Latching mechanism and method of operation thereof
AssigneeMotorola, Inc.
InventorWilliam H. Robertson, Jr.
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The invention concerns a latching mechanism (105) for assembly of a housing (110) of an electronic device (100). The latching mechanism includes a latch element (120) and a receiving element (131) contained within the housing. The receiving element includes a recess (140) for engaging the latch element and at least one audio port (122) for providing an audio channel (190) for the electronic device. The invention also concerns a method (500) of operating a latching mechanism. The method includes the steps of mechanically coupling (512) a latch element to a housing, creating (514) an audio channel by engaging the latch element within the housing and porting (516) audio through the audio channel.
Claims17
An electronic device, comprising:
- a housing, comprising:
- a fixed housing portion;
- a removable housing portion having a recess and at least one audio port, wherein the audio port is part of the recess;
- a latching mechanism for assembling the removable housing portion to the fixed housing portion, wherein the latch mechanism comprises:
- a latch element rotatably coupled to the removable housing portion, wherein the latch element rotation includes an orientation for engaging the latch element to assemble the removable housing portion to the fixed housing portion;
- and
- an audio channel, wherein the audio port is part of the audio channel and the audio channel is formed when the removable housing portion is assembled to the fixed housing portion.
A method of operating a latching mechanism, comprising the steps of:
- mechanically coupling a latch element to a housing, wherein the recess includes at least one audio port, wherein the housing includes a fixed housing portion and a removable housing portion and the recess is part of the removable housing portion;
- creating an audio channel by engaging the latch element within the housing such that the removable housing portion is assembled to the fixed housing portion, wherein the audio ports are part of the audio channel;
- and
- porting audio through the audio ports of the audio channel.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.