Adding I/O ports to mobile device via smart interchangeable cover

[0001] This application is a continuation-in-part application, claiming priority to

• • [0002] (a) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/087,098, filed Mar. 1, 2002, entitled “PERSONALIZING ELECTRONIC DEVICES AND SMART COVERING”, which itself claims priority to its provisional filing No. 60/306,326, on Jul. 17, 2001;
  • [0003] (b) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/932,154, filed Aug. 17, 2001, entitled “MOBILE ELECTRONIC DEVICE AND COVERING FOR SIMILAR DEVICES WITH ORNAMENT ATTACHMENT MECHANISM”, which itself claims priority to its provisional filing No. 60/292,123, on May 17, 2001; and
  • [0004] (c) U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/418,926, filed Oct. 15, 2002, entitled “Adding I/O Port to Mobile Device via Smart Interchangeable Cover”.

[0005] The present invention relates to the field of mobile devices. More specifically, the present invention is related to adding input/output (I/O) ports to mobile devices, such as wireless mobile phones, personal digital assistants (PDA) and so forth, via smart interchangeable covers.

[0006] Advances in microprocessor and telecommunication technology have led to wide spread deployment and adoption of mobile devices, such as wireless mobile phones and PDA. For wireless mobile phones, in addition to wireless telephony, the late models are often equipped with advanced capabilities, such as calendar, address book, games, access to the World Wide Web (WWW), emails, instant messaging, and so forth. Similarly, for PDA, in addition to calendar and address book functions, the late models are often equipped with advanced capabilities, such as wireless telephony, word processing, spreadsheets, and so forth. In other words, for advanced models, there are increasing cross over or convergent of the functionalities.

[0007] However, because of the compactness of the mobile device, typically only limited number of control keys are available to operate these advanced functionalities. For example, in the case of wireless mobile phones, typically only a 12-key keypad plus a handful of control buttons are available, and in the case of PDA, only a handful of control buttons are available. As a result, usability and in turn the user experience of these advanced functions are poor, which in turn leads to the reduced acceptance of the advanced functions, removal of economic incentives for further development and introduction of the advanced functions.

[0008] Some prior art mobile devices support the provision of addition control keys, such as an alphabet-keys, through the attachment of a peripheral device, such as a keyboard, to an I/O port of the mobile device. However, as described earlier, because of the inherit compactness of mobile devices, only limited number of I/O ports, typically one, is available for attachment of external peripherals.

[0009] Thus, a need exists to provide more expansion I/O ports to allow more external peripherals to be attached to a mobile device.

[0019] The present invention includes an interchangeable cover equipped to add at least one I/O port to a mobile device.

[0020] Parts of the description will be presented in terms, such as mobile devices, cover, I/O ports, interface and so forth, consistent with the manner commonly employed by those skilled in the art to convey the substance of their work to others skilled in the art. As well understood by those skilled in the art, the terms “mobile devices” as used herein, including in the claims, comprise wireless mobile phones, PDA, and other devices of the like.

[0021] The term “cover” as used herein refers to a part that inherently include multiple surfaces that cover at least multiple ones of the exterior surfaces of the body or core unit of a mobile device, where the exterior surfaces are inherently disposed in different geometric planes. Accordingly, while a “cover” may come in many variants, as illustrated by the description to follow, a “card” like part, i.e. a part having the form factor of a “credit card”, a PCMCIA card, a PC card, a Compact Flash card and so forth, is not a “cover”, for the purpose of the present application. A “card” like part, for the purpose of the present application, by definition, is considered to occupy only one geometric plane.

[0022] In the following description, various aspects of the present invention will be described. However, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced with only some or all aspects of the present invention. For purposes of explanation, specific numbers, materials and configurations are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. However, it will be apparent to one skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced without the specific details. In other instances, well-known features are omitted or simplified in order not to obscure the present invention.

[0023] Various operations will be described as multiple discrete steps in turn, in a manner that is most helpful in understanding the present invention, however, the order of description should not be construed as to imply that these operations are necessarily order dependent. In particular, these operations need not be performed in the order of presentation. The phrase “in one embodiment” is used repeatedly. The phrase generally does not refer to the same embodiment, however, it may. The terms “comprising”, “having” and “including” are synonymous, unless the context dictates otherwise.

[0024] FIG. 1 illustrates an overview of the interchangeable cover of the present invention, in accordance with one embodiment. As illustrated, interchangeable cover 100 of the present invention is advantageously endowed with a number of I/O ports 102-104 and complementary electronics (see FIGS. 2 and 4) to facilitate addition of I/O ports 102-104 to a complementarily equipped mobile device, to which interchangeable cover 100 is attached.

[0025] I/O ports 102-104 are intended to represent a broad range of I/O ports known in the art, including but are not limited to PS/2 mouse port, serial port, parallel port, universal serial bus (USB) port, and IEEE 1394 serial bus port. For the illustrated embodiment, I/O ports 102-104 are disposed at a side edge of the face surface of cover body 110 of cover 100. On attachment to a mobile device, the side edge is orthogonal to the edge where the base set of I/O ports of the mobile device are located (see FIG. 3).

[0026] In alternate embodiments, I/O ports 102-104 may be I/O ports of other types, and/or disposed in other locations of cover body 110 of cover 100.

[0027] Still referring to FIG. 1, for the illustrated embodiment, cover body 110 of cover 100 has a substantially “rotated” U-shape or “taco shell” shape. Cover 100 is designed to attach to a core unit of a mobile device (such as the core unit of wireless mobile phone 300 of FIG. 3), in a side way manner (as denoted by arrow 310 of FIG. 3). For the embodiment, cover body 110 has multiple surfaces occupying different geometric planes, and covers at least partially each of a front, a side and a back exterior surface of the core unit of phone 300. For the embodiment, cover body 110 is designed to be snapped on to the core unit of a mobile device.

[0028] In alternate embodiments, cover body 110 may assume a body shape other than the illustrated “rotated” U-shape. Cover body 110 may also be designed to attach to a core unit of a mobile device in manner that is other than a side way manner. Similarly, cover body 110 may also be designed to attach to a core unit of a mobile device in a non-snapped on manner, even employing one or more fasteners. A number of these alternate embodiments are further described later.

[0029] As illustrated in FIG. 2, the complementary electronics of cover 100 are packaged as an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) 202. For the illustrated embodiment, ASIC 202 has output “pins” that are similar to the output pins of embedded ASIC found in what's commonly referred to as “SIM chips”. Further, ASIC 202 is disposed on the inside “side” surface of “rotated” U-shape body 110.

[0030] I/O ports 102-104 are coupled to ASIC 202 by way of traces disposed on the inside surfaces of “rotated” U-shape body 110. In various embodiments, a protective interior layer may be included with cover body 110 to protect the traces. The protective interior layer may be made of any one of a number of known suitable materials, such as plastics.

[0031] In alternate embodiments, ASIC 202 may employ output “pins” of other types. ASIC 202 may be disposed in other location or locations of cover body 110. Further, the complementary electronics may be “packaged” in other manners.

[0032] FIG. 3 illustrates a perspective view of cover 100 of the present invention, attached to a core unit of a mobile device. For the illustrated embodiment, mobile device 300 is a wireless mobile phone. In particular, mobile device 300 includes a base set of I/O ports 302 disposed at a “bottom” surface, and an expansion I/O interface disposed at a “side” surface (covered by cover 100). The “side” surface and the “bottom” surface are orthogonal to each other.

[0033] The base set of I/O ports 302 may comprise a radio audio output port, a telephony output port, a general purpose serial/parallel output port, and so forth.

[0034] The expansion I/O interface comprises contacts that are complementary to the output “pins” of ASIC 202. Further, the expansion I/O interface is disposed at a location on an outer surface of the core unit of mobile device 300 corresponding to the disposition location of ASIC 202 on cover body 110.

[0035] From the descriptions to follow, it shall be readily apparent to one skilled in the art that the present invention may also be practiced with other types of interfaces, as well as with other mobile devices, in particular, personal digital assistants, with other base set of I/O ports and other disposition of the base set of I/O ports.

[0036] FIG. 4 illustrates an architectural view of the relevant complementary electronics, in accordance with one embodiment. For the embodiment, the relevant complementary electronics 400 includes an analog-to-digital converter 402a, a digital-to-analog converter 402b, protocol processor 403, storage unit 404, and input/output (I/O) interface 406, coupled to each other as shown.

[0037] Analog-to-digital converter 402a is employed to digitize the analog signals received through I/O ports 102-104. Similarly, digital-to-analog converter 402b is employed to convert digital signals into analog signals for output through I/O ports 102-104.

[0038] Where applicable, protocol processor 403 is employed to recover the input data, and to package the output data for output in cases where data are inputted and outputted in accordance with a pre-defined protocol, e.g. in the cases of a USB port or an IEEE 1394 serial bus port. Where applicable, for input data, protocol processor 403 performs the appropriate acknowledgement, processing of the header packet, extraction of data from the data packets, and so forth. Similarly, where applicable, for output data, protocol processor 403 performs the appropriate formation of data packets, formation of header packets, request for the serial bus and so forth.

[0039] Storage unit 404 is employed to store the digitized input data received through I/O ports 102-104, and to store the digital data to be outputted through I/O ports 102-104.

[0040] In various embodiments, storage unit 404 may be any one of a number of non-volatile memory known in the art, including but not limited to EEPROM, and so forth. In various embodiments, the storage locations of storage-unit 404 may be memory mapped into the memory space of mobile device 300.

[0041] I/O interface 406 facilitates an application or a system service of mobile device 300 in reading the inputs provided using I/O ports 102-104, and to writing the outputs to be outputted through I/O ports 102-104. As described earlier, I/O interface 406 may be any one of a number of I/O interfaces known in the art.

[0042] FIG. 5 illustrates mobile device 300 in further detail, in accordance with one embodiment. As alluded to earlier, for the illustrated embodiment, mobile device 300 is a wireless mobile phone; however, for other embodiments, mobile device 300 may be other mobile devices, including but are not limited to PDA.

[0043] As illustrated in FIG. 5, the core unit of wireless mobile phone 300 includes conventional elements, such as micro-controller/processor 502, digital signal processor (DSP) 504, non-volatile memory 506, general purpose input/output (GPIO) interface 508, radio receiver 510, and transmit/receive (TX/RX) 512 (also known as a transceiver), coupled to each other via bus 514, and disposed on a circuit board 520.

[0044] The core unit of wireless mobile phone 300 is endowed with a software implementation of a device driver 532 in support of the electronics packaged in ASIC 202.

[0045] Except for device driver 532 provided to mobile device 300, which relevant operating logic will be described more fully below, each of these elements 502-514 performs its conventional function known in the art, and is intended to represent a broad range of such element and its equivalents. In particular, GPIO 508 is configured to generate an interrupt notifying control processor 502 of data read from cover 100, which in turn directly or indirectly causes an application of mobile device 300 to be invoked and process the data read. Likewise, GPIO 508 is configured to write output data to be outputted through I/O ports 102/104 onto storage unit 404, on request of control processor 502.

[0046] Further, TX/RX 512 may be designed to support one or more of any of the known signaling protocols, including but are not limited to CDMA, TDMA, GSM, and so forth. Moreover TX/RX 512 may be implemented using separate transmitter and receiver.

[0047] Accordingly, elements 502-514 will not be further described.

[0048] As illustrated in FIG. 6a, upon invocation, device driver 532 of mobile device 300 attempts to read the memory mapped storage locations of cover 100 (hereinafter, simply input buffer on cover 100), block 602. At block 604, device driver 532 determines if data were present and read. If no data were present and read, the process continues back at block 602.

[0049] However, if data were read, device driver 532 stores the data read in storage locations of memory 506 of mobile device 300 (hereinafter, simply, input buffer in mobile device 300), block 606. As alluded to earlier, device driver 532 further notifies processor 502, causing an application to process the data read, block 608. Thereafter, the process continues back at block 602 again.

[0050] Similarly, as illustrated in FIG. 6b, upon invocation, device driver 532 of mobile device 300 attempts to read the storage locations of cover 100 allocated for storing data to be outputted through I/O ports 102-104 (hereinafter, simply output buffer on mobile device 300), block 622. At block 624, device driver 532 determines if data were present and read. If no data were present and read, the process continues back at block 622.

[0051] However, if data were read, device driver 532 writes the data read out into storage locations of storage unit 404 of cover 100 (hereinafter, simply, output buffer of cover 100), block 626. If appropriate, device driver 532 further notifies protocol processor 403 to package the data for output through I/O devices 102-104, block 628. Thereafter, the process continues back at block 622 again.

[0052] Accordingly, data may be advantageously inputted and/or outputted for mobile device 300 using added I/O ports 102-104.

[0053] FIG. 7 illustrates an alternate embodiment of the present invention. More specifically, FIG. 7 illustrates an exploded view of a mobile phone 800 having core unit 800b and cover 800a, endowed with the teachings of the present invention. Similar to mobile phone 300 of FIG. 3, core unit 800b of mobile phone 800 includes in particular, a number of input keys 802, display 804, expansion interface 806, and internal components similar to those of FIG. 5. As described earlier, the internal components are equipped with logic to enable additions of I/O ports 822 and 824 to mobile phone 800. Further, core unit 800b includes a front and a number of side and end exteriors surfaces 810a-810e, disposed in different geometric planes.

[0054] Cover 800a is of a face plate type, having “cut outs” 822, to facilitate mating with core unit 800b. When mated, cover 800a covers at least front surface 810a and one of the side and end surfaces 810b-810e of core unit 800b. As the embodiment of FIG. 1, cover 800a includes a number of I/O ports 822-824, and electronic component 836 having earlier described complementary logic, to add I/O ports 822-824 to mobile device 800.

[0055] FIGS. 9a-9c illustrate yet another embodiment of the present invention. More specifically, FIGS. 9a-9c illustrate three mated views of a mobile phone 900 having a core unit and cover 910, endowed with the teachings of the present invention. Unlike the earlier described embodiments, the core unit of mobile phone 900 has a multi-section form factor comprising a first section 902 and a second section 904, and the second section 904 is further comprised of at least two sub-sections 904a-904b. The first and second sections 902-904 may pivot towards each other as denoted by direction arrow 906a or away from each other opposite to the direction denoted by arrow 906a. Sub-section 904a may rotate relative to sub-section 904b as denoted by the directions denoted by arrows 906b-906c. In other words, mobile phone 900 may be considered as an improved version of what is commonly referred to as “flip” phones.

[0056] Similar to mobile phones 300 and 800 of FIGS. 3 and 8, the core unit of mobile phone 900 includes in particular, display 908, a number of input keys and expansion interface (covered by cover 910), and internal components similar to those of FIG. 5. As described earlier, the internal components are equipped with logic to enable additions of I/O ports 922 and 924 to mobile phone 900. Further, section 904 of mobile phone 900 with which cover 910 is to mate, includes a front and a number of side and end exteriors surfaces, disposed in different geometric planes.

[0057] Cover 910 is of a type similar to cover 100 of FIG. 1, i.e. I/O ports 922 and 924 to be added to mobile phone 900 and electronic component 926 are similarly disposed. As before, upon mating with section 904 of mobile phone 900, cover 910 covers at least partially a front surface and one of the side and end surfaces of section 904. For the embodiment, by rotating sub-section 904a relative to subsection 904b of section 904, I/O ports 922 and 924 may be made available for use in different sides of mobile phone 900, depending on the user's preference, e.g. whether the user is left handed or right handed.

[0058] Thus, it can be seen from the above descriptions, a novel method for adding input/output ports to a mobile device, have been described.

[0059] While the present invention has been described in terms of the foregoing embodiments, those skilled in the art will recognize that the invention is not limited to the embodiments described. The present invention can be practiced with modification and alteration within the spirit and scope of the appended claims. Thus, the description is to be regarded as illustrative instead of restrictive on the present invention.