GB2254454A - Wristboard with keyboard. - Google Patents

Abstract

An improved electronic wrist instrument with a case 5, internal circuit adapted to performing timekeeping and other functions and an electro optic display 9 connected to the circuit for displaying various functions and switches inside the case connected to the circuit adapted to alter the functions. The improvement comprises a case 5 with a first portion 6 adapted to rest on the wrist 2, a second portion 7 connected to and extending from the first portion which has a transverse dimension at least as great as that of the first portion and adapted to rest on the operator's forearm 3, an attachment 8 connected to the first portion and encircling the wrist, and a keyboard 10 with actuators disposed on at least the second portion 7 and connected to actuate switches inside the case 5. The second portion 7 may further include portions of the electro optic display as well as the manual actuators. <IMAGE>

Description

IMPROVED ELECTRONIC WRIST INSTRUMENT WITH KEYBOARD AND DISPLAY This invention relates to electronic wrist instruments having a display and a substantial number of manual actuators and in particular to an improved wrist instrument for improving timekeeping and other functions and having a keyboard and a dot matrix LCD display for inputting and outputting large amounts of information.

Electronic wrist instruments have evolved from digital timepieces of the type with several four digit liquid crystal displays, manual push buttons and internal simply integrated circuits, to rather complex wrist instruments for performing calculations, special timekeeping functions and sometimes employing twelve digit displays or dot matrix displays. Such wrist instruments have internal microcomputers with rather large memory or storage capacity for information. A need has developed for simplifying the entry of information, particularly by means of a keyboard providing a number of manual actuators for numbers or alphabetic characters. The conventional arrangement of a wrist-mounted timepiece has simply not accommodated a large number of keys for input or a large display for output.

Various effects to solve the foregoing problem have been directed toward shrinking the size of the keys, which makes them difficult to operate, or to extend the display or input keys in the direction of the wrist-attaching strap or band. Examples of the foregoing are seen in U.S. Patent 4,412,751 issued to Jeannet et al on November 1, 1983 in which the display s size is extended by an articulated case, U.S. Patent 4,419,770 issued to Yagi et al on December 6, 1983, in which a wrist antenna, a keyboard and circuit board are extended in a wrist encircling direction, U.S. Patent 4,255,801 issued to Ode et al, in which manual actuators for performing calculations are extended along a hinged watchband, and U.S.Patent 4,817,065 issued to Usui on March 28, 1989, in which a calculator keyboard is disposed of one part of a bent case and a display on another part of the bent case.

The timepiece prior art also includes suggestions that portions of a timepiece or wrist instrument might be extended perpendicular to the wrist encircling direction so that the timepiece is asymmetrical with respect to the attached strap.

Such a timepiece is illustrated in design patent 302,391 issued to Houlihan on July 25, 1989 with an offset extended display area and in U.S. Patent 4,783,773 issued to Houlihan et al on November 8, 1988 where an extension facilitates additional manual actuators. Both of the foregoing patents are assigned to the present assignee. It is also known that video game input devices may include a keyboard worn on the forearm with actuators for directing an object displayed on a television set. Such a device TM is known as POWER GLOVE sold by Mattel for use with a Nintendo entertainment system.

The present invention seeks to provide an improved electronic wrist instrument with keyboard and display arranged to facilitate input and output of data, said instrument having an improved structural configuration which is adapted to perform timekeeping, calculations and storage of data.

Briefly stated, the invention is practised by providing an electronic wrist instrument with a case, internal circuit adapted to performing timekeeping and other functions and an electro optic display connected to the circuit for displaying various functions and switches inside the case connected to the circuit adapted to alter the functions. The improvement comprises a case with a first portion adapted to rest on the wrist, a second portion connected to and extending from the first portion which has a transverse dimension at least as great as that of the first portion and adapted to rest on the operator's forearm, an attachment connected to the first portion and encircling the wrist, and a keyboard with actuators disposed on at least the second portion and connected to actuate switches inside the case.The second portion may further include portions of the electro optic display as well as the manual actuators.

In order that the invention may be better understood, several embodiments thereof will now be described by way of example only and with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1 is a perspective view of a first embodiment of the improved wrist instrument; Figure 2 is a cross sectional elevation drawing taken along lines II-II of Figure 1; Figure 3 is a perspective view of a second embodiment of the improved wrist instrument; Figure 4 is a cross sectional elevational view taken in the direction of arrows IV-IV of Figure 3; Figure 5 is a similar cross sectional elevational view taken in the direction of arrows V-V of Figure 3; and Figure 6 is a plan view of a third embodiment of the invention.

Referring to Figure 1 of the drawings, a wrist instrument shown generally as 1 is adapted to be worn by an operator on the wrist portion 2 of the operator's forearm 3 adjacent to the operator's hand 4. Wrist instrument 1 includes a case 5 having a first case portion 6 located in a conventional manner on wrist 2 of the operator. The first case portion 6 includes a connected attachment 8 encircling wrist 2 of the operator. Attachment 8 may be of the expansion type, or a strap or band attached with a clasp in the conventional manner. The second case portion 7 is integral with the first case portion 6 and extends along the forearm 3 of the operator in a direction transverse to the encircling strap 8 for a distance at least as great as that of the transverse dimension of the first case portion 6.Disposed in the first case portion 6 is an electro optic display 9 such as a liquid crystal display arranged to display multiple alphanumeric characters actuating selected segments. Disposed in the second case portion 7 is a membrane keyboard 10 having a number of manual actuators 11. Actuators 11 are flexible sections of the keyboard with indicia imprinted thereon to indicate the function performed when the internal switches are closed.

Referring now to Figure 2 of the drawings, the cross section illustrates one suitable internal arrangement of the wrist instrument. However, the internal arrangement is not relevant to the invention.

Display 9 includes a transparent lens 11 for viewing an electro optic display whose segments are electrically connected to a PC board 13 by means of conductive elastomeric connectors 14. Integrated circuit 15 is also connected to the PC board and adapted to perform various functions including timekeeping and other functions which are displayed on display 9. The functions may be altered by depressing manual actuators 11 on keyboard 10. A power source for the circuit includes a lithium battery 16. The membrane keyboard includes an insulating upper layer 10a with conductive areas 1Ob thereon, a separating layer 10c and a lower layer lOd with connecting switch elements 10e. The membrane switches are operatively connected to the PC board 13 and thence to the circuit 15 by means of leads 17.

As shown in Figure 2, the display and circuit are generally disposed in the first case portion 6 and the keyboard and battery are disposed in the second case portion 7. However the circuit and the battery may easily be interchanged as should be apparent from the flexibility provided in the arrangement shown in Figure 2. A caseback 18 seals the contents of the entire case, which may be moulded as one integral plastic member.

Referring to Figure 3 of the drawings, another embodiment is shown which is more suitable for larger input and output of information such as would be found in a memory or data bank watch. The wrist instrument shown generally as 20 is adapted to be worn on the wrist portion 21 of an operator's forearm 22 adjacent to the operator's hand 23. The wrist instrument includes a case 24 of an integral moulding having a first case portion 25 located on wrist 21 and a second case portion 26 resting on forearm 22. Case 24 is also bent along its longitudinal (wrist encircling) direction to include an upper section 27 and a lower section 28.Although the combined lengths of the first and second case portions 25, 26 may actually be greater than the combined lengths of the upper and lower sections 27, 28, the term longitudinal is arbitrarily defined herein as the dimension in the wrist-encircling direction, while the term transverse is arbitrarily defined herein as the dimension extending in a direction along the forearm of the operator between the hand and the elbow.

As seen in Figure 3, the first case portion 25 of the wrist instrument has connected thereto an attachment means comprising a strap 29 encircling the wrist. The first case portion 25 in the upper section 27 includes a conventional quartz analogue timepiece 30. The second case portion 26 in the upper section 27 contains a dot matrix display 31.

Both the first and second case portions of the lower section 28 are occupied by a keyboard 32 with manual actuating keys 33 having indicia imprinted thereon.

Since so much space is available in the Figure 3 arrangement, alphabetic characters may be provided as the indicia for entering words on the dot matrix display, the latter of which may conveniently be adapted to scroll along the case in a transverse direction by circuit means known in the art.

Referring to Figure 4, the upper section 27 of the first case portion 25 includes a case bezel section 25a, while the second case portion 26 includes a case bezel section 26a both closed off and sealed by a common caseback 34. A dot matrix display 35 is disposed beneath a lens 36 and an energy cell 37 is disposed beneath display 35. Arranged in a cavity in case bezel section 25a is a quartz analogue movement 38 beneath a lens 39.

Referring to Figure 5 of the drawings, which is partly a cross section through the second case portion 26 of the lower case section 28, the caseback 34 and case bezel section 26a of the lower section are seen to be part of the same member as the upper section 27. A PC board 40 extends the full length of the first and second case portions 25, 26 of the lower section. Switch contacts 41 on the PC board are actuated by flexible manual actuators 42 when they are depressed in a known manner. Circuit means includes an integrated circuit 43 electrically connected and attached to the underside of PC board 40.

Referring to Figure 6 of the drawings yet another embodiment is illustrated, wherein a wrist instrument 41 on the wrist 42 of an operator's forearm 43 includes a first case portion 44 disposed on the wrist and held thereon by a wrist-encircling strap 45.

The first case portion 44 includes an electro optical display 46. A second case portion 47 extends a substantial distance transverse to the wrist encircling direction, i.e. on the order of twice the transverse length of the first case portion. In order to securely fasten the second portion, a second attachment means 48 such as a second strap connected to the second portion 47 encircles the operator's forearm. A keyboard 49 comprising a large number of manual actuators 50 completes the wrist instrument.

Thus there has been described an improved wrist instrument which because of the provision of a second case portion extending along the operator's forearm enables many additional manual actuators on a keyboard and also enables a large display area such as a dot matrix display. Furthermore, the extended case may accommodate a larger integrated circuit with added memory and has ample space for energy cells extending the battery life of the wrist instrument.

Claims (10)

1. An improved electronic wrist instrument intended for an operator having a forearm with a wrist, said electronic wrist instrument having a case, circuit means disposed inside said case adapted to perform timekeeping and other functions, and an electro optic display disposed on said case and connected to said circuit means for displaying said functions, and switch means inside said case connected to said circuit means and adapted to alter said display functions when said switching means are actuated, the improved wrist instrument comprising:: said case having a first case portion adapted to rest on said wrist having a first transverse dimension in the direction of said forearm; said case having a second case portion inflexibly connected to and coplanar to said first case portion and extending from said first case portion along said forearm and having a second transverse dimension at least as great as said first dimension; attachment means connected to said first case portion and adapted to encircle said wrist; and a keyboard having a plurality of manual actuators disposed along at least said second case portion and connected to actuate said switching means inside said case, whereby an operator may operate a plurality of actuators while viewing said electro optic display.

2. The combination according to claim 1, wherein said keyboard on said second case portion comprises a membrane keyboard having actuators arranged both in a transverse and in a longitudinal direction.

3. The combination according to claim 1, wherein said electro optic display and said circuit means are disposed in said first case portion, and wherein said keyboard is disposed on said second case portion.

4. The combination according to claim 1, wherein said electro optic display comprises a dot matrix display, said dot matrix display being disposed on said second case portion.

5. The combination according to claim 4, and further including a quartz analogue timepiece disposed on said first case portion adjacent said dot matrix display.

6. The combination according to claim 1, wherein said first and second case portions each comprise an upper section and a lower section inclined to said upper section and integrally formed therewith.

7. The combination according to claim 6, wherein said electro optic display is a dot matrix display and extends along the upper section of said case and extends within both the first and second case portions.

8. The combination according to claim 6, wherein said keyboard is disposed on said lower case section and extends within both said first and second case portions.

9. The combination according to claim 1, wherein said attachment means is a first strap member, and further including a second strap member encircling said forearm and attached to said second case portion.

10. An improved electronic wrist instrument substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.