JPH0844672A - Information terminal - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To vary position relation at the time of spreading plural display devices as well by providing a switch for changing the erecting direction of contents to be displayed at a display position corresponding to the rotating direction of a connecting jig while using the jig to be orthogonally rotated in two directions. CONSTITUTION:This terminal can be carried while closing the planes of display devices 1 and 2 inside, a connecting jig 3 to be rotated in two directions thetaand phi is provided on the upper right side in the state of turning the longer side of the rectangular cabinet of equipment downward, and two liquid crystal display devices 1 and 2 are mainly connected by the connecting jig 3. Therefore, since the connecting jig 3 can be rotated in two directions, the rectangular display devices 1 and 2 can be spread by rotation with the shorter side as an axis and with the longer side as an axis. Further, the selection between the spreading way of the display devices is detected at the part of the connecting jig 3 and the erecting direction can be changed by a switch interlocked with that jig so that it is not necessary to adjust the direction of display contents corresponding to the selection of the spreading way by a user.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

The field of use of the present invention is a portable information terminal. In particular, the present invention relates to an information processing terminal having a plurality of display devices.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art With the recent development of communication infrastructure and the development of device technology, there is an increasing demand for always carrying and using personal information terminals. In response to this, various portable terminals having a single function are being developed, but at present, what is important from the viewpoint of usability is being sought. The display area of the mobile terminal is at most about 5 inches diagonal, and the display device does not sufficiently fulfill its function for information processing. Therefore, attempts have been made to increase the display area by providing a plurality of display devices.

An example of a prior art information processing apparatus having a plurality of display devices is, for example, a portable terminal disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 63-
There is one described in Japanese Patent No. 118186. In each of these, the positional relationship of the display device group is fixed, and there is no device configuration in which the positional relationship of each display device is variable.

[0004]

The conventional information processing apparatus having a plurality of display device parts meets the purpose of enlarging the display area, especially in a portable device.
From the viewpoint of being used while being carried, it is not always possible to utilize a plurality of display devices. In particular, the inconvenience caused by the restriction that the positional relationship of the plurality of display devices is fixed has not been taken into consideration.

[0005]

An information processing apparatus according to the present invention solves the above-mentioned problems and is compact in that it has a plurality of display devices whose positional relationship is variable and whose display contents can be easily read. Takes the configuration of the information processing device.

In the present invention, first, a connecting jig that can rotate in two orthogonal directions is used. Further, a switch is provided to change the upright direction of the content displayed on the display device according to the rotating direction of the connecting jig.

[0007]

Since the connecting jig is rotatable in two directions, it can be opened in two ways, one is by rotating the rectangular display device about the short side and the other is by rotating around the long side. Is. Further, when rotating in one direction, a mechanism that stops rotation in the other direction works, so that it is possible to specify the two-way spread as described above. In addition, the jig part detects which of the above spreads is selected, and the switch linked to it can change the upright direction of the displayed contents, so that the user of the terminal can select which spread. There is no need to adjust the orientation of the displayed content depending on whether the display is oriented or not.

[0008]

FIG. 1 shows an information terminal according to the present invention. In this embodiment, a case where two liquid crystal display devices 1 and 2 are provided is shown. The liquid crystal display device is STN (Super Twiste
d-Nematic) type monochrome liquid crystal display device with 3 pixels
It is 20 (H) x 240 (V). Dot pitch 0.33
mm, diagonal dimension is 5.2 inches. The weight of the device is 600 g in total, and the device is lightweight, thin, and small. As shown in FIG. 1A, these display devices are designed to be portable with the display device surface closed inside. With the long side of the rectangular casing of the device facing downward, a connecting jig 3 rotatable in two directions of θ direction and φ direction is provided on the upper right side, and mainly by this connecting jig, Liquid crystal display devices are connected.

FIG. 6 shows an example of the structure of the connecting jig. In this way, it is possible to rotate in the biaxial directions of the θ direction and the φ direction. The jig has a hole having a diameter of about 5 mm from A to B. Through this hole, the main body with the display device 1,
Wiring of electrical signals is performed between the display devices 2. As the cable, a flexible cable was used, which was made into a spiral shape and passed through the above hole.

FIG. 1B shows a state in which the display device is rotated in the θ direction about the short side of the display device from the state of FIG. 1A and opened (so-called lateral opening), and FIG. Is shown in FIG.
From this state, the display device is rotated in the φ direction with the long side of the display device as the axis and opened (so-called vertical opening). In each case, a horizontally long usage pattern and a vertically long usage pattern are possible. Examples of the use of the information terminal include a so-called electronic notebook terminal such as an address book, a telephone number, a personal information such as a schedule, an electronic dictionary, or an information communication terminal including image information using a communication function.

Now, with reference to FIG. 2, description will be given on the change of the spread and the direction of the display contents. 2 (a) is shown in FIG.
An example of the display orientation corresponding to (b) is shown by using the character "a". At this time, in both of the display devices 1 and 2,
In order to display "a" in the same direction, the x-scan direction and the y-scan direction of the signal in each display device may be the same. Next, consider the case of opening to the state of FIG. If the document is opened in the φ direction while maintaining the scanning direction described with reference to FIG. 2A, the character “a” should be displayed as shown in FIG. 2B. This is inconvenient for the user because the display content of the display device is reversed.
Therefore, if the scanning direction in the display device 2 is reversed in both the x direction and the y direction at the time of the spread in the φ direction with the long side as the axis, the character “a” is shown in FIG. 2C. As described above, both the display devices 1 and 2 are upright with respect to the user. This inversion operation can be easily realized by providing a switch in the connection jig so that the inversion turns on when the connection jig is rotated in the φ direction.

The method of rotating the screen display is not limited to the inversion in the scanning direction as mentioned above. For example, the output of the video RAM may be randomized and a necessary address sequence may be generated by an address generation circuit to read the image data. Alternatively, when the display content needs to be rotated, the data in the video RAM is rewritten. The method may be used.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an information terminal device according to the present invention.

The controller of the liquid crystal display device receives an instruction from the central processing unit (CPU), extracts an image signal from the video RAM and transmits it to the liquid crystal display device. Video R
Image signals for two liquid crystal display devices are written in the AM and are one-dimensionally managed by the CPU. By this management method, scrolling operation of the display contents over two screens can be smoothly performed.

A touch panel is used as the input device. The touch panel is a pressure-sensitive type, and the coordinates of a point touched with a pen or a finger are digitized and various processing is performed. Specifically, it is possible to instruct an icon shown on the display device or input a handwritten character or figure.

An information processing procedure is stored in the main memory,
The CPU performs arithmetic processing according to this procedure. As the external storage device, a memory card or a magnetic storage device compatible with the card interface is used. The switch changes the direction of signal scanning of the display device 2. The communication function is
This was also achieved using the card interface. The present invention is not limited to this embodiment. For example, the input is not limited to the touch panel, and may be an input method in which a pointer (or cursor) displayed on the display device is moved by button operation. In addition, the mechanism for uniformizing the directions of the display contents is suitable for a single user as described above, and it is not excluded that the mechanism may be used without changing the direction. That is, in the state of FIG. 2B, it is also possible that two persons are located on both sides of the terminal and the necessary information is easily read by the respective users. For that purpose, a switch function for reversing the contents of the display of FIG. 2C to the state of FIG. 2B may be provided.

In the above description, the structure in which the long side of the display device is located downward has been described, but the structure in which the short side of the display device is located in the bottom is also possible. FIG. 4 shows an example thereof. FIG. 4A shows a laterally opened state with the short side facing downward. In order to realize the state of FIG. 4A with the device configuration, in comparison with FIG. 2C, scanning of the display device 1 in the x direction and display device 2 are performed.
The y-direction scanning direction may be reversed. In the case of such a two-page spread, a paperback book-type electronic book application is suitable. Of course, by the same reversal of the scanning direction,
A vertically opened state with the short side facing down as shown in FIG. 4B is also possible.

FIG. 5 shows an example including three display devices. In this case, since the connecting jigs are provided at the upper right and lower left, the spreads as shown in (a), (b) and (c) are possible.

In the present invention, the long side and the short side of the display device are used according to the convention of the conventional display device, but a square display device is also effective. Although it is a double-page spread, it is not necessary to completely open it, and the usage shown in FIG. 7 may be used.

[0020]

In the information terminal according to the present invention, since the connecting jigs of the plurality of display devices can rotate in two directions, the rectangular display device can be rotated about the short side and the long side. It is possible to open the door by rotating about. Also, when rotating in one direction, a mechanism that stops rotation in the other direction works, so that it is possible to specify the spread. In addition, the jig part detects which of the above-mentioned two-page spreads is selected, and the switch linked to it can change the upright direction of the displayed contents, so that the user of the terminal can open the two-page spread. It is not necessary to adjust the orientation of the displayed contents depending on whether or not. As a result, in a portable information terminal including a plurality of display devices, the user of the terminal is
Arrangement of the display device according to the application can be arbitrarily selected, and the work efficiency can be improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram of an information terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of a display of the information terminal according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an information terminal device according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of an information terminal of a second embodiment according to the present invention.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of a third embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of reference numerals] 1, ... Display device, 3 ... Connection jig.

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification code Internal reference number FI technical display location G06F 1/18

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. An information terminal having a plurality of display devices and having a structure capable of being folded so that the display surfaces of the plurality of display devices are inside, the folded display. An information terminal, wherein the device group can be expanded in at least one of the vertical direction and at least one of the horizontal direction of the display device. 2. The information terminal according to claim 1, further comprising a mechanism for making the upright directions of characters displayed on the respective display devices the same. 3. The information terminal according to claim 2, wherein the upright direction of the characters displayed on each of the display devices is automatically determined based on the direction in which the folded display device group is expanded. . 4. An electronic notebook using the information terminal according to claim 1, 2, or 3. 5. An electronic book using the information terminal according to claim 1, 2, or 3.