JP2001242809A - Color display device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent an increase of a cost and size of a color display device including a color display board formed with display information and a light source for illuminating this display board from its back as such display device is constituted to be provided with a lamp chamber with each of display information. SOLUTION: The light source for illumination of the color display device including the color display board formed with the display information and the light source for illuminating the display board from the back is the light source which emits monochromatic light and this light emission colors are multi-colors and emit the colors different in correspondence to the display information. The color display board forms the plural display information of materials which allows the transmission of the monochromatic light of the light source for illumination corresponding to the display information in the same display region.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a color display device provided in, for example, office machines, home electric appliances, vending machines, in-vehicle equipment, and the like. It is about.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A color display device of this type is widely used for information display of office machines and the like because of its low cost. FIG. 5 is a front view 80 of a color display device used as an information display in a copying machine. Until the switch of the copy machine is turned on and the inside of the copy machine can be copied, the display 81 of "wait" is displayed in red. Then, when copying is possible, “Copying is possible” is displayed in green. When either one is displayed, the other is not displayed.

FIG. 6 is a sectional view XX of the color display device shown in FIG. 5 taken along line XX. 84 is a lamp house consisting of two chambers. 85 is a color display plate. It is composed of an information display member indicated by reference numeral 88. The information display member is disposed on the surface of the translucent member, and is, for example, ink. The information display member indicated by reference numeral 87 is printed with black ink for the ground color and red ink for the characters. Therefore, when illumination light is applied from the back of the display panel, the character "Omachi please" is displayed in red. Reference numeral 88 is an information display member similar to 87. The background color is printed with black ink, and the characters are printed with green ink. Therefore, if illumination light is applied from the back of the display panel, the character "can be copied" is displayed in green. 89 and 9
Reference numeral 0 denotes a white light source which is turned on when a lighting signal is given from a control circuit (not shown), and illuminates the display panel from the back.

[0004]

However, in such a color display device, a lamp house is provided for each piece of information.
There is a problem that the display panel has a structure in which display information is formed by printing or the like on the surface of the lamp house. The inventor intends to provide a small-sized color display device which solves such a problem.

[0005]

The present invention is configured as follows to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems.

(1) In a color display device including a color display plate on which display information is formed and a light source for illuminating the display plate from the back, a light source for illumination emits a plurality of different monochromatic lights, and the color display plate is A plurality of pieces of display information are formed in the same display area using a material capable of transmitting monochromatic light of an illumination light source corresponding to the display information.

(2) In the color display device described in the item (1), display information is made into two pieces of information, and when these two pieces of information are formed in a display area, a portion where the two pieces of information are overlapped can transmit monochromatic light corresponding to both pieces of information. I do.

(3) In the color display device described in the item (1), the display area is divided by pixels, each pixel is divided into dots by the number of display information, and the display information is formed using dots corresponding to the display information. I do.

[0009]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing an embodiment of a color display device according to the present invention. In the sectional view 1, reference numeral 2 denotes a monochromatic light source capable of emitting a plurality of colors, and the emission color can be switched by a control signal from a control circuit (not shown). Reference numeral 3 denotes a lamp house, 4 denotes a color display plate, and this color display plate comprises a light-transmitting member indicated by 5 and an information display member indicated by 6. This information display member is, for example, printing ink.

The present invention is characterized in that a plurality of pieces of information are formed in a display area of a display panel and a light source capable of separately emitting a plurality of monochromatic lights. FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining the principle of the present invention. In order to simplify the explanation, the information to be displayed is such that a red circle and a green rectangle are displayed on a black background.

2 is a light source capable of emitting two colors of red and green;
Reference numeral 4 denotes a color display plate including a translucent member and an information display member. Reference numerals 7 to 9 denote display portions, on which an information display member is disposed on the surface of the translucent member. Specifically, it is printed with ink. 7 is a portion printed with black ink as a ground color, 8 is a portion printed with red ink, and 9 is a portion printed with green ink. It should be noted that only the light emitted from the light source is incident on the lower surface of the color display panel, and a lamp house is usually provided in order to prevent ambient light from entering. And is omitted. Therefore, in the following description, it is assumed that only light from the light source is incident on the lower surface of the display panel.

The light source 2 is a light source capable of emitting light by switching between monochromatic red light and monochromatic green light. Monochromatic light, for example, monochromatic red light is light that contains only the red wavelength in the wavelength component of the emitted light. Green monochromatic light refers to light that includes only a green wavelength in the wavelength component of emitted light.

When the light source emits red light, the red light emitted from the light source travels from the lower surface to the upper surface of the color display panel, and the light is printed on the surface of the color display panel with black ink. Since the portion cannot transmit red light, this portion looks black when viewed from above. Next, the portion 9 printed with green ink can transmit green light, but cannot transmit red light, so it looks black as well. Since the portion 8 printed with red ink can transmit red light, it looks red when viewed from the top of the color display panel.
Therefore, when the light source emits red light, the display panel displays a red circle on a black background.

Next, when the light source is switched to emit green light, the portion 7 printed with black ink looks black, the portion 8 printed with red ink also looks black, and the portion printed with green ink 9
Only the part looks green. Therefore, when the light source emits green light, a green rectangle is displayed on the color display panel on a black background.

In the above description, when the light source emits red light, the portion 9 printed with green ink looks black, and when the light source emits green light, the portion 9 printed with red ink. May appear black, but may not appear black due to external light. For example, when the light source emits red light, external light is incident on the portion 9 from the surface, and the reflected light may appear thin green, but the external light is reflected to prevent such reflected light. Placing such a reflection member on the surface is a common practice and can be easily prevented.

If the information of "Omachisume" of the conventional example is formed in the part of 9 and the information of "Can be copied" is formed in the part of 8, the color of the light source is red. Is displayed in red, and when the light source is green, “can be copied” can be displayed in green.

In the display method described above, the characters displayed on the translucent member are formed so as not to overlap. However, in this method, the display characters cannot be displayed on the entire display area, resulting in a small display. Therefore, a method of superimposing the display on the entire display area will be described below.

FIG. 3 is a front view of the color display panel, in which a green circle
This shows a case where information and red X information are displayed in an overlapping manner. For the green display, the portions 10a to 10d are printed with green ink on the surface of the translucent member. 12 overlapping with ×
The portions a to 12d are not printed on the surface of the translucent member so that both red light and green light can be transmitted. The crosses of red display print the portions 11a to 11e with red ink. The background color is printed with black ink. By printing in this way, if the light source emits red light, a red X is displayed,
When the light source emits green light, a green circle is displayed over the entire display area.

This method can be applied to "please wait" and "can copy". That is, both messages are superimposed on the same display area, "Omachisachi" is printed with red ink, and "I can copy" is printed with green ink. However, printing is not performed on a portion where both overlap, so that both red light and green light can be transmitted. In this way, if the light source emits red light, red “wait” is displayed, and if the light source emits green light, green “can be copied” is displayed in the same display area.

In order to display three pieces of information in such a manner, different colors are displayed for each piece of information, for example, colors A, B, and C. However, the overlapping portion is the same as the portion where the two pieces of information overlap. There is a portion where three pieces of information overlap, and even when two pieces of information overlap, there are A color and B color, A color and C color, and B color and C color. For this reason, a printing material capable of transmitting specific two or three colors is required, and expandability is difficult.

For this reason, a method that can be extended to multiple information will be examined. First, a case where two pieces of information are displayed will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 4A is a front view of the color display device, in which the light source inside emits red light, and "Please wait" is displayed in red.

The color display board used here is a set of a minimum unit area (hereinafter abbreviated as R dot) printed with red ink and a minimum unit area (hereinafter abbreviated as G dot) printed with green ink. As shown in FIG. 4B, pixels (hereinafter referred to as pixels) are arranged in a matrix on the entire display surface on average.

The display information of "Omachimachi" is printed with red ink using R dots. In addition, "Can be copied" is printed using G dots with green ink, so if the light source emits red light, "Omachi please" is displayed in red, and if the light source emits green light Is displayed in green as "can be copied". If the display information is formed on the color display panel using such dots, the display information can be formed on the color display panel without overlapping.

In the above description, a case has been described in which two pieces of information, that is, information displayed in red and information displayed in green, are displayed. Next, three pieces of information X, Y, and Z are represented by color A,
Consider the case of displaying in color and C color. In this case, a pixel made up of a set of A color dot, B color dot, and C color dot is
As shown in (b), they are arranged on the entire display surface on average.

For example, to display X information in A color, X information is formed by using A color dots arranged in the display area of the display panel. That is, by forming a display member capable of transmitting the A-color light to the necessary dots among all the A dots in the display area, the X information is displayed in the A color when the light source emits the A color. To display the Y information in B color, the Y information is formed using the B color dots arranged in the display area of the display panel. The Z information is also formed using C color dots. According to such a method, multi-information display can be easily performed.

[0026]

As described above, the conventional color display device has a large size because a lamp house is provided for each display information, but according to the display method of the present invention, the light source emits a plurality of monochromatic lights. Since the light source emits light of a color corresponding to the display information and the display panel forms a plurality of display information in the same display area of the display panel, a small color display device can be provided.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a color display device of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of a color display device of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a front view of the color display device of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a front view of another color display device of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a front view of a conventional color display device.

FIG. 6 is a sectional view of a conventional color display device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 Cross section of color display device 2 Light source 3 Lamp house 4 Color display plate 5 Translucent member 6 Information display member 7 Black ink printing region 8 Red ink printing region 9 Green ink printing region 10a to 10d Green ink printing region 11a to 11e Red Ink printing area 12a-12e Non-printing area 13 Color display board 80 Front view of conventional color display device 81 "Occasion" display 82 "Can copy" display 83 Cross-sectional view of conventional color display device 84 Lamp house 85 Color display plate 86 translucent member 87 information display member 88 information display member 89 light source 90 light source

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A color display device comprising a color display plate on which display information is formed and a light source for illuminating the display plate from the back, wherein the illumination light source emits a plurality of different monochromatic light sources, and the color display plate comprises a plurality of color display plates. Wherein the display information is formed of a material capable of transmitting monochromatic light of a light source for illumination corresponding to the display information in the same display area. 2. The color display device according to claim 1, wherein the display information is two pieces of information, and when the two pieces of information are formed in a display area, a portion where the two pieces of information overlaps can transmit monochromatic light corresponding to both pieces of information. 3. The display device according to claim 1, wherein the display area is divided into pixels, and each pixel is divided into dots according to the number of display information, and the display information is formed using dots corresponding to the display information. Color display device