Abstract:
A support apparatus includes a base portion, a rotation shaft and a bracket portion. The base portion is attached to a device. The bracket portion is coupled to the base portion by inserting the rotation shaft through the bracket portion and the base portion, and the rotation shaft is perpendicular to the base portion. The bracket portion is rotatable using the rotation shaft as a pivot. The bracket portion includes a hinge, a rotation shaft and a stand. The hinge is secured to the base portion by the rotation shaft. The rotation shaft is inserted into the hinge and the rotation shaft is perpendicular to the rotation shaft. The stand is coupled with the two ends of the rotation shaft. The stand supports the device with a predetermined angle between them. The stand can be rotatable so that the device stands relying upon either one of the four sides and the stand.

Description:
RELATED APPLICATIONS  
       [0001]     The present application is based on, and claims priority from, Taiwan Application Serial Number 94143426, filed Dec. 8, 2005, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.  
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0002]     1. Field of Invention  
         [0003]     The invention relates to a support apparatus and, in particular, to a support apparatus that selectively supports a device to stand on an arbitrary side at an adjustable angle.  
         [0004]     2. Related Art  
         [0005]     Conventional tablet personal computers (PC) usually do not have support apparatuses; only very few of them have support apparatuses. The so-called support apparatus is just an additional base portion or auxiliary device to support the tablet PC. Another alternative is to use a simple bracket portion to support the back of the tablet PC. However, the base portion, the auxiliary device, or the bracket portion usually can only support the tablet PC in a single direction. It is impossible for the tablet PC to selectively stand on an arbitrary side for display images. The additional base portion and auxiliary device occupy space when they are not in use; therefore, they become obstacles in this case. Moreover, when adjusting the inclination angle of the image, the user has to hold the support apparatus with one hand and adjust the angle of the tablet PC with the other. It is very inconvenient.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0006]     An objective of the invention is to provide a support apparatus so that a device can selectively stand on an arbitrary side with a different supporting direction.  
         [0007]     Another objective of the invention is to provide a support apparatus so that the user can adjust the inclination angle of the device by exerting a force on the device without holding the support apparatus.  
         [0008]     A further objective of the invention is to provide a support apparatus that is installed directly on the device. Its volume is so small that it does not occupy too much space.  
         [0009]     In accord with the above-mentioned objectives, the disclosed support apparatus includes a base portion, a rotation shaft, and a bracket portion. The bracket portion is coupled to the base portion by inserting the rotation shaft through the bracket portion and the base portion, and the rotation shaft is perpendicular to the base portion. The bracket portion is rotatable using the rotation shaft as a pivot. The bracket portion includes a hinge, a rotation shaft and a stand. The hinge is secured to the base portion by the rotation shaft. The rotation shaft is inserted into the hinge and the rotation shaft is perpendicular to the rotation shaft. The stand is coupled with the two ends of the rotation shaft. The stand supports the device with a predetermined angle between them. The stand can be rotatable so that the device stands relying upon either one of the four sides and the stand.  
         [0010]     The disclosed support apparatus further has a positioning device, including two connection bodies with matching shapes on the base portion and the bracket portion. The positioning device temporarily fixes the relative position between the base portion and the bracket portion.  
         [0011]     The disclosed support apparatus further has a torque controller disposed between the hinge and the rotation shaft. When the rotation shaft rotates over a predetermined angle, the torque controller is in action to distort and store the torque.  
         [0012]     The bracket portion of the disclosed support apparatus and the resting plane has at least one contact point.  
         [0013]     The bracket portion of the disclosed support apparatus is coupled to the rotation shaft via the bracket portion.  
         [0014]     The two connection bodies in the disclosed support apparatus are a positioning bump and a positioning hole. 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0015]     These and other features, aspects and advantages of the invention will become apparent by reference to the following description and accompanying drawings which are given by way of illustration only, and thus are not limitative of the invention, and wherein:  
         [0016]      FIG. 1  is a three-dimensional exploded view of the disclosed support apparatus;  
         [0017]      FIG. 2  is a schematic three-dimensional view of the assembled support apparatus in  FIG. 1 ;  
         [0018]      FIG. 3  provides both front and side views of the support apparatus in  FIG. 1  in the rotation state;  
         [0019]      FIG. 4  is a three-dimensional exploded view of the support apparatus in  FIG. 1 ;  
         [0020]      FIG. 5  is a three-dimensional exploded view of the support apparatus in  FIG. 4 ; and  
         [0021]      FIG. 6  is a side view of the support apparatus in use. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION  
       [0022]     The present invention will be apparent from the following detailed description, which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein the same references relate to the same elements.  
         [0023]     The directions and angles referred in this specification are based upon the accompanying drawings. For example, as shown in  FIG. 3 , the device  900  is in the 0-degree position when it is disposed horizontally, in the 90-degree position when it is rotated clockwise by 90 degree, in the 180-degree position when it is rotated clockwise by 180 degrees, and in the 270-degree position when it is rotated clockwise by 270. Other angles are defined in a similar way.  
         [0024]     As shown in  FIGS. 1 and 2 , the disclosed support apparatus includes a base portion  100 , a rotation shaft  200 , and a bracket portion  300 . The support apparatus is mounted on the device  900  with the base portion  100 . The rotation shaft  200  is perpendicular to the base portion  100 . The bracket portion  300  is coupled to the base portion  100  via the rotation shaft  200 . The bracket portion  300  can rotate about the rotation shaft  200  relative to the base portion  100 .  
         [0025]     The bracket portion  300  includes a hinge  310 , a rotation shaft  320 , two stand bases  330 , and a stand. The bracket portion  300  couples the hinge  310  to the base portion  100  using the rotation shaft  200 . The hinge  310  rotates with respect to the base portion  100  using the rotation shaft  200  as a pivot. The rotation shaft  320  is inserted into the hinge  310 , perpendicular to the rotation shaft  200 . The two stand bases  330  are coupled to both ends of the rotation shaft  320 . The stand  340  is disposed between the two stand bases  330 .  FIG. 1  does not show the overall shape of the stand  340 . As long as the weight and volume of the device  900  are taken into account, the stand  340  can have an arbitrary shape, such as those shown in later drawings. The bottom of the stand  340  is preferably to be parallel to the disposing edges of the device  900 .  
         [0026]     As shown in  FIG. 6   a , the bottom of the stand  340  touches against the resting plane when using the disclosed support apparatus. One imposes a force on the device  900  to make the angle between the device  900  and the resting plane larger than the minimal angle θ 0  that is required to support the device  900 . Afterwards, when the force is removed from the device  900 , the friction between the rotation shaft  320  and the hinge  310  fixes the angle between the stand  340  and the device  900 . This fixes the angle between the device  900  and the resting plane. When rotating the device  900  from its horizontal position to the vertical position ( FIG. 3 ), the bottom of the stand  340  touches against the resting plane and one rotates the device  900  using the rotation shaft  200  as a pivot. The inclination angle between the device  900  and the resting plane is adjusted according to the above-mentioned steps, releasing the force and supporting the device  900  in its vertical position. Alternatively, the device  900  can be rotated by 180 or 270 degrees using the rotation shaft  200  as a pivot. The points at the corners of the device  900  in the drawing are used to indicate the rotation states of the device  900 . In practice, one only needs to rotate the device  900  according to the real situation. When the bottom of the stand  340  touches against the resting plane, they preferably have more than one contact point for the convenience of exerting a force on the device  900  and rotating it. As shown in  FIG. 3 , the contact between the stand  340  and the resting plane is a linear contact parallel to the sides of the device  900 .  
         [0027]     In order for the device  900  to be rotated to stand on an arbitrary side and the device  900  and the support apparatus to stand in a more stable way, a positioning device  400  is further disposed between the base portion  100  and the bracket portion  300 . The positioning device  400  includes at least two connection bodies with matching shapes on the base portion  100  and the bracket portion  300 , respectively. The positioning device  400  temporarily fixes the relative position between the base portion  100  and the bracket portion  300 . The positioning device  400  has a plurality of positioning holes  410  on the base portion  100  and a plurality of positioning bumps  430  on the bracket portion  300 . The positions of the positioning holes  410  correspond to those of the positioning bumps  430 . They are used to fix the bracket portion  300 , so that the supported device  900  is fixed in the 0-degree, 90-degree, 180-degree, or 270-degree position. Using the elasticity of the base position  100  or the bracket portion  300  or an additional elastic body  600 , the positioning bumps  430  fall into the positioning holes  410  when the device reaches a predetermined position, temporarily fixing the relative position between the base portion  100  and the bracket portion  300 .  
         [0028]      FIG. 4  shows an embodiment of the disclosed support apparatus. It is featured in that the bracket portion  300  further includes a torque controller  350  between the hinge  310  and the rotation shaft  320 . In addition to the friction between the rotation shaft  320  and the hinge  310  to control the torque of the stand  340 , the torque controller  350  is used to control the torque of the stand  340 . The use of the torque controller  350  provides the disclosed support apparatus with two torques. In the following, we use drawings to explain this embodiment. The description of the parts that are similar to the previous embodiment will be brief.  
         [0029]     As shown in  FIG. 4 , the torque controller  350  uses a coil spring, disposed between the hinge  310  and the rotation shaft  320 , e.g., between the cam on the hinge  310  and the cam on the rotation shaft  320  (not shown). When the rotation shaft  320  (stand  340 ) rotates more than a predetermined angle θ 1 , the torque controller  350  starts to act due to the squeeze or stretch of the two cams, deforms and stores a torque. To adjust the angle of the device  900  back to the upright position, the torque controller  350  releases the stored torque as an elastic force, returning the angle between the stand  340  and the device  900  to the angle θ 1 . The elastic force generated by the torque controller  350  is slightly larger than the friction between the hinge  310  and the rotation shaft  320 .  
         [0030]     As shown in  FIG. 6   a , the first torque between the hinge  310  and the stand  340  is provided by the friction between the hinge  310  and the rotation shaft  320 . When the angle of the device  900  is adjusted so that the predetermined angle θ 1  between the stand  340  and the device  900  opens up, the friction between the hinge  310  and the rotation shaft  320  allows the stand  340  to stop at any angle between θ 0  and θ 1 .  
         [0031]     As shown in  FIG. 6   b , when the angle of the device  900  is adjusted so that the angle between the stand  340  and the device  900  exceeds the predetermined angle θ 1 , the torque controller  350  deforms and stores a torque. Once the force to adjust the device  900  is released, the stand  340  stops at the adjusted angle and the torque controller  350  keeps storing the deformation torque.  
         [0032]     As shown in  FIG. 6   c , to adjust the device  900  to its upright position, the torque controller  350  releases the previously stored torque as an elastic force when a force is exerted on the device  900 . This reduces the required external force to be imposed on the device. Alternatively, one may use the resting side of the device  900  as the pivot and exert a force to rotate the device  900  so that the bottom of the stand  340  leaves the resting plane. In this case, the torque controller  350  releases the previously stored torque as an elastic force, returning the angle between the stand  340  and the device  900  back to the original angle θ 1 . The user can then re-adjust the inclination angle of the device  900 .  
         [0033]     As shown in  FIG. 5 , the disclosed support apparatus also includes several different torque controllers  350 . In the following, we consider an example with two torque controllers: the first torque controller  351  and the second torque controller  352 . In this embodiment, the use of the torque controllers  351 ,  352  provides the support apparatus with three torques for adjustments. The torque controllers  351 ,  352  use coil springs, disposed between the hinge  310  and the rotation shaft  320 , e.g., between the cam on the hinge  310  and the cam on the rotation shaft  320  (not shown). When the rotation shaft  320  (stand  340 ) rotates over the predetermined angle θ 1 , the torque controller  351  starts to act due to the squeeze or stretch of the two cams, deforms and stores a torque. When the rotation shaft  320  (stand  340 ) rotates over the predetermined angle θ 2 , the torque controller  352  starts to act due to the squeeze or stretch of the two cams, deforms and stores a torque. To adjust the angle of the device  900  back to the upright position, the torque controller  350  releases the stored torque as an elastic force, reducing the angle between the stand  340  and the device  900 . The elastic force generated by the torque controller  351  is slightly larger than the friction between the hinge  310  and the rotation shaft  320 . The elastic force generated by the torque controller  352  is slightly larger than the elastic force generated by the torque controller  351 .  
         [0034]     As shown in  FIG. 6   a , the first torque is provided by the friction between the hinge  310  and the rotation shaft  320  when the angle between the stand  340  and the device  900  is less than θ 1 . As shown in  FIG. 6   b , the first torque controller  351  is in action to deform and store the torque as the second torque only when the rotation shaft  320  (stand  340 ) rotates to between θ 1  and θ 2 . As shown in  FIG. 6   d , the second torque controller  352  is in action to deform and store the torque as the third torque only when the rotation shaft  320  (stand  340 ) rotates to between θ 2  and θ 3 . The second torque is slightly larger than the first torque, and the third torque is slightly larger than the second torque.  
         [0035]     When adjusting the angle of the device  900  such that the angle between the stand  340  and the device  900  falls between θ 1  and θ 2 , the first torque controller  351  deforms to store the torque. When the force for adjusting the device  900  is removed, the stand  340  stops at the desired angle. The first torque controller  351  remains deformed and stores the torque.  
         [0036]     When adjusting the angle of the device  900  such that the angle between the stand  340  and the device  900  falls between θ 2  and θ 3 , the second torque controller  352  deforms to store the torque. When the force for adjusting the device  900  is removed, the stand  340  stops at the desired angle. The second torque controller  352  remains deformed and stores the torque.  
         [0037]     To return the angle of the device  900  back to its upright position, one imposes a force on the device  900 . First, the second torque controller  352  releases the previously stored torque as an elastic force, reducing the required external force and the angle to θ 2 . The user can select to adjust the angle of the device  900  such that the angle between the stand  340  and the device  900  falls between θ 2  and θ 3  or within θ 2 . To obtain an angle within θ 3 , one only needs to impose a force on the device  900  to increase the angle between the stand  340  and the device  900 . To obtain an angle within θ 2 , a force is imposed on the device  900 . The first torque controller  351  releases the previously stored torque as an elastic force, reducing the required external force and the angle down to θ 1 . Alternatively, one may use the resting side of the device  900  as the pivot and exert a force to rotate the device  900  so that the bottom of the stand  340  leaves the resting plane. In this case, the torque controllers  352 ,  351  release the previously stored torques as elastic forces in sequence, returning the angle between the stand  340  and the device  900  back to the original angle θ 1 . The user can then re-adjust the inclination angle of the device  900 .  
         [0038]     Likewise, as long as the space permits, the disclosed support apparatus can include several different torque controllers.  
         [0039]     Therefore, the user does not need to hold the support apparatus by hand. The user only needs to open the stand  340  to an angle larger than θ 0 . The device  900  then stands on the resting plane. If the user wants to further tilt the angle between the device  900  and the resting plane, he/she only needs to impose a force on the device until the desired angle is reached. To return the tilted device  900  back to its upright position, the user only needs to impose a force on the device  900 .  
         [0040]     Within the technical scope of the invention, various embodiments can be implemented. For example, the larger the angle between the stand  340  and the device  900  is, the larger the angle between the device  900  and the resting plane is. Therefore, when the stand  340  is within the opening angle θ 1 , it is preferably for the device  900  and the resting plane to be perpendicular to each other, as long as the stand  340  can support the device  900 . The device  900  covers a wider angle range. The above-mentioned angles θ 0 , θ 1 , θ 2 , and θ 3  are not restricted herein. They can be set according to practice. For example, θ 0  is 0˜5 degrees, θ 1  is 5˜30 degrees, θ 2  is 30˜60 degrees, and θ 3  is 60˜90 degrees.  
         [0041]     In the above-mentioned embodiments, the positioning holes  410  and the corresponding positioning bumps  430  are used as the positioning device  400  with a 90-degree interval. If the resting plane is not horizontal, the positioning device  400  can be provided with a smaller angular separation. The positions of the positioning holes  410  and the positioning bumps  430  can be interchanged. Besides, the two structural bodies with matching shapes of the positioning device  400  are not limited to the positioning holes  410  and positioning bumps  430  mentioned herein. As long as the relative position between the base portion  100  and the hinge  310  can be fixed, the tow structural bodies with matching shapes of the positioning device  400  can be in the forms of saws or elastic chips (not shown).  
         [0042]     In the above embodiments, two stand bases  330  are coupled to the two ends of the rotation shaft  320 , and the stand  340  is then installed between the two stand bases  330 . Nevertheless, the stand  340  can be directly coupled to both ends of the rotation shaft  320  to reduce the number of components. This can save the cost and shorten the production time. Moreover, there can be various kinds of pads  700  between the connection shaft  200 , rotation shaft  320 , etc, so that the components can function smoothly.  
         [0043]     Besides, an angle limiter  360  can be used between the rotation shaft  320  (stand  340 ) and the hinge  310  to limit the largest rotation angle between the stand  340  and the hinge  310 . Any person skilled in the art can make modifications to the above-mentioned embodiments. For example, the fixing devices and methods for fixing the base portion  100  on the device  900  and for fixing the stand bases  330  and the stand  340  can be determined according to needs. All such implementations should be included in the scope of the claims of the invention.  
         [0044]     The invention has the following advantages: 
        1. In view of the versatility of the device, the invention enables the device to selectively stand along an arbitrary side.     2. The angle of the device is adjusted using a positioning device, overcoming the problem of a non-flat resting plane.     3. To adjust the device to a desired position and inclination angle, the user only needs to impose a force on the device without holding the support apparatus.     4. The support apparatus has a smaller volume and is directly installed on the device. No additional base portion or auxiliary tools are need.        
 
         [0049]     The invention being thus described, it will be obvious that the same may be varied in many ways. Such variations are not to be regarded as a departure from the spirit and scope of the invention, and all such modifications as would be obvious to one skilled in the art are intended to be included within the scope of the following claims.