JP2017102772A - Electronic device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a technique that allows users to more understandably recognize a correct insertion method for inserting the card in an electronic device including a card connector configured to receive insertion of cards, and connect an end part of the card to a substrate.SOLUTION: An electronic device 10 comprises: a card connector that is configured to receive insertion of a USIM card 135, and connect an end part of the USIM card 135 to a substrate; a notification unit such as a display 142 and the like for notifying information; and a processor for controlling an operation of the electronic device 10. The processor is configured to: judge at least any of a direction where the USIM card 135 is inserted into the card connector or a direction of a surface of the USIM card 135 to be inserted into the card connector; and notify information causing users to recognize an insertion aspect of the USIM card 135 by means of the display 142 and the like on the basis of a judgement result.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 5

Description

  The present disclosure relates to a technique that facilitates an operation of a user inserting a card into a card connector in an electronic apparatus having a card connector that accepts insertion of a card and connects an end of the card to a substrate.

  Conventionally, a certain function is exhibited in an electronic device by accepting insertion of a card and connecting the end of the card to a substrate. For example, an electronic device accepts insertion of a UIM card (User Identity Module Card) or a USIM card (Universal Subscriber Identity Module Card), and a radio base station according to a communication standard of a mobile communication system such as LTE (Long Term Evolution) Can communicate with. In addition, in order to use services such as mobile communication systems provided by telecommunications carriers around the world, a user performs an operation of inserting a card such as a UIM card into an electronic device. Therefore, user convenience can be improved by preventing erroneous insertion of the card or allowing the user to easily recognize erroneous insertion of the card. For example, Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2012-1119066 (Patent Document 1) describes a mechanism for preventing a card from being inserted into a card connector in the wrong direction.

JP 2012-1119066 A

  When the user inserts a card such as a UIM card into the card connector and the electronic device fails to recognize the card, the electronic device notifies the user that the card cannot be recognized by, for example, a display. Recognize that the card insertion has failed.

  Here, when the card insertion direction is restricted due to the structural features of the card connector (when the card can only be inserted into the card connector in the correct orientation), the user can change the direction in which the card is inserted into the card connector. Can be easily recognized.

  However, if the card connector itself does not have a structure that regulates the card insertion direction, there are multiple types of orientations for inserting the card into the card connector, so the correct insertion direction for inserting the card into the card connector must be The user may not be able to easily recognize from the appearance of the connector. As a result, the user tries to insert the card many times into the card connector until the correct insertion direction is found.

  Therefore, in an electronic device having a card connector configured to accept insertion of a card and connect an end portion of the card to a board, a technique that allows a user to more easily recognize a correct insertion mode for inserting the card. is necessary. The present disclosure aims to provide a technique for a user to more easily insert a card into a card connector.

  An electronic device according to an embodiment receives a card insertion, a card connector configured to connect an end of the card to a substrate, a notification unit configured to notify information, and operation of the electronic device A control unit for controlling. The control unit is configured to determine at least one of a direction in which the card is inserted into the card connector or a direction of a surface in which the card is inserted into the card connector, and a determination result of the card based on a determination result by the direction determination unit. And a notification processing unit that notifies the user of information that allows the user to recognize the insertion mode.

  According to one embodiment, since the electronic device notifies the user of information indicating the result of inserting the card into the card connector, the card can be easily reinserted when the card is erroneously inserted.

  The above and other objects, features, aspects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the present invention taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

It is a figure which shows the external appearance of the electronic device 10 of this embodiment, and the external appearance of the USIM card | curd 135. FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a functional configuration of the electronic device 10. FIG. It is a figure which shows the mechanism for discriminating the insertion mode in which the USIM card 135 is inserted in the card connector 132. It is a figure which shows the data structure of the alerting | reporting content table 151. FIG. It is a figure which shows the outline of the structure of 1st switch 132A for detecting the insertion aspect of the USIM card 135 with respect to the card connector 132, and the example of the alerting | reporting method to a user.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In the following description, the same parts are denoted by the same reference numerals. Their names and functions are also the same. Therefore, detailed description thereof will not be repeated.

<Embodiment>
In the present embodiment, a smart phone will be described as an example of an electronic device including a card connector. The electronic device accepts the installation of the USIM card with the card connector. The electronic device uses a mobile communication service provided by a mobile communication carrier based on information recorded on the USIM card.

  FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an appearance of the electronic device 10 and an appearance of the USIM card 135 according to the present embodiment. The external appearance (A) of FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an external appearance of the surface of the electronic device 10 when the surface on which the display 142 of the electronic device 10 is disposed is a surface. The appearance (B) of FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the appearance of the back surface of the electronic device 10. The electronic device 10 allows the battery pack to be taken out and attached with the back cover removed.

  Appearance (B) shows a state where the battery pack is removed from the electronic device 10. As shown in the external appearance (B), the electronic device 10 has a structure in which the card connector 132 for accepting the mounting of the USIM card 135 is exposed in a state where the battery pack of the electronic device 10 is removed.

  Appearance (C) shows the appearance of the USIM card 135. The USIM card 135 includes a cut portion 135A in which any one of rectangular corners is cut.

<Configuration>
FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a functional configuration of the electronic device 10.

  As illustrated in FIG. 2, the electronic device 10 includes an antenna 101, a wireless communication unit 111, a physical operation key 131, an operation reception unit (touch panel) 141, a display 142, an audio processing unit 146, and a microphone 147. Speaker 148, storage unit 150, and control unit 160.

  The antenna 101 radiates a signal emitted from the electronic device 10 as a radio wave. Further, the antenna 101 receives radio waves from the space and gives a reception signal to the wireless communication unit 111. In the present embodiment, the electronic device 10 is compatible with a plurality of wireless communication standards.

  The wireless communication unit 111 performs modulation / demodulation processing for transmitting and receiving signals via the antenna 101 and the like so that the electronic device 10 communicates with other wireless devices. The wireless communication unit 111 is a communication module including a tuner, an RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indicator) calculation circuit, a CRC (Cyclic Redundancy Check) calculation circuit, a high-frequency circuit, and the like. The wireless communication unit 111 performs modulation / demodulation and frequency conversion of a wireless signal transmitted / received by the electronic device 10 and provides a received signal to the control unit 160.

  The physical operation key 131 is a physical input device and accepts a pressing operation by the user. The physical operation key 131 outputs a signal indicating the operation content to the control unit 160 in response to a user's pressing operation.

  The card connector 132 is configured to accept insertion of the USIM card 135 and connect the end of the USIM card 135 to the board. The card connector 132 has a mechanism for detecting the corner of the USIM card 135 by contacting the corner of the USIM card 135 when the insertion of the USIM card 135 is accepted.

  The operation receiving unit 141 receives a user input operation. The operation reception unit 141 detects the contact position of the user by using, for example, a capacitive touch panel. The operation reception unit 141 outputs a signal indicating the detected contact position of the user to the control unit 160 as an input operation.

  The display 142 displays data such as an image, a moving image, and text under the control of the control unit 160. The display 142 is realized by, for example, an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) or an organic EL (Electro-Luminescence) display.

  The audio processing unit 146 performs modulation / demodulation of the audio signal. The audio processing unit 146 modulates the signal given from the microphone 147 and gives the modulated signal to the control unit 160. In addition, the audio processing unit 146 provides an audio signal to the speaker 148. The audio processing unit 146 is realized by a processor for audio processing, for example. The microphone 147 receives an audio input and provides an audio signal corresponding to the audio input to the audio processing unit 146. The speaker 148 converts the audio signal provided from the audio processing unit 146 into audio and outputs the audio to the outside of the electronic device 10.

  The notification unit 140 notifies the user of the electronic device 10 of information using video, audio, or other means. As shown in FIG. 2, a display 142 and a speaker 148 are shown as constituting the notification unit 140.

  The storage unit 150 is configured by a flash memory, for example, and stores data and programs used by the electronic device 10. In one aspect, the storage unit 150 stores a notification content table 151.

  The notification content table 151 is information in which the insertion mode of the USIM card 135 with respect to the card connector 132 (how the USIM card 135 is inserted into the card connector 132) is associated with the content notified by the notification unit 140. .

  The control unit 160 controls the operation of the electronic device 10 by reading a program stored in the storage unit 150 and executing instructions included in the program. The control unit 160 is, for example, an application processor. The control unit 160 operates as a direction and exhibits functions as a direction determination unit 161 and a notification processing unit 162.

  Based on the signal output from the card connector 132, the orientation determination unit 161 is at least one of the direction in which the USIM card 135 is inserted into the card connector 132 and the direction in which the USIM card 135 is inserted into the card connector 132. Determine. The orientation determination unit 161 performs the determination by detecting the position of the cut portion 135A of the USIM card 135 when the USIM card 135 is inserted into the card connector 132. The orientation determination unit 161 detects the position of the cut portion 135A of the USIM card 135 based on the detection result of the corner of the USIM card 135 of the mechanism of the card connector 132.

  Based on the determination result by the orientation determination unit 161, the notification processing unit 162 provides information that allows the user to recognize the insertion mode of the USIM card 135, by voice from the notification unit 140 (for example, displaying information on the display 142). Is reported by other methods for outputting. Based on the determination result by the orientation determination unit 161, the notification processing unit 162 causes the notification unit 140 to perform notification including the content for guiding the user of the electronic device 10 about the insertion method of the USIM card 135. Further, the notification processing unit 162 causes the notification unit 140 to perform notification indicating that the size of the USIM card 135 is not compatible with the card connector 132 based on the determination result by the direction determination unit 161.

<Detection mechanism of card insertion mode>
FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a mechanism for determining an insertion mode in which the USIM card 135 is inserted into the card connector 132.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the card connector 132 is configured to accept insertion of the USIM card 135. The card connector 132 receives the insertion of the USIM card 135, and is pressed when the corner of the USIM card 135 comes into contact (the first switch 132A, the first switch 132B, the first switch 132C, First switch 132D).

  The state (A) in FIG. 3 shows a state in which the USIM card 135 is not inserted into the card connector 132. The state (A) indicates a state in which none of the switches is pressed (not inserted).

  The state (B) of FIG. 3 shows a state in which the USIM card 135 is correctly inserted into the card connector 132. The state (B) indicates a state in which the first switch 132A, the first switch 132B, and the first switch 132D are pressed among the switches.

  The state (C) of FIG. 3 shows a state in which the USIM card 135 is inserted with the USIM card 135 turned upside down with respect to the card connector 132. The state (C) indicates a state in which the first switch 132A, the first switch 132C, and the first switch 132D are pressed among the switches.

  The state (D) of FIG. 3 shows a state in which the USIM card 135 is inserted with the card connector 132 turned upside down. The state (D) indicates a state in which the first switch 132B, the first switch 132C, and the first switch 132D are pressed among the switches.

  The state (E) of FIG. 3 shows a state in which the USIM card 135 is inserted with the card connector 132 upside down and upside down. The state (E) indicates a state in which the first switch 132A, the first switch 132B, and the first switch 132C are pressed among the switches.

  As described above, when the size of the USIM card 135 is suitable for the card connector 132, one of the switches is not pressed, and the other switch is pressed. It becomes. Therefore, the orientation determination unit 161 can determine the direction in which the USIM card 135 is inserted into the card connector 132 and the orientation of the surface to be inserted based on the detection result of each switch.

  The state (F) of FIG. 3 shows a state where the USIM card 135 is not sufficiently inserted into the card connector 132 or a state (size) of the USIM card 135 is not compatible. In the state (F), among the switches, there are two switches that are not pressed (the first switch 132A and the first switch 132C).

<Data>
FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a data structure of the notification content table 151. The record of the notification content table 151 includes a switch detection result 151A and a notification content 151B.

  The switch detection result 151A shows a pattern of detection results of each switch of the card connector 132. Each of the switch detection results 151A corresponds to each detection result shown in FIG. For example, the detection result “detection pattern A” corresponds to the state (A) of FIG. The detection result “detection pattern B” corresponds to the state (B) of FIG. The detection result “detection pattern C” corresponds to the state (C) of FIG. The detection result “detection pattern D” corresponds to the state (D) of FIG. The detection result “detection pattern E” corresponds to the state (E) of FIG. The detection result “pattern F” corresponds to the state (F) of FIG. The types of detection patterns are not limited to these.

<Operation example>
FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an outline of the structure of the first switch 132A for detecting the insertion mode of the USIM card 135 with respect to the card connector 132 and an example of a notification method to the user.

  The state (A) of FIG. 5 shows a state where the first switch 132A is not in contact with the USIM card 135 and the first switch 132A is not pressed in the card connector 132.

  The state (B) of FIG. 5 shows a state in which the USIM card 135 comes into contact with the first switch 132A and the first switch 132A is pressed by inserting the USIM card 135 into the card connector 132. The card connector 132 outputs a signal to the control unit 160 according to whether or not the first switch 132A is pressed.

  In the state (C) of FIG. 5, the electronic device 10 refers to the notification content table 151, and information is displayed on the display 142 to the user of the electronic device 10 depending on whether or not each switch of the card connector 132 is pressed. The example which alert | reports is shown. In the example of the state (C) of FIG. 5, the user has inserted the USIM card 135 into the card connector 132 corresponding to the state (B) shown in FIG. 3 and the detection result “detection pattern B” shown in FIG. 4. Although the direction and orientation are correct, the electronic device 10 notifies the display 142 of information indicating that the electronic device 10 cannot recognize the USIM card 135.

  In the state (D) of FIG. 5, in addition to displaying information on the display 142, the electronic device 10 displays information that allows the user to recognize the insertion mode of the USIM card 135 into the card connector 132 by sound output from the speaker 148. An example of notification is shown.

<Summary>
As a technology related to this embodiment, conventionally, when a user inserts a card such as USIM into a communication terminal such as a smartphone, if the card insertion method is not appropriate, the display content “USIM cannot be recognized” or the like is displayed on the display. There is something to display. In this case, the user performs the operation of reinserting the USIM card into the communication terminal. At the time of reinsertion, the user may insert the card again while maintaining the card insertion direction and the card face orientation, You may not immediately know whether to insert the card upside down or to insert the card upside down. Therefore, according to the configuration of the related technology, there is a risk that the operation of reinserting the USIM card is complicated for the user. That is, a plurality of card insertion modes are possible with respect to the card connector, and if the user cannot recognize the correct card insertion mode with respect to the card connector in appearance, the user tries all insertion mode patterns. There is a risk.

  Another related technique is to provide a card connector with a mechanism for restricting the direction in which the card is inserted into the card connector and the direction of the surface to be inserted. In this case, since a mechanism for physically preventing erroneous insertion of the card is provided, there is one way of inserting the card into the card connector. However, the card connector can be obtained by employing a tray for preventing erroneous insertion. It becomes easy to be subject to mechanical limitations such as an increase in thickness.

  On the other hand, the electronic device of the present embodiment does not prevent erroneous insertion of the card itself into the card connector, but detects how the card is erroneously inserted into the card connector. The electronic device notifies the user of the result of this detection, thereby solving the above-described related technical problem. The electronic device notifies the user of an action that the user wants to prompt the user next.

  A card such as a SIM card has a shape including a cut portion at one of the four corners. Therefore, the electronic device can determine the insertion mode of the SIM card by specifying the cut portion (or specifying the positions of the three corners that are not cut) among the four corners of the card.

  Also, when the electronic device cannot identify the positions of the three corners that are not missing among the four corners of the card, the card is not inserted or the card size does not fit (the card of the wrong size is To be inserted into the connector).

  The method for specifying the position of the corner of the card has been described in the embodiment with a method of physically depressing the switch, but is not limited thereto.

  The user perceives on the screen that a card such as a SIM is not correctly recognized by the electronic device, and whether the card is inserted in the card connector in the correct orientation, or how wrong if it is wrong Can be perceived. Therefore, when the user inserts the card into the card connector again, the current insertion mode is compatible with the card connector, or the insertion mode is incorrect, regardless of the card insertion mode. Can easily perceive how the user is wrong. Therefore, the user can reinsert the card without anxiety such as whether the card is in the correct orientation during the operation of reinserting the card.

  Each device constituting the system according to the present embodiment is realized by a processor and a program executed on the processor. The program for realizing the present embodiment is provided by transmission / reception using a network via a communication interface.

  The embodiment disclosed this time must be considered as illustrative in all points and not restrictive. The scope of the present invention is defined by the terms of the claims, rather than the description above, and is intended to include any modifications within the scope and meaning equivalent to the terms of the claims.

  10 electronic device, 101 antenna, 111 wireless communication unit, 131 physical operation key, 132 card connector, 132A first switch, 132B second switch, 132C third switch, 132D fourth switch, 135 USIM card, 135A Sectioning unit, 140 Notifying unit, 141 Operation receiving unit, 142 Display, 146 Audio processing unit, 147 Microphone, 148 Speaker, 150 Storage unit, 151 Notification content table, 151A Switch detection result, 151B Notification content, 160 Control unit, 161 direction Judgment part, 162 Notification processing part.

Claims (5)

Electronic equipment,
A card connector configured to accept card insertion and connect the end of the card to the board; and
A notification unit configured to notify information;
A control unit for controlling the operation of the electronic device,
The controller is
A direction determining unit that determines at least one of a direction in which the card is inserted into the card connector or a direction in which the card is inserted into the card connector;
An electronic device including: a notification processing unit that notifies the user of information for allowing a user to recognize an insertion mode of the card based on a determination result by the orientation determination unit. The card includes a notch portion in which any one of rectangular corners is notched,
The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the process performed by the orientation determination unit includes performing the determination by detecting a position of the cut portion of the card when the card is inserted into the card connector. . The card connector has a mechanism for detecting the corner of the card by contacting the corner of the card when the insertion of the card is accepted,
The electronic device according to claim 2, wherein the orientation determination unit detects a position of the card cut portion based on a detection result of the detection mechanism of the card connector.   The said alerting | reporting process part performs the said alerting | reporting including the content which guides the user of the said electronic device about the insertion method of the said card | curd based on the determination result by the said direction determination part. The electronic device described.   The said alerting | reporting process part performs the said alerting | reporting which shows that the size of the said card | curd is not suitable for the said card connector based on the determination result by the said direction determination part. Electronic equipment.

Images