JP2012059297A - Computer - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a keyboard and a notebook type computer, capable of miniaturization without sacrificing the operability of key-in.SOLUTION: A keyboard 10 has a plurality of keys each having a key top adjacent to each other which are vertically and laterally arranged in line, and has at least keys 13 for English characters. The keyboard 10 is configured such that a pitch in the lateral direction is longer than a pitch in the vertical direction in an array of a key top 16 of the key 13 for the English character, and a length in the lateral direction is longer than a length in the vertical direction in a size of an upper surface of the key top 16 of the key 13 for the English character.

Description

  The present invention relates to a keyboard and a notebook computer, and more particularly to a keyboard and a notebook computer that can be miniaturized without sacrificing key-in operability.

  Conventionally, personal computers have been gradually miniaturized, and a portable notebook computer as shown in FIG. 3A has now been realized. This includes a main body 2 having a keyboard 1, a display device 3, and a hinge portion 4 that connects the display device 3 and the main body 2. The display device 3 constitutes a lid of the main body 2. It can be opened and closed freely. The keyboard 1 has a plurality of keys having key tops 5 that are close to each other arranged vertically and horizontally, and information inputted from the keyboard 1 is processed and displayed by a CPU provided in the main body. It is displayed on the device 3.

  In the notebook type computer as described above, since the keyboard is miniaturized with miniaturization, the key top is also small. Furthermore, in the commercially available notebook type computer Libretto CTA20 (manufactured by Toshiba Corporation), the key top is horizontally long to reduce the size of the keyboard. However, the outer periphery of the key top is inclined as shown in FIG. 3B, and the upper surface (operation surface) 6 of the key top 5 is a square having a side of about 8 mm.

  In the conventional notebook type computer, the key top operation surface 6 is small, so that the key-in operation is inconvenient, and there are problems such as a large number of mistouches when a blind touch is performed.

  In view of the above-described conventional problems, the present invention seeks to realize a keyboard and a notebook computer that can be miniaturized without sacrificing key-in operability.

  The computer of the present invention is characterized by this. In addition, the pitch ratio of the horizontal direction and the vertical direction of the key top arrangement of the alphabetic keys is 15:14 to 15:13. The ratio between the length in the vertical direction and the length in the horizontal direction of the size of the upper surface is 15:14 to 15:13.

  With this configuration, the length of the keyboard in the vertical direction is shortened and the size can be reduced. Further, by making the length in the horizontal direction longer than the length in the vertical direction of the top surface of the key top, the operation surface can be enlarged, and operability can be ensured.

  In the computer according to the present invention, a plurality of keys having key tops adjacent to each other are arranged vertically and horizontally, and a main body having at least a key for alphabetic characters, and the keyboard and CPU. And a lid having a display device that covers the main body so as to be openable and closable, the keyboard top key key array being arranged in a horizontal direction with respect to a vertical pitch. The pitch is long, and the size of the top surface of the key top of the alphabetic key is characterized in that the length in the horizontal direction is longer than the length in the vertical direction.

  In addition, the pitch ratio in the horizontal direction and the vertical direction of the key top arrangement of the alphabetic keys is 15:14 to 15:13. The ratio of the length in the vertical direction to the length in the horizontal direction of the upper surface of the alphabetic key top is 15:14 to 15:13. Further, the size of the main body is approximately A5 file size, and the area ratio between the area occupied by the key and the armrest is 1.5: 1 to 1.3: 1.

  With this configuration, the length of the keyboard in the vertical direction can be shortened and miniaturized, and the operation surface can be enlarged by making the length in the horizontal direction longer than the length in the vertical direction on the top surface of the key top. It is possible to obtain a notebook computer that can ensure operability and can improve operability by increasing the area of the armrest.

  According to the keyboard and notebook computer of the present invention, the aspect ratio of the key top arrangement and the aspect ratio of the operation surface of the key top are set to 15:14 to 15:13, respectively. Since the computer can be miniaturized and the lateral pitch can be secured, mistouch can be prevented, and operability can be maintained and the apparatus can be miniaturized.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS It is a figure which shows embodiment of the keyboard of this invention, (a) is a top view, (b) And (c) is a perspective view of a keytop. 1 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of a notebook computer of the present invention. It is a perspective view which shows the conventional notebook computer.

  Fig.1 (a) is a top view which shows embodiment of the keyboard of this invention. The keyboard 10 of the present embodiment includes keys such as a function key 11, a numeric key 12, an alphabetic key 13, a shift key 14, and a conversion key 15. These keys are aligned vertically and horizontally and are close to each other. Are arranged.

The feature of the present embodiment is that at least the arrangement pitch P _{1 in} the horizontal direction of the arrangement of the alphabetic keys 13 is not the same as the length of the pitch P _{2 in} the vertical direction, and the arrangement pitch P ₁ in the horizontal direction is set to the vertical direction. it is that it was larger than the pitch P ₂ of. The pitch ratio between the horizontal direction and the vertical direction is 15:14 to 15:13.

Further, as shown in FIG. 1B, at least the horizontal length l ₁ and the vertical length l ₂ of the upper surface (operation surface) 17 of the key top 16 of the alphabetic key 13 are not the same, and the horizontal direction and the vertical length are the same. The direction ratio is 15:14 to 15:13. Note that, as shown in FIG. 1C, when the chamfering is made around the top surface of the key top to provide an inclination, the aspect ratio of the operation surface 17 is 15:14 to 15:13 as described above. Note that the aspect ratio as described above is preferable because the key-in operation becomes inconvenient if the length in the vertical direction of the operation surface 17 of the key top is too small.

In the keyboard of this embodiment configured in this way, the area occupied by the key tops is reduced by making the vertical pitch P ₂ of the alphabetic keys 13 smaller than the horizontal pitch P ₁ . The keyboard can be downsized. Further, the operability of the key-in is not sacrificed by making the aspect ratio of the operation surface of the key top of the alphabet key 13 horizontally long.

  FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of the notebook computer of the present invention. As shown in the figure, the present embodiment includes a keyboard 10, a main body 20 with a built-in CPU, a display device 21, and a hinge 22 that connects the display device 21 and the main body 20. The display device 21 constitutes a lid 23 that covers the main body 20 so as to be freely opened and closed. The keyboard has a plurality of keys having key tops close to each other arranged in a vertical and horizontal direction.

  In the keyboard 10, at least the alphabetic keytop arrangement has a horizontal pitch longer than the vertical pitch, and the upper surface of the alphabetic keytop has a horizontal length longer than the vertical length. Is long. The ratio between the vertical pitch and the horizontal pitch of the alphabetic key top is set to 15:14 to 15:13 as in the previous embodiment. The ratio of the length in the horizontal direction and the length in the vertical direction of the upper surface of the English letter key top is 15:14 to 15:13 as in the previous embodiment.

  In this embodiment configured as described above, the lid 23 is opened from the main body 20 as shown in FIG. 2, and information is keyed in from the keyboard 10 of the main body 20 in this state, whereby the CPU inside the main body is connected to the display device 21. The information processed by can be displayed. In this case, the ratio of the area occupied by the key tops by reducing the vertical arrangement pitch of the alphabetic key tops is reduced, and the area of the portion serving as the armrest portion 24 is increased, so that the key-in operation is facilitated.

  Further, since the operation surface of the key top is longer in the horizontal direction than in the vertical direction, the operability of the key-in is not impaired. Note that the aspect ratio as described above is preferable because if the length of the key top in the vertical direction is too small, the operation of key-in is impaired. In order to secure the area of the armrest part, the area ratio between the area occupied by the key and the armrest part is preferably 1.5: 1 to 1.3: 1.

  According to the keyboard and notebook computer of the present invention, by improving the aspect ratio of the arrangement of the key tops and the aspect ratio of the operation surface of the key tops, the depth can be reduced and the keyboard and the computer can be downsized. Since the horizontal pitch can be ensured, mistouch can be prevented, which contributes to maintaining operability and reducing the size of the apparatus.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Keyboard 11 Function key 12 Number key 13 Alphabetic key 14 Shift key 15 Conversion key 20 Main part 21 Display device 22 Hinge part 23 Cover part 24 Armrest

Claims (7)

There are multiple types of keys including alphabetic keys, and at least for alphabetic keys, the key top surface has a key that is longer in the horizontal direction than the vertical direction, and a plurality of keys that are arranged with a longer horizontal pitch than the vertical direction. A body portion having an area and an armrest portion on the upper surface;
A display unit;
A hinge part that connects the main body part and the display part so as to be openable and closable so that the display part covers the upper surface of the main body part;
A computer comprising:   2. The computer according to claim 1, wherein a pitch ratio between a horizontal direction and a vertical direction of the top surface of the key top of the plurality of arranged alphabetic keys is 15:14 to 15:13.   3. The computer according to claim 1, wherein a length ratio between a vertical direction and a horizontal direction of an upper surface of the key top of the plurality of arranged alphabetic keys is 15:14 to 15:13.   The area ratio of the area occupied by the area where the key is arranged to the area occupied by the armrest part in the main body part is 1.5: 1 to 1.3: 1. The computer according to any one of the above.   The computer according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein a size of the main body is approximately A5 file size.   6. The computer according to claim 1, wherein when the display unit is closed, the display unit covers an area where the key is arranged and the armrest unit.   The computer according to claim 1, wherein the computer is a notebook computer.

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