Electronic apparatus having plural entry switches

Details Electronic apparatus having plural entry switches Electronic apparatus having plural entry switches

2000-09-01

2003-02-11

Nguyen, Chanh (Department: 2675)

Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system

Display peripheral interface input device

Touch panel

C178S018030

Reexamination Certificate

active

06518958

ABSTRACT:

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an electronic apparatus, such as a video camera, an audio device or a mobile phone, having a plurality of entry switches arranged at its operating section.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
With advances in digital techniques, consumer-oriented electronic products including mobile phones, video cameras and audio devices have been highly integrated, and endowed with high performance in their downsized bodies. Besides, the-state-of-the-art has also accelerated an improvement in the user interface including a display and a keyboard. Here, taking a mobile phone as an example of such conventional consumer-oriented electronic products, its structure and operating characteristics are described below.
First of all, the structure of a mobile phone is described with reference to the accompanying drawings.
FIG. 11
is a front view of a conventional mobile phone. On the front side of outer housing
1
, the sections, from top to bottom in the figure, arranged are:
(a) receiver
2
made of a loudspeaker;
(b) display
3
made of a LCD (liquid crystal display);
(c) touch panel switch
7
;
(d) entry buttons made of numeric keys and confirmation keys;
(e) transmitter
5
made of a microphone.
FIG.
12
and
FIG. 13
illustrate a cross-sectional view and an exploded perspective view of touch panel switch
7
, respectively. As shown in the figures, conductive films
12
and
13
, which are formed at face-to-face surfaces of touch panel switch
7
, are sandwiched between two properly shaped insulating pads
10
and
11
. Between conductive films
12
and
13
, adhesive spacer
30
is inserted, maintaining an interval in order to provide electrical insulation. Insulating pad
10
is formed to be elastic. When a user's finger depresses or slides on the pad, the applied force recesses a position and leads to electrical conduction between conductive films
12
and
13
. Each time condition is established, an output signal is obtained from electrode portion
14
via lead portions
15
A to
15
D and
16
. The structure adopted for touch panel switch
7
is generally called an analog type or a resistive film type.
As shown in
FIG. 11
, outer housing
1
accommodates extendible antenna
17
at its top. Display
3
, touch panel switch
7
, entry buttons
6
, and electric circuitry (not shown) which controls antenna
17
, are housed in outer housing
1
. The structure including the electric circuitry is shown in the block diagram in FIG.
14
.
In
FIG. 14
, Central Processing Unit (CPU)
18
performs various calculations and evaluations. More specifically, CPU
18
controls display
3
through Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) driver
19
and processes directly received signals from entry buttons
6
; CPU
18
processes output signals from touch panel switch
7
via touch panel switch driver
20
; CPU
18
controls antenna
17
via transmission-reception circuit
21
; and CPU
18
also controls ROM
22
having pre-stored information, and RAM
23
in which the information items of a telephone directory can be added or deleted as required.
The placing-a-call procedure is now described. Suppose that the phone number of a party to be called is selected by a search function from the phone numbers pre-stored in a memory in the mobile phone. When the mobile phone is not in communication, as shown in
FIG. 15
, display
3
displays initial menu
24
comprising a plurality of items, and cursor
25
identifies distinctively which item is concurrently selected in the menu.
In order to place a call with the search function, a user usually selects the “Calling telephone number” item in the initial menu. With the finger-sliding motion on the surface of touch panel switch
7
, the user can put cursor
25
in display
3
on the “Calling telephone number” item. When the user slides the finger on the surface of elastic insulating pad
10
, a contact point between conductive films
12
and
13
changes its position, following the wake of the finger-sliding motion. Referring to now
FIG. 13
, lead portion
15
(
15
A through
15
D) is extended from electrode portion
14
(
14
A through
14
D). Lead portion
16
is electrically connected to conductive film
12
with contact portion
16
A, which is laid beneath insulating pad
10
. In response to the position changed by the finger motion on the surface, touch panel switch
7
produces an output signal (i.e., an output voltage value) with its magnitude varying between lead portions
15
and
16
. Obtained from two orthogonal directions, the output signal is converted from analog to digital by touch panel switch driver
20
. Then the converted signal is entered into CPU
18
. Processing the received signal in time sequence, CPU
18
determines in which direction the finger slid on the touch pad surface of touch panel switch
7
, and moves cursor
25
in a proper direction based on the determination.
With the cursor sitting on the desired item, the user depresses confirmation key
6
A. Through this action, a decision signal is sent to CPU
18
. The decision signal informs CPU
18
of completion of selecting and confirming the desired item. Receiving the decision signal, CPU
18
recognizes that the “Calling telephone number” item is selected, and fetches the pre-stored telephone directory information from RAM
23
or ROM
22
. CPU
18
then sends the information to LCD
4
via LCD driver
19
, so that the telephone directory appears on the display
3
.
With another finger-sliding motion on the touch pad surface of touch panel switch
7
, the user now moves cursor
25
to identify a telephone number to be selected, then depresses confirmation key
6
A. In response to this action, CPU
18
recognizes that the selection is validated and performs the predetermined procedure: CPU
18
not only transmits a transmission signal through transmission-reception circuit
21
and antenna
17
to the selected phone number of the party to be called, but also activates receiver
2
and transmitter
5
.
As described above, the finger-sliding motion on the touch panel surface of touch panel switch
7
is a quick-and-easy manner of selection in conventional mobile phones. The users can thereby pick out the desired item easily among many items on the display.
The ease of use mentioned above; however, is impaired on a smaller touch panel: the area requires enough space for the finger-sliding motion. Due to recent technological advances, electronic apparatus are getting smaller and smaller. On the other hand, the display area of such apparatus requires more space to cope with a higher volume of information to display thereon. In turn, it has become difficult to reserve enough space for a touch pad in a limited space.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention addresses the problems discussed above and aims to provide an electronic apparatus without any space occupied exclusively by the touch panel switch on its entry section. It is a further object to provide an electronic appartus that offers an improved finger-sliding operation with positive response to the touch panel switch.
In the structure of the entry section of an electronic apparatus according to the present invention, a touch panel switch with elasticity is placed over a depression switch with tactile feedback (similar to a clicking response.) The depression switch comprises a plurality of switch elements disposed in a planar arrangement. When a user slides the finger on the surface of the touch panel switch structured above, an output signal from the touch panel switch changes in response to the finger-sliding operation. From the output changes, the apparatus detects in which direction the finger moves and how far the finger moves on the touch panel. The detected moving direction and amount are associated with the items appearing on the display, so that the user can select a desired item and then enter it.
This two-layered structure thus offers a user-friendly electronic apparatus having two ways of operation: finger-sliding with a light touch enables the user to select a desired item;

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