JP2010054790A - Information display apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an information display apparatus that performs an easily visualized information display with less energy consumption regardless of the kind of a power source, or the like. <P>SOLUTION: When information such as characters and numbers are displayed by selectively emitting the light of LEDs arranged in a dot matrix in the information display apparatus, the time taken to perform the process in which each LED is turned off by decreasing brightness from the maximum brightness is adjusted longer than the time taken to perform the process in which each LED is turned on by increasing brightness to the set maximum brightness. Thus, information is displayed by turning on/off the LEDs. In the process of turning off the LEDs, brightness is decreased taking a long time. Accordingly, information shown by the LEDs can be seen during the process of turning off the LEDs. Also, energy consumption of the LEDs can be decreased compared to the case where information is displayed by emitting the light of the LEDs at the maximum brightness. Additionally, the process of turning off the LEDs is adjusted so as to take longer time than the process of turning on the LEDs, and information is displayed by turning on/off the LEDs at decreased brightness. This makes the degree of change in the process of turning on the LEDs different from that in the process of turning off the LEDs, thus providing more complicated view than the case where the LEDs are turned on/off in a simple manner, thereby enhancing the conspicuousness with respect to light emitting information entering into visual field. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an information display device that is installed around a road and transmits information to road users by light emission.

  Information display devices in which light emitters such as LEDs are arranged in the form of characters or dot matrix are generally used, and various inventions related to this are disclosed.

  For example, Patent Document 1 includes a display unit in which a light emitting element is arranged on a printed circuit board, and includes a plurality of solar cells that generate electricity in accordance with the amount of incident light in an apparatus that emits and displays characters, figures, symbols, and the like. A solar panel, an illuminance detection unit that detects ambient brightness based on the power generation output level of the solar panel, and a signal that is output from the illuminance detection unit. An output signal holding unit for outputting the latest signal, and a luminance switching means for switching the light emission luminance of the light emitting element arranged in the display unit based on the signal output from the output signal holding unit, and the illuminance around the device A display device is disclosed in which the light emission luminance of the display unit is switched after a predetermined time is detected.

JP 2001-75516 A

  However, since the display device such as Patent Document 1 detects the illuminance around the device based on the power generation output level of the output panel of the solar cell and switches the light emission luminance, only the brightness that can be read is taken into consideration. There was a problem that effects such as improvement of alerting were weak.

  Therefore, the present invention provides an information display device that performs information display in consideration of two effects of reducing energy consumption and improving attractiveness to display.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention is configured as follows.
That is, the information display device according to the present invention includes a wiring board, an LED arranged on the wiring board in a dot matrix shape to emit information such as letters and numbers, and a luminance intensity of the LED. It is an information display device for outdoor installation with an adjustable control unit, and the brightness of the LED that emits light is reduced from turning on at the maximum brightness set, and the brightness is turned off to increase the brightness from turning off. The information is displayed in a blinking manner by adjusting it for a longer time than the lighting process leading to the lighting with the maximum brightness set.

According to the information display device of the present invention, since the luminance is reduced over time in the extinction process from turning on at the maximum brightness set to turning off the LED, the information represented by the LED can be visually recognized in the extinguishing process. At the same time, it is possible to suppress the energy consumption of the LED to be smaller than when the LED emits light with the maximum luminance. In addition, the lighting process is adjusted to a longer time than the lighting process, and the brightness is reduced to display blinking. It is possible to increase the attractiveness to the light emission information that has entered. In addition, since the turn-off process is adjusted to a longer time than the turn-on process, the brightness is reduced and blinking is displayed, so the degree of change in the turn-on process in which the light emission information appears is more visible and the presence of the light emission information can be easily noticed. , Can increase the attractiveness to information.
Moreover, since the said method is based on adjustment of the brightness | luminance magnitude | size of light emission of LED, an effect can be acquired without being limited to the kind of power source about the information display apparatus using a solar cell, a commercial power source, etc. Further, in an information display device using a solar battery, the possibility of running out of the battery can be reduced by reducing power consumption, and information can be displayed and transmitted more reliably.

  In addition, if the lighting process from the extinguished state to the lit state with the maximum brightness is instantaneously performed, the difference between the extinguished state and the lit state can be recognized more clearly and visually. It is preferable because it can improve the performance and can transmit information more reliably.

  In addition, if the blinking display is adjusted for a longer time than the lighting process, and the blinking display is performed only during the night, and both the turning-off process and the lighting process are performed instantaneously during the daytime, the information display during the daytime flashes rapidly. As a result, the information display does not melt into the surrounding scenery during the day when the surroundings of the information display device are bright, and the attractiveness to the information to be displayed can be further enhanced.

  In addition, when characters are displayed by causing the LEDs to emit light, if the number of LEDs that emit light is increased in the daytime and the characters are displayed in bold, information is displayed with stronger light in a bright environment due to sunlight. Therefore, it is easy to visually recognize the displayed information, which is preferable. In addition, if the number of the LEDs that emit light is reduced at night and the characters are displayed in small letters, the information displayed with less light intensity can be sufficiently visually recognized in the dark surroundings. It is preferable that information can be displayed.

  According to the information display device of the present invention, it is possible to perform blinking light emission display of information with high visibility with low energy consumption.

Embodiments of the present invention will be specifically described with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of an information display device according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a view showing an embodiment of light emission timing of an LED for blinking information, and FIG. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an outline of control of a light-off process of the information display device according to the invention, FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an embodiment of characters displayed by the information display device according to the present invention, and FIG. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing another embodiment of the character displayed by the information display device according to the invention, and FIG. 6 is a diagram showing still another embodiment of the character displayed by the information display device according to the present invention. It is.

  In the drawings, reference numeral 1 denotes a main body of the information display device. The main body 1 is formed with a frame body by surrounding a left and right vertical frame body 11 and an upper and lower horizontal frame body 12 made of an aluminum extruded profile. A protective cover 2 formed of a polycarbonate plate and a back plate formed of a painted aluminum plate are respectively attached to the front side and the back side of the main body 1 to form the main body 1 in a hollow box. Inside the main body 1, a variable display unit is arranged in which LEDs 3 are arranged in a dot matrix on a wiring board so that information such as characters and symbols can be emitted and displayed, and information displayed on the variable display unit is provided with a protective cover 2. The light is transmitted to the outside of the main body 1 so that light can be emitted.

4 is a control box. The control box 4 stores the electric power generated by the solar battery 5 in the internal storage battery B and uses it for the light emission of the LED 3, and controls the information display pattern of the variable display section. The control box 4 includes a control unit C that adjusts the brightness of the LED 3 that emits light.
In this embodiment, the electric power generated by the solar cell 5 is used for the light emission of the LED 3, but other power sources such as a commercial power source may be used. Moreover, in this embodiment, the main body 1, the control box 4, and the solar cell 5 are each attached to the same support | pillar 6.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an embodiment of the light emission timing of the LED 3 that blinks information.
(A) is a diagram showing conventional flashing light emission, in which the lighting state set as the maximum luminance when the LED 3 is turned on and the light-off state are instantaneously switched to perform flashing light emission. For this reason, the lighting process from the extinguishing state to the lighting state with the maximum luminance and the extinguishing process from the lighting state with the maximum luminance to the extinguishing state become blinking light emission, and the energy is maximized in the lighting state. Consume.

  (B) is a diagram showing the flashing light emission of the LED 3 in the information display device according to the present invention, so that the luminance is lowered over time in the turning-off process from turning on to turning off the LED 3 with the maximum brightness set. It is adjusted by the control unit C. By adjusting in this way, it is possible to reduce the energy consumption required for displaying information in the extinguishing process as compared with the case of lighting at the maximum luminance. For this reason, even when using a power source that has a limit in the amount of power that can be supplied, such as a solar battery, it is possible to adjust the time ratio between the lighting state and the lighting state so as to increase the lighting state time. .

  Further, the control is adjusted by the control unit so that the lighting process from turning off the LED 3 to turning on at the set maximum brightness is instantaneously performed. By making the time of the lighting process and the light-off process different in this way, the change in luminance becomes more complicated as compared with the simple flashing light emission as shown in (a), so that the information displayed in the light emission is in the field of view. When it enters, it is easier to get interested and can increase the attractiveness to information. In order to make the lighting process and the lighting process time different, a method of increasing the lighting process time may be considered, but in this case, the light emission information is visually recognized so as to emerge slowly, so the speed of the luminance change However, there is a disadvantage that it is difficult to notice the light emission information entering the field of view. Conversely, if you set the lighting process time short, the speed of the brightness change will be large, and it will be easier to collect the line of sight to the light emission information that entered the field of view, so in order to make the lighting process and the lighting process time different, It is preferable to adjust for a longer time, and it is more preferable that the lighting process is performed instantaneously.

  Further, in the information display device as in the present invention, the content of the information is recognized in the flow that the light emission information first enters the field of view and notices its presence, and then turns the line of sight toward the light emission information and reads the information. . For this reason, when reading information with a line of sight, it is possible to recognize the contents of the information if it can be seen even if the luminance of the light emission is low. It can be determined that the method of the present invention for achieving the above is extremely effective particularly in an information display apparatus.

In consideration of the effect of reducing energy consumption, it is desirable to perform flashing light emission as shown in FIG. However, since the surroundings of the information display device are bright and the surrounding scenery is visible during the day, it is difficult to distinguish between the information display and the scenery depending on the conditions of the installation location and the light intensity of the information display. There is a possibility that the problem of losing gaze at the information occurs. In such a case, the information display is performed by the flashing light emission whose brightness changes drastically by displaying the information by the flashing light emission of FIG. 2 (a) during the day, so that the attractiveness of the information display can be further enhanced. It is possible to prevent the information display from blending into the surrounding landscape.
On the other hand, since the surroundings of the information display device are dark and the scenery cannot be seen at night, only the light-emitting information is visually recognized so as to emerge in the dark. For this reason, in the case of displaying information by flashing light emission, shortening the light-off time is effective as a method for improving the attractiveness of information display. In the flashing light emission occupying FIG. 2 (b), a turn-off time is provided between the turn-off process and the turn-on process. However, the turn-off process is performed before the brightness of the LED 3 becomes a turn-off body. By performing, LED3 can be light-emitted continuously and the attractiveness of an information display can be improved more. At this time, if the time for the extinguishing process is increased to eliminate the time for the extinguishing state, an increase in the amount of energy consumption associated therewith can be reduced.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an outline of the control of the turn-off process of the information display device according to the present invention.
(A) is a block diagram showing an embodiment of an apparatus related to light emission.
The current from the storage battery B is rectified by the rectifier S to cause the LED 3 to emit light, but the light emission luminance of the LED 3 is controlled by controlling the current value in the control unit C following the ground E. At this time, the current value at the time of light emission of the LED 3 is constant, and the current in the control unit C is turned on and off by the pulse signal from the pulse circuit P.

  (B) is a graph specifically showing the transition of the pulse signal from the pulse circuit P and the emission luminance. The LED 3 in the present embodiment has a constant current value at the time of light emission, but changes the apparent light emission luminance due to a change in the blinking duty ratio of the LED 3. In the lighting process in which the LED 3 instantaneously changes from the off state to the on state, a signal is transmitted from the pulse circuit P that does not transmit the signal, and the LED 3 emits light with the maximum luminance. In the extinguishing process in which the luminance is gradually reduced from the lighting state to the extinguishing state, the signal transmitted from the pulse circuit P becomes a pulse signal, and the pulse signal is set so as to lower the blinking duty ratio that is the ratio of ON to OFF. The luminance of light emitted from the LED 3 is reduced by adjusting and transmitting. By using such a control method, the light emission luminance of the LED 3 can be changed at a desired timing, and the light emission pattern can be adjusted so as to be easily visible under the condition of allowable energy consumption. it can. When displaying information such as characters, the time required to interpret the displayed characters and numbers varies depending on the contents of the characters and numbers, so a control method that can be adjusted according to each content is not possible. It is more important than other traffic safety products that simply alert the LED by emitting light.

4, 5, and 6 are diagrams showing an embodiment of characters displayed by the information display device according to the present invention.
FIG. 4 is a diagram in which the LEDs 3 arranged in a dot matrix of 24 × 24 dots are caused to emit light and the characters “stop” are displayed by the light emission of the LEDs 2 in two rows. When the arranged LED 3 is caused to emit light and character information or the like is displayed in the daytime, the information display device is brightly illuminated by sunlight, so that it may be difficult to visually recognize the information unless it is displayed with strong light. As shown in FIG. 4, by increasing the number of LEDs 3 that emit light and emitting the information to be displayed in bold, the intensity of the emitted light can be increased, and the characters can be easily read.

FIG. 5 is a diagram in which the same “stop” character as in FIG. 4 is displayed by light emission of one row of LEDs 3 with the number of light emission of LEDs 3 decreased. Unlike the daytime, the surroundings of the information display device are dark at night, and the light emitted from the LED 3 is not confused. For this reason, even if the intensity of light from the LED 3 is adjusted to be smaller than that in the daytime, the displayed information can be sufficiently visually recognized. Conversely, when information is displayed with strong light at night, the portion of the LED 3 that is turned off by the strong light from the light-emitting LED 3 is viewed brightly, which may make it difficult to interpret the displayed characters. . In particular, when the light emitting LED 3 forms a character shape, the range of the extinguished LED 3 formed between adjacent light line segments is difficult to see due to the influence of the light from the light line segments. There was a case. As shown in FIG. 5, when displaying information at night, the amount of energy consumption can be reduced by reducing the number of LEDs 3 that emit light compared to the daytime. In addition, as shown in FIG. 5, if the number of LEDs 3 that emit light at night is reduced by displaying the thin lines of the LED 3 line segments that emit light to form characters, the shape of the characters is greatly destroyed. The number of light emitting LEDs 3 can be reduced without any problem. Further, in this embodiment, the characters displayed in the thickness of two rows in the daytime are reduced to the thickness of one row at night. However, the characters may be displayed with a thickness of three rows or more in the daytime, and the nighttime is less than the daytime. If it is the thickness of, it is not limited to the thickness of one row.
Regarding the size of the gap between the line segments that form the “stop” characters displayed during daytime and nighttime, the horizontal line spacing is displayed so that the number of LEDs 3 turned off increases from 11 dots to 13 dots. The interval is displayed so as to increase from 6 dots to 7 dots. In this way, when changing the display to the shape of the character that is displayed at night, when the display is made so that the interval between the line segments that form the character is increased, the influence of light from adjacent line segments is reduced. Thus, it is possible to suppress a state in which the part of the LED 2 that has been turned off is mixed and difficult to read.

  FIG. 6 shows an example in which the thickness of a line segment forming a character is partially different for each character. Specifically, regarding the line segment forming the character “stop”, the vertical line segment is represented by “thick line” using two rows of LEDs 3 and the horizontal line segment is represented by “thin line” using one row of LEDs 3. It is represented by Thus, by making one character a line segment with a different thickness, the number of LEDs 3 that emit light during daytime and nighttime information display may be changed. The light emission in the form of FIG. 6 may be reduced to reduce the light emission number of the LED 3, or the light emission in the form of FIG. 6 may be performed in the daytime and the light emission in the form of FIG. When a single character is represented by a mixture of line segments of different thicknesses, the vertical line segment is thicker than the horizontal line segment as shown in FIG. By making it close to the familiar font, it is possible to read the visually recognized characters.

1 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of an information display device according to the present invention. It is a figure which shows one Embodiment of the light emission timing of LED which blinks and displays information. It is the figure which showed the outline | summary of control of the light extinction process of the information display apparatus which concerns on this invention. It is the figure which showed one Embodiment of the character which the information display apparatus which concerns on this invention displays. It is the figure which showed other one form of implementation of the character which the information display apparatus which concerns on this invention displays. It is the figure which showed another one form of implementation of the character which the information display apparatus which concerns on this invention displays.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Main body 11 Left and right vertical frame body 12 Upper and lower horizontal frame body 2 Protective cover 3 LED
31 Wiring board 4 Control box 5 Solar cell 6 Prop P Pulse circuit B Storage battery C Control unit

Claims (4)

  Provided with a wiring board, an LED arranged in a dot matrix on the wiring board to emit and display information such as letters and numbers, and a control unit capable of adjusting the intensity of light emission of the LED An information display device for outdoor installation, in which the LED that emits light is turned on at the maximum brightness set by increasing the brightness from turning off the light-off process from reducing the brightness to turning off at the maximum brightness set. The information display device is characterized in that the information is blinked and displayed for a longer time than the lighting process leading to.   The information display device according to claim 1, wherein the lighting process is performed instantaneously.   The blinking display in which the extinguishing process is adjusted to be longer than the lighting process is performed only at night, and both the extinguishing process and the lighting process are instantaneously performed in the daytime. The information display device described. When LEDs that are arranged in the dot matrix and emit light to display information display characters or the like, the number of LEDs that emit light is increased during the day to display the characters in bold, and the LEDs that emit light at night The information display device according to claim 1, wherein the characters are displayed in thin characters with a reduced number.

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