Flip-Around Keyboard for Mobile Devices
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Solution Overview
Problem
Modern mobile devices face challenges in providing effective user interfaces for both voice and text transmission due to limited space, leading to unsatisfactory input methods for advanced functionalities like email and internet browsing.
Innovation Solution
A flip-around keyboard design for mobile devices that is rotatably coupled to the housing, allowing it to rotate between configurations, enabling a larger display screen while maintaining compact size, and featuring translucent indicia for improved usability in low-light conditions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a traditional keyboard is integrated into the mobile device housing, then the keyboard size is limited by the device space, but the user interface functionality for text input is compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The keyboard is designed to be rotatable relative to the housing, allowing it to dynamically change position between covering and not covering the display. This dynamic configuration enables the keyboard to provide full-size tactile input capabilities when needed while maintaining a compact form factor when the display needs to be fully visible.
Solution Approach 2:
The keyboard is positioned in a third dimension relative to the housing, allowing it to rotate between different planes. This spatial arrangement enables the keyboard to overlay the display when required for text input while not permanently occupying additional device footprint area.
2Area of stationary object
If the display screen size is increased, then the viewing area is improved, but the space available for keyboard and input components is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The rotatable keyboard allows the display area to be fully utilized for viewing while providing on-demand tactile input capability. The keyboard can be rotated into position only when text input is needed, maximizing the display area during media consumption or browsing activities.
3Ease of operation
If a compact device size is maintained, then the portability is improved, but the keyboard size and input effectiveness are compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The keyboard is designed to nest within or overlay the device housing when not in use, similar to a nested doll structure. This allows the full-size keyboard to be accommodated within the compact device volume by utilizing the space above or around the display area when needed.
Data Source
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AI summary
A mobile device having a flip-around keyboard includes a housing, a display, and a keyboard rotatably coupled to the housing. The housing has a top end, a bottom end, a front surface, and a back surface. The display is located on the front surface of the housing. The keyboard is rotatably coupled at about the bottom end of the housing. The keyboard has a front face having a plurality of keys and a rear face opposite the front surface. In a first configuration, the rear face of the keyboard faces the display of the housing. In a second configuration, the front face of the keyboard faces the back surface of the housing. The keyboard can be rotatably coupled to the housing by a coupler that permits greater than two hundred seventy degrees of rotation about a lateral axis parallel to an edge of the housing.