Portable information terminal

• US 6,813,146 B2
• Filed: 03/12/2001
• Issued: 11/02/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Ogihara, Akira, Haraguchi, Shinya
• Primary Examiner(s): Schuberg, Darren
• Assistant Examiner(s): Edwards, Anthony Q.
• Application Number:
  US09/804,519
• Publication Number:
  US 20040027793A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,331 Days
• Field of Search: 361/680-683, 348/220.1, 455/90, 455/522, 455/557, 455/569, 455/550, 455/566, 455/573, D14/137, D14/139, D14/377
• US Class Current: 361/679.55
• 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 1/1671 Special purpose buttons or auxiliary keyboards, e.g. retractable mini keypads, keypads or buttons that remain accessible at closed laptop G06F1/1666 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 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 2200/1614 Image rotation following screen orientation, e.g. switching from landscape to portrait mode

Abstract

In a portable information terminal, a display screen is provided on one surface of an upper half portion, and keys for inputting characters are provided at a surface of a lower half portion. The upper half portion can be pivoted to overlay the lower half portion. An operating unit for performing the control operation of the display content of the screen is provided at a portion of the lower half portion that is exposed even when the upper half portion overlays the lower half portion. A controller for controlling the display screen and other control processing is equipped in the lower half portion. The upper half portion and the lower half portion are rotatably joined to each other around a first rotational axis so as to be opened from the overlap state. The upper and lower half portions are also joined to each other so as to be rotatable around a second rotational axis perpendicular to the first rotational axis. A detector determines whether the display screen of the upper half portion faces the key-arranged surface of the lower half portion or whether the back side of the upper half portion faces the key-arranged surface side. In accordance with the detection result, the controller rotates the display image on the display screen by 180 degrees.

Claims

1. A portable information terminal including:

an upper half portion having a screen-arranged surface and a back surface, wherein a display screen of a display device is disposed at said screen-arranged surface;

a lower half portion including an input key array of a plurality of input keys arranged on a key-arranged surface thereof and a controller provided in said lower half portion, said controller analyzes an operating instruction input through said input keys and carries out the control processing corresponding to an analysis result to reflect the analysis result to the display content of said display screen;

a joint unit for joining the respective one end sides of said upper and lower half portions to each other so that said upper and lower half portions are rotatable around a first rotational axis so that in a first state said screen-arranged surface of said upper half portion on which said display screen is disposed can face and overlay said key-arranged surface side of said lower half portion on which said plural input keys are disposed, and so that said upper half portion is rotatable around a second rotational axis perpendicular to the first rotational axis at the joint portion between said upper half portion and said lower half portion, whereby in a second state said back surface of said upper half portion can face and overlay said key-arranged surface of said lower half portion;

a detection unit for detecting whether said portable information terminal is in said first state in which said display screen of said upper half portion faces the key-arranged surface side of said lower half portion or in said second state in which said back surface of said upper half portion faces the key-arranged surface side, wherein said controller controls the control processing in accordance with the detection result supplied from said detecting unit;

a radio transmission/reception unit for transmitting/receiving a message in a wireless mode;

and an operating unit for carrying out the control operation of the display content of said display screen,

wherein under the second state in which the key-arranged surface of said lower half portion and the back side of the upper half portion are overlapped with each other and said display screen of said upper half portion is exposed to the outside, only the display operation of the received message onto said display screen is carried out by using only said operating unit.

2. The portable information terminal as claimed in claim 1, wherein said controller controls the display content of said display screen in accordance with the detection result supplied from said detecting unit, so that an image on said display screen is rotated by 180 degrees.

3. The portable information terminal as claimed in claim 1, further comprising an operating unit for carrying, out the control operation of the display content of said display screen, wherein said operating unit is provided to said upper half portion and/or said lower half portion so as to be exposed to the outside when said upper half portion overlays said lower half portion, and said controller analyzes an operating instruction input through said input keys or said operating unit to perform the control processing corresponding to the analysis result and reflect the control processing result to the display content of said display screen.

4. The portable information terminal as claimed in claim 1 further including a radio transmission/reception unit for transmitting/receiving a message in a wireless mode, wherein a message to be transmitted is written onto said display screen by using said plurality of input keys only when the screen-arranged surface of said upper half portion and the key-arranged surface of the lower half portion can be visually recognized by a user who writes the message.

5. The portable information terminal as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a radio transmission/reception unit for transmitting/receiving a message in a radio mode, wherein under said second state that the back surface of said upper half portion faces the key-arranged surface side of said lower half portion, said controller neglects a character input based on one of said plurality of input keys.

6. The portable information terminal as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a key operating unit which is functionally varied between said first state and said second state.