Hemispherical Cradle Docking for Automatic Device Orientation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing intelligent electronic devices, such as mobile robots, face limitations in portability and user-friendliness due to their size and complexity, making it difficult for users to carry them around and interact with them easily.
Innovation Solution
An electronic device and cradle system where the device has a hemispherical housing with a camera module, sensor module, and processor to determine and adjust its orientation based on interaction with the cradle, allowing for easy carrying and orientation adjustment without manual alignment, using a communication module to send control data to the cradle for movement and wireless charging.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If the electronic device is made portable with a compact design, then ease of carrying is improved, but the device lacks automatic orientation adjustment capability
Solution Approach 1:
The cradle serves as an intermediary device that provides automatic orientation adjustment capabilities. The electronic device places its orientation adjustment needs on the cradle, which then uses motors and sensors to automatically orient the device toward the user without adding complexity to the portable device itself.
Solution Approach 2:
The manual mechanical orientation adjustment is replaced with an automated electromechanical system. The cradle uses motor-driven mechanisms controlled by sensors and processors to automatically adjust the device orientation, eliminating the need for manual mechanical adjustment by the user.
2Ease of operation
If the electronic device includes automatic orientation adjustment, then user interaction is improved, but the device size and weight increase
Solution Approach 1:
The cradle acts as a mediator that houses the motors, sensors, and power supply needed for automatic orientation adjustment. This allows the electronic device itself to remain lightweight and portable, while the heavier orientation adjustment components are located in the stationary cradle.
Solution Approach 2:
The system is divided into two segments: a lightweight portable electronic device and a stationary cradle containing the orientation adjustment mechanisms. This segmentation allows the device to maintain portability while the cradle provides the heavier automatic adjustment functionality.
3Ease of operation
If the electronic device uses a hemispherical housing, then portability and ease of placement are improved, but precise orientation control becomes more difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The cradle incorporates sensors that detect the orientation and position of the hemispherical device, and the processor uses this feedback information to calculate and execute the precise motor movements needed to orient the device correctly toward the user, overcoming the challenges of the hemispherical shape.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of relying on precise mechanical alignment features that would be difficult to implement with a hemispherical shape, the system uses sensor-based detection and motor-driven adjustment to achieve precise orientation control, replacing mechanical precision requirements with electromechanical control.
Data Source
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AI summary
An electronic device to be put on a cradle may include a housing including a part in a hemispherical shape and physically coming into contact with the cradle in an arbitrary position when the electronic device is put on the cradle, a display arranged on another part of the housing, a camera module to obtain an image in a direction that the display faces, a sensor module to sense an orientation of the electronic device; and a processor to determine a target orientation of the electronic device based on the obtained image, and create control data to change the orientation of the electronic device based on the sensed orientation and the target orientation of the electronic device.