Abstract:
An apparatus is disclosed comprising: a data processing device; a swing arm having a first end and a second end, rotatably coupled to the data processing device at the first end and rotatable through a specified angle from a first position to a second position; and a display rotatably coupled to the support arm at the second end, the display being in a first viewable position covering a first set of input elements when the swing arm is in the first position and being in a second viewable position exposing the one or more input elements when the swing arm is in the second position.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     This invention relates generally to the field of data processing devices. More particularly, the invention relates to an adjustable display for a data processing device. 
     2. Description of the Related Art 
     Portable data processing devices such as Personal Digital Assistants (“PDAs”) and programmable wireless telephones are becoming more powerful every day, providing users with a wide range of applications previously only available on personal computers. At the same time, due to advances in silicon processing technology and battery technology, these devices may be manufactured using smaller and smaller form factors. Accordingly, users no longer need to sacrifice processing power for portability when selecting a personal data processing device. 
     Although processing devices with small form factors tend to be more portable, users may find it increasingly difficult to interact with them. For example, entering data may be difficult due to the absence of a full-sized keyboard and reading information may be difficult due to a small, potentially dim Liquid Crystal Display (“LCD”). 
     To deal with this problem, devices have been produced which physically adjust to an “active” position when in use and an “inactive” position when not in use. For example, the well-known Motorola® Star-TAC® wireless telephone flips open when in use, thereby exposing a telephone keypad, a display and and earpiece. However, when this device retracts to an “inactive” position, the keypad, display, and earpiece are all completely inaccessible. 
     Accordingly, what is needed is an improved, adjustable data processing display for a data processing device. 
     SUMMARY 
     An apparatus is disclosed comprising: a data processing device; a swing arm having a first end and a second end, rotatably coupled to the data processing device at the first end and rotatable through a specified angle from a first position to a second position; and a display rotatably coupled to the support arm at the second end, the display being in a first viewable position covering a first set of input elements when the swing arm is in the first position and being in a second viewable position exposing the one or more input elements when the swing arm is in the second position. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     A better understanding of the present invention can be obtained from the following detailed description in conjunction with the following drawings, in which: 
     FIGS. 1 a  and  1   b  illustrate a frontal view of one embodiment of the invention. 
     FIGS. 2 a  and  2   b  illustrate a side view of one embodiment of the invention. 
     FIGS. 3 a  and  3   b  illustrate a perspective view of one embodiment of the invention. 
     FIG. 4 illustrates a network architecture in which one embodiment of the wireless device is employed. 
     FIG. 5 illustrates a hardware architecture of one embodiment of the wireless device. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
     In the following description, for the purposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. It will be apparent, however, to one skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced without some of these specific details. In other instances, well-known structures and devices are shown in block diagram form to avoid obscuring the underlying principles of the present invention. 
     Embodiments of an Adjustable Data Processing Display 
     Illustrated in FIGS. 1 a  and  1   b , is one embodiment of a data processing device  100  comprising an adjustable display  102  and a base  101 . The base of the data processing device comprises comprises a keyboard  104 , a control knob/wheel  106  (e.g., for scrolling between menu items and/or data objects), and a set of control buttons  107  (e.g., for selecting menu items and/or data). In one embodiment, the alphanumeric keys on the keyboard are organized in the same order as they would appear on a standard keyboard, such as in a standard QWERTY or a DVORAK keyboard, thereby enabling the user to efficiently enter alphanumeric characters without searching for the keys. It should be noted, however, that the specific control knob, control button and keyboard configuration illustrated in FIGS. 1 a - b  is not required for complying with the underlying principles of the invention. Various alternative input configurations may be employed. 
     In one embodiment, the display  102  is rotatably coupled to the data processing device  100  via an arm  114 . Specifically, the arm  114  is coupled to the display  102  at a first rotation point  112  and to the base  101  of the data processing device  100  at a second rotation point  110 . The rotational coupling of the arm  114  to the base  101  and display  102  may be a standard rotational hinge or any other known rotational interconnection. 
     FIG. 1 a  illustrates the adjustable display  102  in a “closed” position and FIG. 1 b  illustrates the adjustable display  102  in an “open” position. When in a closed position, the adjustable display  102  covers the keyboard  104  thereby decreasing the size of the device  100  and protecting the keyboard  104 . Even when the display is in a closed position, however, the control knob  106  and control buttons  107  are exposed and therefore accessible by the user and the display screen  103  is still viewable. The motion of the display  102  from a closed position to an open position is indicated by motion arrow  120  illustrated in FIG. 1 b . Accordingly, it will be appreciated that the display is viewable, and data is accessible by the user in both an open and a closed position (although access to the keyboard is only provided in an open position). 
     In one embodiment, a track  130  is formed on the base  101  of the data processing device. A pin  132  formed on the display  102  cooperatively engages with the track  130  to guide the display  102  as it moves from a closed to an open position. 
     In one embodiment, the screen  103  employed on the display  102  is a liquid crystal display (“LCD”) screen. However, various alternative technologies may be employed on the display screen  103  such as, for example, thin-film transistor (“TFT”) technologies while still complying with the underlying principles of the invention. 
     In one embodiment, a switch within the device  100  (not shown) is triggered when the adjustable display  102  is moved from an open position to a closed position (or from a closed position to an open position). In one embodiment, hardware/software within the device  100  may be configured to enter into a different mode based on the position of the switch. For example, a different user interface (or other operating system or application-level function) may be triggered based on the position of the switch. In one embodiment, when the display is moved into a closed position, a user interface is displayed which is more easily navigable with only the control buttons  107  and control knob  106  (i.e., without the use of the keyboard  104 ). Various other interface functions may be triggered by the switch while still complying with the underlying principles of the invention. Various different types of switches may be employed on the device  100  including standard mechanical switches, electrical switches (e.g., capacitive/magnetic switches), or any combination thereof. 
     If standard electrical wiring is used to electrically couple the base  101  of the data processing device  100  to the display  102 , the areas surrounding the two rotation points  110  and  112  should be wide enough to accommodate the wiring. However, a wireless connection may also be employed between the data processing device base  101  and the display while still complying with the underlying principles of the invention. For example, the display  102  may be communicatively coupled to the base  101  via a Bluetooth connection, an IEEE 802.11a or 802.11b connection, a capacitive communication coupling, and/or any other type of wireless link. If configured with a wireless connection, the display  102  may also be detachable from the base  101 . 
     The control knob  106  and control buttons  107  may be programmed to perform various functions within applications executed on the data processing device  100 . For example, if an email client application is executed on the device  100 , the control knob  106  may be configured to scroll a highlight element through the list of e-mail messages within the user&#39;s inbox (i.e., to highlight a particular e-mail message). One of the control buttons  107  (or the control knob  106 ) may then be configured to select the highlighted e-mail message. A different control button may be configured as a “back” button, allowing the user to back out of selected e-mail messages and/or to move up through the menu/folder hierarchy. A third control button may be configured to bring the user to a desired location within the e-mail application (e.g., to the top of the menu/folder hierarchy) or within the operating system executed on the processing device  100 . In one embodiment, the particular functions to be executed by the buttons  107  and/or control knob  106  may be selected by the end-user. 
     A side view of one embodiment of the data processing device is illustrated in both a closed and open position in FIGS. 2 a  and  2   b , respectively. In addition, a perspective view of the data processing device is illustrated in a closed an open position in FIGS. 3 a  and  3   b , respectively. 
     An Exemplary Network Architecture 
     As illustrated in FIG. 4, in one embodiment, the adjustable display is employed on a wireless data processing device  400 . According to this embodiment, the wireless data processing device  400  communicates with a data service  404  comprised of one or more servers  406  over a wireless network  402 . The data service  404  may manage various types of data on behalf of the user of the wireless device  400  (e.g., email, electronic calendar, to-do list . . . etc) and may provide the wireless data processing device  400  with program code such as applications and/or operating system upgrades. The data service  404  may also act as a proxy to connect the wireless device  400  to other servers over the Internet  408 . In one embodiment, the service  404  converts data and program code requested from the Internet into a format which the data processing device  400  can properly interpret. For example, the service  404  may convert images embedded within Web pages into an imaging format which the data processing device can display (e.g., by adjusting grayscale level, resolution, . . . etc). As such, in this embodiment, the service  404  has an intimate knowledge of the capabilities/configuration of each wireless device  400 , and formats data/content requested from the Internet accordingly. 
     The wireless device  400  may communicate with the service  404  using various RF communication protocols/techniques. For example, in one particular embodiment, the wireless device  400  transmits and receives data to/from a cellular network via a cellular packet-switched protocol such as the cellular digital packet data (“CDPD”) standard. Embodiments of the wireless device may also be configured to transmit/receive data using a variety of other communication standards including 2-way paging standards and third generation (“3G”) wireless standards (e.g., UTMS, CDMA 2000, NTT DoCoMo, . . . etc). 
     An Exemplary Hardware Architecture 
     As illustrated in FIG. 5, one embodiment of the data processing device  100  is comprised generally of a microcontroller  505 , an external memory  550 , a display controller  575 , and a battery  560 . The external memory  550  may be used to store programs and/or data  565  transmitted to the portal device  100  from the data service  404 . In one embodiment, the external memory  550  is nonvolatile memory (e.g., an electrically erasable programmable read only memory (“EEPROM”); a programmable read only memory (“PROM”), . . . etc). Alternatively, the memory  550  may be a volatile memory (e.g., random access memory or “RAM”) but the data stored therein may be continually maintained via the battery  560 . The battery  560  in one embodiment is a coin cell battery (e.g., of the same type used in portable electronic devices such as calculators and watches). In one embodiment, when the battery power decreases below a threshold level, the data processing device  100  will notify the user and/or the data service  404 . The data service  404  may then automatically send the user a new battery. 
     The microcontroller  505  of one embodiment is comprised of a central processing unit (“CPU”)  510 , a read only memory (“ROM”)  570 , and a scratchpad RAM  540 . The ROM  570  is further comprised of an interpreter module  520  and a toolbox module  530 . 
     The toolbox module  530  of the ROM  570  contains a set of toolbox routines for processing data, text and graphics on the data processing device  100 . These routines include drawing text and graphics on the data processing device&#39;s display  102 , decompressing data transmitted from the data service  404 , reproducing audio on the portal device  100 , and performing various input/output and communication functions. 
     In one embodiment, microprograms and portal data  565  are transmitted from the data service  404  to the external memory  550  of the portal device via a communication interface  570  under control of the CPU  510 . Various wired and wireless communication interfaces  570  may be employed without departing from the underlying principles of the invention including, for example, a Universal Serial Bus (“USB”) interface or a serial communication (“serial”) interface. The microprograms in one embodiment are comprised of compact, interpreted instructions known as “bytecodes,” which are converted into native code by the interpreter module  520  before being executed by the CPU  510 . One of the benefits of this configuration is that when the microcontroller/CPU portion of the portal device  100  is upgraded (e.g., to a faster and/or less expensive model), only the interpreter module  520  and toolbox  530  of the ROM needs to be rewritten to interpret the currently existing bytecodes for the new microcontroller/CPU. In addition, this configuration allows portal devices  100  with different CPUs to coexist and execute the same microprograms. Moreover, programming frequently-used routines in the ROM toolbox module  530  reduces the size of microprograms stored in the external memory  550 , thereby conserving memory and bandwidth when communicating with the data service  404 . In one embodiment, new interpreter modules  520  and/or toolbox routines  530  may be developed to execute the same microprograms on cellular phones, personal information managers (“PIMs”), or any other device having a CPU and memory. 
     One embodiment of the ROM  570  may be comprised of interpreted code as well as native code written specifically for the microcontroller CPU  510 . More particularly, some toolbox routines may be written as interpreted code (as indicated by the arrow between the toolbox  530  and the interpreter module  520 ) to conserve memory and bandwidth for the same reasons described above with respect to microprograms. Moreover, in one embodiment, data and microprograms stored in external memory  550  may be configured to override older versions of data/microprograms stored in the ROM  570  (e.g., in the ROM toolbox  530 ). 
     Embodiments of the invention may include various steps as set forth above. The steps may be embodied in machine-executable instructions. The instructions can be used to cause a general-purpose or special-purpose processor to perform certain steps. Alternatively, these steps may be performed by specific hardware components that contain hardwired logic for performing the steps, or by any combination of programmed computer components and custom hardware components. 
     Elements of the present invention may also be provided as a machine-readable medium for storing the machine-executable instructions. The machine-readable medium may include, but is not limited to, floppy diskettes, optical disks, CD-ROMs, and magneto-optical disks, ROMs, RAMs, EPROMs, EEPROMs, magnetic or optical cards, propagation media or other type of media/machine-readable medium suitable for storing electronic instructions. For example, the present invention may be downloaded as a computer program which may be transferred from a remote computer (e.g., a server) to a requesting computer (e.g., a client) by way of data signals embodied in a carrier wave or other propagation medium via a communication link (e.g., a modem or network connection). 
     Throughout the foregoing description, for the purposes of explanation, numerous specific details were set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the invention. It will be apparent, however, to one skilled in the art that the invention may be practiced without some of these specific details. Accordingly, the scope and spirit of the invention should be judged in terms of the claims which follow.