Mobile terminal device

A mobile terminal device including a movable side housing having a movable side rear case, a fixed side housing connected to the movable side housing with a connection part. An emitting member is provided to the movable side rear case, and a curved panel that covers the emitting member is attached to the movable side rear case through a light shielding sheet member, wherein light shielding print part is formed on a back side near an illuminated part in the curved panel.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority of the prior Japanese patent application No. 2008-093086, filed on Mar. 31, 2008, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

FIELD

The present invention relates to a mobile terminal device such as a mobile phone having a telephone function. The present invention relates to, for example, a mobile terminal device that improves its design by various illumination and the like.

BACKGROUND

Recently, multi-functionalizations of mobile phones have been developed remarkably. There is a mobile phone that improves an illumination effect as well as the functionality by flashing an icon indicating mail arrival on a display panel or a housing cover when a mail arrives. For example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2001-320451 discloses the above-described mobile phone. In this manner, by the display having the improved illumination effect on the cover of the mobile phone or the like, both the design and the functionality may be improved.

For the display of an icon and the like by illumination, light shielding print part is applied to a movable rear case as a housing cover of the mobile phone. This makes it possible to perform the display by given illumination in the part to which the light shielding print part has been applied. The light shielding print part is black print printed on the back side of the movable rear case as a housing cover. For example, to perform the display indicating mail, the black print is provided to indicate a mail icon formed by cutting an edge. That is, the light shielding print part is applied to the back side of the movable rear case to shield an area other than the area to be displayed as a given display mode.

The light shielding print part is applied to the back side of the movable rear case as a housing cover to display a mail mode. However, print object of this light shielding print part is a flat part, so that it is difficult to provide the light shielding print part to a part formed in a curved surface shape. Therefore, the part other than an emitting part may not be shielded entirely by only the light shielding print part, and then light leakage occurs.

SUMMARY

Accordingly, it is an object in one aspect of the invention to provide a mobile terminal device that improves its design such as various illumination.

According to an aspect of the invention, a mobile terminal device including a movable side housing having a movable side rear case, a fixed side housing connected to the movable side housing with a connection part, an emitting member provided to the movable side rear case, and a curved panel that covers the emitting member and attached to the movable side rear case through a light shielding sheet member, wherein light shielding print part is formed on a back side near an illuminated part in the curved panel.

DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

An entire configuration of a mobile terminal device will be described by usingFIG. 1.FIG. 1is a perspective diagram illustrating a patulous state of a mobile phone according to a first embodiment. As illustrated inFIG. 1, a mobile phone10is formed by connecting a palm-size fixed side housing100and a movable side housing200by a connection part300.

The mobile phone10has the fixed side housing100having operation keys such as a numeric key111having numeric keys with numbers 0 to 9 and various function keys such as a function key112for mode setting. The mobile phone10has the movable side housing200having an LCD module formed in the same size as the fixed side housing100, and foldably connects the fixed side housing100and the movable side housing200by the connection part300having two hinges310and320. The fixed side housing100and the movable side housing200are formed in a box shape. The material includes, for example, lightweight and high-strength magnesium alloy.

The fixed side housing100has a two-section structure having a fixed side front case110in which an operation panel115with various operation keys such as the numeric key111is arranged and a fixed side rear case120positioned on the back side thereon.

The fixed side front case110has the numeric key111, the function key112, a television phone key113, and a mouthpiece114in which a microphone converting voice of a user into an electric signal is provided therein. The fixed side front case110and the fixed side rear case120are fixed at four positions respectively by screws.

The movable side housing200has a two-split structure having a movable side front case210in which a display panel211is allocated and a movable side rear case220positioned in the back side thereon. The movable side front case210is provided with an earpiece212by which a user of the mobile phone10listens to voice by attaching user's ear.

The movable side rear case220is provided with an emitting member230for emitting given illumination as illumination. The emitting member230is illustrated inFIG. 3. Both the movable side front case210and the movable side rear case220are fixed at four positions respectively by screws. The upper position of the display panel211is provided with blind covers213for the screws.

For the mobile phone10according to the first embodiment, the light shielding print part is applied to a back side430of a flat plate410as an illuminated part included in a curved panel400for displaying notification information such as e-mail as a given display mode. The given display mode is, for example, “Letter mark.” The movable side rear case220and the curved panel400are pasted and fixed with each other through a shielding sheet member500having high light shielding ability. The light shielding sheet member500has a role as a double-faced adhesive tape.

The light shielding print part is applied to the back side430of the flat plate410near an illuminated part or section thereof of the curved panel400that is pasted to the movable side rear case220of the mobile phone10. For other parts of the back side430, shielding is performed by using the light shielding sheet member500used to fix the curved panel400to the movable side rear case220. Accordingly, although the panel that performs the light shielding print part is the curved panel400, the display may be performed on the curved panel400by various illumination.

By usingFIG. 2toFIG. 5, detailed description will be made below of the light shielding print part printed on the curved panel400of the movable side rear case220and of the light shielding sheet member500.FIG. 2is a perspective diagram illustrating a movable side rear case and a curved panel illustrated inFIG. 1, respectively.FIG. 2illustrates an inverted diagram of the mobile phone10.FIG. 3illustrates A-A perspective diagram ofFIG. 2.FIG. 4illustrates B part-enlarged diagram ofFIG. 3.FIG. 5illustrates a flat diagram illustrating a light shielding print part.FIG. 6is a diagram describing a light shielding sheet member and an area where the light shielding sheet member is pasted.

As illustrated inFIG. 2, the movable side rear case220includes a flat plate221shaped like a thin plate box and occupies almost all the areas, and includes a side plate222positioned around the flat plate221. The lower half part of the movable side rear case220is an area where the curved panel400is attached. A groove part223is formed at an outer edge of the flat plate221, and then the curved panel400is fixed to the groove part223.

In a given position of the flat plate221, an opening part240that is in a rectangular shape with a large diameter positioned at almost the center, an opening part250that is in a rectangular shape with a small diameter positioned at both sides of the opening part240, and an opening part260that is in a long-length shape positioned at the lower side are formed. The light emitted by the emitting member230is displayed in a given display by the light shielding print part when the light passes upward from the opening parts240,250, and260. The given display includes, for example, “Envelope mark” indicating e-mail.

The curved panel400is formed substantially in the same rectangular shape as the groove part223of the movable side rear case220, and includes the flat plate410as an illuminated part of the curved panel400and a side plate420that is in a curved shape. As illustrated inFIG. 5, the light shielding print part is applied to shield areas a, b, c, and d of the back side430of the flat plate410of the curved panel400. The shield areas a, b, c and d are near and/or surrounded by corresponding display mode opening parts of the light shielding sheet member500.

The flat plate221included in the movable side rear case220and the flat plate410included in the curved panel400are pasted and fixed with each other through the light shielding sheet member500having high light shielding ability. The light shielding sheet member500is illustrated inFIG. 4.

The light shielding member500is a double-faced adhesive tape having an adhesive layer on both surfaces. In a body part510of the light shielding sheet member500, a plurality of opening parts in a rectangular shape according to the display mode are formed. Concretely, as illustrated inFIG. 6, at almost the center of the light shielding sheet member500, an opening part520that is in a rectangular shape with a large diameter, an opening part530that is in a rectangular shape with a small diameter positioned at the both sides of the opening part520, and an opening part540that is in a long shape positioned at the lower part of the opening part520are formed, respectively.

The light shielding sheet member500is allocated in such a way that a shield area of light shielding print part printed on the back side430of the flat plate410of the curved panel400is overlapped with an area of the light shielding sheet member500. As illustrated inFIG. 4, an area of the light shielding print part and an area of the light shielding sheet member500are an overlapped area (area t).

The light of the emitting member230may be prevented from leaking to the outside by allocating the attaching position of the light shielding sheet member500to be overlapped with an area of the light shielding print part. For example, it is possible to clearly display the edge part of the “Envelope mark” indicating e-mail presented as an illumination display.

The light shielding sheet member500has a three layer structure having a black sheet member made of a black material with high light shielding ability, a white sheet member made of a white material with high light diffusivity, and an adhesive sheet member having an adhesive layer. The light shielding sheet member500is pasted and fixed to the movable side rear case220through the adhesive sheet member. The mobile phone10may improve the light shielding ability by using a black material for the display side.

As described above, for the mobile phone10of the present first embodiment, the light shielding print part is applied to the back side430of the flat plate410in the curved panel400attached to the movable side rear case220. In the mobile phone10, the movable side rear case220and the curved panel400are pasted and fixed with each other through the light shielding sheet member500with high light shielding ability. Accordingly, the mobile phone10of the present first embodiment may display a complicated pattern by the panel in a curved shape. Therefore, the mobile phone10may achieve various illumination effects. Furthermore, the mobile phone10of the present first embodiment may efficiently illuminate the illuminated part by the light shielding print part by a small number of light sources.

Other Embodiments

According to an aspect of an embodiment of the invention, any combinations of the described features/elements, functions and/or operations can be provided. The present first embodiment has described an example applied to a mobile phone that is foldable by a hinge. The mobile phone of the present embodiment is also applicable to various hinge structures. For example, the present embodiment is applicable to a mobile phone that has a connection structure of a sliding type or a turning type.

The present first embodiment has described an example applied to a mobile phone as a mobile terminal device. The mobile phone of the present embodiment is also applicable to various mobile terminal devices such as a small-sized information processing/computing terminal like a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a small-sized music playing device, a portable television, and a portable game player.

According to an aspect of an embodiment, a portable computing device comprises a movable side housing; a fixed side housing connected to the movable side housing with a connection part; an emitting member provided in the movable side housing; a light shielding sheet member having a display opening for displaying information; and a curved panel that covers the emitting member and attached to the movable rear case by the light shielding sheet member. The curved panel includes an illuminated part corresponding to/aligned with the display opening of the light shielding sheet member and an applied light shielding print (e.g., painted, printed or pasted) surrounding the illuminated part on a back side facing the emitting member in the curved panel.