JP2000020473A - Portable information processor - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To improve a visual characteristic while maintaining operability and to improve size balance between a liquid crystal display(LCD) part and a keyboard by setting up the aspect ratio of the LCD part almost similarly to that of the keyboard. SOLUTION: The number of pixels of an LCD 21 is set up to 1024×480 dots, the pitch of respective pixels is set up to 0.21 mm and the aspect ratio of the LCD 21 is set up to 2.1:1. The occupation ratio of the horizontal area on the LCD 21 to the display part 3 is about 90% and the space of the display part 3 is used to the full to improve the visual characteristic of the LCD 21. The key pitch of the keyboard 4 is set up to 17 mm so that other keys are not interfared by a user's finger touching a certain key 100. The aspect ratio of the keyboard 4 is set up to 2.19 which is almost similar to that of the LCD 21. Consequently the size of the LCD 21 can be expanded to the full while maintaining a minimum value in the easy operation of the keyboard 4.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a portable information processing apparatus, and more particularly, to an operability by making an aspect ratio of a liquid crystal display (horizontal to vertical) and an aspect ratio of a keyboard substantially the same. The present invention relates to a portable information processing apparatus capable of improving a visual characteristic while maintaining the same, and having a liquid crystal display unit and a keyboard of the maximum size.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 12 is a diagram showing a conventional notebook personal computer. In the notebook personal computer 121 shown in FIG. 12, the aspect ratio, which is the ratio of the horizontal and vertical lengths of the LCD 125 provided in the display unit 123, is set to 4: 3. In the keyboard 124, the pitch of each key is set relatively small in order to reduce the size.

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing another conventional notebook personal computer. The aspect ratio of the LCD 135 of the personal computer 131 in FIG.
4: 3 like the aspect ratio of the LCD 125. In the keyboard 134, the key pitch is set longer than in FIG. 12 to make it easier to use.

[0004]

However, FIG.
Notebook personal computer 121 has an LCD 12
Although the visual characteristics of 5 and the arrangement of the LCD 125 on the display unit 123 are good, the size of the keyboard 124 is set according to the size of the LCD 125, so that the key pitch becomes narrow, and when the user tries to press the key 127 with a finger,
There is also a problem that the key 128 in the vicinity is also touched, and key operation is difficult.

In the notebook personal computer 131 shown in FIG. 13, the key pitch of the keyboard 134 is different from that of the keyboard 12 of the personal computer 121 shown in FIG.
4 is wider than the key pitch of 4, the keyboard 134 is easy to operate, but a wasteful area 137 is created on both sides of the LCD 135 in the display unit 133, and
4 and the LCD 135 had a problem of poor balance.

The present invention has been made in view of such a situation, and has improved visual characteristics while maintaining operability.
A portable information processing device in which the size of a liquid crystal display unit and the size of a keyboard are balanced can be provided.

[0007]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a portable information processing apparatus including a keyboard for inputting data to a main body.
The display section includes a liquid crystal display section for displaying various information, and an aspect ratio of the liquid crystal display section is substantially equal to an aspect ratio of the keyboard.

In the portable information processing apparatus according to the first aspect, a keyboard for inputting data to a main body is provided, and a display section is provided with a liquid crystal display section for displaying various information. Make it almost the same as the keyboard aspect ratio.

[0009]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The embodiments of the present invention will be described below. In order to clarify the correspondence between each means of the invention described in the claims and the following embodiments, The features of the present invention are described as follows by adding the corresponding embodiment (however, an example) in parentheses after each means. However, of course, this description does not mean that each means is limited to those described.

The portable information processing device according to claim 1 is
A keyboard (for example, the keyboard 4 in FIG. 1) for inputting to the main body (for example, the main body 2 in FIG. 1) is provided, and a display unit (for example, the display unit 3 in FIG. 1) is a liquid crystal display unit for displaying various information. 1 (for example, the LCD 21 in FIG. 1), and the aspect ratio of the liquid crystal display unit (for example, the LCD 21 in FIG. 11) is substantially the same as the aspect ratio of the keyboard (for example, the keyboard 4 in FIG. 11). And

A portable information processing apparatus according to claim 2 is
2. The portable information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the number of pixels of the liquid crystal display unit (for example, the LCD 21 in FIG. 11) is 1024.
× 480 dots, the pitch between the pixels is 0.21 mm, and the keyboard (for example, the keyboard 4 in FIG. 11)
Has a key pitch of 17 mm.

Hereinafter, an embodiment of an information processing apparatus according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIGS. 1 to 6 show examples of the configuration of a portable personal computer to which the present invention is applied. The personal computer 1 is a mini-notebook type personal computer, and basically includes a main body 2 and a display unit 3 which can be opened and closed with respect to the main body 2. 1 is an external perspective view showing a state in which the display unit 3 is opened with respect to the main body 2, FIG. 2 is a plan view of FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 shows a state in which the display unit 3 is closed with respect to the main body 2. 4 is a right side view showing the display unit 3 opened 180 degrees with respect to the main body 2, FIG. 5 is a front view of FIG. 3, and FIG.
FIG.

On the upper surface of the main body 2, a keyboard 4 operated when inputting various characters and symbols and a track point (trademark) 5 operated when moving a mouse cursor are provided. . Further, on the upper surface of the main body 2, there are further provided a speaker 8 for outputting sound and a shutter button 10 operated when capturing an image with the CCD video camera 23 provided on the display unit 3.

A claw 13 is provided at an upper end portion of the display unit 3. As shown in FIG. 3, when the display unit 3 is closed with respect to the main body 2, the main body 2 is located at a position opposed to the claw 13. Is provided with a hole 6 into which the claw 13 is fitted. A slide lever 7 is provided on the front face of the main body 2 so as to be movable in parallel with the front face. I can do it. By releasing the lock, the display unit 3 can be rotated with respect to the main body 2. Microphone 2 next to claw 13
4 is attached. As shown in FIG. 6, the microphone 24 can collect sound from the back.

A programmable power key (PPK) 9 is also provided on the front of the main body 2. As shown in FIG. 4, an exhaust hole 11 is provided on the right side surface of the main body 2, and an intake hole 14 is provided at a lower part of the front surface of the main body 2 as shown in FIG. 5. In addition, a PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card Interna
nation association) card (PC card) is provided.

An LCD for displaying an image is provided on the front of the display unit 3.
(Liquid Crystal Display) 21 is provided, and an imaging unit 22 is provided at the upper end thereof so as to be rotatable with respect to the display unit 3. That is, this imaging unit 22
It can rotate to any position within a range of 180 degrees between the same direction as D21 and the opposite direction (backward direction). A CCD video camera 23 is attached to the imaging unit 22.

A power lamp is provided on the lower body side of the display unit 3.
PL, battery lamp BL, message lamp ML, other LEDs
Is provided. Reference numeral 40 shown in FIG. 3 is a power switch provided on the left side surface of the main body 2, and reference numeral 25 shown in FIG. 5 is an adjustment ring for adjusting the focus of the CCD video camera 23. Further, FIG.
Reference numeral 26 denotes a lid for covering an opening for mounting an additional memory in the main body 2, and reference numeral 41 denotes a lid 26.
This is a small hole for inserting a pin for removing the lock claw.

FIG. 7 shows the internal configuration of the personal computer 1. As shown in FIG. 7, a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 52, a PC card 53 inserted as needed, and a RAM (Random Access M
emory) 54 and a graphic chip 81 are connected. The internal bus 51 is connected to an external bus 55. The external bus 55 includes a hard disk drive (HDD) 56, an I / O (input / output) controller 57, a keyboard controller 58, a track point controller 59, and a sound chip 60. , LCD controller 8
3. The modem 50 and the like are connected.

The CPU 52 is a controller that controls each function, and the PC card 53 is appropriately mounted when an optional function is added.

In the RAM 54, an e-mail program (application program) 54A, an auto-pilot program (application program) 54B, and an OS (basic program) 54C are transferred from the HDD 56 and stored at the time when the activation is completed. You.

The electronic mail program 54A is a program for sending and receiving messages via a network from a communication line such as a telephone line. E-mail program 54
A has an incoming mail acquisition function as a specific function. This incoming mail acquisition function checks the mail server 93 to see if mail addressed to the user (user) has arrived in the mailbox 93A, and if there is mail addressed to the user, obtains the mail. Execute.

The autopilot program 54B includes a plurality of preset processes (or programs).
This is a program that is started and processed sequentially in a preset order.

OS (basic program software) 54
C controls the basic operation of a computer typified by Windows95 (trademark).

On the other hand, a hard disk drive (HDD) 56 on the external bus 55 side has an electronic mail program 56
A, an autopilot program 56B and an OS (basic program software) 56C are stored. OS 56C, auto pilot program 56B, and e-mail program 5 in hard disk drive 56
6A is the RAM 54 during the boot-up process.
Are sequentially transferred and stored.

The I / O controller 57 has a microcontroller 61, and the microcontroller 61 is provided with an I / O interface 62. This microcontroller 61 includes an I / O interface 6
2, the CPU 63, the RAM 64, and the ROM 69 are connected to each other. The RAM 64 includes a key input status register 65 and an LED (light emitting diode) control register 6.
6, a set time register 67 and a register 68 are provided. The set time register 67 is used to start the operation of the start-up sequence control unit 76 at a time (start-up condition) set by the user in advance. The register 68 stores a correspondence between a preset operation key combination (start condition) and an application program to be started. When the stored operation key combination is input by the user, the register 68 stores the correspondence. The activated application program (for example, e-mail) is activated.

The key input status register 65 stores an operation key flag when the programmable power key (PPK) 9 for one-touch operation is pressed. The LED control register 66 controls the lighting of a message lamp ML that indicates the activation state of the application program (e-mail) stored in the register 68. The set time register 67 can arbitrarily set a predetermined time.

A backup battery 74 is connected to the microcontroller 61.
The values of the registers 65, 66, and 67 are retained even when the power of the main unit 2 is turned off.

A wake-up program 70, a key input monitoring program 71, and an LED control program 72 are stored in the ROM 69 in the microcontroller 61 in advance. The ROM 69 is, for example, an EEPROM (electricall
y erasable and programmable read only memory). This EEPROM is also called a flash memory. Further, an RTC (Real-Time Clock) 75 that constantly counts the current time is connected to the microcontroller 61.

The wake-up program 70 in the ROM 69 checks whether or not the time set in the set time register 67 has come based on the current time data supplied from the RTC 75. , A program for starting a predetermined process (or a program). The key input monitoring program 71
This is a program for constantly monitoring whether or not K9 has been pressed by the user. The LED control program 72 is a program for controlling lighting of the message lamp ML.

The ROM 69 further includes a BIOS (Basic Input / O
utput System) 73 is written. The BIOS refers to a basic input / output system, and is a software program that controls data transfer (input / output) between an OS or application software and peripheral devices (display, keyboard, hard disk drive, etc.).

A keyboard controller 58 connected to the external bus 55 controls input from the keyboard 4. The track point controller 59 controls input of the track point 5.

The sound chip 60 includes the microphone 24
Or an audio signal is supplied to the built-in speaker 8.

The modem 50 can be connected to a communication network 92 such as the Internet or a mail server 93 via a public telephone line 90 and an Internet service provider 91.

Image data captured by the CCD video camera 23 is input to the graphic chip 81 connected to the internal bus 51 after being processed by the processing unit 82. The graphic chip 81 stores the video data input from the CCD video camera 23 via the processing unit 82 in the built-in VRAM 81, reads out the data as appropriate, and outputs the read data to the LCD controller 83. The LCD controller 83 outputs the image data supplied from the graphic chip 81 to the LCD 21 for display. The backlight 84 illuminates the LCD 21 from behind.

The power switch 40 is operated when the power is turned on or off. The half-press switch 85 is turned on when the shutter button 10 is half-pressed, and the full-press switch 86 is turned on when the shutter button 10 is fully pressed. The reversing switch 87 is connected to the imaging unit 2
2 is rotated 180 degrees (CCD video camera 23
It is turned on when it is rotated in the direction of imaging the opposite side of the CD 21).

FIG. 8 is a diagram for explaining the sizes of the display unit 3 and the main body 2. The horizontal length of the display unit 3 and the main body 2 is designed to be 240 mm, and the vertical length is designed to be 140 mm.
The horizontal length of the imaging unit 22 is designed to be 55 mm.

FIG. 9 is a diagram for explaining the LCD 21 in detail. The number of pixels of the LCD 21 is set to 1024 × 480 dots, and the pitch between each pixel is set to 0.21 mm.
The horizontal length of the LCD 21 is designed to be 210 mm, and the vertical length is designed to be 100 mm. That is, the aspect ratio of the LCD 21 is 2.1: 1. LCD 21 in display unit 3
The horizontal length of the useless areas 91 and 92 generated in the left and right areas is designed to be smaller than 15 mm, so that the useless areas are reduced. The occupation ratio of the horizontal area of the LCD 21 to the horizontal area of the display unit 3 is about 90%, which is designed by using the space of the display unit 3 as much as possible. I have.

FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating the keyboard 4 in detail. The key pitch of the keyboard 4 is set to 17 mm. This value is the minimum value necessary to maintain the operability of the keys on the keyboard 4. For example, even if the user tries to touch the key 100 with a finger, it is designed to be operable without hitting other keys. The horizontal length of the keyboard 4 is designed to be 230 mm, and the vertical length is designed to be 93 mm on the left side and 105 mm on the right side. That is, the aspect ratio of the keyboard 4 is 2.
19: 1, which is almost the same as the aspect ratio of the LCD 21. The horizontal length of the useless area on both sides of the keyboard 4 is 5 mm, and the horizontal occupancy of the keyboard 4 with respect to the main body 2 is about 96%, and the useless areas 101 and 102 are hardly formed. , And is designed to make maximum use of the space of the main body 2.

As described above, according to the personal computer 1 of the present embodiment, as shown in FIG.
1024 × 480 dots, the pitch between pixels is 0.21 mm, and the value of the key pitch of the keyboard 4 is 17 mm.
Since the aspect ratio of the LCD 21 and the aspect ratio of the keyboard 4 are made substantially the same, while maintaining the minimum value in the ease of operation of the keyboard 4,
A personal computer equipped with a keyboard 4 having the maximum size for the space of the main body 2 and having an LCD 21 having a maximum size for the space of the display unit 3 can maximize the size of the LCD 21. The computer 1 can be obtained.

In the above description, the number of pixels of the LCD 21 is set to 1024
× 480 dots, the key pitch value of the keyboard 4 is 17m
m, but the number of pixels of the LCD 21 is 1280 × 480 dots,
The same effect can be obtained even if the value of the key pitch of the keyboard 4 is set to 19 mm.

[0042]

As described above, according to the portable information processing apparatus of the first aspect, the aspect ratio of the liquid crystal display section is made substantially the same as that of the keyboard, so that operability is maintained. In addition, it is possible to improve the visual characteristics and obtain a portable information processing apparatus equipped with a liquid crystal display unit and a keyboard that makes the most of space.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an external perspective view showing a state in which a display unit of a configuration example of a portable personal computer to which the present invention is applied is opened with respect to a main body.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a left side view showing a state where the display unit of FIG. 1 is closed with respect to a main body.

FIG. 4 is a right side view showing a state where the display unit of FIG. 1 is opened 180 degrees with respect to a main body.

FIG. 5 is a front view of FIG. 3;

FIG. 6 is a bottom view of FIG. 4;

FIG. 7 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of an electric circuit of FIG. 1;

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing the sizes of the display unit 3 and the main body 2.

FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating the display unit 3 in detail.

FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating the keyboard 4 in detail.

FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating a relationship between a display unit 3 and a keyboard 4.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing a conventional personal computer.

FIG. 13 is another diagram showing a conventional personal computer.

[Explanation of symbols]

1,121,131 Portable personal computer,
3,123,133 display unit, 4,124,134
Keyboard, 21, 125, 135 LCD, 10
0,127 Key to press, 128 Key to touch, 91,92,101,102,137 Useless area

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A portable information processing apparatus comprising: a main body; and a display unit connected to the main body so as to be openable and closable, comprising: a keyboard for inputting to the main body; A portable information processing apparatus, comprising: a liquid crystal display unit that displays the same; and an aspect ratio of the liquid crystal display unit is substantially the same as an aspect ratio of the keyboard. 2. The liquid crystal display according to claim 1, wherein the number of pixels of the liquid crystal display unit is 1024 × 480 dots, a pitch between the pixels is 0.21 mm, and a key pitch of the keyboard is 17 mm. Portable information processing device.