control portion are displayed in the first display portion and the second display portion, based on the condition.

23. The portable information terminal device according to claim 1, wherein the information items received by the receiving portion include at least broadcasting data including at least one of video signals of MPEG format, audio signals, and text information of,

when the receiving portion has received the broadcasting data, a transport stream representing the broadcasting data is output,

the portable information terminal device further comprising an input/output control portion for outputting video data and audio data by performing transport decoding and video/audio decoding with respect to the transport stream that is output from the receiving portion,

wherein the video control portion sets a layout in which at least the video data that is output from the input/output control portion is displayed in the first display portion and the second display portion, based on the condition.

24. The portable information terminal device according to claim 1, wherein the first display portion and the second display portion are configured by different display systems from each other.

25. The portable information terminal device according to claim 24, wherein the first display portion and the second display portion are configured by a display system selected from the group consisting of LCD (liquid crystal display), organic EL (electroluminescent) and electric paper, and by different display systems from each other.