Patent Publication Number: US-2023152904-A1

Title: Electronic label type keyboard

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     This application claims the priority of Republic of China Patent Application No. 110142651 filed on Nov. 16, 2021, in the State Intellectual Property Office of the R.O.C., the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     Field of the Invention 
     The invention relates to an electronic label keyboard provided with a display unit at the content area of each keyboard keyswitch to achieve the customization of key indication content. 
     Descriptions of the Related Art 
     Commercial tablets can be operated via handwriting or touch screen inputs, and provided the advantage of portability by eliminating the need of a physical keyboard. However, a physical keyboard is still the smoothest and most precise way to operate computers for the general public. 
     A common keyboard has approximately 100 keyswitchs, and has different keyswitch combinations depending on the region. The label contents on the keyboard are not possible to change after the manufacturing process. Most English keyboards do not have ZhuYin or CangJie symbols printed on the keyboards for Traditional Chinese users in Taiwan, which causes great inconveniences for consumers in Taiwan. Users often need to purchase extra stickers to glue on the keyswitchs on the keyboard. However, this solution not only consumes time, but also causes damage to the appearance or cleanliness of the keyswitchs when gluing. Additionally, because some users in Taiwan may only use the ZhuYin system during Chinese typing, the CangJie symbols on the keyboard appear to be superfluous. 
     In addition, some users often set up hotkeys or shortcut keys for their commonly used software, many gaming keyboards go so far as coloring different function keys. Therefore, users may have to purchase multiple keyboards to fit different conditions because the current keyboards cannot flexible to automatically be switched between different keyswitch label contents. 
     Based on the above-mentioned problems, there is a topic that is of urgently concerned to those skilled in the art is to provide a computer keyboard, which provides key labeling content in different situations for different usage needs, so as to increase operable convenience and flexibility of keyboard operation. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     Given the shortcomings of the above-mentioned prior art, the present invention provides an electronic label keyboard, wired or wireless connected to an external device, comprising: a plurality of keyswitchs, each of the plurality of keyswitch has a content area respectively; a plurality of display units, respectively disposed on the content areas of the keyswitchs, at least one of the plurality of display units outputting according to a keyswitch display signal, so that the keyswitch located on the at least one display unit displays a marked content; and a keyswitch display content setting unit, including: a microprocessor having a storage module for saving file parsing software; a keyswitch content input module for receiving and reading at least one keyswitch content file provided by the external device, and saving the at least one keyswitch content file in the storage module of the microprocessor; and a keyswitch content output module, when the microprocessor is activated from a shutdown mode or a hibernate mode, the microprocessor reads the file analysis software to analyze a keyswitch label content file saved in the storage module and outputs a plurality of the keyswitch display signals, so that the keyswitch content output module controls the plurality of display units according to the plurality of keyswitch display signals to output label contents corresponding to the plurality of keyswitch display signals. 
     Preferably, the electronic label keyboard said above, the storage module of the electronic label keyboard saves a file list having a plurality of keyswitch label content file and a list reading softwar. The plurality of keyswitchs have a plurality of file selecting keyswitchs and a setting keyswitch. When the setting keyswitch is triggered, the microprocessor reads the list reading software saved in the storage module to output a plurality of file selecting signals according to the file list, and allows the keyswitch content output module to control the display unit disposed on the content area of each of the plurality of file selecting keyswitchs according to the plurality of file selecting signals to output the keyswitch display content setting names corresponding to each of the plurality of file selection signals. The display content setting name is set for the user to view and conveniently select the keyswitch label content for setting. After the user selects and triggers a file selecting keyswitch of the plurality of file selecting keyswitch, the microprocessor reads the file parsing software saved in the storage module to output the plurality of keyswitch display signals corresponding to a default keyswitch label content file according to the selected file selecting keyswitch, so as to make the keyswitch content output module control the plural display units according to the plural keyswitch display signals to output the display content corresponding to the keyswitch display signals. 
     Preferably, the electronic label keyboard said above, the external device is a computer host, the computer host has a detecting software, so that when the user executes different operating systems on the computer host to switch the display of the computer host to different pages, the label contents of the plurality of keyswitchs are further switched accordingly. In detail, the detecting software identifies the operating system executed by the computer host to identify the identification information of the operating system in execution, and inputs the identification information through the keyswitch content input module of the electronic label keyboard. The microprocessor reads the file parsing software saved in the storage module to select the default keyswitch label content file corresponding to the identification information, and the file parsing software outputs a plurality of the keyswitch display signals according to the default keyswitch label content file corresponding to the identification information, so that the keyswitch content output module controls the plurality of display units to output the label content corresponding to the keyswitch display signal according to the plurality of the keyswitch display signals, so as to achieve the switching processing of the label content displayed by the plurality of keyswitchs. 
     Preferably, the electronic label keyboard said above, the external device is a computer host, the electronic label keyboard further includes a signal splitter connected with each of the plurality of keyswitchs and the microprocessor and with the computer host. One of the plurality of keyswitchs has a switch keyswitch, and the switch keyswitch is used for the user to input a keyswitch display content switch signal. After the signal splitter receives the keyswitch display content switch signal, the microprocessor reads and parses the keyswitch label content file corresponding to the keyswitch display content switch signal saved in the storage module to output a plurality of keyswitch display signals, so that, the keyswitch content output module controls the plurality of display units to output the label content corresponding to the keyswitch display content switch signal according to the plurality of keyswitch display signals. On the other hand, the signal splitter notifies the computer host to execute the corresponding keyswitch display content switching process according to the keyswitch display content switch signal. 
     In view of the above-mentioned shortcomings of conventional art, the present invention provides an electronic label keyboard, the original input signal and label content of each keyswitch on the keyboard can be changed according to the user&#39;s needs, that is, the user can set the input signal to the desired keyswitch position on the keyboard according to the desired input signal to be operated. Further, the keyswitch set with the input signal will display the symbol mark represented by the input signal for the user to find or hint. Therefore, the present invention can provide a customized keyboard. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       The above and other aspects, features and other advantages of the present invention will be more clearly understood from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which: 
         FIG.  1    is a block diagram of the basic system structure of the electronic label keyboard of the first embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIG.  2    is a schematic view of the keyswitch display content and the content saved in the storage module of the second embodiment of the electronic label keyboard of the present invention. 
         FIG.  3    is an example of the label content displayed by each keyswitch after selecting the file selecting keyswitch with “Calculator” of the electronic label keyboard as shown in  FIG.  2   . 
         FIG.  4    is a schematic view of the interaction between a computer host and the electronic label keyboard of the third embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIG.  5    is a block diagram of the basic system structure of the fourth embodiment of the electronic label keyboard of the present invention. 
         FIG.  6 A  and  FIG.  6 B  are respectively examples of the electronic label keyboard of the present invention providing lowercase English letters and the electronic label keyboard of the present invention providing uppercase English letters. 
         FIG.  7 A  and  FIG.  7 B  are respectively examples of the keyswitch label content being defined by the user on the computer host to define the design picture of the key label content, and the label content displayed by the keyswitch after the design file is downloaded, saved and read to the keyboard. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     Embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. The invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as being limited to the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art. 
     The electronic label keyboard of the present invention can change the display content of the keyboard keyswitchs according to user requirements, that is, it provides a customized keyswitch display content, so as to solve the limitation of the single display content in the existing keyboard such as Chinese keyboard, the British keyboard or the American keyboard. 
     Firstly, referring to  FIG.  1   , an embodiment of the electronic label keyboard includes: a plurality of keyswitchs  10 , a plurality of display units  11  and keyswitch display content setting unit  2 . Each of the plurality of display units  11  is respectively disposed below each keyswitch  10 , and at least one display unit of the plurality of display units  11  outputs a keyswitch display signal, so that the keyswitch  10  on the at least one display unit  10  can display a label content. It is worth mentioning that according to durability or market considerations, except the display unit  11  can be arranged below the keyswitch  10 , the display unit  11  can also be set in the transparent keyswitch made of transparent material. In other words, each of the plurality of keyswitch  10  has a content area respectively, so that the plurality of display units  11  are respectively arranged in the content area of each of the keyswitch  10 . Therefore, any configuration structure that allows the display unit  11  to provide the keyswitch  10  to output the label content can be applied. Due to the connection structure and configuration between the keyswitch  10  and the display unit  11  can be achieved by conventional techniques, that is, the electrical signal input processing generated by the triggering of the keyboard keyswitch can be processed by the conventional method, and will not be reiterated herein. The display unit  11  of the embodiment can be E-paper, LCD, Mini LED or Micro LED. 
     The keyswitch display content setting unit  2  includes a microprocessor  20 , a keyswitch content input module  21 , and a keyswitch content output module  22 . The microprocessor  20  has a storage module  200  for saving file parsing software. The keyswitch content input module  21  is used for connecting with an external device (not shown here) in a wired or wireless manner to receive and read at least one keyswitch label content file provided by the external device, and save the at least one keyswitch label content file in the storage module  200  of the microprocessor  20 . The keyswitch content input module  21  can be a USB interface, a PS/2 interface, or a wired connection interface of a memory slot, or the keyswitch content input module  21  may be a wireless connection interface using Bluetooth communication. The keyswitch content input module receives the keyswitch label content file provided by the external device through the wireless connection interface or the wired connection interface. When the microprocessor  20  is activated from a shutdown mode or a hibernate mode, the microprocessor  20  reads the file analysis software to analyze a keyswitch label content file saved in the storage module  200  and outputs a plurality of the keyswitch display signals, so that the keyswitch content output module  22  controls the plurality of display units  11  according to the plurality of keyswitch display signals to output label contents corresponding to the plurality of keyswitch display signals. For example, when there are dozens of keyswitchs on the keyboard, and the user only needs the keyswitchs of four directions, up, down, left and right, the electronic label keyboard of the present invention can be applied to allow the keyswitchs that only display the label content of four directions, up, down, left, and right, and the display units of the rest keyswitch will not display any label content. Therefore, the present invention can succinctly display the keyswitch symbols that the user desired to use, so that the user can quickly find the keyswitch on the keyboard and make the input operation smoother. 
     In the above-mentioned embodiment, the plurality of keyswitchs  10  further provided with an activation keyswitch (not shown in the figure). After the the activation keyswitch is clicked by the user, the microprocessor  20  is activated from a shutdown mode or a hibernate mode, the microprocessor  20  reads the file analysis software to analyze a keyswitch label content file saved in the storage module  200  and outputs a plurality of the keyswitch display signals, so that the keyswitch content output module  22  controls the plurality of display units  11  according to the plurality of keyswitch display signals to output label contents corresponding to the plurality of keyswitch display signals. 
     Further, the above-mentioned external device can be a computer host, moreover, can be an electronic device that can provide users with keyboard input, such as a mobile phone or a TV with the function of connecting to the Internet. The electronic label keyboard of the present invention reads and saves the keyswitch label content file provided by the external device, not only as the display content of the keyswitchs, but also as the communication interface between the electronic label keyboard of the present invention and different external devices. 
     Further, referring to  FIG.  2   , in addition to saving the file parsing software  201 , the storage module  200 ′ of the electronic label keyboard of the embodiment also saves a file list  202  having a plurality of keyswitch label content file and a list reading software  203 . The plurality of keyswitchs have a plurality of file selecting keyswitchs  100  and a setting keyswitch  101 . When the setting keyswitch  101  is triggered, the microprocessor reads the list reading software  203  saved in the storage module  200 ′ to output a plurality of file selecting signals according to the file list  202 , and allows the keyswitch content output module to control the display unit disposed on the content area of each of the plurality of file selecting keyswitchs  100  according to the plurality of file selecting signals to output the keyswitch display content setting names corresponding to each of the plurality of file selection signals. The display content setting name of this embodiment is set for the user to view and conveniently select the keyswitch label content for setting, for example, the file name of the keyswitch label content file, that is, as shown in  FIG.  2   , the present embodiment provides the four keyswitch label content files “Calculator”, “English input”, “Chinese input” and “Image processing” as an example for illustration, but is not meant to limit the present invention, and the keyswitch label contents can be more or less. After the user selects and triggers the file selecting keyswitch with “Calculator” outputted by the display unit of the plurality of file selecting keyswitch  100 , the microprocessor reads the file parsing software  201  saved in the storage module  202  to output the plurality of keyswitch display signals corresponding to a default keyswitch label content file  202   a  according to the file selecting keyswitch  100   a  with “Computer,” so as to make the keyswitch content output module control the plural display units according to the plural keyswitch display signals to output the display content corresponding to the keyswitch display signals, as shown in  FIG.  3   , the display contents related to calculator calculating functions appear on only a few keyswitchs. When the user needs to return to the last keyswitch display content, the setting keyswitch  101  can be triggered to switch the display content. 
     After the user completes the selection of the above-mentioned keyswitch display content, the microprocessor instructs the storage module to save the default keyswitch label content file selected by the user from the file list when the keyswitch content output module controls the plurality of display units to output the label content corresponding to the keyswitch display signals according to the plurality of keyswitch display signals. Referring to  FIG.  3   , take the keyswitch label content file with “Calculating” as the current record, when the user does not operate the electronic label keyboard of the present invention for a long time, for example, the computer host is under the hibernate mode or the shutdown state. Afterwards, if the computer host is restarted, and the microprocessor of the electronic label keyboard of the present invention is activated from the shutdown state or the hibernate mode, the microprocessor can read the file analysis software to analyze the latest read record. That is, analyze the default keyswitch label content file saved in the storage module and outputs a plurality of the keyswitch display signals, so that the keyswitch content output module controls the plurality of display units according to the plurality of keyswitch display signals to output label contents corresponding to the plurality of keyswitch display signals. 
     It should be noted that, for the embodiments described above in  FIG.  2    and  FIG.  3   , in order to realize that the electronic label keyboard of the present invention can still interact with the computer host after each keyswitch has completed switching the displayed content, the computer host also requires relatively pre-saving the plural of default keyswitch label content files as shown in  FIG.  2   . In other words, the common identification language between the present invention and the computer host is the keyswitch label content file. Therefore, the electronic label keyboard is triggered by the setting keyswitch  101  and the plurality of file selecting keyswitchs  100  to notify the computer host that the function of the keyswitchs has been switched, and enable the computer host to recognize the start time for switching and correspondingly read the keyswitch label content file that has been pre-saved in the computer host. And after the computer host reads the keyswitch label content file that can identify the key input signal, it can receive and identify the input signal sent by each keyswitch of the electronic label keyboard of the present invention being triggered, and perform interactive processing. 
     Further, referring to  FIG.  4   , the external device being interacted with the present invention is not limited to the computer host  3  shown in this embodiment, which can also be a tablet computer, a mobile phone or TV with Internet access and other devices that require input devices. The computer host  3  of the present embodiment has a detecting software  30 , so that when the user executes different operating systems such as the game platform  32 , the shopping platform  33  or the application software  34 , etc. on the computer host  3  to switch the display of the computer host to different pages, the label contents of the plurality of keyswitchs are further switched accordingly. In detail, the detecting software  30  identifies the operating system executed by the computer host  3  to identify the identification information of the operating system in execution, and inputs the identification information through the keyswitch content input module of the electronic label keyboard  1 . The microprocessor reads the file parsing software saved in the storage module to select the default keyswitch label content file corresponding to the identification information, and the file parsing software outputs a plurality of the keyswitch display signals according to the default keyswitch label content file corresponding to the identification information, so that the keyswitch content output module controls the plurality of display units to output the label content corresponding to the keyswitch display signal according to the plurality of the keyswitch display signals, so as to achieve the switching processing of the label content displayed by the plurality of keyswitchs. The computer host  3  executes application software such as word processing, image processing, drawing software, video production or program development, or executes web browsing on web platforms such as shopping platforms or game platforms. Therefore, the users often have special shortcut keys to execute the above-mentioned different operating systems through the computer host  3 , and by virtue of the present invention, the shortcut keyswitch settings of different operating systems can be completed quickly or concisely. Especially, among the many keyswitchs, only the shortcut keyswitchs required by the user to operate the operating system executed by the computer host are displayed, and the shortcut keyswitchs can be automatically switched and displayed according to the operating system being executed in time. 
     Moreover, referring to  FIG.  5   , the difference from  FIG.  1    above is that: the embodiment further includes a signal splitter  4  connected with each of the plurality of keyswitchs  10  and the microprocessor  20  and with the computer host  3 ′. One of the plurality of keyswitchs  10  has a switch keyswitch  12 , and the switch keyswitch  12  is used for the user to input a keyswitch display content switch signal. After the signal splitter  4  receives the keyswitch display content switch signal, the microprocessor  20  reads and parses the keyswitch label content file corresponding to the keyswitch display content switch signal saved in the storage module  200  to output a plurality of keyswitch display signals, so that, the keyswitch content output module controls the plurality of display units  11  to output the label content corresponding to the keyswitch display content switch signal according to the plurality of keyswitch display signals. On the other hand, the signal splitter  4  notifies the computer host  3  to execute the corresponding keyswitch display content switching process according to the keyswitch display content switch signal. This embodiment can be applied to switching between uppercase and lowercase English letters, as shown in  FIG.  6 A  and  FIG.  6 B .  FIG.  6 A  shows the lowercase input of English letters of the embodiment, when the user needs to input English letters in uppercase, the switch keyswitch  120  can be clicked, as shown in  FIG.  6 A , then the keyswitch display content is converted to uppercase input of English letters as shown in  FIG.  6 B , and the switch keyswitch  120  stays in a fully illuminated state. 
     In addition, with the above-mentioned structure of  FIG.  5   , the plurality of keyswitchs  10  further provided with a browsing keyswitch (not shown in the figure). The browsing keyswitch is used for the user to input keyswitch display content browsing signals. After the signal splitter  4  receives the keyswitch display content browsing signal, the signal splitter  4  notifies the computer host  3 , so that the monitor (not shown in the figure) of the computer host  3  provides at least one design preview screen of the keyswitch display content according to the keyswitch display content browsing signal, as shown in  FIG.  7 A , which provides the user to design and browse the keyswitch content to be displayed, and after the design is completed, a keyswitch label content file is generated for the electronic label keyboard of the present invention to download and save for reading by the microprocessor subsequently. Correspondingly, the plurality of keyswitchs  10  have a download keyswitch (not shown in the figure) for the user to input a keyswitch display content download signal, and the signal splitter  4  receives the keyswitch display content download signal, the signal splitter  4  notifies the computer host  3 , so that the computer host  3  downloads the keyswitch label content file completed by the user&#39;s design to the storage module  200  for storage according to the keyswitch display content download signal. The microprocessor  20  reads the file parsing software to parse the keyswitch label content file saved in the storage module  200  and outputs a plurality of the keyswitch display signals and enables the keyswitch content output module to control the plurality of display units to output the label content corresponding to the keyswitch display signals according to the plurality of keyswitch display signals, as shown in  FIG.  7 B . Therefore, the keyswitch label content of the electronic label keyboard of the present invention is not only automatically updated by the keyswitch label content file provided by the computer host or an external device such as a memory card, but also can be designed and defined by the user through the computer host. 
     It can be observed by the above structure of  FIG.  5   , the electronic label keyboard of the present invention can preset one or more specific keyswitchs in the plurality of keyswitchs of the electronic label keyboard of the present invention, such as the above-mentioned switch keyswitch, browsing keyswitch and download keyswitch, etc. The specific keyswitch can be used as a confirmation means of handshaking between the electronic label keyboard of the present invention and the computer host before changing the display content of the keyswitch and changing the function of the keyswitch. Thereby, when the user activates the reading of the keyswitch label content file, the switching of the key label content and the change of the keyswitch function on the electronic label keyboard of the present invention, the computer host at the other site can also recognize the keyswitch signal represented by the keyswitch after the label content is switched. 
     The examples above are only illustrative to explain principles and effects of the invention, but not to limit the invention. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that modifications and variations can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Therefore, the protection range of the rights of the invention should be as defined by the appended claims