Flexible electronic product having a shape change characteristic and method thereof

• US 8,380,327 B2
• Filed: 08/03/2010
• Issued: 02/19/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 01/29/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Pantech Corporation (Ideahub, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Pantech Co. Ltd. (Pantech Incorporated)
• Inventors: PARK, Hyung Ik
• Primary Examiner(s): HAUGHTON, ANTHONY MICHAEL
• Application Number:
  US12/849,614
• Publication Number:
  US 20110188189A1
• Time in Patent Office: 931 Days
• Field of Search: 361/679.01, 361/679.21, 361/679.22, 361/679.26, 361/679.3, 455/575.1, 455/575.3, 455/575.4, 455/575.9, 295/921, 700/1, 700/11, 700/18, 700/90, 710/1, 710/5, 710/30, 712/1
• US Class Current: 700/1
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 11/01 electric
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1624 with sliding enclosures, e.g. sliding keyboard or display
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1652 the display being flexible, e.g. mimicking a sheet of paper, or rollable
• CPC Class Codes: G09F 9/301 flexible foldable or roll-able electronic displays, e.g. thin LCD, OLED
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2380/02 Flexible displays
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/0235 Slidable or telescopic telephones, i.e. with a relative translation movement of the body parts; Telephones using a combination of translation and other relative motions of the body parts
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/0268 including a flexible display panel
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 5/0017 with operator interface units
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 29/49002 Electrical device making

Abstract

A flexible electronic product includes a flexible electronic assembled body and an actuator including a shape memory member. The actuator of the flexible electronic product deforms in response to an input. The flexible electronic assembled body includes a flexible display device, such as an organic light emitting diode (OLED), a plastic liquid crystal display (LCD), a plastic plasma display panel (PDP), an electronic ink panel, an organic thin film transistor (OTFT).

Claims

1. A method for changing a shape of a flexible electronic product, wherein the flexible electronic product comprises a flexible electronic assembled body and an actuator disposed along at least a portion of the flexible electronic assembled body to change a shape of the flexible electronic assembled body, the method for changing a shape comprising:

recognizing a signal input, generating a condition value of input information on the input signal;

searching a database for a shape information value corresponding to the condition value; and

supplying power to the actuator, the power corresponding to the shape information value searched in the database processing process, and controlling a change in shape of the actuator that receives the power.

2. The method for changing a shape of claim 1, wherein the controlling of the change in shape is ended if the shape information value corresponding to the condition value is not found in the database.