KR20120140016A - Pointing device of laminating structure and portable terminal using the same - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A layered structure pointing device and a portable terminal using the same are provided to solve a sense of difference between the pointing device and a touch screen by applying a piece of glass to the finger contact part of the pointing device. CONSTITUTION: A sensor unit(12) is mounted on a main board(10). A holder(30) is laminated on the main board. An accommodating groove is formed on the holder. A surface board(40) is laminated on the holder. The surface board is faced with the surface of a subject. The surface board is glass with a flat board form. The holder includes a bonding surface. The bonding surface fixes the surface board from the lower part.

Description

POINTING DEVICE OF LAMINATING STRUCTURE AND PORTABLE TERMINAL USING THE SAME}

The present invention relates to a pointing device having a stacked structure.

In general, an electronic device such as a mobile terminal or a personal digital assistant (PDA) adopts a user interface using a keypad.

In more detail, a typical portable electronic device includes a keypad having a plurality of buttons for inputting numbers, letters, or symbols, and a user presses a button on the keypad to input desired data such as numbers or words. You can type in or select the menu.

In addition, the portable electronic device includes a display unit to display data input by the user through the keypad and / or related information.

In recent years, wireless Internet services such as WIBRO (Wireless Broadband) and wireless mobile communication services have been commercialized to support communication services or Internet services using electronic devices.Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs) are used in mobile electronic devices such as mobile phones and PDAs. Windows operating systems, such as Windows CE, are being adopted to support this.

In addition, with the development of communication technology, the portable electronic device provides various additional services to the user, and the GUI-based Windows operating system facilitates the provision of the additional service by the portable electronic device.

Pointing devices, such as a mouse, are applied as a user interface for convenient use of general electronic devices. In recent years, a detection light is emitted and an optical signal that is changed according to the movement of a finger, which is a subject, moves a pointer on the screen, or Pointing devices that receive desired information and / or commands have been developed and applied to electronic devices.

As an example of a conventional pointing device, the optical pointing device includes a sensing light source for emitting sensing light, a housing, an image sensor for sensing an optical signal, and an imaging system for guiding light to the image sensor.

The optical pointing device may be provided separately from an electronic device such as a notebook and may be connected by wire or wirelessly, or may be directly mounted on the main body of the electronic device. When the optical pointing device is integrally provided with the electronic device, the electronic device It is desirable to have a structure whose thickness is minimized for the purpose of slimming.

In addition, an operation surface, ie, a subject detection zone, in which a subject such as a finger is in contact with the surface of the housing is formed on the surface of the housing, and the image sensor is provided on a PCB for processing an input signal.

Accordingly, when a finger, which is a subject, is moved to the operation surface, the optical signal input to the image sensor changes according to the movement of the finger, and the electronic device may be manipulated according to the movement of the finger.

In more detail, when the subject is not in contact with the operation surface, the light emitted from the light source passes through the housing and is emitted to the outside of the housing. On the other hand, when the operation surface, that is, a subject such as a finger, touches, the light emitted from the light source hits the subject and is reflected, and then is captured by the image sensor through the imaging system.

1 and 2, the general pointing device 10 may include a light source 11, a cover 12, a light guide (not shown) for guiding light emitted from the light source to the cover 12, and an optical signal. An image sensor 15 for sensing, an imaging system 14 for guiding light to the image sensor 15, and a holder 13 for receiving components such as the light guide, the imaging system 14, and the light source. do.

The pointing device 10 may be provided separately from the electronic device 1 and be connected by wire or wirelessly. In recent years, the pointing device 10 may be directly mounted on the main body 2 of the electronic device such as a notebook or a mobile phone.

The light source is composed of at least one infrared LED and is mounted on a flexible PCB (not shown) to be fitted to a protrusion (not shown) outside the holder.

The outer surface (upper surface) of the cover is provided with an operation surface to contact the subject (P) such as a finger for the operation of the electronic device, the image sensor 15 is a PCB (not shown) for processing the input optical signal Is provided on).

Accordingly, when the finger, which is the subject P, moves on the operation surface, the optical signal input to the image sensor 15 changes according to the movement of the finger, and the electronic device is manipulated according to the movement of the finger. Can be.

In more detail, in the state where the subject P is not in contact with the upper side of the cover 12, more specifically, the operation surface, the light emitted from the light source 11 passes through the light guide. 12 is emitted to the outside of the cover 12 while penetrating.

On the other hand, when a subject such as a finger contacts the upper side of the cover 12, the light emitted from the light source 11 hits the subject P and is reflected, and then passes through the imaging system 14 to the image sensor. Incident at 15, the image of the subject is imaged with an optical signal.

Here, the imaging system 14 includes a plurality of components such as a prism 14a and a lens 14b made of a material such as glass or optical plastic, and condenses the light reflected by the subject in a predetermined direction or at the same time. When the object is transferred to the image sensor 15 and the subject outside the cover 12 moves, the optical signal reflected by the subject 12 and sensed by the image sensor 15 is also changed.

The image sensor 15 detects a change in the optical signal due to the movement of the subject, and accordingly, the movement of the cursor or the pointer is displayed on the display unit 3 of the electronic device 1.

However, the conventional pointing device has a problem in that the part where the finger touches the housing is made of polycarbonate (PC) material, and the user's satisfaction decreases due to different heterogeneity when the user uses the touch screen having a glass.

In addition, the conventional pointing device has a problem that the manufacturing cost increases as well as the area because the housing is formed in a cap shape that can cover the internal parts and the edge of the upper end of the housing must be enlarged by the thickness of the housing side. In addition, when the housing or the cover 12 is implemented in glass, there is a technical difficulty in manufacturing the cap as shown in FIG.

In addition, the conventional pointing device has a problem of causing various malfunctions due to scattering of light generated therein due to a tolerance between the housing and the internal parts.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above-described problems, and an object of the present invention is to solve the heterogeneity when the user uses the touch screen by using a finger touching part of the pointing device as a glass.

Another object of the present invention is to improve the assembly performance as well as to greatly improve the productivity by configuring the components in a laminated type.

Still another object of the present invention is to prevent various malfunctions by blocking the scattering of light generated therein by minimizing the tolerance between the parts of the surface touched by the finger and the internal parts.

The present invention includes a main substrate mounted with a sensor unit for detecting the movement of the subject using the light emitted from the light source; And a holder stacked on the main substrate and having a receiving groove and a surface substrate stacked on the holder, the surface substrate being in contact with the surface of the subject, wherein the surface substrate is in the form of a flat plate, and the holder is configured to stack the surface substrate. It includes an adhesive surface for supporting and fixing at the bottom.

The present invention has the effect of resolving the different heterogeneity when the user uses the finger touching portion of the pointing device as a glass when used with the touch screen.

The present invention has the effect of configuring the components of the pointing device in a laminated structure to improve the assembly as well as the productivity.

The present invention has the effect of preventing various malfunctions by blocking the scattering of light generated therein by minimizing the tolerance between the parts of the surface touched by the pointing device and the internal parts.

1 is a perspective view showing a state in which a pointing device is installed in a mobile terminal.
Figure 2 is a state diagram showing a process of operating the conventional pointing device.
3 is an exploded perspective view of a pointing device according to an embodiment of the present invention.
4 is a perspective view of a pointing device according to an embodiment of the invention.
5 is a cross-sectional view of the pointing device in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.
6 is a perspective view of a pointing device according to another embodiment of the present invention.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, which will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art. The present invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein. In the drawings, parts irrelevant to the description are omitted in order to clearly describe the present invention, and like reference numerals designate like parts throughout the specification.

Throughout the specification, when a part is said to "include" a certain component, it means that it can further include other components, without excluding other components unless specifically stated otherwise.

Also, the terms " part, "" module, " and " module" in the specification mean units for processing at least one function or operation, Lt; / RTI >

Throughout the specification, when a part is "connected" to another part, this includes not only a case where the part is directly connected, but also a case where another system is connected in the middle.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Figure 3 is an exploded perspective view of a pointing device according to an embodiment of the present invention, Figure 4 is a perspective view of a pointing device according to an embodiment of the present invention, Figure 5 is a cross-sectional view of the pointing device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown, the pointing device 100 of the present invention includes a main substrate 10 on which the sensor unit 12 is mounted, a holder 30 on which a receiving groove is formed, and a surface substrate 40 contacting the surface of the subject. .

The main substrate 10 may be a rigid PCB or a flexible PCB, and the sensor unit 12 is mounted. The sensor unit 12 detects the movement of the subject. In this embodiment, an image sensor for sensing an image of the subject is employed. In addition, the sensor unit 12 may employ an infrared sensor, a laser sensor, a fingerprint recognition sensor, or the like.

On the other hand, the main substrate 10 may include a light source 14 for irradiating light on the surface of the subject. The light source 14 may employ an IR LED to prevent the user from glare.

The main substrate 10 may include an illumination unit 16 that radiates visible light to the outside of the pointing device 100. The visible light irradiated from the lighting unit 16 may be set to various colors according to the designer's selection to provide various aesthetics to the user.

In addition, the main substrate 10 may further include a dome switch on an opposite surface on which the light source 14 is mounted. The dome switch 20 is used to select a content or menu pointed to on the display screen or determine an input.

In addition, a holder 30 having a receiving groove is stacked on the main substrate 10. At least one lighting guide part 32 for inducing visible light to the outside may be accommodated in the accommodation groove formed in the holder 30. In other words, the lighting guide 32 serves to guide the visible light radiated from the lighting unit 16 to the outside.

In addition, the accommodating groove may accommodate the lens unit 34 for guiding the reflected light reflected on the surface of the subject to the sensor unit 12. The lens unit 34 may have various shapes for forming light.

Here, the holder 30 may be formed in parallel with the bottom surface of the surface substrate 40 to form a bonding surface that can be laminated and bonded to the surface substrate 40. The adhesive surface may further include an outer circumferential surface 50a formed along the circumference of the holder and an inner circumferential surface 50b formed inside the holder to block optical interference. In this case, the inner circumferential surface 50b may surround the lens unit, for example.

Next, the surface substrate 40 may be stacked on the upper surface of the holder 30 in the state in which the illumination guide 32 and the lens 34 are coupled to the receiving groove of the holder 30. In this process, the holder 30 and the surface substrate 40 may be bonded by the adhesive resin 46 to minimize the air layer and block the optical interference. That is, the adhesive resin 46 may be applied to the adhesive surface formed on the holder 30 to adhere the holder 30 to the surface substrate 40.

On the other hand, the adhesive resin 46 provided on the inner circumferential surface 50b of the bonding surface may block the visible light irradiated from the internal lighting unit 16 from flowing into the sensor unit 12. The adhesive resin 46 has an effect of preventing various malfunctions of the pointing device 100 by blocking visible light flowing into the sensor unit 12 rather than simply coupling.

Meanwhile, the surface substrate 40 may be provided with a detection zone 42 through which light of a specific frequency, for example, infrared light, is transmitted, and a visible light zone 44 through which visible light is transmitted. have.

The sensing zone 42 may be located at the center portion of the surface substrate 40 and may be coated with ink capable of transmitting an optical signal in a specific wavelength band. For example, when the light source used to sense the movement of the finger is infrared light, IR ink passing only infrared light may be applied to the sensing zone 42. By the above-described configuration, the sensor 12 can be prevented from malfunctioning due to external condensation.

The visible light zone 44 may be positioned to surround the sensing zone 42 at regular intervals. At this time, black ink is applied to portions except the visible light zone 44 to block unnecessary light from the outside. Accordingly, the visible ray zone 44 may provide lightness or aesthetics of manipulation by irradiating the light of a predetermined color to the outside in a specific environment. If the surface substrate 40 is integrally formed with the tempered glass for the touch screen, the black ink applied except for the visible light zone 44 may be applied together outside the touch screen of the mobile terminal.

In addition, the surface substrate 40 may be one of synthetic resin or glass as a part where the subject abuts. In this embodiment, glass is used. That is, when the surface substrate 40 is made of glass, when the user uses the touch screen and the pointing device together, heterogeneity in use may be eliminated, thereby increasing satisfaction. In addition, since the tempered glass of the touch screen can be used as the surface substrate of the pointing device, when the touch screen and the pointing device are integrally implemented, production cost and processing time can be reduced.

Hereinafter, another embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Here, since the pointing device according to another embodiment of the present invention uses the configuration of the pointing device shown in FIGS. 3 to 5, duplicate description thereof will be omitted.

FIG. 6 illustrates that the glass of the pointing device included in the mobile terminal 200 and the glass of the display area are integrated.

That is, another embodiment of the present invention implements the display substrate and the surface substrate of the pointing device with one piece of glass. In this case, when the portable terminal 200 provides a touch screen function, the portable terminal 200 may be a touch screen glass.

According to the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 6, the mobile terminal 200 may be implemented with a single glass or tempered glass. The front surface of the mobile terminal 200 includes a sensing zone 210, a visible light zone 220, a touch / display area 230, and a blocking surface 240.

As described above, the sensing zone 210 is formed by ink coating that can transmit an optical signal in a specific wavelength band. The user may move the cursor or the pointer displayed on the touch / display area 230 by moving the finger on the sensing zone 210.

The visible light zone 220 may be transparent or translucent to allow visible light to pass therethrough. Light of a specific color is emitted to the outside of the mobile terminal 200 through the visible light zone 220, and a user may feel an aesthetic feeling through the light of the specific color.

The touch / display area 230 allows the content of the mobile terminal to be displayed to the outside or to drive the displayed icon or menu in a touch screen manner.

The blocking surface 240 hides an internal configuration that the user does not need to show by using ink of a specific color. For example, except for the sensing zone 210, the visible light zone 220, and the touch / display area 230, a black ink may be applied to the back surface of the glass to form the blocking surface 240.

As shown in FIG. 6, even when the front surface of the portable terminal 200 is implemented with a single glass, the red-pointed pointing device of the present invention can be easily mounted. As described above, the laminated pointing device according to the present invention forms an adhesive surface on the upper outer circumferential surface 50a or the inner circumferential surface 50b of the holder, and the surface substrate is pointing because the surface substrate is mounted in a laminated structure using an adhesive resin. Even if the device is larger than the overall size, it can be easily mounted.

In another embodiment of the present invention, the glass of the pointing device and the glass of the display area are integrally formed, thereby simplifying the appearance design and manufacturing the molds of the glass as one, thereby simplifying the manufacturing process and reducing the manufacturing cost. can do.

It is to be understood that the foregoing description of the disclosure is for the purpose of illustration and that those skilled in the art will readily appreciate that other embodiments may be readily devised without departing from the spirit or essential characteristics of the disclosure will be. It is therefore to be understood that the above-described embodiments are illustrative and non-restrictive in every respect. For example, each component described as a single entity may be distributed and implemented, and components described as being distributed may also be implemented in a combined form.

It is to be understood that the scope of the present invention is defined by the appended claims rather than the foregoing description and that all changes or modifications derived from the meaning and scope of the claims and equivalents thereof are included in the scope of the present invention .

Claims (11)

A main board on which a sensor unit mounted to detect a movement of a subject using light emitted from the light source;
A holder stacked on the main substrate and having a receiving groove;
A surface substrate stacked on the holder and in contact with the surface of the subject;
The surface substrate is in the form of a flat plate,
And said holder has an adhesive surface for supporting and fixing said surface substrate from below so that said surface substrate is laminated. The method of claim 1,
And the adhesive surface of the holder is formed parallel to the bottom surface of the surface substrate. The method of claim 2,
And the adhesive surface of the holder includes an outer circumferential surface formed along the circumference of the holder and an inner circumferential surface formed inside the holder to block optical interference. The method of claim 1,
And a sensing zone through which only an optical signal of a specific frequency band is transmitted and a visible zone through which visible light is transmitted, respectively, on the surface substrate. The method of claim 4, wherein
And the sensing zone of the surface substrate is coated with IR ink that transmits only IR light. The method of claim 5, wherein
Pointing device, characterized in that the black substrate is applied to the surface substrate except the sensing zone and the visible light zone. The method of claim 1,
And the surface substrate is glass. The method of claim 7, wherein
The glass of the said surface substrate is integrated with the glass for touchscreens of the portable terminal with which the said pointing device is mounted. According to any one of claims 1 to 8,
A portable terminal comprising the pointing device. In a portable terminal having a pointing device,
A glass including a sensing zone for detecting movement of a subject in contact with a surface, a display area for displaying content, and a blocking surface for blocking the inside of the portable terminal from being visible;
In the glass, the sensing zone is formed by coating with ink that transmits only an optical signal of a specific frequency band.
And the sensing zone of the glass is stacked in a holder formed by being stacked on a main substrate on which a sensor unit for detecting a movement of the subject is mounted. 11. The method of claim 10,
The glass further comprises a visible light zone for emitting a light of a specific color to the outside.

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