Classifications

• • G—PHYSICS
  • G07—CHECKING-DEVICES
  • G07F—COIN-FREED OR LIKE APPARATUS
  • G07F17/00—Coin-freed apparatus for hiring articles; Coin-freed facilities or services
  • G07F17/32—Coin-freed apparatus for hiring articles; Coin-freed facilities or services for games, toys, sports, or amusements
  • G07F17/3202—Hardware aspects of a gaming system, e.g. components, construction, architecture thereof
  • G07F17/3204—Player-machine interfaces
  • G07F17/3211—Display means
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G09—EDUCATION; CRYPTOGRAPHY; DISPLAY; ADVERTISING; SEALS
  • G09G—ARRANGEMENTS OR CIRCUITS FOR CONTROL OF INDICATING DEVICES USING STATIC MEANS TO PRESENT VARIABLE INFORMATION
  • G09G3/00—Control arrangements or circuits, of interest only in connection with visual indicators other than cathode-ray tubes
  • G09G3/20—Control arrangements or circuits, of interest only in connection with visual indicators other than cathode-ray tubes for presentation of an assembly of a number of characters, e.g. a page, by composing the assembly by combination of individual elements arranged in a matrix no fixed position being assigned to or needed to be assigned to the individual characters or partial characters
  • G09G3/22—Control arrangements or circuits, of interest only in connection with visual indicators other than cathode-ray tubes for presentation of an assembly of a number of characters, e.g. a page, by composing the assembly by combination of individual elements arranged in a matrix no fixed position being assigned to or needed to be assigned to the individual characters or partial characters using controlled light sources
  • G09G3/30—Control arrangements or circuits, of interest only in connection with visual indicators other than cathode-ray tubes for presentation of an assembly of a number of characters, e.g. a page, by composing the assembly by combination of individual elements arranged in a matrix no fixed position being assigned to or needed to be assigned to the individual characters or partial characters using controlled light sources using electroluminescent panels
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G07—CHECKING-DEVICES
  • G07F—COIN-FREED OR LIKE APPARATUS
  • G07F17/00—Coin-freed apparatus for hiring articles; Coin-freed facilities or services
  • G07F17/32—Coin-freed apparatus for hiring articles; Coin-freed facilities or services for games, toys, sports, or amusements
  • G07F17/326—Game play aspects of gaming systems
  • G07F17/3272—Games involving multiple players
  • G07F17/3276—Games involving multiple players wherein the players compete, e.g. tournament
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G07—CHECKING-DEVICES
  • G07F—COIN-FREED OR LIKE APPARATUS
  • G07F17/00—Coin-freed apparatus for hiring articles; Coin-freed facilities or services
  • G07F17/32—Coin-freed apparatus for hiring articles; Coin-freed facilities or services for games, toys, sports, or amusements
  • G07F17/3286—Type of games
  • G07F17/3295—Games involving skill, e.g. dexterity, memory, thinking
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H05—ELECTRIC TECHNIQUES NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • H05B—ELECTRIC HEATING; ELECTRIC LIGHT SOURCES NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; CIRCUIT ARRANGEMENTS FOR ELECTRIC LIGHT SOURCES, IN GENERAL
  • H05B44/00—Circuit arrangements for operating electroluminescent light sources
• • Y—GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
  • Y02—TECHNOLOGIES OR APPLICATIONS FOR MITIGATION OR ADAPTATION AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE
  • Y02B—CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION TECHNOLOGIES RELATED TO BUILDINGS, e.g. HOUSING, HOUSE APPLIANCES OR RELATED END-USER APPLICATIONS
  • Y02B20/00—Energy efficient lighting technologies, e.g. halogen lamps or gas discharge lamps
  • Y02B20/30—Semiconductor lamps, e.g. solid state lamps [SSL] light emitting diodes [LED] or organic LED [OLED]

Definitions

• Fig. 6 is a schematic diagram illustrating the switching circuits of the
• Fig. 11 is a detailed block diagram of an EL controller according to the embodiment of Fig. 10;
• Each lamp of an EL panel turns on when an alternating driving current or pulsed direct current is supplied to the lamp.
• the intensity of the lamp varies depending upon the magnitude and the frequency of the lamp driving current, while the color of the lamps varies depends on, for example, the frequency of the driving current.
• a low voltage monitor 504 monitors the amplitude of the sinusoidal driving signal provided from the inverter 502. Specifically, when EL lamps/cells fail, they typically develop either direct and/or partial shorts. This can severely overload the inverter 502, as it tries to supply a sufficient current to drive the shorted EL cell.
• the low voltage monitor 504 is a voltage comparator circuit. It converts the sinusoidal output of the inverter 502 to a DC voltage that is proportional to the inverter 502 output voltage. When an EL cell shorts and the inverter 502 output drops below the value set by resistors R11, R12 and R13, the output of the low voltage comparator 504, LVOLT-H, is asserted.
• Fig. 12A illustrates a 50 percent duty cycle pulse signal flashing at 60 Hz.
• the high frequency signal from the transformer 1212 (shown in Fig. 12B) is passed through switching circuit 1104, which are controlled by pulse signal 12A.
• the resultant signal (shown in Fig. 12C) drives the EL panel 1102, thus illuminating it.
• the EL panels may be being driven at a much higher frequency from the driver 1 106, they are only actually driven half the time because they are not driven when the pulse signal in Fig. 12A is low. This significantly reduces undesirable heating of the EL panels.
• the above described novel EL panel controller device may be packaged as a small, light, fully integrated unit. Further, dynamic control of color, intensity, perceived intensity, and heat dissipation for multiple EL panels or filaments is possible, thus allowing for a wide range of animation capabilities.
• FIG. 13 A block diagram of a further embodiment of the EL panel controller device of the present invention is shown in Fig. 13.
• EL Panels 1412 are connected to high voltage driver 1410.
• Three EL Panels are shown here for illustrative purposes, more or less could easily be used.

Landscapes

• Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Microelectronics & Electronic Packaging (AREA)
• Optics & Photonics (AREA)
• Theoretical Computer Science (AREA)
• Computer Hardware Design (AREA)
• Health & Medical Sciences (AREA)
• General Health & Medical Sciences (AREA)
• Social Psychology (AREA)
• Electroluminescent Light Sources (AREA)
• Control Of El Displays (AREA)
• Control Of Indicators Other Than Cathode Ray Tubes (AREA)
• Circuit Arrangement For Electric Light Sources In General (AREA)

Applications Claiming Priority (7)

Publications (2)

Family

ID=27416596

Family Applications (1)

Country Status (10)

Families Citing this family (18)

Citations (9)

Family Cites Families (5)

• 1997
  • 1997-01-23 EP EP97903093A patent/EP0876658A4/de not_active Withdrawn
  • 1997-01-23 AU AU17090/97A patent/AU716031B2/en not_active Ceased
  • 1997-01-23 KR KR1019980705788A patent/KR19990082066A/ko not_active Application Discontinuation
  • 1997-01-23 NZ NZ331022A patent/NZ331022A/xx unknown
  • 1997-01-23 JP JP9514553A patent/JP2000503125A/ja active Pending
  • 1997-01-23 WO PCT/US1997/001128 patent/WO1997027576A1/en not_active Application Discontinuation
  • 1997-01-23 CA CA002244212A patent/CA2244212A1/en not_active Abandoned
  • 1997-01-23 BR BR9707084A patent/BR9707084A/pt not_active Application Discontinuation
  • 1997-01-23 CN CN97193305A patent/CN1217805A/zh active Pending
  • 1997-01-23 EA EA199800606A patent/EA001005B1/ru not_active IP Right Cessation

Patent Citations (9)

Non-Patent Citations (1)

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