Cellular phone apparatus with keyboard

• US 20070123322A1
• Filed: 11/28/2006
• Published: 05/31/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Casio Computer Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Casio Computer Company Limited
• Inventors: Mizushina, Takahiro
• Granted Patent: US 7,660,410 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/575.100
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/0233 Including a rotatable display body part
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/0237 Sliding mechanism with one degree of freedom
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/0247 comprising more than two body parts
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/18 including more than one keyboard unit

Abstract

A cellular phone has a three-stage stacked structure including a ten-key case of a lower stage, a full-key case of a middle stage and a display case of an upper stage. When the cellular phone is in call style, the ten-key case is slid in the longitudinal direction to expose a dial key. When the cellular phone is in keyboard style, the display case is turned on its rotating shaft above the full-key case to expose a full keyboard. The rotating shaft is located in the middle of the display case and close to a long side thereof.

Claims

1. A cellular phone having a three-stage stacked structure including a display case of an upper stage with a display screen, a keyboard case of a middle stage with a keyboard, and a dial key case of a lower stage with a dial key,

wherein:

the display case is configured to turn on a shaft two-dimensionally to expose the keyboard of the keyboard case, the shaft being located in a middle of the keyboard case and close to a long side thereof; and

the dial key case is configured to slide with reference to the keyboard case toward one end of the keyboard case to expose the dial key of the dial key case.

2. The cellular phone according to claim 1, wherein the display case includes an on-hook key, an off-hook key, and a speaker.

3. The cellular phone according to claim 1, wherein the dial key case includes a microphone.

4. A cellular phone having a three-stage stacked structure including a display case of an upper stage with a display screen, a keyboard case of a middle stage with a keyboard, and a key case of a lower stage with a dial key on one end portion of a surface thereof and a ten key on another end portion thereof,

wherein:

the display case is configured to turn on a shaft two-dimensionally to expose the keyboard of the keyboard case, the shaft being located in a middle of the keyboard case and close to a long side thereof; and

the key case is configured to slide with reference to the keyboard case toward both ends of the keyboard case, the key case sliding toward one of the ends to expose the dial key of the key case and sliding toward other of the ends to expose the ten key of the key case.

5. The cellular phone according to claim 4, wherein the display case includes an on-hook key, an off-hook key, and a speaker.

6. The cellular phone according to claim 5, wherein characters of the ten key of the key case and characters of the keyboard of the keyboard case are arranged in a same direction.

7. A cellular phone having a three-stage stacked structure including a display case of an upper stage with a display screen, a keyboard case of a middle stage with a keyboard, and a key case of a lower stage with a shared key for a dial key and a ten key,

wherein:

the display case is configured to turn on a shaft two-dimensionally to expose the keyboard of the keyboard case, the shaft being located in a middle of the keyboard case and close to a long side thereof;

the key case is configured to slide with reference to the keyboard case toward one end of the keyboard case to expose the shared key of the key case; and

the cellular phone includes switching means for switching the shared key between the dial key and the ten key in accordance with a state of the cellular phone when the key case slides.

8. The cellular phone according to claim 7, wherein the display case includes an on-hook key, an off-hook key, and a speaker.

9. The cellular phone according to claim 8, wherein the shared key is a touch key of a display type, and the switching means switches a display mode between the dial key and the ten key.

10. The cellular phone according to claim 8, wherein the shared key has characters of a dial key and a ten key whose directions are different, and the dial key and the ten key are switched to each other by controlling lighting of an internal light source.