Communications: electrical – Visual indication – Having light piping
Reexamination Certificate
2001-05-10
2002-05-28
Wu, Daniel J. (Department: 2632)
Communications: electrical
Visual indication
Having light piping
C340S815450, C340S815470, C340S461000, C362S035000, C362S035000, C362S227000, C362S234000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06396409
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This application incorporates by reference Taiwanese application Serial No. 89207941, Filed May, 11, 2000.
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates in general to an indicating device of a portable computer, and more particularly to an indicating device which applies the optical properties of transparent material to improve the indicating effect.
2. Description of the Related Art
As semiconductor technologies advance by leaps and bounds, electronic components are indispensable to modern equipments. Furthermore, miniaturization has been the goal of electronic equipment producers resulting in mini-television, mini-camera and so on. Among these electronic products, computers, especially portable computers, have become crucial tools in just about every field nowadays due to its portability, simplicity, and size.
Status indicating lights are indispensable for portable computers. They function to show the operating status, such as standby mode, storage mode, power charge mode, caps lock mode and numeric lock mode, of the portable computers. Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) and a Light Emitting Diode (LED) are two common types of the status indicating lights.
However, LCD has the disadvantage of high cost of fabricating and maintaining. LED, even with lower cost, suffers from the problem of inferior lighting effect. That is mainly because the front panel is narrow (normally less than 1 cm ), and the lightness of LED after transmitting through the front panel is reduced.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide an indicating device of a portable computer for indicating various computer statuses. The indicating device applies the optical properties of transparent materials to improve the indicating effect of LEDs.
The invention achieves the above-identified objects by providing a status indicating device of a portable computer. The status indicating device indicates a number of statuses of the portable computer. The status indicating device includes a number of LEDs and a light guiding board. The LEDs emit light corresponding to each status. The light guiding board further includes the first surface, the second surface and the third surface. The first surface receives the light emitted from LEDs. The second surface reflects the light received by the first surface. The light reflected by the second surface is transmitted through the third surface to indicate the statuses of the portable computer.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5101325 (1992-03-01), Davenport et al.
patent: 5406268 (1995-04-01), Fullmer
patent: 5481440 (1996-01-01), Oldham et al.
patent: 5761540 (1998-06-01), White
patent: 5892599 (1999-04-01), Bahuguna
ASUSTek Computer Inc.
Nguyen Tai T.
Rabin & Berdo P.C.
Wu Daniel J.
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