Electronic device including a camera unit with an image capturing function and an operations-unit illuminating function

1. An electronic device comprising:

an operations unit disposed in a device main body for input operations;

a camera unit including a camera for image capturing and a light source that emits light to provide either an auxiliary image capturing function or an operations-unit illuminating function, both the camera and the light source being housed in a casing of the camera unit, and a light irradiation position of the light source being variable so that the light source illuminates the operations unit;

a light intensity detector to detect a brightness level of the light irradiation position of the light source on the operations unit; and

a control unit to separate the emission of light by the light source from the image capturing by the camera when the camera unit is in an operations-unit illuminating position for emitting light to provide the operations-unit illuminating function, to interlock the emission of light by the light source with the image capturing by the camera when the camera unit is in an image capturing position for emitting light to provide the auxiliary image capturing function, and to start the emission of light by the light source to provide the operations-unit illuminating function when the brightness level detected by the light intensity detector is below a threshold level.

2. The electronic device as claimed in claim 1 , further comprising:

a light source position detector to detect a position of the light source to generate position detection information; and

a light source control unit to receive the position detection information generated by the light source position detector.

3. The electronic device as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the device main body includes a first section in which the operations unit is disposed and a second section in which the camera unit is disposed, the second section being openable relative to the first section.

4. The electronic device as claimed in claim 1 ,

wherein the casing is movable relative to the device main body; and

when the camera unit is in the operations-unit illuminating position for emitting light for illuminating the operations unit, the casing projects from the device main body such that the light source faces the operations unit.

5. The electronic device as claimed in claim 1 , further comprising:

a plurality of microswitches to detect a position of the light source; and

a light source control unit to receive the position of the light source detected by the plurality of microswitches.

6. The electronic device as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the camera includes the light intensity detector.