United States Patent [191
`Ohnsorge
`
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`[11] Patent Number:
`[45] Date of Patent:
`
`5,485,504
`Jan. 16, 1996
`
`[54] HAND-HELD RADIOTELEPI-IONE WITH
`VIDEO TRANSMISSION AND DISPLAY
`
`[75] Inventor: Horst Ohnsorge, Freiberg, Germany
`
`[73] Assignee: Alcatel N.V., Amsterdam, Netherlands
`
`[21] Appl. No.: 366,429
`[22] Filed:
`Dec. 30, 1994
`
`Related US. Application Data
`
`[63] Continuation of Ser. No. 913,397, Jul. 15, 1992, abandoned.
`[30]
`Foreign Application Priority Data
`
`Aug. 7, 1991 [DE]
`
`Germany ........................ .. 41 26 105.4
`
`[51] Int. Cl.‘5 .......................... .. H04M 11/00; H04N 7/14;
`H04N 7/ 15
`[52] US. Cl. ............................... .. 379/58; 379/59; 379/61;
`348/14; 348/15; 348/16; 348/17
`[58] Field of Search ................................ .. 379/58, 59, 61,
`379/94, 110;‘ 348/14—17
`
`[56]
`
`References Cited
`
`U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS
`
`3/1981 Lemelson et a1. ...................... .. 379/53
`4,258,387
`8/1989
`.. 379/53
`4,856,045
`4,882,766 11/1989
`.. 379/62
`4,893,326
`1/1990
`.. 348/14
`4,928,300
`5/1990
`.... .. 358/85
`5,023,931
`6/1991
`.... .. 455/21
`5,050,138
`9/1991
`379/110
`5,077,784 12/1991
`.... .. 379/53
`5,079,627
`1/1992
`.. 379/53
`5,111,498
`5/1992
`.... .. 379/53
`5,164,980 11/1992
`.... .. 379/53
`5,184,345
`2/1993
`.... .. 379/53
`5,189,632
`2/1993 Paajanen et a1. ..................... .. 379/110
`
`FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS
`
`0172473 2/1986 European Pat. Off. .
`
`0382601
`3828485
`62-091045
`63-151283
`1160286
`2055488
`0113656
`0113657
`0218251
`3053785
`3136487
`0504550
`2242335
`
`8/1990
`3/ 1990
`4/1987
`6/1988
`6/1989
`2/1990
`4/1990
`4/1990
`8/1990
`3/1991
`6/1991
`1/1993
`3/1990
`
`European Pat. 01f. ............... .. 379/53
`Germany .
`Japan .
`Japan .
`Japan .
`Japan .
`Japan
`Japan ..... ..
`
`379/53
`379/53
`
`Japan ..................................... .. 379/53
`Japan .
`Japan .
`Japan ..................................... .. 379/53
`United Kingdom .
`
`OTHER PUBLICATIONS
`
`Kummerow et al., “Bildtelefon-ein Kommunikationsdienst
`im ISDN ab 1991,” 8189 Telenorma Nachrichten (1989) No.
`93, Frankfurt, Germany, pp. 52-53.
`“Mobilfunk” 1 (1988), No. l, p. 14,
`“Hand~held Videophone” Popular Science, Feb. 1992.
`Philips SA620 Integrated Wireless “1993” Philips Semicon
`ductors.
`“AT&T Videophone” USA Today, Jan. 1, 1993.
`
`Primary Examiner—Stephen Chin
`Assistant Examiner—Vijay Shankar
`Attomey, Agent, or F irm-Spencer, Frank & Schneider
`
`ABSTRACT
`[57]
`A radiotelephone device has a telephone handset-shaped
`housing for hand-held operation. The device includes elec
`troacoustic transducers mounted at sound apertures in the
`housing, a keypad mounted between the apertures, and
`electronic circuitry. Video communication is accomplished
`by a video camera mounted in the housing and connected
`with the electronic circuitry and a liquid crystal display
`device mounted in the housing and connected to the elec
`tronic circuitry. Thus a radiotelephone is equipped with a
`video pickup device and a video display device.
`
`15 Claims, 1 Drawing Sheet
`
`VI DEO DISPLAY 5
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`~10 SOUND APERTURES
`
`WIDE ANGLE LENS
`
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`
`g SOUND APERTURES
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`

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`US. Patent
`
`Jan. 16, 1996
`
`5,485,504
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`1
`HAND-HELD RADIOTELEPHONE WITH
`VIDEO TRANSMISSION AND DISPLAY
`
`This application is a continuation of application Ser. No.
`07/913,397, ?led Jul. 15, 1992 (now abandoned).
`
`BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
`
`1. Field of the Invention
`The present invention relates to a radiotelephone.
`2. Background Information
`Such a radiotelephone is described, for example, in the
`journal “Mobilfunk” l (1988), No. 1, page 14. The instru
`ment has a rectangular-parallelepiped-shaped housing of the
`size of a handset which contains a transceiver, keys for
`dialing and function keys, a display, electroacoustic trans
`ducers, a power supply in the form of rechargeable batteries,
`and a large-scale-integrated electronic circuit. An antenna
`can be screwed to the top of the housing, and a slot is
`provided there for inserting an authorization card into a
`built-in card reader. The keys for dialing form an alphanu
`meric keyboard, and the electronics include a memory
`having great number of memory locations for subcriber
`numbers and names. For charge indication and various other
`service features, the instrument offers menu functions.
`Accessories for portable and mobile use in an automobile,
`such as car-mounting kit, carrying bag, battery charger, and
`hands-free facility, make is possible to untilize all advan
`tages of a mobile radio network.
`Also known are short-range radiotelephones, so-called
`cordless telephones, which have a base station, which is
`connected to the telecommunication network, and a cordless
`hand-held device, the latter containing all control keys and
`a storage battery, e.g., “sinus l” or “sinus 2” of Deutsche
`Bundespost (prospectuses F'I‘Z L 16-4, Order Nos. 210A and
`210B, respectively). The base station is equipped with a
`charger which, when the hand-held device is on-hook,
`charges the battery, which, when fully charged, permits
`several hours of independence from the base station. Radio
`communication between base station and hand-held device
`is carried on numerous channels in the 900-MHZ range.
`
`SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
`
`The invention has for its object to further improve the
`range of application and convenience of a radiotelephone.
`This object is attained by providing a video pickup device
`and a video display device. Further advantageous features of
`the invention will become apparent from the Detailed
`Description. By the addition of video capability to the
`radiotelephone, communication is considerably improved
`and facilitated.
`
`BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
`
`The invention will now be described with the aid of an
`embodiment which is shown in the accompanying drawings
`in which:
`FIGS. 1 and 2 show a mobile radiotelephone with video
`facility in the form of a hand-held device in a front view and
`a schematic longitudinal section, respectively.
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`DETAHeED DESCRIPTION OF THE
`PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
`
`As is usual with radiotelephones, the mobile radiovideo
`phone is ,designed as a hand-held device. Its housing 1
`therefore has an easy-to-handle shape which resembles that
`of a telephone handset. As can be seen in FIG. 2, the two
`ends of the housing, where the electroacoustic transducers 2
`and 3 are mounted behind corresponding sound apertures 9
`and 10, may be inclined inwards to ensure good intelligi
`bility. The housing may also have a prolate shape. The
`device is equipped with a hands-free facility. As usual, the
`housing 1 contains the following parts: microphone 2,
`loudspeaker 3, a keypad 4 therebetween, above the micro
`phone 2, and, if required, further function keys (not shown)
`as well as the electronic circuit 5, indicated by a dash-and
`dot line. The keys may also be arranged on the other side
`(outside) of the housing 1, i.e., on the side facing away from
`the sound apertures 9 and 10.
`Above the keypad 4, a video display device 6 in the form
`of a ?at liquid crystal display (LCD) is provided which, at
`least in this portion, determines the width of the housing 1.
`Above the video display device 6, the housing 1 contains a
`small camera 7 with a wide-angle lens 8 as a video pickup
`device. Thus, a radiovideophone for video and audio com
`munication is provided which offers maximum indepen
`dence and freedom of movement like mobile telephones but
`also has video capability.
`For communication in the ISDN, two B channels are used,
`one for audio transmission and one for video transmission.
`In the C mobile-radio system, transmission takes place on
`two 32-kb/s channels. Alternatively, audio can be transmit
`ted in the mobile radiotelephone network at 8 kb/s and video
`at 24 kb/s until higher bit rates are possible.
`What is claimed is:
`1. A hand-held telephone comprising:
`a handheld housing having a front surface, at least two
`sound apertures disposed at the front surface and
`extending through the front surface into the hand-held
`housing;
`at least two electroacoustic transducers mounted within
`the hand-held housing behind corresponding ones of
`the at least two sound apertures of the front surface of
`the hand-held housing and facing away from the hand
`held housing;
`a keypad mounted in the hand-held housing having keys
`which are accessible outside of the hand-held housing
`at the front surface of the hand-held housing;
`a liquid crystal display mounted in the hand-held housing
`and having a display face directed away from the
`handheld housing viewable at the front surface of the
`handheld housing;
`a video camera mounted in the hand-held housing
`directed away from the hand-held housing in the same
`direction as the display at the front surface of the
`hand-held housing; and
`electronic circuitry disposed within said hand-held hous
`ing and connected to the at least two electroacoustic
`transducers, the keypad, the display and the video
`camera, for transmitting and receiving signals with an
`external telephone network.
`2. The telephone according to claim 1, wherein the
`hand-held housing is a hand-held telephone handset shaped
`housing.
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`5,485,504
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`3. The telephone according to claim 2, wherein the at least
`two sound apertures are disposed at opposite ends of the
`front surface of the hand-held telephone handset-shaped
`housing.
`4. The telephone according to claim 3, wherein the keypad
`is mounted between the at least two electroacoustic trans
`ducers.
`5. The telephone according to claim 4, wherein the liquid
`crystal display is mounted adjacent the keypad between the
`at least two electroacoustic transducers.
`6. The telephone according to claim 5, wherein the video
`camera is mounted between the display and one of the at
`least two electroacoustic transducers.
`7. The telephone according to claim 6, wherein the signals
`transmitted and received by the electronic circuitry contain
`at least audio and visual information.
`8. The telephone according to claim 2, wherein the keypad
`is mounted between the at least two electroacoustic trans
`ducers.
`9. The telephone according to claim 8, wherein the liquid
`crystal display is mounted adjacent the keypad between the
`at least two electroacoustic transducers.
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`4
`10. The telephone according to claim 9, wherein the video
`camera is mounted between the display and one of the at
`least two electroacoustic transducers.
`11. The telephone according to claim 10, wherein the
`signals transmitted and received by the electronic circuitry
`contain at least audio and visual information.
`12. The telephone according to claim 2, wherein the liquid
`crystal display is mounted adjacent the keypad between the
`at least two electroacoustic transducers.
`13. The telephone according to claim 12, wherein the
`video camera is mounted between the display and one of the
`at least two electroacoustic transducers.
`14. The telephone according to claim 13, wherein the
`signals transmitted and received by the electronic circuitry
`contain at least audio and visual information.
`15. The telephone according to claim 2, wherein the video
`camera is mounted between the display and one of the at
`least two electroacoustic transducers.
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