TW494367B - Display device, video controller unit, and method for displaying images - Google Patents

Abstract

In a display device having a plurality of display panels, the number of components and man-hours required to develop software for controlling the display panels can be reduced by reducing the number of circuits corresponding to each of display panels. Furthermore, a display device is provided which can expand the display area at a desired timing by displaying image data extending over a plurality of display panels as required for work. Upper and lower display areas of a dual-scan super twisted nematic (DSTN) panel are respectively allotted to display panels of separate modules. Thereby, the two displays can be controlled by circuitry and an operating system device driver for controlling one display panel. The two panels are usually turned in different directions, one toward an operator and the other toward a customer, for example, and can be turned in the same direction to display data, which can be viewed by the operator, at the same time.

Description

494367 Case No. 89102280?. Year # 月 上 说 Amended V. Description of the invention (1) Detailed description of the invention: &

[Scope of the invention] ίΐ ± ι— 一一 _J The present invention relates to an improved mechanism having two or more display panels, and more particularly to a mechanism for controlling a plurality of display panels with a common controller. [Background technology] In a traditional electronic device having two or more display panels, such as a cash register (POS) display device (POS devices have two display panels: one for the operator and the other for the customer) A circuit is provided to control each display panel separately, and individual operating system device drivers for each display panel must also be developed. In addition, such repeated components increase the cost of research and development and manufacturing of the display panel. In the display device of the traditional POS system, individual output areas are defined for two display panels to be output, one panel for the operator and the other for the customer. Therefore, it is difficult to develop an application program that displays data as if it is displayed on a single display panel. The display panel for customers has been turned to the operator (or salesperson) after the sales operation. Therefore, such applications are developed and produced. The cost of the program will increase. [Problems to be Solved by the Invention] An object of the present invention is to provide a display device having fewer required components by reducing the number of circuits per display panel. Another object of the present invention is to provide a display device which reduces the number of circuits per display panel and reduces the man-hours required to develop software for controlling the display panel.

O: \ 62 \ 62404.ptc Page 6 2001.08. 02.006 494367 _Case No. 89102280_ Year β month entry __ 5. Description of the invention (2) Still another object of the present invention is to provide A display device that expands the display area by displaying data on many display panels together because of work needs. [Summary of the Invention] According to the present invention, the upper and lower display areas of the dual-scan super twisted nematic (DS TN) panel are respectively allocated to the display panels of individual modules, so the two display areas can be controlled by a circuit of one display panel and Operating system device drivers. The two panels usually face different directions, one towards the operator and the other towards the customer, and can be turned to the same direction at the same time for the operator to view the data output on the two panels. According to an aspect of the present invention, a display device having a plurality of display panels is provided. The display device includes: (a) a first display panel; (b) a second display panel; (c) a first display panel image signal Cable to connect the first display panel and the video controller; (d) — the second display panel image signal line to connect the second display panel and the video controller; (e) — the first display panel control signal line to connect The first display panel and the video controller; (f) a second display panel control signal line connecting the second display panel and the video controller; and (g) application software for generating image data; (h) of which The video controller receives image data generated by the application software

O: \ 62 \ 62404.ptc Page 7 2001.08. 02.007 494367 V. Description of the invention (3) material, output the image data corresponding to the image data portion to the image signal line of the first display panel, and correspond to The image data of the image data part is output to the image signal line of the second display panel. The “first display panel control signal line” and the “second display panel control signal line” published within the scope of the patent application of the present invention include a control signal line directly connected to a video controller, and a control signal separated from the video controller by using Control signal line provided by the cable. According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a display device having a plurality of display panels, the display device comprising: (a)-a first display panel that is steerable to an operator; (b)-a rotatable toward the operator or a customer The second display panel; (c) a first display panel image signal line, connecting the first display panel and the video controller; (d)-a second display panel image signal line, connecting the second display panel and the video control (E) — a first display panel control signal line, connecting the first display panel and the video controller; (f) a second display panel control signal line, connecting the second display panel and the video controller; And (g) application software for generating image data; (h) wherein the video controller receives image data generated by the application software, and outputs image data corresponding to the image data portion to the image signal line of the first display panel, And outputting the image data corresponding to the image data portion to the image signal line of the second display panel.

494367 V. Description of the invention (4) A video controller unit still in another field of the present invention. This unit is included in a display device having a first display panel and a second display panel. The video controller unit includes : (A) — a first display panel image signal line, which is connected to the first display panel and a first display panel control signal line; (b) — a second display panel image signal line, which is connected to the second display Panel and a second display panel control signal line; and (c) a video controller; wherein the video controller: (c 1) connected to the first display panel image signal line, the first display panel control signal line, The second panel image signal line and the second panel control and control signal line;-(c2) receiving image data generated by application software; (c3) outputting image data corresponding to the image data portion to the first display Panel image signal line; (c4) Output image data corresponding to the image data portion to the second display panel image signal line. The "video controller unit" disclosed within the scope of the patent application of the present invention includes a video controller, individual modules including the image signal lines of the first and second display panels, a substrate, and other components. According to another aspect of the present invention, a display method performed on a display device having a plurality of display panels is presented. The method includes steps: (a) transmitting image data generated by application software to a first display panel, the display panel. Can turn to the operator and connect to the video controller through the first display panel image signal line and the first display panel control signal line;

494367 V. Description of the invention (5) and (b) In response to the operator, the second display panel can be rotated toward: drop: ΐ ϊ to the second display surface through the L ~ ~ display panel image signal, = towards the customer , And the cable is connected to the video controller. Control signal of the second display panel According to another field of the present invention, the display implemented on the display device of the panel has a large number of display surfaces. 单 generates a single-virtual display surface two; V Λ square two includes steps: the first image data will be juxtaposed Display :, ~~ image data and the first-display panel to the-direction: first; the mouthpiece can be rotated out. = Go to the first direction or input data with the first direction. On the display panel ; (B) The direction of (b) in the second direction of the brother u includes the second image data area in response to the operator. Within the heart image area, this area [preferred embodiment] A. Hardware architecture Refer to FIG. 1 for the month. This figure shows a schematic diagram of a 100 hardware architecture example of the present invention. The m system m contains a medium, a local memory, a memory memory, and a cache memory. cpu u =; 1 loses the master The bridge 15 interconnects at-from. I have hidden body 13 and cache 17 through, depending on A (LCD) control 20 and network controller 51 through PCI bus

Page 10 494367 _ Case No. 89102280 Car f Month > Day __ Amendment V. Description of Invention (6) 19 Connect to CPU 11 cIDE device 53 and USB device 55 are connected to PC bus 19 through bridge 57. The bridge 57 is connected to the ports of the PIO I / O controller 65, the BIOS 61, and other peripheral devices 63 connected through the ISA bus 59. As for the IDE device 53, it is connected to a data storage medium such as a hard disk drive. The code of the application program is stored in the storage medium. This code cooperates with the operating system to provide instructions to C p u and other components and generate image data. This code must be loaded into memory before execution. Computer application code can be compressed or divided into many parts and stored on many storage media. B. Relationship between the video controller and the LCD panel In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a / view chip with DSTN panel control function will output the following DSTN control signals to control the display as shown in Figure 2 Display panels such as VGA (640x480 pixels) or SVGA (800x600 pixels) panels. (A) Control signal 35 (1) Line drive synchronization signal (frame clock, first line marker) (2) LCD drive AC signal (AC module signal) (3) Line pulse (4) Transfer clock ( 5) Panel start signal (B) Display data signal (color signal) 31, 33 (1) Screen parallel data above 8-bit 31 (2) Screen parallel data below 8-bit 3 3

To drive half the size (like half a VGA (3 2 0 X 2 4 0), half a SVGA

O: \ 62 \ 62404.ptc Page 11 2001.08. 02.011 494367 5. The panel display data of the invention description (7) X j,)), the control signal is needed "and the upper part is bright, the T-shirt material is 31 or the bottom panel color Data signal 33. According to this ^^ side screen color data signal line 31 and the lower screen color data signal are connected to each half-size surface. The original-a control signal to drive the rain sleeve points into half 'and each half is connected To individual panels 1 * panels. In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, one of the two panels is used as the "operating one of the pos system as a" customer panel ". "Board" another Figure 4 is a conceptual diagram showing the processing elements of a traditional pos system. In the traditional pos 1 ′, an application program 210 is generated in an individual format for the operator and the user to display the data with 2 as shown in the figure. Display information for the operator 2m] Combined input: 器 ΐΪ: f device 221, lotus 240 and video controller ⑼. Supporting the operation inside = °, these three components are located on the operator display panel "Ο POS 丨 / Ok. The display 213 is output to the device driver 223 and the customer display located at the heart rate control unit 2 50. Panel 130, these two elements are located in the customer display panel 130. Γ II shows the pos system processing element m of the preferred embodiment of the present invention. Operations are generated on the board according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention. Display for staff and customers: personal display: surface 211 and customer display data to share the support of the video controller 26. Support, installation, formatting, and R & D support Customer display panel V. Description of the invention (8) Find C · Example of using display device Figures 6 and 7 show the appearance of the display device according to Zhao Tai Su Ri μ Hours — DAC_… + & Ming display device, also the county P0S The system is shown in Figure 6. ργκ i, ΠΠ4 πτ 十 # All P0S system 100 has an upper display panel 110 and a lower display panel i 2 〇 Although there is a missing 12〇 ^ μ ^ UL v ^ And the lower display panel 11 〇, = 〇 疋 贝 P shows two separated from each other Think of them as a single face, ^ e Seita application style plug ^. Board. That is, 应用 design the application as "below the customer. The screen is the same as the screen" output in the _ + according to the invention # Actuator, used to control through the basin: two & placed inside does not require additional device drive, even piles &# g system through "other interface (such as RS-23 2C or parallel interface)

The connected device is not stupid when it comes from time to time ^ Ν; ι 面 J 上 值 姐 ^ It is not like the device that is displayed first. Furthermore, it is necessary to upload the account and the customer does not need # 砉 次 y as shown in the inspection or 6. It is allowed to operate the country view, the customer display panel can be as shown in m WU ^ ”, see the customer display and use the panel to go忐 ^ 'The vga / svga κ π of the on-point voxel is defeated by Tian Cheng. The general display panel presents more information to the staff: 1 can be shown better than using the operator alone. Figure 8 shows that the method according to the present invention is better, and the customer display panel i 丨G. \ ^^ = 1 The operator display is shown on the operator display panel 120 ~ Like 枓, the upper part of Fig. 8 is the relevant sales statistics on the system 1 (] D ^, ",, using p0s = on The mode selection key 101 can be switched to manage the use of p0s to give instructions to the system (using mode selection to enter) to the system, 浐 千 备 姑 / Λ /, type k selection key 101 or keyboard 103 input from / When the & system first displays information on the two panels, the ancient Miao tortoise-Baoju, and Bei are not displayed on the customer display panel 1 1 0 0 π. On the display panel 120, as shown in the lower part of Figure 8: : 10 and the staff members are widely spoken. The application 21 will be displayed in 494367 amendment number 89102280 V. Invention Explanation (9) The image data under the virtual display panel (the virtual display panel area contains the customer display panel and the operator display panel) is extended to the entire virtual display panel area, so that the image data will be displayed across the screen on the customer display panel 1 1 0 and The operator display panel 1 2 0. Similarly, the operator can also operate (input through the mode selection key 1 01 or the keyboard 1 0 3) to instruct the system to enter the normal display mode, as shown in the upper part of the operator alone as shown in Figure 8 Image data is displayed on the display panel 120. [Advantages of the present invention] As explained above, according to the present invention, the required components can be reduced, and by reducing the circuit of each display panel, the development of display panel control software can be reduced. Manpower required. Furthermore, the use of work requirements to expand the display of image data across many display panels can expand the display area at the expected time. 4. Brief description of the figure: Figure 1 shows the display of a preferred embodiment of the present invention. Block diagram of the device's hardware architecture. Figure 2 shows a conceptual diagram of the relationship between the video controller and the LCD panel. Figure 3 shows the video A conceptual diagram of the relationship between the controller and the LCD panel; FIG. 4 shows a conceptual diagram of a processing element of a conventional explicit device; FIG. 5 is a conceptual diagram of a processing element of an explicit device according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention; Appearance of a POS system according to a specific embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 7 shows another appearance of a POS system according to a specific embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 8 shows images displayed on an operator display panel and a customer display panel according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention data.

O: \ 62 \ 62404.ptc Page 14 2001.08. 02.014 494367 V. Description of the invention (ίο) [Symbol] 11 ··· Central Processing Unit (CPU) 13... Main memory 1 5 ... Bridge 1 7 ... Cache 19 ... PCI bus 20 .. · Video (LCD) controller 3 0 ... Data control signal line 3 1 ... Upper screen Data signal line 3 3 ... Bottom screen Data signal line 3 5 ... Control signal line 3 7 ... Upper screen control signal line 3 9 ... Lower screen control signal line 40-43 ... Liquid crystal display (LCD) panel 5 1 ... Network controller 53 ... Integrated device electronics (IDE) device 55. · universal serial bus (USB) device 57.. Bridge

59. · Industrial Standard Architecture (ISA) bus 61. · IOS 63 · · 65 Ports for other peripherals · · Cash register (POS) I / O controller 67 · · · Cash register (POS) I / O 100. · · Cash register (POS) system 494367 V. Description of the invention (11) 110 ... upper display panel 12 0 ... lower display panel

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Claims (1)

494367 VI. Scope of patent application 1. A display device with a plurality of display panels, the display device includes: (a) — a first display panel; (b) — a second display panel; (c) a first display panel image signal Cable to connect the first display panel and the video controller; (d) — the second display panel image signal line to connect the second display panel and the video controller; (e) — the first display panel control signal line to connect The first display panel and the video controller; (f) a second display panel control signal line connecting the second display panel and the video controller; and (g) application software for generating image data; (h) The video controller receives the image data generated by the application software, outputs the image data corresponding to the image data portion to the image signal line of the first display panel, and outputs the image data corresponding to the image data portion to The image signal line of the second display panel. 2. A display device having a plurality of display panels, the display device comprising: (a)-a first display panel steerable to an operator; (b)-a second display panel rotatable toward an operator or a customer; ( c) a first display panel image signal line, connecting the first display panel and the video controller; Page 17 494367 VI. Scope of patent application (d)-the second display panel image signal line, connecting the second display panel and the video controller; (e)-the first display panel control signal line, connecting the first display Panel and the video controller; (f) a second display panel control signal line connecting the second display panel and the video controller; and (g) application software for generating image data; (h) the video controller Receive image data generated by the application software, output image data corresponding to the image data portion to the first display panel image signal line, and output image data corresponding to the image data portion to the second display Panel image signal line. 3 * — A video controller unit, which is included in a display device having a first display panel and a second display panel, the video controller unit includes: (a) — a first display panel image signal line, which Connected to the first display panel and a first display panel control signal line; (b)-a second display panel image signal line connected to the second display panel and a second display panel control signal line; and (c ) A video controller; wherein the video controller: (c 1) is connected to the first display panel image signal line, the first display panel control signal line, the second panel image signal line and the second panel control signal Line; (c 2) receiving image data generated by application software; (c 3) outputting image data corresponding to the image data portion to the first Page 18 494367 VI. Patent application scope One display panel image signal line; (c 4) Output the image data corresponding to the image data part to the second display panel image signal line. 4. A display method performed on a display device having a plurality of display panels, the method comprising the steps of: (a) transmitting image data generated by application software to a first display panel, the display panel being steerable to an operator and through the first A display panel image signal line and a first display panel control signal line are connected to the video controller; and (b) in response to a display mode switching operation performed by the operator, transmitting a portion of the image to the first display panel The data is transmitted to a second display panel, which can be rotated toward the operator or the customer, and connected to the video controller through the second display panel image signal line and the second display panel control signal line. 5. A display method performed on a display device having a plurality of display panels, the method comprising the steps of: (a) generating a single virtual display panel image, wherein the first image data and the second image data are displayed side by side, the first image data The image data is output to a first display panel rotatable to a first direction, and the second image data is output to a second display panel rotatable to the first direction or a second direction different from the first direction; (b) In response to a display mode switching operation performed by the operator, the first image data is output to an image area of the virtual display panel, and the area includes the second image data area. Page 19