Source: http://patents.com/us-6943774.html
Timestamp: 2019-10-13 23:45:09
Document Index: 262194112

Matched Legal Cases: ['ART 115', 'ART 121', 'art 120', 'art 120', 'art 130', 'art 120', 'art 120', 'art 130', 'art 120', 'art 120']

US Patent # 6,943,774. Portable communication terminal, information display device, control input device and control input method - Patents.com
United States Patent 6,943,774
Horiki September 13, 2005
A portable communications terminal has display part having a display surface for displaying an image; main body having at least an antenna for transmitting and receiving radio waves for wireless communications, a speaker for outputting voice, and a pointing device for controlling at least a cursor displayed on said display surface; and joining part for joining said display part to said main body in an angularly movable fashion, and wherein: said speaker is disposed on one main surface of said main body, and said pointing device is disposed on the other main surface of said main body opposite from said one main surface.
Inventors: Horiki; Toshio (Suita, JP)
Appl. No.: 09/824,397
Current U.S. Class: 345/158 ; 178/18.09; 345/157; 348/E7.079
Current International Class: G06F 1/16 (20060101); G09G 5/00 (20060101); H04N 7/14 (20060101); G06F 3/00 (20060101); G06F 3/033 (20060101); H04M 1/02 (20060101); H04M 1/247 (20060101); G09G 005/08 ()
Field of Search: 455/79,566,574 345/166,7-9,156-158,1.3 178/18.09,18.01,345,18.04 348/14.05,14.08,14.09 D14/130,137,138,144,345,240,248,247,243,343
5566098 October 1996 Lucente et al.
5586182 December 1996 Miyashita
5703932 December 1997 Oda
5821922 October 1998 Sellers
5841849 November 1998 Macor
5881377 March 1999 Giel et al.
5936619 August 1999 Nagasaki et al.
5943625 August 1999 Yeom et al.
6043805 March 2000 Hsieh
6088018 July 2000 DeLeeuw et al.
6115025 September 2000 Buxton et al.
6262769 July 2001 Anderson et al.
6295358 September 2001 Kubota
6400392 June 2002 Yamaguchi et al.
6452577 September 2002 Gale et al.
6519480 February 2003 Wicks et al.
6531999 March 2003 Trajkovic
6614422 September 2003 Rafii et al.
6690357 February 2004 Dunton et al.
2002/0126090 September 2002 Kirkpatrick et al.
"Liquid Crystal Panel of Si Base", Nikkei Electronics, No. 778, pp. 49-56, Sep. 11, 2000..
Assistant Examiner: Jorgensen; Leland R.
1. An information display method comprising the steps of: imaging and capturing an image of an object; processing the image captured by said imaging step; displaying prescribed information on a projection micro-display, separately obtained from the imaging step; displaying a designated pointer on said display and controlling the pointer using only the same hand that holds the projection micro-display; and controlling information on the display comprising the steps of: (a) storing as a control input a sequential change, first (i) of a first hand pattern, formed of at least one finger, and then second (ii) of a second hand pattern, formed of at least one finger, the second hand pattern different from the first hand pattern; (b) imaging, by the camera, the first hand pattern; (c) imaging, by the camera, the second hand pattern; (d) recognizing the first hand pattern imaged in step (b); (e) recognizing the second hand pattern imaged in step (c); (f) comparing a sequential change of first step (d) and then second step (e) to the stored control input; (g) controlling the information on the display, after the comparing of step (f); (h) positioning the display between an eye of a user and a hand of the user; (i) viewing the at least one finger of the hand on the display, while forming the first and second hand patterns; and (j) visually aligning the eye of the user, the display and the first and second hand patterns.
4. The information display method according to claim 1, wherein said image processing step extracts a contour of said image, and a position detecting step detects the position of said image on a screen from said extracted contour.
6. The control input method comprising: the information display method according to anyone of claims 1 to 5; and input step of carrying out a control input on an object pointed to by said designated pointer on said display surface.
11. A portable telephone having camera and a display, a method of controlling information on the display comprising the steps of: (a) storing as a control input a sequential change, first (i) of a first hand pattern, formed of at least one finger, and then second (ii) of a second hand pattern, formed of at least one finger, the second hand pattern different from the first hand pattern; (b) imaging, by the camera, the first hand pattern; (c) imaging, by the camera, the second hand pattern; (d) recognizing the first hand pattern imaged in step (b); (e) recognizing the second hand pattern imaged in step (c); (f) comparing a sequential change of first step (d) and then second step (e) to the stored control input; (g) controlling the information on the display, after the comparing of step (f); (h) positioning the display between an eye of a user and a hand of the user; (i) viewing the at least one finger of the hand on the display, while forming the first and second hand patterns; and (j) visually aligning the eye of the user, the display and the first and second hand patterns.
12. The method of controlling information on the display of claim 11, wherein step (a) includes storing as a further control input a further sequential change first (i) of the second hand pattern, and then second (ii) of the first hand pattern; step (b) includes imaging another first hand pattern; step (c) includes imaging another second hand pattern; step (d) includes recognizing the other first hand pattern imaged in step (b); step (e) includes recognizing the other second hand pattern imaged in step (c); comparing a further sequential change of first step (e) and then second step (d) to the stored further control input; and controlling the information on the display, based on the further sequential change.
13. The method of controlling information on the display of any one of claims 11-12 wherein controlling the information on the display includes controlling the information on a projection micro-display, and superimposing a cursor on the display surface of the projection micro display to control the information; the method further including: visually observing both the cursor and the one finger forming the first hand pattern and the second hand pattern, and moving both the cursor and the one finger imaged on the display to control the information on the display.
To address this problem, there has been proposed in recent years a portable telephone that uses a projection type, high resolution micro-display instead of the conventional liquid crystal display; as shown in FIG. 14(b), the micro-display 1411 is mounted near the microphone 1404 of the portable telephone 1410 and used to display information, or the projection micro-display is attached externally to the main unit of the portable telephone via a cable, and the portable telephone is used as an information terminal by operating it using the numeric keypad, etc. The projection micro-display is constructed using a small display in combination with an optical system, and produces a virtual image for viewing in a space distanced from the display, thereby achieving a large screen, high resolution virtual image display. With this technology, the display as small as about 1 cm square in size can present, when mounted in position as stated above, a high resolution image equivalent, for example, to SVGA (800.times.600 pixels) for viewing near the viewer's eye.
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 100. PORTABLE TELEPHONE 110. MAIN BODY 111. ANTENNA 112. SPEAKER 113. AUXILIARY DISPLAY 114. INPUT PART 115. POINTING DEVICE 116. ANSWER BUTTON 120. MAIN SCREEN DISPLAY PART 121. DISPLAY SURFACE 122a, 122b. MICROPHONE 131. SECOND HINGE
In the main screen display part 120, a display surface 121 is a means of displaying image information, and is implemented using a projection micro-display. The projection micro-display is constructed using a small display in combination with an optical system, and produces a virtual image for viewing in a space distanced from the display, thereby achieving a large screen, high resolution virtual image display. With this technology, the display as small as about 1 cm square in size can present, when mounted in position as stated above, a high resolution image equivalent, for example, to SVGA (800.times.600 pixels) for viewing by the viewer. Further, in the main screen display part 120, a microphone 122 is mounted in a position nearer to the hinged part 130 than to the display surface 121.
Further, as shown in the construction example of FIG. 3, the main screen display part 120 may be constructed using a first member 120a containing the display screen 121 and a second member 120b joined to the main body 110, the first and second members being joined together in an angularly movable fashion on a second hinge 131. This construction allows the angle between the main body 110 and the main screen display part 120 to be adjusted more precisely by using the hinged part 130 and the second hinge 131, so that the user can adjust the display surface 121 to the position easier to view.
When a right-handed person uses the portable telephone 100, the main body 110 is held by the right hand; therefore, as shown in FIG. 4(a), the main body 110 is located to the right-hand side of the main screen display part 120, and in this condition, images or characters are displayed on the display surface 121 of the main screen display part 120. In FIG. 4(a), a kanji character for the English word "PICTURE" is displayed as an example.
Further, when the device connected to the external interface 623 is running software that requires entering numeric keys on a calculator or the like, the display screen 900 can accept numeric key entries; therefore, if the hand pattern change previously shown in FIGS. 12(a) to 12(e) is registered as an input, numeric key entries can be accomplished by the user just moving his fingers on the display screen 900 and changing the hand pattern from pattern A to pattern B, pattern A, then to pattern B. In the example shown in FIGS. 13(c) and 13 (d), number "9" is entered in the numeric entry box 1302 displayed in overlaying fashion on the display screen 900 of the liquid crystal display 621. In the case of a keyboard, alphabetic characters arranged in keyboard-like fashion are displayed instead of the numeric keypad on the display screen 900.
Here, the wording "part of the means (or devices, elements, circuits, etc.) of the invention" refers to some of the plurality of means or some of the functions or operations of one of the means.
Here, the wording "some of the steps (or processes, operations, effects, etc.) of the invention" refers to some of the plurality of steps or some of the operations in one of the steps.
Previous Patent US 6,943,773 | Next Patent US 6,943,775