Telecommunications – Transmitter and receiver at same station – Radiotelephone equipment detail
Reexamination Certificate
2002-03-15
2004-11-16
Chin, Vivian (Department: 2682)
Telecommunications
Transmitter and receiver at same station
Radiotelephone equipment detail
C455S563000, C455S090300, C455S569100, C455S556100, C455S575100, C455S567000, C381S163000, C381S309000, C381S026000, C704S200100
Reexamination Certificate
active
06819939
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an improvement on a cellular phone, and in particular, to an improvement for attaining high sound quality of the cellular phone.
DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED ART
FIG. 1
is a perspective view showing an example of a generally used conventional cellular phone. As shown in
FIG. 1
, the conventional cellular phone is provided with a display
101
(implemented by an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) etc.), operation buttons
102
, a speaker
103
and a microphone
104
which are placed on the same side of a housing
100
(outer casing of the cellular phone).
In the following, the operation of the conventional cellular phone of
FIG. 1
will be explained referring to FIG.
2
.
FIG. 2
is a block diagram showing an example of the composition of the conventional cellular phone of FIG.
1
. The cellular phone
200
of
FIG. 2
receives signals transmitted from radio base stations by its antenna
201
. The signal received by the antenna
201
is supplied to a radio section
202
. After frequency conversion and channel selection are carried out by the radio section
202
, the received signal is supplied to a modulation/demodulation section
203
to be demodulated. The demodulated signal is supplied to a sound processing section
204
and is outputted as a received sound signal. The received sound signal is supplied to a received sound amplifier
205
, amplified by the received sound amplifier
205
, supplied to the speaker
103
, and is outputted as received sound.
Meanwhile, voice of the user inputted to the microphone
104
is converted by the microphone
104
to a sound signal and is supplied to a transmitted sound amplifier
208
. The sound signal is amplified by the transmitted sound amplifier
208
and the amplified sound signal is inputted to the sound processing section
204
and is supplied to the modulation/demodulation section
203
to be modulated. The modulated signal is supplied to the radio section
202
and is transmitted from the antenna
201
by use of a preset frequency and power.
The radio section
202
, the modulation/demodulation section
203
and the sound processing section
204
operate under control of a control section
209
. The control section
209
, which is capable of receiving signals from the radio section
202
, the modulation/demodulation section
203
, the sound processing section
204
, a display section
210
(including the display
101
) and an operation section
211
(including the operation buttons
102
), controls the operation of the components by sending control signals to them.
However, in such conventional cellular phones, the space for mounting the speaker
103
is being narrowed due to the upsizing of the display
101
and the operation buttons
102
of these days, and it is becoming more and more difficult in the actual situation to use a speaker having an enough diameter and realize wide-range and high-volume-level sound reproduction. On the other hand, if a large-diameter speaker is forcibly employed in the cellular phone, the sizes of the display
101
and the operation buttons
102
are necessitated to be limited and thereby the usability of the cellular phone is impaired.
Further, the conventional cellular phone is provided with only one speaker
103
so as to be used for conversation, therefore, stereophonic sound reproduction of music etc. is impossible by the cellular phone despite the tendencies of cellular phone users of today to download music or tunes (as MP3 data etc.) from the Internet.
A cellular phone capable of receiving radio broadcasting and reproducing it in stereo sound has been proposed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No.HEI10-233826. However, the stereo sound reproduction by the conventional cellular phone is possible only through earphones. Stereophonic sound reproduction through speakers is not realized by the conventional cellular phone.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore the primary object of the present invention to provide a cellular phone realizing stereophonic sound reproduction of music etc. through speakers without impairing the usability of the cellular phone.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a cellular phone capable of employing a large-diameter speaker and thereby realizing wide-range and high-volume-level sound reproduction, without impairing the usability of the cellular phone.
In accordance with a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a cellular phone comprising a speaker and a microphone that are implemented by a first signal-vibration transducer and a second signal-vibration transducer that are functionally equivalent. When the cellular phone is used for conversation, the first signal-vibration transducer functions as the speaker and the second signal-vibration transducer functions as the microphone. When the cellular phone is used for sound reproduction, the first signal-vibration transducer and the second signal-vibration transducer function in cooperation as stereo speakers.
A speaker is a device for outputting sound by transducing an electric signal into vibration energy of a diaphragm, while a microphone is a device for outputting an electric signal by transducing vibration given to a diaphragm into electric energy. Therefore, the speaker and the microphone are basically equivalent in electromechanical structure and they can be used compatibly. Therefore, in the present invention, the speaker and the microphone are implemented by equivalent signal-vibration transducers. One of the signal-vibration transducers is used exclusively as a speaker, while the other signal-vibration transducer is used as a microphone (when the cellular phone is used for conversation) and a speaker (when the cellular phone is used for sound reproduction), thereby ordinary conversation (using a speaker and a microphone) and stereophonic sound reproduction (using two speakers simultaneously) are both realized in a cellular phone having only two signal-vibration transducers.
In accordance with a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect, a display and operation buttons of the cellular phone are placed on a side of a housing of the cellular phone, and the speaker and the microphone are placed apart on the other side of the housing of the cellular phone.
By such placement of the speaker and the microphone, the enlargement of the diameters of the speaker and the microphone is attained easily, without being affected by the placement of the display and the operation buttons. Therefore, wide-range and high-volume-level sound reproduction using large-diameter speakers can be realized. Further, due to the removal of the speaker and the microphone, the sizes of the display and the operation buttons can be enlarged independently of the enlargement of the speaker and microphone, thereby a cellular phone having improved viewability and operability can be provided.
In accordance with a third aspect of the present invention, in the second aspect, the housing includes: a display section including the display; an operation section including the operation buttons; and a hinge section connecting the display section and the operation section so that the cellular phone can be folded into a folded state in which the display faces the operation buttons and can be unfolded into an unfolded state in which the display is apart from the operation buttons.
In a folding cellular phone having such composition, the speaker is placed on the back (outer side) of the display section and the display is placed on the front (inner side) of the display section, while the microphone is placed on the back (outer side) of the operation section and the operation buttons are placed on the front (inner side) of the operation section. By such placement and structure, a proper distance can be kept between the speaker and the microphone and thereby the use is allowed to make conversations comfortably. The user is also allowed to put (stand) the folding cellular phone (with its flank facing downward) on a desk etc. stably (by setting a prop
Chin Vivian
Dao Minh D.
NEC ViewTechnology Ltd.
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