EP1352313A1

EP1352313A1 - Computer or telephone incorporated in a garment

Info

Publication number: EP1352313A1
Application number: EP02711927A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Olivier Lapidus
Original assignee: Medialux
Current assignee: Medialux
Priority date: 2001-01-10
Filing date: 2002-01-09
Publication date: 2003-10-15
Also published as: WO2002056163A1; FR2819371B1; FR2819371A1

Abstract

The invention concerns a computer or telephone consisting of a keyboard (2), a display (3) connected to the keyboard (2) by a connection (4), optionally an earphone and a microphone, a power supply and an electronic device, wherein the display (3), the keyboard (3) and the intermediate connection (4) constitute a single unit (1) in the form of three flexibly interconnected flat elements, enclosed in a flexible housing (30, 30') and incorporated in a garment, by catching means consisting for example of a clip fastener comprising a rear frame and an front frame adapted to be arranged on the front and on the rear of the edge of the housing (30, 30').

Description

Computer or telephone integrated into a garment

The present invention relates to a computer or telephone integrated into a garment.

EP 1050793, US 5572401, 5774338, 5555490, 5416310 and 5912653 are already known from portable computers or computer elements integrated into clothing. Most of the time, these computers are constituted by elements of more or less small dimensions arranged in numerous pockets formed on the garment and connected by flexible connections which can be integrated into the garment.

There are also known telephones produced in the form of watches worn on the wrist, for example by documents US 5499292, 5659611 and 6035035, or WO 99/13629 which relates to a one-touch security telephone for children.

Document WO 99/63792 also discloses a flexible and flat computer which can be placed under a plastic envelope and integrated into a wallet or a wristwatch. However, no means of integration with a garment is shown.

Document US Pat. No. 6,155,841 shows a keyboard, for example a telephone keyboard, placed in the sleeve of a garment, but the other constituent elements of the device must be held in the hand. There is no full integration. The inventor himself has already had the opportunity to propose the concept of a telephone integrated into a garment, but the conditions allowing this integration in a practical and elegant manner have not been described or disclosed.

This is the object of the present invention. The invention achieves its object thanks to a computer or a telephone consisting of a keyboard, a screen connected to the keyboard by a connection, if necessary an earpiece and a microphone, a power supply and electronics, characterized in that the screen, the keyboard and the intermediate connection constitute a unit produced in the form of three flat elements interconnected in a flexible manner and integrated into a garment, of preferably at the level of a sleeve. The unit, or at least the keyboard and / or the screen thereof, is integrated in a protective envelope made of flexible polymer, and the latter is provided with removable means of attachment to the garment, which makes it possible to remove the phone to wash the garment. The attachment is preferably done by clipping, in particular a semi-flexible clipping.

The connection is itself made in the form of a wired connection or a flat connection ("multiplex" ribbon). The screen can be a light emitting diode, liquid crystal or light emitting polymer (LEP) screen. The screen can in particular be a flexible screen, as described in document US 5436744. The keyboard can consist of a rigid or preferably flexible assembly; flexible keyboards are described in documents US 5555550, 5666112 and 5305181. The screen can also be a touch screen, in which case the unit consists of the touch screen alone, the keyboard and the connection having disappeared.

In this way, the unit can be integrated into a garment, and in particular a sleeve of garment without inconvenience the wearer of the garment and without interfering with his movements. The microphone is preferably provided at the level of the collar of the garment and an earpiece, which can be removed from the collar, serves as a headset. The electronics and the batteries can be, depending on their volume and weight, associated with the unit or preferably dissociated (for example at the bottom of the garment). The various elements are interconnected by an appropriate connection, in particular by wires or by a wireless link, for example radio. The unit can be incorporated into the same fabric of the sleeve of a garment, possibly revealing the keyboard on the one hand and the screen on the other hand through a window provided with transparent protection or d 'a flap.

The attachment means can also be means by complementarity of form (for example the envelope having a male form which can cooperate for attachment with a female form of a receiving part fixed to the garment). The attachment means may optionally be textile connection pads, for example of the velvet and hook type, such as VELCRO® bands The protective envelope can take any form, including the usual three-dimensional shape of a telephone handset. The garment, in particular the sleeve of a high garment such as a jacket or the like, may provide a protected housing accessible from the outside by a zipper, to receive the unit. The polymer used can include fillers lowering the density of the polymer, or creating pores, or modifying the thermal qualities of the material, such as PCM ("phase changing material", materials for phase change, allowing temperature maintenance). The unit can also be overmolded with a polymer, or sandwiched between two flexible polymer shells, leaving the unit with its generally substantially planar shape. The flexible polymer can in particular be a deformable incompressible and advantageously translucent polymer, and in particular a polymer of the type described in document WO98 / 18857 such as a polyurethane gel. The unit is preferably fully protected by the casing, but the casing can also be produced in two parts covering on the one hand the keyboard and on the other hand the screen and connected by the flat connection. In both cases, the envelope is sealed. It is this flexible, thin and flat envelope, containing the telephone unit whatever the technical embodiment thereof, and cooperating with means of attachment to the garment, which constitutes the heart of the invention. Advantageously, the envelope (or the two parts of the envelope) thus obtained comprises a chamfer or a marginal edge which is fairly thin and devoid of sensitive elements, serving to secure the unit to the garment. Although this joining can be done by sewing, gluing or welding, it is advantageously done by means of a clipping fastener, in particular a semi-flexible clipping, for example thanks to the fact that the fastener advantageously comprises a rear frame and a frame semi-rigid front likely to come at the rear and at the front of the marginal edge of the envelope to tighten and fix it, quick removable fastening means being provided between the two frames, for example means of snap. The joining means may be means with complementary shape between the two frames themselves, or independent elements coming to connect the frames together in a simple and removable manner. One of the frames can be attached by permanence to the garment. The invention can be applied to the fixing of a keyboard or a screen for a portable microcomputer.

The telephone keypad can be reduced to a single key as taught by document W099 / 13269 and used to make an emergency telephone for children, the pressure maintained for example three seconds on the single key on the keyboard triggering the dialing of an emergency number such as that of the parents or the police.

The telephone unit can apply the invention described in document FR 2577116; the garment intended for a winter or mountain environment, is equipped with solar collectors and storage batteries, supplying a resistance integrated in the protective casing of the unit so as to heat the elements of the unit and allow their good functioning despite the surrounding cold. Reheating also eliminates fogging. The invention will be better understood and other advantages and characteristics will be highlighted on reading the following description, referring to the attached drawing in which:

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a telephone unit that can be integrated into a garment, in accordance with the invention, FIG. 2 shows a garment incorporating a telephone unit according to the invention,

FIG. 3 shows another exemplary embodiment of a telephone unit, with its connections to the headset and to the microphone,

FIG. 4 shows an exemplary embodiment of a pseudo-handset made of soft polymer enclosing a telephone unit,

FIG. 5 shows a schematic example of integration of the pseudocombined with a sleeve of clothing,

FIG. 6 shows the sandwiching of a telephone unit of the invention between two soft polymer shells, FIG. 7 shows an example of clips for clipping a telephone unit,

FIG. 8 shows an example of a telephone unit equipped with a heating resistor,

FIG. 9 shows an example of a child safety telephone unit. The basic unit of the invention allowing it to be integrated into a garment is the unit 1 shown in FIG. 1 and comprising a flat keyboard 2, preferably flexible, a flat screen 3, also preferably flexible, and a wired connection (Figure 3) or flat 4 (multiplex type, Figure 1) single or multiple, preferably short (from one to a few centimeters) The keyboard is preferably a soft or soft keyboard, made by a flexible base 5, connections flexible plates 6 and a flexible set of keys 7 comprising at least numeric keys 8 and possibly function keys 9. The flexibility of the connection 4 and possibly the flexibility of the screen 3 and of the keyboard 2 allow easy integration into a sleeve 10 of a garment 11, at the level of the forearm for example, as illustrated in FIGS. 2 and 5, without discomfort for the user. The screen 3 and the keyboard 2 appear through windows 12 of the garment, possibly closed by a transparent protection (for example for the screen) and flexible (at least for the keyboard so as to allow actuation of the keys through shutter), or simply by a flap 13 closing and opening, or without protection at all provided that the screen 3 and the keyboard 2 are waterproof, for example thanks to the polymeric envelope which will be described later. The garment also incorporates, in various places, other elements of the computer or ^" telephone, such as for example batteries 14 and electronics 14 '(rather located towards the bottom of the jacket, for example at the level of the belt , or near the fitting under the arm), a microphone 15 which can advantageously be placed at the level of the collar or a hood (or left in the form of a visible microphone 15 '), and an earpiece 16 which the user has in his ear before use. All these elements are connected by appropriate connections, in particular flexible wired connections, such connections are known for example from document US 5416310. The unit 1 which has been described can be included, for example by injection molding, in a polymeric plastic material, preferably relatively soft, for example three-dimensional, in particular in the form of a traditional telephone handset 20 on the back of which the screen 3 and keys appear s 8 of the keyboard 2 (the keyboard and the screen have been represented with a shape different from those of FIG. 1). The "combined" 20 little moreover include other components of the phone, such as batteries or others. The attachment of the "handset" 20 to the garment is advantageously carried out using hook-and-loop textile pads (for example velvet-hook elements of the VELCRO® type) provided on the underside of the "handset" 20 and on the garment itself -same, for example in an elongated pocket 21 provided in the sleeve 10 and closed by a zipper 22. The polymer making the "combined" 20 is advantageously a very light polymer, in particular porous, or even inflatable.

In its preferred version, the unit 1 is enclosed in a relatively flat flexible polymeric envelope, for example in flexible polyurethane elastomer, in particular in deformable and incompressible polyurethane gel, possibly translucent or even transparent, colored or not, either by sandwiching between two flexible shells 30, 30 'as shown in Figure 6, either by molding. The envelope which seals the elements while retaining flexibility, may preferably cover the entire unit including connection 4, or else cover separately at least one or the other of the keyboard 2 and the screen 3. FIG. 7 represents an embodiment in which the screen 3 and the keyboard 2 are both covered separately with a soft transparent polymeric envelope 303 and 302 which leaves a perimeter planar marginal border 31 serving for the fixing of the elements on the garment. This same border 31 is also provided in the case where the envelope is unique, and / or produced by sandwiching.

Front 32 and rear 33 frames preferably made of semi-rigid material, in particular plastic, are provided in shapes corresponding substantially to those of the edges 31. The rear frames 33 are advantageously arranged in a fixed manner on the garment, for example by sewing. Transverse elements of quick connection, optionally male and female 34 are provided to cooperate with the frames 32, 33 and the edge 31 to come to clamp the edge 31 in place between the frames 32, 33. The elements 34 may be screwable elements, plastic or metal, or snap-on plastic fasteners, etc. Holes 35 are provided in at least one of the frames 32, 33 and possibly in the edges 31, for the passage of the transverse elements 34. It should be understood that the same attachment principle is applicable to the fixing of the unit envelope of the preferred embodiment of FIG. 6, or to the fixing of an isolated touch screen.

The invention can make use of a previous invention described in the document FR2577116 and providing for integrating into the garment an electrical supply by solar energy collectors, for example the collectors 40 of FIG. 2. These collectors can supply a heating resistor 41 (FIG. 8) placed near an element of the telephone exposed to the cold, for example the keyboard, and makes it possible to heat sensitive elements thereof and to remove any fog possibly present under the protective bubble 42 (possibly formed by the 'envelope 30 not shown in Figure 8).

According to another application shown in FIG. 9, the keyboard 2 includes a single key 8 ′, allowing a child to use the telephone in the event of a problem.

Claims

1. Computer or telephone consisting of a keyboard (2), a screen (3) connected to the keyboard (2) by a connection (4), if necessary an earpiece (16) and a microphone ( 15, 15 '), a power supply (14) and an electronics (14'), characterized in that the screen (3), the keyboard (2) and the intermediate connection (4) constitute a unit ( 1) produced in the form of three flat elements connected together in a flexible manner and integrated into a garment (11), in that at least the screen (3) or the keyboard (2) is integrated in an envelope (20, 30, 30 ') of protection in flexible polymer and characterized in that the protective envelope (20, 30, 30') is provided with hooking means (32, 34) removable from the garment (11).

2. Computer or telephone according to claim 1, characterized in that the attachment means are clipping means.

3. Computer or telephone according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the connection (4) is made in the form of a flat connection.

4. Computer or telephone according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the screen (3) and / or the keyboard (2) is produced in the form of a flexible element.

5. Computer or telephone according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the unit (1) is integrated into the sleeve (10) of a garment (11).

6. Computer or telephone according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the unit (1) is connected to a microphone (15) and to an earpiece (16).

7. Computer or telephone according to claim 6, characterized in that the microphone (15) is arranged in the garment collar (10).

8. Computer or telephone according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the flexible polymer is a deformable and incompressible polyurethane gel.

9. Computer or telephone according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the envelope (30, 30 ') is produced by overmolding or by sandwicking.

10. Computer or telephone according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the envelope (30, 30 ') has a marginal border (31) serving to secure the unit to the garment.

11. Computer or telephone according to claim 10, characterized by attachment means consisting of a clip fastener (32, 33), the fastener comprising a rear frame (33) and a front frame (32) capable of coming at the rear and at the front of the marginal edge (31) of the envelope (30, 30 ') for tightening and fixing it, rapid removable fastening means (34) being provided between the two frames (32 , 33).

12. Computer or telephone according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the keyboard (2) is a telephone keyboard reduced to a single key (8 ¹ ).

13. Computer or telephone according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the garment (11) is equipped with solar collectors (40) supplying a resistor (41) integrated in the protective casing of the unit.