GB2031202A - Information displays - Google Patents

Abstract

An information display is provided with means that allow numerical information to be displayed in alternative character systems. An information input (2) is selectively processed in a formatting stage (4) so that a display (6) indicates the information in alternative systems depending upon the selected route (4a,4b) in the formatting stage. In one example, from an input of numerical information in binary digital form, the formatting stage is employed to select a decimal form of display in either Western or Arabic characters. Analogue inputs and outputs may be also provided for, and the selection of the form of display may be automatic or user- controlled. The invention is particularly applicable to electronic display apparatus and may be used in metering and registering equipment of all kinds. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Improvements in or relating to information displays This invention relates to information displays, particularly but not necessarily exclusively, electronically actuated displays, and especially to displays however actuated, of numerical information.

Until recently, the employment of information processing equipment was confined to relatively specialised fields but increasingly it is coming into use by the general public. In many instances the extent to which such equipment can reach general acceptance by the public at large has been limited by the fact that it may not be suitable for use by non-specialists and in particular there has been a need to ensure that such equipment can be effectively used by the least sophisticated and without mental effort.

There is therefore a need to ensure that information processing equipment of many kinds is able to present its information output in such a way that it can be readily assimilated by individual users who may come from very different backgrounds.

According to the present invention, there is provided numerical information display apparatus comprising means for processing an information input to produce an output for actuating display means for said information, and means for controlling said processing means to output the information selectively to cause the display means to represent the information in alternative character systems.

Apparatus according to the invention may employ one or more display devices each having a configuration of a series of elements that are selectively operable to form a number of different characters, said elements being so controlled that they can be utilised to indicate characters in the diffent character systems, e.g. the elements of each device being able to form a series of different characters of any of a plurality of character systems. As an alternative, a cathode ray tube data display may be provided, with said controlling means determining the manner of modulation and/or deflection of the scanning light spot.

The conversion between different systems may involve more than simply the exchange of characters on a one-for-one basis: for example, the systems may read in different directions, one from left-toright and another from right- to-left, and the different character systems may have different number bases.

In the employment of different number bases, where the characters of a lesser number base are used to represent the lower numerals of a greater number base, the remaining numerals of that greater base may include any arbitrary symbols. For example the conventional Western decimal system characters can be used with alphabet letters for bases greater than ten, and the remaining numerals can be represented by alphabet characters.

The invention will be further described with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein: Figure lisa flow diagram illustrative of apparatus according to the invention, Figures 2a and 2b show alternative switching arrangements for the selection of different character display systems in apparatus according to the invention, Figure 3 is a schematic illustration of one form of apparatus according to-the invention, Figures 4a to 4c illustrate known forms of illuminated display device, Figure 5illustrates how a 7-element display device can be employed in apparatus according to the invention to represent two different numerical character systems, and Figures 6a and 6b illustrate an anlogue display device of another form of apparatus according to the invention, and an electrical circuit for selecting the form of display thereon.

In one form of the present invention, shown in Figure 1, an information generating unit 2 generates digital information, e.g. from external signals intercepted by sensing transducers, this information will conventionally be a in binary form, although not necessarily in the form of a binary-coded counting sequence. The digital information is fed to a display character formatting stage 4, which for the performance of the present invention has alternative routes 4a, 4b in parallel.

The function of the stage 4 is to convert the data input, which may have been generated by preceding stages of the equipment to a format suitable to produce readable characters at one or more output display devices 6. The provision of a formatting stage for digital information is itself known and does not need detailed description. It can, for example, be performed by a code converter circuit to convert, e.g.

binary-coded, data to 7-segment control signals, or it may be carried out by simply processing the data with a service routine performed as part of the operation of the stage, e.g. as in the case of microprocessor form of computing device. In the first instance the function is performed by a specific adaption of the construction of the equipment while the latter case relies upon the provision of an appropriate software routine or programme causing the multi-function hardware to perform an appropriate process, but the principle is the same in both instances.

In the provision of the alternative routes 4a, 4b for the stage 4, these routes may therefore represent two alternative processing circuits, or they may represent alternative programme routines performed in a common circuit. The selection of the route to be used by display format selection means 8 determines the character system employed in the information display in either case.

For selection means 8 to choose the required character system for the display the simplest means may be a switch, normally a bi-stable switch, such as an on/off switch. Figure 2a shows such a switch 8a used to select the output to line 10 from either of two lines 12,14, positiveV+ and negative V- respective- ly, the switch controlling the voltage that appear in the output line. When the switch is open and the negative voltage line is isolated from the output line, resistor 1R pulls the output towards V+. When the switch is closed, the output line is connected directly toV-.

Figure 2b shows a modification of this arrangement that may be preferred in practice, using in place of the on/off switch a monostable pushbutton switch 16 to control the operation of a bistable memory device 18 which is thus caused to reverse its state at each "make" operation of the switch 16.

The diagram also illustrates a switch bounceeliminating circuit 20 between the switch 16 and the bistable memory device 18 to prevent erroneous multiple operation of the device 18 due to transient movements of the switch 16.

It will be understood that in principle there may be any number of alternative character systems provided for in the formatting stage and multiple position switches can be then employed in place of these bistable arrangements. For example, a multiposition rotary switch may be employed, or there maybe a sequential counter device in place of the bistable element of Figure 2b.

Where different circuits are provided to generate the different character systems, the changeover switches described may act on a ROM (read only memory) device as a code converter. This is illustrated in Figure 3, where the information generating unit 2 provides a data input to ROM device 22 to address locations within the device 22, each of which locations contains the required data word to actuate the appropriate format of output display. Format selection means are also able to act on the ROM device through an address input 24 providing an additional address bit (or more than one such additional address input if there are to be more than two alternative character systems displayed) whereby different areas of data storage within the ROM device can be selected.Clearly, these different areas can store different sets of output codes corresponding to the different character systems required. In other words, the or each additional address input provides the control function for selecting alternative character systems.

The display device or devices may be an electromechanical, thermal, or other print-out means, but it is envisaged that the invention has particular application with illuminated display devices, typical examples of which are illustrated in Figure 4a to 4c.

The first of these is the 7-segment display device that has been devised specifically to display the numbers 0 to 9 in Western form (sometimes known as indo-arabic numerals) and that are capable also of displaying a limited number of characters from the alphabet. Figure 4b shows a 5 by 7 dot matrix display and this, like the 16-segment display of Figure 4c, can represent a larger range of characters. These display devices may be made up from light-emitting diodes, liquid crystal assemblies, gas discharge cells, and other known devices, any of which may be employed in the present invention. The dot matrix system of forming a character is also commonly used in cathode ray tube displays, where the scanning light spot is modulated in intensity to form dots, as is a vectored deflection system which actually draws shapes with the light spot on the screen.

These similarly may be employed in the present invention.

As an example of the employment of the 7segment device for two different character systems, Figure 5 shows for comparison in its top two lines the Western numbers 0 to 9 as they are represented by a 7-segment device, and underneath them the numbers in their script form. The bottom line of the figure shows the corresponding values written in arabic script and above these are 7-segment display representations of these arabic script characters. The formatting stage of an apparatus according to the invention may thus be arranged to be switched to display numerical information using either of these two systems at choice, as already described.

It will be understood that other character systems can be employed as alternatives in an analogous manner, e.g. Japanese numerals, and it may be mentioned that because a numerical display will normally have a series of such devices indicating numbers of different order of significance and it is possible to arrange that the characters of a particular system can be presented in descending order of significance from the right if this should be required.

Moreover the alternative processing of an input of numerical information is not necessarily restricted to decimai character systems and the alternative character systems may be ones that employ different number bases.

While it is particularly convenient to employ a commondisplay device or devices to display the alternative forms of output in the different character systems, it will be clear that there may be a respective display device or group of devices for each form of information output, so allowing both forms to be outputted simultaneously.

A specific example of the use of the invention is in the representation of the fare on a taximeter. The information generating unit will then act in known manner to produce a binary input to the formatting stage that is dependent upon time taken and distance travelled and at the choice of the user the fare can be displayed either in Wester or Arabic characters, and indeed each in different currencies if this sould be required. If desired, the alternative character systems can also be applied to the display or other information on the taximeter, such as distance travelled, although normally it will not be necessary to provide this facility for much of the subsidiary information.

It may be arranged, in this and other embodiments of the invention, that the alternative displays are selected by an internal control means, e.g. in a pre-programmed sequence, or by an external control means, e.g. to allow the required information form to be called up at will by the user.

It is also possible to arrange that alphabetical information provided to suppiement or complement a numerical information display is changed in accordance with the numerical character system selected for the display. In the example above of the taximeter, words such as "fare" and "extras" can thus be displayed in a language appropriate to the displayed numerical information.

Reference has already been made to the employment of the invention for an analogue display of information on a cathode ray tube. Figures 6a and 6b illustrate a further example in which both the information input is in analogue form and the display output is in an analogue and digital form. In Figure 6a instrument dial 32 has its face divided into two sectors 32a, 32b each with a scale in a different character system, e.g. Western and Arabic. An input signal voltage v, which may represent any conventionally generated analogue signal deflects the scale pointer 34. If the maximum input signal is V, then this is arranged to produce at 180 deflection of the pointer: by the addition of a forward bias of V, the pointer will register in the second 1 80" of the dial.

Thus, as shown in Figure 6b, dependent upon the position of a selector switch 36 the input signal is either transmitted directly to the instrument to give a display in the first sector of the dial, or a biassing voltage source 38 is connected in series with the input to provide the forward bias V so that the signal source produces a reading in the second 1800 of the dial.

It will be appreciated that the invention is applicable to many other forms of equipment incorporating display means, especially metering devices of all kinds, cash registering equipment and information recall systems including, as further examples, weighing scales, point-of-scale terminals and petrol pumps. Moreover, the alternative displays may comprise printers, light-emitting means, transmissive or reflective means, or any other electronically controllable means. It is of course possible to arrange a plurality of display devices or groups of devices displaying the information, so that the alternative character systems are employed, for example, both in a print-out display as well as a visual display. In all these examples it is possible, by the use of the invention, for the information that has been generated or inputted to be so processed prior to presentation to the display means to cause the information to be displayed using different selected character systems.

Although the examples show electronic apparatus the invention is applicable to other (e.g. mechanical, fluidic or pneumatic) information display apparatus having processing means to cause its display means to represent the information in alternative character systems. Simply as one example, there can be mentioned electro-mechanical apparatus in which the display means comprise displaceable plate-like elements such as are known for use in digital ciock displays.

Claims (18)

1. Numerical information display apparatus comprising means for processing an information input to produce an output for actuating display means for said information, and means for controll .ing said processing means to output the information selectively to cause the display means to represent the information in alternative character systems.

2. Apparatus according to claim 1 wherein said display means comprise a common display device or group of devices for displaying the alternative character systems.

3. Apparatus according to claim 1 wherein the display means comprise a plurality of display devices or groups of devices for displaying the alternative character systems.

4. Apparatus according to claim 3 wherein respective display devices or groups of devices are provided for displaying each of the alternative character systems.

5. Apparatus according to any one of the preceding claims wherein external control means are provided to control said processing means for selection of the character system in which the information is displayed.

6. Apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 4 wherein internal control means are provided to control said processing means for selection of the character system in which the information is displayed.

7. Apparatus according to any one of the preceding claims wherein the displayedsequence of characters is arranged to be altered in dependence upon the selected character system.

8. Apparatus according to any one of the preceding claims arranged to display the information in alternative character systems that have different number bases.

9. Apparatus according to any one of the preceding claims wherein the display means are arranged to display the information in character systems that include alphabetical characters.

10. Apparatus according to any one of the preceding claims wherein the display means comprise at least one electronically controllable device.

11. Apparatus according to claim 10 wherein the display means comprise a series of multiplesegment light-emissive display devices.

12. Apparatus according to claim 10 wherein the display means comprise a cathode ray tube.

13. Apparatus according to any one of the preceding claims wherein the display means incorporate an analogue information display device.

14. Apparatus according to any one of the preceding claims wherein the information processing means comprise fixed function devices or multifunction programme-controlled devices arranged to perform arithmetic or other data-manipulation processes.

15. Apparatus according to any one ofthe preceding claims in the form of a meter or register in which the numerical information is arranged to be supplemented by alphabetical information, and means are provided to change the display of said alphabetical information in accordance with the character system selected for the numerical information display.

16. A method of displaying numerical information wherein an information input is processed to produce an output for actuating a display of said information, and said processing is controlled to output said information selectively such as to cause the information to be displayed in alternative character systems.

17. Information display apparatus constructed and arranged for use and operation substantially as described herein with reference to any of the examples in the accompanying drawings.

18. A method of displaying numerical informa tion in alternative character systems substantially as described herein.