Communications: electrical – Audible indication – Electronic
Reexamination Certificate
1999-12-20
2001-07-03
Wu, Daniel J. (Department: 2632)
Communications: electrical
Audible indication
Electronic
C340S384720
Reexamination Certificate
active
06255937
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to notifying devices for use in portable telephones, pagers or like portable communications devices, or in wristwatches, toys or like small devices.
BACKGROUND ART
Conventional portable telephones (cellular phones) have incorporated therein a sound generator (ringer) for notifying the user of incoming calls with sound and a vibration generator for notifying the user of incoming calls. One of the two generators is selectively usable according to the situation.
However, small devices such as portable telephones have little or no excessive space for accommodating both the sound generator and the vibration generator, and therefore encounter the problem of becoming greater in size if equipped with the two generators.
Accordingly, the present applicant has already proposed a compact notifying unit
2
having the functions of a sound generator and a vibration generator as shown in
FIG. 2
(Japanese Patent Application No. 161399/1996).
The notifying unit
2
comprises, as housed in a common casing
21
, a first vibrator
4
for producing chiefly sound, and a second vibrator
3
for producing chiefly vibration as illustrated. The casing
21
comprises a hollow cylindrical body
22
, an annular front cover member
24
having a sound release aperture
25
and attached to an open front side of the body
22
, and an annular rear cover member
23
attached to an open rear side of the body
22
.
The first vibrator
4
comprises a circular first diaphragm
41
having its peripheral portion held between the casing body
22
and the front cover member
24
, and a coil
42
fixed to the rear side of the first diaphragm
41
. The first vibrator
4
has a resonance frequency in the audible range.
On the other hand, the second vibrator
3
comprises an annular second diaphragm
34
having its peripheral portion held between the casing body
22
and the rear cover member
23
, an outer yoke
32
secured to the inner peripheral portion of the second diaphragm
34
, a permanent magnet
31
fixed to the front side of the outer yoke
32
, and an inner yoke
33
fixed to the front side of the magnet
31
. The coil
42
of the first vibrator
4
is accommodated in an annular magnetic gap defined by opposed faces of the outer yoke
32
and the inner yoke
33
. The second vibrator
3
has a low resonance frequency actually inaudible.
FIG. 5
shows the construction of the main circuit of a portable telephone having the notifying unit
2
described. The telephone is so adapted that when pressed, a manual button
14
enables the user to select notification with sound, notification with vibration or notification by simultaneous operation of both the sound and vibration means for alerting the user to incoming calls. According to the selection thus made, an alert setting circuit
55
sets the selected alerting method for the control circuit
54
.
The main circuit comprises a sound signal generating circuit
61
for producing a sound drive signal a of audio-frequency (e.g., about 2 kHz) for notification with sound, a vibration signal generating circuit
62
for producing a vibration drive signal b of actually inaudible low frequency (e.g., about 100 Hz) for notification with vibration, and an adder
63
for adding together the two drive signals delivered from the respective circuits
61
,
62
to prepare a combined drive signal a+b for notification with both sound and vibration. One of these three drive signals is selected by a switch
6
and fed to the notifying unit
2
. The switch
6
is controlled by the control circuit
54
for a change-over.
As shown in
FIGS. 6
, (
a
) and (
b
), the sound drive signal a and the vibration drive signal b are each an intermittent signal involving repetition of on-state and off-state with a predetermined period (e.g., about 3 seconds) to give effective notification.
Radio waves transmitted by the base station are received by an antenna
1
shown in
FIG. 5
at all times with a specified period. The signal received is frequency-converted and demodulated by a radio circuit
51
and then fed to a signal processing circuit
52
, which extracts a digital sound signal and a control signal from the signal. The operation of the signal processing circuit
52
is controlled by the control circuit
54
.
The control signal obtained from the signal processing circuit
52
is fed to an incoming call detecting circuit
53
, whereby an incoming call is detected if any. On the other hand, the sound signal given by the circuit
52
is fed to an unillustrated sound signal processing circuit and then output from a speaker as sound.
When an incoming call is detected by the circuit
53
, the control circuit
54
changes over the switch
6
in conformity with the alert setting by the manual button
14
to feed the sound drive signal a, vibration drive signal b or combined drive signal a+b to the notifying unit
2
.
When the sound drive signal a is fed to the coil
42
of the notifying unit
2
, the first vibrator
4
resonates, producing sound waves mainly, whereas when the vibration drive signal b is fed to the coil
42
of the notifying unit
2
, the second vibrator
3
resonates to produce vibration mainly.
Alternatively when the combined drive signal a+b is selected, the first vibrator
4
and the second vibrator
3
operate, producing sound waves and vibration at the same time.
With small portable devices such as portable telephones, the capacity of the cell serving as the power source is limited. Especially in the case of the portable telephone, other circuits including the ratio circuit start to operate at the same time upon receiving an incoming call, so that the limitation involved is severe.
The portable telephone shown in
FIG. 5
is adapted to prepare the combined drive signal a+b by adding the sound drive signal a and the vibration drive signal b together to cause the notifying unit
2
to produce both sound waves and vibration. At this time, the on period of the sound drive signal a and that of the vibration drive signal b are likely to overlap as shown in
FIGS. 6
, (
a
) and (
b
), so that the powder consumption increases markedly during the overlapping period as shown in
FIGS. 6
, (
c
).
Consequently, the power consumption exceeds the capacity of the cell, entailing the problem of interrupting the incoming call or conversation or causing trouble to other circuits.
An object of the present invention is to preclude marked increases in the power consumption of a notifying device which is adapted to give notification with both sound and vibration.
DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides a notifying device which comprises a first vibrator drivable at an audio-frequency with a first drive signal for producing sound waves, a second vibrator drivable with a second drive signal at a frequency lower than the driving frequency of the first vibrator for producing a perceivable vibration, and a signal generating circuit for producing the first drive signal and the second drive signal, the notifying device being characterized in that the on period of the first drive signal for driving the first vibrator and the on period of the second drive signal for driving the second vibrator alternate with a predetermined period.
With the notifying device of the present invention, the on period of the first drive signal for driving the first vibrator and the on period of the second drive signal for driving the second vibrator alternate with a predetermined period and are unlikely to overlap each other.
Accordingly, the power for driving the first vibrator and the power for driving the second vibrator are merely required during different time periods, whereby marked power consumption is avoided.
Stated more specifically, the signal generating circuit comprises a circuit for producing an intermittent first signal repeating on and off states with a predetermined period, a circuit for producing an intermittent second signal repeating on and off states with the same period as the first drive signal, and timing control means for
Armstrong Westerman Hattori McLeland & Naughton LLP
Sanyo Electric Co,. Ltd.
Tweel , Jr. John
Wu Daniel J.
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