JP2004297661A - Portable terminal device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a portable terminal device with a packaged camera unit in which a signal line is avoided from being disconnected by bending and twisting a flexible substrate and mounting workability is improved. <P>SOLUTION: In the portable terminal device with which a camera unit 22 is packaged to be rotatable in a portable terminal main body 2a, the camera unit 22 includes a rotator 23, image pickup parts 24, 25 housed within the rotator 23 and a flexible substrate 26 that is connected to the image pickup parts 24, 25 and extends outside the rotator 23, and an extending portion 26c that extends outside the rotator 23 of the flexible substrate 26 is wound around the outer periphery of the rotator 23 so that the camera unit can be housed within the portable terminal main body 2a. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

[0001]
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a mobile terminal device such as a mobile phone, a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant), a digital camera, a notebook personal computer, and the like, on which a rotatable camera unit is mounted.
[0002]
[Prior art]
2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, there has been an increasing demand for portable terminal devices such as cellular phones, PDAs, digital cameras, and notebook computers equipped with a rotatable camera unit.
A mobile terminal device equipped with a camera unit includes, for example, a lower housing, an upper housing, a hinge, a photographing unit, and an interlocking mechanism, and the photographing unit is rotatably provided at an end of the hinge. In some cases, the rotation angle can be freely adjusted by the rotation operation of the upper housing and the manual rotation operation by pinching with a finger or the like. This mobile terminal device can easily adjust the direction of the camera unit and can automatically close the camera unit in conjunction with the operation of folding the housing, so that the camera unit can be protected from the outside. It becomes possible. At the end of the hinge portion provided in the portable terminal device, a flexible board for electrically connecting the photographing unit is provided so as to extend from the camera unit to the outside. It is detachable (see Patent Document 1).
[0003]
[Patent Document 1]
JP-A-2002-359678 (page 3-6, FIG. 1)
[0004]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
By the way, in the portable terminal device described in Patent Literature 1, the flexible substrate is extended from the camera unit, but since the extended portion is long, when the flexible terminal is attached to or detached from the end of the hinge portion, There was a problem that workability was poor.
In addition, if the extended portion of the flexible substrate is housed in the mobile terminal body as it is, the space in the mobile terminal body must be saved for housing the extended portion, and the degree of design freedom when mounting other components is increased. There was also a problem that was damaged.
Further, when the camera unit is rotated, the flexible board accommodated in the narrow space may be forcibly bent or twisted, and the signal line of the flexible board may be broken due to the repetition.
[0005]
The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and provides a mobile terminal device that is capable of avoiding disconnection of a signal line due to bending and twisting of a flexible substrate and that is equipped with a camera unit with good mounting workability. With the goal.
[0006]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
The present invention employs the following means in order to solve the above problems.
The invention according to claim 1 is a portable terminal device in which a camera unit is rotatably mounted on a portable terminal body, wherein the camera unit is connected to a rotating body, an imaging unit housed in the rotating body, and the imaging unit. And a flexible substrate extending out of the rotating body, and an extending portion of the flexible substrate extending out of the rotating body is wound around an outer peripheral portion of the rotating body so that the inside of the portable terminal body is It is characterized by being accommodated in the.
[0007]
According to the first aspect of the present invention, when the camera unit is installed in the main body of the portable terminal, the space for installing the flexible substrate can be reduced.
[0008]
According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the portable terminal device according to the first aspect, the camera unit is rotatably supported in a casing, and an extending portion of the flexible substrate wound in the casing. Is accommodated.
[0009]
According to the second aspect of the present invention, when the camera unit is attached to and detached from the portable terminal body, the extension of the flexible substrate wound around the outer periphery of the rotating body can be prevented from being expanded by its own restoring force. When the camera unit is rotated, the gap between the wound extending portions is widened or narrowed. Since this can be avoided, the signal line of the flexible substrate is not disconnected.
[0010]
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, embodiments according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention, and is a perspective view of an open state of a portable terminal device to which the present invention is applied as viewed from the front side.
The mobile terminal device includes a lower housing 1, an upper housing 2, and a hinge 3 as a main body of the mobile terminal.
[0011]
The lower housing 1 has an operation unit 11 having ten-key buttons 11a, a cursor button 11b, and an enter button 11c.
The upper housing 2 includes a display unit 21 and a camera unit 22.
The hinge unit 3 includes a lower hinge 3a integrated with an end of the lower housing 1 and an upper hinge 3b integrated with an end of the upper housing 2, and the lower housing 1 and the upper housing 2 And the upper housing 2 is supported so as to be rotatable with respect to the lower housing 1.
When not in use, the portable terminal device can be folded with the hinge 3 as a fulcrum such that the surface of the lower housing 1 having the operation unit 11 and the surface of the upper housing 2 having the display unit 21 face each other. .
[0012]
The display unit 21 is formed of, for example, a liquid crystal display device, and information such as characters input by the operation unit 11, information such as characters or images stored in a memory (not shown) built in the portable terminal device, and an operation unit. Information such as an image captured by using the camera unit 22 by operating the camera 11 and information such as an image transmitted and received by a transmitting / receiving device (not shown) built in the portable terminal device are displayed.
[0013]
As shown in FIGS. 3 to 6, the camera unit 22 is built in the upper housing 2 and is formed in a substantially cylindrical shape so as to extend in the width direction of the upper housing 2. The camera unit 22 includes a rotating body 23 having a shaft 22 a and both ends of the shaft 22 a rotatably supported in the upper housing 2, and a camera module 24 as an imaging unit disposed in the rotating body 23. And a flexible substrate 26 provided at the end of the rotating body 23 and connected to the camera module 24 and the light emitting unit 25.
[0014]
When the camera unit 22 shoots with the camera module 24 facing the display unit 21 as shown in FIG. 1, the subject on the display unit 21 can be shot while looking at the display unit 21. On the other hand, from the state where the camera module 24 faces the display unit 21, when the end of the rotating body 23 is rotated by 180 degrees in the upper housing 2 while being picked with a finger or the like, as shown in FIG. When the camera module 24 faces the opposite side, and shooting is performed in this state, the subject on the opposite side of the display unit 21 can be shot while looking at the display unit 21.
The camera unit 22 is stored in the casing 2a in the upper housing 2. Outside the casing 2a, a sheet metal 2b for preventing static electricity is stuck.
[0015]
The rotating body 23 includes a large diameter portion 23a and a small diameter portion 23b which are coaxial and have different diameters, and the large diameter portion 23a and the small diameter portion 23b are connected. A plurality of concave portions 23c are provided on the outer periphery of the large-diameter portion 23a at the end on the small-diameter portion 23b side so that the rotating body 23 can be easily rotated by picking it with a finger.
The rotating body 23 is configured to be vertically split so that the camera module 24, the light emitting unit 25, and the flexible substrate 26 can be mounted inside the rotating body 23. Further, openings 23d and 23e are provided on the side surface of the rotating body 23 so that the camera module 24 and the light emitting unit 25 can be visually recognized from the outside, and the openings 23d and 23e capture images of the camera module 24. Transparent plates 23f and 23g are provided to protect the window and the light emitting surface of the light emitting unit 25, respectively.
[0016]
The camera module 24 is disposed on one extension 26a of a flexible substrate 26 described later, and is electrically connected to the extension 26a. The camera module 24 captures an image of a subject by a drive unit (not shown), and uses, for example, a CCD or a CMOS.
The light emitting section 25 is disposed on the other extending section 26b of the flexible substrate 26 described later, and is electrically connected to the extending section 26b. The light-emitting unit 25 emits light at the same time as the subject is photographed by a driving unit (not shown) when the camera module 24 photographs the subject. For example, a white LED is used.
[0017]
As shown in FIG. 7, the flexible substrate 26 has one extending portion 26 a and the other extending portion 26 b extending in the axial direction of the rotating body 23, and extends perpendicularly to the axial direction of the rotating body 23. It is formed in a substantially T-shape with the existing extending portion 26c. On this flexible substrate 26, a capacitor 24a, a resistor 24b, a ferrite bead 24c, and a diode 24d as control components of the camera module 24 are provided on one extension portion 26a, and the light emitting portion 25 is provided on the other extension portion 26b. A capacitor 25a, a resistor 25b, a ferrite bead 25c, and a diode 25d are provided as control components. These control components are installed near the camera module 24 and the light emitting unit 25. The extension 26c of the flexible board 26 electrically connects the camera unit 22.
[0018]
The flexible board 26 has the extending portion 26b bent and overlapped on the upper portion of the extending portion 26a. At this time, the camera module 24 and the light emitting unit 25 are arranged so that both can be visually recognized from the openings 23d and 23e of the rotating body 23.
Further, in the flexible substrate 26, the extending portion 26a and the extending portion 26b are housed in the rotating body 23 in a state where the extending portion 26b is bent and overlapped on the upper portion of the extending portion 26a. .
The extension portion 26b is provided with a reflector 25d so as to cover the periphery of the light emitting portion 25 so as to reflect the light emitted from the light emitting portion 25.
[0019]
Also, when the camera module 24, the light emitting unit 25, and other components are housed in the rotating body 23 by joining the rotating body 23 divided into upper and lower parts, the extending part 26c Is extended. As shown in FIGS. 8 and 9, the extending portion 26c is wound around the outer periphery of the small diameter portion 23b of the rotating body 23 with a gap.
The camera unit 22 is housed in the casing 2a in a state where the extending portion 26c is wound around the outer periphery of the small diameter portion 23b of the rotating body 23 with a gap.
[0020]
Further, a click mechanism 27 is provided at an end of the large diameter portion 23a constituting the rotating body 23 in order to fix the rotated camera unit 22 at a predetermined position. The click mechanism 27 includes a casing 27a, a spring 27b provided in the casing 27a, and a metal ball 27c pressed against the rotating body 23 by the spring 27b.
[0021]
The spring 27b is pressed from outside the casing 27a by a metal plate 2b provided outside the casing 2a. A notch 23h is provided at an end of the large-diameter portion 23a with which the metal ball 27c contacts, and when the camera unit 22 picked and rotated by a finger is stopped, the large-diameter portion is formed by the elastic force of the spring 27b. The camera unit 22 is fixed at a predetermined position by fitting the metal ball 27c pressed against the end of the portion 23a into the notch 23h.
[0022]
At the end of the camera unit 22, a rotation position detection switch 28 for detecting the position of the camera unit 22 when it rotates is provided. The rotation position detection switch 28 is composed of two switches 28a and 28b, and the position where the transparent plate 23f of the camera module 24 faces one surface, and the position where the transparent plate 23f of the camera module 24 faces the other surface. The position of the camera unit 22 which is set to one of a position where the camera unit 24 is located and a position where the transparent plate 23f of the camera module 24 is hidden is detected.
[0023]
For example, when the transparent plate 23f of the camera module 24 is located at a position facing one surface, the switch 28a is turned on and the switch 28b is turned off. When the transparent plate 23f of the camera module 24 is located at a position facing the other surface, the switch 28a is turned off and the switch 28b is turned on. When the transparent plate 23f of the camera module 24 is located at a position where the transparent plate 23f is hidden, both the switches 28a and 28b are turned off.
[0024]
Next, functions and operations of the portable terminal device having the above configuration will be described. When photographing a subject using this portable terminal device, the transparent plate 23f of the camera module 24 provided in the camera unit 22 is rotated so that the camera module 24 and the light emitting unit 25 face the subject, and then the lower housing is rotated. Photographing is performed by pressing the enter button 11c of the operation unit 11 provided on the body 1.
[0025]
That is, when photographing a subject using the portable terminal device, the upper casing 2 superimposed on the lower casing 1 is opened by hand from the state where the portable terminal device is folded when not in use, and the display unit 21 is opened. The user operates the operation unit 11 while watching to set the shooting, and if necessary, sets the light emitting unit 25 to operate simultaneously with the shooting, and rotates the camera unit 22 provided on the upper housing 2 to set the transparent plate. After turning 23f and the transparent plate 23g in the direction of the subject, the user presses the enter button 11c to take an image.
[0026]
When the camera unit 22 is rotated to turn the transparent plate 23f of the camera module 24 toward the subject, for example, when the rotator 23 is rotated clockwise as viewed from the right side, the small diameter portion 23b of the rotator 23 The end of the extending portion 26c wound around the outer periphery with a gap is pressed in the circumferential direction by the rotation of the small diameter portion 23b, and the extending portion 26c moves so as to narrow the gap, and is rotated. The force acting on the extending portion 26c due to the rotation of the body 23 is absorbed inside the extending portion 26c.
[0027]
When the camera unit 22 is rotated to turn the transparent plate 23f of the camera module 24 toward the subject, for example, when the rotator 23 is rotated counterclockwise as viewed from the right side, the small-diameter portion 23b of the rotator 23 is rotated. The end of the extending portion 26c wound while having a gap on the outer periphery thereof is attracted in the circumferential direction by the rotation of the small diameter portion 23b, and the extending portion 26c moves so as to widen the gap, The force acting on the extending portion 26c due to the rotation of the rotating body 23 is absorbed inside the extending portion 26c.
[0028]
In this case, as the gap between the extending portions 26c of the flexible substrate 26 becomes narrower or wider, the force acting on the extending portions 26a, 26b, and 26c of the flexible substrate 26 from the camera unit 22 is absorbed to transmit the force. To avoid this, the bending and twisting of the extending portions 26a, 26b and 26c of the flexible substrate 26 are avoided, and the breakage or destruction of these extending portions 26a, 26b and 26c is prevented.
[0029]
In addition, since the extending portion 26c of the flexible board 26 is wound inside the casing 2a, an extra space is eliminated when the flexible board 26 is installed, and the camera unit 22 having the flexible board 26 can be mounted on the casing 2a. It will be easily stored inside.
[0030]
According to the above configuration, bending and twisting of the extending portions 26a, 26b and 26c of the flexible substrate 26 are avoided, and breakage or destruction of these extending portions 26a, 26b and 26c is prevented. It is possible to provide a mobile terminal device equipped with the camera unit 22 that avoids breakage or destruction of the substrate 26 due to bending and twisting.
[0031]
In addition, since an extra space is eliminated when the flexible board 26 is installed, and the camera unit 22 having the flexible board 26 is easily stored in the casing 2a, the workability of mounting the camera unit 22 is improved, and It is possible to provide a mobile terminal device equipped with the camera unit 22 having good workability.
[0032]
In the above embodiment, the portable terminal device may be applied not only to a mobile phone but also to a portable terminal device having a camera unit, such as a PDA, a digital camera, and a notebook computer.
Further, in the above-described embodiment, a new function is added to the portable terminal device such as a microphone for inputting a voice or a small liquid crystal screen for allowing the user to visually recognize the operation content of the portable terminal device, in addition to the light emitting unit. The device may be built in.
[0033]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, according to the first aspect of the invention, the extending portion of the flexible substrate extending outside the rotating body is wound around the outer peripheral portion of the rotating body and accommodated in the portable terminal body. Thereby, when installing the camera unit in the portable terminal body, the space for installing the flexible substrate can be reduced. As a result, a space for mounting other components in the mobile phone terminal body can be widened, and the degree of freedom in design can be increased.
[0034]
According to the second aspect of the present invention, in the portable terminal device according to the first aspect, the camera unit is rotatably supported in the casing, and the extended portion of the wound flexible substrate is provided in the casing. When the camera unit is attached to and detached from the main body of the portable terminal, the extension of the flexible substrate wound around the outer periphery of the rotating body can be prevented from being spread by its own restoring force. When the camera unit is rotated, unnecessarily bending or twisting of the flexible printed circuit is caused only by widening or narrowing the gap of the wound extension part. Therefore, the signal line of the flexible substrate is not broken.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an open state of a portable terminal device according to an embodiment of the present invention as viewed from the front side.
FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the open state of the portable terminal device according to the embodiment of the present invention as viewed from the back side.
FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing a mounted state of a camera unit provided in the portable terminal device according to the embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing a camera unit provided in the portable terminal device according to the embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 5 is a sectional view taken along line AA of FIG. 1;
FIG. 6 is a development view of a camera unit provided in the mobile terminal device according to the embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 7 is a development view of a flexible substrate provided in the portable terminal device according to the embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 8 is a perspective view of a camera unit provided in the portable terminal device according to the embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 9 is an enlarged perspective view of a flexible substrate provided in the portable terminal device according to the embodiment of the present invention, as viewed from a side.
FIG. 10 is a sectional view of a click mechanism provided in the portable terminal device according to the embodiment of the present invention.
[Explanation of symbols]
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Lower housing 11 Operation part 2 Upper housing 21 Display part 22 Camera unit 23 Rotating body 24 Camera module 25 Light emitting part 26 Flexible board 26a One extension part 26b The other extension part 26c Extension part

Claims (2)

In a mobile terminal device in which a camera unit is rotatably mounted on a mobile terminal body, the camera unit is connected to a rotating body, an imaging unit housed in the rotating body, and the imaging unit, and extends outside the rotating body. A flexible substrate provided, and an extension portion of the flexible substrate extending outside the rotating body is wound around the outer periphery of the rotating body and housed in the portable terminal body. Mobile terminal device. 2. The portable device according to claim 1, wherein the camera unit is rotatably supported in a casing and accommodates an extended portion of the wound flexible substrate in the casing. 3. Terminal device.

Images