US 8,542,191 B2Granted

Film layer, assembly and method for altering the appearance of a mobile station

AssigneeNokia Corporation

InventorsTom Dunleavy, Jukka Kela, Kelley Lee

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Abstract

A film layer for a mobile station that allows the appearance of the mobile station to be easily changed. The layer is thin enough to allow it to be positioned between the plungers on a plunger mat and the keys on a key mat of the mobile station. Flexibility of the film layer allows a key press to be transmitted through the film insert to one of the plungers, which in turn compresses a contact on a printed wiring board. Flexibility may be due to perforations around the keys of the key mat. Preferably, the film layer includes some visually detectable characteristic, such as a color, that is visible through openings or translucent portions of the key mat. The film layer may be constructed of various materials, such as paper, elastomer, polymer or electric luminescent materials which can be interchangeably inserted into the mobile station to change its appearance.

Claims21

Dependent claims

A mobile station for sending and receiving wireless communication signals, said mobile station comprising:

a housing comprising a first cover and a second cover, said first and second covers configured to mate to form the housing, wherein said first cover has at least one translucent portion;
a wireless communications signal processing assembly positioned in the housing, said processing assembly having a plurality of pressure-sensitive areas, each of said pressure sensitive areas configured to register an input;
a film layer positioned in the housing so as to overlie the signal processing assembly, said film layer including at least one visually detectable characteristic and configured to be positioned in the housing by a user of the mobile station;
and
a key mat positioned in the housing so as to overlie the film layer, said key mat having a plurality of keys, wherein each of the keys is positioned relative to a corresponding one of the pressure sensitive areas so that depression of a key deflects a portion of the film layer and similarly depresses the corresponding pressure-sensitive area, wherein the key mat and film layer are configured to allow observation of the visually detectable characteristic through the translucent portion of the first cover, and wherein at least one of the keys of the key mat is sufficiently translucent to allow observation of the visually detectable characteristic.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.