Electricity: electrical systems and devices – Housing or mounting assemblies with diverse electrical... – For electronic systems and devices
Reexamination Certificate
2000-08-16
2003-02-25
Schuberg, Darren (Department: 2835)
Electricity: electrical systems and devices
Housing or mounting assemblies with diverse electrical...
For electronic systems and devices
C361S756000, C312S223200, C235S378000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06525932
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to peripheral equipment for use with a notebook personal computer (“notebook PC”) or portable terminal, a portable electronic apparatus or a personal digital assistant (“PDA”), and other electronic apparatuses, and more particularly to an expansion unit for use with the electronic apparatus or hardware. The “peripheral equipment”, as used herein. is such hardware as is connectable with a PC body and realizes a necessary function. It may be roughly categorized in terms of its use into an external storage device such as a hard disk drive, an output device such as a printer, an input device such as a mouse and a scanner, and a communication device such as a modem and a network connection device. The “expansion unit” may conceptually include a docking station, a docking bay (device), and an expansion bay (device), etc., and indicate an interface device that is connectible commonly to various units having diverse specifications to provide a connection between the unit and an electronic apparatus. Accordingly, the expansion unit differs from a PC card in that it easily makes the unit multifunctional.
The recent development and spread of notebook PCs, portable terminals and portable electronic apparatuses have increasingly demanded compact and lightweight notebook PCs for portability purposes which nevertheless exhibit such affluent functions on a desk in an office as a desktop personal computer (“desktop PC”). For example, a PC body is made light and CD-ROM drives etc. that are connectible to or built in it have been proposed. However, a CD-ROM drive, if built in the computer body, would bulk up the body and deteriorate its portability. Those drives which are different in specification, such as a CD-ROM drive and a high-density floppy disk (LS-120), use different connectors for connection with the PC body. An attempt to functionally expand a notebook PC would thus need a plurality of connectors preventing the miniaturization of the PC body. In other words, the conventional notebook PC cannot include multiple connectors for miniaturization purposes, and thus cannot become multifunctional.
Therefore, various methods of functionally expanding notebook PCs, portable terminals, and portable electronic apparatuses have hitherto been proposed. For example, a prior art has proposed to realize multifunction notebook PCs using a PC card. The “PC card” is a standard of card-type peripheral equipment for PCs that has been jointly developed by PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) and JEIDA (Japan Electronic Industries Development Association). The PC card has a size of 85.6 mm×54 mm, and three types I, II, and III according to its thickness (of 3.3 mm, 5.0 mm and 10.5 mm, respectively) or four types further including Thick Type having a thickness of 18.0 mm.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 11-31025 has proposed to functionally expand a notebook PC using PC cards having a plurality of thicknesses (i.e., a plurality of types). As shown in
FIG. 2
of the reference, a PC card slot is provided in the notebook PC. The slot is connected to a cutaway portion, which is covered with a rotatable cover under the PC body. The notebook PC of the reference is configured to be connectible both to the PC card of Type II (two pieces at maximum), and to the PC card of Type III that is thicker than Type II. The PC card of Type II is inserted into the slot with its cutaway portion remaining covered. When the PC card of Type III is inserted, the cover is rotated in such a manner as to uncover the cutaway portion, and the PC card of Type III is plugged in the slot and cutaway portion so as to partially project the card from the bottom of the notebook PC.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 7-219689 (or U.S. Pat. No. 5,559,932) has proposed a printer built-in notebook PC by mounting the printer in a Type II or III PC card. The PC card is inserted from a side of the PC so that a part of the card may be projected from the PC body.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 7-303052 (or U.S. Pat. No. 5,606,732) has proposed a notebook PC that can establish wireless communications using radio frequency signals by attaching a wireless communication device comprised of an antenna and a GPS receiver to a PC card. The PC card is inserted from a side of a PC so that the antenna and the GPS receiver may project from a side of the PC. Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 9-259238 has proposed a GPS device that may be inserted into a PC card slot. In this GPS device, an antenna portion is joined in a manner permitting a mechanical movement thereof with a GPS receiving processor portion that is inserted into the PC card slot. The GPS device is characterized in that the antenna part pivotably supported, while keeping bent, on a receiving part.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Applications Nos. 11-88486 and 11-88487 have proposed notebook PCs that may serve as a communication device by installing in a PC card a cellular phone holder electrically connectible to a cellular phone. The cellular phone holder may be electrically connected to and hold the cellular phone. The PC card is inserted so that the cellular phone holder and the cellular phone may project from a side of the PC body.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 9-128091 discloses a notebook computer that has an image pickup device connectible to a PC card with a cable. However, an image pickup portion including an image-pickup lens is still too large for portability. Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 10-271376 has proposed a CCD camera built-in notebook PC that has improved portability by mounting the entire CCD camera onto the PC card. Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application Nos. 8-9215 (or U.S. Pat. No. 5,867,218) and 7-322117 (or European Patent Application No. 683,596) also disclose techniques of building a CCD camera in a card-shaped housing.
Attachment techniques of a CCD camera or other USB-compatible units through a USB port instead of a PC card are known in the art as well. For example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 11-53060 discloses a notebook PC equipped with a CCD-camera USB port at a top of its display section so that the camera is connectible directly or via cable to the USB port. The USB port is compatible with a printer or keyboard in addition to the CCD camera.
Japanese Utility-Model Registration No. 3011657 discloses an electronic camera that may be detachably stored in a concave portion provided on a desktop PC body and connected via a connector with the PC body in the concave portion. The concave portion is called bay in the reference, but actually a storage space dedicated to the electronic camera.
While the above-mentioned Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 11-31025 discloses a slot which supports two types of the PC card, i.e., Type II and Type III, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 6-102967 (or U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,455,746, 5,617,301 and 5,627,731) discloses a slot which supports four types of the PC card, i.e., Types I to III and Thick Type.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 11-31025 discloses a plurality of slots each capable of storing a Type II PC cards, but a device connectable to a notebook PC via a cable which device has a single slot capable of storing a plurality of PC cards is also known. For example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 9-6548 (or U.S. patent application Ser. No. 666,938) discloses a disk array device having a connector connectible to a PC and including a plurality of PC card slots each capable of storing a PC card.
Several Notebook PCs and other electronic apparatuses compatible with an expansion unit have also been proposed. For example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Applications Nos. 6-75661 and 7-302140 disclose an electronic apparatus selectively connectible to a PC-card or removable-memory expansion unit. Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 10-283066 (or European Patent Application No. 869,420) discloses a notebook PC selectively connectible to an expansi
Fuchida Hidehiko
Ohnishi Masuo
Takimoto Tsuyoshi
Tanaka Atsuko
Armstrong Westerman & Hattori, LLP
Duong Hung Van
Schuberg Darren
LandOfFree
Expansion unit and electronic apparatus does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Expansion unit and electronic apparatus, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Expansion unit and electronic apparatus will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-3175812