Camera Hinge Interface for Optimal User Orientation
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
In laptops, integrated cameras often face challenges with optimal positioning due to evolving form factors, such as narrower bezels and thinner displays, leading to suboptimal angles and reduced resolution, especially when placed in the keyboard assembly or bottom of the display, and fail to maintain a user-facing orientation in 360-degree hinge configurations.
Innovation Solution
A camera is mechanically interfaced with the hinge of an information handling system, allowing it to rotate as the display assembly moves relative to the keyboard assembly, ensuring the camera remains optimally positioned and user-facing across various configurations, including tablet mode.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Volume of moving object
If the camera is placed in the keyboard assembly in a fixed position, then the camera can be positioned in the keyboard assembly which has more space, but the camera will not be at an optimal angle for the user's position
Solution Approach 1:
The camera is mounted on the hinge assembly rather than being fixed in the keyboard assembly, allowing the camera to dynamically adjust its orientation as the display moves. This enables the camera to maintain an optimal viewing angle relative to the user across different laptop configurations while still utilizing the space available in the keyboard assembly area.
2Manufacturing precision
If the camera is placed in the keyboard assembly, then more space is available for a higher-quality camera, but the camera will face away from the user when the laptop is in tablet mode
Solution Approach 1:
By mounting the camera on the hinge assembly that moves with the display, the camera automatically reorients itself as the laptop transitions between modes. In tablet mode, the camera rotates to face the user, whereas a fixed keyboard-mounted camera would face away. This dynamic mounting preserves both camera quality and adaptability across form factors.
3Shape
If the camera is integrated into the laptop form factor with narrower bezels and thinner displays, then the laptop form factor is improved, but the camera becomes smaller, lower resolution, and of shorter lens length
Solution Approach 1:
The camera is extracted from the constrained bezel area and repositioned to the hinge assembly, where it can maintain higher resolution and longer lens length even as bezels narrow and displays thin. This separation allows the camera to be positioned optimally without being limited by the shrinking display assembly space.
Data Source
AI summary
In accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure, a system may include a first member, a second member hingedly coupled to the first member via a hinge, and a camera mechanically interfaced with the hinge such that as the first member is rotated relative to the second member about the hinge, the camera rotates as a function of the rotation of the first member relative to the second member.