JP2003167858A - Electronic device and storage case thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an electric power supplying style from an external battery to a mobile terminal without deteriorating its appearance. <P>SOLUTION: A PDA 14 is attached on the left side of a PDA case 10. Five external batteries 12 are arranged on the right side. An electric power supply part 16 is provided at a left bottom of the PDA case 10, and the electric power is supplied from the external batteries 12, when the PDA 14 is attached. The electric power supply part 16 charges the external batteries 12. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2003,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a technique for supplying power to a mobile terminal, and more particularly to a technique for utilizing an external battery.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art PDA (Personal Digital Assistant)
Mobile terminals such as electronic notebooks are becoming popular. Recent mobile terminals have various functions and are made lightweight. Although the performance of batteries has improved, batteries still occupy a large proportion of the weight of mobile terminals. On the other hand, the number of cases in which a data communication device or the like is attached to the mobile terminal for surfing the internet or exchanging e-mail is increasing rapidly. In this case, the data communication device uses the power of the mobile terminal. As a result, there is still a great demand for the drive time of the mobile terminal, that is, the usable time of the battery.

[0003]

There is a demand for an increase in battery capacity as the mobile terminal is actively used, but if this is realized, the portability of the mobile terminal may be impaired.
In addition, recent mobile terminals place importance on design, and the user side may select a model depending on the design. Therefore, an increase in battery capacity may reduce the product value.

The present inventor has come to recognize the following in such a situation. That is, it is often the case that a portable terminal such as a PDA is mounted in a dedicated case, and by providing an external battery in this case, it is possible to substantially increase the battery capacity without impairing the portability of the portable terminal body. . The present invention has been made based on these findings, and an object thereof is to provide an external battery mounting technique for extending the usage time of a mobile terminal.

[0005]

One aspect of the present invention relates to an electronic device. This device includes a main body in which a display unit is integrated, an external battery that supplies electric power to the main body, and a storage member that is internally designed to hold both the main body and the external battery.

Here, the main body is assumed to be a mobile terminal such as a PDA. That is, the use time of the mobile terminal can be extended by incorporating the external battery in the case that houses the mobile terminal and supplying the power from the external battery. Further, the external battery may be any type of battery, but a rechargeable battery is considered appropriate in view of economy and convenience. For example, since a very thin and high-performance rechargeable battery such as a lithium polymer battery has been developed in recent years, the use of such a thin battery allows the battery to be incorporated without impairing the appearance of the display device.

The electronic device has a notebook form as a general outline, and the storage member is made of a flexible material, and the main body and the external battery are stored at positions corresponding to the left and right pages of the notebook, respectively. Good. Furthermore, the main body may be stored in a position corresponding to one of the left and right pages of the notebook, and the external battery may be stored in a position corresponding to both sides of the notebook. Of course, the external battery may be stored in a position corresponding to the back cover of the notebook.

[0008] The electronic device has a spread-type notebook form, and a portable terminal body such as a PDA is attached to one side in an open state,
An external battery may be held on the other side, or an external battery may be held on both sides. Since the battery is made thin, the battery can be held at positions corresponding to both sides of the notebook without impairing portability. Furthermore, it is also possible to hold the external battery on both sides, mount the PDA body on one side, and mount the extended display unit, keyboard, etc. on the other side.
In a PDA, a display unit generally has an interface function for receiving an operation from a user, and the user performs an input operation on the display unit using a user interface such as a stylus. Therefore, when the main body is stored, the PD is not hidden by the material.
A is stored.

The flexible material may be, for example, leather such as natural leather or artificial leather, or synthetic fiber.
The material, the structure, and the strength thereof do not matter as long as they have a strength capable of substantially maintaining their shape and function as a storage member.

The power supply from the external battery to the body can be realized by known techniques, which may be done contactless, for example using electromagnetic induction. If the external battery is a rechargeable battery, of course, it is necessary to charge the external battery, but this charging may be performed with the external battery taken into the storage member, or once removed. It may be made by a device. In the former case, it is necessary to provide the storage member with a charging device for the external battery, and the charging device may be configured to have a charging function for the battery built into the main body. If the PDA is configured to charge using the charging stand, the device proposed by the present invention can be easily realized by incorporating the same device as the charging stand in the storage member.

Another aspect of the present invention relates to a storage case.
This case is formed in a binder type having two surfaces, and carries an electronic device on one surface and houses an external battery for supplying electric power to the electronic device on at least the other surface in a spread state. That is, the external battery may be arranged on the side carrying the electronic device as long as the appearance of the case is not significantly impaired. The storage location of the external battery does not matter as long as the external battery is laid out so as not to damage the portability.

It should be noted that any combination of the above constituent elements, and the expression of the present invention converted between devices and systems are also effective as an aspect of the present invention.

[0013]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION In this embodiment, a binder type P
By laying the external battery 12 which is a lithium polymer battery on the DA case 10, the usable time of the PDA 14 is extended. Since the lithium polymer battery is generally thin, the external battery 1 does not impair the appearance of the PDA case 10 and does not deteriorate the portability.
Power can be supplied to the PDA 14 from two.

FIG. 1 shows a PDA case 10 according to an embodiment.
It is the figure which showed. 2 shows the PDA 1 in the PDA case 10.
4 shows a state in which it is mounted. This PDA case 1
0 is made of leather, and on the right side of it is 5 external batteries 12
Are laid all over the inside of the skin, and it is impossible to clearly determine whether or not there is the external battery 12 in appearance. Of course, the shape and the number of external batteries 12 are not limited. One external battery 12 may be widely spread inside the right skin.

A mounting portion 20 for accommodating and carrying the PDA 14 is provided on the left side, and the PDA 14 is inserted from the upper part and accommodated. The mounting portion 20 has an external battery 1 at the bottom thereof.
2 power to the PDA 14 and the external battery 1
A power supply unit 16 that performs a charging function for the battery 2 is provided.

The power supply unit 16 is provided with a terminal 18, is connected to an external power source, and converts the power from a general AC 100V household power source into a desired DC power source through an AC / DC converter, and the external battery 12 And supplied to the PDA 14. On the other hand, the PDA 14 includes a power supply unit 40 that receives power from the power supply unit 16 below the PDA 14. PD here
When A14 is independently charged (not shown), a charging stand is used, and here, the connection regarding power supply between the PDA 14 and the power supply unit 16 is the same as the connection form between the PDA 14 and the charging stand. .

FIG. 3 shows a PDA case 10 and a PDA 1.
FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a configuration of a circuit relating to power supply of No. 4; P
The DA 14 includes a power supply unit 40 that supplies power to the main device 30 and a main device 30 that executes and displays the functions of the PDA 14 by the supplied power. That is, the main device 30 is a CPU
(Central Processing Unit), a memory, a display unit, and all devices other than the power supply unit 40. However, the power supply unit 40 includes the internal battery of the PDA 14.

On the other hand, on the right side, five external batteries 12 are connected in parallel from the top. However, how to connect the external battery 12 is determined by the capacity and the number of batteries, and the voltage and current required by the PDA 14. Further, the line connecting the respective components is a power supply line, and is shown as one line for simplification.

When the PDA 14 is mounted on the mounting portion 20 with the main power source turned on, power can be supplied from the external battery 12 to the PDA 14. At this time, whether to use the internal battery of the PDA 14 or the external battery 12 depends on the PDA 1
4 is determined by the power management program. A separate switch may be provided to allow the user to determine which battery to use. When power is supplied from an external power source, surplus power other than the power that drives the PDA 14 is used to charge the internal battery of the PDA 14 and the external battery 12.

The present invention has been described above based on the embodiments. It should be understood by those skilled in the art that this embodiment is merely an example, and that various modifications can be made to the combinations of the respective constituent elements and the respective processing processes, and that such modifications are also within the scope of the present invention. is there.

In the embodiment, the external battery 12 is connected to the PDA.
The power supply to 14 was possible when the main power source of the PDA 14 was turned on, but the present invention is not limited to this. Electric power may be supplied from the external battery 12 to the PDA 14 even when the PDA 14 is mounted on the mounting unit 20 with the main power supply turned off. In other words, using the external battery 12, PDA 14
The internal battery may be charged.

In the embodiment, the external battery 12 is laid on the right side of the PDA case 10, but the present invention is not limited to this, and it may be laid on both the left and right sides and even on the spine cover.
That is, the position of the external battery 12 does not matter as long as the portability of the PDA 14 and the PDA case 10 is not impaired.

In the embodiment, only the PDA 14 is a PDA.
Although it is attached to the left side of the case 10, the present invention is not limited to this. PDA1 on the left side with external battery 12 spread
4 may be attached, and an extension device such as an extension display unit of PDA 14 or a keyboard may be attached on the right side. In that case, the PDA case 10 may be configured to be opened and closed in a state where the expansion device and the PDA 14 are connected, and the PDA 14 is naturally a mechanical mechanism that can be stored in the PDA case 10 with the expansion device connected. And has an electrical mechanism. That is, it is sufficient that the PDA case 10 can be opened and closed while the PDA 14 and its expansion device are connected and stored.

For example, on the left side of the PDA case 10, the PDA
14 is mounted, and the extended display unit is mounted on the right side. At this time, the PDA 14 and the PDA case 10 may be connected to each other directly, or the PDA case 1 may be connected.
0 may be provided with an interface for connection, and may be connected to each other via the interface. The extended display unit may use the power of the external battery 12. In that case, P
It is necessary to provide the power supply unit 16 also on the right side of the DA case 10.

The external battery is provided in the case of the mobile terminal, and power can be supplied to the mobile terminal from the external battery.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a storage case according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a state in which the PDA is attached to the storage case according to the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of a storage case and a PDA according to the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 PDA case, 12 external battery, 14 PD
A, 16 power supply section, 18 terminals, 20 mounting section, 30 main unit, 40 power supply section.

   ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued front page    (72) Inventor Takashi Kasai             2-5-3 Keihan Hondori, Moriguchi City, Osaka Prefecture             Within Yo Denki Co., Ltd. F-term (reference) 5B019 CA04 CA10                 5H040 AA06 AS12 AY05

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A main body integrated with a display unit, an external battery for supplying electric power to the main body, and a storage member internally designed to hold both the main body and the external battery. And electronic device. 2. The electronic device generally has a notebook shape, the storage member is made of a flexible material, and the main body and the external battery are stored at positions corresponding to the left and right pages of the notebook, respectively. The device according to claim 1, wherein 3. The electronic device generally has a notebook shape, the storage member is formed of a flexible material, and the main body is stored in a position corresponding to one of left and right pages of the notebook, The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the external battery is stored at a position corresponding to pages on both sides of the notebook. 4. A binder type device having two sides, wherein one side carries an electronic device, and at least the other side accommodates an external battery for supplying electric power to the electronic device in a spread state. Storage case to be.