GB2420476A

GB2420476A - Sequential text display

Info

Publication number: GB2420476A
Application number: GB0425536A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Marc Lewis
Original assignee: OPIUM PUBLISHING Ltd
Current assignee: OPIUM PUBLISHING Ltd
Priority date: 2004-11-19
Filing date: 2004-11-19
Publication date: 2006-05-24
Also published as: GB2421099A; GB0425536D0; GB0503025D0

Abstract

Individual words of text of a message are displayed sequentially and transiently on a display (1) so that the complexity of the message does not need to the limited by the size of display device used, e.g. a small mobile phone display. A Java script embodiment of the invention is also disclosed.

Description

Sequential Text Display

Description

The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for displaying text sequentially.

The need to display text messages arises in many fields from control and monitoring apparatus to personal communication devices. Often the area available for displaying these text messages is very small and, as a result, the text messages have to be extremely terse or presented in a font size that makes them difficult to read.

According to the present invention, there is provided a method of displaying a text string, comprising: splitting a text string, represented by character code signals, into individual word strings, represented by character code signals; and controlling a display in dependence on said word strings such that the word strings are displayed transiently one after another in their order in said text string.

The splitting may be completed before the first of said word strings is displayed.

Alternatively, the splitting comprises extracting word strings sequentially from the front of said text string and the display is controlled to display each word before the next word is extracted from the text string.

Preferably, word strings are displayed for a period in the range 250ms to 2s. The word strings need not all be displayed for the same period. For example, the first word string could be displayed for a longer period than subsequent strings or longer word stings could be displayed for longer than shorter strings.

According to the present invention, there is also provided a text display apparatus comprising: means for splitting a text string, represented by character code signals, into individual word strings, represented by character code signals; and means for controlling a display in dependence on said word strings such that the word strings are displayed transiently one after another in their order in said text string.

The apparatus may comprise: a memory for storing a text string as character code signals; reading means for sequentially reading character codes from the memory; comparator means for detecting a predetermined word separation code in characters read by the reading means; a display device arranged to receive character codes from the reading means; and timer means responsive to the comparator detecting said predetermined word separation code to interrupt the operation of the reading means for a predetermined period and to reset said display device after a predetermined period has elapsed following detection of said predetermined word separation code.

Alternatively, the apparatus may include processing means configured to provided said means.

An apparatus according to the present invention may be included in an electronic device, for instance a personal communications device.

Program codes for implementing the present invention may be distributed as electric or electromagnetic signals or by means of recordings of such signals in or on data carriers, e.g. ROM cartridges or CDROMs.

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a block diagram of a alphanumeric display system according to the present invention; Figure 2 is a more detailed diagram of the controller of the system shown in Figure 1; Figure 3 shows a J2ME-supporting device; and Figure 4 is a flowchart illustrating an software embodiment of the present invention running on the device shown in Figure 3.

Referring to Figure 1, an alphanumeric display system according to the present invention comprises an HD44780-based LCD module 1, an 8 x n memory 2 and a controller 3. The controller 3 provides outputs to RS and data inputs of the LCD module I in dependence on data read from the memory 3.

Referring to Figure 2, the controller 3 includes a counter 4 which cyclically counts clock pulses from a clock 5 to produce address signals for the memory 2. The supply of clock pulses from the clock 5 to the counter 4 is controlled by an AND gate 6.

The output of the counter 4 is applied to the address inputs of the memory 2. As a result the memory 2 outputs an 8-bit code onto a data bus 7. The data bus 7 connects the memory 2 to a digital comparator 8 and one input of a multiplexer 9.

The comparator 8 compares the current 8-bit code from the memory with the code of a space and outputs a signal in dependence on the result of the comparison.

Thus, if the 8-bit code is not a space the output of the comparator 8 is low. The output of the comparator 8 is fed to the S input of a flip-flop 10 and the input of a 500ms delay 11. The output of the delay 11 is fed to the input of a monostable 12 that produces a short high pulse on rising edges. The inverted output of the monostable 12 is connected to the R input of the flip-flop 10. The not Q output of the flip-flop 10 is connected to the second input of the AND gate 6 to control the supply of clock pulses to the counter 4.

When the outputs of the comparator 8 and the monostable 12 are both low, the output of the flip-flop 10 will be in its RESET state (Q = low) and clock pulses are supplied to the counter 4.

If the data output from the memory 2 is the code for a space, the output of the comparator 8 goes high which sets the flip-flop 10. The not Q output of the flip- flop 10 then goes low interrupting the supply of clock pulses to the counter 4.

The output of the delay 11 goes high SOOms after the output of the comparator 8 goes high. The rising edge of the output of the delay 11 triggers the monostable 12 which outputs a high pulse to the multiplexer 9 and a low pulse to the reset input of the flip-flop 10. The high pulse switches the multiplexer 9 so that it outputs a clear code from a register 14 to the data inputs of the LCD module 1. The high pulse is also supplied to the RS input of the LCD module I to indicate that a command is being input and to one input of an OR gate 15. The other input of the OR gate 15 is supplied with the output from the AND gate 6 which has been delayed by a delay 17. The output of the OR gate 15 is used to provide the enable signal for the LCD module 1.

The rising edge of the low pulse from the monstable 12 resets the flipflop 10 causing its not Q output to go high, re-establishing the supply of clock pulses to the counter 4.

Thus, when a text message is stored in the memory 2 as a string of character codes, the codes are read out of the memory 2 sequentially according to the output of the counter 4 and supplied to the LCD module I via the multiplexer 9. The characters arc then added to the LCD module's LCD one by one. If, however, the character code from the memory 2 represents a space, the multiplexer 9 is switched, after of 500ms delay, and the clear code is output to the LCD module I with the RS input set to indicate that an instruction is being input. As a result, the text added to the LCD up to the space, i.e. the previous word, is maintained on the display for SOOms and then the display is cleared.

The supply of clock pulses to the counter 4 is then resumed and the next word is built up on the LCD as described above.

The overall effect for a user is that the text stored in the memory 2 is displayed sequentially one word at a time on the LCD.

If the memory 2 is writable, circuitry may be added to write different text into the memory 2 so that the displayed message can be changed. Alternatively, the range of the counter may be adjustable so that text from different portions of the memory 2 can be displayed.

In another embodiment, a microcontroller is programmed to read character codes from a memory and generate the LCD module input signals described above.

The present invention may also be implemented using a high level programming language, for instance Java.

Referring to Figure 4, a conventional clam-shell J2ME-supporting mobile phone 20 comprises first and second body portions 21, 22 coupled by a hinge. The first body portion 21 comprises an LCD 23 and the second body portion 22 includes a keypad 24 so that the user can input data and commands.

The present invention is implemented in the mobile phone 20 using the J2ME- compliant Java class listed below: import j avax. microedition. midlet. *; import javax.microedition. lcdui. *; import java.util.*; /* * Class TextFlasher * * Displays text one words at a time * class TextFlasher { private String txt = private MIDlet midlet; private Display display; private Form flashForm;; /* * Constructor * public TextFlasher(MIDlet m) { midlet = flashForm = new Form("); * Display text * public void showText (String t) { display = Display. getDisplay(midlet); display. setCurrent (flashForm); txt = t; String tmp = Vector words = new Vector 0; for (mt i = 0; i < txt.length() ; i +) { if ((txt.charAt(i) != ) && (1 < txt.length() - 1)) { tmp += txt.charAt(i); } else { tmp = for (mt i = 0; i < words.size(); i-i--i-) { tmp = ((String)words.elementAt(i)); flashForm.append(tmp); long start = System. currentTimeMillisQ; do { while (Systeni.currentTjmeMjlljs() < start + 500) ; flashForm.delete(0); tmp = Referring to Figure 4, when a MIDlet including the above TextFlasher class displays text in accordance with the present invention, the MIDlet instantiates an object of the TextFlasher class (step si). The constructor takes a reference to the MIDlet as a parameter and creates a blank instance of the Form class.

Having created an instance of the TextFlasher class, the MIDlet calls the showText method of the new TextFlasher instance, passing the text to be displayed as a parameter (step s2). The showText method sets the display to the blank form instance (step s3). Then, the showText method splits the text into its constituent words, storing each word in a different element of a Vector instance (step s4).

When the text has been split into its constituent words, the words in the Vector instance are appended to the Form instance, and deleted SOOms later, one after another (step s5). The effect is that a user viewing display 23 of the mobile phone 20 will see the words of the text flash onto the screen one after another until the whole of the text has been displayed.

It will be appreciated that the code for the MIDlet, including the TextFlasher class, may be provided over the air (OTA) or recorded on or in a data carrier.

It will be appreciated that the present invention may be implemented using different programming languages and many different platforms.

Claims

Claims 1. A method of displaying a text string, comprising: splitting a

text string, represented by character code signals, into individual word strings, represented by character code signals; and controlling a display in dependence on said word strings such that the word strings are displayed transiently one after another in their order in said text string.
2. A method according to claim 1, wherein the splitting is completed before the first of said word strings is displayed.
3. A method according to claim 1, wherein said splitting comprises extracting word strings sequentially from the front of said text string and the display is controlled to display each word before the next word is extracted from the text string.
4. A method according to claim 1, 2 or 3, wherein word strings arc displayed for a period in the range 250ms to 2s.
5. A text display apparatus comprising: means for splitting a text string, represented by character code signals, into individual word strings, represented by character code signals; and means for controlling a display in dependence on said word strings such that the word strings are displayed transiently one after another in their order in said text string.
6. An apparatus according to claim 5, including: a memory for storing a text string as character code signals; reading means for sequentially reading character codes from the memory; comparator means for detecting a predetermined word separation code in characters read by the reading means; a display device arranged to receive character codes from the reading means; and timer means responsive to the comparator detecting said predetermined word separation code to interrupt the operation of the reading means for a predetermined period and to reset said display device after a predetermined period has elapsed following detection of said predetermined word separation code.
7. An apparatus according to claim 5, including processing means configured to provided said means.
8. An electronic device including an apparatus according to claim 5, 6 or 7.
9. A personal communication device according to claim 8.
10. A electric or electromagnetic signal representing program codes for programming a processing means for producing an apparatus according to claim 7.
11. A data carrier having a signal according to claim 10 recorded therein or thereon.