GB2069216A - Display for electronic game - Google Patents

Abstract

A visual display device for an electronic game, having means defining a plurality of bars (44) forming a segmented regular lattice and with a plurality of dots (46) each positioned within one of the areas in said lattice, has individually operable light sources (54) such as light-emitting diodes, for illuminating said bars (44) and dots (46). <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Electronic game display This invention pertains to electronic games and in particular to a display for an electronic game wherein the player's skill may be tested and scored in the performance of a game, the program for which is stored in a microprocessor.

With the advent of the microprocessor chip, it has now become possible to provide highly sophisticated games which may be played on a hand-held set. Such games typically test the operator's skill in overcoming a number of problems or obstacles preprogrammed into the device. Typically, such games are described in "Electronics Magazine" of March 4, 1979, P. 44. Such games usually include a visual display typically formed of the well-known liquid crystals, light-emitting diodes (LED) or the like.

Visual displays for electronic devices generally are, of course, quite common and are exemplified by the ubiquitous "seven-segment" type of display which is so widely used in forming alphanumeric characters by excitement or activation of selected segments. Also, the use of sequential activation of a series of discrete, fixedly-positioned light sources, to simulate motion, is old and well-known in the art, being exemplified typically by the well-known theater marquee display or the animated displays now common in sports stadia.In most cases such display usually is formed of a plurality of like light-emitting elements such as standard and incandescent lamps arranged in a series of intersecting rows and columns to form a plurality of squares, or packed in the so-called hexagonal packing in which case the rows of lamps are arranged to intersect one another at angles of approximately 180 in a rectangular manner. Such displays, characterized in having a plurality but one single form of light-emitter, have been miniaturized and are now being used in conjunction with hand-held electronic games wherein the lightemitters are those which require relatively low power sources for stimulation. Such displays however cannot permit ready representation of several different objects without the undue use of large numbers of light sources.

It is therefore a principal object of the present invention to provide a novel display in which there are provided pluralities of two different display elements so as to substantially increase the versatility of the representations which can be displayed, without unduly multiplying the number of lightemitters which might need to be activated.

To this end, the present invention provides a display for hand-held electronic games in which there are provided means for defining a plurality of bars arranged to form a segmented regular lattice, and a plurality of dots each positioned within one of the areas defined by the bars. The display also includes means for energizing the bars and dots thus defined.

These and other objects of the present invention will in part be obvious and will in part appear hereafter. The invention accordingly comprises the apparatus possessing the construction, combination of elements, and the arrangement of parts exemplified in the following detailed disclosure and the scope of the application of which will be indicated in the claims.

For a fuller understanding of the nature and objects of the present invention, reference should be had to the following detailed description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings wherein: Figure 1 shows a perspective view of the exterior of a typical hand-held game incorporating a display formed according to the principles of the present invention; Figure 2 shows a perspective view of a display module of the present invention partially cut away; Figure 3 shows a portion of the module of Figure 2 with the overlying diffuser removed; Figure 4 shows across-section of a bar element of Figure 2 taken along the line 4-4 in Figure 2; Figure 5 shows a cross-section of a dot element of the module taken along the line 5-5 in Figure 2;; Figure 6shows a schematic diagram partly in block form, of circuitry useful in selectively energizing the bar and dot elements of the module of Figures 2 and 3 according to a predetermined program; Figure 7 represents a flow-chart of a simplified program for selectively illuminating elements of the module of Figures 2 and 3 in carrying out a game; and Figure 8 is a simplified diagram showing the elements of the module of Figures 2 and 3 as sequentially activated by the program of Figure 7.

Referring now to Figure 1 there is shown a perspective view of a hand-held game 20 which includes a display module 22 covered by a diffusing screen or filter, typically one which permits only light of a single color to be transmitted therethrough. The game may also include a loudspeaker 24 over which audible effects can be transmitted in connection with the performance of the game on display module.

Preferably a number of manually manipulable buttons are included such as on-off button 26, the operation of which activates and deactivates the game by connecting the same to a source of power, preferably an internally contained battery. A second button 28 is included which when activated will sequence the electronics of the device through a series of different games.Most importantly, for purposes of manipulating the representations which appear as limited portions on the display module 22, there are provided four buttons, 30, 32, 34 and 36 each of which when operated will cause illumination of a selected element on the display to be turned off, and the illumination of a next adjacent element in a corresponding selected orthoganal direction to be turned on, thereby simulating or giving an impression of motion of light in the orthoganal direction represented by the particular button manipulated. It is apparent that a single control element can be used in place of the four buttons.For example, one can employ a single element which causes the apparent motion of the light on the display module to move in a direction corresponding to any one of the several directions in which that single control element is pushed substantially parallel to the surface of the game board.

As previously noted, the primary novelty of the present invention lies in the formation of module 22 which is shown in detail in Figures 2 and 3. As shown in Figure 2, module 22 includes typically block 38 of light opaque material which is preferably also electrically insulating. To this end, a preferred material for block 38 is ABS plastic filled with titanium dioxide so as preferably also to provide a very high light reflectance. Mounted on a top surface of block 38 is a screen ordiffuser42, preferably formed of 10 mil.

Mylar which is ruby red light transmitting, being either transparent or translucent.

As shown in Figure 2 and 3, block 38 incorporates a series of display elements in the form of perforations extending through the block from top surface 40 to the bottom surface. Screen 42, as shown in Figure 2, overlies all of the perforations.

The shapes of these perforations in block 38 at surface 40 are of two types. One type is bar 44 i.e. an elongated element, having an elongated dimension substantially greater than its width. In the preferred embodiment element 44 is shown having only two-fold symmetry about an axis of elongation. The other type of perforation is dot element 46 i.e. a compact element displaying substantially radial symmetry, hence a circle, equilateral polygon or the like, as distinct from bar 44. All of bars 44 are preferably of the same size, and all of the dots 46 are preferably the same size, the dots and bars being approximately of the same order of magnitude of size with respect to the diameter of the dot and the average width of the bar.Bars 44 are arranged to form a number of intersecting segmented rows and columns, each row and column being formed of a sequence of separated bars lying along a common line co-linear with their axes of elongation. The rows and columns of bars 44, as shown, preferably intersect at the interspaces between the bars, thereby forming a segmented regular quadrilateral lattice 48. It will be recognized to those skilled in the art that lattice 48 thus incorporates a number of the wellknown "seven-segment" type displays. The display of Figure 3 also includes a plurality of dots 46, each of which is preferably positioned substantially centrally in a corresponding one of the simple quadrilateral areas of lattice 48 formed by the intersecting rows and columns of bars 44.In the example shown, the lattice formed by bars 44 in a 5 x 3 array of simple quadrilateral areas having disposed therein 15 dots, the total number of display elements therefore numbering 53. It will be recognized that the particular form of lattice and the number of elements therein shown in Figure 3 is merely exemplary and that more or less bars 44 and dots 46 may be used to form larger or smaller lattices delining quadrilaterals, the edges of which may or may not be enclosed by bars in whole or in part. Further, other dot configurations can be used. For example, fewer dots can be employed so that not all the quadrilateral areas are provided with a dot.

As shown in Figure 4, each perforation defining a bar 44 of Figures 2 and 3 is formed as a tapered perforation 49 having its larger dimension at surface 40 top of block 38 adjacent screen 42, the perforation being mounted on top of a typical printed circuit board 50 which supports the necessary leads and light source 52 such as an LED or the like, so that the latter is disposed in the narrow end of the perforation.

The dot element 46 shown in Figure 5 indicates that the perforation representing the element is formed in block 38 as a substantially cylindrical perforation 56, the cross-section dimension of which does not vary substantially. As in the case of the bar element of Figure 4, one end of perforation 56 is occluded by screen 42 and disposed across the other end of the perforation is printed circuit board 50 with light-emitting element 54 extending into the perforation. It will be apparent that where block 38 is formed of a plastic material loaded with titanium dioxide, the interior surfaces of perforations 49 and 56 shown in Figures 4 and 5 will be white and highly reflective, so that essentially the perforations serve as light pipes to transmit light through block 38 to illuminate screen 42 and form the requisite shapes of bar 44 or dot 46 as the case may be.

As shown in Figure 6, means are preferably provided for selectively energizing or illuminating bar and dot forms or elements 44 and 45 in lattice 48 of Figures 2 and 3. To this end, as shown in Figure 6, there are provided a plurality of light sources 60 corresponding in number to the plurality of bar and dot elements in lattice 48 of display module 22.

Consequently, there are shown 53 LED's arranged in a well-known matrix 62 whereby each can be selectively stimulated into emission by the activation of a selected pair of electrical lines leading into the matrix. One set of seven lines each of six of which are connected to cathodes of input LED's, the seventh line being connected to cathodes of five LED's, are driven by asynchronous drive circuit 62, such as type ULN2004A Darlington transistor array, the latter is a monlithic, high voltage, high current chip commercially available from Texas Instruments, Incorporated, Dallas, Texas or Spraque Electric Co., and described in a published application note of Sprague Electric entitled "Series ULN-2000A Darlington Transistor Arrays-Description and Application".Eight crosslines lead into matrix 62 for connection respectively to the LED anodes, four of such lines being the outputs from a first foursegment MOS to LED anode driver chip 64 such as the SN75491 circuit which is commercially available from the Motorola Company, Texas Instruments, Incorporated, and National Semiconductor, and is described at pp. 43-46 in the The Display Driver Data Book for Design Engineers, 1977, Texas Instruments.

The four other lines are provided from the output of line SN75491 circuit chip 66.

As a typical single chip microcomputer 68, the circuit of Figure 7 includes a TMS 1400 NLL unit which is a microcomputer containing a 4096 word instruction ROM, a 12 word RAM and a 4 bit arithmetic logic unit, all on a single semiconductor chip. These TMS 1400 microcomputer chips are commercially available from Texas Instruments, Incorporated and are described in a bulletin of Texas Instruments, Incorporated published September 19, 1979. The R output channels, R0 to R7 inclusive of chip 68 are respectively connected to corresponding inputs of chips 64 and 66 which serve to control the driving of the anodes of the LED's in matrix 62.The O output channels 0o to O6 inclusive of chips 68 are connected as inputs to chips 62 in order to control the driving of the cathodes of the LED's in matrix 62.

For controlling the operation of chip 68, a switching matrix is provided including all six of the control buttons shown particularly in Figure 1. To this end, output terminal Rg of chip 68 is connected to one side of switch buttons 30, 36 and 34 and output terminal R10 is similarly connected to one side of switch buttons 28, 26 and 32. The K1 input terminal of chip 68 is connected to the other side of switch buttons 32 ad 34. The K2 input terminal of chip 68 is similarly connected to the other side of switch buttons 26 and 36. Lastly, the K3 input terminal of chip 68 is connected to the other side of switch buttons 28 and 30. As an internal power source, battery 70 is connected between the VDD ad VSS input terminals of chip 68.Lastly, means are included for controlling the timing of chip 68 and to this end, resistor 72 and capacitor 74 are respectively connected to opposite terminals of battery 70, the other sides of resistors 72 and 74 being connected to one another and in common to input terminals OSC1 and OSC2 of chip 68. This timing circuit provided by resistor 72 and capacitor 74 provides an RC filter control which drives the internal oscillator of chip 68 as described in the literature.

As shown in Figure 7, microprocessing chip 68 can be easily programmed to carry out a game which is typical of the fairly complex games which can be played on the display module of the invention with a modest number of display elements. One can assume that button 28 has been pressed a number of times to sequence in the game programmed according to the flow-chart in Figure 7. The latter represents, in simplified form, a visible maze game in which the object is to move a "ball" through a series of obstructions in the shortest possible time. The direction buttons are used to move a single "ball" represented by an illuminated dot through a maze represented by a selected number of illuminated bars into a goal or cup.The latter is represented by three illuminated bars forming three sides of a quadrilateral, the center side being a marginal bar disposed at either the upper or lower end of the display module. Thus for example as shown in Figure 8, the illuminated dot shown at 46A is the initial position of the "ball", the cup 76 is represented by three bars 44A, 44B, and 44C, and the maze is represented by illuminated bars 44D through J inclusive.

As shown in Figure 7, as soon as the game has selected, the position of goal 76 is selected by microprocessor chip 68 from its random access memory which has stored the six possible goal positions. The second position of the ball is then selected from the RAM from the three possible ball positions located at the opposite end of the LED display module from the goal position. Lastly, the maze bars are selected at random from any one of for example ten different maze structures stored in the random access memory chip 68. The program then, following the order to select the maze game and the selection of components, order illumination as shown in Figure 8, of goal 76, ball 46 A, and the maze defined by the noted bars 44D to J inclusive. These selections by chip 68, of course activate the driver chips 64, 66, and 62 to drive the selected ones of LED light sources 60.The direction of the "movement" of ball 46Athrough the maze is dictated solely by the pressing of the directional keys on the front game panel referring to Figure 1. Pressing button 36 would result in turning off the illumination at ball 46A and illuminating the next most adjacent ball in an upward direction, if the logic of the program so permits. Similarly, manipulation of button 32 "moves" the ball downward one step on the display module while manipulation of buttons 30 and 34 respectively "move" the ball either one increment to the left or one increment to the right. Thus one and only one dot 46 is lit on the screen at any time.This apparent motion of dots, exemplified by ball 46A, following the logic of the flow-chart of Figure 7 is impeded not only by the physical borders of the display module 22, but by each of the horizontal bars 44D to J inclusive which have been selected to make up the maze. When by appropriate manipulation of buttons 30, 32, 34, and 36, the ball is finally deposited into goal 76, preferably some sound, indicating success, is generated to be emitted by speaker 24. Then for a predetermined length of time, the maze is wiped from the display and in place thereof, in 7-segment display form, the total number of units of time elapsed, from the initial appearance of the maze to the "movement" of ball 46A into goal 76, is displayed on the screen as a scoring technique.

Following the display of the score, the logic of Figure 7, operating through the circuitry of Figure 6, blanks or turns off the display and restarts the maze game so that the same or another player can again attack another maze selected according to the flow-chart of Figure 7.

Of course, a substantial number of other and more complex games can be played on the unit displayed in Figure 1, the versatility of the hand-held game board being in very large measure due to the unique form of the display module 22.

Since certain changes may be made in the above apparatus without the parting from the scope of the invention herein involved, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description or shown in the accompanying drawings shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

Claims (11)

1. Avisual display comprising in combination: means defining a plurality of bars arranged to form a segmented, regular lattice, and a plurality of dots each positioned within one of the areas in said lattice; and means for energizing said bars and dots.

2. A visual display as defined in claim 1 including means for selectively energizing one or more of said bars and dots.

3. Avisual display as defined in claim 1 wherein said means for defining said plurality of bars and dots comprises a block of substantially opaque material having at least one substantially plane surface and a plurality of perforations extending through said surface to the opposite side of said block, the intersection of said perforations and surface respectively defining said bars and said dots.

4. A visual display as defined in claim 3 wherein said material is a synthetic plastic loaded with a reflective pigment.

5. A visual display as defined in claim 3 wherein the perforations which intersect said surface to form said bars are tapered with the wide end of the perforation at said surface, the perforations which intersect said surface to form said dots being substantially cylindrical.

6. A visual display as defined in claim 3 including a light transmitting screen disposed across said surface and adapted to transmit a predetermined color.

7. Avisual display as defined in claim 3 wherein said means for energizing comprise individually operable light sources each disposed within a corresponding one of said perforations.

8. A visual display as defined in claim 7 wherein said light sources are light-emitting diodes.

9. A visual display as defined in claim 1 wherein said lattice is quadrilateral.

10. A visual display as defined in claim 1 wherein said dots are each positioned substantially centrally in a corresponding one of the areas in said lattice.

11. A visual display substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.