Classifications

• • G—PHYSICS
  • G09—EDUCATION; CRYPTOGRAPHY; DISPLAY; ADVERTISING; SEALS
  • G09G—ARRANGEMENTS OR CIRCUITS FOR CONTROL OF INDICATING DEVICES USING STATIC MEANS TO PRESENT VARIABLE INFORMATION
  • G09G3/00—Control arrangements or circuits, of interest only in connection with visual indicators other than cathode-ray tubes
  • G09G3/04—Control arrangements or circuits, of interest only in connection with visual indicators other than cathode-ray tubes for presentation of a single character by selection from a plurality of characters, or by composing the character by combination of individual elements, e.g. segments using a combination of such display devices for composing words, rows or the like, in a frame with fixed character positions
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G09—EDUCATION; CRYPTOGRAPHY; DISPLAY; ADVERTISING; SEALS
  • G09F—DISPLAYING; ADVERTISING; SIGNS; LABELS OR NAME-PLATES; SEALS
  • G09F9/00—Indicating arrangements for variable information in which the information is built-up on a support by selection or combination of individual elements
  • G09F9/30—Indicating arrangements for variable information in which the information is built-up on a support by selection or combination of individual elements in which the desired character or characters are formed by combining individual elements
  • G09F9/302—Indicating arrangements for variable information in which the information is built-up on a support by selection or combination of individual elements in which the desired character or characters are formed by combining individual elements characterised by the form or geometrical disposition of the individual elements

Definitions

• the present invention relates to display devices and measuring apparatus, especially, though not exclusively, hand-held measuring devices.
• Measuring apparatus such as tachometers, electronic rules, thermometers etc conveniently are hand-held for portability. Such apparatus needs to be used in a variety of orientations. Normally such apparatus include a liquid crystal or other numeric display. Known apparatus present various problems.
• a horizontal alphanumeric display on such apparatus creates unwanted design restrictions, forces designs into shapes for the apparatus lacking ergonomic features and can make the apparatus difficult to use in certain situations. Also, as the orientation of the apparatus is changed the display can become difficult to read, especially if the display is being updated frequently.
• a display device comprising a character display means for displaying at least one character in a first orientation and means for controllably changing the orientation of the displayed character relative to the display to a predetermined second orientation.
• the character display means can display a plurality of characters in a line. Normally, the characters will be alphanumeric characters and most commonly numeric characters 0 - 9.
• the second orientation is rotated relative to the first orientation, normally by a multiple of 90° and preferably by 180°.
• the orientation changing means comprises a switch operable to generate an inversion signal accordingly to which the displayed character is changed to a second orientation.
• the switch is manually operable.
• the switch is computer controlled or means are provided to operate the switch according to the orientation of the display.
• the operating means may comprise a tilt switch.
• the display comprises a liquid crystal display.
• the device is for a hand-held apparatus .
• the first aspect of the invention may further comprise one or more of the features of the second or third aspects of the invention.
• a segmented display device comprising a segmented display in the con iguration of a numeral eight having two opposed pairs of generally vertical segments and at least one further segment located between one pair of generally vertical segments.
• Such an arrangement can provide extra legibility for a vertical display.
• the at least one further segment is a generally vertical segment .
• the at least one further segment is located substantially centrally in relation to the pairs of generally vertical segments it is disposed between.
• the second aspect of the invention may include features from the third aspect of the invention.
• a display device comprising a plurality of characters, at least two characters being vertically spaced from one another when the device is in its normal orientation to be read.
• a vertical display can be integrated more easily into a hand-heId device.
• all of the characters are vertically spaced from each other.
• a measuring apparatus comprising a display device according to any preceding aspect of the invention.
• the apparatus is suitably sized to be handheld.
• the apparatus comprises means for determining a physical quantity and a converter (suitably an analogue to digital converter) for converting the determined value into a suitable format, eg binary.
• a converter suitable analogue to digital converter
• means are provided for providing a signal in binary coded decimal format .
• the device comprises a conversion means including a look up table to convert input data to segment data.
• a conversion means including a look up table to convert input data to segment data.
• the apparatus comprises means for generating an inversion control signal operative to determine from which look up table of the first and second look up tables the conversion means accesses to generate segment data.
• the invention includes within its scope a method of operating a device or apparatus of a preceding aspect of the invention. Brief Description of the Drawings
• Figure 1 is a perspective illustration of a measuring apparatus according to the present invention, with the display in a first orientation.
• Figure 2 is a front elevation of the apparatus shown in Figure 1, with the display in a second orientation.
• Figure 3 is a functional block diagram of an arrangement according to the present invention with the display in a first orientation.
• Figure 3A shows the display of Figure 3 in a second orientation.
• Figure 4 is an enlarged front view of a display device according to the present invention.
• a hand-held measuring apparatus 2 which, in this case, is a tachometer.
• the apparatus 2 comprises a housing body 4, a liquid crystal display panel 6 and a switch 8.
• the way in which the apparatus 2 carries out its measurement is immaterial to the present invention and so will not be elaborated upon here. It is however significant that the apparatus generates a signal that it is desired to represent numerically in display 6.
• the display 6 is orientated vertically such that each number lies vertically above and/or beneath another of the numbers in the display 6. In this case the display 6 shows the number "87910".
• the displayed number "87910” is inverted relative to the display 6 in Figure 1.
• the display 6 is inverted according to operation of the switch 8.
• the apparatus 2 can be used in any orientation as required to make its measurement.
• the switch 8 By operating the switch 8 to re-orient the characters in the display 6 relative to the display 6 itself, the user can maintain the legibility of the displayed characters of the display apparatus 2 as the apparatus itself is reorientated.
• the measuring apparatus 2 generates from measuring means 10 a signal in binary coded decimal (BCD) format output to a data conversion means 12.
• the data conversion means 12 converts BCD data into segment data and outputs the segment data to a display driver 14.
• the display driver 14 drives display 6 to generate the required character display.
• the data conversion means 12 comprises a look-up table, suitably a Read Only Memory to generate segment data corresponding to the decimal number to be displayed and the inversion state of the display 6 according to the inversion signal . That is a first look up table can be used for forming numbers from top to bottom and a second look up table for forming numbers bottom to top.
• Figure 3A shows the display with the number shown in Figure 3, inverted.
• the inversion signal is generated by a manual switch, it could be generated from a tilt switch according to the orientation of the apparatus, or from an external source according to operational requirements.
• the characters are displayed reorientated through 180°.
• other reorientations could be generated.
• a 90° reorientation could be achieved by splitting in half segments "a” and "d" of a seven segment display.
• a hard wired option could be used in which the display signal lines are switched.
• the display 16 comprises the usual seven segment display with segments a-g forming a numeral "8".
• a further segment "h” is provided parallel to segments b, c, e and f extending from segment a to segment d.
• the additional segment h is located centrally between the two vertical sides of the display 18 formed by segments b, c, e and f .
• the additional segment h can be used as a central numeral "1" (see Figure 3) so that when the display is inverted it does not appear to have switched sides. It has also been found experimentally and surprisingly that the centrally located numeral "1" is easier to read when viewed by the user than would be the case if it were at one side or the other of the display, especially in orientations away from the vertical.
• the additional segment h can be half the length shown and a further segment i provided as the other half of previous additional segment for greater variation of character display options.

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• 1996
  • 1996-09-13 GB GB9619171A patent/GB2317489B/en not_active Expired - Fee Related
• 1997
  • 1997-09-12 WO PCT/GB1997/002460 patent/WO1998011527A1/en active IP Right Grant
  • 1997-09-12 DE DE69718919T patent/DE69718919T2/de not_active Expired - Fee Related
  • 1997-09-12 EP EP97940240A patent/EP0925574B1/de not_active Expired - Lifetime
  • 1997-09-12 AU AU42146/97A patent/AU4214697A/en not_active Abandoned

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Non-Patent Citations (1)

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