Card Storage Apparatus

The present application claims priority to Chinese Patent Application No. 202421042842.9, filed on May 13, 2024, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

The application relates to the technical field of storage devices, in particular to a card storage apparatus.

At present, there have been many card storage apparatuses for storing credit cards, debit cards, identity cards and other cards on the market. When a user does not need to use a card, the card is put into a card storage apparatus; and when the user uses the card, the card can be pushed out by operating an operating part on the card storage apparatus so as to be used by the user. In order to improve the handfeeling, box bodies of some card storage apparatuses are made of an aluminum material. In addition, in order to avoid the accidental loss of the card storage apparatuses and ensure that the card storage apparatuses are quickly found, some card storage apparatuses are also provided with Bluetooth trackers, such as Air Tags made by Apple Inc., in wireless data connection to terminal devices (such as mobile phones). However, the overall thickness of the card storage apparatus on which an Air Tag is additionally installed will be greatly increased, so that the portability of the card storage apparatus will be affected.

The statement shown herein only provides background information relevant to the present invention, and does not necessarily constitute the prior art.

A technical problem to be solved by the application is to provide a portable card storage apparatus with positioning and tracking functions.

In order to solve the above-mentioned technical problem, the application adopts a technical solution that: a card storage apparatus includes a box body, wherein at least one side of the box body is provided with an accommodating slot, a main control panel, a battery and a sound generator are installed in the accommodating slot, the main control panel is provided with a Bluetooth main control chip and an antenna module, the Bluetooth main control chip is electrically connected to the battery, the sound generator and the antenna module, respectively, and the main control panel, the battery and the sound generator are staggered.

Further, the main control panel is provided with a switch button electrically connected to the Bluetooth main control chip.

Further, the box body is made of a hard metal material.

Further, the box body is provided with a through hole passing through two opposite sides of the box body, and the antenna module is disposed to correspond to the through hole.

Further, supporting pieces are disposed in the through hole.

Further, the supporting pieces are made of glass.

Further, two supporting pieces are provided, and two sides of an inner cavity of the box body are correspondingly provided with the supporting pieces, respectively.

Further, the box body is further provided with a covering structure for covering the accommodating slot.

Further, an NFC (Near Field Communication) module is further disposed in the accommodating slot, and the NFC module is electrically connected to the Bluetooth main control chip.

Further, the box body is further provided with an indicator lamp, and the indicator lamp is electrically connected to the Bluetooth main control chip.

The application has the beneficial effects that the card storage apparatus is novel in structure, and functional modules of a Bluetooth tracker are staggered and dispersed, so that a surface space of the card storage apparatus is fully utilized; and compared with a card storage apparatus additionally provided with a Bluetooth tracker of which functional modules are designed to be stacked, the card storage apparatus is obviously reduced in local thickness, so that the portability of the card storage apparatus with positioning and tracking functions is greatly improved, and the use experience of a user is enhanced.

In order to describe the technical contents, achieved objects and effects of the application in detail, description will be shown below in conjunction with implementations and in cooperation with the accompanying drawings.

Refer toto, according to one or more embodiments, a card storage apparatus includes a box bodyfor containing cards, at least one side of the box bodyis provided with an accommodating slot, a main control panel, a batteryand a sound generatorare installed in the accommodating slot, the main control panelis provided with a Bluetooth main control chipand an antenna module, the Bluetooth main control chipis electrically connected to the battery, the sound generatorand the antenna module, respectively, and the main control panel, the batteryand the sound generatorare staggered.

The card storage apparatus is novel in structure, and functional modules of a Bluetooth tracker are staggered and dispersed, so that a surface space of the card storage apparatus is fully utilized; and compared with a card storage apparatus additionally provided with a Bluetooth tracker of which functional modules are designed to be stacked, the card storage apparatus is obviously reduced in local thickness, so that the portability of the card storage apparatus with positioning and tracking functions is greatly improved, and the use experience of a user is enhanced.

It should be noted that when two sides of the box bodyare both provided with the accommodating slots, one of the accommodating slotsis idle, at the moment, the main control panel, the batteryand the sound generatorare all installed in the other accommodating slot; and in order to ensure that there is a sufficient space to install the main control panel, the batteryand the sound generatoron the surface of the box body, one of the accommodating slotsis used for installing one of the main control panel, the batteryand the sound generator, and the other accommodating slotis used for installing the other two, for example, the sound generatorand the main control panelare installed in the same accommodating slot, and the batteryis installed in the other accommodating slot, at the moment, the batteryselects a higher-capacity battery.

In some embodiments, the Bluetooth main control chipselects an NRF52832 chip, and the antenna moduleselects a ceramic antenna. In other embodiments, the Bluetooth main control chipfurther selects other types of chips according to actual demands, and similarly, the antenna moduleselects other types of antennae, such as a patch antenna and a metal antenna, according to actual demands.

The sound generatoris an electroacoustic transducer, such as a piezoelectric ceramic buzzer.

The batteryis a dry battery or a storage battery and is specifically selected and set according to actual demands. When the batteryis the dry battery, the batteryis a button battery, etc.; and when the batteryis the storage battery, the batteryis an ultrathin battery. At the moment, the main control panelis provided with a charging interface for charging the storage battery, and the box bodyis provided with an exposed window for accommodating the charging interface.

The main control panelis provided with a switch buttonelectrically connected to the Bluetooth main control chip, the switch buttonis a pressing switch, a toggle switch, a touch switch, etc., and a specific type of the switch buttonis also selected as required. A user operates the switch buttonto control whether the positioning and tracking functions of the card storage apparatus to be enabled, thereby reducing power waste of the batteryin the card storage apparatus.

The box bodyis made of a hard metal material, and the box bodymade of the hard metal material not only has good handfeeling, but also provides more sufficient protection for cards stored in the card storage apparatus. In some embodiments, the box bodyis made of an aluminum material. In other embodiments, the box bodyis made of a copper material, an iron alloy or other metal materials.

In order to ensure a signal transceiving performance of the antenna module, the box bodyis provided with a through holepassing through two opposite sides of the box body, and the antenna moduleis disposed to correspond to the through hole. By disposing the through hole, the shielding of the box bodymade of the metal material to an antenna signal can be relieved, so that the antenna modulecan smoothly transceive a wireless signal no matter whether the card storage apparatus is in a state that an obverse side is upward or a reverse side is upward.

Supporting piecesare disposed in the through hole, the supporting piecesare connected to the box bodyby adhesion or other manners, and the through holeis closed by the supporting pieces, so that an area where the through holeis located in the box bodyalso has sufficient strength, the situation that the through holeis easily stabbed by a foreign object is relieved, it is beneficial to ensuring the handfeeling of the card storage apparatus and improving the use experience of a user. There are two supporting pieces, two sides of an inner cavity of the box bodyare correspondingly provided with the supporting pieces, respectively, and thus, two ends of the through holeare both supported. In some embodiments, the supporting piecesare made of glass, the supporting pieces made of glass are low in antenna signal loss and are beneficial to ensuring that the antenna module smoothly transceives a wireless signal. In other embodiments, the supporting piecesare made of other materials, such as hard plastics.

In order to ensure that holding handfeeling of the card storage apparatus, the box bodyis further provided with a covering structurefor covering the accommodating slot. The covering structurenot only shields an accommodated object in the accommodating slotto improve the beauty of the card storage apparatus, but also protects the accommodated object in the accommodating slotto a certain extent, and the covering structureis made of leather, plastics, etc.

In order to ensure the sound effect of the sound generator, in some embodiments, the box bodyis provided with a sound generation holecommunicating with the accommodating slotand the inner cavity of the box body, and the sound generatoris disposed to correspond to the sound generation hole. Of course, in an actual product, it is acceptable that the sound generation holeis not disposed.

An NFC moduleis further disposed in the accommodating slot, the NFC moduleis electrically connected to the Bluetooth main control chip, and a user performs data transmission by using the NFC module, so that the card storage apparatus is more convenient to use. The NFC moduleis used for near field wireless data transmission. During specific use, a user burns data in a card to the Bluetooth main control chip, and thus, when the user needs to show the data in the card, the user can show the data, such as access control card data, credit card data or identity data, in the card without takin the card out of the card storage apparatus, which is convenient for the user to use.

The box bodyis further provided with an indicator lamp, and the indicator lampis electrically connected to the Bluetooth main control chip. When the positioning and tracking functions of the card storage apparatus is enabled, the sound generatormakes a sound, and the indicator lampemits lamplight. The card storage apparatus not only has a sound generation prompt function, but also has a lamplight prompt function, thereby making the user find the card storage apparatus more quickly and precisely.

In conclusion, the card storage apparatus provided in the application is novel in structure, and the functional modules of the Bluetooth tracker are staggered and dispersed, so that a surface space of the card storage apparatus is fully utilized; and compared with a card storage apparatus additionally provided with a Bluetooth tracker of which functional modules are designed to be stacked, the card storage apparatus is obviously reduced in local thickness, so that the portability of the card storage apparatus with positioning and tracking functions is greatly improved, and the use experience of a user is enhanced. The box body is provided with the through hole corresponding to the antenna module, so that the antenna module also has a good transceiving performance even if the box body is made of a metal material, which is beneficial to the enhancement of the use experience of a user.

Above descriptions are only embodiments of the application, and are not intended to hence limit the application scope of the application. Any equivalent transformations made according to the contents of the description and the accompanying drawings of the application are directly or indirectly applied to the related art and also fall within the application protection scope of the application in a similar way.