JPH07325549A - Character display device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide the character display device which can be reduced in installation area and cost and increased in the luminance of the light emitting element. CONSTITUTION:A driving circuit part 3 decodes pattern data outputted by a display pattern ROM 4 on the basis of a display pattern that a pattern switching part 5 specifies. The driving circuit part 3 outputs a static driving signal to an LED display part 1 corresponding to the decoding result. With the driving signal, the LED display part 1 make ON light emitting elements 2, which are arranged on the same display panel surface and display plural kinds of character, illuminate by switching on the basis of the display pattern to switch and display the kinds of characters on the same display panel surface.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a character display device for displaying information or guidance by lighting characters or numbers.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional character display device will be described below. BACKGROUND ART A conventional character display device, for example, in a store or the like, has a neon tube, a light emitting element such as a light bulb or an LED (light emitting diode) on a predetermined panel, and a business state such as whether the store is open or closed. Information such as items (sales product name etc.) and corresponding information such as letters and numbers that indicate information, and by forming a display panel by blinking the light emitting element, information and information such as business status and items Is displayed and the information and guidance are provided visually to passersby.

This character display device is formed by arranging characters and numbers representing information such as business status and business items and guidance at different positions on the same panel as a display panel, and the display panel is placed at an appropriate position in a store. Or, as a display panel, create two types by arranging the letters and numbers that represent each item of information about business status and items and each guide on different panels, and arrange these two types of display panels. Or, they are installed at an appropriate distance.

As another conventional character display device,
Recently, a certain number of light-emitting elements such as LEDs are arranged in the vertical and horizontal directions to form a display panel, and a matrix circuit is connected to these light-emitting elements, and a computer such as a microcomputer controls all characters and numbers. This display panel provides information such as business status and business items as well as guidance to passersby by blinking or turning them in sequence.

[0005]

However, in the conventional character display device as described above, when the information and the guidance are arranged at different positions on the same panel, all the characters and numbers representing the information and the guidance are displayed. The number of characters increases, and a large panel area corresponding to this number of characters is required, resulting in a large-scale character display device, which not only leads to cost increase but also requires a large installation area. Had.

Further, when displaying information and guidance separately on two types of display panels which differ depending on the display contents, it is necessary to install these two display panels as independent character display devices. Therefore, as the circuit for driving and controlling the light emitting element, two circuits exactly the same are required independently, which not only leads to an increase in cost, but also
Since the two character display devices are arranged side by side or separated by an appropriate distance, there is a problem that a large installation area is required.

Further, when a matrix circuit is connected to a light emitting element forming a display panel and information or guidance is displayed by computer control by a microcomputer or the like, all characters and numbers are displayed, which is very large. In addition to the need for a light emitting element, the light emitting element emits light by applying a periodic pulse signal with a short on-time, which makes it difficult to raise the brightness above a certain level. Was.

According to the present invention, the area of the display panel can be reduced, a large amount of information and guidance can be displayed even with one display panel, the installation area can be reduced, and the light emitting element can be driven and controlled. An object of the present invention is to provide a character display device which can simplify a circuit, can drastically reduce the number of light emitting elements, can reduce costs, and can increase the brightness of the light emitting elements.

[0009]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, a character display device of the present invention comprises a light-emitting element arranged corresponding to dots of plural kinds of dot-shaped display characters,
A display unit arranged so as to overlap on the same display panel surface, and a static drive signal for turning on and off the light emitting element arranged on the display panel surface of the display unit with respect to the display unit. A drive circuit section for outputting, a display pattern storage section for storing pattern data corresponding to each display pattern of a plurality of display patterns in a predetermined address area, and outputting the pattern data to the drive circuit section; The pattern storage unit counts up a pattern switching unit that outputs a switching signal of an address area scanned by the display pattern storage unit and an address scanned by the display pattern storage unit, corresponding to a display pattern to be displayed. A counter unit and a count-up counter for scanning addresses of the display pattern storage unit that are counted by the counter unit. An oscillation circuit for outputting a reference signal for generating a timing of resetting the count of said counter unit, a configuration in which the scanning address of said display pattern memory and a reset circuit for initializing.

[0010]

According to the above structure, the drive circuit section decodes the pattern data output from the display pattern storage section based on the display pattern designated by the pattern switching section.

In response to this decoding result, the drive circuit unit
It outputs a static drive signal to the display unit. By this drive signal, the display unit causes the light-emitting elements representing a plurality of types of characters, which are arranged in an overlapping manner on the same display panel surface,
The characters are switched on and off based on the display pattern, and a plurality of types of characters are switched and displayed on the same display panel surface.

[0012]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A character display device according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the character display device of this embodiment. Here, the character display device according to the present embodiment is, for example, in a store, as shown in FIG. 3 (a), the character "in business" indicating the business state of the store, and as shown in FIG. 3 (b). In addition, the characters "Ramen" indicating a sale item are switched and displayed on the same display panel surface.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes an LED as a display section.
As shown in FIG. 2, a character (for example,
The characters "operating" and "operating" are formed into dots, and single-element LEDs (light emitting diodes) 2 are arranged at positions corresponding to these dots, and these are turned on to display a predetermined character. In the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 5, the LED 2 is an LED 2a for displaying, for example, a "business" character of "business" (a portion represented by a black dot).
And LED to display the character "Ra" of "Ramen"
2b and the same display panel surface 1a are overlapped with each other. A drive circuit unit 3 outputs a drive signal to the LED display unit 1 for turning on and off the LED corresponding to the character to be displayed. Here, the drive circuit unit 3
Groups the appropriate number of LEDs 2 of the LED display unit 1 into each of the drive units 3a constituting the drive circuit unit 3 and connects the LEDs 2 in the same group in series to turn on the LEDs 2 of the LED display unit 1 in group units. And is turned off. In addition, the drive signal output from the drive circuit unit 3 is a static signal, and L of the LED display unit 1
A constant voltage is applied to the ED2 as a drive signal from lighting to extinguishing. Reference numeral 4 denotes a display pattern ROM as a display pattern storage unit, and a pattern corresponding to each display pattern as shown in FIGS. 4 (a), (b), (c), and (d) in a predetermined address area. The data is stored as a bit signal, and the specified pattern data among these pattern data is output to the drive circuit unit 3. Reference numeral 5 is a pattern switching unit, which is a display pattern RO.
A switching signal for the address area to be scanned is output to M4 according to the display pattern to be displayed, and the display pattern is arbitrarily switched and designated. Reference numeral 6 denotes a counter section, which sequentially counts up the addresses scanned by the display pattern ROM 4 in the address area designated by the pattern switching section 5 with respect to the display pattern ROM 4. Reference numeral 7 denotes an oscillation circuit unit, which outputs to the counter unit 6 a reference signal which is counted by the counter unit 6 and which generates the timing of address scanning in the display pattern ROM 4. A reset circuit unit 8 outputs a reset signal to the counter unit 6 for making the count number of the reference signal counted by the counter unit 6 zero, and resets the scanning address in the display pattern ROM 4 to the initial value.

The operation of the character display device having the above components will be described below. The pattern switching unit 5 selects and designates an arbitrary display pattern from the display patterns shown in FIG. By this designation, in the display pattern ROM 4, the start address of the address area in which the pattern data of the display pattern designated by the pattern switching unit 5 is stored is set as the scanning start address. When the oscillation circuit unit 7 starts oscillating, the counter unit 6 starts counting based on the reference signal from the oscillation circuit unit 7. Counter section 6
Synchronizes with the count-up of the reference signal and sequentially increments the scan address of the display pattern ROM 4 from the set start address. Display pattern ROM
4 outputs a bit signal of pattern data corresponding to the scan address in accordance with the increment of the scan address. The drive circuit unit 3 decodes the bit signal from the display pattern ROM 4 and outputs to the LED display unit 1 a drive signal for displaying the LED to be displayed corresponding to the bit signal. The LED display unit 1 displays the LED to be displayed corresponding to the bit signal based on the drive signal from the drive circuit unit 3. The above operation is repeated until the reset circuit section 8 outputs a reset signal to the counter section 6.

As described above, the area of the display panel surface 1a can be reduced, a large amount of information and guidance can be displayed on one display panel surface 1a, and the installation area can be reduced and the light emitting element can be reduced. The drive control circuit can be simplified, the number of light emitting elements can be drastically reduced, the cost can be reduced, and the brightness of the light emitting elements can be increased.

In the above embodiment, an optical sensor such as CDS is arranged on the display panel surface and the like, and the drive circuit unit is controlled to adjust the brightness of the LED according to the ambient illuminance detected by the optical sensor. It is also possible to adjust the brightness of the LED in proportion to the ambient illuminance.

Further, in each of the above-described embodiments, only the case of displaying the character strings of "business hours" and "ramen" has been described, but it goes without saying that the character strings are not limited to this, and may be used for any purpose. Accordingly, any other character string such as "rental" or "CD / video" may be used.

Further, in each of the above-described embodiments, the two types of character strings of "business hours" and "ramen" are configured to be switched based on the display pattern shown in FIG. 4, but three or more types of character strings are used. It can be implemented in the same manner by configuring to switch.

Furthermore, in each of the above embodiments, L
The ED display unit 1 may be configured such that LEDs 2 corresponding to display characters are arranged on both front and back panel surfaces so that both panel surfaces serve as display panel surfaces capable of displaying characters.

[0020]

As described above, according to the present invention, the drive circuit section decodes the pattern data output from the display pattern storage section based on the display pattern designated by the pattern switching section and responds to this decoding result. Then, the drive circuit unit can output a static drive signal to the display unit. The drive signal causes the display unit to switch on and off the light-emitting elements representing a plurality of types of characters that are arranged in an overlapping manner on the same display panel surface based on the display pattern and to turn on a plurality of types on the same display panel surface. The characters can be switched and displayed.

Therefore, the area of the display panel can be reduced, a large amount of information and guidance can be displayed even with one display panel, the installation area can be reduced, and a circuit for driving and controlling the light emitting element can be provided. It can be simplified, the number of light emitting elements can be drastically reduced, the cost can be reduced, and the brightness of the light emitting elements can be increased.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a character display device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of character dot conversion in the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a character display example of the display panel of the same embodiment.

FIG. 4 is an example of a display pattern of characters in the same embodiment.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of a character display operation according to the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 LED Display Section 3 Drive Circuit Section 4 Display Pattern ROM 5 Pattern Switching Section 6 Counter Section 7 Oscillation Circuit Section 8 Reset Circuit Section

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Hidehiko Sakakibara 1006 Kadoma, Kadoma City, Osaka Prefecture Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A display unit in which light emitting elements are arranged corresponding to dots of a dot-shaped display character, and for turning on and off the light emitting elements arranged in the display unit with respect to the display unit. A drive circuit unit that outputs a static drive signal, and a display pattern that stores pattern data corresponding to each display pattern of a plurality of display patterns in a pre-specified address area and outputs the pattern data to the drive circuit unit. A storage unit, a pattern switching unit that outputs a switching signal of an address area scanned by the display pattern storage unit to the display pattern storage unit, and the display pattern storage unit scans the display pattern storage unit according to a display pattern to be displayed. Counter unit for counting up the address to be stored, and the scan address of the display pattern storage unit counted by the counter unit. Character display device including an oscillation circuit section for outputting a reference signal for generating the timing of counting up and a reset circuit section for resetting the count number of the counter section and initializing the scanning address of the display pattern storage section. . 2. A display unit in which light emitting elements are arranged corresponding to dots of a plurality of types of dot-shaped display characters, and light emitting elements corresponding to the respective display characters are arranged so as to overlap on the same display panel surface. Equipped character display device. 3. The character according to claim 1, wherein the display unit is configured by arranging light emitting elements arranged corresponding to respective display characters of a plurality of types of display characters so as to overlap on the same display panel surface. Display device. 4. The character according to claim 3, wherein the drive circuit unit is configured to output a drive signal to a light emitting element corresponding to a plurality of types of display characters arranged in a stack on the same display panel surface. Display device. 5. The character display device according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of display units are provided, and the drive circuit unit is configured to output a drive signal to a light emitting element corresponding to a display character of the plurality of display units.