Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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TITLE: A HAND-HELD DISPLAY DEVICE AND A
METHOD OF DISPLAYING SCREEN
IMAGES
Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a hand-held display
l0 device and a method for its use with an electronic device
to display a complete or a determined part of a screen
image.
Description of the Prior Art
Several electronic devices, such as a mobile tele-
phone, a PDA (Personal Digital Assistent), an organizer, or
a PC (personal computer) etc. are provided with a display
or a monitor for displaying different kind of information.
A typical personal computer system, notebook, or hand-held
20 computer consists of a system unit, storage means, a
display, keyboard and a mouse or other interactive input
devices such as a digitizing tablet, joystick, lightpen
etc. to control the computer.
The primary attributes of a display is the size of
25 the display screen; the resolution of the display; and
whether the display is monochrome or in colour. The size of
a display screen can vary from, for example, 5 to 25 inches
in diagonal dimension. The quality of output or the resolu-
tion of a common display or monitor is for example 640x480,
800x600, or 1024x768 pixels.
There is a variety of displays available from differ-
ent vendors. These displays are designed to accomplish par-
ticular functions. An engineer needs a large high-resolu-
tion monitor for CAD-applications and a smaller monochrome
~5 monitor for the display of text and graphic information. A
full-page colour monitor can be utilized for both landscape
and portrait presentations. Also, hand-held data entry de-
vice:> or computers are provided with a small display. A
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common hand-held data entry device has a limited keyboard
and some kind of storage capability for the data. Another
hand-held data entry device combines a hand-held optical
wand with a keyboard. Stock clerks use such devices in
stores to collect and enter reorder data.
For some purposes small flat-panels are required to
save space. Flat-panels are used in conjunction with small
size electronic devices such as notebooks, hand-held com-
puters, mobile telephones etc.
Many vendors offer or are just about to offer hand-
held computers. These computers are provided with flat-
panels having for example a 640x240 resolution touchscreen,
or 480x240 resolution touchscreen. Such panels or display
screens cannot be too limited in size and resolution to be
IS useful for their intended purpose, i.e. to present general
software applications such as word processing, desktop pub-
lishing, spreadsheet, databases, Internet applications etc.
The limitations are set in view of the sight properties of
a human being.
2« Consequently, a problem associated with prior art
computer configurations is that access is needed to several
types of computers provided with different displays suit-
able for different kinds of applications. As described
above, a very small sized flat-panel of a hand-held data
25 entry device, a mobile telephone, or a computer etc. is not
at the same time capable of display full-screen documents
in a proper and readable way.
JP-A-7 234 664 discloses a document image display,
which reads out the contents of a document using a scanner
3U and the image of the document is stored in a page memory.
An area of the document specified by an operator is read
from the memory and then magnified. The magnified area,
stored in a working memory, is then displayed on an operd-
tion display.
iS
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Summary of the Invention
The present invention is directed to an improved dis-
play device for use with an electronic device, which over-
comes one or more of the limitations and disadvantages of
the related art.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a
hand-held display device for use with an electronic device,
said display device being suitable for the purpose of a
hand-held data entry device as well as for both landscape
and portrait presentations of a full-page word processing
document. Further, it can satisfy the needs of an engineer
working with CAD-applications as well as for the display of
text and graphic information. Also, hand-held computers can
be provided with a display device of the present invention.
Consequently, another object of the present invention
is to provide a hand-held display device for use with a
computer to display a complete or a determined part of a
screen image in a proper size with regard to the current
needs or requirements of a user.
Still another object of the invention is to provide a _
display device incorporated in an electronic device such as
a mobile telephone, a PDA (Personal Digital Assistent), an
organizer, a data terminal to display a complete or a
determined part of a screen image in a proper size with
regard to the current needs or requirements of a user.
These objects are accomplished by a display device
having movement sensitive means such as a micro gyroscope,
strain gauge, piezo-electric, or equilibrium of force
accelerometer etc incorporated in said display device,
3c> thereby being responsive to movements in the space for
displaying the complete screen image in different magnifi-
cations, or in different parts.
Further, a method of displaying a complete or a de-
termined part of a screen image in a proper size with re=
Bard to the current needs or requirements of a user is also
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provide by the invention, wherein said display device is
activated by pressing an activation control button of said
display-device, and said display device is moved essen- ,
tially in the plane of said display device, whereby differ-
s ent parts of a complete screen image are shown on said dis-
play screen, and/or said display device is moved essen-
tially in a direction perpendicular to the plane of said
display device, whereby the magnification of said screen
image is changing.
Brief Description of the Drawiags
In order to explain the invention in more detail and
the advantages and features of the invention a preferred
embodiment will be described in detail below, reference be-
ing made to the accompanying drawings, in which
FIG 1 is a front view of a display device according
to one embodiment of the present invention, showing a
cutting of a complete screen image,
FIG 2 is a schematical view of the complete screen
image including the cutting in FIG 1, on a conventional
CRT-device with a superimposed virtual display device
according to the present invention,
FIG 3 is a view of a computer configuration provided
with the display device according to the invention, ope-
rated by a user,
FIG 4 is a front view of the display device of FIG 1,
showing the complete screen image of FIG 2 in a compressed
shape, and
FIG 5 is a front view of a mobile telephone provided
3o with a display device according to the invention.
Detailed Description of the Invention
A display device 1 according to the present invention
for use with an electronic device such as a mobile tele-
iS phone, a PDA (Personal Digital Assistent), an organizer, a
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data terminal or a computer to display a complete or a de-
termined part of a screen image is shown in FIG 1. Said
display device is provided with control circuits, not shown
in FIG 1. A display screen 2 and control buttons 3, such as
5 touch control buttons, are incorporated in said display de-
vice 1 and connected to said control circuits. For connec-
tion with a computer or a network connection means 4, for
example an IR (infra red) or radio transmitter/receiver, or
a connection cabel etc, is attached to the display device.
Movement sensitive means 6 comprising a micro gyro-
scope, strain gauge, piezo-electric, or equilibrium of
force accelerometer etc is incorporated in said display de-
vice 1 and connected to said control circuits, said display
device being responsive to movements in the space for dis-
t5 playing the complete screen image in different magnifica-
tions, and/or different parts of a screen image.
Power supply for the display device is provided by
for example local batteries, sunlight power, kinetic
energy, or the power supply of an attached computer.
One of said control buttons 3 is an activation con-
trol button provided for activation of said display device
1 to be responsive for movements. Thus, said display device
1 is activated by pressing said activation control button
3, and then by moving said display device 1 essentially in
the plane of said display device, different parts of a
screen image are shown on the display screen 2.
This is schematically illustrated in FIG 2, wherein a
cutting 8, corresponding to the image shown on the display
screen 2 in FIG 1, is surrounded by a superimposed dashed
;« virtual display device 9 corresponding to the size of the
display device 1. When said virtual display device 9 is
moved around on said screen image 7, different cutting: f3
are covered. Correspondingly, these cuttings R are dis-
played when the real display device 1 is moved in the ~~lane
;5 of said display device.
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As shown in FIG 3, a user 10 is moving said display
device up and down, illustrated by an arrow 11, and to the
left and right, illustrated by an arrow 12, to present
different parts of the screen image 7. In a particular po-
sition in the space the cutting 8 of the screen image 7 is
presented on the display screen 2. Hence, it is possible
for the user of the display device 1 to read text that does
not actually fit into the small display screen 2, by moving
the display device a short distance in space in the plane
t0 of said display device.
By activation of said display device 1 by pressing
said activation control button 3 and then moving said dis-
play device back and forth, essentially in a direction per-
pendicular to the plane of said display device, illustrated
by an arrow 14, the magnification of said screen image 7 is
changed or the image is zoomed. As shown in FIG 3 and in
more detail in FIG 4, it is possible to zoom out as much as
an overview of the complete screen image 7 is shown on the
display device 1.
2O> It should be apparent that the present invention pro-
vides an improved display device 1 and a method for use
with an electronic device such as a computer 13 to display
a complete or a determined part of a screen image 7 by
moving said display device 1 in the space, wherein differ-
2s ent parts of the screen image 7 are shown in different
magnifications on said display screen 2. Although the
invention has been described in conjunction with a specific
embodiment thereof, this invention is susceptible of
embodiments in different forms, with the understanding that
the present disclosure is to be considered as an exempli-
fication of the principles of the invention and is not
intended to limit the invention to the specific embodiment
i17ustrated.
For example, in another embodiment of the invention
5 t:h~~ <~ifferenr_ parts: display :~creen, movement sen~._,~itive
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means, control buttons, electronic circuits and/or
connection means, of said display device can be
incorporated as a single unit or as separate parts in an
electronic device such as a mobile telephone, a PDA
(Personal Digital Assistent), an organizer, data terminal,
or a hand-held computer, wherein the operations described
above are performed in a similar manner. Consequently, the
conventional keypad of the particular electronic device may
comprise control buttons for the display functions of the
invention. Further, these kinds of electronic devices,
provided with a display device of the invention, can work
as stand alone devices with no need for connection means,
as well as devices having a connection with another
electronic device or network.
In a particular embodiment of the invention said dis-
play device is incorporated in a mobile telephone unit pro-
viding both computer and telephone facilities, shown in FIG
S. The conventional transmitter/receiver units of the
mobile telephone may be utilized as connection means for
connection with other electronic devices or networks.
Different kinds of technologies can be utilized for
the display screen 2, such as LCD (liquid crystal display),
gas plasma, EL (electroluminescent), TFT (thin film
transistor) etc.
