CN108346542A

CN108346542A - A kind of key board unit

Info

Publication number: CN108346542A
Application number: CN201810235816.0A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 吴翔
Original assignee: Darfon Electronics Suzhou Co Ltd
Current assignee: Darfon Electronics Suzhou Co Ltd
Priority date: 2018-03-21
Filing date: 2018-03-21
Publication date: 2018-07-31
Anticipated expiration: 2038-03-21
Also published as: CN108346542B

Abstract

The present invention provides a kind of key board unit, including：Include the shell of multiple key openings；At least one keycap set, the keycap set include at least one keycap, and at least one keycap is arranged in same direction；The keycap is placed in the key opening, and at least one lug is stretched out in the both sides of back side keycap orientation along affiliated keycap set of the keycap respectively；And pushing mechanism, including multiple transverse grooves, which is moved to the lug when being located in the transverse groove, which, which is in, can not descend shifting state；Wherein, which drives transverse groove edge to be parallel to surface of shell direction and moves, and the keycap in the corresponding keycap set, which is switched to removable state or this, can not descend shifting state.Keycap is fixed by the coupling between the transverse groove and lug in pushing structure, prevents keycap from accidentally being touched under non-working condition and generates unwanted input；The keycap fixed structure will not increase the height of key board unit, effectively keep the thickness of key board unit.

Description

Keyboard device

Technical Field

The invention relates to the field of keyboards, in particular to a keyboard device with lockable keys.

Background

With the demand for lighter weight and thinner profile of electronic devices such as notebook computers and desktop computers, the keyboard is also becoming lighter and thinner as a common input device, and how to design a thinner keyboard is a design issue in the field. In some electronic devices, the keyboard surface including the keys needs to be rotated as a supporting surface in one state to be supported on a desktop or the like, or to be held by a user, and at this time, the keyboard needs to be protected from manipulation. In addition, in order to temporarily suspend the electronic device to process other affairs in the using process, the keyboard needs to be prevented from being operated, so as to avoid that the operation of the electronic device is influenced by touching the keyboard by other people or data in the electronic device is leaked or damaged;

in the prior art, some manufacturers use lifting the keyboard to separate the keys and the switch to prevent misoperation, but the whole thickness of the keyboard device becomes thicker in the process; in addition, since the operator uses a single-point abutting lifting keyboard, the center point of the key is usually used for pressing a trigger point switch, and the abutting single-point position is deviated to one side, which may cause the key to incline.

Therefore, there is a need for a new key lockable keyboard apparatus to solve the above-mentioned drawbacks.

Disclosure of Invention

The invention aims to provide a keyboard device with lockable keys, which can conveniently realize the lightness and thinness of the keyboard, make the keyboard more beautiful and flat, and can arrange the keys according to different use requirements to prevent the keys from being operated by mistake.

The present invention provides a keyboard device, which comprises,

a housing including a plurality of key openings;

the key cap group comprises at least one key cap, and the at least one key cap is arranged in the same direction; the keycap is accommodated in the key opening, and at least one lug respectively extends out of the two sides of the back side of the keycap along the arrangement direction of the keycaps in the keycap group; and

the pushing mechanism comprises a plurality of transverse grooves, and when the transverse grooves move to a position where the lug is positioned in the transverse grooves, the lug is in a non-downward moving state;

the pushing mechanism drives the transverse groove to move along the direction parallel to the surface of the shell so as to switch the keycaps in the corresponding keycap group to be in a movable state or a non-movable state.

Preferably, the transverse groove is communicated with the longitudinal groove; when the movable state is in the movable state, the lug is positioned in the corresponding longitudinal groove and can move along the extending direction of the longitudinal groove; in the non-downward moving state, the lug is located in the corresponding transverse groove and can not move downwards along the extending direction of the longitudinal groove to a position for triggering the corresponding key switch.

Preferably, the longitudinal slot further comprises an upper boundary for defining a corresponding uppermost position along which the lug is movable.

Preferably, the transverse slot includes a first end and a second end, the first end communicating with the longitudinal slot; when the movable state is adopted, the first end is close to the corresponding lug, the second end is far away from the corresponding lug, and the size of the first end is larger than that of the second end; the transverse slot also includes a first ramp connecting the first end and the second end for guiding the lug for movement relative to the transverse slot.

Preferably, the first slope of the transverse groove is set to have an inclination amplitude, so that when the corresponding lug is switched between the movable state and the non-movable down state, the height of the keycap corresponding to the lug relative to the surface of the shell is not changed; or,

the first slope of the transverse groove is inclined by a range such that when the corresponding lug is switched between the movable state and the non-downward movable state, the height of the keycap corresponding to the lug relative to the surface of the shell changes, wherein the height of the lug in the movable state is higher than the height of the lug in the non-downward movable state.

Preferably, the pushing mechanism comprises at least two first connecting rods, the two first connecting rods are respectively positioned at two sides of the arrangement direction of the keycaps in the keycap set, at least one of the two first connecting rods comprises a plurality of transverse grooves, and each transverse groove corresponds to one lug.

Preferably, the keyboard device at least comprises two keycap sets which are adjacent and positioned on different parallel straight lines;

the first link, located between the two keycap sets, has two opposing sides, each side corresponding to one of the two keycap sets, and each side has a plurality of the transverse slots, each transverse slot corresponding to one of the lugs.

Preferably, the pushing mechanism further comprises at least one second connecting rod, and the second connecting rod is perpendicular to the first connecting rod; when the second connecting rod moves along the length direction of the second connecting rod, the first connecting rod is driven to move along the length direction of the first connecting rod.

Preferably, the keyboard device further comprises a control unit, and the control unit controls the pushing mechanism to operate so as to push all the keycaps in at least one keycap group to switch between the movable state and the unmovable state.

Preferably, the control unit automatically analyzes and determines a target use state of the keyboard device, and controls the pushing mechanism to push the key caps in part or all of the key cap groups corresponding to the target use state to switch between the movable state and the non-movable state.

Preferably, the second link has a guide slot, the first link has a convex column, and the convex column can move in the guide slot; when the second connecting rod moves along the length direction of the second connecting rod, the guide groove drives the convex column to move so as to drive the first connecting rod to move along the length direction of the first connecting rod; or,

the first connecting rod is provided with a guide groove, the second connecting rod is provided with a convex column, and the convex column can move in the guide groove; when the second connecting rod moves along the length direction of the second connecting rod, the convex column drives the guide groove to move so as to drive the first connecting rod to move along the length direction of the first connecting rod.

Compared with the prior art, the keyboard device provided by the invention has the advantages that the key cap of the key is arranged in the key opening of the shell, and when needed, the key cap is fixed through the coupling between the transverse groove and the lug in the pushing structure, so that the key cap is prevented from being mistakenly touched to generate unnecessary input in a non-working state. The keycap fixing structure can not increase the height of the keyboard device, and effectively keeps the thickness dimension of the keyboard device.

Drawings

FIG. 1A is a schematic backside exploded view of a first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 1B is a schematic structural diagram illustrating an unlocked state of a key cap according to the first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 1C is a schematic structural diagram illustrating a key cap locked state according to the first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2A is a schematic cross-sectional view of the key cap in an unlocked state according to the first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2B is a schematic cross-sectional view of the key cap in a locked state according to the first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2C is a schematic cross-sectional view of a key cap transition position according to a first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3A is a schematic cross-sectional view of a key cap in an unlocked state according to another embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3B is a schematic cross-sectional view of a key cap in a locked state according to another embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3C is a schematic cross-sectional view of a key cap transition position according to another embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

In order to further understand the objects, structures, features and functions of the present invention, the following embodiments are described in detail.

Certain terms are used throughout the description and following claims to refer to particular components. As one of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate, manufacturers may refer to a component by different names. The present specification and claims do not intend to distinguish between components that differ in name but not function. In the following description and in the claims, the terms "include" and "comprise" are used in an open-ended fashion, and thus should be interpreted to mean "include, but not limited to. The terms "upper", "lower", "height", and the like, refer to an orientation or positional relationship based on that shown in the drawings, or that is conventionally found in use of the products of the invention, or that is conventionally understood by those skilled in the art, and are used merely for convenience in describing and simplifying the description, and do not indicate or imply that the device or element being referred to must have a particular orientation, be constructed and operated in a particular orientation, and thus should not be considered as limiting the invention. Furthermore, the terms "first," "second," and the like are used merely to distinguish one description from another, and are not to be construed as indicating or implying relative importance.

Referring to fig. 1A to fig. 1C, a schematic structural diagram of a projection apparatus according to a first embodiment of the invention is disclosed. The keyboard device includes a housing 10, at least one keycap set 20, a pushing mechanism 30 for locking and unlocking keys, a control unit for controlling the pushing mechanism 30 to actuate, and a circuit board (not shown) corresponding to the lower portion of the keycap set 20, a keyboard input/output interface (not shown), and the like. The keyboard device can be used as a module to be integrated and applied to electronic equipment such as a notebook computer, a desktop computer and an industrial computer, and can also be used as external input equipment of small electronic equipment such as a smart phone and a tablet computer, and the invention is not limited to the above.

A plurality of key openings 12 are arranged on the shell 10, and a frame part 11 is arranged between adjacent key openings 12; the upper surface 11a of the casing 10 or its frame portion 11 forms a casing appearance, forming a part of the appearance of the assembled keyboard apparatus, which substantially reduces the thickness of the entire keyboard apparatus; the upper surface 11a of the casing 10 or the frame 11 thereof may be configured as an interior of an exterior casing of the keyboard apparatus, for example, a casing having corresponding key openings 12 may be further provided on the upper side of the casing 10 to serve as an exterior of the keyboard apparatus. The lower surfaces 11b of the casing 10 and the frame 11 are configured to accommodate the pushing mechanism 30, for example, a groove is provided to accommodate the rod body in the pushing mechanism 30, and the groove may be a length of the rod body which continuously and completely contains the rod body in the pushing mechanism 30, or a length of the rod body which partially contains a part of the rod body of the pushing mechanism 30; the housing 10 and the lower surface 11b of the frame 11 further have a retaining member for restraining the rod body of the pushing mechanism 30 within the range of the groove, and the rod body can only move along the length direction of the rod body; the clamping piece is integrated with the shell 10 and the lower surface 11b of the frame 11, and can also be realized by sticking, melting and fixedly connecting and the like; the pushing mechanism 40 may be located entirely in the keyboard apparatus, or may be located partially in the keyboard apparatus, with the other portion being located in a housing combined with the keyboard apparatus; and will not be described in detail herein.

The keycap set 20 includes a plurality of keycaps 21, and all the keycaps 21 in the keycap set 20 are arranged in a row or a column, and preferably, the arrangement direction of the keycaps in all the keycap sets 20 is the same. Taking a common keyboard layout as an example, all the keycaps 21 in the keycap set 20 are aligned. The keyboard device includes a plurality of row-oriented keycap sets 20 to form a complete key layout, taking fig. 1A to 1C as an example, a row of keycaps 21 may be used as a keycap set 20, and the row of keycaps 21 may also be divided into two keycap sets 20, i.e., left and right keycap sets 20, and for the keycaps 21 (e.g., Enter keys) occupying a plurality of rows in the layout, the pushing mechanisms 30 corresponding to the two keycap sets 20 at the side of the plurality of rows of keycap sets 20 are used to control the locking and unlocking thereof.

Each key cap 21 in the key cap assembly 20 may be a separate single body, the key cap assembly 20 may also be a keyboard assembly integrated with the circuit board, and the key cap assembly 20 may be a combination of some key caps 21 in the keyboard assembly. The key cap 21 includes a front portion, a back portion 212, and a ledge 213 extending laterally from the back portion 212. The front part forms the appearance of a keycap 21 which is pressed by a user to realize input operation; the back portion 212 is opposite to the front portion, the back portion 212 corresponding to a corresponding key switch in the circuit board; in a normal use state, when the front part is pressed by a user, the back part 212 directly or indirectly abuts against the corresponding key switch to trigger the corresponding key switch to generate an electric signal, and the electric signals generated by all the key switches are compiled to generate corresponding input signals to be provided to the electronic equipment in signal connection with the keyboard device; for example, as shown in fig. 1A to 1C, the keyboard device provides an input signal to the control module of the notebook computer through the input/output port, and also provides a generated electrical signal to the control module of the notebook computer, and the control module generates a corresponding input signal through compiling, which is not described herein again.

All the keycaps 21 in the keycap group 20 respectively extend from the back part 212 along two sides of the arrangement direction of the keycaps in the group, at least one lug 213 is arranged, the number and the size of each lug 213 are determined according to the size of the front part of the corresponding keycap 21, and the number of the lugs 213 at the two sides can be equal or different. For example, in the case where all the key caps 21 in the key cap group 20 are aligned in a row, the front side and the rear side of the back surface portion 212 of each key cap 21 protrude out of the bosses 213, respectively; two lugs 213 are disposed on two sides of the general key cap 21 (such as an F function key, a numeric key, an alphabet key, etc.), or two lugs 213 are disposed on one side and one lug 213 is disposed on the other side; at least three lugs 213 are respectively arranged on two sides of a key cap 21 (such as a Backspace key, a space key and the like) which is long along the arrangement direction of the key caps, or at least three lugs 213 are arranged on one side, and two lugs 213 are arranged on the other side; the invention is not limited thereto.

In a normal use state, as shown in fig. 1B and 2A, the key caps 21 in all the key cap groups 20 can move up and down; when a user presses the key cap 21, a corresponding key switch in the lower circuit board is triggered to generate an electrical signal. In the non-use state, as shown in fig. 1C and 2B, the keycaps 21 in all the keycap sets 20 are limited, and the keycaps 21 cannot move downwards when the keycaps 21 are pressed, i.e. the corresponding key switches in the lower circuit board are not triggered to generate electric signals. The non-use state can also be that the key caps 21 in part of the key cap group 20 are limited, and the key caps 21 can not move downwards when the key caps 21 are pressed to trigger a key switch; for example, in order to prevent accidental shutdown caused by misoperation of the shutdown key during use, the shutdown key can be automatically set to be in a non-use state after startup, and shutdown operation can be normally executed only after the non-use state is cancelled to lock the key; for another example, the function key (delete, refresh) is locked to prevent the user from performing unnecessary operations after misoperation, and the present invention is not limited thereto.

The pushing mechanism 30 is movable or immovable by controlling the position of the lug 213 of the key cap 21 to switch the corresponding key cap 21 to a movable state or an immovable state.

The pushing mechanism 30 includes a plurality of lateral grooves corresponding one-to-one to the positions of the lugs 213 on at least one of the two sides of the key cap arrangement direction of a key cap group 20. The transverse groove is pushed to move along the arrangement direction of the keycaps, the lugs 213 move into the corresponding transverse grooves, the lugs 213 are in a non-downward moving state (or a non-use state), at least the lower part of the lugs 213 is limited by the transverse grooves, and the lugs 213 cannot trigger the key switch to generate signals even if being pressed down. The lug 213 is in a non-downward movable state, which may also be that the lug 213 is wholly limited by the transverse groove, that is, the upper side of the lug 213 is also limited by the transverse groove, at least part of the size of the lug 213 matches with part of the size of the transverse groove, and when the lug 213 moves to a certain position, the upper and lower sides of the lug 213 are abutted with the transverse groove.

Preferably, the transverse groove comprises a first end and a second end, and the first end is communicated with the longitudinal groove. When the lug 213 is in the movable state, the first end is close to the lug 213, the second end is far from the lug 213, and the lug 213 is located in the longitudinal slot and can move in the longitudinal slot along the direction perpendicular to the extension direction of the longitudinal slot. When the lug 213 is in the non-downward movable state, the lug 213 is located in the transverse groove, and cannot move downward to the position where the key switch can be triggered due to the limit of the lower side in the transverse groove, that is, the limit of the lower side of the transverse groove can be the position where the lug 213 is abutted to fix the lug 213, or can be the position where the lug 213 is not abutted, but the downward movement amplitude is not enough to trigger the key switch to generate a signal when the key cap 21 is operated.

The transverse slot has a first end with a dimension greater than a dimension of a second end and further includes a first ramp between the first and second ends to guide the lug 213 to move relative to the transverse slot. The inclination of the first slope can match with the shape and height of the lug 213, so that the height of the keycap 21 corresponding to the lug 213 relative to the housing surface 11a is unchanged when the corresponding lug 213 switches between the movable state and the non-movable state; the inclination of the first slope may also be set to change the height of the keycap 21 corresponding to the lug 213 relative to the housing surface 11a when the corresponding lug 213 switches between the movable state and the immovable state, wherein the height of the lug 213 in the movable state is higher than the height of the lug 213 in the immovable state, so that the keycap 21 is slightly lower than the operable height when locked, which is beneficial for identifying the key state and preventing the occurrence of misoperation (as shown in fig. 3A to 3C). The first inclined plane may be a wedge-shaped cylindrical surface surrounded by an inclined plane, or may be a tapered cylindrical surface, and the boundary of the cross section of the cylindrical surface may be a straight line (as shown in fig. 2A and 2B) or a curved line, so that the lug 213 is smoothly transited when moving relative to the groove of the pushing mechanism 40. The shape of the lug 213 matches the shape of the transverse groove, which may be the same or different, and preferably, the position where the lug 213 abuts the transverse groove is smoothed to increase the contact area between the lug and the transverse groove, so that the movement is smooth and not easy to damage. When the lug 213 is in the movable state, its proximal dimension from the corresponding transverse slot is smaller than the dimension of the first end so that the lug 213 can move smoothly into the transverse slot.

The longitudinal grooves may extend in a direction perpendicular to the housing surface 11a, or may be slightly inclined to the perpendicular direction of the housing surface 11a based on an ergonomic design. The transverse dimension of the longitudinal groove is slightly larger than that of the lug 213, so that the lug 213 can be smoothly installed in the longitudinal groove and can move up and down along the extending direction of the longitudinal groove; the transverse dimension of the longitudinal slot may also not be limited to the transverse dimension of the lug 213, which relies on a similar slot structure of the frame 11 in the housing 10 to provide guidance and limit of the up and down movement of the lug 213. The upper side of the longitudinal groove may be provided with a stop to prevent the lug 213 from moving out of the housing surface 11a from the upper side and causing the keycap to fall off; the upper side of the longitudinal slot may be free of a stop, and the upper stop of the lug 213 may be achieved by means of a similar stop structure of the frame 11 of the housing 10.

The pushing mechanism 30 may include a plurality of first links 31 for providing transverse slots and, when included, longitudinal slots. Each of the keycap arrays 20 has a first link 31 at both sides thereof, and the first link 31 is provided with a corresponding transverse groove corresponding to the position of each of the lugs 213. The transverse slot is in movable abutment with the lug 213; when the first link 31 moves along the length direction of the link, part of the lug 213 abuts against the transverse slot and is pushed to lock or unlock along the transverse slot; the two first links 31 corresponding to the same keycap group 20 move simultaneously in the same direction, so that the lugs 213 on both sides of the keycap 21 are simultaneously pushed to lock or unlock, thereby realizing that all the keycaps 21 in the keycap group 20 are simultaneously pushed to lock or unlock.

Preferably, the first link 31 may be provided only on one side of the keycap arrangement direction of the keycap set 20 to control the locking of all the keycaps 21 in the keycap set 20.

Preferably, a first link 31, which may also be between two keycap sets 20 adjacent in a direction perpendicular to the arrangement of keycaps, has two opposite sides, each side corresponding to a keycap set 20; with each side having a plurality of transverse slots in a one-to-one correspondence with all of the lugs 213 in the side keycap set 20. Thus, the first link 31 can control the locking and unlocking of the lugs 213 of the two keycap sets 20 at the same time, so as to control the state change of the keycaps 21 of the two keycap sets 20.

The plurality of first links 31 may be controlled individually or may be controlled integrally to operate.

The pushing mechanism 30 may further include at least one second link 32, the second link 32 is perpendicular to the direction of the first link 31, and both the first link 31 and the second link 32 are parallel to the upper surface 11a of the housing 10. When the second link 32 moves along the length direction thereof, the corresponding first link 31 is driven to move along the length direction of the first link 31 itself. Corresponding structures are provided in the first link 31 and the second link 32 to transfer displacement in one direction to displacement in the vertical direction.

For example, as shown in fig. 1A to 1C, the first link 31 has a protruding pillar 312, the second link 32 has a guiding groove 322, and the protruding pillar 312 can move in the guiding groove 322; when the second link 32 moves along the length direction thereof, the guide groove 322 forces the protruding pillar 312 inserted therein to move along the inclined surface of the guide groove 322, thereby driving the first link 31 to move along the length direction thereof. Two ends of the guiding groove 322 can correspond to the first end and the last end of the first link 31, wherein when the first link 31 is located at one of the ends, the corresponding key cap 21 is pushed and locked; when the first link 31 is at another point, the corresponding key cap 21 is pushed to unlock. In order to facilitate the abutting and relative sliding of the convex column 312 and the guide groove 322, the convex column 312 and the guide groove 322 may be chamfered, and the convex column 312 may also be a cylinder. In addition, in the case where the first link 31 has a guide groove and the second link 32 has a boss, the displacement of the second link 32 may be transferred to the displacement of the first link 31 perpendicular to the moving direction of the second link 32 by the coupling and interlocking of the boss and the guide groove. And will not be described in detail herein.

For another example, one of the first link 31 and the second link 32 has a trapezoidal groove, and the other has a trapezoidal block, the shape of the trapezoidal groove matches the shape of the inclined plane of the trapezoidal block, and the width of the trapezoidal groove is greater than the width of the trapezoidal block, so that when one of the first link 31 and the second link 32 moves along the length direction thereof, the other is driven to move along the length direction thereof. Or may be other linkage structures capable of transferring the displacement in one direction to the displacement in the vertical direction, which is not described herein again.

The second link 32 may simultaneously control the movement of a plurality of first links 31, thereby controlling the simultaneous locking or unlocking of the corresponding plurality of key cap groups 20. Preferably, the second link 32 may be provided at both end sides of the first link 31. Preferably, when two keycap sets 20 are provided in the same row, the locking or unlocking of the two keycap sets 20 may be controlled by providing two second links 32 outside both ends of the row of keycap sets 20 in the arrangement direction to control the first links 31 corresponding to the two keycap sets 20, respectively.

One end side of the keycap arrangement direction in the keycap set 20 may be provided with different second links 32 for a plurality of different keycap sets 20 on that side to achieve different controls for different keycap sets 20. The plurality of second connecting rods 32 on the same side can be along the same straight line direction, and the control units are located on different sides of the plurality of second connecting rods 32; for example, the control unit of the second link 32 located at the front end of the same straight line is located on the front end side of the second link 32, and the control unit of the second link 32 located at the rear end of the same straight line is located on the rear end side of the second link 32, i.e., the two control units are distant from each other. The plurality of second connecting rods 32 on the same side can also be arranged in parallel, and the control units can be located on the same side or different sides; when the control units are adjacent, the displacement control of two or more parallel second connecting rods 32 can be realized by one integrated control unit; when the plurality of controlled second links are located on the same side of the control unit, a part of the second links 32 need to span over a part of the first links 31 which are not controlled by the second links, and a groove is provided at a corresponding position of the second links 32 and the first links 31 which are not controlled by the second links, and the size of the groove is such that the corresponding first links 31 and the corresponding second links 32 do not have mechanical interference within the displacement range of the first links 31 and the second links 32. When all the second links 32 are actuated correspondingly at the same time, all the key caps 21 of all the key cap groups 20 are locked or unlocked at the same time, thereby realizing the switching of the overall state of the keyboard apparatus. When a part of the second connecting rods 32 is correspondingly actuated, all the keycaps 21 in the corresponding keycap group 20 are simultaneously locked or unlocked, so that the switching to the specific limited use state is realized. The first link 31 and the second link 32 are located on the lower surface 11b of the frame 11 in the housing 10 (as shown in fig. 2A to 2C).

The keyboard apparatus further includes a control unit for controlling the operation of the push mechanism 30 to achieve locking or unlocking of the corresponding keycap set 20. Control unit mechanical key buttons such as slide keys, push keys, etc. For example, the control unit may include a slide key connected to the second link 32; when the pushing mechanism 30 has only the first link 31 and no second link 32, the control unit may include a slide key connected to the first link 31. The slide key has two positions corresponding to the two displaced ends of the link, respectively, and thus corresponding to the two states of locking or unlocking of the key cap 21 (or the key cap set 20), respectively. The slide key may be located on the upper surface 11a of the housing 10. As another example, the control unit may include a pressing key connected to the second link 32; when the pushing mechanism 30 has only the first link 31 and no second link 32, the control unit may include a pressing key connected to the first link 31. The pressing key is positioned on the shell side wall at one end of the second connecting rod 32 in the length direction or positioned on the shell side wall at one end of the first connecting rod 31 in the length direction; the push key has two positions, namely a high position and a low position, so as to respectively correspond to two displacement ends of the connecting rod, and further respectively correspond to two states of locking or unlocking of the corresponding keycap 21 (or the keycap group 20). The side wall of the casing may be the side wall of the casing 10 forming an appearance casing completely wrapping other structures of the keyboard device, or the side wall of the appearance casing of an electronic device in which the keyboard device is embedded; the invention is not limited thereto.

The control unit may also be controlled by means of electrical signals. The control unit can send a control signal to the corresponding motor module or other displacement control modules based on the actuation of the corresponding mechanical key, touch key or similar control switch by the user, and the motor module (or other displacement control modules) controls the corresponding second connecting rod 32 to be switched to the corresponding displacement position according to the control signal, so that the associated first connecting rod 31 and the keycap set 20 are in linkage displacement, and finally the corresponding keycap set 20 is in a locked state or an unlocked state.

The control unit can also automatically determine the target use state of the keyboard device based on the analysis, so as to send a control signal to the corresponding motor module or other displacement control modules, and the motor module (or other displacement control modules) controls the corresponding second connecting rod 32 to be switched to the corresponding displacement position according to the control signal, so that the associated first connecting rod 31 and the keycap set 20 are displaced in a linkage manner, and finally the corresponding keycap set 20 is in a locked state or an unlocked state. For example, when the keyboard device has no input operation for more than a certain time length, the control unit will switch to the standby state, and the control unit controls the keyboard device to enter the non-operation state. For another example, the notebook computer includes the keyboard device and a display touch screen, the keyboard device and the display touch screen can be connected via the pivot group, so as to open the flip cover, when the keyboard device is opened to a certain angle, even the back shell of the keyboard device is abutted to the back shell of the display screen (i.e. the notebook computer is used as a tablet computer), the upper surface of the shell of the keyboard device including the keycap group 20 can be used as a supporting surface to be placed on a desktop or be held by a hand; the keyboard device and the display touch screen can also be rotated and turned to a certain angle, even the upper surface of the shell of the keyboard device containing the keycap set 20 is abutted with the back shell of the display screen, so that the notebook computer can be used as a tablet computer; when the fact that the turning angle is larger than 180 degrees is detected, or when the fact that the keyboard device turns over for a certain angle after rotation is detected, the control unit determines that the keyboard device is in or is about to be in a non-use state, and sends a control signal to the corresponding motor module or other displacement control modules, and the motor module (or other displacement control modules) controls the corresponding second connecting rods 32 to be switched to corresponding displacement positions according to the control signal, so that the associated first connecting rods 31 and the keycap set 20 are in linkage displacement, and finally the corresponding keycap set 20 is in a locking state.

When having a control switch, the control switch presents different lighting indications, e.g., on/off, different colors, flashing, etc., based on the user's selection; the corresponding light-emitting indication can be presented by the indicating lamp based on the target use state of the keyboard device; the invention is not limited thereto. In addition, the unlocked portion or the locked portion of the keycap set 20 may be lighted, for example, the characters or symbols corresponding to the keycap 21 are lighted correspondingly, so as to prompt or emphasize the portion of the keys, which is not described herein again.

The present invention has been described in relation to the above embodiments, which are only exemplary of the implementation of the present invention. It should be noted that the disclosed embodiments do not limit the scope of the invention. Rather, it is intended that all such modifications and variations be included within the spirit and scope of this invention.

Claims

1. A keyboard device, comprising,

a housing including a plurality of key openings;

2. The keyboard apparatus of claim 1,

the transverse groove is communicated with the longitudinal groove; when the movable state is in the movable state, the lug is positioned in the corresponding longitudinal groove and can move along the extending direction of the longitudinal groove; in the non-downward moving state, the lug is located in the corresponding transverse groove and can not move downwards along the extending direction of the longitudinal groove to a position for triggering the corresponding key switch.

3. The keyboard apparatus of claim 2,

the longitudinal slot also includes an upper boundary for defining a corresponding uppermost position along which the lug is movable.

4. The keyboard apparatus of claim 2,

the transverse groove comprises a first end and a second end, and the first end is communicated with the longitudinal groove; when the movable state is adopted, the first end is close to the corresponding lug, the second end is far away from the corresponding lug, and the size of the first end is larger than that of the second end; the transverse slot also includes a first ramp connecting the first end and the second end for guiding the lug for movement relative to the transverse slot.

5. The keyboard apparatus of claim 4,

the inclination amplitude of the first inclined surface of the transverse groove is set so that the height of the keycap corresponding to the lug relative to the surface of the shell is unchanged when the corresponding lug is switched between the movable state and the non-movable down state; or,

6. The keyboard apparatus of claim 1,

the pushing mechanism comprises at least two first connecting rods, the two first connecting rods are respectively positioned at two sides of the arrangement direction of the keycaps in the keycap set, at least one of the two first connecting rods comprises a plurality of transverse grooves, and each transverse groove corresponds to one lug.

7. The keyboard apparatus of claim 5,

the keyboard device at least comprises two key cap groups, and the two key cap groups are adjacent and positioned on different parallel straight lines;

8. The keyboard apparatus of claim 1,

the pushing mechanism also comprises at least one second connecting rod, and the second connecting rod is vertical to the first connecting rod; when the second connecting rod moves along the length direction of the second connecting rod, the first connecting rod is driven to move along the length direction of the first connecting rod.

9. The keyboard apparatus of claim 1,

the keyboard device further comprises a control unit which controls the pushing mechanism to operate so as to push all keycaps in at least one keycap group to switch between the movable state and the non-movable state.

10. The keyboard apparatus of claim 9,

the control unit automatically analyzes and determines the target use state of the keyboard device and controls the pushing mechanism to push the keycaps in part or all of the keycap groups corresponding to the target use state to switch between the movable state and the non-downward movable state.

11. The keyboard apparatus of claim 1,

the second connecting rod is provided with a guide groove, the first connecting rod is provided with a convex column, and the convex column can move in the guide groove; when the second connecting rod moves along the length direction of the second connecting rod, the guide groove drives the convex column to move so as to drive the first connecting rod to move along the length direction of the first connecting rod; or,