Portable folding communication unit
AssigneeNEC Corporation
InventorTakeshi Kobayashi
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A folding portable communication unit is composed an upper cabinet, a lower cabinet, and a hinge for so supporting the upper and lower cabinets that they are rotational around the hinge. A simplified LCD and a simplified key unit are provided for a rear cover of the upper cabinet or the lower cabinet, and thereby a user can watch the simplified LCD or operate the simplified key unit, even when the upper and lower cabinets are folded. Information is displayed on either of a LCD or the simplified LCD depending on whether the upper and lower cabinets are folded or not and on the kind of information to be displayed.
Claims8
A folding portable communication unit, comprising:
- a first cabinet;
- a second cabinet, the first cabinet and the second cabinet being supported by a hinge so as to be rotatable around the hinge;
- a first key unit situated on an obverse surface of the first cabinet or the second cabinet and from which a user inputs first data;
- a second key unit situated on a rear cover of the first or second cabinet and from which the user inputs second data in a case that the first cabinet and the second cabinet are folded in a closed position;
- a first display situated on an obverse surface of the first cabinet and which displays first information;
- a second display, smaller than the display, situated on a rear surface of the first cabinet or the second cabinet and which displays second information, the second information being viewable by the user in a case that the first cabinet and the second cabinet are folded in the closed position;
- a common display driver operable to drive both the first display and the second display, the second display and the common display driver being mounted on one side of a substrate and the first display being mounted on the other side of the substrate;
- and
- a control unit operable to make the common display driver decide which of the first display and the second display is to be used,
- wherein the folding portable communication unit is operable to permit verbal telephone communication only in a case that the first cabinet and the second cabinet are in an open position.
A folding portable communication unit, comprising:
- a first cabinet;
- a second cabinet, the first cabinet and the second cabinet being supported by a hinge so as to be rotatable around the hinge;
- a first key unit situated on an obverse surface of the first cabinet or the second cabinet and from which a user inputs first data;
- a second key unit situated on a rear cover of the first or second cabinet and from which the user inputs second data in a case that the first cabinet and the second cabinet are folded in a closed position;
- a first display situated on an obverse surface of the first cabinet and which displays first information;
- a second display situated on a rear surface of the first cabinet or the second cabinet and which displays second information, the second information being viewable by the user in a case that the first cabinet and the second cabinet are folded in the close position;
- a common display driver operable to drive both the first display and the second display;
- and
- a control unit operable to make the common display driver decide which of the first display and the second display is to be used,
- wherein the folding portable communication unit is operable to permit verbal telephone communication only in a case that the first cabinet and the second cabinet are in an open position, wherein:
- the control unit is operable to make the common display driver decide which of the first display and the second display to display input information depending on a kind of the input information, and
- wherein:
- the control unit comprises a means for displaying the input information on the second display in accordance with an instruction of the user.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.