Camera lens within pivoting hinge in portable electronic device

• US 6,181,381 B1
• Filed: 12/13/1996
• Issued: 01/30/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 12/13/1996
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: NCR Corporation
• Inventors: Evans, D. Scott
• Primary Examiner(s): Garber, Wendy
• Assistant Examiner(s): WILSON, JACQUELINE B
• Application Number:
  US08/766,701
• Time in Patent Office: 1,509 Days
• Field of Search: 348/373, 348/375, 348/376, 348/333, 348/334, 348/214, 348/347, 345/126, 396/448
• US Class Current: 348/333.01
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1622 with enclosures rotating around an axis perpendicular to the plane they define or with ball-joint coupling, e.g. PDA with display enclosure orientation changeable between portrait and landscape by rotation with respect to a coplanar body enclosure
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1626 with a single-body enclosure integrating a flat display, e.g. Personal Digital Assistants [PDAs]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1683 for the transmission of signal or power between the different housings, e.g. details of wired or wireless communication, passage of cabling
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1686 the I/O peripheral being an integrated camera
• 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: H04N 23/531 being rotatable or detachable
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/631 Graphical user interfaces [GUI] specially adapted for controlling image capture or setting capture parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/144 camera and display on the same optical axis, e.g. optically multiplexing the camera and display for eye to eye contact

Abstract

A housing for a portable electronic device which produces output on a display. The display is rotatable with respect to the housing, about a pivot. A video camera is located at the pivot, and the display rotates about it.

Claims

1. For an electronic device having a housing, the improvement comprising:

a) a display rotatable about an axis of rotation and about no other axis; and

b) a video camera,

i) having an image axis which coincides with the axis of rotation,

ii) which is non-rotatable with respect to the housing,

wherein the center of the display is separated from the center of the video camera by no more than about 5 degrees of arc, with respect to a center 30 inches away, wherein an image captured by the video camera of a person viewing the display indicates that the person is looking at the camera.

2. Apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the video camera is about ½

inch in diameter.

3. For an electronic device having a housing, the improvement comprising:

a) a display rotatable about a single axis of rotation and no other;

b) a video camera, having an image axis substantially parallel with said axis of rotation, which camera does not rotate with respect to the housing, when the display rotates; and

c) a lens cap for said video camera, pivotable between

i) a stowed position and

ii) a deployed position, wherein the lens cap protects a lens of the video camera,

wherein the display always faces the direction in which the video camera points, and wherein the image produced by the camera does not rotate as the display is rotated with the housing stationary.