WO2009119231A1

WO2009119231A1 - Mobile electronic device

Info

Publication number: WO2009119231A1
Application number: PCT/JP2009/053397
Authority: WO
Inventors: 水谷　聡
Original assignee: 京セラ株式会社
Priority date: 2008-03-28
Filing date: 2009-02-25
Publication date: 2009-10-01
Also published as: JP2009245647A

Abstract

Provided is a mobile electronic device having a plurality of operation keys arranged in an operation portion. It is possible to modify the arrangement of the keys in the operation portion.

Description

Portable electronic devices

The present invention relates to a portable electronic device.
This application claims priority on March 28, 2008 based on Japanese Patent Application No. 2008-88145 filed in Japan, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

Generally, in a portable terminal such as a PHS terminal (Personal Handy-phone System) and a cellular phone, the operation unit is a case of a casing of one main body part of two main body parts in the case of a folding portable terminal. Provided on one side. The operation unit includes up / down / left / right keys, a power key, a numeric keypad, and various function keys.
In the case of a straight type portable terminal, the operation unit is a casing of the same main body as the display unit, and is provided on one surface of the lower half portion excluding the upper half portion of the casing provided with the display unit.

And in such a portable terminal, what has the operation part of various forms besides the said general operation part is proposed. For example, in Patent Document 1 below, a vertically long lid in which a pressure sensor constituted by a transparent electrode is attached to the display surface of a display unit, and a key is disposed above the display unit with a gap therebetween. There is disclosed a portable terminal device provided with the above. In this portable terminal device, the icon on the operation screen of the display unit is accurately pressed by the key by pressing the key on the lid with the fingertip.

Also, a portable terminal device disclosed in Patent Document 2 is known as an operation unit with excellent game operability. The portable terminal device includes a module having a first operation unit such as an up / down / left / right key and a display unit, and a portable terminal body provided with a module housing recess for housing the module and having a second operation unit such as a numeric keypad. Is done. Thereby, the said module will be in the state which the 1st operation part and the 2nd operation part left | separated by rotating centering around the rotating shaft provided in the module accommodation recessed part, and it can operate with both hands easily.

By the way, in the above prior art, each key in the operation unit is disposed at a position that is physically fixed with respect to the housing, and therefore the key arrangement of each key cannot be changed. For example, in the numeric keypad, “0” to “9”, “*”, and “#” keys are arranged in a predetermined sequence in order from the “1” key in the upper left, and this key layout is physically assigned. It cannot be changed. For this reason, for example, the key arrangement that can be easily used by the left-handed user or the key arrangement according to the usage application of each user cannot be changed to make the operation unit easy to input keys.
JP-A-9-224815 JP 2007-19937 A

The present invention has been made in view of the above-described circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a portable electronic device that can easily perform key input in accordance with a usage method.

In order to achieve the above object, according to the present invention, as a first solving means related to a portable electronic device, a portable electronic device having a plurality of operation keys in an operation unit, the key arrangement of the operation keys in the operation unit Adopt a means that can be changed.

In the present invention, as a second solving means relating to the portable electronic device, in the first solving means, the operation key is arranged on a turntable, and the operation key rotates according to the rotation of the turntable, thereby causing the key to rotate. The means that the arrangement is changed is adopted.

In the present invention, as a third solving means relating to the portable electronic device, in the first or second solving means, the operation keys can be individually attached and detached, and the key arrangement can be achieved by attaching and detaching the operation keys. Adopt means that change is possible.

In the present invention, as a fourth solving means relating to the portable electronic device, in the second solving means, the display unit, the rotation direction detecting unit for detecting the rotation direction of the turntable, and the rotation direction detecting unit are detected. A means called a control unit that switches the display direction of the screen displayed on the display unit in accordance with the rotation direction of the rotary table is employed.

In the present invention, as the fifth solving means relating to the portable electronic device, in the fourth solving means, a means is adopted in which the rotation direction detecting section is composed of a reed switch.

According to the present invention, the portable electronic device includes an operation unit having a plurality of operation keys, and the key arrangement of the operation keys can be changed according to the usage method by changing the key arrangement of the operation keys. I can do it. Therefore, the user can easily perform key input according to the usage method using the operation keys whose key arrangement has been changed. In addition, by arranging the operation keys on the turntable, the key arrangement of the operation keys can be easily changed by rotating the turntable. Furthermore, by making each operation key detachable, the key arrangement can be changed more flexibly.

It is a perspective view which shows the external appearance structure of the PHS terminal A which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. It is a front view which shows the external appearance of the PHS terminal A which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention, Comprising: It is a front view which shows the key arrangement | sequence of the numeric keypad 4a according to rotation of the turntable 4b. It is another front view which shows the external appearance of the PHS terminal A which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention, Comprising: It is a front view which shows the key arrangement | sequence of the numeric keypad 4a according to rotation of the turntable 4b. It is a functional block diagram of PHS terminal A concerning one embodiment of the present invention. It is a flowchart which shows operation | movement of the PHS terminal A which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the example of the key arrangement | sequence of the numeric keypad 4a when each key of the numeric keypad 4a of the PHS terminal A which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention is made removable. It is another figure which shows the example of the key arrangement | sequence of the numeric keypad 4a when each key of the numeric keypad 4a of the PHS terminal A which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention is made removable. It is a front view which shows the external appearance of the PHS terminal A which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention, Comprising: It is a front view which shows the display direction of the screen of the display part 3 according to rotation of the turntable 4b. It is another front view which shows the external appearance of the PHS terminal A which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention, Comprising: It is a front view which shows the display direction of the screen of the display part 3 according to rotation of the turntable 4b.

Explanation of symbols

A ... PHS terminal, 1 ... housing, 2 ... earpiece, 3 ... display unit, 4 ... operation unit, 4a ... numeric keypad, 4b ... turntable, 4c-1 4c-12 ... Key signal output unit, operation unit interface circuit, 4d, 4d-1 to 4d-12 ... input terminal, 4e ... key control unit, 5 ... mouthpiece, 11. ..Communication unit, 12 ... Sound generation unit, 13 ... Control unit

Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. The present embodiment relates to a PHS (Personal Handy-phone System) terminal that is one of portable electronic devices.
FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an external configuration of a PHS terminal A in the present embodiment.
As shown in FIG. 1, this PHS terminal A is of a straight type in which the display unit 3 and the operation unit 4 are arranged in the same rectangular parallelepiped case 1 and all internal circuits are accommodated in this case 1. It is.

As shown in FIG. 1, the PHS terminal A includes the earpiece 2, the display unit 3, the operation unit 4, and the mouthpiece 5 between one end in the length direction of the housing 1 and the other end. They are arranged in order. The earpiece 2 is configured to allow communication between the outside and a receiving speaker (not shown). The receiving speaker converts an input audio signal into a sound and outputs the sound to the outside via the earpiece 2. The mouthpiece 5 is configured to communicate with the outside and a microphone for transmission (not shown).
The transmitting microphone collects sound from outside through the mouthpiece 5 and converts the sound into a sound signal and outputs the sound signal.

The display unit 3 is provided on one surface of the upper half portion in the length direction of the housing 1. The operation unit 4 is provided on one surface of the lower half portion of the housing 1. The operation unit 4 has up / down / left / right keys, a power key, a numeric keypad 4a, and various function keys. The operation unit 4 has a circular turntable, and each key of the numeric keypad 4a is disposed on the turntable 4b. The turntable 4b can rotate 90 degrees to the right with respect to the direction of the display unit 3 around a rotation axis inside the housing 1 (not shown).

With reference to FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B, the key arrangement of the numeric keypad 4a according to the rotation of the turntable 4b will be described. 2A and 2B are front views showing the appearance of the PHS terminal A, and are front views showing the key arrangement of the numeric keys 4a according to the rotation of the turntable 4b.
2A is a front view when the turntable 4b is not rotating, and FIG. 2B is a front view when the turntable 4b is rotated 90 degrees to the right with respect to the direction of the display unit 3. FIG. As shown in FIG. 2A, when the turntable 4b is not rotating, the numeric keypad 4a is a key layout as usual, that is, a key layout in which the “1” key is located at the upper left. Then, as shown in FIG. 2B, when the turntable 4b is rotated 90 degrees to the right with respect to the length direction of the casing 1, the entire numeric keypad 4a is also rotated 90 degrees to the right according to the rotation of the turntable 4b. The key array located at.

Next, with reference to FIG. 3, the principal part function structure of this PHS terminal A is demonstrated. FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram of the PHS terminal A.
As illustrated in FIG. 3, the PHS terminal A includes a display unit 3, an operation unit 4, a communication unit 11, a sound generation unit 12, and a control unit 13.
The display unit 3 is, for example, a liquid crystal display or an organic EL (Electronic Luminescent) display, and displays various screens including images and characters based on screen signals input from the control unit 13.

The operation unit 4 receives user operation instructions for various operation keys and outputs them to the control unit 13. The operation unit 4 includes up / down / left / right keys (not shown), a power key (not shown), various function keys (not shown), a numeric keypad 4a, a turntable 4b, key signal output units 4c-1 to 4c-12, and an operation unit. It has an interface circuit 4d and a key control unit 4e.
The numeric keypad 4a includes “0” to “9”, “*”, and “#” keys, and accepts user operation instructions.

The key signal output units 4c-1 to 4c-12 are provided on the lower surface of each key of the numeric keypad 4a. The key signal output units 4c-1 to 4c-12 detect pressing of a key and output a key signal (analog signal) unique to each key. Each of the key signal output units 4c-1 to 4c-12 provided for each key of the numeric keypad 4a has an output terminal. Each output terminal is electrically connected to input terminals 4d-1 to 4d-12 included in the operation unit interface circuit 4d.

The connection relationship between the output terminals of the key signal output units 4c-1 to 4c-12 and the input terminals 4d-1 to 4d-12 varies according to the rotation of the turntable 4b. For example, when the turntable 4d is not rotating, the output terminal of the key signal output unit 4c-1 provided in the “1” key of the numeric keypad 4a is connected to the input terminal 4d-1. On the other hand, when the turntable 4d is rotated 90 degrees to the right, the output terminal of the key signal output unit 4c-1 is connected to the input terminal 4d-4.

The key signals output from the output terminals of the key signal output units 4c-1 to 4c-12 are input to the key control unit 4e via the operation unit interface circuit 4d. The key control unit 4 e converts the key signal that is an input analog signal into key data that is a digital signal, and outputs the key data to the control unit 13. In the key control unit 4e, the output terminals of the key signal output units 4c-1 to 4c-12 and the input terminals 4d-1 to 4d-12 of the operation unit interface circuit 4d are all electrically connected. Detect that. Then, the key control unit 4e outputs a connection detection signal indicating that all of the input terminal and the output terminal are electrically connected to the control unit 13.

The communication unit 11 transmits and receives various signals such as an audio signal, a data signal, and a control signal to and from the base station under an instruction from the control unit 13.
The sound generation unit 12 includes a speaker, and outputs an audio signal input from the control unit 13 to the outside through the speaker.

The control unit 13 includes an internal memory including a CPU (Central Processing Unit), a ROM (Read Only Memory), and a RAM (Random Access Memory). In addition, the control unit 13 includes an interface circuit that performs input / output of signals to / from the display unit 3, the operation unit 4, the communication unit 11, and the sound generation unit 12. The control unit 13 controls the overall operation of the PHS terminal A based on a control program stored in the ROM, various operation instructions received by the operation unit 4 and various signals received by the communication unit 11.

Note that the control program stored in the ROM includes a dial input control program. Based on the dial input control program, the control unit 13 controls operation sounds (dial sounds) and communication control signals when dial input is performed. Further, the control program includes a character input control program. The control unit 13 controls characters input in mail creation or the like based on the character input control program.

Next, the operation of the PHS terminal A configured as described above will be described in detail with reference to FIG. FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the operation of the PHS terminal A according to the present embodiment.
First, the control unit 13 outputs the output terminals of the key signal output units 4c-1 to 4c-12 and the input terminals 4d-1 to 4d of the operation unit interface circuit 4d based on the connection detection signal input from the key control unit 4e. It is determined whether or not -12 is connected (step S1). If “NO” is determined in step S1, that is, if the output terminals of the key signal output units 4c-1 to 4c-12 and the input terminals 4d-1 to 4d-12 are not connected, the key signal output is performed. A warning screen indicating that the output terminal of the unit 4c and the input terminals 4d-1 to 4d-12 are not connected is displayed on the display unit 3 (step S2). Then, the process proceeds to step S1 and waits until the output terminals of the key signal output units 4c-1 to 4c-12 and the input terminals 4d-1 to 4d-12 are connected.

When it is determined as “YES” in step S1, the control unit 13 means that the output terminals of the key signal output units 4c-1 to 4c-12 and the input terminals 4d-1 to 4d-12 are connected. In step S3, it is determined whether key data is input from the key control unit 4e by pressing the numeric key 4a. If “NO” is determined in step S3, that is, if no key data is input from the key control unit 4e, the keypad 4a is pressed, that is, until key data is input from the key control unit 4e. stand by.

When it is determined “YES” in step S3, that is, when key data is input from the key control unit 4e, the control unit 13 displays either the dial input screen or the character input screen on the display unit 3. It is determined whether or not (step S4). The dial input screen is a screen for inputting a telephone number of a call destination. The character input screen is a screen for inputting various characters used when creating e-mails and memo pads.

If the control unit 13 determines in step S4 that the character input screen is displayed on the display unit 3, the kanji, hiragana, full-width katakana, half-width katakana corresponding to the key data input from the key control unit 4e, Any one of full-width alphanumeric characters, half-width alphanumeric characters, symbols, and pictograms is displayed on the character input screen of the display unit 3 (step S5).

If it is determined in step S4 that the dial input screen is displayed on the display unit 3, the control unit 13 displays a number corresponding to the key data input from the key control unit 4e on the dial input screen of the display unit 3. Display. Further, the control unit 13 causes the sounding unit 12 to output an operation sound (dial sound) corresponding to the key data, and then causes the communication unit 11 to output a communication control signal corresponding to the key data (step S6).

Next, a modified example of the configuration of the operation unit 4 will be described. In the PHS terminal A, the numeric keypad 4a of the operation unit 4 is arranged on the turntable 4b, and the key arrangement is changed by rotating the numeric keypad 4a according to the rotation of the turntable 4b. Thus, the user may change the key arrangement of each key. 5A and 5B are diagrams showing examples of the key arrangement of the numeric keypad 4a when each key of the numeric keypad 4a is detachable. FIG. 5A shows the numeric keypad 4a before the key layout change, and FIG. 5B shows the numeric keypad 4a after the key layout change. As shown in FIGS. 5A and 5B, the key arrangement can be changed more flexibly by making each key of the numeric keypad 4a detachable.

As described above, in the PHS terminal A, the numeric keypad 4a is arranged on the turntable, and the whole numeric keypad 4a rotates 90 degrees to the right as the turntable rotates 90 degrees to the right. Further, by making each key of the numeric keypad 4a detachable, the user can change the key arrangement to a desired one according to the usage method. Therefore, each user can easily perform key input by using the numeric keypad 4a whose key arrangement is changed.

As mentioned above, although one Embodiment of this invention was described, this invention is not limited to the said embodiment, For example, the following modifications can be considered.
(1) In the above embodiment, the key arrangement of each key of the numeric keypad 4a is changed, but the present invention is not limited to this.
In addition to the numeric keypad 4a, the operation unit 4 of the PHS terminal A may be provided with up / down / left / right keys, a power key, and various function keys, and the key arrangement of these keys may be changed.

(2) In the above embodiment, the key signal output units 4c-1 to 4c-12 are provided for each key of the numeric keypad 4a. Then, by causing the key signal output units 4c-1 to 4c-12 to output key signals unique to each key, the controller 13 can accurately recognize the pressed key even if the key layout is changed. did. However, the present invention is not limited to this.
For example, the PHS terminal A may be configured by the operation unit 4 having a press sensor that detects a pressed position and the control unit 13 that determines a key pressed from the pressed position based on a key table. In this case, the rotation table 4b is provided with a rotation direction detection unit that detects the rotation direction, and the control unit 13 switches the key table to be used according to the rotation direction detected by the rotation detection unit. Thereby, even if the key arrangement is changed by rotation, the controller 13 can accurately recognize the key pressed from the pressed position. The rotation direction detection unit is constituted by a reed switch or the like.

(3) Furthermore, by adopting the rotation direction detection unit in the above embodiment, as shown in FIGS. 6A and 6B, the display is performed on the display unit 3 according to the rotation direction of the turntable 4b detected by the rotation direction detection unit. You may make it switch the display direction of the screen to perform. FIG. 6A shows the display unit 3 before switching the display direction of the screen. FIG. 6B shows the display unit 3 after switching the display direction of the screen.
As shown in FIG. 6A, when the turntable 4b is not rotating, the control unit 13 causes the display unit 3 to display a normal screen. On the other hand, when the turntable 4b is rotated 90 degrees to the right, that is, when the numeric keypad 4a is rotated 90 degrees to the right, as shown in FIG. 6B, the control unit 13 rotates the display direction 90 degrees to the right. The displayed screen is displayed on the display unit 3.

The present invention can be applied to a portable electronic device that can easily perform key input according to the usage method.

Claims

A portable electronic device having a plurality of operation keys in an operation unit,
A portable electronic device capable of changing a key arrangement of the operation keys in the operation unit.
The portable electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the operation keys are arranged on a turntable, and the key arrangement is changed by rotating the operation keys according to the rotation of the turntable.
The portable electronic device according to claim 1, wherein each operation key in the operation unit is detachable, and the key arrangement is changed by detaching the operation key.
The portable electronic device according to claim 2, wherein each operation key in the operation unit is detachable, and the key arrangement is changed by detaching the operation key.
A display unit;
A rotation direction detector for detecting the rotation direction of the turntable;
A control unit that switches a display direction of a screen displayed on the display unit according to the rotation direction of the turntable detected by the rotation direction detection unit;
The portable electronic device according to claim 2, comprising:
The portable electronic device according to claim 5, wherein the rotation direction detection unit includes a reed switch.