JP2000020221A - Information processor - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To easily press a dedicated button for operating a specified function while strongly holding the main body of an information processor by arranging the dedicated button, which can be operated in the state of opening a display part, on the main body at a position that any finger can touch when the main body is held by both hands. SOLUTION: A shutter button 10 as the dedicated button to be operated at the time of picking up an image with a CCD video camera 23 is located at the position operable by any finger when the main body 2 is held by both the hands while opening a display part 3. Namely, the shutter button 10 is arranged at the right deep part of the main body 2. Since the shutter button 10 can be operated while strongly holding the main body 2 by both the hands in such a style, the risk to shake a video at the time of picking up the image with the CCD video camera 23 can be reduced. Besides, since the shutter button 10 is covered by the display part 3 by closing the display part 3 while letting it fall down on the side of the main body 2, a malfunction can be prevented. Further, the shutter button 10 can be operated even in the state of setting the main body 2 on a desk as well.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus such as a portable computer, and more particularly to an information processing apparatus capable of easily operating a dedicated button having a specific function.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, portable information processing apparatuses have been widely used.
A main body and a display unit are provided, and the display unit can be opened and closed with respect to the main body via a hinge. An LCD for displaying an image is provided on the front of the display unit, and a CCD camera for picking up an image is provided at an upper end.
In addition, a keyboard operated when inputting various characters and symbols is provided on the upper surface of the main body. In addition to keys for inputting characters, symbols, and the like, dedicated buttons having special functions such as driving a CCD camera are provided. The dedicated button has conventionally been provided at an appropriate position on the keyboard.

[0003]

However, according to the conventional arrangement of the dedicated buttons as described above, when the dedicated buttons are pressed simultaneously with the keys on the keyboard, the operation becomes very difficult when the main body is supported by both hands. There was a problem of becoming. In particular, when the dedicated button for driving the CCD camera is pressed, the image may be blurred. Further, there is a possibility that the dedicated button is erroneously pressed during the normal keyboard operation, and the function is input.

The present invention has been made in view of such a situation, and has as its object to provide an information processing apparatus capable of easily pressing a dedicated button for operating a specific function while firmly holding a main body. And

[0005]

According to the information processing apparatus of the present invention, a dedicated button for operating a specific function operable with the display unit opened can be touched by a finger when the main body is held by both hands. It is characterized by being arranged on the main body at a suitable position.

In the information processing apparatus of the present invention, the dedicated button can be operated with a finger while holding the main body firmly.

[0007]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments of the present invention will be described below. In order to clarify the correspondence between each means of the invention described in the claims and the following embodiments, each means is described. When the features of the present invention are described by adding the corresponding embodiment (however, an example) in parentheses after the parentheses, the result is as follows. However, of course, this description does not mean that each means is limited to those described.

The information processing apparatus according to the first aspect holds a dedicated button (for example, a shutter button 10 in FIG. 1) for operating a specific function operable with the display unit opened, with both hands holding the main body. It is arranged on the main body at a position where a finger can contact when the touch panel is touched.

An embodiment of the information processing apparatus according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIGS. 1 to 6 show a configuration example of a portable personal computer to which the present invention is applied. The personal computer 1 is a mini-notebook type personal computer, and basically includes a main body 2 and a display unit 3 which can be opened and closed with respect to the main body 2. 1 is an external perspective view showing a state in which the display unit 3 is opened with respect to the main body 2, FIG. 2 is a plan view of FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 shows a state in which the display unit 3 is closed with respect to the main body 2. 4 is a right side view showing the display unit 3 opened 180 degrees with respect to the main body 2, FIG. 5 is a front view of FIG. 3, and FIG.
FIG.

The main body 2 is provided on its upper surface with a keyboard 4 operated when inputting various characters and symbols, and a track point (trademark) 5 operated when moving a mouse cursor. . Further, on the upper surface of the main body 2, there are further provided a speaker 8 for outputting sound and a shutter button 10 operated when capturing an image with the CCD video camera 23 provided on the display unit 3.

A claw 13 is provided at an upper end of the display unit 3. As shown in FIG. 3, when the display unit 3 is closed with respect to the main body 2, Is provided with a hole 6 into which the claw 13 is fitted. A slide lever 7 is provided on the front face of the main body 2 so as to be movable in parallel with the front face. I can do it. By releasing the lock, the display unit 3 can be rotated with respect to the main body 2. Microphone 2 next to claw 13
4 is attached. As shown in FIG. 6, the microphone 24 can collect sound from the back.

On the front of the main body 2, a programmable power key (PPK) 9 is provided. As shown in FIG. 4, an exhaust hole 11 is provided on the right side surface of the main body 2, and an intake hole 14 is provided at a lower part of the front surface of the main body 2 as shown in FIG. 5. In addition, a PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card Interna
nation association) card (PC card) is provided.

An LCD for displaying an image is provided on the front of the display unit 3.
(Liquid Crystal Display) 21 is provided, and an imaging unit 22 is provided at the upper end thereof so as to be rotatable with respect to the display unit 3. That is, this imaging unit 22
It can rotate to any position within a range of 180 degrees between the same direction as D21 and the opposite direction (backward direction). A CCD video camera 23 is attached to the imaging unit 22.

A power lamp is provided on the lower body side of the display unit 3.
PL, battery lamp BL, message lamp ML, other LEDs
Is provided. Reference numeral 40 shown in FIG. 3 is a power switch provided on the left side surface of the main body 2, and reference numeral 25 shown in FIG. 5 is an adjustment ring for adjusting the focus of the CCD video camera 23. Further, FIG.
Reference numeral 26 denotes a lid for covering an opening for mounting an additional memory in the main body 2, and reference numeral 41 denotes a lid 26.
This is a small hole for inserting a pin for removing the lock claw.

FIG. 7 shows the internal configuration of the personal computer 1. As shown in FIG. 7, a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 52, a PC card 53 inserted as needed, and a RAM (Random Access M
emory) 54 and a graphic chip 81 are connected. The internal bus 51 is connected to an external bus 55. The external bus 55 includes a hard disk drive (HDD) 56, an I / O (input / output) controller 57, a keyboard controller 58, a track point controller 59, and a sound chip 60. , LCD controller 8
3. The modem 50 and the like are connected.

The CPU 52 is a controller that controls each function, and the PC card 53 is appropriately mounted when an optional function is added.

In the RAM 54, an e-mail program (application program) 54A, an auto-pilot program (application program) 54B, and an OS (basic program) 54C are transferred from the HDD 56 and stored at the time when the activation is completed. You.

The e-mail program 54A is a program for sending and receiving messages via a network from a communication line such as a telephone line. E-mail program 54
A has an incoming mail acquisition function as a specific function. This incoming mail acquisition function checks the mail server 93 to see if mail addressed to the user (user) has arrived in the mailbox 93A, and if there is mail addressed to the user, obtains the mail. Execute.

The auto-pilot program 54B includes a plurality of preset processes (or programs) and the like.
This is a program that is started and processed sequentially in a preset order.

OS (basic program software) 54
C controls the basic operation of a computer typified by Windows95 (trademark).

On the other hand, a hard disk drive (HDD) 56 on the external bus 55 side has an electronic mail program 56
A, an autopilot program 56B and an OS (basic program software) 56C are stored. OS 56C, auto pilot program 56B, and e-mail program 5 in hard disk drive 56
6A is the RAM 54 during the boot-up process.
Are sequentially transferred and stored.

The I / O controller 57 has a microcontroller 61, and the microcontroller 61 is provided with an I / O interface 62. This microcontroller 61 includes an I / O interface 6
2, the CPU 63, the RAM 64, and the ROM 69 are connected to each other. The RAM 64 includes a key input status register 65 and an LED (light emitting diode) control register 6.
6, a set time register 67 and a register 68 are provided. The set time register 67 is used to start the operation of the start-up sequence control unit 76 at a time (start-up condition) set by the user in advance. The register 68 stores a correspondence between a preset operation key combination (start condition) and an application program to be started. When the stored operation key combination is input by the user, the register 68 stores the correspondence. The activated application program (for example, e-mail) is activated.

When the programmable power key (PPK) 9 for one-touch operation is pressed, the key input status register 65 stores an operation key flag. The LED control register 66 controls the lighting of a message lamp ML that indicates the activation state of the application program (e-mail) stored in the register 68. The set time register 67 can arbitrarily set a predetermined time.

A backup battery 74 is connected to the microcontroller 61.
The values of the registers 65, 66, and 67 are retained even when the power of the main unit 2 is turned off.

The ROM 69 in the microcontroller 61 stores a wake-up program 70, a key input monitoring program 71, and an LED control program 72 in advance. The ROM 69 is, for example, an EEPROM (electricall
y erasable and programmable read only memory). This EEPROM is also called a flash memory. Further, an RTC (Real-Time Clock) 75 that constantly counts the current time is connected to the microcontroller 61.

The wake-up program 70 in the ROM 69 checks, based on the current time data supplied from the RTC 75, whether or not the time set in the set time register 67 has been reached. , A program for starting a predetermined process (or a program). The key input monitoring program 71
This is a program for constantly monitoring whether or not K9 has been pressed by the user. The LED control program 72 is a program for controlling lighting of the message lamp ML.

The ROM 69 further includes a BIOS (Basic Input / O
utput System) 73 is written. The BIOS refers to a basic input / output system, and is a software program that controls data transfer (input / output) between an OS or application software and peripheral devices (display, keyboard, hard disk drive, etc.).

A keyboard controller 58 connected to the external bus 55 controls input from the keyboard 4. The track point controller 59 controls input of the track point 5.

The sound chip 60 includes the microphone 24
Or an audio signal is supplied to the built-in speaker 8.

The modem 50 can be connected to a communication network 92 such as the Internet, a mail server 93, and the like via a public telephone line 90 and an Internet service provider 91.

Image data captured by the CCD video camera 23 is input to the graphic chip 81 connected to the internal bus 51 after being processed by the processing unit 82. The graphic chip 81 stores the video data input from the CCD video camera 23 via the processing unit 82 in the built-in VRAM 81, reads out the data as appropriate, and outputs the read data to the LCD controller 83. The LCD controller 83 outputs the image data supplied from the graphic chip 81 to the LCD 21 for display. The backlight 84 illuminates the LCD 21 from behind.

The power switch 40 is operated when the power is turned on or off. The half-press switch 85 is turned on when the shutter button 10 is half-pressed, and the full-press switch 86 is turned on when the shutter button 10 is fully pressed. The reversing switch 87 is connected to the imaging unit 2
2 is rotated 180 degrees (CCD video camera 23
It is turned on when it is rotated in the direction of imaging the opposite side of the CD 21).

As shown in FIG. 1, the CCD video camera 23
When the display unit 3 is opened and the main body 2 is held with both hands, the shutter button 10 which is a dedicated button operated when capturing an image at is there. That is, the shutter button 10 is arranged at the right rear portion of the main body 2 in FIG.

According to this embodiment, the shutter button 10 can be operated while holding the main body 2 firmly with both hands.
It is possible to reduce the possibility that the image is blurred. Also,
Since the shutter button 10 is covered by the display unit 3 by closing the display unit 3 by closing the display unit 3 toward the main body 2 side, malfunction can be prevented. Note that the shutter button 10 is
It can be operated even when is placed on the desk.

In the above-described embodiment, the case where the dedicated button is the shutter button 10 has been described. However, the operability is improved even when applied to other dedicated buttons. In addition, various functions can be added by setting the button as a two-stroke button capable of instructing different operations depending on the degree of pressing. Further, as shown in FIG. 1, by providing a programmable power key (PPK) for operating a specific function on the front of the main body 2, the operation can be performed with the display unit 3 closed.

[0037]

As described above, according to the information processing apparatus of the present invention, the dedicated button operable with the display unit opened is provided.
Since the main body is arranged on the main body at a position where a finger can contact when holding the main body with both hands, the dedicated button can be easily operated with the finger while holding the main body.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an external perspective view showing a state in which a display unit of a configuration example of a portable personal computer to which the present invention is applied is opened with respect to a main body.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a left side view showing a state where the display unit of FIG. 1 is closed with respect to a main body.

FIG. 4 is a right side view showing a state where the display unit of FIG. 1 is opened 180 degrees with respect to a main body.

FIG. 5 is a front view of FIG. 3;

FIG. 6 is a bottom view of FIG. 4;

FIG. 7 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of an electric circuit of FIG. 1;

8 is a perspective view showing a state in which the main body of FIG. 1 is held with both hands and a shutter button is pressed with a thumb.

[Description of Signs] 2 main body, 3 display unit, 4 keyboard, 9 PP
K (dedicated button), 10 shutter button (dedicated button), 23 CCD video camera, 43 fingers

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. An information processing apparatus comprising: a main body having a keyboard provided on an upper surface thereof; and a display portion rotatably connected to the main body via one side and opening and closing the upper surface of the main body. An information processing apparatus, wherein a dedicated button for operating a specific function operable in a folded state is arranged on the main body at a position where a finger can contact when holding the main body with both hands. 2. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the dedicated button has a function of driving a shutter of a CCD camera provided at an upper end of the display unit. 3. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the dedicated button is a two-stroke button for instructing a different operation depending on a pressing depth. 4. The information according to claim 1, wherein a dedicated button for operating a specific function operable with the display unit closed is provided on a side surface of the main body. Processing equipment.