JPH05119884A - Information processor - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve the operability of a keyboard by lowering the height of a key top at the time of carrying to thin the whole device, heightening the height of the key top at the time of use to secure the necessary key stroke, concerning a book type information processor. CONSTITUTION:By using an air spring to seal the compressed air composed of a key piston 2 and a key cylinder 4 in the elasticity recovery system of a key, the key operation is performed, all key cylinders 4 are connected to an inter-keyboard pipe 6 to make one closed space, an opening and closing valve 9 is provided, the compressed air can be enclosed and discharged and made variable, and when the discharging is performed, respective keys are lowered to the lowest position, and when the compressed air is enclosed again, a pump 8 is used.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information processing device,
In particular, the present invention relates to a portable information processing device including a display and a keyboard.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, miniaturization of devices has progressed with technological progress, and book-type products for information processing devices have appeared.
On the other hand, it is mainly the flat display (thin display) and the keyboard (key input device) that determine the shape of these products, and they are called the book type because they are configured to be closed face to face. Has been.
Further, when the key arrangement and pitch of the keyboard are small, it is difficult to use, and when the display (display device) is small, it is difficult to see. Therefore, there is a high expectation for thinning among the miniaturization. By the way, even if the display is made extremely thin, no inconvenience occurs in operation, but it is difficult to make the keyboard thin because the feeling of operation is impaired if the stroke (depth to be pushed) is shortened.

Therefore, for example, a structure is conceivable in which, when the display is closed, the keystroke is forcibly pushed and held.

[0004]

The problem to be solved is that the display is thin and thus insufficient in strength, and the central portion that is difficult to hold is pushed up by the key top (key button) and the display warps. Or, the pressing force of the key top adds stress (deformation force) to the display, which causes malfunction. Also,
If the spring of the key stroke is weakened in order to solve this, the operation feeling is impaired.

[0005]

According to the present invention, the key recovery operation is performed by using an air spring, which is composed of a key piston and a key cylinder and is filled with compressed air, in an elastic recovery system of the key, and all the key cylinders are inter-keyboard. As the same space that is connected by pipes and sealed, an open / close valve is provided so that compressed air can be sealed and discharged, and when air is discharged, each key goes down to the lowest position, and when compressed air is sealed again. It is designed to use a pump.

[0006]

[Function] When operating the keys, the pressure of compressed air will return to the original when the key is pressed, and when the key is released when the cap is released, the air will escape and each key will drop to the lowest position. The air can be resealed by. Therefore, when the device of the present invention is carried, the device can be made thinner, and the operation feeling of the keyboard during key operation can be provided in a good state. Therefore, it is possible to realize a thin book-type information processing device.

[0007]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described in detail below based on the embodiments shown in the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of an apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. Reference numeral 1 is a key, 2 is a key piston, 3 is a switch bar, 4 is a key cylinder, 5 is a switch, 6 is an inter-keyboard pipe, and 7 is One way valve, 8 is manual pump, 9
Is an opening / closing valve, 10 is an opening / closing valve spring, 11 is a switch cutter, 12 is a pressure sensor, 13 is a slice level detecting element, 14 is a buzzer driver, and 15 is a buzzer. The entire key cylinder 4, the one-way valve 7 and the manual pump 8 are connected to each other by an inter-keyboard pipe 6 to form a sealed and same space, and this space is engaged with the inner wall of the key cylinder 4 to form the key piston 2.
Is filled with compressed air sufficient to hold the whole of it in its highest position. FIG. 2 is a top view of FIG.

FIG. 3 is an overall view of the apparatus of this embodiment.
6 is a display, 17 is a display rotating shaft, 18 is a lock, 19 is an unlock lever, 20 is a lock hole, 2
Reference numeral 1 is an opening / closing detection protrusion, and 22 is a sensor using an LED (light emitting diode).

In the apparatus of the embodiment of the present invention thus constructed, when the key 1 is pressed, the switch bar 3 is moved to the switch 5
Press to enter the key. When the key 1 is released, it returns by the pressure of compressed air. The change in compressed air pressure at this time is
Set the volume of the key cylinder 4 as large as possible with respect to the volume of the entire closed space that is connected to the key piston 2.
Since we are trying to make the cross-sectional area of the as small as possible,
It is possible to make the change in air pressure during key operation extremely small. Then, if the pressure of the enclosed compressed air is set to be equal to the conventional keyboard spring pressure, the keyboard operation feeling is provided in a good state as in the past. Open / close valve 9
1 is configured to rotate about a fulcrum S as shown in FIG. 1, and the lower half of the fulcrum closes the air inlet / outlet of the inter-keyboard pipe 6 by the opening / closing valve spring 10. By continuously pushing the upper part of the opening / closing valve 9, the opening / closing valve spring 10 is compressed to open the air inlet / outlet port.

When carrying the apparatus constructed as described above, the on-off valve 9 is pushed in to discharge the compressed air inside, and the key piston 2 engaged with the inner wall of the key cylinder 4 is pushed.
Lower all of the to the lowest position due to their own weight. The state at this time is shown in FIG. Further, the display 16 shown in FIG. 3 can be closed as shown in FIG. 5 by rotating the display rotating shaft 17 in the direction of the arrow B using the display rotation shaft 17 as a fulcrum, and at this time, the lock 18 and the lock hole 20 of FIG. 3 are engaged.

When the apparatus is reused, the on-off valve 9 is closed as shown in FIG. 1, and the manual pump 8 is repeatedly moved in the direction of arrow A, so that compressed air is again enclosed. Return. A detailed description is omitted when the display 16 is closed, but a spring mechanism (not shown)
Move the lock release lever 17 with the lock
8 is released. Then, when the display rotating shaft 17 is rotated in the direction of arrow C using the fulcrum as a fulcrum, the display 16
Opens and returns to the state of FIG.

As a countermeasure against inadvertent actuation of the switch 5 when the open / close valve 9 is pushed down to lower the entire key 1, the open / close valve 9 is intended to discharge compressed air.
When is pressed, the switch cutter 11 operates as shown in FIG. 4 and all the operations of the switch 5 are invalidated. Further, a pressure sensor 12 is provided at somewhere on the inter-keyboard pipe 6 as a measure for obtaining an appropriate air pressure when re-sealing the compressed air. Then, an electrical signal that is linked to changes in atmospheric pressure is taken out, and a signal of proper atmospheric pressure is output to the slice level detection element 13
Detected, and if it exceeds the appropriate atmospheric pressure, "1",
Otherwise, the data of "0" is output by the buzzer driver 1
4 and makes the buzzer 15 ring when the data "1" is received by the buzzer driver 14. Thereby, the user of the apparatus of this embodiment is notified that the air filling up to the proper atmospheric pressure is completed. Further, if the display 16 is closed without pressing the open / close valve 9 to discharge the compressed air, the key top may damage the display 16. Therefore, as a countermeasure, the display 16 is up to 70 degrees from the keyboard surface. The buzzer 15 sounds when tilted. That is, the LED sensor 22 shown in FIG. 3 detects that the display 16 is approaching, and although the details are omitted, the slice level detecting element 13 shown in FIG.
Is configured to be sent to the buzzer driver 14 to cause the buzzer 15 to ring, and a warning is issued to the user of the apparatus of this embodiment. When the tilting is further continued and becomes, for example, 45 degrees, the opening / closing detection projection 21 is moved to the opening / closing valve 9 as shown in FIG.
Is mechanically pushed in and the compressed air is discharged.

In the above-described embodiment of the present invention, the one-way valve 7 and the manual pump 8 are used as a method of resealing the air after discharging the compressed air. However, there are other ways to re-enclose the air, and it is said that the compressed air can be discharged to lower the whole key and make it thinner. An electric pump can be used if it satisfies the shape and volume requirements that do not impair the important effects of the present invention. Further, it is conceivable to interlock the electric pump with the pressure sensor 12 and the slice level detecting element 13 mentioned in the above-mentioned embodiment, which is shown in FIG. In FIG. 7, reference numeral 23 is an electric pump, and 24 is a pump driver. With this configuration, an appropriate atmospheric pressure for key operation is detected by the slice level detecting element 13, and when the atmospheric pressure is lower than the appropriate atmospheric pressure, data of "1" is sent to the pump driver 24, and data of "1" is sent. When the pump driver 24 receives the above data, the electric pump 23 can be operated. Still, the electric pump 23 can be provided with an automatic atmospheric pressure correction function in which the operation is stopped when the pressure exceeds the proper pressure and the operation is restarted when the pressure falls below the appropriate pressure.

Further, the buzzer sounds when the filling of the proper atmospheric pressure described in this embodiment is completed and when the display is stored,
It is also possible to provide a visually appealing structure by indicating the situation by lighting the LED or displaying on the display screen.

[0016]

As described above, according to the present invention, when the key operation is not performed, the position of the key top can be lowered by an amount corresponding to the key stroke without stressing the display, so that the main body can be carried. In addition, it is possible to reduce the thickness, and in the operating state, the conventional key operation feeling can be obtained.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front sectional view of an apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a top view according to FIG.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the entire apparatus of the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a front view of the apparatus according to the embodiment when compressed air is discharged.

5 is a perspective view of the apparatus according to the embodiment of FIG. 3 when being carried.

FIG. 6 is a side view showing the middle of FIGS. 3 and 5 during storage of the display.

FIG. 7 is a front view of another embodiment of the device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 key 2 key piston 3 switch bar 4 key cylinder 5 switch 6 inter-keyboard pipe 7 one-way valve 8 manual pump 9 open / close valve 10 open / close valve spring 11 switch cutter 12 pressure sensor 13 slice level detector 14 buzzer driver 15 buzzer 16 display 17 Display Rotating Shaft 18 Lock 19 Lock Release Lever 20 Lock Hole 21 Open / Closed Detection Protrusion 22 LED Sensor 23 Electric Pump 24 Pump Driver

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. An information processing apparatus comprising a keyboard and a display housed facing the keyboard, wherein a plurality of key units each comprising a key piston and a key cylinder are arranged close to each other, and the plurality of key units are arranged. A common closed space is formed by connecting the key cylinders of (1) with an inter-keyboard pipe, and an opening / closing valve is provided so that the sealing / discharging of the compressed air enclosed in the closed space can be changed. An information processing apparatus, comprising: a manual pump or an electric pump for discharging compressed air and then refilling the air. 2. A pressure sensor provided in the compressed air filled space and an electric pump work together, the electric pump operates until a certain atmospheric pressure is reached, and the appropriate atmospheric pressure is detected by the pressure sensor. When the appropriate atmospheric pressure is reached, the buzzer is activated. 2. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising means for giving an alarm by lighting the ringing light source or displaying it on a screen of a display, and stopping the electric pump when a certain atmospheric pressure is exceeded. 3. The information processing system according to claim 1, further comprising means for giving an alarm when the display is tilted at a predetermined angle with respect to the keyboard surface by sounding a buzzer, turning on a light source or displaying on a display screen. apparatus. 4. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising means for discharging compressed air when the display is inclined at a predetermined angle with respect to the keyboard surface. 5. The information processing according to claim 1, further comprising means for invalidating the key input at that time in order to prevent the key input from being accidentally performed when the compressed air is discharged. apparatus.