LAPTOP HAVING DETACHABLE TOUCHPAD

• US 20120314347A1
• Filed: 08/05/2011
• Published: 12/13/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/09/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hong Fu Jin Precision Industry (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd. (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.), Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hong Fu Jin Precision Industry (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd. (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.), Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.
• Inventors: ZHANG, MING-LIANG
• Granted Patent: US 8,537,541 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 361/679.1
• 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 1/169 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

Abstract

A laptop includes a main body and a touchpad. The main body includes a housing which defines a receiving groove. The touchpad is detachably received in the receiving groove. The laptop further includes an ejection mechanism to eject the touchpad up from the receiving groove to allow the touchpad to be used independently as an external mouse.

Claims

1. A laptop comprising:

a main body comprising a housing, the housing comprising a keyboard surface and a body sidewall connecting the keyboard surface, the housing defining a receiving groove in the keyboard surface adjacent to the body sidewall, a first through hole in a bottom surface of the receiving groove adjacent to the body sidewall, and a second through hole in the body sidewall aligned with the receiving groove;

a touchpad received in the receiving groove and capable of sliding in the receiving groove along a direction that is substantially perpendicular to the body sidewall; and

an ejection mechanism receiving in the housing and comprising;

an ejection header fittingly received in the first through hole and capable of sliding along a depthwise direction of the first through hole;

a spiral cam having an axle and a spiral toothed side surface, the spiral cam being rotatably connected to the ejection header via the axle;

a rack arranged along a direction that is substantially parallel to both the keyboard surface and the body sidewall and engaged with the toothed side surface; and

a linkage rod comprising a drive wire and an operation wire, the drive wire being arranged along the direction that is substantially parallel to both the keyboard surface and the body sidewall and connected to the rack, the operation wire being arranged along a direction that is substantially perpendicular to the body sidewall, protruding from the housing via the second through hole, and connecting to the drive wire;

wherein the spiral cam is arranged such that, when pushing the operation wire along the direction that is substantially parallel to both the keyboard surface and the body sidewall towards a predetermined direction, a distance between the axle and a point of the tooted side surface engaging the rack increases so as to drive the ejection header move towards the touchpad to eject the touchpad up.

2. The laptop of claim 1, wherein the receiving groove is cuboid and bounded by, in addition to the bottom surface, a first inner sidewall opposing the body sidewall, a second inner sidewall facing the first inner sidewall, the first inner sidewall and the second inner sidewall are substantially perpendicular to the bottom surface, the housing defines an engaging groove in the second inner sidewall adjacent to the bottom surface, the touchpad is cuboid and comprises a first outer sidewall corresponding to the first inner sidewall and a second outers sidewall corresponding to the second inner sidewall, and the touchpad comprises an engaging block extending from the second inner sidewall into the engaging groove.

3. The laptop of claim 2, wherein the engaging groove is bounded by a third inner sidewall facing the first inner sidewall, the housing defines an engaging hole in the third inner sidewall away from the bottom surface, and the touchpad comprises an engaging pin extending from the engaging block into the engaging hole.

4. The laptop of claim 3, wherein the housing defines a receiving hole in the third inner sidewall, the laptop further comprises a spring received in the receiving hole and compressed between the housing and the touchpad when the touchpad is received in the receiving groove.

5. The laptop of claim 2, wherein the second through hole extends through the first inner sidewall, the housing further defines a third through hole in the bottom surface adjacent to the first inner sidewall and corresponding to the second through hole, the linkage rod comprises a first connection wire extending through the third through hole along a direction that is substantially perpendicular to the keyboard surface and a second connection wire parallel to the drive wire and connecting the first connection wire and the operation wire, the touchpad defines a sliding groove in the first outer sidewall adjacent to the bottom surface, the second connection wire is received in the sliding groove and slidable along the sliding groove.

6. The laptop of claim 5, wherein the touchpad comprises a pair of guiding plates extending into the sliding groove for guiding the second connection wire to slide.

7. The laptop of claim 5, wherein the ejection mechanism comprises a second spring received in the sliding groove, the second spring is in a natural state when the touchpad is totally received in the receiving groove and is compressed or stretched when the touchpad is ejected.

8. The laptop of claim 1, wherein the housing defines a curved cutout in an intersection between the keyboard surface and the body sidewall and communicating with the second through hole to facilitate finger operations.