HTC patents "HANDHELD ELECTRONIC DEVICE"

Abstract
A handheld electronic device includes a display body, an input body and at least a track. The input body and the display body are overlapped with each other. The track is disposed between the display body and the input body, wherein the extending direction of the track is substantially neither perpendicular to nor parallel to the longitudinal direction or the traverse direction of the display body or the input body, and the track enables the display body to switch between at a first position and at a second position relative to the input body. The traverse direction of the display body is substantially parallel to the traverse direction of the input body when the input body is at the first position, and the longitudinal direction of the display body is substantially parallel to the longitudinal direction of the input body when the input body is at the second position.


Description
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CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

[0001]This application claims the priority benefit of Taiwan application serial no. 95133171, filed Sep. 8, 2006. All disclosure of the Taiwan application is incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0002]1. Field of the Invention

[0003]The present invention generally relates to a handheld electronic device, and more particular, to a handheld electronic device that can be operated in a longitudinal direction and in a traverse direction.

[0004]2. Description of Related Art

[0005]A handheld electronic device refers to an electronic device suitable for a user to hold and operate the same, for example, a mobile phone, a multimedia player, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a handheld computer, a handheld game machine and a handheld GPS (global positioning system) receiver etc. The electronic device of the sort usually has a small volume, light, and portable for a user to carry it. Taking the mobile phone as an example, an early mobile phone has a bar-style design. However, later, in order to promote the portability while keeping the areas of the screen and the keyboard thereof unchanged, a flip-style (clamshell-style) mobile phone and a slide-style mobile phone were developed.

[0006]A flip-style mobile phone usually includes two bodies which are linked together by using a hinge mechanism to make two side edges thereof pivoted thereon, while the main screen and the keyboard thereof are respectively disposed on each of the inner side of the two bodies. In this way, the two bodies of the flip-style mobile phone can be folded during carriage, and unfolded during operation. A slide-style mobile phone has two bodies as well, but the two bodies thereof are linked together by using a sliding mechanism, and the screen and the keyboard thereof are respectively disposed on the outer side of the upper layer body and the inner side of the lower layer body thereof. Similarly, the two bodies of the slide-style mobile phone can be overlapped with one another during carriage, and slid by one another during operation as well.

[0007]Compared to the flip-style mobile phone where the main screen is disposed on the inner side of the bottom one of the two bodies, the main screen of the slide-style mobile phone is disposed on the outer side of the bottom one of the two bodies thereof. Therefore, regardless of a standing-by mode or an operating mode, the screen of a slide-style mobile phone remains exposed on the outer side thereof. Along with the progressive advancement of the technology and usage, a mobile phone with multiple operation modes is being continuously developed to attract customers and provide additional versatility to the customers.

[0008]In order to make the relative position of the two bodies of a mobile phone switched between two different placements, a conventional mobile phone with multiple operation modes is equipped with two orthogonal sliding tracks between the two bodies thereof, so that the mobile phone has a phone operation mode after a relative sliding motion in the longitudinal direction thereof between the two bodies or a typing operation mode after a relative sliding motion in the traverse direction thereof between the two bodies. However, the sliding motion of such a mobile phone is not smooth and the appearance of the mobile phone is not novel or attractive.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0009]An aspect of the present invention is to provide a handheld electronic device with multiple operation modes for different applications.

[0010]To achieve the above-mentioned or other aspects, the present invention provides a handheld electronic device. The handheld electronic device includes a display body, an input body and at least a track. The input body and the display body are overlapped with each other. The track is disposed between the display body and the input body, wherein the extending direction of the track is substantially neither perpendicular to nor parallel to the longitudinal direction or the traverse direction of the display body or the input body, but the track enables the display body to be switched between at a first position and at a second position relative to the input body. At the first position, the traverse direction of the display body is substantially parallel to the traverse direction of the input body, while at the second position, the longitudinal direction of the display body is substantially parallel to the longitudinal direction of the input body.

[0011]In an embodiment of the present invention, the above-mentioned display body completely overlays the input body when the display body is located at the first position, while at least a portion of the display body overlaps the input body when the display body is located at the second position.

[0012]In an embodiment of the present invention, the length of the above-mentioned display body is less than the length of the input body.

[0013]In an embodiment of the present invention, during a translational motion of the above-mentioned display body relative to the input body, the track makes the longitudinal direction of the display body substantially parallel to the longitudinal direction of the input body.

[0014]In an embodiment of the present invention, the above-mentioned handheld electronic device further includes at least a guiding block disposed between the input body and the display body, so that the relative movement of the guiding block along the track causes a translational motion of the display body relative to the input body.

[0015]In an embodiment of the present invention, the above-mentioned handheld electronic device further includes an image output interface disposed on the display body.

[0016]In an embodiment of the present invention, the translational motion of the above-mentioned display body relative to the input body along the track is able to provide an operation mode switch between a first operation mode and a second operation mode, wherein the first operation mode makes the image output interface work in a portrait display mode, while the second operation mode makes the image output interface work in a landscape display mode.

[0017]In an embodiment of the present invention, the above-mentioned input body has a first area and a second area locally overlapped with the first area, and the first area is exposed when the display body is at the first position.

[0018]In an embodiment of the present invention, the above-mentioned handheld electronic device further includes a press input interface disposed on the input body.

[0019]In an embodiment of the present invention, the above-mentioned press input interface includes a dialing keypad and a standard keypad, the dialing keypad is disposed at the first area, the standard keypad is disposed at the second area and some keys of the standard keypad and some keys of the dialing keypad are shared by each other.

[0020]In an embodiment of the present invention, the above-mentioned press input interface is at least one selected from the group consisting of a standard keyboard, a video play key, numeric keys, dialing keys, navigation keys, hot keys, speed dialing keys, a Windows key and an ending key.

[0021]To achieve the above-mentioned or other aspects, the present invention provides a handheld electronic device, which includes a display body, an input body and at least a track. The display body has a portrait display mode and a landscape display mode. The input body and the display body are overlapped with each other. The track is disposed between the display body and the input body and is substantially disposed obliquely to the longitudinal direction and the traverse direction of the display body or the input body, so that the input body can be operated in association with the display body either in the landscape display mode or in the portrait display mode.

[0022]In an embodiment of the present invention, the above-mentioned track enables the display body to be switched between at a first position and at a second position relative to the input body. At the first position, the traverse direction of the display body is substantially parallel to the traverse direction of the input body, while at the second position, the longitudinal direction of the display body is substantially parallel to the longitudinal direction of the input body.

[0023]In an embodiment of the present invention, the above-mentioned display body completely overlays the input body when the display body is located at the first position, while at least a portion of the display body overlaps the input body when the display body is located at the second position.

[0024]In an embodiment of the present invention, the length of the above-mentioned display body is less than the length of the input body.

[0025]In an embodiment of the present invention, during a translational motion of the above-mentioned display body relative to the input body, the track makes the longitudinal direction of the display body substantially parallel to the longitudinal direction of the input body.

[0026]In an embodiment of the present invention, the above-mentioned handheld electronic device further includes at least a guiding block fixed between the input body and the display body, so that the movement of the guiding block along the track causes a translational motion of the display body relative to the input body.

[0027]In an embodiment of the present invention, the above-mentioned handheld electronic device further includes an image output interface disposed on the display body.

[0028]In an embodiment of the present invention, the translational motion of the above-mentioned display body relative to the input body along the track is able to provide an operation mode switch between a first operation mode and a second operation mode, wherein the first operation mode makes the image output interface work in portrait display mode, while the second operation mode makes the image output interface work in landscape display mode.

[0029]In an embodiment of the present invention, the above-mentioned input body has a first area and a second area overlapped with each other, and the first area is exposed when the display body is at the first position.

[0030]In an embodiment of the present invention, the above-mentioned handheld electronic device further includes a press input interface disposed on the input body.

[0031]In an embodiment of the present invention, the above-mentioned press input interface includes a dialing keypad and a standard keypad, the dialing keypad is disposed at the first area, the standard keypad is disposed at the second area and some keys of the standard keypad and some keys of the dialing keypad are shared by each other.

[0032]In an embodiment of the present invention, the above-mentioned press input interface is at least one selected from the group consisting of a standard keyboard, a video play key, numeric keys, dialing keys, navigation keys, hot keys, speed dialing keys, a Windows key and an ending key.

[0033]The present invention uses an obliquely-disposed track to make the display body have at least two different positions relative to the input body and the two positions are respectively corresponding to an operation mode.