Portable computer

• US 7,852,322 B2
• Filed: 04/30/2007
• Issued: 12/14/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 01/24/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Park, Young-sun
• Primary Examiner(s): Patel; Nitin
• Application Number:
  US11/741,937
• Publication Number:
  US 20080174560A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,324 Days
• Field of Search: 345156-184, 36167901-67961
• US Class Current: 345/168
• 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 1/1662 Details related to the integrated keyboard
• 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 portable computer includes a main body casing having an opening formed at a center part thereof, and a first panel and a second panel which are provided in opposite sides of the opening, a display part which displays an image through the opening, and a first input button group and a second input button group which are selected from a character input keyboard of a computer interface, and are respectively provided in the left panel and the right panel.

Claims

1. A portable computer, comprising:

a main body casing having an opening formed in a center part thereof, and a first panel and a second panel which are provided at opposite sides of the opening;

a display part which displays an image through the opening; and

a first input button group and a second input button group which are selected from a character input keyboard of a computer interface, and are respectively provided in the first panel and the second panel;

a pointer mover which is provided in the first panel spaced from the first input button group to move a pointer displayed on the display part; and

an auxiliary enter button which is provided in the second panel spaced from the second input button group to click the pointer.

2. The portable computer of claim 1, wherein the character input keyboard of the computer interface comprises one of a QWERTY layout, a DVORAK layout, and an AZERTY layout.

3. The portable computer of claim 1, wherein the first input button group comprises at least one of a ‘

˜

’

button, a ‘

-’

button, and an ‘

@’

button.

4. The portable computer of claim 3, wherein the first input button group further comprises a numeric lock button.

5. The portable computer of claim 3, wherein the second input button group comprises at least one of a shift button, a back space button, a space button, and an enter button.

6. The portable computer of claim 5, wherein the character input keyboard of the computer interface allows the alphabet and other characters to be inputted there through, and the second input button group further comprises an input conversion button to convert between the alphabet and the other characters.

7. The portable computer of claim 6, wherein the other characters comprise Korean characters.

8. The portable computer of claim 7, wherein the first input button group allows Korean consonants to be inputted and the second input button group allows Korean vowels to be inputted.

9. The portable computer of claim 5, wherein the shift button is spaced farthest from the opening, and is adjacent to a circumference of the main body casing.

10. The portable computer of claim 5, wherein the shift button is respectively provided in the first input button group and the second input button group.

11. The portable computer of claim 5, wherein the enter button is provided in the second input button group to be spaced farthest from the opening and adjacent to the circumference of the main body casing.

12. The portable computer of claim 5, wherein the space button is larger than other buttons included in the character input keyboard of the computer interface.

13. A portable computer, comprising:

a main body defining an opening and having first and second panels disposed surrounding the opening;

a display part disposed within the main body to display an image through the opening;

first and second input button groups respectively disposed at the first and second panels to separately interface with a main board of the portable computer to control the display part;

a pointer mover which is provided in the first panel spaced from the first input button group to move a pointer displayed on the display part; and

an auxiliary enter button which is provided in the second panel spaced from the second input button group to click the pointer.

14. The portable computer of claim 13, further comprising:

an auxiliary button group disposed at another one of the first and second panels to control a function of the pointer.

15. The portable computer of claim 13, wherein the first and second input button groups comprise input keys disposed among the first and second input button groups corresponding to one of a QWERTY keyboard layout, a DVORAK keyboard layout, and an AZERTY keyboard layout.

16. The portable computer of claim 13, wherein the first and second panels are disposed opposite to each other with respect to the opening.

17. The portable computer of claim 13, wherein the main body comprises a main board to control the display part, and the first and second panels are connected to different sections of the main body.

18. The portable computer of claim 13, wherein the first input button group comprises first buttons, the second input groups comprises second buttons, and a combination of the first buttons and the second buttons generates at least one word as the image on the display part.

19. The portable computer of claim 14, wherein the individual keys comprising the first and second input button groups to interface with the main board are selected according to at least one of a frequency of use, a location of use of the personal computer, and a required functionality of the personal computer.

20. The portable computer of claim 14, wherein each button of the first and second input button groups comprises more than one input key, and the portable computer further comprises a special function button to select among the more than one input key corresponding to each button of the first and second input button groups.

21. The portable computer of claim 14, further comprising:

an input conversion button to convert a language associated with the inputs keys.

22. The portable computer of claim 21, wherein the input conversion button converts the language of the inputs keys from western-alphabet characters to Korean characters.

23. The portable computer of claim 22, wherein the first input button group allows Korean consonants to be inputted and the second input button group allows Korean vowels to be inputted.

24. The portable computer of claim 19, wherein the input keys comprise at least one of a ‘

˜

’

button, a ‘

-’

button, an ‘

@’

button, a shift button, a back space button, a space button, and an enter button.

25. A portable computer, comprising:

a main body having an opening;

a display part to display an image through the opening; and

first and second button groups separately disposed within the main body, each button group having a portion of a standard keyboard to control the image;

a pointer mover which is provided in a first panel of the body that is spaced from the first input button group to move a pointer displayed on the display part; and

an auxiliary enter button which is provided in a second panel of the body that is spaced from the second, input button group to click the pointer.