DESCRIPTION
TITLE: ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT
TECHNICAL FIELD [0001]
The present invention relates to electronic equipment, more specifically, relates to electronic equipment including an illumination unit for transmitting light from inside to outside.
BACKGROUND ART [0002]
As a structure for causing part of electronic equipment to light, some electronic equipment has an illumination structure which optically connects an illumination unit made of a light-transmissive member such as resin and glass and mounted on the external face of a housing and a light-emitting means such as an LED (Light Emitting Diode) by using a light guide plate and which makes a light emitted by the LED pass through the illumination unit. In this case, by configuring to apply the light emitted by the light-emitting means from substantially the normal direction to an illuminated face of the illumination unit, attenuation of the light amount due to reflection is suppressed. Moreover, by providing the LED serving as the light-emitting means with a difruser lens and forming bumps on the illuminated faces of the light guide plate and illumination unit, the light is almost regularly reflected, and the whole

illumination unit is made to uniformly light. [0003]
On the other hand, electronic equipment which is light and compact and needs power saving, such as current mobile phones, has limitations of the placement area of the illumination structure, power consumption of the illuminating means, and cost in the number of the illuminating means. Moreover, a request for increase of a visual function such as color illumination is made. Therefore, development of electronic equipment which satisfies these limitations and request is desired. [0004]
[Patent Document 1] Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2007-328309 [0005]
An example of a technique relating to a problem of limitations of the placement area, power consumption and cost relating to the illumination structure as mentioned above is disclosed in Patent Document 1. The technique disclosed in Patent Document 1 aims for reduction of power consumption and implementation cost by causing a light emitted by a backlight to diagonally enter a light polarization prism. [0006]
However, a task of realization of increase of the visual function, which is the request relating to electronic equipment described above, has not been solved yet. In other words, there is a problem for electronic equipment that it is impossible to increase the visual functionality for users at low cost.

SUMMARY [0007]
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to increase user satisfaction with the visual functionality of electronic equipment at low cost. [0008]
In order to achieve the object, electronic equipment as an exemplary embodiment of the present invention includes: an illumination unit that is mounted so as to form a surface of a housing and is capable of transmitting a light from inside the housing to outside; and a light-emitting unit that emits a light to the illumination unit from inside the housing and is mounted inside the housing.
Then, the light-emitting unit includes a plurality of RGB LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes) that can emit red, green and blue lights, and the respective RGB LEDs are arranged so that part of a light emitted to the illumination unit by a predetermined one of the RGB LEDs and part of a light emitted to the illumination unit by another of the RGB LEDs overlap each other before entering the illumination unit. [0009]
With the configurations described above, the present invention can increase the visual functionality of electronic equipment at low cost.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS [0010]
Fig. 1 is a view for describing a configuration according to the present invention;

Fig. 2 is a view for describing the configuration according to the present invention;
Fig. 3 is a view showing a comparison example with the present invention;
Fig. 4 is a view showing the comparison example with the present invention;
Fig. 5 is a view showing a configuration of a specific example of the present invention; and
Fig. 6 is a view showing the configuration of the specific example of the present invention.
EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS
[0011]

The whole or part of the exemplary embodiments disclosed above can be described as the following supplementary notes. Below, the overview of configurations of electronic equipment according to the present invention will be described. However, the present invention is not limited to the following configurations. [0024] (Supplementary Note 1)
Electronic equipment including:
an illumination unit that is mounted so as to form a surface of a housing and is capable of transmitting a light from inside the housing to outside; and
a light-emitting unit that emits a light to the illumination unit from inside the housing and is mounted inside the housing,
wherein the light-emitting unit includes a plurality of RGB LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes) that can emit red, green and blue lights, and the respective RGB LEDs are arranged so that part of a light emitted to the illumination unit by a predetermined one of the RGB LEDs and part of a light emitted to the illumination unit by another of the RGB LEDs overlap each other before entering the illumination unit. [0025] (Supplementary Note 2)
The electronic equipment according to Supplementary Note 1, wherein the respective

RGB LEDs are arranged so that lights emitted to the illumination unit by the respective RGB LEDs overlaps each other by about one third to about one half. [0026] (Supplementary Note 3)
The electronic equipment according to Supplementary Note 2, wherein the respective RGB LEDs are arranged so that about one third of a light emitted to the illumination unit by a predetermined RGB LED, only on one side of which another of the RGB LEDs is located, of the RGB LEDs overlaps part of a light emitted to the illumination unit by the other RGB LED. [0027] (Supplementary Note 4)
The electronic equipment according to Supplementary Note 2, wherein the respective RGB LEDs are arranged so that about one half of a light emitted to the illumination unit by a predetermined RGB LED, on both sides of which others of the RGB LEDs are located, of the RGB LEDs overlaps part of respective lights emitted to the illumination unit by the other RGB LEDs that are located on both the sides of the predetermined RGB LED. [0028] (Supplementary Note 5)
The electronic equipment according to any of Supplementary Notes 1 to 4, wherein the respective RGB LEDs can be arranged in a state that LEDs emitting respective colors of lights are placed in any order. [0029] (Supplementary Note 6)

The electronic equipment according to any of Supplementary Notes 1 to 5, wherein the respective RGB LEDs are arranged so that a close portion of the illumination unit to a predetermined member located inside the housing can be illuminated with lights emitted by the RGB LEDs from inside the housing. [0030] (Supplementary Note 7)
A mobile phone including:
an illumination unit that is mounted so as to form a surface of a housing and is capable of transmitting a light from inside the housing to outside; and
a light-emitting unit that emits a light to the illumination unit from inside the housing and is mounted inside the housing,
wherein the light-emitting unit includes a plurality of RGB LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes) that can emit red, green and blue lights, and the respective RGB LEDs are arranged so that part of a light emitted to the illumination unit by a predetermined one of the RGB LEDs and part of a light emitted to the illumination unit by another of the RGB LEDs overlap each other before entering the illumination unit. [0031] (Supplementary Note 8)
The mobile phone according to Supplementary Note 7, wherein the respective RGB LEDs are arranged so that lights emitted to the illumination unit by the respective RGB LEDs overlaps each other by about one third to about one half. [0032]

The present invention is based upon and claims the benefit of priority from Japanese patent application No. 2010-251388, filed on November 10, 2010, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.
DESCRIPTION OF REFERENCE NUMERALS
[0033]
10,11,12 RGB LED
20 illumination plate
20a illuminated face
30 lens unit
50 blocking object

CLAIMS
1. Electronic equipment comprising:
an illumination unit that is mounted so as to form a surface of a housing and is capable of transmitting a light from inside the housing to outside; and
a light-emitting unit that emits a light to the illumination unit from inside the housing and is mounted inside the housing,
wherein the light-emitting unit includes a plurality of RGB LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes) that can emit red, green and blue lights, and the respective RGB LEDs are arranged so that part of a light emitted to the illumination unit by a predetermined one of the RGB LEDs and part of a light emitted to the illumination unit by another of the RGB LEDs overlap each other before entering the illumination unit.
2. The electronic equipment according to Claim 1, wherein the respective RGB LEDs are arranged so that lights emitted to the illumination unit by the respective RGB LEDs overlaps each other by about one third to about one half.
3. The electronic equipment according to Claim 2, wherein the respective RGB LEDs are arranged so that about one third of a light emitted to the illumination unit by a predetermined RGB LED, only on one side of which another of the RGB LEDs is located, of the RGB LEDs overlaps part of a light emitted to the illumination unit by the other RGB LED.

4. The electronic equipment according to Claim 2, wherein the respective RGB LEDs are arranged so that about one half of a light emitted to the illumination unit by a predetermined RGB LED, on both sides of which others of the RGB LEDs are located, of the RGB LEDs overlaps part of respective lights emitted to the illumination unit by the other RGB LEDs that are located on both the sides of the predetermined RGB LED.
5. The electronic equipment according to any of Claims 1 to 4, wherein the respective RGB LEDs can be arranged in a state that LEDs emitting respective colors of lights are placed in any order.
6. The electronic equipment according to any of Claims 1 to 5, wherein the respective RGB LEDs are arranged so that a close portion of the illumination unit to a predetermined member located inside the housing can be illuminated with lights emitted by the RGB LEDs from inside the housing.
7. A mobile phone comprising:
an illumination unit that is mounted so as to form a surface of a housing and is capable of transmitting a light from inside the housing to outside; and
a light-emitting unit that emits a light to the illumination unit from inside the housing and is mounted inside the housing,
wherein the light-emitting unit includes a plurality of RGB LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes) that can emit red, green and blue lights, and the respective RGB LEDs are arranged so

that part of a light emitted to the illumination unit by a predetermined one of the RGB LEDs and part of a light emitted to the illumination unit by another of the RGB LEDs overlap each other before entering the illumination unit.
8. The mobile phone according to Claim 7, wherein the respective RGB LEDs are
arranged so that lights emitted to the illumination unit by the respective RGB LEDs overlaps each other by about one third to about one half.