Patent Publication Number: US-2023147010-A1

Title: Camera structure of terminal device

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     This application is a bypass continuation application of PCT/CN2021/070616. This application claims priorities from PCT Application No. PCT/CN2021/070616, filed Jan. 7, 2021, and from the Chinese patent applications 202010611064.0 filed Jun. 30, 2020, 202010729125.3 filed Jul. 27, 2020, 202010818064.8 filed Aug. 14, 2020, 202022060514.X filed Sep. 19, 2020, 202011049802.3 filed Sep. 29, 2020, and 202011483717.8 filed Dec. 16, 2020, the content of which are incorporated herein in the entirety by reference. 
    
    
     TECHNICAL FIELD 
     The present disclosure relates to the technical field of cameras of terminal devices and in particular to a camera structure of a terminal device, which is capable of protecting a camera and shooting at multiple angles. 
     BACKGROUND 
     Along with the development of scientific technologies, terminal devices such as smartphones have become indispensable articles for people. Further, along with the development of terminal devices, the terminal devices have greater functionality and users have higher requirements for the terminal devices. 
     At present, with smartphones as an example, the rear cameras of the back housings of most smartphones (where a corresponding display screen surface is a front surface) are typically exposed. Since cameras are precision devices, they are easily worn out or damaged. At the same time, to place the exposed rear camera, the back surface of a smartphone typically needs to have a hole in it, resulting in lower strength and safety of the back surface and the entirety of the smartphone. The rear cameras are easily impacted, worn out, or damaged due to their outside exposure. For this reason, users usually adopt the following two ways to provide protection: screen film and smartphone casing. The screen film may have a degree of impact on the sharpness of the camera and may be worn out after a long time of use and need to be replaced, resulting in waste. Hence, it is not environmentally friendly. Further, the use of a smartphone casing may affect heat dissipation of the smartphone, shortening the service life of the smartphone. In addition, the use of a smartphone casing may expose the camera and thus cannot completely protect the camera. 
     At the same time, front and rear groups of cameras disposed on a smartphone result in higher material costs and higher production and processing costs, leading to waste and affecting environmental protection. When a user uses a camera, the user generally uses only the front or rear cameras rather than both the front and rear cameras simultaneously. The use of two groups of cameras in one smartphone leads to a lower use rate, which is also considered a waste. Existing lift cameras may be easily penetrated by a large amount of dust, affecting normal use of the smartphones. Therefore, a smartphone camera structure capable of protecting a camera and shooting at multiple angles is proposed to solve the above problems. 
     SUMMARY 
     For the shortcomings of the prior arts, the present disclosure provides a camera structure of a terminal device in which only one camera assembly is disposed. The camera assembly can be hidden in a smartphone body when not used. Hence, the camera assembly can perform lift and rotation operations and the like to shoot at multiple angles at the same time, to replace and expand the functions of the front and rear cameras, thus solving the following problems: two groups of cameras are disposed respectively in an existing smartphone; use of two groups of cameras disposed in one smartphone leads to lower use rate, material waste, and higher costs; the rear cameras occupy the space of the back surface of the smartphone, affecting the strength and safety of the back surface and the entirety of the smartphone; and the rear cameras are exposed to outside and cannot be well protected and thus may be easily damaged or penetrated by dust and so on. 
     To address the above technical problems, the present disclosure provides the following technical solution. 
     A camera structure of a terminal device is provided. The terminal device is internally provided with an accommodating cavity with an opening. The accommodating cavity is internally provided with a lift structure body. A camera assembly is disposed on a top of the lift structure body. The accommodating cavity is further provided with a lift drive mechanism for driving the lift structure body to protrude or retract the camera assembly out of or into the accommodating cavity via the opening and a rotation drive mechanism for driving the camera assembly to rotate. 
     In the above technical solution, the camera structure of the terminal device of the present disclosure can perform the entire lift under the drive of the lift drive mechanism such that the camera assembly can protrude out of the terminal device or retract into the terminal device; the rotation drive mechanism can drive the camera assembly to rotate 360° such that the camera can stop at any angle for shooting. Thus, with only one group of cameras, the user can perform shooting at multiple angles (including front and rear), saving the space of the front cameras and the costs of one camera assembly and improving the use rate of the camera assembly. Further, the exposed rear cameras are eliminated and the back housing of the smartphone body will be more complete to form one integral back plate. Moreover, there is no need to reserve a hole for the rear cameras, thus increasing the strength of the back housing and the entirety of the smartphone. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTIONS OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG.  1    is a sectional view of a camera structure of a smartphone according to an embodiment 1 of the present disclosure. 
         FIG.  2    is a structure schematic diagram of a position A in  FIG.  1    of the embodiment 1. 
         FIG.  3    is a top view of the camera structure of the smartphone of the embodiment 1. 
         FIG.  4    is a structural schematic diagram of a rotational seat of the embodiment 1. 
         FIG.  5    is a structural display diagram of a camera assembly according to the embodiment 1. 
         FIG.  6    is a sectional view of a camera structure of a smartphone of an embodiment 2. 
         FIG.  7    is a body front view of a lifted camera of the embodiment 2. 
         FIG.  8    is a body front view of an un-lifted camera of the embodiment 2. 
         FIG.  9    is a side view of a camera structure of a smartphone of the embodiment 2. 
         FIG.  10    is a side view of a camera structure of a smartphone of the embodiment 2 (supplementing the part blocked by a gear and a transmission belt in  FIG.  9   ). 
         FIG.  11    is a top view of a camera structure of a smartphone of the embodiment 2. 
         FIG.  12    is a sectional view of a camera structure of a smartphone before a camera is lifted according to an embodiment 3. 
         FIG.  13    is a sectional view of a camera structure of a smartphone after a camera is lifted according to the embodiment 3. 
         FIG.  14    is a front view of a camera structure of a smartphone before a camera is lifted according to the embodiment 3. 
         FIG.  15    is a front view of a camera structure of a smartphone after a camera is lifted according to the embodiment 3. 
         FIG.  16    is a top view of a camera structure of a smartphone according to the embodiment 3. 
         FIG.  17    is a side view of a camera structure of a smartphone according to the embodiment 3. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTIONS OF EMBODIMENTS 
     Embodiment 1 
     Referring to  FIGS.  1  to  5   , with a smartphone as an example, a camera structure of a terminal device of the present embodiment may include a smartphone body  1  having an accommodating cavity  101  with only the top opened. A fixing apparatus  102  is fixedly mounted inside the accommodating cavity  101 , and a lift structure body  3  is movably mounted inside the fixing apparatus  102 . The lift structure body  3  is internally hollow and H-shaped. A fitting tooth  104  is fixedly connected at a front surface of each of the left and right sides of a bottom of the lift structure body  3 , and a lift motor located on the front surface of the lift structure body  3  is fixedly mounted inside the fixing apparatus  102 . The lift motor is a dual-head motor  105 . An output shaft of each of the left and right sides of the dual-head motor  105  is fixedly connected with a rotational rod  106 , and a rotational bearing  107  movably connected with the rotational rod  106  is fixedly mounted at an inner wall of each of the left and right sides of the fixing apparatus  102 . A rotational gear  108  is fixedly mounted at an outer portion of each of the two rotational rods  106 . The rotational gears  108  are matched with the fitting teeth  104  and the rotational gears  108  mesh with the fitting teeth  104 . A transmission bearing  109  is fixedly mounted at an inner wall of each of the left and right sides of the lift structure body  3  and a transmission rod  10  is movably mounted inside each of the two transmission bearings  109 . A transmission motor  11  is fixedly mounted inside the lift structure body  3 . The right transmission rod  10  extends into the lift structure body  3  through the right transmission bearing  109 . Further, an output shaft of transmission motor  11  is fixedly connected with the right transmission rod  10  through a coupling. A camera assembly  12  is fixedly connected between the two transmission rods  10 . A matching groove  313  is disposed at an inner top wall at the opening of the smartphone body  1 . A power line  14  is movably mounted inside the lift structure body  3  and a transmission line  24  is movably mounted inside the lift structure body  3 . Both ends of the power line  14  are fixedly connected to the transmission motor  11  and a main board of the smartphone respectively, and both ends of the transmission line  24  are fixedly connected to the camera assembly  12  and the main board of the smartphone respectively. One camera assembly  12  is movably mounted inside the smartphone body  1 . The camera assembly  12  is transversely disposed. The camera assembly  12  can rotate 360 degrees between the two transmission bearings  109  through the transmission rods  10 . The camera assembly  12  can be safely received inside the smartphone body  1 . A support portion  315  is fixedly connected with an outer portion of the lift structure body  3 . A sealing gasket  316  is fixedly connected at the top of the support portion  315 . The sealing gasket  316  can be matched in size with the matching groove  313 . The sealing gasket  316  is movably connected inside the matching groove  313 . A telescoping opening  317  (i.e. the top opening of the accommodating cavity  101 ) is opened at the top of the smartphone body  1 . Two movable sealing plates  318  are movably mounted inside the telescoping opening  317 . A rotational groove  319  located on the top of the smartphone body  1  is opened at each of the left and right sides of the telescoping opening  317 . A rotational block  320  movably connected with the rotational groove  319  is fixedly connected with each of a front surface and a back surface of a side where the two movable sealing plates  318  are separated. A rotational hole matching the rotational block  320  is opened on each of a front surface wall and a back surface wall of the rotational groove  319 , and the rotational groove  319  is movably connected with the rotational block  320  via the rotational holes. A bottom of the movable sealing plates  318  is provided with a sliding groove  321 . A rotational seat  322  is fixedly connected at each of the left and right sides of the top of the lift structure body  3 . A top of the rotational seat  322  is fixedly connected with a sliding block  323  capable of rotating right and left relative to the rotational seat  322 . The sliding groove  321  is a T-shaped groove and a head portion of the sliding block  323  is a T-shaped head disposed in the sliding groove  321 . 
     In conclusion, in the camera structure of the terminal device of the present embodiment, the fixing apparatus  102  is disposed inside the smartphone body  1 , and the dual-head motor  105 , the rotational rods  106 , the rotational bearings  107 , and the rotational gears  108  are disposed inside the fixing apparatus  102 , such that the two rotational rods  106  can rotate inside the fixing apparatus  102  through the dual-head motor  105  and the rotational bearings  107 , to bring the external rotational gears  108  to rotate. The lift structure body  3  is disposed inside the fixing apparatus  102  and the fitting teeth  104  meshed with the rotational gears  108  are disposed on the lift structure body  3 , and the telescoping opening  317  is disposed on the top of the smartphone body  1 . In this case, the lift structure body  3  can perform lifting through rotation of the rotational gears  108 , to achieve the lifting effect of the camera assembly  12 . Thus, the camera assembly  12  can be hidden in the smartphone body  1  when not used, to better protect the camera. When camera assembly  12  is to be used, camera assembly  12  can be lifted out of the smartphone body  1  by using the lift structure body  3 . The movable sealing plates  318 , the rotational grooves  319 , and the rotational blocks  320  are disposed on the smartphone body  1 , and the lift structure body  3  is movably connected with the movable sealing plates  318  through the rotational seats  322  and the sliding grooves  321 . Thus, the movable sealing plates  318  can open along with the ascent of the lift structure body  3  and close along with the descent of the lift structure body  3 , to prevent the entry of dust when the camera assembly  12  is not used. The support portion  315  and the sealing gasket  316  are disposed on the outer portion of the lift structure body  3  and the matching groove  313  is disposed at the inner bottom wall of the smartphone body  1 , such that entry of dust can be prevented at the time of ascent of the lift structure body  3  by using the matching of the sealing gasket  316  and the matching groove  313 , thereby achieving good dust prevention effect. The transmission bearings  109 , the transmission rods  10 , the transmission motor  11 , and the camera assembly  12  are disposed on the lift structure body  3 . The camera assembly  12  is transversely disposed such that the transmission rod  10  can rotate by using the transmission bearings  109 , the transmission rod  10 , and the power of the transmission motor  11 , to drive the camera assembly  12  to perform back-and-forth rotation. Thus, the camera can stop at any angle for shooting especially in a confined space. Thus, with only one camera assembly  12 , the user can perform shooting at multiple angles (including front and rear), saving the space of the front cameras and the costs of one camera assembly and improving the use rate of the camera assembly. Further, the exposed rear cameras are eliminated and the back housing of the smartphone body  1  will be more complete. Moreover, there is no need to reserve a hole for the rear cameras on the back plate of the smartphone, thus increasing the strength of the back housing and the entirety of the smartphone. Further, transverse disposal of camera assembly  12  helps to prevent excessive protrusion of too many cameras disposed, which not only prevents excessive protrusion but also improves the shooting quality with multiple cameras, thus achieving the purpose of lifting, rotation, and dust prevention. 
     Embodiment 2 
     By referring to  FIGS.  6  to  11   , with a smartphone as an example, the camera structure of the terminal device of the present embodiment includes a smartphone body  1  inside which an accommodating cavity  101  (i.e. matching groove) with only top opened is formed. A lift structure body  3  is fixedly mounted inside the accommodating cavity  101  and a transmission motor  11  is fixedly mounted inside the lift structure body  3 . An output shaft of the transmission motor  11  is fixedly connected with a geometric rotational sheet  205 , where an edge of the geometric rotational sheet has unequal distances from a rotational center. The geometric rotational sheet is movably connected with a support frame  206  of the lift structure body  3 , and a fitting sliding groove  207  is opened at a bottom of the support frame  206 , where the fitting sliding groove  207  is matched in size with the geometric rotational sheet  205 . In the present embodiment, the geometric rotational sheet  205  is an equilateral-triangle rotational sheet, and the edge of the geometric rotational sheet  205  is located in the fitting sliding groove  207 . A connection rod  208  is movably mounted at both sides of the support frame  206  respectively, and the connection rods  208  are fixedly connected with the camera assembly  12 . A dual-head motor  105  is fixedly mounted inside the lift structure body  3 , and two output shafts of the dual-head motor  105  are fixedly connected to a transmission rod respectively. A drive gear  412  is fixedly mounted on the transmission rod  10 , and the drive gear  412  is matched in size with a synchronous belt  413  and movably connected with the synchronous belt  413 . The synchronous belt  413  is matched in size with a driven gear  414  and movably connected with the driven gear  414 . A connection rod  208  movably connected with the camera assembly  12  is fixedly mounted on the driven gear  414 . The transmission motor  11  and the dual-head motor  105  each are electrically connected to a main board of the smartphone through an electric line, and the camera assembly  12  is electrically connected to the main board of the smartphone through a transmission line. 
     In conclusion, the accommodating cavity  101  with only the top opened is disposed on the smartphone body  1  of the present embodiment and the lift structure body  3  is fixedly mounted inside the accommodating cavity  101 . The transmission motor  11 , the geometric rotational sheet  205 , and the support frame  206  are disposed inside the lift structure body  3 , and the geometric rotational sheet can rotate under the drive of the transmission motor  11  and use its characteristics of unequal distances of the center of the geometric shape from the edge to bring the support frame  206  to ascend or descend. The fitting sliding groove  207  is disposed at the bottom of the support frame  206 , where the fitting sliding groove  207  is matched in size with the geometric rotational sheet  205 . To effectively fix the position of the geometric rotational sheet  205 , the support frame  206  is movably connected with the camera assembly  12  through the connection rods  208 , such that the support frame  206  drives the camera assembly  12  to ascend or descend in the accommodating cavity  101 . The dual-head motor  105 , the transmission rod  10 , the driving gear  412 , the synchronous belt  413 , the driven gear  414 , and the connection rod  208  are disposed inside the lift structure body  3 . The transmission rod  10  can rotate under the drive of the dual-head motor  105  to drive the driving gear  412  to rotate and further drive the synchronous belt  413  to rotate. When the camera assembly  12  is lifted out of the smartphone body  1 , the synchronous belt  413  is in a tensioned state; when the camera assembly  12  is received into the smartphone body  1 , the synchronous belt  413  is in a slightly naturally bent state. To reduce the natural bending degree of the synchronous belt  413  when the camera assembly  12  is received into the smartphone body  1  and satisfy the requirements of the camera assembly  12  for length change during a lifting process, the synchronous belt  412  is made of an elastic material. The synchronous belt  413  drives the driven gear  414  to rotate to drive the connection rod  208  to rotate and further drives the camera assembly  12  to flip. The lifting function can enable the camera assembly  12  to be hidden in the smartphone body  1  when the camera assembly  12  is not used, and hence the camera assembly  12  can be well protected. The camera flip function can enable the camera assembly  12  to perform flip switching for front and rear shootings, save space and improve selfie pixels. Further, the camera assembly  12  can take panorama shots using 360-degree rotation. In this way, the following problems can be solved: front and rear cameras are disposed on the existing smartphones; low pixel of the front camera affects the selfie quality; the user is required to move the smartphone smoothly to take a panorama picture, which increases the shooting difficulty and affects the shooting quality. 
     In addition to the equilateral triangle, the above geometric rotational sheet may also be another shape such as an eccentric disc and cam as long as the distances between the edge and the center are made unequal to use the edge undulation to achieve a lifting effect. 
     Embodiment 3 
     By referring to  FIGS.  12  to  17   , with a smartphone as an example, the camera structure of the terminal device of the present embodiment includes a smartphone body  1  inside which an accommodating cavity  101  (i.e. fitting groove) with only the top opened is formed. A lift structure body  3  is fixedly mounted at the bottom of the accommodating cavity inside smartphone body  1 . A telescoping rod  304  is fixedly mounted at the bottom of the lift structure body  3 . A transmission pipe  305  is fixedly mounted above a push bar of the telescoping rod  304 . A transmission motor  11  is fixedly mounted inside transmission pipe  305 . A transmission rod  10  is fixedly mounted on an output shaft of the transmission motor  11 . A driving block  308  is fixedly mounted on transmission rod  10 . The driving block  308  is movably connected with the transmission pipe  305 . The driving block  308  is movably connected with a driven block  309  through a connection rod  208 . A camera assembly  12  is fixedly connected to the driven block  309 . The camera assembly  12  is movably connected with the transmission pipe  305  through connection rod  208 . The transmission motor  11  is connected to a main board of the smartphone through an electric line  412 . 
     In conclusion, the accommodating cavity  101  (i.e. fitting groove) with only the top opened is disposed on the smartphone body  1  of the present embodiment and the lift structure body  3  is disposed inside the accommodating cavity  101 . The telescoping rod  304 , the transmission pipe  305 , the driving block  308 , the driven block  309 , and the connection rod  208  are disposed inside the lift structure body  3 . Thus the camera assembly  12  can drive the transmission pipe  305  to ascend or descend through the telescopic movement of the telescoping rod  304 . The transmission pipe  305  is movably connected with the driving block  308  to drive the driving block  308  to ascend or descend. The driving block  308  is movably connected with the driven block  309  through the connection rod  208 , such that the driving block  308  can drive the driven block  309  to ascend or descend during an ascending or descending process. The driven block  309  is fixedly connected with the camera assembly  12  to drive the camera assembly  12  to ascend or descend. The accommodating cavity  101  is disposed inside the smartphone body  1 , the lift structure body  3  is disposed inside the accommodating cavity  101 , and the transmission motor  11 , the transmission rod  10 , the driving block  308 , the driven block  309 , and the connection rod are disposed inside the lift structure body  3 . In this case, camera assembly  12  drives the transmission rod  10  to rotate through the rotation of the transmission motor  11  to drive the driving block  308  to rotate. The driving block  308  and the driven block  309  are movably connected through connection rod  208 , where the driving block  308  and the driven block  309  are made of a material with a friction coefficient≥0.1. Thus, the driving block  308  drives the driven block  309  to rotate by using a frictional force of the material. The driven block  309  is fixedly connected with the camera assembly  12  to drive the camera assembly  12  to rotate. The transmission motor  11  is connected to the main board of the smartphone through an electric line  3012 . Thus, the lift structure body  3  can enable the camera assembly  12  to perform flip switching between front and rear shootings, save space and improve selfie pixels. Further, the camera assembly  12  can take panorama shots using 360-degree rotation, thus avoiding instability arising from excessive movements of the smartphone and achieving the purpose of omnidirectional rotation. In this way, the following problems can be solved: front and rear cameras are disposed on the existing smartphones; low pixel of the front camera affects the selfie quality; and the smartphone is disabled to achieve a full-screen effect. Moreover, the camera assembly  12  may be received in the smartphone body and thus can be well protected, thereby solving the problem of ease of wear of the camera. 
     The above camera structure may also be applied to other terminal devices such as tablet computers, laptop computers, drones, robots, or detection instruments. 
     The “top” and “top wall” mentioned above are based on the direction in which the camera assembly protrudes out. The outer portion of any part consistent with the direction in which the camera assembly protrudes out of the housing may be referred to as the “top” or “top wall”. 
     The above camera assembly includes at least one lamp used as a flashlight or illumination. 
     Although the embodiments of the present disclosure have been illustrated and described, persons of ordinary skill in the arts may understand that various changes, modifications, substitutions, and variations may be made to these embodiments without departing from the principle and spirit of the present disclosure. The scope of protection of the present disclosure is limited by the appended claims and its equivalents.